Chapter Text
Sunlight glimmered on the fresh snow as Langa zoomed past the snow-dappled trees on the line of his run. Over the soft howling of the wind, Langa heard his father laugh and looked up. Oliver took a sharp left turn towards a familiar slope.
“Down this way, kiddo!” Oliver called with a raised wave of his hand.
The slope was steep, a near vertical drop that made most people hesitate, but Oliver coasted down with a carefree laugh, sending puffs of powdery snow flying into the air. With a grin, Langa followed, savoring that familiar rush of adrenaline and sense of weightlessness that accompanied the sharp drop. A shower of snow went up, momentarily blinding him, and he stuck his hand out to maintain his balance. He landed smoothly right next to his father and straightened. Oliver took off his snow goggles and regarded Langa with a warm smile.
“Don’t forget to show him the mountains, okay?”
“Show who?”
“Reki, of course!” Oliver exclaimed with a laugh as he slapped Langa on the back. “Show him all the things you love, son. Make some new memories, but don’t forget the old ones, okay?”
—
Langa stirred and slowly opened his eyes. For a second, everything in sight was white except for a splotch of yellow like sunlight poking through clouds. He briefly wondered if he was still dreaming of being on the mountain with his father, but the familiar arms around his waist and Reki’s warm breath on the back of his neck brought Langa back to the present. He blinked again and the familiar features of his room came into view. The thin white curtains over his window. Reki’s yellow hoodie thrown over his desk chair. The wooden clock made from the broken piece of his board sitting on a wooden shelf. The calendar tacked underneath, the dates neatly crossed off in black ink.
Dad’s birthday’s next week, Langa thought as he studied the dates. No wonder I’ve been dreaming about him so much lately.
Meeting his dad in his dreams always left Langa feeling a little melancholy. Even the good dreams were just a reminder that he’d never get a chance to make new memories with him.
He’s never said Reki’s name before though, Langa thought as he carefully untangled himself from Reki’s arms and rolled over to face the other boy. Show him the mountains, huh? Does that mean you approve of him, Dad?
Langa imagined Oliver’s reply—a boisterous laugh followed by, “As long as he makes you happy, son!”—and allowed himself a little smile as he snuggled closer to Reki. They had taken to sleeping over at each other’s houses on the weekends after S, always speaking in hushed whispers, tiptoeing around, and leaving as soon as the sun had risen to avoid being caught.
Remembering the time on the clock, Langa whispered, “Reki?”
Reki stirred and sleepily muttered a few incomprehensible words. Langa caught Koyomi’s name and something about an invert and the coping on a bowl.
He even dreams about skating, Langa thought with a fond smile as he brushed Reki’s hair off his forehead. He’s got a really cute sleeping face. It’s almost a shame to wake him up.
“Reki?” Langa whispered and briefly pressed a kiss to his forehead. “Wake up. It’s morning.” When Reki didn’t respond, Langa gently tugged on his cheek and added, “You’re gonna be late getting back home.”
Yawning, Reki opened his eyes and smiled sleepily when he saw Langa’s face. “Morning,” he whispered as he rubbed his eyes. “Did you sleep good?”
Langa smiled softly. “Yeah. You?”
“Pretty good,” Reki said and stretched, trying to ignore the pins and needles feeling in his arms. “What time is it?”
“Quarter to seven.”
“Seven, huh? I gotta get going.”
Langa inched closer, pressing their foreheads together. “You could stay a little longer,” he suggested, trying his best to give Reki a pleading, puppy-eyed look. “Maybe five minutes?”
Laughing softly, Reki found Langa’s hand between the covers and laced their fingers together. “Okay, five minutes, but only because you’re cute.”
Langa squeezed Reki’s hand and searched his face. They were so close that when Reki blinked sleepily, his long eyelashes ghosted Langa’s cheeks. His mouth was also tantalizingly close and Langa briefly considered closing those few centimeters of space to kiss him, but he didn’t want to gross Reki out with morning breath.
“Whatcha thinking about?” Reki asked.
Langa’s cheeks slowly warmed. “Nothing. So why’d you oversleep today? Did you get up to draw something again?”
“Yeah, I was sketching out some ideas for Koyomi’s new setup. Wanna see?” Reki asked eagerly.
When Langa nodded, Reki’s eyes lit up with excitement and he reached under the pillow for his notebook. He rolled onto his back, opened the notebook, and motioned for Langa to get closer. Langa wriggled beneath his arms and nestled his head on Reki’s shoulder to get a better look at the sketches.
“She’s gonna need a wider deck and super grippy tape,” Reki explained as he held the notebook aloft with both hands, “plus some shock absorbers, better bearings, and this brand of bushings. Not sure on the design yet though. Either lots of cutesy fruits or I’m gonna copy out panels from her favorite manga. What do you think?”
Langa took the notebook and studied the illustrations. “Both sound good, but if you do the panels, I could help you out with that. I’m pretty good at copying things. But if you really wanted to, I bet you could combine both ideas and make something really unique for her. Like having the fruits zooming through the panels or something.”
“That’d be great!” Reki exclaimed as he wrapped his arms around Langa and nuzzled the top of his head. “You’re so smart, Langa.”
Langa’s cheeks flushed pink with pleasure. “You know I’m not. You’re the one with all the great ideas.”
“Shut up, you know you are. You’re smart and hot,” Reki said and kissed the top of his head. He glanced up at the clock and released Langa with obvious reluctance. “I should go.”
Langa pulled a face and leaned over to set Reki’s notebook in his night stand. He looked up at the clock, shook his head, and turned to Reki. “I think you’ve still got two more minutes.”
“Yeah, maybe I do,” Reki said as he curled up back on his side. “Hey, um . . .?”
Langa curled up on his side. “What?”
Reki’s eyes softened with concern. “Did you have a bad dream last night?”
Langa’s eyes briefly widened. He did have bad dreams from time to time—surely everyone did—but the only dream he could remember was the one in the mountains.
“What makes you think I had a bad dream? Did I . . . Do I talk in my sleep?”
“You don’t talk in your sleep. You just got really tense all of a sudden and I got a little worried . . .” Noticing Langa’s expression, Reki trailed off and hastily backtracked. “B-But maybe I was just imagining things! Or maybe I was the one dreaming. It was pretty late, after all.”
Mortified, Langa slowly inched away. “I’m sorry.”
“Langa, come on. That’s not something you need to apologize for.”
“But I worried you and—”
“So? You’re not the only one that worries me,” Reki said as he reached over and playfully mussed Langa’s hair. “Plus I’m supposed to worry about you, right? ‘Cause I’m . . . you know . . .” Abashed, Reki looked down and pretended to be fascinated with the pattern on the covers.
“What?”
Reki swallowed, hoping his face wasn’t as red as it felt. “I’m your boyfriend, right?”
Langa’s heart skipped a beat. Reki’s sudden little bouts of shyness tended to have that effect on him. “Yeah, you are. And I’m yours, right?”
“Dude, of course you are!” Reki exclaimed. Giggling, he booped Langa’s nose and asked, “What kind of question is that?”
Reki’s laughter was as infectious as it was calming and Langa couldn’t help but giggle along with him as he reached out to twirl that lone curly lock of Reki’s hair around his fingers. “Just double-checking.”
“Double-checking, huh?” Reki asked, his voice dropping an octave as he slipped a hand behind Langa’s neck and slowly drew him closer.
“Uh-huh,” Langa whispered, his eyes fluttering shut as their noses gently bumped together. He inhaled softly, breathing in the faint citrusy scent of the soap that Reki used to wash his face.
Reki skimmed his fingertips over Langa’s neck and alongside the curve of his jaw. With half-lidded eyes, he swiped his thumb over Langa’s bottom lip and softly asked, “Morning kisses okay?”
Forgetting his earlier concerns regarding morning breath, Langa reached out and took Reki’s face between his hands. His eyes flickered open just long enough to exchange a shy smile with Reki. Slowly, he pulled him in and pressed the softest of kisses to Reki’s mouth just as a phone started to ring. Startled, their eyes snapped open and immediately looked over in the direction of the offending sound.
“Um, I think that’s your phone,” Langa murmured in disappointment sank back against the pillow.
A flash of annoyance crossed Reki’s face as he reached over and grabbed his phone off the night stand. “It’s Miya.”
“Miya?”
“Yeah, on a video call.” Puzzled, Reki sat up and answered the call. Miya’s disapproving face filled the screen. “Uh, hey, Miya. Morning?”
Miya lips curled up into a smirk as he exchanged a look with someone off-screen. “Morning,” he said, his voice sounding strangely echoey. “Hey, is Langa with you?”
Curious, Langa sat up and leaned over to get a better look at Reki’s phone. Reki angled his phone to keep Langa out of Miya’s view and smiled at the screen.
“Nope,” Reki said with a shake of his head. “But I’m about to get ready to go out and meet him.”
“Yeah, sure you are.” Miya rolled his eyes and turned to look at someone off camera. “Koyomi, your idiot brother overslept ‘cause he spent all night making out with his idiot boyfriend.”
Reki visibly started, his cheeks turning pink. “Hey! Miya, what—?”
“Onii-chan!” Koyomi exclaimed as she squished her face next to Miya’s. “You owe me big! Everyone was wondering why you didn’t come out for breakfast this morning, so I had to cover for you.”
“Cover for me?” Reki echoed, confused. “Wait, where are you? Why are you with Miya so early?”
“We’re at the rail station waiting for Harurin and Takashi-kun,” Koyomi said. “We’re gonna go to Parrot Park.”
“And it’s not that early,” Miya added as he pushed Koyomi out of his space. “It’s ten thirty.”
“What?!” Reki cried as he dropped the phone in horror. He glanced up in the direction of the clock and saw one of the ticking hands was stuck. “Crap, that clock’s messed up! I was supposed to be home before everyone woke up!”
“It’s okay,” Langa said as he gave Reki’s shoulder a reassuring squeeze. He picked up the phone and turned it around to look at Miya and Koyomi. “Is it really ten thirty?”
“Hi, Langa-kun!” Koyomi said with a little wave. “And yeah, it is, but tell my brother I already told everyone he ate something bad and had diarrhea all night, so he’s just barely getting some sleep. Nobody’s gonna check on him for a few hours, at least.”
Langa turned to Reki and asked, “Did you get all that?”
Reki groaned and pulled the covers over his head. “Couldn’t she have gone with a less embarrassing lie?”
“Nope,” Koyomi said merrily. “Now you owe me two souvenirs from Canada. And you’re gonna show me how to do an invert.”
Reki dropped the covers and gave Koyomi a stern look. “No inverts. Not yet, anyway. We talked about this.”
Koyomi stuck out her tongue, then gasped in delight when someone off camera caught her eye. “Harurin!” she squealed.
“Koyomi, wait!” Reki called fruitlessly, but his sister had already disappeared, leaving just Miya on the screen. “Miya, please don’t let her do any inverts.”
Miya scoffed. “You know how pigheaded your sister is. I couldn’t stop her even if I wanted to. But I guess I can make sure she doesn’t hurt herself. And next time, cover your own ass.”
“Why’d you call in the first place?” Reki demanded.
“And why a video call?” Langa asked.
“Three reasons. One, ‘cause Koyomi wasn’t sure where you were and she forgot her phone at home. Two, ‘cause I thought it would be funny.” Miya snickered and added, “I can’t believe you actually answered, you dummy.”
Scowling, Reki huffed and folded his arms. “Remind me never to answer any more calls from you then.”
“What’s the third reason?” Langa asked.
“It was a bet,” Miya said with a triumphant grin. “Koyomi thought you two were out skating. I figured you two were still asleep and you were, so I won. Now she owes me a game.”
“But we weren’t sleeping,” Langa said. “We were—”
“Sleeping!” Reki interrupted frantically as he grabbed the phone out of Langa’s hands. “Definitely sleeping. Yep, you won that game, Miya. Enjoy, talk to you later, bye!”
Ignoring Miya’s confused protesting, Reki ended the call and heaved a long-suffering sigh. “How embarrassing,” he mumbled as he flopped back on the bed.
“Sorry,” Langa said quietly. “I didn’t realize the clock was broken.”
Reki shook his head. “Nah, that’s my fault. I’m the one who made it for you. I’ll take a look at it before I go and fix it. It shouldn’t take too long.”
“You don’t have to leave right away,” Langa said slowly. “Koyomi already said she covered for you and if it’s past ten, my mom’s probably out. She usually does the grocery shopping at this time. You could stay a little longer and—”
“Kiss you some more?” Reki interrupted eagerly, his expression brightening as he sat back up.
Langa met Reki’s starry eyes and burst into laughter. “How about breakfast first and kissing later?” he said as started to get up.
With a mischievous glint in his eyes, Reki sat up on his knees and pulled Langa back down to sit on the bed. He dipped his head down, brushed his lips against the back of Langa’s ear, and whispered, “You sure you don’t want me to kiss you now?”
Langa leaned back against Reki’s chest, laughing softly as Reki dropped soft, ticklish kisses down the side of his neck. “You kinda already are.”
Knock-knock.
With a start, the two froze. Ashen, Reki snapped his head back. Langa turned and exchanged a panicked look with Reki.
“Langa?” Nanako called. “Are you still asleep?”
With a strangled gasp, Reki pulled away and hissed, “I thought you said your mom was gonna be out!”
“Sh-she usually is,” Langa stammered.
Reki jumped off the bed. He darted over to the window, opened it, and leaned over as if to jump out. Langa hurried after him and wrapped his arms around Reki’s waist. With a grunt, he tried dragging Reki away from the window, but Reki had his hands stuck fast to the sill.
“What’re you doing?”
“What does it look like I’m doing?” Reki whispered frantically. “I gotta get out before your mom comes in.”
“You can’t just jump out! We’re on the fourth floor, remember?”
“See, this is why you should’ve left me build that ramp for you!”
Langa sighed and decided now wasn’t the time to remind Reki that the apartment building owner would never allow him to build a ramp under his bedroom window. “Look. I’ll go talk to my mom. I’m sure it’ll be okay.”
Reki hesitated, then relaxed his grip on the sill and allowed Langa to drag him away from the window. “Okay,” he said, sounding unconvinced. “If you say so.”