Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Ding! Ding! Ding!

The repetitive sound made Langa want to cut his ears off. Reki came over to his house, because it was Saturday, and he didn’t have anything else to do. At least that’s what he said, but, Langa’s pretty sure that he just wanted to play on the gaming console his Mom got him for Christmas. The gaming console that Langa didn’t want. He told Reki that he could take it home with him, but Reki said that would be disrespectful.

But, well, Reki was the one playing some racing game at a super high volume in a house that wasn’t his own, which, Langa would argue, was more disrespectful.

Langa pulled his covers over his head and said, annoyed, “Could you turn the volume down?”

“It’s not the same experience!” He argued, and he probably had that stupid teasing grin on his face. 

“You’re going to kill me.”

“You’ll live, you big baby,” He laughed. Langa lifted the covers, enough so that he could see Reki. He was leaning back against Langa’s headboard, in what looked like the most uncomfortable position ever. He also had on the ugly clear-frame glasses that his Mom picked out for him because the doctors said his vision was really bad. He was also smiling, and Langa could stare at Reki’s smile for a while. “Admiring my beauty?”

“No,” Langa made a face. “Shut up.”

Reki flashed his teeth. “I think, maybe, you wouldn’t be as irritated if you played with me?”

“Don’t wanna,” Langa pulled the covers back over his head. “It’s boring.”

“You’ve never even tried it before!”

“I’ve watched you play it. Why would I want to drive a car around a track?”

“‘Cause,” Reki poked his forehead through the covers. “You can win super cool prizes, like, new car designs. And you can also get on the leaderboard which basically makes you famous.”

“I would rather die than be famous for being good at a stupid car game.”

“So you’re just gonna lay there and complain?”

“Yes.”

Reki grunted. “Dork.”

“Nerd.”

An hour later, Langa and Reki were both playing said ‘stupid car game’ and laughing their asses off reading the chat. As it turned out, Langa was pretty good at pointlessly driving a car around a track.

Unfortunately, Langa had to go downstairs and start getting dinner ready for him, his Mom, and Reki, so they had to pause the game. 

“Can I help? Can I? Can I? Please?” Reki bounced down the stairs with a pleading look on his face. The last time Langa let Reki help him cook, he ended up having to open all of the windows so that the smoke detectors stopped going off. And he wasn’t going to take that risk again.

“You can set the table,” Langa said, as he headed to open the pantry to see what they had to eat. Not much.

Reki rolled his eyes and opened the cabinet.

There was a frozen pizza in the freezer, which ended up being Langa’s best option.

“Hey, could you see if your Mom can send us over any food?” Langa asked, quietly, as he and Reki sat on the couch, waiting for the pizza to finish cooking in the oven. “We, um, don’t have much.”

Reki bumped his shoulder with Langa’s, “Of course, man! Ma’s always happy to help.” 

“Thank you,” Langa leaned his head back against the couch. It was sometimes hard to believe that other families never had to worry about their food running out, even families bigger than Langa’s and his Mom. Even with his job at Dope Sketch, they were still low on money. Langa didn’t get why his Mom would waste the money that they did have on that dumb gaming console. “I’m so tired.”

“You can go to sleep,” Reki said, his expression sympathetic. He ruffled Langa’s hair, “I’ll wake you up when your Mom gets here.”

Langa was really grateful for Reki. A person like him was rare. “You’re awesome,” He murmured as he drifted off.

“You too,” Reki smiled.

Reki ended up falling asleep on Langa’s shoulder. Guess gaming took a lot out of him. Langa’s Mom was the one who woke the two of them up, looking down at them fondly. 

“Hi! Mrs. Nanako!” Reki stood up immediately. He rubbed at his eyes. “Sorry! I didn’t mean to. . . I mean, I wasn’t supposed to sleep! I thought you would be here sooner than you were so I—”

“It’s fine, honey,” Langa’s Mom said, she smiled softly. She looked exhausted.

“The pizza should be ready,” Langa said, trying not to stare at his Mom. “If you want to eat.”

“Of course,” She clapped her hands together, lightly. “Let’s eat.”

Whenever Reki was at their house for dinner, he always talked the most. Langa liked that because he could focus on eating, and his Mom could focus on whatever Reki was saying and not worry about him. 

“We paused the game to check the chat and some dude was asking for advice on how to get a girlfriend— like either of us would know, right?” He laughed. Langa’s Mom laughed too. “We tried to help him, though. Langa told him to download a dating app, and I was like, yeah, ‘cause he’s bound to find someone that he likes there. Rejection stings more when it’s someone you know in real life, y’know.”

Langa’s Mom’s gaze darkened. “I’m sure it does.”

Shit. Langa kept forgetting to tell Reki about the guy Langa’s Mom liked and kept rejecting. Hayako Ito. He worked at the restaurant with her and they really liked each other. Langa knew this because he went to the restaurant they worked at because his Mom forgot her lunchbox, and he caught them talking by the microwave, and she looked genuinely happy talking to him.

Also, his Mom couldn’t really keep anything to herself, so she told Langa about how he’d asked her out to dinner a couple of times but she couldn’t accept because she didn’t want Langa to be lonely or think that she was trying to replace his dad or anything.

Langa has told her, several times, that he would be perfectly fine. He has Reki. And Reki’s amazing. But she still didn’t believe him.

Reki didn’t seem to notice that anything was wrong, and he kept talking. “He downloaded the dating app and bam! Found a match in like, ten minutes! Langa and I are total matchmakers!”

Langa’s Mom laughed, but it sounded really strained.

Langa started to ask, “Mom, are you—”

“Fine. I’m fine.” She wiped her mouth with her napkin and then stood up. “I just need a little sleep, that’s all. When Reki’s leaving, make sure to walk him out, okay? And turn on the house alarm. If you need anything you can call me. I’m going to go shower and then get some rest! Goodnight boys.”

“Goodnight Mrs. Nanako!”

“Goodnight Mom.”

When Langa was sure she was all the way upstairs he turned and told Reki everything. About the guy at work. About how she didn’t want Langa to feel bad. Everything.

Reki was left with that sympathetic look on his face that made Langa feel significantly better about anything. It was nice to know that Reki cared. “Okay, so, what’s your plan?”

“My plan?” Langa cocked his head to the side, confused.

“To convince her that you’ll be fine! She and this guy are totally heads over heels for each other— they have to get together!”

“I don’t know what to do.”

“Well, good thing you came to me!”

“What’s your plan?”

“Tell her we’re dating,” Reki grinned, a gleam in his eyes. He was joking. “Then she’ll have to believe that you won’t have a problem with her dating someone, ‘cause you’re dating someone!”

“Ha. Ha. Funny.”

“I’d sell it so hard, dude,” He laughed. “Seriously, I’d be the best fake boyfriend. You’d get kisses every two seconds and I’d call you by the most embarrassing pet names. Hey Honeybunches! Sweetheart! Cutie patootie— ”

“That’s enough,” Langa said, his lips turning up even though he didn’t want them to. “My Mom would never believe the two of us were dating.”

“She probably would,” Reki shrugged. “Miya says we act like a couple sometimes.”

Langa scrunched up his nose. “How?”

“Dunno, maybe ‘cause I’m always touching you,” He lifted up his legs and put them on Langa’s lap. “But I’m pretty sure I’m like that with everyone.”

“You are.”

“You think it’s ‘cause I always pay for your food? That’s very boyfriend-y of me.”

“You do that because I’m poor.”

Reki flushed. “That’s not why I—” Then he realized Langa was joking. “Not funny, man!” 

“It’s a little funny,” Langa snorted.

“No it’s not,” Reki rolled his eyes. “Anyways, we should think of an actual plan to help your Mom.”

“I don’t know. I don’t want to intervene in her life.”

“Don’t you want to help her, though?”

“Yes, but.. I don’t know. I don’t want to do anything meddle-y.”

“It doesn’t have to be meddle-y.” Reki’s phone buzzed and he picked it up from the table to check it. And groaned. “Damn. I gotta go home. Chihiro must’ve ate something bad, ‘cause she’s throwing up everywhere.”

“Oh, okay,” Langa said, disappointed.

“Don’t be sad, babe, I’ll come back tomorrow.”

“Shut up. You’re coming here for the console, not for me.”

“I love the both of you equally,” Reki chuckled.

“I think I love the console more.”

“My heart!”

—

The next morning Langa told his Mom that he and Reki were dating. 

He didn’t know what else to do. He heard her crying the night before, because the walls in their apartment were painfully thin, and he didn’t know what else would make her happy besides having someone her own age to rely on, and Hayako really seemed like the person she needed so..

When she woke up and came downstairs to eat breakfast, he told her that there was something really important she needed to know. And sprung the news on her.

She was shocked at first. But then, after she processed it, she gave Langa a hug. “I’m glad you two are together. Reki’s so good for you.”

“Um. So. Since we’re dating, I’ll probably be gone more to hang out with him, so,” He averted his eyes. “You could date someone too.”

“Langa, if this is all to get me to go out with him..” She sounded suspicious. She couldn’t be suspicious.

“It’s not!” He felt his ears turning red. “I really like Reki. Um, we really like each other. We’ve been dating for a while and we didn’t know how to tell you. It’s not because I want you to go out with Mr. Ito, I was just thinking, it would make sense if you did, now. Because I have someone. Seriously.”

Langa’s Mom’s face softened. “Langa.. I’m, I’m really happy for you and Reki. But I’ll need some time to think about whether or not I want to be with Hayako.”

“Okay.” Langa was pleased. 

Later, he texted Reki.

Langa: Don’t be mad at me.

Reki: what did u do?

Reki: i don’t think i could be mad at u

Reki: unless u like assassinated someone

Reki: but u dont have the balls for tht 

Langa: -_-

Reki: tell me what’s upp

Langa: So..

Langa: Remember how you were joking about me telling my Mom that the two of us were dating? So that she’d feel comfortable getting a boyfriend?

Reki didn’t respond for what felt like forever, but it probably was just a minute or two.

Reki: uuuu told her we’re dating?

Langa: Yes.

Reki: u rlly get urself into the worst situations, don’t u

Langa: I do.

Reki: so what are we gonna

Reki: wait my fingers hurt

A few seconds later, Langa got a video call request from Reki. He accepted it. 

“What are we gonna do?” Reki set his phone on the table. He was in his shed. 

“I don’t think we have to do anything. You said we act like a couple already.”

“ I didn’t say that, I said Miya said that. And I don’t really see it.”

“Well, what do you want to do?”

“No idea,” Reki murmured. “This is a really sticky situation you got us into.”

“Sorry.”

“Hey, wanna come over to my place? I need your opinion on my designs. And we can talk about what we’re gonna do. Plus, the house is officially mostly vomit-free.”

“Mostly?”

“You really shouldn’t ask.”

“Okay.”

“Do you wanna come over?”

“On my way.”

—

“The skull one is my favorite right now,” Reki explained as he showed Langa the different drawings in his sketchbook. His hair was pulled back into a messy ponytail. “What do you think?”

“It’s cool,” He poked the paper. “Who’re you designing it for?”

“Just doing it for fun. But, Oka says he’ll put it up at the store and sell it, and I’ll get a hundred percent of the profit.” He said, proudly, eyes sparkling.

“That’s great,” Langa took a sip of the lemonade Reki’s Mom gave him when he entered the house. 

“Yep! So I’m tryna put my all into it! Maybe I’ll buy you something with the money.”

“Sure.”

“Alright,” Reki set down his sketchbook and leaned his elbow on the table. “So, what’re we gonna do about this whole dating thing? It’s one thing to just convince your Mom that we’re together, that’d be easy. But, we’d have to convince literally anyone who knows or might come in contact with your Mom that we’re dating.”

“That’s so much work.”

“Exactly,” He responded. “And I’m already busy with my projects, I dunno if I can commit to being your full-time boyfriend.”

“Do you think I should just tell my Mom the truth?”

“Definitely not?!” 

“Why not?”

“Your Mom’s dating life is the priority right now. We need her and Hayako to get together.” Reki said. 

“But you just said—”

“I can do part-time,” 

“What does that even mean?”

“I honestly have no idea.”

—

“This feels so unnatural,” Langa commented. Reki insisted that if Langa’s Mom came home and found him on Langa’s lap, it’d make their fake relationship seem ‘a hundred times more believable!’ “My Mom would know that I would never willingly do this.”

“You would do it for your boyfriend. Besides,” Reki shifted his legs and leaned against him. “I’m too comfortable to get off now.”

Langa frowned. “I’m starting to think you agreed to this fake-dating thing so that you have someone to do boyfriend things with.”

“How did you know?” Reki pretended to look shocked. 

By the time his Mom came home, the two of them were watching some dumb Christmas movie that Reki picked out. Langa didn’t know why. It was all in English and the subtitles were really small so Reki couldn’t actually be paying attention to it. But he also looked like he was really enjoying himself.

Also, Reki wasn’t the worst person to have sitting on Langa’s lap for a long period of time. 

“Oh, hey boys!” Langa’s Mom greeted them cheerfully. She sort of stared at them for a moment and then at the TV screen and then she gasped. “Wait, am I interrupting? I can go—”

“You’re not,” Langa said. “The movie’s almost done.”

“No it’s not! He’s lying. We were just getting to the good part!” He elbowed Langa and whispered, “We have to play it up since she’s here.”

“Mom, would you want to watch with us?” Langa offered, begrudgingly.

“I would really love to, but you know, I just got home from work!” Langa noticed that she was wearing makeup. That was a good sign. He’d make sure to tell Reki later. “Maybe after I shower? And make dinner.”

“I brought some food from my house, so you don’t need to cook,” Reki told her.

“Oh!” Her face lit up. “Aw, thank you so much!”

“It’s no problem. My Mom’s always happy to cook for you guys. She knows how much Langa likes her food.”

“She really makes the best curry,” Langa said.

“Doesn’t she?” Reki grinned at him. 

“Too bad her cooking skills don’t run in the family,” Langa teased.

“The next time you insult my ability to cook I’ll break up with you.”

“We’re not going to last much longer, then.”

They were both startled by Langa’s Mom’s laugh. She hadn’t laughed like that in so long. “Oh, I’m sorry!” She covered her mouth but her cheeks were pink and there were crinkles at the edges of her eyes. “You two are just, really, really cute together.”

Langa’s ears burned.

Reki said, “Thank you!”

“You really overdid it,” Langa said, closing the door to his house. He really got into the ‘boyfriend’ character. The entire time he was complimenting Langa and talking about him and being affectionate. 

“That’s what I’m best at!” He grabbed his board. “Honestly, I had a lot of fun.”

Langa did too. 

“You should get into situations that require me to pretend to be your boyfriend more often,” Reki smiled.

“I’ll definitely consider it.”

Chapter Text

Reki was a little disappointed that he had to go home last night. But, there was school, and Langa’s Mom thought the two of them were together so there was no way she’d let him sleep over. Reki had a lot of fun yesterday. He liked making fun of Langa and being all gushy mushy. Langa’s so cute when he’s embarrassed.

He played with his shoelace while he sat on his skateboard, waiting for Langa. Reki was earlier than him, surprisingly. Usually Langa was the one waiting long periods of time for Reki to skate down the hill. That was usually because Chihiro and Nanaka were extra-extra in the morning, but today, oh, today was glorious because they were at daycare (Reki loved the two of them with all his heart, but he really hated waking up to crying and having to break up their fights).

Reki waved, enthusiastically, when he saw Langa walking up the hill. 

“Hey Reki,” Langa smiled. Langa had a really nice smile. 

“I brought you water,” he said, sing-songy, tossing it over to him, and standing up on his board. “C’mon! Let’s head to school! You better keep up! Loser’s a rotten egg!”

“Loser’s a sane person who doesn’t have so much energy in the morning,” He mumbled under his breath.

“I heard that!” Reki said as he rolled away.

School was normal. Well, a normal day for Reki and Langa was a bit different than a normal day for any else. Because their normal day consisted of riding away from teachers who yelled at them for skateboarding on school property (It was weird that they hadn’t been called to the front office for it, but, maybe because Langa was half white or good-looking, they didn’t bother), and awesome-ly getting to sit on the roof during lunch time and giggle and watch everyone, and at the end of the day they played basketball with the other guys and the losers bought ramen for everyone (Reki’s team never lost because Langa was on it and Langa was awesome at everything sports-related). 

Reki was talking to his friend, Aoi, when he noticed that Langa, was talking to a girl. A pretty one. 

She was definitely flirting with him. She was sitting next to him with her legs crossed, and she looked really elegant, and she was smiling, and her teeth were perfect and straight and white, and—

“You jealous?” Aoi asked, turning his attention back to him.

“Nah,” Reki used his towel to wipe his armpits. “I’m self-aware enough to know that a pretty girl like her would never waste her time with me.”

“You don’t give yourself enough credit,” Aoi ran his hands through his dark hair. “You’re not bad in the looks department.”

“Thanks,” Reki rolled his eyes. “But, compared to Langa, I’m really nothing. He’s got the whole package. Great looks, great personality—”

“You’re really the only one who can say Langa has a great personality.”

Reki suddenly felt himself getting defensive. “What? He does. Aren’t you two friends?”

“No, I don’t mean that he doesn’t have a great personality. He’s just only himself around you.” Aoi shrugged. “We all try to get him to open up to us but he doesn’t. Like, remember that week and a half that you were out because you had the flu?”

“Yeah.”

“We all tried to talk to him— especially the girls. You two are together all the time so a lot of people figured that that was the best chance that they were going to get to befriend him, but he was all dry whenever anyone approached him. Like, he becomes a zombie when you’re not around. You’re the only one who sees his real personality, so you’re the only one who can say that it’s great.”

“I see,” Reki still was a little offended. Calling someone a zombie wasn’t very nice, but then again, Aoi wasn’t very nice. “If you’d let him get comfortable around you I’m sure he’d open up, but you can’t friend-bomb him, you know?”

“Didn’t you friend-bomb him?”

“That was different.”

“How so?”

“I— I don’t know, it just was!”

“It’s because you were his first friend here. He attached himself to you and doesn’t want to get close with anyone else because of that.”

“That’s not it!”

“C’mon, Ki, don’t lie to yourself. He’d have done it with anyone. If I was the first person to try and be friends with him when he moved here, we’d be best friends right now.” 

That stung. Aoi, sometimes, needed to know when to shut up. “We aren’t best friends because I was the first—”

“Why are you best friends then?”

“‘Cause we have a lot in common? ‘Cause we like each other?”

Aoi still looked skeptical.

“Do you think he would date the first person that he met here?” Reki spit out, and that finally got something out of Aoi.

His eyes widened. “You two are.. dating?” 

“Yeah. And Langa wouldn’t date you in a million years, so,” Reki grinned, feeling proud of himself. “Guess I win.”

He was a little less proud of himself fifteen minutes later when the news had spread to half the school. Why did he think that Aoi would keep it to himself? That little shit.

“Reki,” Langa sat beside him on the ground. “Um. Why is everyone talking about how we’re dating?”

“‘Cause I’m a dumbass,” Reki said, voice cracking. “Man, I’m sorry. Aoi was riling me up, as usual, and I just snapped and I told him that we were together.”

“How did your conversation get to that?” Langa didn’t sound mad, he just sounded curious, and Reki was grateful for that.

“Um. We were talking about you. And he was like..” Reki paused. He didn’t want to hurt Langa’s feelings, but he didn’t want to lie. “Okay, so, he said you’re like a zombie when I’m not around and I know that’s obviously not true, so I defended you. And, um, he said some shit about how we’re only best friends because I was your first friend here, and that made me really mad. And I was like ‘if that’s the only reason, then why are we dating?’ and dude, you should’ve seen the look on his face, he was so shocked.”

Langa burst out laughing. Not the usual ‘Langa laugh’ which was more like a snort, it was an actual laugh. It was sort of like Langa’s Mom’s laugh, where her entire face lit up. He looked so amused. Honestly, Reki wanted to take a picture and post it on his wall and make it part of his list of Top 10 Best Things In His Life, #1 Langa’s laugh. 

“And you said I ‘always get myself into the worst situations?’” He pushed his hair away from his eyes and then smiled at Reki.

Reki smiled back, “Yeah, yeah, I take it back. We both get ourselves into the worst situations.”

“Really, this is such a mess.” Langa looked really entertained. Reki liked it. “Would you rather tell the whole school that you were lying and that we’re not actually together or pretend to date me?”

“Do you even have to ask?” Reki said, face red ‘cause he was really embarrassed, but also ‘cause he was also sort of happy. 

“If it were anyone other than you, I don’t think I’d agree to do this.”

“Aww, I love you too.”

—

“Everyone at my school is talking about you two. Because Langa’s so popular. And they know that we’re friends, so everyone at school is also talking about me. It’s the worst. I hate you guys.” Miya said, drowning his sorrows with root beer. “Why do people think you’re dating?”

Reki glanced at Langa and then back at Miya. “Well, Miya, there’s something we’ve been meaning to talk to you about..”

“Yeah, no. I don’t believe it.” Miya rolled his eyes. “Can you tell me what’s really going on so I can be appropriately angry at the both of you?”

“We’re fake dating,” Reki put his finger over his mouth. “Don’t tell anyone.”

“I literally do not have anyone to tell. Besides Joe and Cherry.”

“Don’t you have that little guy with brown hair?”

“We’re not friends.”

“What are you?”

“We’re.. school buddies, I don’t know.” 

“School buddies that are always hanging out outside of school.”

“We both like skateboarding, that’s all. We always see each other at the skatepark.” Miya murmured. “More importantly, why the fuck are you fake dating? I can’t think of any situation that would require you to do that.”

“To help my Mom,” Langa explained what was going on between his Mom and Haruto. “I want her to be happy.”

“Okay. I guess, I get that part. But that doesn’t explain how it got to my school?”

“Reki got angry at this guy and told him that we were together. And said guy has a lot of friends so the news got around quickly.” Langa said.

“Of course it’s Reki’s fault,” Miya rubbed the crease between his forehead.

“It’s Aoi’s fault for talking shit about Langa!” Reki retorted.

“It’s your fault for not being able to control yourself. You really couldn’t have put two and two together and thought that, ‘Hey! Maybe this would make everything worse!’”

“Sorry I’m not going to take it well when someone calls my best friend and favorite person in the entire world a zombie !” 

“If you cared so much about him, you would care about how fake dating you at school would affect him. You didn’t even check with him to see if he was okay with the information being out, what if he didn’t want people to think that he was into guys? And you know that he’s, like, ten times more popular than you, so he’s going to get ten times more shit from homophobic assholes at school, because people actually know who he is!”

Reki hated that Miya was right. The good thing to have done— the best friend thing to have done, would’ve been to make sure he knew Langa’s boundaries when they started this whole thing the other day. He fucked up. 

He stood up from his chair, abruptly. “I need some air.”

“Reki,” Langa said, a red tint on his cheeks. “Wait.”

“Give me a minute, okay?” He said, smiling, even though he really felt like crying. “I need to think.”

Langa did not, in fact, give him a minute. It was more like thirty seconds. 

He sat down on the bench next to Reki, looking concerned.

Reki was staring up at the sky. “Okay, so, I think if we’re gonna actually do this, we have to have some rules.”

“Rules? Okay, but, um,” Langa said, quietly. “What Miya said.. I don’t care what anyone at school thinks about me. Or if they think that I’m gay. I don’t care. So don’t feel bad about it.”

“Okay. But if you do care, you can tell me, you know?”

Langa bumped his knee with Reki. “I know. And also,” He started. “You’re my favorite person in the world too.”

Reki smiled softly. “I’d be offended if I wasn’t.”

They went to Reki’s house after Sia la luce to make their rule list. Reki got out a big piece of sparkly poster paper to use for it, but Langa was frowning so hard at it that Reki was shocked his face hadn’t fallen off, so he got a smaller piece of regular boring white paper. “Alright. So. Boundaries. What are yours?”

“I’m not sure.”

“What do you want to not do in a fake relationship?”

“Um.”

“What would make you uncomfortable? C’mon, you gotta say something.”

“If it’s you, I don’t think anything would make me uncomfortable.”

“There has to be something. Like, would you let me kiss you?”

“If you needed to,” Langa shrugged.

Reki willed his face not to turn red as he groaned, “Dude!”

“I’m trying to think of something. Why don’t you go?”

“‘Cause I can’t think of anything either!” Reki tried not to smile. And failed. He grinned. “We really are the same person, aren’t we?”

Langa smiled. And then he said, “Can we make a rule that you’re not allowed to cook while we’re in a fake relationship? I think that’s only fair.”

“You know what, just ‘cause of that, I’m getting the sparkly paper back out.”

“Wait, I take it back. Reki! I take it back!”

FAKE-DATING BOUNDARIES LIST (NAME PENDING)

#1 We only date until Mrs. Nanako and Hunky Haruto are in a serious, committed relationship! Then we tell everyone it was a mutual breakup.

#2 Check with each other before doing anything that the other person might be uncomfortable with!

#3 (Extension of #2) Neither Langa or Reki can tell anyone that their relationship is fake without talking to each other about it first. Unless it’s a mutual friend: Joe, Cherry, Miya, Shadow, Oka, etc..

“Can’t think of anything else?” Reki asked.

Langa responded, “Nope.”

“Then, I think we’re set! Boundaries defined!” Reki fist-pumped. “If you wanna add anything just let me know.”

“Yeah,” Langa said. “Thanks.”

“Mhm! We should’ve done this when we started but at least we have it now.”

“Can we skate now?”

“Of course!” 

—

Reki had his head in Langa’s lap and was reading a random comic book that he got from the library when Langa’s Mom entered the door. Langa’s head snapped towards the door, because his Mom was supposed to be home an hour ago.

“Where were you?” Langa asked.

Langa’s Mom smiled, “Oh, I was talking to someone. Sorry, I lost track of time.”

Reki nudged Langa a little, trying not to giggle. They were really doing it! Soon enough Langa’s Mom would be happy. Then, Langa would be happier, and when Langa’s happier Reki’s happier so everything would be better. 

“Ah,” Langa said. “Okay.”

“Did you two eat already?” She asked as she set her stuff down.

“Yep! I brought food!” Reki answered. “There’s some for you on the table!”

“Aw, thank you Reki,” Langa’s Mom answered. She paused what she was doing and said, “I wanted to ask the two of you something.”

“Yeah?” Langa said.

“Hayako invited me on a movie date, and,” Langa’s Mom started. “I told him about the two of you and he said that you could come with us if you wanted? So that he could meet the two of you? Basically, like, a double date.” 

Reki sat up immediately, “Yes! Of course, we’ll go!” And, then he realized he had to make sure Langa was okay with it. 

He turned around to glance at Langa and when he saw Langa’s grin he had his answer. 

“Alright! Well, okay! I’ll get the details ironed out!”

“Cool!” Reki said.

The moment Langa’s Mom went upstairs to take her usual shower, Reki and Langa both got up from the couch and pumped their fists in the air. 

Reki was so happy that he jumped on Langa and gave him a really big hug and they fell back onto the couch together, laughing.

And, ah, looking at Langa like that, with his messy hair and his flushed face and his breathless giggle, it kinda made Reki feel weird. Not weird in a bad way, a good weird. Like, his heart felt really jumpy. 

Reki pinched himself. No weird thoughts around Langa. Langa was his best friend, if anything weird happened between them it’d ruin everything. Reki wasn’t sure that he’d be able to get over losing Langa. So, he would never risk it. Not ever.