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“Hey... Langa?”
A question suddenly comes at Langa from his right, spoken slow and lazy, and he cranes his neck to get a better look at the redhead who lies beside him, watching as Reki fights his way through a yawn.
Situated shoulder-to-shoulder, they lie the wrong way together on Reki's bed, with the tops of their heads touching the wall and their legs hanging down off the other side, and for the last hour or so they've whittled away their free time with idle conversation and videos shared between them on their phones. They've nothing to do otherwise while they wait for the rain to subside, and with Reki's little sisters absent, they're free from disruption, left to simply enjoy one another's company.
They didn't account for rain in their actual plans today, but they've both agreed that what they're doing now is just as enjoyable as what they would've been doing.
When Reki fails to follow through after his initial question, spacing out again with tired eyes that continue to stare straight up at the ceiling, Langa turns his attention back to the phone in his hand, shrugging as he taps the screen to resume his video. The audio plays out loud, what was previously a decision made so that they could both watch the same videos with ease, but now that Reki's off in a world of his own, Langa turns the volume back down a few notches, balancing the phone atop his chest instead of holding it out in the small space between he and Reki.
“Do you believe in soulmates?”
Reki finally pipes up again after a while with a question that comes out of nowhere, and Langa has to pause the video once again to take a moment to really soak in what it is that Reki's just asked him. It's a bizarre question, one that has absolutely nothing to do with anything that they've been talking about or doing today, and with his brow knit in concentration Langa gives some thought to it for a few seconds, ultimately deciding that he really doesn't. He's never given the idea any consideration before, and now that he's had reason to, he finds that it just doesn't appeal to him in the slightest.
“I don't,” Langa responds plainly. His thumb hovers over the screen, ready to tap 'play' again, but just before he does he hesitates, glancing back at Reki and slowly adding, “... Why, do you?”
“N-no, I-” Reki stutters, his shoulders visibly tensing when he turns his head, finally noticing that he's now got Langa's undivided attention on him. He tries to play it off smoothly, laughing briskly with a smug look on his face, quickly adding, “Why would I?”
Langa's gaze doesn't waver, staring intensely back at Reki for long enough to make him sweat, and after a while the redhead starts to squirm under the scrutiny, his face warming with every passing second that Langa watches him. It isn't long before Langa starts to struggle to contain his amusement, his mouth threatening to crack into a smirk, and before Reki can catch on he turns his attention back toward the ceiling above, trying hard not to catch a glimpse of that bashful face so close at his side.
Reki's prying, searching for something – be it the truth from Langa or himself. He's asking about this in a roundabout way, trying to make himself seem innocuous, but Langa knows him better than that. It's clear as day where his feelings lie, and Langa easily sees right through him, deciding to call his bluff.
“... Why would you bring it up if you don't?” Langa bluntly asks, his tone dry and accusatory, and Reki's face twists into a defensive frown as he side-eyes the boy beside him.
“'C-cause I... I wanted to know if you do!”
“Reki, what makes you think that I do?” Langa asks with a smile, as bewildered as he is entertained. “How did you even go from watching skate clips to something like that?”
“I was just curious,” Reki pouts, reaching out as far as his arm can stretch to grab a pillow from the head of his bed. He keeps a fair grip on it, tucking it away at his side for the inevitable moment when Langa says something that'll turn his face too red for him to handle, as that's what always seems to happen in situations like this when he runs his mouth without thinking first.
“So... you brought it up because you were hoping I'd say yes,” Langa states, acting as though he's got it all figured out, and Reki moves to counter him in fervent protest almost immediately after.
“I was not,” he swiftly argues, switching gears to toss the pillow over Langa's face instead.
Langa's quick to yank it back off, staring in wide-eyed disbelief for a moment as he holds it out above his head, and with a disapproving frown he throws it back to the end of the bed, scowling at Reki soon after. The redhead – in his short-lived victory – scoots over and away from Langa by about an inch, rolling onto his side once he has enough room, and he gives his companion a cheeky grin, negating all of his previous embarrassment almost entirely.
It would be cute if it weren't just a ploy, Langa thinks.
“You're an awful liar,” Langa warns, listening as Reki disregards him with a click of his tongue.
“Oi, just... forget about it, alright? It was a dumb question.”
Reki's face is relaxed despite his argumentative tone, with all traces of his nervous curiosity long gone by now, but Langa isn't quite ready to let this one go just yet. He studies Reki's face for a bit, lying there only a foot away from him and wearing a purposefully disinterested look – the redhead's obvious way of trying to imply that he actually believes his own words – but Langa can see the subtle hint of hurt written there, hiding just beneath the surface.
He waits for another minute, watching as Reki digs his own phone out from one of his pocket – clearly settling for entertaining himself for the time being – before he decides that he's dissatisfied with the answer that he's given the redhead. He doesn't want Reki to carry on this afternoon thinking that he's dismissing an idea that genuinely means something to him, or for Reki to think that he views such an innocent question as childish or even laughable.
“It's not dumb,” Langa mumbles thoughtfully, turning over to face the redhead properly. “If something is important to you, then... you should share it with me,” he clarifies, dedicating his attention to Reki.
That seems to get Reki thinking again, as bright eyes peer over at him from behind the phone in his hands, and after they wander a few times, switching their focus from Langa's eyes to his mouth and everywhere in between, they nervously settle back down on whatever's on the screen in front of him. Langa hums to himself, contemplating what he can do next to get Reki to pay attention, until he spies the tip of the redhead's ear starting to warm, and he reaches out to gently pinch it between two fingers.
“You do believe, don't you?” Langa asks softly, trying again to rouse a response.
Reki twitches under his careful hand, making a noise low in his throat as he squirms, and after he drops his phone flat on the mattress he raises one arm, swatting Langa's hand away from him. He directs a fierce pout toward the other boy as he rolls over further, lying face-down on the bed in a blatant refusal to answer, and he drags his arms up to cross them both underneath his face, cradling his head and raising it up just enough to allow him to breathe.
“Stuff like that isn't real though,” Reki mumbles, greatly muffled by the blankets. “It's... kid stuff.”
Langa marvels at the redness of his ears even more, happier now that he can see both of them, and he moves to sit up on one elbow, leaning over toward Reki just slightly. He gathers both of their phones in his hand, setting them safely aside somewhere behind him at the foot of the bed, before turning his full attention back to Reki, stopping himself just short of reaching out to toy with the redhead's headband or the soft hairs at the nape of his neck.
“What if it was real?” Langa asks, waiting patiently. “What if I was your soulmate, Reki?”
It takes a few seconds but Reki finally turns his head enough to peer over at Langa, almost immediately feeling a sense of unease come over him as he does. He's slowly realizing – based on the smouldering look on his companion's face – that Langa's decided to take this topic seriously, and as of yet he's hardly prepared himself to give an answer to something so... intimate.
“I-I don't know,” Reki argues, hiding his red face down in the crook of his crossed arms once more. “What difference would it make?”
“You tell me,” Langa insists, reaching out to prod the redhead's ribs. “You brought it up.”
“And I also told you to forget about it,” Reki whines, recoiling away from Langa's feathery touch.
“I don't want to,” Langa declares. “You asked for this, Reki.”
“... You suck,” the redhead pouts.
He rolls halfway back onto his side, keeping his balance on one forearm alone as he prepares to counter Langa's demands, but his scowl burns as bright as his cheeks, only serving to endear Langa even further. He shies away when Langa leans in with a teasing promise of a kiss, stopping him just short of doing so by rolling over again, but this time he moves to face away from the boy who looms over him, taking his own childish control over the situation.
He holds back a snicker as he listens carefully, trying to decipher what it is that Langa's thinking back there behind him after being snubbed, but the longer that he's met with silence, hearing no sounds of protest or even shuffling to get more comfortable, the more he starts to worry that he's genuinely upset Langa. He considers shifting enough so that he can peek over his shoulder to get a better idea of what's on Langa's mind, but before he has a chance to do so, Langa finally pounces, snuggling right up against him from behind and snaking his arms tight around Reki's waist in the process.
Reki makes a strangled noise, but he settles soon after, pleased that Langa hasn't taken his refusal too seriously. He sighs softly, letting Langa wrap him up for a while, delighting in the feeling of every one of the older boy's soft breaths against the nape of his neck, but it isn't much longer before his blissful peace is broken when he learns the hard way that Langa still isn't quite done with him after all.
“I'm waiting,” Langa murmurs, his voice low and almost inviting, and Reki's shoulders tense up.
“... F-for what?” Reki asks, feeling only slightly afraid of the answer.
“For you to tell me what you would do if we were soulmates,” Langa reminds him, and as Reki slowly realizes that Langa's intentions weren't actually headed elsewhere, he exhales a long, exhausted sigh.
“We're... we're already... dating,” Reki stammers, nearly whispering the last word as though it's not something to be spoken aloud, and Langa sits up enough to lean over him, making sure that Reki catches a glimpse at his unimpressed look. “What? What else can we do?”
Langa stares him down for another few seconds before settling in behind him again, tucking himself right up against Reki's back in a snug embrace while he gives himself some time to think about it. He knows that Reki's not exactly wrong – there really isn't anything that would or even should be different about them if they were soulmates, but he likes to treat himself to the idea that it would somehow... bring them closer? Bind them to each other in some kind of cliche way, forbidding them from even looking in the direction of another?
It's tacky and possessive, and he knows he really shouldn't let himself fall into that trap, but it's still a sweet idea nonetheless, and he wonders if that's where Reki's train of thought was going when he first brought it up. As of a few minutes ago, Langa couldn't have cared less about the idea of soulmates, as the thought had never once crossed his mind; but now that Reki's planted the concept in his mind, he's having a terrible time letting it go. If he's garnered this much interest in it after only a short time, then he has to wonder how long Reki's been toying with the thought of it – and what exactly he wants out of such a fairy tale, too.
Soulmates aren't real, of course, but... Reki obviously likes to think they are. So who is he to deny such an innocent belief?
Reki's also apparently grown tired of being ignored, swivelling around in Langa's arms to face him properly, and he lies there far closer than either of them are usually comfortable with, still sandwiched against the older boy. Langa looks down at him, surprised to see Reki's face so close to him and so calm, but he keeps his eyes focused on the redhead's own, waiting to see if he'll give an answer first.
“You done goin' on about that yet?” Reki asks, and Langa frowns at him for presuming.
“No,” he says simply. “Not even close.”
Reki groans, rolling away onto his back to put more of a comfortable distance between them, but despite his over-the-top theatrics, he spares a little red-faced grin over in Langa's direction, crossing his arms up behind his head as he settles there for a while. He eyes Langa curiously for a bit, enjoying the little pout on his face as much as Langa's probably enjoying his own embarrassment, and with a soft sigh, he tries again to dissuade the boy from this topic entirely.
He didn't intend for this to go anywhere in the first place, anyway. It was nothing more than simple curiosity.
“You didn't care about this at all, so why—”
“Would you want to stay with me?”
Langa cuts him off quickly and insistently, and Reki pauses immediately, giving him a blank look. It takes a second for him to replay those words again in his head, and again, and no matter how many more times he does, they make little sense to him. He raises a brow, still levelling his gaze with Langa's, and all that he can offer in response is a simple, “Huh?”
“If we were meant to be together, would you be okay with that?” Langa asks, trying again.
“I... I don't really follow,” Reki murmurs, genuinely lost on where Langa's going with this.
Langa sighs softly, but his face shows no frustration – instead his expression is warm, almost a smile, and he reaches out to curl the fingers of one hand around Reki's bicep, loosely hanging on to him as if to prevent him from leaving. It wouldn't do much if Reki did get flustered enough to leave in protest, but the intention is there and Reki seems to know it, eyeing his hand cautiously.
“Well... isn't a soulmate someone you're meant to fall in love with?”
“Y-yeah, I guess,” Reki nervously mumbles in agreement.
He watches as Langa sits up on his elbow again, leaning over him in an almost imposing way, with his eyes keenly focused right on his own and the hand that rests upon his arm now dangerously close to locking him there in place. He swallows his nerves, staring wide-eyed up at someone who desperately wants something from him, something that he's still not getting, and he almost starts to feel a little tug of guilt on his conscience for being so blind right now.
Then again, he should hardly blame himself. Langa's blowing this whole thing way out of proportion.
“You already love me,” Langa says softly, reaffirming what they both know and delighting in the little nod that Reki gives him. “And we are already dating,” he adds, repeating Reki's earlier words.
“... Go on?” Reki squeaks, utterly lost and only somewhat anxious.
“What comes after dating, Reki?”
There's an obvious answer there, something that they've both enjoyed more than once together already, but Reki isn't interested in playing into that one, stubbornly glaring up at Langa instead. He racks his brain, trying hard to think of something that supposedly comes after dating and has even remotely anything to do with the topic at hand, but he comes up empty, watching as Langa's face falls again.
Not wanting to disappoint Langa further, Reki untangles one hand from behind his head, the one that Langa doesn't currently have a hold on, and he reaches up to tuck away the hair that frames the left side of his partner's face, slipping it in behind his ear along with a gentle thumb across the cheek as he goes. He figures that if his brain won't cooperate today, he may as well try to appeal to Langa in other ways.
And it works wonderfully, judging by the soft look he's given.
“You're gonna have to help me on that one, buddy,” Reki says casually, patting Langa on the shoulder, and Langa finally laughs.
He sinks down to Reki's chest, settling his weight comfortably on top of the redhead, and for a while he simply lays there, with his cheek pressed against a warm sweater and his hands tucked inside the flanks of Reki's jacket. He knows what he wants to say next, and whether or not Reki also knows is honestly still a mystery, but he trusts that the redhead was telling the truth when he implied that he needed a nudge in the right direction.
It's not a topic that they've ever gotten into before, and for good reason; they're still a ways away from committing to something like that, but with his newfound interest in the idea of soulmates, Langa's found himself curious to know where Reki stands. He can feel the hand that previously toyed with his hair come to rest upon the small of his back, telling him that Reki doesn't mind being laid on, and with that plus the fact that the redhead's effectively pinned in place now, Langa doesn't have to worry about him taking off out of embarrassment when the conversation takes its next turn.
“I'm talking about getting married,” Langa gently murmurs, taking note of the way that the rise and fall of the chest beneath him halts for a second.
He's completely stumped Reki, or at least it seems as though he has, and he's curious to know what kind of expression the redhead's wearing now. He waits for a moment, giving Reki time to process and hopefully come up with an answer in his own time, knowing full-well that if he turns his gaze upward too soon he's bound to scare Reki off.
Langa doesn't want Reki to feel trapped though, either, and such a loaded question is almost guaranteed to make him feel like he has to provide an answer – one that Langa will want to hear, too. But on the other hand, Reki was the one who brought up the whole soulmate thing in the first place, which means that the idea of spending their lives with one another wasn't already off the table for him. It almost seems as though it's something that Reki's actually given some thought to.
Why else would he possibly want to talk about soulmates?
“... We don't have to be soulmates to get married, y'know,” Reki points out, and Langa's eyes widen.
He raises his head, looking hopefully into those warm eyes that very obviously dodge his gaze, and slowly he starts to piece together the implications that Reki's words have left him with.
“So you would marry me whether we were or not?” Langa asks, with all the childish innocence that only he can command, and Reki just about implodes.
His face grows hotter than ever before, and it's now of all times that he decides to land his gaze upon Langa's eager face, staring him down with a quiver in his lower lip and what Langa deems to be his most embarrassed expression to date. He looks a mess, and Langa's finding it hard to resist crawling up his chest a little further to steal away a kiss or a few, but before he can entertain his whims Reki pipes up with a stutter.
“Oi, L-Langa,” Reki chides, his fingers playing nervously at Langa's back, twitching and tapping to keep himself busy. “Isn't it a little soon to talk about that stuff?”
“You brought it up first,” Langa accuses.
“Wha – I didn't!” Reki argues, gawking at him. “Not even close, don't try to pull that this time—”
This time, Langa does stop him with a kiss, pulling himself up far enough to gently press his lips to Reki's busy mouth, and it does wonders to silence him completely. He pulls away after greedily getting his fix, watching with low-lidded eyes as Reki quiets beneath him, breathing slow and steady and looking back up at him with what can only be described as adoration.
Langa's not really sure how he managed to land himself someone who could look at him in such a way, especially after being picked on, but he's eternally grateful that he has. And for Reki to indirectly admit his intentions for the future has his heart dancing in a way that it really hasn't before, bringing new and exciting feelings to the surface that only serve to heighten his love for the silly redhead beneath him.
Reki's right, though – it is too soon to talk about something like that, but now that they have, Langa's looking forward to what their future holds – at least more so than he already was. He laughs to himself as he recalls Reki's words from only a short time ago, agreeing that they have no need to be something fictitious like soulmates before they can tie the knot, but the more he thinks about it, the sweeter it sounds.
Oh, how proud he would be if he could call Reki his and his alone, bound by fate even before the day they met. It's terrible, and he loves it.
“Reki,” Langa breathes.
“Hn?” Reki hums distractedly, eyeing Langa's parted lips as he pants softly.
“I think I believe in soulmates after all.”