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Langa had always spouted phrases in French from time to time the entire time Reki knew him. It was usually out of annoyance or confusion, or just when he couldn't bother to translate his thoughts into a language Reki understood. He'd never really minded, he sorta found it endearing.
But now? It was really starting to piss him off.
Before he'd always have been spaced out in some way and would quickly repeat what he said with words his friend got. He never just broke into French in the middle of a normal conversation. Because what the fuck??
He ignored it most of the time, but the instances were becoming so frequent that he felt like Langa was almost hiding something from him. Like he was saying something to him but he didn't quite want him to hear.
He knew he'd never say anything mean about him or anything like that, but still, it sure got his mind working. It made him feel oddly on edge.
He really wanted to know what he was missing.
"Reki! Good morning," Langa greeted him at the corner like he did every morning as they paused to enact their dap. "Morning! Jeez, I'm tired. I stayed up way too late thinking about the wheel enhancements we were talking about yesterday for your board."
He fell into his typical rambling as they set off on their boards and Langa diligently listened. But all the sudden in the middle of his sentence, he did it.
"Tu es adorable."
"Huh?" Reki glanced at him with slight irritation. The other hummed with a vaguely amused smile, "Just thinking out loud."
The redhead huffed, "Thinking what? You do this way too much!" Langa chuckled, features soft and beautiful in the gentle wind. He shook his head, that small smile still playing at his lips, as if this were a puzzle he was waiting for Reki to solve.
He grumbled like a child, shoving at his shoulder. "Come on! You're making me feel stupid for not speaking fancy Canada talk!" He rolled his eyes and finally said, "I only said that you're an idiot."
Reki gasped dramatically as though he'd just revealed heartbreaking news. "Uncalled for! I was telling you about how I was gonna make your board even cooler!" "Yeah, the ideas you stayed up too late thinking about for no good reason."
They rolled to a stop at the front gates right as he opened his mouth to retort, but he shut himself up when Langa reached up, tugging lightly at his headband. "Honestly, it's all crooked. You can tell you were rushing this morning."
He fiddled with his hair for a tense moment longer and backed up satisfied as if that was a completely normal occurrence. Reki sputtered when he began to walk away, half indignant half flustered. "You really have no concept of personal space do you?" He barked.
Langa simply tilted his head a little. "I only fixed your headband. You're the one tossing hugs around all the time." He wanted to yell something about how those were two completely different categories of contact, but he knew it would go right over his head. So he sighed and kicked his board into his hand, following helplessly behind the oblivious boy he was smitten for.
After school it was straight to the skate park, just like always.
These were always Reki's favorite moments. Soaring through the air, feeling absolutely free, with his best friend by his side. Like nothing could possibly stop them from flying away.
"Incredible! Vous êtes incroyable, Reki!"
Ah.
Those foreign words drenched in an unbearably sweet tone clipped his wings and dropped him back down to reality.
"Langaaa!" He whined as he landed his jump, sliding back down the half pipe and glaring up at the blue haired boy who sat perched at its peak.
"Oh, sorry," he giggled, offering an apologetic smirk. "I said you're amazing." The way Langa said it so simply, as if it was nothing but a fact he was pointing out for him, had the blood rushing to his face. "You could've easily gone twice as high," he mumbled bashfully and regained momentum so he could join his friend on the edge.
"Why do you keep speaking French anyway? Why don't you just say what you're thinking right to me?" He huffed as he plopped down beside him. Something in Langa's face shifted thoughtfully and his cheeks seemed to gain a little color. "It's my first language. Whenever I just blurt stuff out without thinking it's in the language I thought it in. Besides, tu es mignon quand tu fais la moue."
Reki scrunched up his nose disapprovingly at the last words. Langa snickered. "I said it's funny you get so grumpy whenever I do it." He sighed, dropping onto his back with a frustrated 'oof'. "It's not funny when you don't tell me what it means!"
There was a moment of quiet, as if Langa was thinking this through carefully.
"Alright, I'll tell you, then."
So he did. Langa would speak in that silky tongue and Reki would ask and he'd always tell him. It was always something random and sort of out of place, but he paid it no mind. In fact, now that he wasn't in the dark, he found it sort of enjoyable.
He sorta liked the way Langa's words curled at the end with that beautiful accent.
"Hey, Langa?" He glanced up from his phone to look over at his friend hunched beside him at his desk. He hummed, still focused on the screen.
"Can you teach me some French?"
Langa almost jumped. He sat straight up, facing Reki with a near startled expression. "Why?" He asked in a small voice. "Uh, because it's cool as hell? What's wrong with you??" He scanned his face, still perplexed as the other cleared his throat.
"No, it's nothing. Just sort of unexpected. You seemed upset by my French before," he shrugged a little. "Yeah, but only because I didn't understand you! But French is totally a cool language! You don't have to teach me to write or anything, just some basic phrases?" Suddenly Reki's heart was tight, waiting for his friends response. He didn't understand why, but this felt like an opportunity he didn't want to miss.
Langa grumbled a little under his breath, brows knitted together as he mulled it over.
"Hm. Sure, why not?"
"Hell yeah! You're the best, man!" He slung an arm around his shoulders, squishing their faces together in a quick affectionate swoop. "It's not a big deal. French is way simpler than Japanese," Langa huffed but he could feel the way he melted into the little side hug.
Reki snickered and released him, excitedly turning his body to face his new 'teacher' properly. "So how do you say hello? Wait, no, that's bonjour right?" He chuckled, shifting to face the enthusiastic new 'student' as well. "First of all, that's 'good morning'. Second, you really want a lesson right this second?"
He heaved a high whine, reaching out and shaking the others arms a bit. "Pleeeease Langa? I'll pay the next time we eat at Joe's!" The bluenette immediately sat up straight and cleared his throat. "If you want to say hello, you'd say salut." Reki snorted at his quick change of heart but quieted down to listen.
"Are we're talking basics of the language itself or basic French conversation?" He asked. "Uuhhh..." he glanced to the side, barely interpreting the difference between the options. "Conversation." Langa nodded. "Well then let's start with phrases. 'What's your name?' is comment t'appelles-tu?"
The words sounded so fluid and relaxed when he said them, as if they were the most natural thing in the world. Yet he could hardly begin to repeat them .
"Comment t'appelles-tu." He said again. Reki hummed incoherent sounds for a beat, playing with the words in his mouth. "Comment t'appelles-tu?" The syllables were clumsy and poorly pronounced as they tumbled from his lips. All he managed was repeating a slurred version of 'com' and 'chu' sounds.
Langa breathed a small, sweet laugh. "Comment t'appelles-tu."
"Comment t'appelles-tu?"
"You pause in awkward places, you have to be fluent. Comment t'appelles-tu."
"Comment t'appelles-tu." Still rather sloppy.
"Comment t'appelles-tu."
"Comment t'appelles-tu."
Langa gave him an approving smile. "Excellent. You already seem to understand the accent pretty well." His belly glowed at his praise and he was immediately anxious to learn more.
For the rest of the night they went over phrase after phrase. 'How are you? Where are you from? My name is.' Simple things like that. And of course, since Langa is Langa, a few extras like 'are you hungry?' for a reliable pick up line and 'slimes' for some Miya teasing.
"Oh, oh! What about-" Langa cut him off with a loud groan. "Reki, it's been like, an hour, and it's already past midnight. Don't you know enough?" He pouted, intending to annoy him into teaching him a little while longer, but something about his messy hair and droopy eyes softened his heart. "Fineee. I know the prince needs his beauty sleep."
He rolled his eyes at the foolish nickname as the pair rose to prepare themselves for bed. They went about their routine quickly without talk, both parties finally feeling the weight of an overactive day on their eyes.
Right as Reki finished tugged his pajama hoodie(Yes, all he wears is hoodies, it doesn't matter the scenario. No, it's not a problem.)Langa returned from the bathroom with his own sleep-worn attire. He didn't quite register the way his blue eyes lazily swept over his frumpy outfit and messy hair.
"Tu es beau."
He perked up, looked to him expectantly for a translation. Langa coughed into his fist, face deepening slightly in color. Was he sick or something? "It means dumbass."
"Eh?!" His tired mind wasn't shut down enough to stop him from being offended. "You tryna fight? You're the dumbass!" His friend huffed, halfheartedly dodging a sluggish punch to his shoulder. "I'm not the one whose entire wardrobe is hoodies no matter the weather."
He scoffed but had no clever response. He was far too tired for their typical incoherent squabbling, so he hopped back into his curiosity.
"So what sorts of insults have you been throwing at me without my knowledge?" Langa giggled as the pair climbed into bed, settling down before responding. "Wouldn't you like to know."
Some silent puppy dog eyes and the lesson was back on.
He taught him pretty much every way you could possibly imagine calling someone a moron and several of the phrases he'd recognized from Langa's angry rambling after a bail. A few were figures of speech that when translated directly into Japanese had completely mixed up meanings. Being exhausted and immature, Reki found this hilarious.
"Reki, I really don't understand what's so funny," Langa sighed, though he could hear the amused hint in his tone. The redhead gasped through his laughter, practically squealing with the intensity of it. He rolled onto his side, facing Langa with a face flushed with exertion and laughing in that irrationally breathless way that only made sense to sleep deprived idiots.
"Je t'aime."
He couldn't pause his laughing fit very effectively, but he managed to look at him pointedly enough for his to explain. "It means you're an idiot."
Reki finally caught his breath and spoke with humor still curling his words. "Well je t'aime too, you aren't fooling anyone." Langa covered his mouth his a hand, looking away with a fierce flush just barely hidden by the darkness. "Yeah... maybe not."
—-
Reki didn't find anything about that night to be odd, so things just continued as normal for days after and neither really spoke about it. Though, there were near constant exchanges of French insults(Reki taking a particular liking to saying je t'aime, mostly because it was one of very few he remembered).
But still, the nagging feeling that he was missing something remained.
"Ooh. I wanna try that," Langa stared at his phone with wide, excited eyes. "Yeah let's go for it!" He grinned and set the device aside, hopping back onto his board and racing back into the heart of the park.
They dropped into the bowl in unison and gained momentum side by side. As soon as he was going fast enough(or thought he was)he went full speed up the side and reached for the edge. He realized a bit too late that he wasn't getting enough air to fully rotate and fell flat on his stomach right outside the bowl. He looked up, winded, just in time to see Langa nailing the one-handed turn in the air as if it were effortless.
His laugh filled the empty divot when he noticed Reki lying on the edge. "You okay?" He snorted as he joined him at the top, extending a hand to help him up. "Yeah, I just misjudged my speed. I think I can do it though!" He spoke through breathless giggles.
"Tu es très mignon," Langa chuckled. "Yeah, yeah, lemme guess. I'm sooooo stupid." He huffed sarcastically, though he somehow felt the words weren't true. "Yeah, something like that." Something about the painfully gentle smile on his lips and the graceful, adoring quality to his voice made him certain to the first time, that he was definitely not insulting him.
But what else would he be saying..?
"Hey Langa?" Reki said suddenly during a silent stretch of their lunch break. Langa only hummed, mouth full of food he'd stolen from him. "Je t'aime."
He choked. He actually choked.
The redhead stared at him as he hacked and coughed, trying to compose himself. When he finally cleared his throat, he looked up at him with feeble red cheeks and a hand covering his lips. "That was uncalled for," he muttered.
And he was dumbfounded. Reki was absolutely positive now that he wasn't calling him a dumbass. Because what the hell? That's not how normal people react to a friendly tease or joke.
What the actual hell has he been telling him?
So his little experiments went on as he tried to figure it out. He studied Langa's expression, his change in mood, his everything. But nothing made sense.
Watching a movie.
"Langa?" "What's up?" "Vous êtes un amoureux."
He went all tense and looked away. "No, you," he mumbled in what he supposed would've passed for irritable if it weren't for the rosy smile Reki caught.
At 'S'.
"Hey, Langa!" "Hm?" "Je t'aime!"
He stumbled on his board, nearly falling right on his ass. He didn't respond, just shot him an odd look and rode off. A group of fans squealed something about romance.
In school.
"Langa, guess what." "What?" "Je t'aime."
A sharp inhale and he immediately hid his face in the crease on his textbook. "Would you quit that..?" He grumbled with a strained voice. A couple kids laughed. Boys whistled.
He seriously didn't understand.
So of course, it was time for his last resort. Cherry.
Reki burst through the doors of Joe's restaurant knowing full well it was after hours. "CHERRY I NEE-," his shout died in his throat as he registered the scene before him.
A disheveled-looking Cherry leaned back against the countertop, arms hanging loosely around Joe's shoulders, the taller's hands pinning him at either side.
For a second they just stared at each other.
Then… oh shit.
"REKI KYAN YOU KNOW DAMN WELL IM CLOSED- Ow!" Cherry smacked him hard behind the head, quickly detangling their limbs. "You didn't close the shop!?" "I did! It's not my fault he's fucking illiterate and couldn't read the sign!"
Then Cherry's eyes were on him. And they. Were. Violent. "Reki, you better have a damn good reason, barging in here like a bat out of hell."
He squealed, waving his hands wildly in front of himself as if he could simultaneously save his own skin and cool down the mortified blush he was sporting. "I do! I do! I'm so sorry- I had no idea you guys were- I mean- Shit I'm just so sorry-" "Out with it, kid!" Joe barked.
"Right! Uh," Reki cleared his throat and took a deep breath to try to calm himself down. "Well now that I'm actually saying it it sounds really stupid..." "I swear to god I'm going to beat the shit out of you if you don't hurry up and tell me what you want."
"Okay, okay! Jeez didn't realize you were so desperate to make out with your 'enemy'." Cherry scowled at him, though his face went completely pink. Joe coughed through a poorly hidden laugh. "Do you want my help or not?" The pinkette hissed indignantly.
"Yes! It's about Langa," he sighed and finally hurried forward, joining the two on the other side of the counter. "Ooh, this just got interesting!" Joe purred, elbowing Cherry playfully. The caligrapher frowned and swatted his hand away, crossing his arms and giving his attention to the redhead.
"You aren't having another disagreement, are you?" He asked and there was genuine concern in his eyes. "No, no! We're all good, I promise. It's just..." he didn't exactly know how to explain what he was thinking. "He's been speaking a lot of French lately and he tells me the translations but I don't think he's telling the truth. Like- ugh it's hard to explain. His tone doesn't match what he's saying at all."
This seemed to peak Cherry’s interest. "Can you give me an example?" Reki hummed for a moment, before deciding on the phrase that got the biggest reaction from Langa.
"Je t'aime."
For a moment they both looked shocked, then Joe burst out laughing and Cherry was covering up a smile. Reki furrowed his brow, feeling like an absolute moron. "I think this is something you should figure out yourself. But I can still help out."
He slipped out from behind the counter and swept across the room to where Carla sat charging against the wall. He fiddled with the tech for a moment before a separate device disconnected from its base. He handed to small screen to Reki and gestured to its surface.
"Here, an automatic translation will pop up from any language to Japanese. I suggest waiting to use it until Langa says something. It might not respond well to your poor pronunciation." Reki nodded and pocketed the device with a grateful smile.
"Thank you so much. I didn't know Carla had separate mechanisms like that either, that's super cool!" Cherry nodded in agreement. "Yeah, it doesn't make sense at all, but fanfiction plot convenience overrules general logic."
"Right, of course. Well I'll let you get back to it! Thanks again!" He snickered and raced out the door before he could get his ass whooped.
The next day it was time to test it out.
What sucked is it was a completely normal day with a completely normal Langa. They had a completely normal first half of the day and a whole lunch period with no French, no teasing, no nothing. It took everything in him not to ask him to say something.
"Reki?" He jumped a little. "Eh- yeah?"
Langa frowned. "You're acting weird." He snorted, his familiar straightforwardness easing his anxiety a little. "Is that so?" The bluenette stared at him expectantly as he chewed. "Well I didn't get much sleep last night. I had a lot on my mind and I've been nodding off in class," he sighed, thankful that he didn't have to lie. He was a terrible liar.
"Are you alright?" He asked with a voice suddenly so drowned in concern. "Huh? Oh! No, no, nothing bad! I mean ideas! Like stuff to do with your board," he quickly corrected himself, offering him a bright smile as proof of his good mood.
Langa exhaled and sat back with relief. "Alright then. But you should really prioritize your sleep more. You can't make a habit of this kind of stuff, chéri."
His heart jumped in his chest at the sudden switch in language. He fumbled with the translator in his pocket, praying he wasn't being as obvious as he felt like he was as he took it out and glanced at the screen. He remembered Langa had told him chéri meant fool.
But there in bright pixelated letters glowed the word sweetheart.
Sweetheart.
What.?
He could feel the blood rushing to his face as the bell rang and he shoved it back in his pants. "You finished eating?" Langa asked him and he realized he actually had to continue functioning. "Wha- oh! Yeah, yeah I'm all good. Let's go inside!" He hopped up to his feet with a dazed, panicky grin staining his vibrant face.
He could see Langa's brow curling and dreaded the questions he was sure to ask, so he snatched up his lunchbox and made a beeline for the rooftop doors without a word.
Reki had precisely no luck focusing for the rest of the day. And to be fair how on earth could he? How was he supposed to bring this sort of thing up? How was he supposed to take it? What was he supposed to do???
Langa had been calling him sweetheart all this time. And Reki had been saying things too! Oh god, what had he been saying? Every time he thought something new his face grew warmer and warmer. He felt like he was about to overheat in the middle of a pre calc lesson.
Okay, calm down. He finally told himself and sat up a little. Let's just think about this!
He'd already been aware of his feelings for his friend but had never even fathomed that they'd be returned. He'd always assumed that a boy so popular and perfect couldn't be anything but the expectation. Straight. But wouldn't the opposite explain the blushing? The flustered smiles? The gentle voice? The staring? God, he looked at Reki like he was the only person in the world.
He knew he wanted this to mean what he thought it did. But how was he supposed to bring something like this into a conversation? And what if he was wrong? Maybe it was a mistranslation? Maybe... okay well maybe there wasn't a whole lot of room for error but you never know.
Once class was out Reki had completed his internal crisis and was capable of basic human interaction again.
"Are you up for the skatepark still? You've been weird all day. If you're not feeling well we can-" "Hey! I said I'm fine! And even if I wasn't nothing makes me feel better like skating with my favorite person." The words sounded clumsy and embarrassed in his ears but he was desperate to figure him out.
Langa grinned at him, a small flush coloring the bridge of his nose. "Right."
When they were skating nothing else seemed to matter.
The question of how far they could go was way in the back of his mind because all that mattered was that was was allowed to see Langa. He was able to watch him sore, watch him smile, watch him race, watch him fly. And lord was he perfect.
He was the blessing of a cool breeze on a hot day of practice. The first rain after a drought. The calm after the storm. He was everything beauty encompassed. How could Reki ever ask for more?
Before he knew it, the sun was dipping out of sight and the light stained everything around them gold.
"Reki!" Langa called his name after a silence that lasted so long, he'd forgotten he was actually there and not an unreal spectator. His confused brain stuttered and he fumbled right off his board, tripping right onto his face.
Within seconds the bluenette was at his side with a healing smile. "Sorry, you okay?" He asked at offered his palm. He sat up on his knees in took it without any intention of using it to stand. "Yeah, I guess I forget I'm really here sometimes. Seems crazy that I get to spend so much time with someone so incredible."
Langa's features softened into that tender, loving smile he'd been showing him so often. "You're just as amazing, more so even. Je t'aime, you realize that don't you?" His words were so genuinely kind that he almost didn't need to check just to make sure.
But he did. And there he read the words that made his heart trip and nearly leap right out of his chest.
'I love you, you realize that don't you?'
Reki's lips curled into a grin just as tooth-rottingly sweet. He didn't bother hiding the translator this time and he found Langa's eyes looking at it with curiosity.
"Yeah, I think I finally do." He looked back up at Reki when he spoke with a slight tilt of the head and it was just too endearing to bear.
Without a second to stop himself, he cupped his other hand around Langa's and pulled it close to his heart. "Hey, Langa?" He whispered. The other's eyes were wide and his face with red. "..yes?" He stuttered.
"I love you too."
"...eh?"
Reki snorted as he watched the progression of Langa's face as his brain registered his declaration. He went from dumbfounded, to shocked, to mortified, to bright red and embarrassed behind his hands.
"Wait, wait what?!" He sputtered, gaping at him with hopeless desperation. The redhead shook with laugher as he reached out for his shoulders. "I figured you out, dumbass! I knew something wasn't adding up with your French lessons."
Langa uttered a string of incoherent nonsense before collapsing backwards and hiding his face completely. "This is so embarrassing, oh my god," he whimpered. Reki cackled, though he was rather hot in the face as well.
"Im sorry- I wasn't trying to be creepy I just needed to say something but I wasn't ready to tell you just yet..." his voice was muffled but clearly genuine. Reki swallowed his laughter and gently pried his hands away from his face. "Hey, I know! Its still pretty funny when you think about it though."
Langa frowned up at him, looking positively adorable with his pale blue hair laying messily all around his face. "I mean come on. How good of a story is this gonna be to tell people?" Reki giggled a bit, "I get to tell people my boyfriend accidentally confessed to me in French."
"Is that what I am?" Langa asked quietly, a bashful smile beginning to play at his lips. He grinned and leaned over to look him in the eye. "You'd better be after the mental struggle you caused me."
The bluenette snorted and reached up, shyly brushing his fingers against Reki's cheek. "I guess it's the least I could do." He smiled and leaned into Langa's palm, gazing at him the way he'd wanted to for so, so long.
"Well, I think you owe me a little something more," he murmured, leaning forward ever so slightly. Langa seemed to catch on, blue eyes flitting momentarily to his mouth. "Would that happen to be a kiss?"
Reki's breathless little laugh was all the answer he needed. He brought up his other hand and guided his lips down to meet his own.
The touch was light and innocent but oh was it incredible. Reki had never felt so warm in his life and wow he was never gonna get used to this. If just watching Langa was an escape on its own, kissing him must be paradise.
He'd never felt so euphorically weightless in his life and to think it was over something so small.
He hoped he'd never touch the ground again.
But of course, they were forced to break apart with the need for air. He didn't know whether it was a curse or a blessing that his heart kept racing a mile a minute. A smile overtook his face once more and he pressed their foreheads together.
"Je t'aime, Langa."
"Je t'aime aussi, Reki."