Chapter Text
Langa hadn’t felt anything in a while. So when his mom decided they should up and leave Canada and move to Okinawa, he didn’t care much. He didn’t even care that he would probably never get to snowboard again, no matter how disappointed he was in himself. When he was younger, all he had wanted was to become a professional snowboarder like his father. He used to love the thrill of flying down the mountainside, the chill of the air biting his face. Now, it all felt pointless. He wanted to make his father proud. But now nothing seemed to matter much.
Not since he lost his father.
While Langa’s world had stopped, everything and everyone else still seemed to keep moving. That’s how the blue-haired Canadian boy somehow found himself at a New Year’s party at a hotel in Vancouver. His mother had insisted they make a trip out of their move. Nanako seemed to think she needed to get her son out of his shell. Langa knew she was worried about him, so to appease her, he promised he would attend the hotel’s youth holiday party. However, he didn’t promise her that he would talk to anyone, so he grabbed the novel he was currently attempting to forget the real world with and headed down to one of the hotel’s reception rooms that was hosting the party. Immediately grabbing a plateful of snacks, Langa found an empty seat on a couch in the corner and settled in to read, ignoring the games, dancing, conversations, and karaoke happening around him.
Despite being in a room full of people, Reki found himself feeling increasingly lonely. He had come to this party with his skating team, but all of them were currently engaged in their own activities: Miya had found the arcade games; Joe had gone to flirt with as many girls as he could with Shadow following him like a, well, shadow; and Cherry was watching everyone judgmentally from a bar stool near the wall, sipping on some sparkling apple drink. Reki had been excited to come to this party, maybe even meet some new people, but instead he found himself eating snack foods alone. He tried to start up a few conversations, but being in a foreign country was a bit rough, even though he was pretty good with English. Now, even though it was New Year’s Eve, he thought about calling it a night and going back to his hotel room.
He wandered around a bit, at least enjoying the atmosphere of the place. Finding himself near the karaoke stage, he watched the two people on stage sing the last couple lines of a song. They looked like they were having a great time. Reki wasn’t jealous. Definitely not.
After the song ended, the DJ began swirling two spotlights around the room, announcing something about finding two lucky people to sing together next. Reki glanced around, busy looking for a trash can to put his plate in before leaving. He had tuned out the party and wasn’t paying attention when suddenly a white hot light was directed right at his back. Turning around, the redhead found himself blinded, disoriented, and heating up rather quickly under the white hot beam. Still confused about what exactly was happening, he found the strangers around him encouraging him to the stage. It wasn’t until he was standing up there by the karaoke mics that he got a clue about what he was supposed to be doing. But, he was standing up here alone. Did they expect him to sing a solo? Was he so pathetic that they could tell he didn’t have a friend to sing with? Blood was pounding in his ears as he barely registered the announcer saying something about finding another victim. Wait, what?
Reki looked up to see the other spotlight stopping on a blue-haired boy, sitting on a couch in the corner. He looked like a deer-in-headlights. The poor guy had clearly been as unsuspecting as Reki had been, maybe even more so since he seemed to be holding a book in his hands. The crowd around got him to his feet and pushed him towards the stage. They were definitely being a bit more physically forceful with him than they had been to Reki. If the redhead hadn’t been frozen in place, he may have run down, grabbed the other guy, and made a run for it. Instead, the blunette reached the bottom of the steps on the side of the stage and finally looked at Reki. And holy crap.
This guy was gorgeous. His blue hair framed his pale face so well, and it looked so soft. He was tall, probably slightly taller than Reki, and thin. But the most striking thing was his eyes- absolutely icy blue. The string lights from the stage danced across those eyes, making them look like they housed their own little snowstorms. Reki just stared at him while he tentatively stepped upwards and onto the stage, awkwardly standing with his hands at his sides. He clearly didn’t want to be here.
Oh, right. Reki suddenly remembered where he was and what was happening. Music began playing, and he quickly glanced at the screen to see lyrics were prepping themselves to be sung. Not wanting to disappoint all the people watching and look like a total loser, Reki started singing the first line when the que finally came. He glanced at the other guy, only to see him still standing there uncomfortably. Right, of course, he didn’t want to be up here with Reki. Who would? The freaking Greek god standing next to him was probably just disappointed he didn’t get paired up with someone better. Someone in his same league. Instead, all he got was Reki. Somehow even with his spiraling thoughts, Reki still managed to sing the next line, but he could see the upcoming text was in a different color, indicating it was going to be the other boy’s turn.
Realizing this whole situation was about to get exponentially more embarrassing when the other guy didn’t sing too, Reki took a step towards the edge of the stage, turning so he could bolt. Until he heard a soft voice. He ungracefully flipped back around to see the other teen had actually stepped up to the other microphone and was singing the other part of the duet. Reki was stunned. I mean, he was probably just doing it out of pity, right? He still looked really uncomfortable, but at least he was nice enough to sing along. Maybe this night wouldn’t be a total bust. Reki stepped back towards his mic, glancing back to the screen to join back in when prompted.
The song continued, and as it picked up a bit, the blunette actually glanced over at Reki while they sang. Reki smiled, doing his best to at least make the guy feel less awkward. Reki was not prepared, however, for the small smile he got in return. He’s pretty sure he had died and gone to Heaven. That small gesture made the redhead feel bolder, so as the next verse began, Reki playfully stripped off the jacket he was wearing on top of his hoodie, throwing it into the crowd. The audience seemed to enjoy the show as cheers and catcalls were yelled. The encouraged teen grabbed the mic off the stand so he could better move around while he sang, or more specifically, so he could look directly at his partner. The other boy seemed content to continue holding onto the mic stand for dear life, but at least his body language was tilted toward Reki a bit. That was something.
Letting himself have some fun for the first time tonight, Reki got totally lost in the song and those blue eyes that flitted back and forth between his own and the lyrics rolling down the monitor. At some point, the blunette actually got bold enough to remove his own mic from the stand too. Then he stepped closer to Reki. The redhead panicked, trying to take a step backward, and finding the edge of the small stage. As he began to fall backwards, everything seemed to slow down. And this is how I die.
Instead, a hand grabbed Reki’s wrist, hauling him back upright. Instead of falling off the stage, the redhead found himself face-to-face with the handsome stranger, only inches between them, who also somehow managed to continue singing while saving Reki’s life. Oh wait, no, this is how I die.
Reki recovered enough to glance over at the lyrics just in time to join back in. He grinned sheepishly at the other boy, who had stepped back to his own side of the platform. The other boy smiled back again. It was just a subtle upturn of his lips, but it made Reki’s stomach do strange things. As they approached the end of the song, Reki could feel disappointment welling up inside him. He wanted to keep singing with this random guy, because crazily enough, Reki hadn’t felt this complete in a long time. But realistically, after the song ends, this guy will probably just hop off the stage, go back to his real friends, and leave Reki’s life forever.
After the song was over, Reki decided to at least tell the guy his name, definitely not secretly hoping this guy would remember him for years. “My name is Reki, by the way.”
“Langa.”
Langa must have gone insane. I mean, more insane than usual. He had to be hallucinating. There was no way he had just sung karaoke with a complete stranger. A very cute stranger with the most amazing smile Langa had ever seen in his life. Someone could tell Langa that this guy was literally the sun god himself and he would have believed them. He had tan skin, freckles, dimples, unruly deep-red hair, and amber eyes that pooled like honey. Everything about him just screamed warmth. And Langa wanted to let it melt him.
“So Langa, uh, do you wanna maybe get something to drink? They have some bubbly apple-flavored kind that comes in glass bottles. We can pretend to be fancy adults,” the redhead- Reki- laughed nervously.
Langa’s mouth was currently not on speaking terms with his brain, so he simply nodded to the other boy, hoping he would understand.
“Alright, follow me.”
Reki led them to the drinks, grabbing two full cups and handing one to Langa. Gesturing for Langa to continue following, Reki led them out onto the adjoining patio where there were less people and a lot less noise. Langa’s head was still spinning from the crowd and loud music, so the color winter air was incredibly refreshing. Exactly what he needed. It’s like this redhead can read minds.
Langa breathed deeply now that they were out of the crowd and took a sip of his drink.
“Have you ever done that before?” Reki asked.
Realizing he must be talking about the karaoke, Langa shook his head.
“Seriously!? But you were freaking amazing! Dude, you have like a really nice voice. You should definitely sing more, people are missing out.”
“...you really think so?”
“Heck yeah!” Reki said, playing nudging Langa with his shoulder to emphasize his point. “You seriously didn’t know you were great at singing?”
Langa shook his head again. “Nope,” he said quietly, taking another sip of the bubbly liquid in his cup, his insides feeling bubbly uncharacteristically bubbly too.
“That’s crazy.”
“You are too.”
“What?” Reki looked baffled.
“Good at singing, I mean. You’re good at singing too,” Langa corrected, his face warming up with embarrassment.
“Hah, thanks, but I’m not really much of a singer. And definitely not as amazing as you,” Reki tried to correct, rubbing one of his hands on the back of his head. Quickly trying to change the topic, Reki continued. “So, Langa, where are you from?”
“Whistler.”
“Uh, where is that?”
“Like a couple hours north of here.”
“Oh, cool! So you’re Canadian.”
“Yeah?”
“Uh, well I’m from Japan.”
“Oh, it’s nice to meet you.” Langa replied in Japanese.
“WAIT, DUDE, YOU SPEAK JAPANESE!” Reki seemed so excited. And man, was he adorable when he was excited.
“Yeah, my mom is from Japan.”
“That’s so awesome! It’s nice to run into somebody else who speaks Japanese. I mean, the guys I came here with do, but I mean somebody besides them.”
“Why did you come here?” Langa decided he’d just continue the conversation in Japanese. He was fluent when it came to speaking, but his kanji was awful. Reading and writing were not his strong suites. That wasn’t going to make going to High School in Japan easy.
“Oh, uh, for a skateboarding thing? There was an ametuer skating competition here a few days ago and my team and I actually managed to earn enough money to come. So we decided to stay for New Year’s too and make a whole trip out of it.”
“So you skateboard?”
“Yeah, do you?” Reki’s eyes lit up like the giant Christmas tree in Langa’s favorite ski lodge.
“No, sorry,” Langa replied.
“Ah, that’s alright. I’ve been skateboarding for years, but I’m probably actually the worst on our team… But it’s still so much fun! Skateboarding is like freedom. You can go anywhere! It’s… infinite.” Reki said while looking up at the stars, a tone of almost reverence taking over at the end.
Before Langa could respond, suddenly everyone seemed to be yelling numbers. “Oh, I didn’t realize it was already almost midnight!” Reki exclaimed. Oh yeah, New Year’s. Reki joined the countdown when it reached 5, counting down loudly in English. His smile was absolutely contagious and Langa couldn’t help saying the last 3 numbers. Cheers and poppers erupted after they reached 0. The blunette stared at Reki as his face began to be illuminated by different colored fireworks filling the night sky while he watched the ski in awe. Langa could have stayed in that moment for a lot longer. Maybe forever.
Unfortunately, someone else came to find Reki, a boy with bright green eyes and dark hair.
“Reki! C’mon slime, let’s get out of here.”
“Oh, hey Miya.” Reki replied, ignoring the strange nickname.
“C’mon, we gotta go. Coach Oka said we need to get back to the room.”
“Seriously? Right now?”
“Yeah, right now. Who’s this?” The teen with black hair looked Langa up and down suspiciously.
“Oh, this is Langa.”
“Well sorry to interrupt you and your new boyfriend, but we don’t wanna make Oka wait. He’s already pissed about the room service incident.”
Reki’s face had blushed bright red at his friend’s(?) teasing. Langa found himself surprisingly unbothered. Honestly, he wouldn’t mind earning that title sometime.
“Ah, right. Sorry Langa, apparently I’ve got to go. But here!” Reki brandished his phone from his pocket, and shoved it into Langa’s hands. “Give me your number, then maybe we can talk some more?”
Langa nodded and gingerly typed his number into Reki’s phone, double-checking the digits twice to make sure they were right. “Here,” he said as he handed it back.
“Thanks man! And here, I’ll send you a text so you have my number too. It was really nice meeting you Langa!” Reki looked a bit flustered as his friend pulled him away by his arm, waving enthusiastically. Langa returned the gesture with a small wave of his own. Even after Reki was out of sight, Langa continued to stare at the spot that had recently been vacated by him. Finally pulling his phone out of his own pocket, he saw a few “Happy New Year’s” texts from his mom and grandparents. But most importantly, a new number had messaged him too.
Unknown number: This is Reki :D