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“I still can’t believe Cherry rigged his board up to switch between a longboard and a cruiser! I gotta talk to him sometime about how he builds his rigs, could you imagine the possibilities if I could get that AI stuff at Dope Sketch?”
“Mmhm” Langa stared ahead at their feet as they walked, not really seeming to listen to what Reki was saying. Ordinarily Reki would just assume he was tired: it was almost 1am after all, but he had been like this all night. During Cherry and Joes’ race, he had seemed a million miles away, and had barely said two words to Reki as they walked back to his house.
“Okay man, what’s with you?” Reki finally asked, bumping his shoulder playfully into Langa’s. Usually that got him to snap out of his funk a little bit, but instead he just bit his lip, continuing to look at the ground. Maybe it was the reflection of the moonlight, but Reki thought he saw the shimmer of tears in his eyes.
“Langa?” He asked, much gentler this time. Langa took a deep and shaky breath before he answered.
“Reki…I…I need to tell you something…” They both stopped, and Reki moved to stand in front of him. “Just…promise you won’t hate me. Okay?”
The idea of Reki hating him was so ridiculous he couldn’t help but laugh. There was quite literally nothing in the world Langa could say to him that would make Reki think he was anything less than the coolest person alive.
“Dude! Come on, it’s me. You can tell me anything. So spill-.”
“I’m gay.” Langa said abruptly. Reki blinked, unsure if he had heard that right.
“What?”
“I’m gay. I like guys.” He repeated, much quieter this time. The two words echoed through Reki’s ears, startling him. He stared at Langa in disbelief, a strange but happy feeling bubbling up in his chest.
“Reki?” Crap. How long had he been staring at Langa? Evidently, long enough for Langa to interpret Reki’s silence as disgust, because tears had begun rolling down his cheeks.
The sight made Reki immediately snap out of his stupor, whatever he was feeling wasn’t the priority right now. He had to make this right.
Reki practically tackled Langa, pulling his crying best friend close and hugging him tightly. “That’s great! I’m happy for you!”
“It doesn’t weird you out?” Langa mumbled into his shoulder. Reki could feel from the wetness seeping into his shoulder that Langa was still crying, but he did feel some of the tension in his body release.
“Of course not! You’re my best friend and I want you to be happy, whether that’s with a guy or a girl or whoever! I was just a little surprised.” Finally, thank god, Langa sighed with relief and hugged him back.
“I’ve wanted to tell you for a while, but I didn’t know how to bring it up”
“That’s ok! Better late than never.” Reki assured him. Langa pulled back and wiped his eyes, now smiling through the tears.
“Thank you.”
“Of course dude. I’m glad you told me.” Reki was hit with the overwhelming urge to caress Langa’s face and brush the residual tears away with his thumb. But he didn’t, because the last thing he wanted was to weird Langa out. So instead he just watched Langa rubbing his eyes, looking like the exhaustion of holding that in for god knows how long was finally catching up with him.
“Hey, wanna sleep over at my place tonight?” Reki offered.
“You sure?”
“Yeah! I don’t want you to pass out on the train getting back to your place.”
“Okay.” Langa smiled. The sight made that feeling in Reki’s chest come back with a vengeance, like something was squeezing his heart as tight as possible. For the rest of the walk home, every time their shoulders brushed, the feeling just got stronger and stronger.
“Do you mind if I take a quick shower? Or would that wake your parents up?” Langa asked when they got back to Reki’s house.
“Nah, go for it. My family are all super heavy sleepers, so don’t worry about being loud. Do you need to borrow something to sleep in?”
“Actually yeah, if you don’t mind.”
Once Langa was in the shower, Reki changed into pajamas himself and sat on the edge of his bed, finally processing what Langa had told him now that he had a moment alone. His chest ached with a confusing mix of both excitement and fear.
It wasn’t the first time Reki had felt this way. The feeling started popping up randomly here and there about a year ago, but lately had been showing up more consistently and lasting much longer than it ever had before. The trigger for it always seemed to be Langa, whether it was from seeing him pull off a new skateboarding trick or stuffing his face with poutine till he looked like a chipmunk, It was always Langa.
Reki had wondered before if this meant his feelings for Langa weren’t strictly platonic. After all, what else would the crushing feeling in his chest be if not a crush. However, before he could ever fall too far down that rabbit hole he shut it down. It wasn’t like they could ever be anything more than friends anyway.
But now, just knowing that Langa was attracted to guys, that tightness in his chest felt like it was consuming him whole.
It didn’t help when Langa came back from the shower, wet hair tied back into a loose bun, with Reki’s shorts riding high and showing off more of his long legs than Reki had anticipated.
Yeah…it probably wasn’t platonic to look at your best friend wearing your clothes and think damn…he looks hot.
They had always shared Reki’s bed in the past during sleepovers, so Langa automatically climbed under the covers, settling in like it was his own bed. Reki was so spun out trying to process his feelings that he doubted he would be able to actually sleep if he was next to Langa. However, he also didn’t want Langa to think that he was weirded out about sharing a bed with him after he had come out, so Reki decided to slide in next to him.
In order to distract himself from his nerves, Reki began to play video games on his switch. It actually worked pretty well to calm him down…until Langa rested his head on Reki’s shoulder to watch him.
Every time he did this, Reki was happy to let him stay there until Langa decided to move of his own accord. However, when Langa leaned on him this time the tightness in Reki’s chest multiplied by about 1000. Reki had to do something about this feeling, or he would surely go into cardiac arrest.
“Hey, can I ask you something kind of…personal?” Reki asked, suddenly feeling like he couldn’t breathe.
“Of course. Is everything okay?” Langa asked, tilting his head to the side. Reki swallowed the nervous lump in his throat, squirming a little under the piercing blue eyes that looked at him with concern.
“Yeah…it’s just about what you told me earlier.” At this, Langa tensed, shrinking away so that their shoulders were no longer touching.
“I’m sorry, if it makes you uncomfortable I can go—“
“No! Oh God No! Nothing Like that!” Crap. Way to put your foot in your mouth dumbass. Reki took a deep breath and tried again. “I was just wondering…how did you figure out you were into guys?”
“Oh.” Langa seemed to ponder the question for a moment. “I don’t know honestly. I just sort of was never into girls and then one day it…clicked? If that makes sense?”
“Yeah…I guess…” Reki said quietly. It made sense, but did little to solve his own problem.
“What’s going on Reki?” Langa put his hand on top of Reki’s and gently squeezed, which shot all the way up Reki’s arm straight into his heart.
“We’ll.. Lately I’ve been… confused.” Reki stammered. He looked back up at Langa, watching him with infinite patience, and the words just came tumbling out.
“I know I like girls but lately I’ve been thinking I might like guys too but I don’t know if it’s just an aesthetic thing or if I just think guys are easier to talk to or if I actually like guys and I have absolutely no idea how to figure out what the hell is going on and—“
“Reki. Breathe.” Langa squeezed his hand again, and Reki did as he said. “So you think you might be Bi?”
“Maybe?” Reki said, thankful that Langa had stopped his rambling before Reki had spilled that he was the reason for his recent sexuality crisis.
“That’s okay. We’ll figure it out together. But I support you either way.” Langa said, pulling Reki into a hug. And God, it felt good.
Reki buried his face in Langa’s shoulder, breathing in the smell of his shampoo. It was something woodsy, pine maybe? Whatever it was, it made Reki feel like oxygen was hitting his lungs for the first time. He could have stayed like that forever.
“Have you ever thought about…experimenting?” Langa asked cautiously.
“I mean, I’d be down, but that would involve finding someone who’d be willing to…experiment with me. And I can’t imagine my luck would be any better with guys than girls.”
“I’d be willing” Langa said, so quickly and quietly that Reki had to take a second to process what he was talking about.
“Wait… Can you repeat that?” Maybe Langa meant to say something else, or maybe Reki heard him wrong. Yeah. That must be it, surely Langa wouldn’t have just offered to—“
“I’d be willing to kiss you, if you want to try kissing a guy,” Error 404, Reki’s brain not found.
“No pressure though! We don’t have to if you don’t want—“
“I want to!” Reki said, much louder than he really should have. Thank god his family was all super heavy sleepers.
Langa smiled at him, and Reki felt like he was burning from the inside out. Hopefully the low lighting in the room was hiding how red his face was, it also added to the romantic ambiance.
Stop It. He couldn’t think of Langa like that. He was just doing Reki a favor by letting him try kissing him. There was no way he would actually want to be with Reki. Langa was smart, funny, cool, attractive as hell, and the most amazing skater Reki had ever met, and Reki was…well…Reki. The fact that such an amazing person wanted to be his friend was a miracle in and of itself, let alone—
Reki’s thoughts screeched to a halt when impossibly soft lips brushed against his. It was a barely there, cautious touch, but it was enough to shatter every preconceived idea that Reki had about anything in the world.
Reki stayed frozen, not wanting to push too far or do something stupid that would freak Langa out. Then, he realized:
Langa’s not pulling back either.
Maybe it was stupid, but fuck it, they were already here. So Reki let himself relax into the kiss. One hand found its way to grip the collar of Langa’s t-shirt. Langa took the hint and cupped the side of Reki’s face to draw him in closer. They both were relatively still, but Reki was losing his mind over the softness of Langa’s lips and the warmth of his skin.
“So…?” Langa looked at him expectedly when they finally broke apart. His pale skin was dusted with a rosy shade of pink. Reki didn’t think it was possible for the bastard to get any more attractive than he already was, but he couldn’t stop staring into those wide eyes that weren’t quite blue or green.
“Um…good…that was good” Reki stuttered when he finally found his voice again.
“How did it compare to kissing a girl?”
“I wouldn’t know. Never actually have kissed a girl.” Reki said sheepishly. Langa’s eyes widened in horror.
“What? That was your first kiss?! Why didn’t you tell me?!”
“It’s okay! I’m happy it was you!” Reki blurted out before he could stop himself. The room went dead silent as they stared at each other.
“You are?” Langa asked after a moment. Reki’s heart was pounding in his throat so hard that he couldn’t speak, so he just nodded.
“I’m happy you were my first too.”Reki’s jaw dropped. Langa constantly had girls fawning over him at school, so Reki just assumed he would have kissed someone before.
But no. He had given Reki his first kiss too…
“I have another confession to make…” Langa said softly. Reki leaned forward, hanging on his every word.
“I really like you Reki.”
“You mean…in a ‘more than friends’ way?”
”Yeah… I have since the day we met.” Langa’s face had gone even more pink, the shade quickly becoming Reki’s new favorite color.
“I like you too!” Reki blurted out. Langa looked up at him with a radiant smile.
“Really?!” Reki nodded enthusiastically, and that rare but gorgeous smile just got bigger. “Then is it okay if I kiss you again?”
There was no way Reki would be able to verbally articulate just how okay he was with that, so he just nodded again. Langa smiled and leaned back in without hesitation, kissing Reki firmly, as if all he had been waiting forever for permission to do so.
This time, Reki was more prepared, and was able to actually fully enjoy the kiss. His hands found their way to Langa’s waist, and Langa began to run his hands up the back of Reki’s head into his hair to press them closer together. The feeling of Langa’s fingers in his hair sent shivers up Reki’s spine in the best possible way. Everything Langa did was driving him absolutely crazy.
“I can’t believe you like me too.” A wave of cuteness aggression overtook Reki, so he squeezed Langa tight and began to playfully bite Langa’s neck.
“How could I not like you back?!” Langa gasped with a mixture of pleasure and indignation. You’re like the coolest person I’ve ever met! You’re smart, you’re creative, you’re SO talented, you-“
“Dude stop.” Reki put his hand over Langa’s mouth to shush him. Reki’s face felt so hot that he genuinely thought he might explode from all the praise. Langa’s laughter vibrated against Reki’s hand, which Reki couldn’t help but smile at in spite of how embarrassed he was.
Langa pulled Reki’s hand away from his mouth and kissed his palm before guiding it to rest on his cheek.
“No, I’m not gonna stop.” He said as he climbed into Reki’s lap. “Because you’re also incredibly caring, you’re so supportive, and you have the most beautiful smile I’ve ever seen.” Langa rested his forehead on Reki’s. “You’re really cute when you get excited about things, you always make me laugh, and there’s no one else in the world I’d rather skate with.”
“Stoooop” Reki whined.
“Make me” Langa smirked, a challenging tone in his voice. Reki tackled him, pushing Langa back onto the bed and occupying his mouth with his own. Langa laughed against his lips.
God, Reki loved his laugh.
They continued like that for a while, their legs entangling and their lips slotting together so perfectly it was like they were made for each other. Eventually, sleep deprivation won out, and they drifted off to sleep in each other’s arms.
The next morning, Reki awoke with Langa snuggled up to him, using his shoulder as a pillow. Part of Reki wondered if the whole thing the night before had just been a really insanely good dream. But then, Langa shifted slightly in his sleep, hugging Reki tighter and planting a kiss on his cheek. Well, it was less of a kiss and more of Langa squishing his face into the side of Reki’s, but it was enough.