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Christmas was Langa's favorite time of the year. It always had been. He loved the snow and the way the Christmas lights painted it different colors at night, he liked coming home to the smell of hot apple cider and Christmas cookies after school. He liked helping his dad decorate the outside of their house while his mom decorated the inside, he liked how all three of them decorated the tree and watched bad Christmas movies afterwards, his mom in the middle with Langa's head on her lap.
He liked everything about Christmas. He wished he had cherished those Christmas more while he still had the chance.
It wasn't until after Halloween that he realized he was going to be spending his first Christmas without snow, without hot apple cider, without the cold chill of the wind biting into his skin, without his dad. The thought had been on the back of his mind for months now, but he hadn't really let himself pay attention to it until his mom started telling him about how a traditional Japanese Christmas was. Apparently it was a time for friends and couples to be together. No family apparently. He wasn't sure he could have a Christmas without both of his parents. Luckily, his mom must've gotten that because she promised him they could decorate the house together and bake cookies and watch bad movies when they were done. So they did. They bought an artificial tree because apparently there weren't any natural trees on the island. Next time Reki was over at his house Langa almost dropped his food when he asked him if it was Christmas already.
“I- It's barely the third”
“So?”
“Do you not know when Christmas is?”
“No, what about it?”
“I... How?!”
“It's not a big deal here, half of our class probably don't know which day it is either”
“But it's Christmas!”
“When is Christmas?!”
“On the 25th!”
After a bit more of... Whatever that was, he also found out that it wasn't an official holiday and apparently no one in the island but him cared much for celebrating it. This year was going to be tough.
A few days later his mom gave him the news that she couldn't get out of work.
“Can't you ask someone to cover for you?”
“I tried, but one of the other nurses took his vacation days to go visit his family on the mainland and another one just left on maternity leave last week, we're short staffed for the next two weeks”
“But it's Christmas...”
“I know, I wish I could stay here too”
“Which shift are you working?”
“I'm trying to get the day shift to be here for Christmas Dinner but I don't know if there will be anyone willing to switch shifts with me” Langa wilted “I'm sorry, sweetie, I really am”
“Yeah, me too”
A week after that he was at Reki's house and was surprised by the lack of decorations.
“I know you said Christmas wasn't a big deal here but I thought there'd be a tree at least”
“Ah, yeah well that's my parents fault, both me and Koyomi begged them for a Christmas tree when we were little, we're trying to get the twins to do it this year because puppy eyes apparently stop working once you turn twelve”
“Why don't they want a tree?”
“Something about it going against tradition and stuff, I think they just don't wanna spend money on something we're going to use once a year”
“So then what do you do for Christmas?”
“Nothing, really. My parents go to a Chaikai. My sisters and I stay in the house with my grandma and watch Ghibli movies”
“You don't spend it together?”
“No, it's more of a couples and friends day than a family day here. What did you use to do in Canada?”
“We usually decorated the whole house the first weekend of December and then had dinner on Christmas eve, then Christmas morning we opened the presents”
“That's it? I thought it was a big deal after you freaked out when I didn't know when Christmas was”
“Well, it's a big deal to me!” he said louder than he intended “Sorry. I shouldn't have yelled”
“It's fine” Reki sat on the floor beside him and pulled him into a hug “I'm sorry too, I didn't mean it to sound like that. I just... I don't know, I thought maybe there were a bunch of things aside from that”
“There are... Were” he felt how his stomach sank and the way Reki hugged him tighter.
“Tell me about them”
So Langa did, he told Reki about the homemade cookies and how his parents let him drink eggnog despite it having alcohol in it, he told him about the Christmas CDs his parents put on the stereo the whole month and how they danced to them together despite his mom being a terrible dancer—at that Reki said
“So it's genetic, huh?”
and Langa slapped him on the shoulder before laughing—, about the Christmas pijamas that were definitely too hot to wear on the island, about the Christmas dinner they all cooked together—Langa was always in charge of poutine—, he told him every single little thing he could remember, with every detail he told Reki he remembered something else he hadn't thought about for months and he realized he was afraid he'd forget something if he didn't say it out loud. When he was done telling Reki about how his dad would take some random thing that had nothing to do with Christmas and decorated it so it'd look like an ornament and hang it on the tree to see how long his mom would take to find it—which later turned into his mom searching the tree frantically to make sure his dad hadn't hung up anything inappropriate after she supposedly found something “not family friendly enough” on the tree, Langa didn't ask for details, he didn't want to know—, Reki took him by the shoulders and looked him dead in the eyes while saying
“I'm gonna make sure you have the best Christmas ever, dude” and kissed him full on the mouth to seal his promise.
They made out and Langa forgot everything Christmas related for half an hour... Maybe, he wasn't sure how long they were sprawled out on the tatami of Reki's room.
Reki proved Langa that he intended to keep his promise of him having the best Christmas ever.
He started playing Christmas music whenever he got a chance and asked Langa to dance with him, only once at work after they almost knocked over a display and Oka banned them from doing it again.
A few days after that, Reki showed Langa that he had bought a tiny Christmas tree, still artificial but he'd also gotten one of those pine air fresheners so it'd smell more
“Christmasy. I know you already have one at home but... I just thought you'd like it”
“I love it, I love you” Langa nuzzled into the crook of his neck as he hugged him.
He also got tiny Christmas lights and he even took care of making tiny ornaments for it, handmade tiny ornaments. He let Langa decorate it for the most part until Langa insisted that he wanted him to decorate it too because it was their tree and they left it in Reki's workshop so his sisters wouldn't get to it.
He was playing Christmas music on his phone the whole time and after Langa was done they danced to it again, Langa liked to think he'd gotten better at dancing after Reki kept asking him to dance almost every day.
Reki also found mistletoe for their doorways. Actual mistletoe. Langa suspected he'd asked Shadow for a favour but he didn't need to know the details.
The first time he'd pointed it out on his doorway he'd practically tackled Reki down on his bed to kiss him, after giving him a simple peck under the mistletoe because tradition, of course.
He later found out that Reki had also hung mistletoe on the workshop's doorway and somehow Langa's room as well.
He kissed him under all three.
Reki had somehow been able to make Okinawa feel like Langa's home during the holidays. And Langa couldn't love him more for it.
Screw the Japanese school year. Apparently they weren't letting out for winter break until the 26th, and then they only had ten days of break. Langa had never especially disliked school, but this was almost enough for him to start.
Whatever, not like he hadn't stayed up late before, he had plans—secret plans—with Reki since his mom hadn't been able to get out of her night shift to have Christmas dinner with him. He didn't know what his boyfriend was planning but he'd hit the nail on the head when it came to everything else about making this the best Christmas for Langa so he had faith in him.
Langa woke up on Christmas eve to a slightly cold breeze coming in from the crack of the window. No snow.
He got ready and met Reki at their usual spot before they went to school. Fewer people were at their class since it was almost break anyway, it made Langa wish he had stayed home but Reki couldn't afford to skip more days and he'd rather be stuck at school pretending to read his Japanese literature book instead of at home doing nothing.
The day went slower than Langa would've wanted it to, even the teachers seemed like they would've preferred to do anything other than being in a classroom half full of teenagers ignoring the lesson in favor of talking about their plans for the break. One teacher didn't even bother with the lesson and instead told them they had an hour to give him any late work they had and he'd grade it like they'd turned it in in time as a Christmas present—apparently not even the teachers knew when Christmas was. So Langa dozed off on his desk while Reki was scrambling to finish all the late assignments and homework he had. Truth be told, the only reason Langa was even getting decent grades in school was because he did all the assignments and homework and turned them in in time, he always did rather poorly in exams and his teachers couldn't understand how that was even possible. He would've helped Reki if his handwriting wasn't so horrible.
A couple hours and one lunch break after that, they were able to move their desks together since the teacher decided it was too close to break to actually do anything productive and let them just chat between them while she finished grading something. He slumped against Reki while he doodled on one of his notebooks and told him about how he was going to ask Cherry for help with a board he wanted to make. Some of the guys that sat in front of them came to ask them about their break plans—skateboarding—and if they were traveling anywhere—no—and when the questions ran out they started telling them about their own break plans, Langa drowned them out while Reki talked here and there.
One torturous math class later—math wasn't fun but WHO'S idea was to have math either first thing in the morning, right after lunch OR EVEN WORSE, last period?—they were able to go home for the day. Some people were hugging each other goodbye already so Langa assumed there would be even less people coming in tomorrow.
Their shift at Dope Sketch was eventful to say the least. There were people coming in, specially parents, to do last minute Christmas shopping and Langa would've gotten overwhelmed if Reki hadn't taken it upon himself to help them pick out beginners boards and the necessary extras such as wax and stickers, because stickers made everything better according to Reki, or at least that was what he said after he'd suddenly started drinking way more water because now his water bottle was covered in stickers. He was in charge of the cash register so he had to make minimum small talk with the costumers, which he was grateful for, he couldn't stop thinking about what Reki had planned for tonight, it had been fine at school but now that they were about to actually head out for their Christmas eve plans he was jittery, it was a weird feeling that he didn't particularly like.
They parted ways to go change in their respective houses after their shift was over and Oka closed down Dope early since he apparently had his own Christmas plans.
At least there was one person who knew when Christmas was aside from Langa.
Reki told him to “dress up nicer than usual”, which Langa didn't really know how to do, he wore button ups all the time and Reki was always going on about how he always looked so fancy with them. He dug through his closet until he found a navy blue, loose button up he hadn't worn since he moved, partially because he was afraid of overheating by wearing it and partially because he didn't want it to rip or get stained while skating. He wasn't sure which of his dress pants to wear but he tried them both on and decided to go with the black ones so he didn't look ridiculous with two shades of navy blue. He had to wear a belt so the pants stayed on his hips but other than that they were fine. He also decided to brush back his hair in case this was a really fancy thing they were going to because that's what his parents used to do for him whenever he had to take school pictures and such—he didn't like it back then because he thought his forehead was too big in comparison to the rest of his face, then the acne had come along and he felt better hiding his scars behind his hair. But he was going out with Reki, he always felt more comfortable in his skin when he was around him.
He left for Reki's house on the moped after grabbing a jacket and found him sitting on his windowsill, kicking the heels of his combat boots against the ramp. He had this soft looking white knitted sweater and black skinny jeans that made something jump inside Langa's chest because he always seemed to forget how nice Reki's legs were—everything about Reki was nice though, his dimples and freckles and wide eyes and tanned skin and thick, soft hair. He noticed Reki wasn't wearing his headband when he looked up and his hair flopped around in front of his eyes.
“Hi”
“Hi... Oh shit, you're really dressed up”
“You told me to dress fancy”
“I meant- Not this! You look like you're going to a ball or something”
“I'm literally just wearing dress pants”
“I'm trying to say you look nice!”
“Oh... Thank you, Reki”
“Yeah yeah, whatever. Now let me go get changed again”
“What? Why? You look nice too!”
“I look nowhere near as nice as you”
“Yes you do. Can we just go? I'm hungry”
“Ugh, fine. Lemme just get something real quick” he climbed back into his room and Langa slumped back into the moped and turned the ignition off while he waited for him “Okay, I'm ready”
“Let's- Oh” Reki was wearing a new headband. Langa didn't know what it was doing exactly but it was thin and pushing all the hair away from his face without flattening it, it was still fluffed up on the front and loose at the back and wow. He looked so soft and the sweater was a bit oversized and Langa could see his collarbones but the sleeves fell past his knuckles when he was finally standing next to Langa and “Wait...” Langa stepped off the moped and in front of Reki “Are you taller?”
“Uh... I don't think so. Maybe it's the boots?” he looked down to see they had a small heel and wow, Reki was so attractive. He was pretty and handsome and cute and hot at the same time and even though they'd been dating for a while, Langa still found himself at a loss from time to time because he couldn't believe he was dating Reki freaking Kyan.
So Langa tugged him in to kiss him and he was taller because he didn't have to duck his head as much to kiss him and Reki didn't have to stretch up to meet him halfway. So what if they were ten minutes late? They had the whole night for themselves.
Reki ended up driving them after tugging his regular headband down Langa's eyes so he wouldn't peek and find out where they were going. It was a nice change of pace, feeling Reki's warmth against his chest while the cold wind tugged at his clothes. He was used to Reki being pushed up against his chest when they cuddled or slept but not ever like this. It was nice to have Reki pressed to his back and his arms looped around him while he drove but this was maybe just as nice. Or it would be, if Langa hadn't gotten motion sick. It rarely happened but it was annoying when it did, luckily they had arrived to wherever they were going when Langa started getting nauseous.
“Man, I'm sorry, I should've guessed the blindfold would make you dizzy” Reki was guiding him towards... Somewhere, while he was trying not to wobble too much and make the dizziness worse.
“It's okay. Are we there yet?”
“Wait a second” Reki's hands left his shoulders and he felt a wave or warm air blow past him “Walk... Okay. Merry Christmas!” the light blinded him for a moment when Reki took off the blindfold.
“It's not even Chr-” they were at Joe's restaurant, the place filled to the brim with happy couples of all ages “Reki, why are we here?”
“We're not there yet, come on” Reki tugged him along, walking into a hallway next to the bar and passing the restrooms to another door next to the emergency exit at the back. He opened it and Langa followed him up the stairs to another door.
He knocked and light footsteps came to open.
“Cherry?” the man in question had his usual neutral face but was wearing a black turtleneck with a loose pair of light dress pants and “Are those piercings?”
“No, they aren't. Come on in” Cherry walked inside.
“What's Cherry doing here?” Langa whispered to Reki, not stepping inside.
“Cherry is here for your Christmas party” the man called from inside.
“Christmas party?” he looked at Reki next to him.
“Surprise!” Reki smiled and Langa's heart swelled against his ribcage until he felt no air could enter his lungs.
“I love you” he hugged Reki as tightly as he could, burying his face on the soft sweater on his shoulder, not caring if he messed up his hair. Reki's arms came around his back and Langa was... Whole. That feeling that the Christmas cookies and decorating the house with Christmas music on the background had pushed him so close to was finally blooming in his chest. He suddenly felt like a little kid again, and just like he used to when he was little, tears sprung to his eyes and his body heaved with a sob.
“Hey, what's wrong?” Reki pulled back to cup Langa's face in his hands and oh, it was warm, everything was warm and soft as Reki brushed the tears from his cheeks.
“I'm just happy” Langa laughed, he was so so happy. He never thought he could feel this kind of happiness again, lighting up his chest like Christmas lights were wrapped around his ribs.
“I love you” Reki kissed Langa's cold nose with his chapped lips and he felt giddy.
“Come on in before the food gets cold” Miya called from inside.
“What's Miya doing here?”
“It's a 'family' Christmas dinner” Reki grinned.
“A what?” Reki held his hands, warmth seeping into his cold fingers.
“When you told me how you guys used to have the family dinners I thought you'd like to at least have dinner with friends or something. I tried to get manager Oka and Shadow to come too but they had plans, appar-” Langa kissed Reki before he could finish his explanation. He was bursting at the seams just thinking about what he'd done for him, he never thought he'd get to experience this kind of love, a slow and warm kind of love that made him feel soft and be okay with it “I take it you like it then?” Langa nodded, lost for words “I'm glad. Let's eat”
Joe came up early from the kitchen just in time for dinner. The four of them helped set the table and were now waiting for Joe to finish up the food he'd left Cherry in charge of. Langa slumped on Reki's shoulder holding his hand, thumb drawing circles across the freckled skin.
“Get a room, nobody wants to see that” Miya was sitting at the head of the table, switch in hand while he played something with the volume muted.
“Isn't it past your bedtime?” Reki jabbed back.
“Why aren't you home?” Langa asked seriously.
“My parents always go on a cruise this time of year, say it's relaxing or something” and Langa sort of felt bad for Miya, even if it wasn't a family holiday here, it was still not fair that his parents left him to spend Christmas alone “They always tell me to 'go out with friends and have fun'”
“To be fair, you are hanging out with us” Reki said.
“Friends my age, slime. What do you think my parents would say if they knew I was hanging out with two older teenagers and two single guys in their mid-twenties?”
“I'll have you know that Kojiro and I have excellent public reputations” Cherry said as he set down a plate on the table before sitting opposite of Reki.
“Kojiro?” Langa asked.
“Joe” Cherry clarified.
“Your name is not Joseph?” Langa asked to the kitchen. Joe dropped something on the kitchen island and Cherry snorted into his glass of wine. Reki snickered beside him and Miya had the biggest look of disappointment he'd ever seen on anyone's face.
“No” Joe called from the kitchen, voice high and weird.
“Oh” Reki squeezed his hand and kissed the top of his head. He mumbled something Langa didn't catch “Sorry”
“Don't worry about it” Joe brought another two steaming plates to the table before he sat down with his own glass of wine.
“You don't think Cherry is Cherry's real name, do you?” Miya asked.
“No, I heard Joe call him his name. And I met him before going to S” Cherry made a displeased face at the first part but was quick to hide it by drinking from his glass.
“Why is Joe your S name then?” Reki asked after they all said thanks for the food.
“I got it while studying in Italy. Apparently people on the west have trouble pronouncing Japanese names”
“They are hard to pronounce” Langa defended.
“Where's your name from then?” Miya questioned.
“It's italian, right?” Joe asked.
“I don't know. My mom told me it was my dad's idea but it sounded stupid so they changed it a bit” he went right for the plate of poutine in front of him “She said it had something to do with snow” he said around a mouthful of poutine while frowning, he even forgot things that seemed too important to forget.
“Valanga?” Joe asked, perfect Italian.
“I think so. What does it mean?”
“Avalanche”
“Oh” he felt his heart tighten suddenly. Thinking about how he should be asking his dad about this stuff and not Joe. But then Reki reached to feed him from his plate and Langa came back to the present, he was fine when he was with Reki.
“Oh, by the way, I saw Shadow downstairs earlier” Miya said.
“With who?” Reki asked.
“Your manager”
“What?!”
After the tastiest dinner Langa ever had, Miya hooked his switch to Joe's TV and they took turns playing Mario Kart. A drunken Cherry nearly beating a not-so-drunk Joe on the final lap and Miya beating Reki by a lot two games later.
It was nearing 1 am when Langa finally started to feel tired, Cherry was dozing off next to Joe and Miya was already sleeping on the other end of the couch. Reki seemed to be getting just as tired and suggested they go home after his second failed attempt at drinking the wine from Cherry's glass and getting smacked by his fan, his reflexes were admirable even when drunk.
Joe walked them to the restaurant's door after waking up Miya and collecting his stuff from the coffee table, and if Langa saw Joe carrying Cherry to what he assumed was his room when he walked back up the stairs because he'd forgotten his jacket he didn't say anything.
The restaurant was empty save for the staff in the kitchen and Joe stopped to give them their Christmas bonus and thank them for taking care of the restaurant for the night before walking out and joining the tired teenagers outside. They gave a tired Miya a brief hug before he and Joe went to the back where Joe kept his bike.
“Hey, Langa”
“Hmm?”
“Merry Christmas” Reki pecked his lips as his hands came up to cup his waist. Langa's heart filled with the familiar warmth of Reki, hearing his clumsy English.
“Merry Christmas, Reki” He pressed his lips against Reki's burning cheek for a second before driving them back to his apartment, they'd have time for kissing when they got home.
They went about their night routines next to each other before Reki tugged Langa under his doorframe to kiss him under the mistletoe.
Langa walked them back to his bed but miscalculated and fell backwards after hitting his heel on the bed frame, Reki tugged him up on the bed and climbed so he was hovering over him before trying to kiss him through his laughter. Langa did his best to try and pout but he couldn't help but feel giddy and give in to Reki's soft laugh against his lips. They tangled themselves amongst the sheets under the comforter, legs intertwined and cold hands against warm skin, kissing softly and deeply into each other's mouths before pretty bruises started blooming down their collarbones.
Langa eventually fell asleep, thoughts reading I love you on loop.
Langa was sure he felt Reki leave the bed at some point in the middle of the night, but he was so tired even his anxiety couldn't reach him before he was falling asleep again.
He woke up earlier than usual thanks to the alarm on his phone being set for an hour before he actually had to leave for school, climbed over a grumbling Reki to make a trip to the bathroom and make sure his gift was under the tree before climbing back into bed for sleepy cuddles. Or at least that was the plan, until he saw the picture of him with his parents had fallen again, they really needed to fix that frame. He sat down on his chair.
“Hey, dad” he breathed, in English “I always feel kind of stupid when I'm talking to you now, sorry I don't do it more often” his throat tightened but he kept going “It's Christmas now, I... I honestly don't know what to think about it” he sniffled “I still feel like I'm going to wake up back home and this is all just going to be a dream sometimes” the tears felt hot as they fell from his eyes down his cheeks “Sometimes I really wish it was all just a bad dream. I miss you so much” he buried his face in his hands, wiping at the tears and feeling like a little kid “I don't know how to get used to this, everything is weird and quiet even though mom tries to make up for it. It's not fair” he let the tears fall while he sobbed quietly as to not wake up Reki.
Oh, Reki.
“But” he tried his best to finish this “there's this person, Reki, I told you about him before. He's the one who built my board and taught me how to skate. You'd really like him, he's much more... He's just much more than I ever will be. He's more sociable, more extroverted, more talented, funnier and kinder and... Everything else. He's even more attractive than me even if he doesn't seem to think so, he probably thinks the same about me though. He's... Helped me. There are more people now, Joe and Cherry and Miya and manager Oka, they help too. Miya keeps me on my toes and the other three are very good role models, you'd like them, they're fun to be around” the tears were drying as his lips tried to curl upwards “If it wasn't for Reki... He's honestly the only reason I'm doing better now. I don't know what would've happened if I hadn't met him”
Actually, I do, but...
“I'm happy I met him... Sometimes I feel guilty about it. If you hadn't died then I wouldn't have met him”
This is so fucked up
“I'm not happy you died. I'm pretty sure you know that already if you can somehow see me now from where you are”
Breathe deeply, Langa
“I'm just... I'm just saying... If you sent Reki to me or something... Thanks. He's taking care of me. We're taking care of each other”
I love him
“I love him” he looked at the picture once more “Merry Christmas, dad”
He climbed back into bed and basked in the the quiet presence of Reki, someone with so much life in him he somehow managed to make a walking corpse like Langa feel alive after months of numbness. He kissed him awake after ten minutes of watching him drool on the pillow because he was too excited about the suspicious looking gift he found propped on the wall next to the tree,—that must've been why he got up in the middle of the night—Reki complained between kisses about it being 'too early' and how he was 'too tired' before he gave in and kissed Langa back in earnest. Sleep-warm hands caressing over the deep stretch marks and faded acne scars on his back while dry lips mouthed against the kiss marks at the base of his neck. He buried his fingers in messy hair to tug Reki's lips to his own. He had never felt as relaxed as he did with Reki's weight on top of him and calloused fingers drawing soothing shapes on the sides of his face while soft lips framed his.
He managed to get Reki out of bed after whining about wanting to open his present before going to school. He waited as Reki went to the bathroom before opening any of the presents waiting for him under the tree.
It was weird. Stepping out on his balcony on Christmas morning to the smell of the sea instead of his old porch to the chill of the snow. He thought it would bother him more, it definitely hurt, but it didn't bother him like he had expected it to.
His life was growing around the pain, that's what his therapist had told him would help after the death of his father. The pain didn't actually became less painful, life just grew around it and the pain became smaller in comparison.
Having Reki with him wasn't the same as when his dad was with him, and it hurt to know that the two would never officially meet, he could bring Reki around to the graveyard and he was sure that his boyfriend would bow and introduce himself and laugh awkwardly at whatever he said, he just wished his dad could actually answer back.
But just as it was the first Christmas without his dad, it was also the first Christmas he stood under a mistletoe with someone he loved, it was the first Christmas he had Italian food at a restaurant—an apartment over a restaurant but who cared?—instead of a home cooked meal in his dining room, it was the first Christmas he received a handmade gift—he would later find out—, it was his first Christmas morning waking up in the same bed as his boyfriend. There were plenty of things that would never be the same without his dad, but as he waited for Reki to wake up so they could open their presents he realised that maybe he could start moving on.
“Dude, this is awesome!” Reki's eyes were shining as he saw the transparent grip tape, sticker paper and transition paper for his clothes Langa had gotten him. He had one more present in the pocket of his pijama pants but he would wait until he had opened his own present “I love them. I'm gonna have so much fun with these” he smacked a kiss to Langa's cheek, nose scrunching like it usually did whenever Reki kissed him like that “Thanks”
“You're welcome. Can I open mine now?”
“Um, sure, yeah” Reki nervously stood up to get Langa's present from where it was leaning against the wall to place on Langa's hands. It was a familiar weight “I don't know if it's any good but... Just open it” he had his hands on his face, fingers leaving a gap for each of his eyes to watch through.
Langa unfolded the paper to find the familiar yeti from his board with the orange letters on the corner but... There were no wheels and his skateboard was still in his room where he had left it yesterday, it was also bigger, more like “Is... Is this a snowboard?”
“Um, yes, it's not finished but... Yes” Reki was trying to read his expression, Langa didn't even know what kind of face he was making.
“You made me a snowboard?” Disbelief, that was it.
“I couldn't finish it. I didn't think it'd be that different from making a skateboard but then I got to searching stuff and realized it really was but I was already done with the design and... I promise I'll finish it I'll buy the clips and-” Langa tackled him down onto the floor of his living room before he could say anything else. Peppered his face with kisses in between I love you's and giggles “Do you like it?”
“I love it. I love you” Langa couldn't keep his smile off his face.
“Good” Reki smiled before making a face “Now, don't take this the wrong way but gods, your hips are bony”
“Huh? Oh!” Langa rolled off Reki “It wasn't my hip” they both sat up “I got you something else”
“Another present? You're spoiling me way too much, dude” he said as Langa fished the tiny box from his pocket.
“You've been doing stuff for me the whole month and you made me a snowboard, shut up and let me do something nice for you” he gave Reki the box.
“Someone's bossy today” Reki's voice died in his throat when he opened the box to reveal a silver necklace, it was a gear with two holes and two screw heads on it “A gear necklace?” he held it up as the light reflected on it.
“I saw it a few days ago and thought it'd look good on you. You don't have to wear it if you don't want to, it just reminded me of you” he twisted his fingers on his lap “Do you like it?”
“I love it. I love you” he kissed Langa and they got lost in each other again, and then he said “I love you” in his best English and Langa had never heard anything more wonderful in his life. He knew that he wouldn't change a thing if it meant that he could have the boy in his arms at the end of the day, even if it meant tropical Christmas for the rest of their lives.