Chapter Text
Shit, that’s right it’s Valentine’s Day. Reki had forgotten until he walked into class that morning to see a single rose on each desk. It was some weird transition the school had. Everyone got a rose in their homeroom class on Valentine's day.
“What the hell is this?” Langa asked as he picked up a rose from his desk. He held it like it might bite him.
“It’s like a transition at this school. Everyone gets a rose and is suppose to give it to your crush by the end of the day.” Reki answered as he twirled his rose between his fingers.
Langa looked at Reki, eye wide with horror. This made Reki chuckle. Langa did hate all the attention the girls ( will everyone ) gave him.
“You can just throw it away. That’s what I always do.” Langa relaxed at that answer.
Reki shoved the rose into the side pocket of his backpack as the teacher started his lesson. His dull drone was putting Reki to sleep. He stared out the window, tiring to focus on S that night to keep himself awake. But he ended up just watching Langa in the reflection. Why did he always fall back into this?
The rest of the mourning passed slowly. Finally, it was time for lunch. Reki made his way to his and Langa’s normal spot on the roof. He saw a couple of first years share a sweating confession and exchange flowers. God, Reki hated today. No girl had ever given him their rose and who would he give his to anyway?
He was sure that Langa would be struggling to hold all the roses he had gotten. All the girls loved Langa. He was routinely confessed to, a lot of the times in front of Reki. This always pissed him off- like did they even see him standing there! And none of the girls seemed to notice or care how uncomfortable their confessions made Langa. He would always just stare at the ground as he mumbled out a reply. Half the time Reki would take pity on him and drag him away, making an excuse about needing Langa for a group project or something.
Reki wondered why Langa never said yes to any of the girls. Surely one of them was his type. Reki also meant to ask but never did.
Reki found Langa crossed-legged on the ground halfway through his sandwich.
“You didn’t wait for me?” Reki said as he settled down across from Langa.
“You took forever,” Langa said with his mouth full.
“So how many flowers have you gotten?”
“None”
“What? Are you serious?”
“Yeah.”
Reki bit the inside of his lip so he didn't smile. It was wrong but he was glad. He didn’t want to see Langa laden with tokens of affection. He should be happy for his friend but...
Reki sucked air through his teeth and said “That sucks, man. I guess you are the ice prince now”
“The what?”
“The ice prince. Since you froze all the girls out.”
Langa frowned, clearly not getting it. Reki resisted the urge to ruffle his hair.
_____________________
The last bell rang. Reki threw his backpack over one shoulder and grabbed his board. He didn’t have last period with Langa so they always met at the school entrance after school.
Reki hurried through the hallways, keeping his eyes down to avoid any last-minute confessions happening. He just wanted to get out of here and skate with Langa.
Reki bumped shoulders with someone.
“Shit. Sorry.” He looked to see it was Ms. Hiraoka, his last year’s English teacher. “Oh sorry for saying shit.”
“It’s okay, Reki.” Ms. Hiraoka's smile was warm. Reki had always liked her. She was sweet and never scolded Reki for doodling on his tests, she actually complimented them.
“Oh, I see you still have your rose.”
Reki rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t have a girlfriend to give it to.”
“You know I’ve always thought that today should be about letting the people who are important to us know that. So give it to someone special to you.”
_____________________
Someone special to you . Ms. Hiraoka words echoed in Reki’s head as he pushed open the school doors. Reki definitely knew who was special to him.
Langa leaned against the gate, skateboard underfoot.
Reki made the decision quickly with no time to reflect. He made his way toward Langa.
Langa glanced up.
“Finally-”
“Will you be my Valentine?” Reki dramatically asked, pulling his rose from the side pocket of his backpack.
A moment passed and Langa only stared at the rose.
Uh-oh. Dread started to startle in Reki stomach. Maybe this had been a bad idea.
“Man, you can say no” Reki tried to laugh.
Langa snapped back to life. “No! I mean, yes...” He took the flower but then looked desperately back at the school. “I already throw mine away already.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Reki said as he punched Langa playfully in the arm. Reki was glad the tightens in his chest had loosened.
“I know you have to be home for dinner tonight but do you want to hang you till then?” Langa asked.
“I want to but I have errands to run for my mom.” Reki was surprised by how disappointed he felt. He much rather spend time with Langa than pick up dry cleaning. “But I can still crash at your place tonight after S?”
“Yeah. And my mom is out of town so we don’t even have to sneak in.”
“Awesome.” Reki turned to leave.
“Oh, Reki. Thanks, for-” Langa held up the rose.
“It’s nothing. See you later.” Reki called back as he hopped on his board. Hair wiped around his face and he felt a smile pull at his mouth. He didn’t know why he felt so warm inside.
______________________
The smell of dinner filled the whole house. Reki kicked off his shoes and throw the drying cleaning on the couch.
“Your errand boy is back,” Reki called to his mother in the kitchen.
She poked her head out and said “Thank you, dear!”
“No problem,” Reki said as he made his way into the kitchen. “What’s for dinner tonight?”
“I’m making a new curry recipe. Now don’t make a face.”
“I didn’t make a face. Just normally new receipts mean we order pizza.” Reki teased as he jumped up to sit on the corner.
“My son has such little faith in me.”
Then Reki’s father arrived home and greeted them in the kitchen. He kissed his wife on the cheek as he entered the kitchen.
“How was work today honey?” Reki’s mom asked as his dad made his way to the fridge looking for a beer.
“Same as always;” his dad said “How was everyone’s day? Reki how was school?”
“It was fine,” Reki said, “Hey can I have a beer too?”
“Maybe next time” his dad chucked. That’s what he always said.
“It was flower day today wasn’t it. Did you give your’s to someone special today?” Reki’s mom asked, hands busy on the stove.
“Oh, I just gave it to Langa,” Reki said. His mom quickly turned around to looked at him.
“Really?” She asked, her voice higher than it was before. His dad had also turned all his attention on him. The kitchen suddenly felt a lot smaller.
“Yeah..” Reki replied. His parents exchanged a meaningful look but Reki didn’t know what meaning. Why were they acting like he had just told this something big? “What? Is that weird or something?”
“No! Of course, it's not weird,” his mom said with an intensity that confused Reki even more. She turned towards her husband expecting him to speak.
“Um, yeah right. Not weird.” His dad said hesitantly before quickly taking a swig of his beer.
Reiki didn’t know why he felt self-concertion all of a sudden. His parents were starting to freak him out. Maybe giving the flower to Langa was weird? Maybe Langa thought it was weird? That warm feeling he had seemed far away now.
Reki slid off the corner wanting to escape, “Okay so I’m going to go to my room.”
His mom caught his arm before he could leave. “Aren’t you going sleeping over at Langa’s tonight?”
“Yeah.”
“Is his mother going to be there?”
Reki’s first instinct was to lie but why would he do that? So he said, “No she’s out of town.”
His parents exchanged another look that Reki didn’t understand.
“Is that a problem?.” Reki asked.
“No, not at all.” His mom said, but that felt like a lie.
______________________
Reki threw himself down on his bed. Why were his parents acting so weird?
He pulled out his phone to text Langa but what would he even say?
I hope you are not weirded out by the rose or anything. Or is it weird that I think you think it's weird…
Reki threw his phone down on the bed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He was working himself up again. He gets too in his head sometimes and creates problems that aren’t there. He gave his best friend a rose on Valentine's Day. There was nothing weird about that. Right?
There is a knock at the door.
“Yeah?” Reki called sitting up in bed.
“Hey son, I wanted to talk to you,” His dad said as he hovered near the door.
Reki sat up a little straighter. His dad had on his serious tone that normally meant that Reki was going to get a lecture. Maybe his math teacher had called home about the last test?
Finally, Reki’s dad shut the door and made his way to sit at the foot of the bed. And just looked a Reki for a moment.
“You know that your mother and I love you very much. I just wanted to tell you that.”
“Okay.” Not the beginning of the lecture he was excepting.
Reki’s dad rubbed his hands on his pants. “I know that you are getting older and I feel like there are things that we haven’t properly talked about.”
“Like what?”
“Like, um, mature adult things..”
“Like taxes?”
“No, not like taxes. Like when two people. Are you, know um… You get what I mean?”
Reki shook his head. His dad frowned and thought for a moment before speaking again.
“So when two people are together....” Reki’s dad made some vague hand gestures.
Then it clicked.
“We don’t have to talk about that!” Reki basically screamed at his dad. He would rather leap out of his window than have “The Talk” with his father.
Reki’s mom had given him this talk when he was fourteen. He was still scarred by the memory.
“I know this can be uncomfortable to talk about but I need to make sure you are being safe-”
“No! Stop. You don’t need to worry about me being safe or anything.” Reki pulled his knees to his chest, praying that his soul would somehow leave his body. “You don’t need to worry about anything. There is no anything! I’m not doing anything .”
“I know but sometimes in the moment things happen and I just want you to be prepared.”
“Don’t worry. There are no moments either.” Reki buried his face in his knees. Why was his dad talking like he had a girlfriend he could get carried away with?
Silence fell between them. Reki’s dad signed, clearly not having the words.
“I am not going to push you but know you can always come to me or your mother, okay? I’m sure you will be responsible.” Reki’s dad got up to leave. “I’ll call you for dinner.”
“Okay,” Reki said into his knees. He heard the door open but not shut. This made him glance up at his dad looking back at him.
“I don’t want you to feel like you have to keep things from me.”
Reki blinked, confused. “I’m not.”
His dad nodded and shut the door behind him.
Reki groaned and lied face down on the bed.
Worst sex talk ever.
______________________
Reki suffered through an awkward dinner. His parents keep looking at him then at each other. If they had something to say just say it .
Finally, Langa texted that he was outside.
Reki leaped up from the table and hurried outside. He called goodbye to his family and was out the door before his parents could say anything else to him.
“Thank god you are here. My parents are being super weird.” Reki said as he jogged up to Langa, who was waiting in his moped.
“Why”
Reki’s stomach twisted. He didn't want to tell Langa about the conversation he had with his dad. He knew it was silly to be embarrassed about that kind of stuff. He was seventeen for crying out loud!
“I don’t know just weird.”
Langa laughed and turned to Reki holding out an extra helmet. Reki caught a flash of red on Langa’s jacket. Reki froze. He blinked to make sure he was seeing this. Langa had the rose, his rose, tucked into the front of his jacket.
“You’re wearing the rose?!” Reki gasped out.
“Oh yeah. Should I not?” Langa sounded a little panicked.
Reki felt a little lightheaded but that warm feeling from earlier was back.
“No, no.” Reki rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s... cute. I mean nice! I like it.”
That was definitely a weird thing to say. Reki’s face felt hot.
“Okay. Cool.” Langa signed and smiled at him in the way that something made Reki’s stomach feel funny.
They looked at each other for what felt like forever until Langa said, “We should go drop your stuff off before S.”
“Right.” Reki went to get in the back of the moped but all he could think about was how close he was going to be to Langa. Why did that matter? He had done this a hundred times. What was up with him today? Was it the phase of the moon or something?
Reki swung his leg over the moped and went to hold on to Langa like normal but Reki hesitated. He held onto the back of the seat instead.
Langa paused for a moment like he was waiting for something but then he started the moped and took off.
Reki gripped the back of his seat. The wind rushed in his ears and stung his eyes. Langa always drove fast but today pushing this thing to its limit.
They whipped around a corner and Reki couldn’t take it anymore. He threw his arms around Langa’s waist.
“Sorry, did I scare you?” Langa asked looking back at Reki.
“You drive like a freaking manic!” Reki yelled back.
“Well hold tight then.” Langa chuckled.
His face was so hot he knew he must be blushing which was so embarrassing that made Reki blush even more.
Reki was glad Langa couldn’t see him.