Work Text:
Click-click . Click-click . Click-click .
The soft clicking of Reki’s pen was all he could pay attention to. It was soothingly repetitive, the rhythmic sound giving his brain something to focus on. He liked repetition, it let his mind zero in on one thing instead of everything at once.
He and Langa were in class, English specifically. Reki wasn’t sure what exactly they were studying that day, he just knew that couldn’t understand anything. Everything the teacher said seemed to flow together into a cacophony of meaningless noise. It wasn’t uncommon for English to sound that way to Reki, but today even the Japanese was meaningless to him.
He had made an attempt at deciphering the lecture, trying his best to take notes and copy down what the teacher was writing on the board. But within mere minutes, Reki found himself staring out the window and thinking about seeing if he could convince Langa to leave with him on their next break. They did it often enough, and they were just reviewing for exams in their other classes. It was nothing they couldn’t do together later.
Click-click . Click-click . Click-
Reki’s rhythm faltered when he felt someone tap his arm. It was Langa, who was carefully sliding a little slip of paper onto Reki’s desk.
What’s wrong?
He ripped a bit of paper off his own notebook, sliding a note back.
Can’t focus. Leave after class?
Langa seeed to consider for a few moments, and for a second Reki worried his request would be denied.
That bad today?
Yes.
Langa nodded, scribbling something down.
We can leave, but you have to promise to try and study with me. Just try. We can go to Sia la Luce, Joe will be slow this time of day.
Reki grinned and looked over at Langa, mouthing a quick “Thank you.” His friend just smiled back and nodded.
Reki loved Langa’s smile. It was so soft and shy, and it made his eyes look sparkly.
Click-click . Click-click . Click-click .
Maybe he could talk Langa into going skating with him before they went to Joe’s. Skating with him was so fun, it made Reki feel alive. Langa always challenged him to work harder, and in the few months since he began teaching Langa, Reki noticed his own skating improving too, quicker than it ever had before.
Langa challenged Reki as much as he challenged himself, pushing the redhead to work harder. It helped to have Joe and Cherry, who would take the time to teach them different tricks and techniques.
Click-click . Click-click . Click-click .
“Kyan!” His teacher yelled. Reki’s head snapped up and he stared at her with wide eyes.
“Uh- um, yes Mrs. Sasaki?” he stuttered.
“Come conjugate this verb for me.”
Reki’s heart sank. He didn’t even know what the word was, much less how to conjugate it. He sat, staring at the board as his hands started to shake.
“Well? I’m waiting, Kyan.”
Slowly, Reki stood up, walking up to the board. He took the piece of chalk he’d been offered, barely able to hold onto it with how badly he was trembling.
He could feel dozens of sets of eyes on his back as he stared at the word. What were they studying? Conversational verbs? Or was it activities? Maybe they were talking about doing things outside?
Reki wished he were outside, not stuck in a boring classroom learning english. He could skate outside, he liked skating. Maybe after class he and Langa could go-
“Reki Kyan, I won’t ask you again,” the teacher snapped. “You’re holding up the class.”
Reki just stared at her. Conjugate the verb? Was that what he was doing? He looked at it, but couldn’t make out what it meant. Was it improper? He wasn’t sure.
He could hear whispers behind him, a few quiet laughs, and that was enough for him. Slowly, Reki set the chalk down and walked out of the room.
He could hear the teacher calling after him, and then telling Langa to sit down, but he didn’t care. As soon as both his feet crossed the threshold into the hallway, he took off running towards their spot on the roof.
Reki wasn’t sure how long he sat there alone. It could have been seconds, or hours, or even a whole year. All he knew was that he was free, free of that stupid stuffy classroom and free or verbs and conjugations and pretenses.
Eventually, Langa came to join him, carrying both their bags. He set them down before sitting next to Reki, leaning into his side.
“You okay?” he asked softly. Reki tried to answer, but after several long minutes, he just shook his head. “Words too hard?”
Langa’s second question didn’t hold any sort of mocking tone, and there was no judgement behind his voice.Langa never judged him, because he understood. He knew Reki couldn’t always focus properly, and he understood how it felt to be nonverbal or overloaded.
So Reki just nodded, signing a quick “Too much”
They had started learning JSL together maybe a month into their friendship. They weren’t perfect, but they both knew enough for basic communication. That way, if it was too hard for one of them to speak, they at least had some way to talk.
They sat there for a long while, curled into each other’s sides. Eventually, Reki was able to whisper a soft “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, Reki,” Langa whispered back. “I love you.”
“Love you too.”
Landa gave him a few more minutes to calm down, before pulling each of their english notebooks out of their respective bags.
“Here, copy these down.” He handed Reki the notebooks, and Langa’s was open to that day’s lesson.
Reki knew why Langa took notes. He didn’t need the class, English was his first language. He did it so Reki could copy them down if he needed to, and he left little notes in the margins explaining things that the teacher said or that he thought would help.
It wasn’t uncommon for them to sit in silence, Reki copying the notes. He wrote carefully, colour-coding things like Joe had taught him. The colours helped him to better identify different things and they let him focus on one section at a time instead of a page full of meaningless words. So they sat together, Langa weaving tiny braids into Reki’s hair before undoing them and starting again, while Reki carefully worked away at the notes. They hadn’t made it to Sia la Luce, but that was okay. They’d meet up with the other’s after, and Reki would proudly show his notes to Joe and Cherry.
Maybe it wasn’t such a bad day after all.