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There are few things in life that Reki hates. Generally, he does not consider himself a hater . He’s an upbeat, positive guy. He loves skating, he loves his friends, and he loves his boyfriend, Langa.
But there is one thing that Reki cannot stand. One thing that sends his skin crawling just at the thought of it.
And that thing, that bane of his existence?
Tomatoes .
Okay, so technically it’s thing s . Plural.
But yeah. Tomatoes. His most mortal enemy.
How can a fruit (vegetable?) be one’s mortal enemy, you may ask?
Well, there’s several reasons:
- The taste. Disgusting.
- The texture. Unimaginable horror.
- THEY’RE IN EVERYTHING!!! UNAVOIDABLE TORTURE!!
And finally, the worst reason of all: Reki’s sweet, loving boyfriend loves them. No like, he really loves them. Like, eats them like apples loves them.
Reki discovered this unsettling fact about Langa early on in their relationship. They were eating at Joe’s restaurant, kind of a little date night thing. It’d only been a few weeks since they’d kissed for the first time, and even though Langa was already his best friend, he found himself nervous to be hanging out with him in this new capacity.
That was, until, another emotion completely overruled his nerves.
Revulsion. Disgust. Horror.
Langa ordered a caprese salad as an appetizer. Then proceeded to eat only the tomatoes.
Reki did his best to conceal his disgust, but he must’ve done a poor job because Langa had glanced up at him, a tomato slice half in his mouth and his brow furrowed in confusion, and asked, “What?”
“N-nothing,” Reki stuttered.
“Do you want the cheese?” Langa asked.
“No!” Reki all but shouted; he couldn’t eat that mozzarella. Not after it’d been drowning in tomato juices . And the seeds! Ugh.
“Okay,” Langa answered, and luckily he left it at that.
Internally, however, Reki was freaking out. How could he have fallen for someone like this??? How could he date a tomato lover? It went against all his principles, all his values and morals.
Okay. Maybe he was being a little dramatic. He was still super grossed out, though.
Fast forward to now, and they’ve been dating for almost a year. And it’s been great . Except for the fact that Langa eats tomatoes basically every day.
They’re hanging at Langa’s today; it’s raining so they can’t go out skating. They end up in the kitchen. Langa scours the cabinets for snacks while Reki shoots a text off to his mom, letting her know he won’t be home for dinner.
And when he looks up, much to his horror, he sees that Langa has given up searching the cabinets and has secured his snack of choice: a tomato. A huge tomato that he’s just eating as if it were an apple, like a complete and total sociopath .
And Reki, well. Reki loses it .
“HOW CAN YOU EAT IT LIKE THAT?” Reki screams, standing up. Langa jumps a bit at his sudden shouting.
“What do you mean?” Langa asks, startled and a little sad.
Reki breathes in. Breathes out. Breathes in. Breathes out.
“How. Can. You. Eat. A. Tomato. Like. That.”
Langa shrugs. “It’s good. Do you want some?”
“Do I want some ??” Reki yells. “No!!! I can’t stand tomatoes!!”
“Oh,” Langa says. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”
“Because you love them so much,” Reki sighs, some of his anger bleeding out of him as he sees Langa’s hurt expression. “I didn’t wanna, I don’t know… disappoint you? That sounds dumb, but, yeah.”
He looks back at Langa, who’s still holding his half eaten tomato, absolutely bewildered by this conversation.
Reki throws his arms into the air. “I freaking hate tomatoes, Langa. And I cannot actually understand how someone could like them so much that they could just stand in their kitchen and eat one like an apple.”
Langa shuffles a bit, setting the tomato down on the counter behind him. “Oh,” he says, looking downward. “I didn’t realize it bothered you so much.”
Langa fiddles with the end of his sleeve. Reki feels like crap .
“No! It’s not—it doesn’t bother me. I just… don’t get it.”
Langa meets his eyes. “Actually, my dad used to have a little vegetable garden back in Canada. Every summer, he’d grow a ton of tomatoes, and I’d help him plant them and harvest them. We’d eat them on toast, or make sauce with them. They were so good, picked fresh off the vine like that... I guess…tomatoes remind me of him. They make me feel closer to him.”
And if Reki felt like crap before? It’s nothing compared to how he feels now. He’s the worst. He is lower than low. He’s a Monday. He’s stepping on legos. He’s a wet sock. He’s—he’s—a tomato.
Oh God. He became the very thing he hates the most.
“Langa,” Reki begins, stepping towards him, “I’m so so sorry. I was just being a jerk. And I didn’t realize that you had such special memories attached to tomatoes.”
Langa shrugs. “It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not.” Reki moves closer and places his hands on Langa’s shoulders. “Even if you didn’t have those memories with your dad, I still shouldn’t have been so shitty about something you like. Even something as stupid as a freaking tomato.”
Langa smiles, small. “I guess I should expect by now for you to be passionate about things—about everything .”
“Yep,” Reki brings a hand up to scratch the back of his head, “I guess I can get a little… carried away, sometimes.”
“Yeah, well. It’s just one of many things I love about you.”
Reki’s chest swells a bit. He leans in and presses his lips to Langa’s, quick and chaste and sweet. “I love you, too. Now why don’t you tell me about your dad’s garden?”
“Okay,” Langa smiles.
“Wait—I thought Canada was freezing !! How can you grow anything there?”
“Not all the time, Reki,” Langa rolls his eyes, still smiling. “We have summers, too.”
Reki chuckles, a bit embarrassed. “Oh, right, yeah. That makes sense, that makes sense.”
They spend the rest of the evening having dinner while Langa shares memories of his dad. He starts with his garden, how excited Langa would get when the green tomatoes finally turned red and ripe enough to pick, but he strays from there too, telling snowboarding stories, talking about their favorite movies.
It’s probably the most Reki has ever heard Langa talk about his dad.
Reki skates home—it’s still drizzling, but not bad enough that he would need a ride home. Plus, he feels a bit like he deserves this gloomy weather as he makes his way home. Despite Langa forgiving him, Reki still feels awful about how he behaved today.
He had essentially thrown a tantrum over a TOMATO! Who even does that?
He’s almost home when he skates past the flower shop—and it’s there that he gets an idea.
“Shadow!” Reki calls, startling his friend. He practically ran here after school; they were closed last night and he’s incredibly eager to act on his plan.
Shadow gives a little huff. “I was with a customer, you know.”
“Looks more like you were trying and failing to flirt with that customer,” Reki teases.
“Hey!” Shadow blushes and shouts, before remembering that he’s at work and should probably keep his cool. “What are you doing here, anyway?”
“I need your help with something.”
A few hours later, Reki waits at the skatepark, nervous. He asked Langa to meet him here at eight, but had gotten there earlier so he could surprise him.
After a few long minutes, he sees Langa approaching on the road. He glides gracefully, angel-like, and for not the first time Reki sees how much Langa is meant for skating.
“Hey,” Langa says as he rides up. “Wanna skate?”
“Yes! But first—I got you something!”
Reki pulls out the gift he’d been hiding behind his back and shows Langa. “It’s—”
“ —a tomato plant.” Langa looks like he could cry, and for a moment Reki worries he made a mistake, crossed a line.
“Is it okay? I don’t know if it’s the same kind you used to grow, or if it’s the kind you like—I asked Shadow to help me but I had to wait for him to get off work and then we drove an hour away to this huge garden store and they had so many options to pick from and I didn’t know which one you would want and—”
Reki’s cut off by Langa throwing his arms around him, careful of the fragile plant between them.
“So, you like it?” Reki asks. “I thought, I don’t know, it might be a nice way for you to feel close to your dad.”
Langa squeezes him a bit tighter. “I love it.”