Work Text:
"Reki, what's a 710 cap?"
Langa, god love him, always called at the worst fucking times. Reki skillfully pressed the speakerphone button with his elbow, grabbing a rag to wipe the grease off of his hands. He was lucky he was the only one working in the mechanic shop that weekend.
"'710'?" Reki repeated.
"Yeah."
The redhead furrowed his eyebrows, picking up the phone with his now-mostly-clean-but-still-kinda-dirty hands. "In regards to what?"
"Well, I was trying to figure out what's wrong with Mom's car-"
"Langa, step away from it." Reki knew he sounded harsh, but the number of times that Langa attempted to help and only made things worse was more than he cared to count. "I told you earlier, I'll come over after I'm done here and I'll take a look at it."
"But-"
He understood where Langa was coming from, of course. Reki's fiancé was a total sweetheart, and he was worried about his mom. Still, wanting to be a helper was different from actually being a helper, especially when Langa knew jack-shit about cars despite hours of listening to Reki talk about them.
"How about," Reki cut him off gently, "you call your mom and see if she minds us using her kitchen tonight? Then you can go out and pick up ingredients for whatever you decide we should have for dinner while I work on the car."
There was silence on the other side of the line as Langa mulled it over. Reki decided to nudge him a little further. "That would help me the most," he emphasized.
Finally, Langa sighed. "Okay, Reki, I won't touch the car."
"I'll check it when I get there," Reki reiterated. "I'm almost done here, just gotta clean up my mess and then I'll be on my way. Deal?"
"Deal," Langa affirmed. "I love you."
A smile spread across Reki's face. "I love you, too. I'll see you soon." And with that, they disconnected.
True to his word, Reki cleaned off his tools and returned them to their proper places before clocking out. He hopped on his board and skated the twenty minute path to the apartment complex Langa used to live in with his mother. It felt almost nostalgic, and as he passed familiar sights he could practically relive being a teenager with a (then) hopeless crush on his best friend.
Speaking of Langa, his scooter was still parked in front of the building when Reki pulled up. The redhead kicked his board into his hand and climbed the stairs to Nanako-san's apartment. She had called Langa on the bus ride to work that afternoon and said that her car sounded weird and the "check engine" light was on, and so she'd asked if Reki could come look at it in his spare time. He took the stairs two at a time, making it over to door #319 and knocking firmly. He didn't have to wait long before it swung open, revealing Langa in an apron, smiling brightly.
"Welcome home," Langa greeted, pressing a kiss to Reki’s cheek when the redhead stepped over the threshold and closed the door behind him.
"Well, not our home," Reki grinned, "but close enough for you, probably. Where are your mom's keys?"
"They're on the counter, I'll grab them for you. How was the shop?" Langa asked as he retreated to the kitchen.
"Oh, you know, the usual. I feel bad for the guy whose car I'm working on, though, the head gasket is totally blown and the timing belt is probably about to go, too."
Langa hummed, coming back to Reki with a key ring in his hand. "Hopefully that's not what's wrong with Mom's car."
"I doubt it. She said it sounded funny, and you don't usually have that with a gasket problem." He went to grab the keys from Langa but found himself off-balance when, instead of relinquishing the keys, Langa pulled him in for a hug.
"Thank you for doing this," the taller man murmured.
Reki wrapped his arms around his fiancé, squeezing him gently. "Don't thank me yet; I haven't even seen it, let alone fixed it."
"Yeah, but you will." Langa leaned back, a soft smile playing across his face. "You're 'Mechanic Star Reki.'"
The redhead laughed before disentangling himself from their embrace. "You're damn right, I am. If I'm not back before the food is ready, just holler for me and I'll come up."
Langa agreed, and Reki went back down the stairs and out to the rear of the building where the cars were parked. He walked over to Nanako-san's vehicle, a grey crossover type that was probably good for getting around Canada but was less practical for driving in this part of Japan. Reki unlocked the car and popped the hood before starting it to recreate the sound that Nanako-san had reported. Sure enough, a low whine came from the engine, and Reki weaseled his fingers under the hood to unlatch it so he could prop it up. He leaned over the engine to see where the noise was coming from and when he figured it out, a wide smile spread over his face.
As he went to work on the problem, all he could think was: Langa is SO lucky he's pretty.
Langa was just putting the finishing touches on their meal when he heard a knock at the door. He placed a paper towel over the food to keep some of the heat in before he - once again - greeted his handsome guest, although calling him a guest was a bit of a stretch since Langa didn't live in this apartment either, not anymore.
He opened the door and, after a pause, watched as Reki burst into laughter. Like the full-on, doubled over, clutching his stomach, absolutely in stitches kind of laughter. While Langa was always happy to see his fiancé (especially when he was in this good of a mood), he was also completely baffled.
"Reki?" He questioned. The redhead slowly recovered, though he was still chuckling as he toed off his shoes.
Instead of answering, Reki pecked Langa on the lips. "I'll show you later," he promised, then: "Mmm, sure smells good in here."
Langa instantly brightened. "I hope you like it, it's something a little different. It's…" he stopped, frowning.
Reki didn't prompt him except to look at him expectantly. Langa hesitated a few more seconds before sighing.
"...I don't know how to say it in Japanese," he admitted. "In English, it's called hotdish."
" Hotdish," Reki repeated, the syllables coming out a little garbled due to his accent. It warmed Langa's heart any time Reki tried something from his home, even if it was just attempting to say something in a language Reki had never been very good at. Langa had almost cried the first time Reki butchered I love you, it'd made him so happy.
After Reki washed up, Langa and he sat down at the small table and gave thanks for their food before digging in.
Langa was halfway through demolishing his first portion before he thought to ask, "So how does it taste?"
"It's definitely not what I'm used to," Reki replied, blowing on a spoonful of hotdish to cool it down, "but it's not bad! I don't think I've ever eaten something like this before."
"It's good for staying warm in the winter, back home," Langa explained.
"Good thing we're having it while it's a chilly thirty degrees outside," Reki teased.
"In some temperatures, thirty degrees is actually really cold," Langa defended.
"I know, I know, I'm just messing with you, babe." The nickname made Langa smile. "For real, though, it tastes really good. We should have this again sometime."
Langa made a noise of agreement and served himself another scoop of hotdish. Once the two men were finished, Langa packed up a container of food to leave his mom for when she returned home from work while Reki cleaned up the dishes. After the kitchen had been tidied back to its original spotlessness, Reki tugged Langa toward the door.
"Come on, I told you I'd show you what had me laughing so hard earlier," Reki said by way of explanation, the corner of his mouth hitching up in a half smile. Langa shoved his feet into his sneakers and curiously followed the redhead out the door, making sure to lock it behind them.
Langa had already been half expecting to be led out to his mom's car, so it wasn't too much of a surprise when they came to a stop in front of it. Reki ducked inside and pulled the lever for the hood. Langa took the initiative to go ahead and lift the hood and slide the prop bar in place so it would stay up. Reki sidled up to him, already grinning.
"So what did you say you thought the problem was?" the shorter man asked.
Langa tried to remember. "Oh, the 710 cap. Was I right?"
"In a way," Reki conceded, his smile growing wider as he reached over the engine and fiddled with something. Langa's satisfaction at being correct was immediately curbed when Reki held up a yellow cap - the aforementioned 710 cap.
"Watch closely," Reki said, and indeed Langa watched attentively as his fiancé slowly turned the cap upside down.
"Oil, Langa," he said. "This is an oil cap, not a 710 cap."
It took a second, but realization dawned on Langa. He felt embarrassed for a half second before becoming defensive. "But I was right?"
"Jeez, man, I'm trying to teach you something here!"
"But I was right!"
Reki rolled his eyes. "It's a good thing you're hot as hell, or else you'd be giving us regular skateboarders a bad rep."
Truthfully, Langa didn't really care about what anyone thought of him, much less what anyone thought of anybody else (unless it came to Reki. He supposed people were allowed to not like Reki, but they'd just be wrong.) Langa didn't need to be smart; all that mattered in professional skateboarding was that he performed his tricks the best. So long as he did that, his sponsors would continue to back him, and he and Reki could keep traveling together to go to Langa’s events and retreats. He'd be forever grateful that Reki picked a profession that was versatile and needed in every country they temporarily settled in, ensuring that they'd never have to be apart.
"I'm not good at everything like you are," Langa finally said, shrugging.
"Hey, that's my line!" Reki laughed, a blush quickly rising on his cheeks. Langa snaked his arms around the redhead and nuzzled his face into the vermillion strands when he felt Reki hug him back.
"Thank you for fixing Mom's car," Langa murmured. "You're incredible."
"It wasn't hard," Reki said, "She just needed oil. You should message her that she needs to get it actually changed for real. I can do it at the shop tomorrow, if she has time."
Langa nodded. He reluctantly let go of his fiancé, but not before pressing a kiss to the top of his head. Reki beamed at him, and they walked hand in hand back to Langa's mom's apartment.
So what if Langa couldn't tell an oil cap from anything else under the hood? He knew what was important: he loved Reki, Reki loved him, and together they were infinite.