Work Text:
starry eyes
(sparking up my darkest night)
It doesn’t happen on purpose the first time that it happens.
They’re exhausted from a day of exams and a night of S, minds and bodies both exhausted, and it’s only Langa’s annoyance at going to bed with dust and sweat clinging to his hair that prompts them to take turns in the shower.
When Reki comes back into the room after his own shower, scrunching a towel through his hair to take some of the water out, the sight before him is enough to make him stop, warmth slowly making its way across his cheeks.
In the amount of time it’s taken him to shower, Langa has managed to curl up in the centre of Reki’s bed, tangled in the bright orange sheets he remembered to put on this morning. His pale blue hair is a stark contrast to the almost fluorescent shade of his pillowcase. There’s a faint flush across what Reki can see of his face, his lips slightly parted as he breathes deeply. Long, pale fingers are gripping the fabric of Reki’s pillowcase, and the scene is so serene Reki wishes that his artistic skills included waterpainting.
Unable to stop himself, Reki keeps his footsteps light as he walks over to his desk, sliding his phone off it; he double checks to make sure that the sound is turned off before he steps closer to where his boyfriend his asleep, snapping a quick picture.
Seeing Langa this relaxed isn’t something that happens too often. There’s usually almost always an anxious tremor to his hands and a slight pull to his mouth; Langa’s a naturally anxious person as is, and there’s been a lot of work on both their parts when it comes to what that means for their relationship.
How his anxiety plays against Reki’s own, how sometimes it overtakes his mind and there’s nothing else to do but wait for it to taper off, and how sometimes Langa needs space but sometimes he needs Reki as close to him as he can possibly get.
Settling down at the head of the bed, Reki reaches out to brush his fingers slowly across his boyfriend’s cheek and down his jaw, letting them trail to his neck before they settle with a few fingers lightly pressed to the pulse point there. He stays there for a while, clicking around on his phone- he makes sure their alarm is set tomorrow for work, he changes his wallpaper to the picture he took earlier, and he makes sure to message back Miya where he sent both he and Langa something in their groupchat earlier.
In the process of this, Langa has gravitated to Reki’s warmth in his sleep, and the fingers that were previously tangled in the bright orange pillow case have migrated to tangle in Reki’s sleep shirt instead.
With a quiet laugh, Reki covers Langa’s hand with his own, squeezing gently as he leans over to brush a kiss against the sleeping boy’s temple. He can’t help but to linger for a moment before pulling away.
He needs to plug his phone back up, he needs to plug Langa’s phone up, and he needs to make sure that the door to his room is locked.
But.
He lingers here, on the edge of his own bed, for a little while longer. He doesn’t want to risk waking Langa, and he’s getting sleepy himself, sitting here in the quiet. With what little energy he has left, he forces himself to his feet, and his heart clenches at the disappointed sound Langa makes.
“Reki?” Langa shifts on the bed, long legs tangling even more in the sheets as he attempts to get up and reach the other.
“Hey, hey, shh...” Reki consoles him quietly, putting both of their phones on his desk as quick as he can before reaching a hand back out for Langa’s own searching one. “I’m coming right back, babe, okay? I gotta make sure the door is locked so we don’t wind up with unwanted visitors in the morning.”
Langa blinks sleepily at him a few times where he’s sitting up on an elbow, wavering some where he sits as his fingers flex around Reki’s own a few times. “You’re coming back.”
It’s not said as a question, but a statement. It’s said like Langa knows, without a doubt, that Reki isn’t leaving him.
“I am,” there’s a quick kiss pressed to pale fingers before Reki quickly makes his way to his door, locking it with a quiet snick before he comes back to the bed.
Now that he’s been slightly awake, Langa has moved to what quickly became his side of the bed; it’s the outer side, and he’s done his best to straighten out the sheets on the bed so they’re not so tangled. He’s hovering between being awake and asleep, blue eyes threatening to close every few seconds as he does his best to watch Reki.
Clicking the light off, the redhead makes his way across the room and to his bed; he climbs up from the end of it, settling with his back to the wall. He can feel the tension of the day seep from him slowly the moment Langa wraps an arm around his waist, pulling him into his chest. A soft goodnight kiss is exchanged, and Langa is already back asleep between one breath and the next.
Reki lets his own eyes fall shut when they grow too heavy from watching Langa, and his last thought before he slips under is how he doesn’t know how he’ll ever be able to sleep without Langa anymore.
🌟
The second time it happens, it’s not Langa falling asleep by accident this time.
They’re sprawled across the couch in Langa’s living room, watching a movie that had been the talk of their class for a few days, and Reki was feeling left out that he didn’t know what some of his friends at school were talking about.
Reki had borrowed it from one of the girls in the class, and Langa has this bad habit of, well, not really being able to tell Reki no , which is how he finds himself with an armful of redhead one Tuesday afternoon, watching a (debatably) awful movie instead of skating.
They’ve settled with Langa on his back, long legs bent slightly so that his feet can press to the arm on the far side of the couch, and Reki tucked between his legs. The redhead has his arms wrapped around Langa’s chest with his cheek pressed over his heart, knocking his socked feet into Langa’s calves whenever he twitches.
“Are you sure this is the movie everyone thinks is so good?” The question is accompanied by a slight tug on Reki’s hair where Langa has one hand tangled, the other resting between his shoulder blades. “Like, are you really sure?”
His boyfriend startles in his lap, squirming a little before he looks up at him, and Langa can see the beginnings of sleep threatening to take over Reki’s eyes. “Yeah, I’m sure.”
With a hum and a shrug of his shoulder, Langa settles back down, choosing instead to watch Reki instead of the movie still playing on the screen.
Reki does his best to keep his attention on the movie, but he eventually starts to give in to the tug of sleep; copper eyelashes begin to fall heavily to freckled cheeks before he’ll realise he’s falling asleep, and he does his best to wake himself back up only to drift again a few moments later.
Langa does his best to stifle his laughter, but there’s a fondness settling deep into his heart that he knows would be evident on his face if his boyfriend decided he wanted to look up. He cards his fingers slowly through red hair, every so often brushing his thumb down Reki’s temple before he starts the process over again.
It doesn’t take long for the younger boy to become deadweight in Langa’s hold, his face slackening with sleep but the fingers he’s got in the back of Langa’s t-shirt still gripping firmly.
Reki tends to be a deep sleeper, when he does manage to actually sleep. While the slightest little things will tend to wake up Langa, he’s pretty sure Reki can sleep through almost anything.
(It’s always chalked up to Langa being an only child and not used to a lot of noise versus Reki’s ever-bustling household.)
Langa knows that his knees are going to start to ache soon with how he has them bent, and his neck is probably going to have a pull in it, but he also knows it’ll all be worth it if holding his boyfriend is going to allow the redhead to get some sleep.
Besides, watching and holding Reki is much better than the movie they were watching could ever be.
🌟
Langa’s not been having a very good week. He’s not been able to get refills on his anxiety medicine due to a mix-up at their pharmacy, there was a surprise test in math that he knows he failed, and he’s going on day three of getting no more than three hours of sleep a night.
Reki has realised this, and despite all of his best efforts, nothing seems to work.
It all comes to a head one day after school as he and Reki are lounging on Langa’s bed, Reki making his way through a reading for one of their classes as Langa does his best to work on the extra math sheet their teacher had given him as a result of his failing test grade.
The only reason Reki notices the change in Langa’s breathing is because he’s so in tune with everything that the blue-haired boy does. Glancing over, he quickly takes in just what is happening next to him in an attempt to gauge just what he’s going to have to do to help.
The pencil in Langa’s fingers has fallen to the wayside in grey sheets, and he’s got the faraway look in his eyes that makes Reki immediately drop his book off the bed, twisting so he’s sitting on his knees.
“Langa, babe, hey,” tan hands come up to cup Langa’s cheeks, but drop at the full-body flinch that comes immediately after.
Okay, not an attack that physical touch is going to ground him through.
Reki does a scan of the room, trying his best to locate the hoodie he leaves over here just for instances like this. Spying it hung up on a hanger through a crack of the closet door, he bounds up to his feet to grab it.
“Can you put this on for me?” The red fabric is held out as Reki crouches in front of his boyfriend, tipping his head just enough to catch eye contact. “Please, babe?”
Langa doesn’t move for a few beats, his breathing too quick, before he manages to grab the fabric, pulling it over his head but not bothering to stick his arms through the holes; instead, he shoves his nose into the collar to take in a deep breath, clenching his eyes shut.
Rocking on his feet, Reki makes a show of holding his hands up where Langa can see them before he slowly places them on Langa’s knees, brushing his thumbs over them slowly.
The quiet stays tense for a few minutes before Langa’s breath begins to even out, and there’s a quiet keen coming from his mouth that Reki’s knows means he won’t want to talk about this. So instead, the redhead moves up to sit at the headboard of the bed, pushing and tugging on his boyfriend until he’s laying against his chest.
Reki makes sure to keep his movements slow as he curls both arms and legs around the taller boy, pressing gentle kisses across his brow as he squeezes him gently.
“I love you,” the words are said like a promise between them, and Reki feels some of his own anxiety slide away when Langa squeezes him in return.
They lay there for a while, and Reki’s surprised but not when he feels Langa’s breathing start to slow. The tension has left his body finally , his face buried in Reki’s neck as he presses against him like a weighted blanket.
Reki knows they both have homework to do, but right now, holding his sleeping boyfriend is more important.
🌟
Honestly, Langa should’ve expected this with how often it’s been happening lately. There’s something about the two of them being close together that makes it so one of them is exhausted (or feeling safe) enough to fall asleep.
They’re supposed to be sorting through boxes that somehow got shoved into the back of Langa’s closet during the move instead of unpacked. Langa has taken up a place on the floor as he sorts through piles of folders he found at the bottom of the box, and Reki is supposed to be folding the shirts that somehow got thrown into the box.
He’s made it his mission to tease Langa instead.
“You know, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you wear a colour close to this since I’ve known you.”
Langa looks over from his spot on the floor, wrinkling his nose as he catches sight of the pale green shirt currently in his boyfriend’s hands. “I’m pretty sure that was a birthday gift from when I was, like, 12.”
That prompts Reki to laugh, folding the shirt neatly and adding it to his growing pile. “Shouldn’t they have known at that point you weren’t going to wear something like that?”
The older boy shrugs a shoulder as he flips through the pages in the folder he’s currently holding. “I’m pretty sure it was from a cousin that was only there to eat my dad’s cupcakes.”
Reki snorts from where he’s now laying on the bed, his socked feet kicking a little where he’s got them in the air. “Shame that you didn’t inherit his baking skills.”
Langa pins his boyfriend with an unimpressed glare for a moment before he rolls his eyes, closing the folder and placing it aside to pick up another. “Thanks, Reki.”
The redhead laughs, reaching one hand out and Langa would almost be embarrassed at just how easily he goes to his boyfriend, humming quietly as he presses their mouths together in a few chaste kisses.
“You know I tease you because I love you.”
The squawk Reki let’s out when Langa catches his bottom lip between his teeth and tugs is enough to have the oldest laughing himself when he pulls away; he settles back down on the floor as Reki settles back down onto his stomach on the bed, his chin pillowed on his arms as amber eyes follow Langa.
They don’t say anything for a while, the silence between them a comfortable one that only comes with being together as long as they have. Langa sorts the folders into things to keep and things that can be thrown away, ever so often glancing up at his boyfriend.
In between one glance and the next, Reki has dozed off, his cheek resting on his arms still as his feet tangle themselves in the sheets. Langa only notices because he asks something and doesn’t get a response.
Looking up from where he’s sitting on the floor, Langa sighs softly. The sunlight coming through the window manages to hit Reki just right so his skin glows and it looks like his hair is aflame. There’s freckles popping up across his nose, and Langa wants to kiss them all.
Instead, settles for grabbing his phone from off his desk chair, shifting so he can get the angle he wants for the photo he snaps.
Payback.
🌟
Moving is exhausting.
There’s boxes all over the apartment, and Reki knows they’re going to have to eventually sort through them all. They’ve been toting things up and down the stairs all day, and there’s an ache settling into his shoulders that he knows is going to be present for a few days.
Right now, though, all he wants is a nap.
He’s leaning against their new kitchen counter, watching his boyfriend dig through boxes in the living room. He’s not even sure what Langa is looking for.
“Hey, babe?” His voice seems to echo in the mostly-empty apartment, which means it reaches Langa easily.
“What’s up?” A blue head pokes up from behind the couch cushions, expression curious but there’s a tiredness to his eyes that Reki can pick up.
Coming around the counter, Reki holds a hand out, and a warmth settles into his bones at how Langa still comes to him so easily after all this years as the other stands. “How about we take a nap now and finish this later? The boxes will still be here in a few hours.”
Langa blinks down at the other for a few seconds before his whole body slumps in exhaustion, pressing a kiss to the back of Reki’s hands as he manages a weak laugh. “A planned one this time? That sounds nice.”
Leading the way to their new bedroom, Reki keeps a tight hold on Langa’s hand until they have to let go to shed jeans and shirts. Langa is the first one on the bed, settling into his spot on the outer side, his eyes already threatening to close.
Reki follows soon after, crawling up from the end as he usually does; he settles easily into Langa’s side, tangling their legs together as his head goes to its rightful spot under Langa’s chin.
“I love you,” Langa’s voice is quiet with his exhaustion, but he manages to brush a kiss across the top of Reki’s head before he settles fully into the sheets, one large hand splayed across the small of his boyfriend’s back.
Too tired to say it back, Reki presses a kiss to the hollow of Langa’s throat. He’ll say it once they wake up, as he always does.
For now, they sleep in this little space of the world they’ve carved out for themselves.