Chapter Text
The faintest brush against his shoulder, the whisper of something that he can’t decipher. Reki shivered, the feeling of the boy's warm breath against his neck setting butterflies loose in his stomach and turning him warm and red all over, despite the chilly mountain air that surrounded them. Reki turned, hoping to finally be able to see his face, to know who had been showing up in his dreams for over a month now.
But when he turned around, he was greeted with the same vision as always; someone whose face he couldn’t quite see. The only feature he was able to distinguish, as always, was his hair. A shade of blue that rivaled the sky on the clearest days, a soft blue and, god, Reki was thoroughly convinced it was even softer than it looked; but he’d never know, because even though in his dreams he could feel every gentle touch and whisper of a breath from the boy, he was never allowed to touch him back, to feel his hair and brush his fingertips along his shoulders as the boy had done to Reki so many times.
Suddenly, Reki could feel himself gaining awareness. He knew he was about to wake up, even though he desperately wanted to stay in his dream, as he always did when the blue haired boy showed up.
“Please,” Reki begged, “I have to go soon. Please tell me your name.”
The boy stayed silent, as he always did now. Reki had asked him his name countless times, but he could never hear his response. He had tried asking him different things, not just his name, but to no avail, because he could never hear him. Reki had told him about almost everything in his life, skateboarding, his name, his birthday, what college he’s going to and what he wanted to do in life, yet he had never heard any of the boy’s responses, and because of this, the boy chose to stay silent, instead always listening to Reki talk about his own life. Reki didn’t mind talking, he loved it, and even though he couldn’t see the boy’s face, he knew he was listening. No one ever really listened when he talked, but the blue-haired boy, he did.
Reki was quickly gaining consciousness, and he sighed, knowing their time was about to be cut short. The other boy knew this as well, and he responded the only way he ever did, gently tracing a shape onto his left arm, one that Reki had learned to memorize, as the boy always did this before they had to part: an infinity symbol.
Reki awoke with a start, instantly gripping his left arm. Sighing and rolling over in bed, he brought his comforter up to his chin and angrily stared at the morning sun peeking through his window. He grabbed his phone and squinted at his too-bright screen, before opening up his text messages with Miya.
|Reki: I had the dream again
|Miya: The same as always?
|Reki: No
|Reki: I told you, they’re always the same but.. different. It’s like we’re actually together
|Miya: Have you seen his face yet?
|Reki: No..
|Miya: His name?
|Reki: I have absolutely no idea
|Miya: I don’t know why you’re so fixated on this, it’s literally just a dream
|Reki: I know, it just… feels so real
|Miya: Whatever, slime. Quit texting me so early, I have to go to school
Reki grunted and threw his phone down. He rubbed his palms against his eyes aggressively before sighing and finally sitting up. There was a long day ahead of him, he knew, so he tried his best to shake the dream out of his head, even as thoughts of it still lingered in the back of his mind. He was moving into his dorm today, since he got the go ahead from the housing department to move in a few days early and get adjusted before classes started.
Reki looked around his room at all of the boxes and totes, overflowing with numerous hoodies, skateboard parts, magazines, and his sketchbooks. He was excited to start college, but it was definitely scary to be moving out on his own for the first time in his life, which is a lot of the reason he packed so much-- he knew he was definitely overpacking, but he didn’t want to risk forgetting anything since his university was a decently far drive from his home.
He quickly got up, still groggy from a heavy sleep, and checked the time on his clock, 9:15am. Cherry would be here soon with his rental van and Joe to help him move into his dorm. He quickly pulled on a somewhat clean smelling hoodie and shorts before going into the kitchen, and was greeted with the sight of his mother frantically switching between checking the rice and flipping the omelettes she was preparing for breakfast. As soon as she saw him stumble into the kitchen, her eyes started watering.
“Oh, Reki.”
“Mooom,” Reki sighed, exasperated, “I’m just moving into my dorm. My school isn’t even that far, I’ll be back to visit all of the time.”
“I know dear,” she choked out, “I’ll just miss you so much. I won’t know what to do without you here! The twins and Koyomi will miss you too.”
“No I won’t,” Koyomi interjected, apparently having appeared out of thin air from her room, sleep still heavy in her eyes.
“Don’t say that! He’s your brother, of course you’ll miss him.”
“Yeah yeah, whatever mom.” Koyomi flippantly waved her hand and then proceeded to plop onto the couch unceremoniously.
Reki chuckled and then took his typical seat at the table as his mother brought over a plate for him, the rice shaped into two round eyes and the omelette folded so it looked like a grin. Masae smiled down at him and ruffled his hair, before Reki began to shovel his food into his mouth at the speed of light. His phone buzzed and he quickly glanced at it,
|Joe: Be there in 5
Reki swallowed the rest of his food as quickly as possible, almost choking in the process, before he hopped up and gave his mom a kiss on the cheek and started to pull away, but before he could, Masae stopped him and gave him a rib-crushing bear hug.
“I will miss you so much Reki. Be good, do your homework, and do not get into trouble,” She glared at him. Then her expression softened as her eyes began to water again, and Reki hugged her back.
“I will mom, I promise.”
A knock at his door alerted him that Cherry and Joe were there, and he ran to the front door to let them in. The two simultaneously yelled out a greeting to Reki’s mother, who they had met before (she was concerned about her teenage son hanging out with two adult men, until she met them and realized they were harmless, and more like older brother figures for Reki, which she supposed he could use in his life). Reki proceeded to take them both to his room, and they all piled their arms high with everything he had packed in his boxes before going out to the car.
“Are you nervous, kid?” Joe asked, patting Reki softly on the shoulder.
“Nah, it’s kinda exciting to move out on my own actually.”
“Well, you won’t be totally on your own,” Cherry replied. “You will have a roommate in your dorm, won’t you?”
“A roommate? That blows kid, how will you get any alone time with the ladies?” Joe chuckled, waggling his eyebrows at Reki before Cherry swatted him on the arm with his fan.
“I’m more concerned that he won’t like skateboarding,” Reki sighed, loading his last box full of his skateboarding magazines into the van. “I mean, what if I have nothing in common with the dude?”
“Eh, at least you’ll only have to deal with it for a little while, then you can switch roommates if you want,” Joe shrugged.
“Yeah I guess,” and with that, the last of his stuff was in the van, and all three of them were piling inside, beginning the drive to Reki’s new home.
The dorm was bigger than Reki was expecting at least. That was good. He had his own private bathroom as well, which was even better, because Reki knew that with his small bladder, he would be bound to lock himself out of the dorm if he was forced to use the communal ones in the middle of the night when he was still half asleep.
Joe finished hauling the last of his boxes into his room before he bid a quick farewell. “You’ll do great, kid, don’t worry about anything but your studies,” he gave him a reassuring smile and a pat on the shoulder.
“As if you have any room to talk, you hairless ape,” Cherry said, giving him a sideways glance, before smiling at Reki and giving him an awkward side hug. “Don’t forget, you can come visit us whenever you want. We’re here for anything you need.” Reki flushed and sputtered out a quick thanks, not really knowing how to handle when the two were actually being sweet and supportive, as opposed to their usual bickering and teasing that Reki had grown accustomed to after the years they’ve spent together.
Joe and Cherry bid one last farewell, and with that, he was finally alone in his new home, and he plopped down on his bare mattress before accidentally falling into a dreamless sleep.
The next few days passed by in a blur. Reki spent most of his time decorating the dorm with all of his things; the countless posters and vinyl records he brought from home, as well as a few skateboard decks that he painted solely for the purpose of decoration. He left his roommate's side of the room alone, assuming that he’d of course want to put up his own decorations. The dorms were well designed, with lofted beds on either side of the room, high enough so that their desks could fit underneath. Reki’s desk was already piled high with skate magazines, textbooks he had purchased a few days prior, and his laptop. But what took up the most room on his desk was his art supplies. Numerous sets of fancy colored pencils and markers he had received as gifts from his family over the years, different paints and canvases, and of course his sketchbooks. Reki had always had an affinity for art, and when he found out that his local college offered an art degree, it was a no-brainer for Reki that he would go to school for it. He dreamed of one day being able to make his living creating and designing skateboards for professionals, combining his love for art and skateboarding into one.
Leaving his workshop at home and knowing he wouldn’t be able to make or paint skateboards for a while had definitely put a damper on his excitement for college, but nonetheless he was still excited to pursue his passion for art in a more professional setting. Plus, Reki had looked into it and discovered that there was a skatepark nearby, he only had to take a public bus about twenty minutes away, and from there it was only a ten minute ride to the park itself; which led to him bringing 3 different skateboards of his, currently sitting propped up in the corner of the room, practically begging him to ride them. Reki decided he might as well go learn the route to the skatepark and spend some time there, since his classes were officially scheduled to start tomorrow.
It was definitely a lot noisier outside of his dorm room than it had been the past few days, himself and about three others being the only residents allowed to move in early. But since classes were starting tomorrow, today was officially move-in day, and numerous students and their parents had shown up to start moving into the dorms. Reki briefly wondered when his roommate would arrive, but his thoughts quickly moved on as he started to head towards the bus station, skateboard tucked underneath of his arm, looking at the map on his phone to chart out his route to the skatepark.
When Reki arrived back at the dorms the sun had already started to set, and he was sweaty and exhausted from skating all day. It felt good to be back in his element at the skatepark, even if he didn’t know anyone there. Sometimes he preferred skating by himself, even if he did miss Joe and Cherry’s constant bickering and Miya calling him a slime every time he fell off of his board.
Reki quickly tossed his trash from the takeout he had eaten on the way home and opened the door to his dorm with the keycard, and was subsequently greeted with the sight of what he could only describe as the most beautiful guy he had ever seen in his life sitting at his desk, reading something on his laptop. He was clearly very tall (it was easy to tell by his lanky limbs at the small desk), had porcelain skin that Reki could tell would be smooth to the touch, and circle-lense glasses sat perched on his sloping nose. When Reki’s eyes roamed over his slightly messy, sky-blue hair, something in the back of his mind tugged at him, but those hidden thoughts were quickly pushed away when Reki realized the boy was staring at him, and Reki was staring back.
“Oh, haha, hi! I’m Reki! You must be my roommate?” Reki bowed quickly, nervous because he was caught staring, and only after he blurted everything out did he realize he was probably talking way too fast and making himself look like an idiot.
“Uh, yeah. Hi, I’m Langa,” the other boy said slowly, almost carefully. Langa, Reki thought to himself, is he foreign? Looking around, Langa clearly didn’t have nearly as much stuff as Reki did. His desk was neatly organized with his textbooks and laptop, and he had two decorations on the wall total. One was a large tapestry that was placed on the wall next to his bed, depicting some kind of snowy landscape, and the other was a poster of some dude snowboarding, Reki had no idea who it was.
“Sorry my stuff is everywhere! I definitely packed way too much, but I didn’t want to risk forgetting anything,” Reki chuckled nervously to himself, and walked over to set his skateboard against the wall with the others. Langa followed his every move, and Reki noticed that his eyes lingered on the skateboards against the wall. “Do you skate?”
“No, I’ve never tried. I used to snowboard though,” Langa stated bluntly before turning back to his laptop.
“Oh, that’s so cool! They’re kind of similar I guess. I’ve always wanted to try snowboarding but, yanno, there’s never really any snow in Okinawa!” Reki rubbed the back of his head and cringed at himself, realizing he was still nervously babbling, but couldn’t seem to shut up. “So where did you used to snowboard then? I guess you’re not from around here?”
“No, I’m from Canada.”
“C-canada?! What are you doing here then?”
Langa looked at him quizzically, and only then did Reki realize that he asked an incredibly rude question.
“Oh man, I’m sorry I didn’t mean it like that! It’s just like… you’re far from home, that’s all!” Reki frantically waved his hands around and then finally plopped down at his desk chair, turning towards Langa who turned back towards him again.
“My mom and I moved here a few months ago. It’s where she grew up, so… after my dad passed, we decided to move back here. It made the most sense, anyways.”
Reki stumbled over what to say next, not knowing how to respond to something like that. He didn’t expect something like that to be the reason Langa moved away from Canada, otherwise he wouldn’t have asked. Langa still stared at him expectantly, clearly waiting for a response.
“O-oh.. I’m sorry man, that’s really awful.”
Langa grunted a reply and Reki noticed that he was looking at all of the posters and vinyl records that Reki had placed all along his side of the room, eyes wandering until they settled on Reki’s desk.
“Do you draw?”
“Yeah I do actually! And paint, and pretty much anything to do with art. I love it! That’s actually what I’m going here for.” Reki smiled and rubbed the back of his head habitually, a nervous habit he had picked up when people were inquiring about his art. He still wasn’t fully confident in it, despite his friend’s and family’s protests that he was a wonderful artist.
“Can I see?” Langa scooted his desk chair right up next to Reki, their shoulders brushing together and sending a chill down Reki’s spine.
“U..uh yeah sure man,” Reki could feel the warmth already spreading across his face and down his neck. He picked up a sketchbook and slightly angled his body away from Langa because god forbid he see one of Reki’s more embarrassing drawings. He flipped through until he found a black and white charcoal drawing he had made of the mountaintop that was always the setting of his dreams, not thinking anything of it because Langa wouldn’t know why he drew it. “Here, look at this one,” Reki passed over his sketchbook and as soon as Langa laid his eyes on it, Reki could see a flash of recognition pass over his face.
“Reki… why did you draw this?” Langa’s voice was laced with the most serious tone Reki had heard him use thus far, his eyes practically sparkling while he stared at Reki expectantly.
“Oh uh man, I-I don’t know.. Sometimes I just see it in my dreams I guess?” The flush already spreading across Reki’s face and chest deepened, and he rubbed the back of his neck nervously while looking anywhere but at Langa’s face.
“This… this is the mountaintop I used to snowboard on, Reki. In Canada.”