Work Text:
i love you
(like the sun)
Langa is pretty sure that when the universe created Reki, it did so in order to make the sun have a rival.
☀️
Reki seems to be brightness personified. The neons of his clothes always play well with the glow of his skin and the auburn shock of his hair. The combination means that whenever he enters a room, everyone’s eyes are drawn to him. The first time that Langa looked at him face-to-face, it felt like he was a child again and didn’t pay attention to his dad’s warning to not stare into the sun.
Every time a door opens and Reki Kyan steps through, it feels like the room itself brightens in response.
☀️
The only thing that pulls Langa from his mind where he’s been drifting all day is the sound of his bedroom door opening without a knock preceding it. He knows immediately then who it is, because his mom would always knock before she entered his room. He lets his head lull to the side, blinking tiredly at the boy now standing in his doorway.
“Hey dude,” Reki’s voice is uncharacteristically quiet, but the smile is still present on his face. “I brought your favourites.”
In his arms is a bag from the shop around the corner, a cup with a lid and a cardboard sleeve that Langa knows is hot chocolate, and a blue hoodie is thrown on his arm that he uses to show the door behind himself.
Seeing Reki in his mostly monochrome room, red hair and green hoodie and bright amber eyes, has some of the darkness creeping towards the edges of his mind receding. As he watches, Reki crawls up onto his bed and sprawls down beside him, carefully placing the cup on his bedside table before he opens the bag.
“Alright, what do you want first? Chips or sour candy?”
☀️
The brightness isn’t just physical, though.
Reki as a person is loud and exuberant; his voice so always warm and cheerful, a perfect compliment to his personality. It draws people to him, in a way that Langa himself fell victim to.
When Langa’s world was muted and dull, marred by the darkness of grief, Reki burst in with all his bright technicoloured glory and started chasing away the grey.
Even when they were still just best friends, Langa clung to Reki’s brightness the way a drowning man clings to the last bit of air in his lungs. He clung with desperation that was fueled by his need to escape the darkness of his own mind. And, amazingly, Reki let him. He encouraged him even.
Reki was always willing to be the light that chases away the dark when it would threaten at Langa’s mind.
☀️
When Langa startles awake, there’s a weight on his chest both physically and mentally. His eyes snap open before he clenched them shut again, and he can feel his heartbeat trying to rabbit out of his chest as his breathing threatens to choke him.
“Hm?”
There’s a grumble from beside him, but he can’t bring himself to open his eyes. He keeps them clenched shut instead, doing his best to squeeze away images of hospitals that seem to have been seared into his eyelids.
“Langa, hey,” Reki’s voice is rough with sleep, but he tightens the arm he’s got over Langa’s waist (oh that’s what that was) as he raises up to look at the other. “You’re okay.”
Forcing himself to fight back the choking feeling and focus instead on the weight of Reki’s arm over him, Langa blinks his eyes open, stubbornly ignoring the dampness clinging to his lashes. It takes a few moments before he looks over at his best friend, but.
Oh.
Hospitals don’t have this brightness- they don’t have a red headed boy with a smile and worried eyes that’s only concern in the world is bringing Langa back to himself.
☀️
The night that they kissed at the beach, Langa thought he was going to go blind from the brightness in Reki’s smile when they pulled back from each other.
☀️
Langa can feel his fingers trembling where they’re curled over Reki’s shoulders; Reki’s own fingers are gripping tight to the collar of Langa’s sleep shirt, and the blue-haired boy can feel them flex when he parts their lips with a soft noise.
He is too afraid to open his eyes, afraid of what he’s going to see on Reki’s face.
Sure, Reki kissed him back.
Sure, he’s caught Reki staring at him more lately and when he’s caught his cheeks flush a bright pink.
He is still, however, afraid that when he opens his eyes, he is going to see nothing but regret on Reki’s face.
“Langa,” the sound of his name is accompanied by a soft laugh, and he can feel when Reki’s hands slide up to cup his cheeks instead as a kiss is pressed to the top of his nose. “Can you look at me?”
Worrying his bottom lip between his teeth, Langa opens his eyes slowly. He can feel the cold sting of his anxiety threatening to turn his blood to ice, and he lets his gaze flicker away before he works up the courage to look the other boy in the eye.
Reki is smiling at him so brightly that Langa is surprised they even still need the glow of the streetlights that are coming through the window. He can feel the flush on his cheeks darkening, his pale complexion betraying him as his fingers grip onto Reki’s shoulders tighter.
“Can we do that again?”
The words escape him of their own accord, and he can’t even bring himself to be embarrassed as Reki laughs and nods, leaning in and peppering his face with kisses until Langa himself is laughing along with him.
☀️
Much like the sun, Reki always tends to run warm. Whenever their hands would brush or Reki would throw his arm over Langa’s shoulders in the beginning stages of their friendship, Langa would startle a little at the burst of heat.
In contrast to his own cold nature, Langa thinks that Reki has housed the warmth of the sun and slid it under his skin. It takes a while, but Langa finally grows used to the feeling of heat on his skin.
☀️
“Hey!”
The yell is followed by an arm thrown over and around his neck, and Langa can’t fight back the smile that pulls at the corner of his mouth when the redhead leans his weight against him. Reki is a warm but solid line against his back and side, and Langa turns his head a little bit so he can look at the other.
“Hey.”
Reki grins at him, and Langa can feel the stirrings in his stomach again at the sight; he can only hope Reki thinks that the flush on his face is from the heat and not their proximity.
“You didn’t even flinch that time, man! I’m proud of you!” Reki squeezes his neck gently as his grin widens, shaking Langa a little as he does so. “It’s about time!”
Langa blinks at him once before he realises that Reki is right, and he feels something settle deep in his bones at the knowledge.
☀️
He feels the warmth more acutely when they’re curled together in one of their beds. They always curl together, feet tucked between legs and heads close together but still on their own separate pillows. The cocoon that forms under the sheets keeps the heat easily, and it always heats up Langa’s skin pleasantly.
☀️
“Your hands are always so warm,” Langa keeps his voice quiet as he speaks, his lips still brushing against Reki’s where they’ve parted from a kiss. He has one of his hands under Reki’s hip, the other one pressing over his heartbeat through the fabric of his sleep shirt.
Reki laughs softly as he presses a kiss to Langa’s bottom lip, the thumb of the hand that’s cupping his cheeks brushing his thumb over Langa’s skin in a soothing rhythm. “Is that a bad thing?”
Langa shakes his head instantly, the hand on Reki’s chest coming up to press the redhead’s hand more firmly against his cheek. “No! I…I like it.”
He trails off into a whisper by the end, his cheeks hot and his eyes focused on the biggest freckle beside Reki’s lips.
“Cool. I like touching you, so I’m glad my burning hands are a pro and not a con.”
The smirk on Reki’s face has Langa rolling both his eyes and his body so that the other is trapped under his frame, and he has to use his own mouth to muffle the laughter spilling from Reki’s.
☀️
If the universe made Reki the sun, then Langa is the planet circling him. He’s pulled in by the gravity of the redhead- he never strays too far, almost always within fingertip reach of the other. Once they start dating, it’s rare to see them without their fingers interlocked.
Even across what feels like miles, Langa will always gravitate back towards Reki.
☀️
The crowd of people seems thicker tonight than usual, and Langa is chewing anxiously on his bottom lip as his gaze flickers from person to person in search of a familiar shock of red.
Reki was fulfilling an order for the shop and had darted off to find the customer, leaving Langa alone at the edges of the track. He could be practicing and he knows that, but he’s feeling off-centred and drifting in a way that makes him anxious.
He keeps looking for a few moments before he latches onto a splash of red, and his feet start moving before he even realises it. Once he’s close enough, he reaches out to tug Reki closer by the back of his hoodie, wrapping his arm around his waist and burying his face in the top of his head.
Reki doesn’t even falter in the explanation to the girl in front of them, just switches from using both hands to one as he laces his fingers through Langa’s on his stomach.
☀️
If the sun has flares, so does Reki in the form of how easily he flushes when he’s embarrassed or feeling too much. While Langa flushes easily under his pale skin, it is easy to see coming and is a slow process.
Reki goes from no flush to bright red almost instantly, the only thing able to hide it is his hands over his face.
☀️
They’re curled up after S one night in Reki’s bed, legs intertwined and Reki resting on Langa’s chest when it finally happens. Langa has one hand in Reki’s hair, loose without his headband, and is dragging his fingers through it slowly.
Reki is a warm weight on his chest, his arms wrapped around him not unlike an octopus as he fights to keep his eyes open, sleep pulling at the corners of them.
Glancing down at him, Langa nudges Reki’s head up with the fingers in his hair until the other is looking at him, and he swallows hard before he whispers. “I love you.”
The hitch in Reki’s breathing is as sudden as the flush that appears across his freckled cheeks, and he lets out a whine as he buries his face in the hollow of Langa’s throat. “Fuck, man! Warn a guy!” He digs his face in for a moment before he pulls back, cheeks matching his hair and eyes bright. “I love you, too, though.”
☀️
Like all things, even the sun must take breaks occasionally. It disappears during storms, hidden away by clouds and rain and strikes of lighting that are a mockery of sunlight.
Reki is the same. While most of the time he is bright and vivid, lighting up rooms and spreading his warmth, there are days when he must take a break; his body and mind will be tired, an expression unlike a storm on his face and eyes wet like falling rain that hides his glow.
☀️
Careful to make sure the sliding door shuts behind him, Langa does his best to balance the bag and sweatshirt he’s got in one hand and the plastic cup of ice he has in the crook of his arms. He takes a moment to lock the door behind him before he turns to the bed, and he feels his heart ache a little at the sight.
Reki is curled up in the middle of the bed, his hair limp around his face and the dark circles under his eyes deep like a bruise. He has the blankets pulled up to his chin, and his eyes take a lot of time to move from the spot he was staring at on the wall to Langa.
Mustering up a small smile, Langa pads towards the bed, resting the cup of ice on the nightstand and placing the bag down beside it. He hesitates for a brief moment before he sits on the edge of the bed, the sweatshirt still in his hands.
“I know this helps me, so I thought it might help you too.” He uses his hands to tip the sweatshirt towards Reki, chewing on his bottom lip before he continues. “If you’d like to try.”
There’s no movement for a few moments from either of them before Reki nods just once, and Langa can feel some of the anxiety in his chest ease as he helps his boyfriend sit up and change.
☀️
If Reki is the sun, the Langa is the moon.
He is given light from the existence of his boyfriend in his life, much like the moon is given it’s light in the night sky by the sun.
Even when it is not there, the sun’s effect is seen in the light of the moon.
Reki is the sunlight to his moon, and Langa thinks that much like the two celestial bodies, he couldn’t exist without Reki either.