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“Ok you dopey gorilla, why’d you call us in here?”
Joe took his place at the end of the long table he had set up for the whole group. He puffed out his chest and smiled mischievously as Cherry rolled his eyes.
Langa eyed out the table. “Where is it?”
Joe looked up, his smile melting for a second. “Where’s what?”
“The food. You invited us to a restaurant and there’s no food. I feel like I should write a review saying this place has bad service.”
Joe’s jaw dropped to the ground as Miya and Cherry snorted as he jumped up in a very animated way.
“No! Don’t do that! Just give me a minute!”
Joe returned a few minutes later when the whole table was full to the edges with steaming dishes and sticky desserts. Reki simply sighed as Langa smiled like a child in a candy store before digging into one of the dishes.
“Happy now?” Joe raised an eyebrow as Langa looked up and nodded eagerly before diving head first into the food again.
“Could you ignore Snow Boy for a minute and get to your point?”
Miya was playing with his Switch while curled up in his seat, hardly regarding anyone unless he really had to.
Joe’s eyes widened as he smiled brightly again and sat back down as he had before. “Yes, that’s right! You’ll notice the absence of Shadow today. Recently he found out that girl he had googly-eyes for at his shop has a boyfriend, so he needs a bit of a pick-me-up, and a visit to a hot spring would be perfect!”
Everyone stared in disgust as Joe smiled proudly. Even Langa stopped chewing to make sure he heard the man properly.
“The hot springs? You wanna go to the hot springs again? Has your brain been replaced by muscle?” Reki sat up straighter in his chair and death stared Joe as his smile melted a little.
“Well, not that one! I found a different one in Taketomi! It’s a little further, but it’ll be worth it in the end, I promise!”
Reki seemed to think for a moment before looking at Langa. Langa shrugged and nodded, and Reki turned back to Joe. “I suppose we’re in.”
Cherry sighed. “I better not regret this, or you will not hear the end of it for a while.”
Joe winked, which caused Cherry to look away. Everyone turned to Miya, who simply shrugged without looking up from his screen.
Joe pumped one fist in the air out of excitement, and he looked like an overgrown child for a minute.
Langa cleared his throat and took a sip of his Coke before speaking up. “Will there be as much sun this time? I’d like to not die from the heat this time.”
Cherry hummed in agreement, and Joe rolled his eyes. “You two with your abnormally pale skin and sensitivity.”
Cherry scoffed. “Abnormally and sensitivity in the same sentence? Are you sure you’re not overworking your mind, Muscles?”
Joe went ten shades of red as he fumed at Cherry, who chuckled behind his fan. Reki began to laugh at the pair while Miya giggled a little. Langa was still eating, and Joe suspected that he had slipped away in secret to get more food. The group disbanded for the night and decided to plan their trip in a few days.
Reki and Langa rode home together on their skateboards mainly in silence. They would unknowingly move closer together at times, blushing and apologizing when they realised. Sometimes Langa would notice immediately but wouldn’t say anything just to see the cute blush on his friend’s face.
Friend.
That’s what they were, weren’t they? Friends hang out together everyday. They race together. They jump on each other when they’re high on euphoria. They stare into each other’s eyes as if they hold the answers to the entire universe. They call each other their happiness and want to skate for the rest of their life together.
That’s what friends were, weren’t they?
Langa thought about this for a minute. Apparently, a minute was enough to end in head-on collision with the smaller redhead.
They were both sprawled across the grass on the side of the road, chest-to-chest with Langa on top and Reki struggling to breathe underneath his crushing weight. Langa’s face went bright red from embarrassment, and Reki’s from lack of oxygen.
“Argh! Langa- can’t…breathe… help?” Reki managed to wheeze out before Langa jumped up onto his feet.
“Sorry, sorry!” He offered his hand to the redhead who had one hand on his chest as he tried to regain his breath. Eventually, he pulled himself to his feet with Langa’s assistance, and began to chuckle a little.
“You must seriously have someone on your mind if you’re falling behind in skating!” Reki took off steadily on his skateboard, but Langa was just gaping at him as he rode ahead.
“What?! I don’t have anyone on my mind! Why would I have anyone on my mind?”
Reki began to laugh harder at Langa’s blushing state. “Calm down! I was kidding!” Reki slowly swerved closer to Langa. “Unless…?”
Langa almost fell off his board for the second time, only staying up because Reki intertwined their fingers at the last minute.
Langa stood up straight again and smiled at Reki to thank him. Reki was already smiling back widely, his amber eyes warm with care and love.
Or, at least, maybe Langa wanted it to be love?
No, that was stupid. Of course, Reki liked him. But love? That was impossible.
Was it?
It would be better if Langa slept on it when he got home, since they had just arrived at Reki’s house ad his mother would be expecting him soon.
He waved goodbye to everyone and skated home alone with his confused thoughts and a minor problem.
🛹 🛹 🛹
“He was a skater boy, she said, "See you later, boy.” He wasn't good enough for her!”
Langa watched as Reki sat on his bed cross-legged, singing along in broken English and fumbling with two stick-looking things and a messy blanket-crossed-bowl. It took him a total of one minute to realise the blanket-crossed-bowl was actually a large, floppy umbrella hat. The day before, when Langa talked about dying from the heat when they were planning the beach trip he was exaggerating, it was a hyperbole. He never expected Reki to act on it.
“Oh, Langa! You scared the hell out of me!” Reki looked up from his hands and tried to hide his creation behind his back. “How long have you been there?”
Langa looked at his watch and blushed from embarrassment when he realised he’d been watching Reki for a whole five minutes. Maybe he had a larger problem than he realised, but that was a thought for later.
“I, uh, just got here. You’re listening to Avril Lavigne?”
Reki jumped up, and his eyes were basically glittering with excitement. “I just discovered her today! The song’s called, uh… Sk8er Boi! I figured it was made for us, since skater means skater, which is what we are! And boy means boy! Like you taught me! See, I was listening to you, Langa!”
Langa smiled gently at Reki. His pronunciation was off, by quite a bit as well, but it was honestly adorable, and the effort and care was certainly there as well. Langa’s eyes darted to the discarded hat on the bed.
“Were you making a hat?”
Reki’s face dropped. He whipped around and grabbed it, holding it out of Langa’s view.
“I, uh… made it for Koyomi! She’s really sensitive to sun, y’know!”
As if on cue, Koyomi stuck her head in the room. She shot Reki a dirty look. “I am not sun-sensitive. Langa is. And you are just a simp, brother.” And with that, she walked out.
Langa turned to look at Reki, who looked as if he was contemplating both murder and suicide while constipated and had just stepped on a Lego. In conclusion, he looked like he was in pain, and Langa could guess why.
“Simp.” Reki sputtered. “What the hell is that word? Simp. It must be another word for idiot, or whatever that other word she said the other day was.”
It all clicked in Langa’s head at that moment. Reki didn’t know what a simp was. Reki didn’t know that Koyomi had totally just exposed Reki with one simple English word.
Reki continued sputtering, while Langa’s thoughts spiraled. There were three things he could really get straight in his mind.
- Koyomi was really cool for her age.
- Reki had some sort of feelings for Langa, and it was most likely romantic.
- Langa wanted to see how long he could make a game of slowly exposing Reki’s feelings go on.
“Well, if it’s not for Koyomi, and it’s not for me, is it for Cherry?” Langa raised an eyebrow innocently which drove Reki a little crazy.
“No! It’s not for Cherry! I… uh…” Reki swallowed nervously, “I lied. I made it for you. Because you pretty much died last time we went to the beach, I, uh, didn’t really want you to die.”
Langa smiled sweetly. “Well, thank you for not wanting me to die. It’s an honour.” Reki went red and looked away immediately. “And your knitting isn’t terrible. Is this your first time?”
Reki tilted his head to the side. “I’ve tried it before. But Koyomi calls me a grandma every time I do, so I don’t do it as much as I’d like to.”
Langa laughed, “That shouldn’t stop you. Even if it did make you a grandma, it’d make you the World’s Greatest Grandma,” Langa laughed at the joke, but Reki didn’t get it. “But, really, Reki, it’s beautiful. Thank you. I love it.”
Reki looked down at the floor and muttered, “And I love you.”
Langa gasped. Reki looked up. Koyomi, who had been secretly watching from the door this whole time, snickered.
“Sorry?”
“Huh?”
“What?”
“Oh, nothing, I just thought you said something.”
“Oh, no, I didn’t.”
“Okay then.” Langa tried to hide his laughter behind the floating awkwardness that had entered the atmosphere.
Koyomi had been hinting to him since they first met that Reki had liked him, but it only now all clicked together perfectly. The nudges whenever they’d be hanging out all together (minus the twins) and Reki would praise Langa on a new trick. The winks whenever they caught eyes through the crack of the door when Reki would be curled up in Langa’s lap while napping. The small things that confused Langa before all made sense now.
Reki flopped down on his bed ad continued knitting the hat as Langa sat next to him and watched Reki try really hard to unknot his string. Seeing the way he stuck his tongue out when he concentrated really hard on something made Langa’s heart flutter. He was concentrating so hard on this, something he was making for Langa. Because he cared. He cared about Langa. And Langa wanted to cry at that.
“Reki?”
“Yeah?”
“I love you too.”
Reki stared with his eyes wide open as Langa watched with a bored expression. Reki blushed and put his hands in his head.
“You knew?!”
Langa laughed and nodded, which Reki didn’t have to look up to sense. He buried his face deeper.
“Why’d you go make me look like an idiot?! Ugh, I feel so stupid!”
Langa reached over and enveloped Reki in a hug. He stroked Reki’s hair and smiled softly as Reki whined into his chest.
“Reki, stop beating yourself up over it. I’m gonna go home, we’ll talk about this tomorrow?”
Reki looked up sadly. “You’re going already? But you just got here!”
“I’m hungry, Reki. And I think I should tell me mother, I did promise to tell her once I confessed.”
Reki jumped up. “Your mother knew before me?!”
Langa giggle and stood up while picking up his bag and holding his hand out for their handshake. “Talk later, Reki. Love you.”
Reki definitely did not look like he was going to get used to that any time soon. “L-love you too…”
🛹 🛹 🛹
red-ki:
I CAN’T BELIEVE EVERYONE KNEW BEFORE ME!!!
olaf the snowman:
tbh, you’re pretty oblivious.
red-ki:
UGH I HATE YOU FOR NOT TELLING ME BUT I LOVE YOU
olaf the snowman:
yeah, i hate me and love you too <3
red-ki:
?????????????
langa, no???????