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Langa steered the moped through slick streets. It was good that the rain had stopped before they had left Crazy Rock but he still had to drive carefully. His clothes clung uncomfortably to his skin though he was more focused on the warmth of his friend slumped against his back holding on loosely to his damp shirt. Reki had been suspiciously quiet the whole trip. It was a bit worrisome. Usually Reki would be talking his ear off and Langa would dutifully listen. Maybe it was his turn to carry on the conversation.
By the time Langa had finally thought of something to say they were already at Reki’s house.
And that’s where he thought his night would end. He’d drop Reki off, head back home and start thinking of how he was going to tackle his beef with Adam next week.
Instead, he ended up actually parking the moped and turning it off. Reki slid off with a slight wince favoring one of his legs and even though he was trying to wave Langa off saying he was fine, Langa wasn’t having any of it.
That’s how Langa had ended up with the first aid kit from the kitchen to his right and the two of them seated closely together on Reki’s bed. They had shed their damp outer layers to the side and replaced jeans with more comfortable pajama pants. Langa wasn’t even paying attention to the fact he was wearing some of Reki’s clothes; he was much too focused on trying to put some antibiotic cream on a cut on Reki’s forehead.
Reki hissed through gritted teeth and let out a soft, “Ow!”
Langa frowned, an apology on the tip of his tongue, but Reki continued before he could get a word out. “You’d think I'd be used to the sting by now.” His voice was light, but exhaustion had crept in long ago.
Langa let out a small sigh as he carefully placed a band-aid over the cut. “We just have your arm to take care of and then we’re done,” Langa said.
The scrape on Reki’s arm was bad but it wasn’t bleeding. That was good. Langa pushed a bit more of the ointment out of the tube and carefully spread it over the scrape eliciting another hiss from Reki. Langa’s brows furrowed, trying to work as fast as he could. With that done, he grabbed a sterile pad and a roll of bandages. Reki stayed still as Langa worked. The simple act of securing the bandage around Reki’s forearm brought forth a memory; dry hands gently wrapping band-aids around his fingers and a warm voice saying that bleeding was a right of passage among skaters.
They had come a long way since then, hadn’t they?
Langa was briefly torn away from his thoughts by a wistful sigh.
“The view was beautiful…” Reki said quietly, like he hadn’t meant to say that out loud.
“Hm?” Langa hummed curiously as he secured the last bit of bandage to itself.
“Oh, hah, I mean, I never knew you saw all of that while you were up there.” Reki gestured with his unbandaged arm. “It makes sense since your jumps are already freaking beautiful, no wonder you’re always trying to get higher.” He flashed Langa a wide grin. “It’s so fun! I’m for sure gonna have to do more of that.”
A blush crept up Langa’s neck at being complimented. Even though he couldn’t help but smile, he said his next words with a bit of force. “You have to wait until you’re fully healed before you try anything like that again.”
Reki put his hands up and said, “Yeah yeah, of course Dr. Hasegawa.” There was a teasing lilt to his voice and Langa snorted in an attempt to suppress a laugh. They had to at least try to be quiet with Reki’s siblings sleeping in the adjacent rooms.
Pleased with the reaction, Reki simply smiled back. A comfortable silence blanketed the room, only broken up by Langa’s aborted laughs as he got control of himself again. It was nice. Everything was warm, and Langa’s heart thudded steadily in his chest. Something unreadable flickered in Reki’s eyes and he looked over to the side, smile fading.
“Reki?” Langa gently broke the silence, leaning a little closer to his friend. He opened his mouth to speak again, the words dying on his tongue. Reki was likely exhausted from the beef, Langa was about to ask him if he should leave to let him rest. That would be the sensible thing to do. Selfishly, Langa didn’t ask, he didn’t want to leave just yet. And while they had patched up their relationship, the sting of Reki pulling away from him was still a little too fresh to ignore.
He wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice.
Reki blinked and that strange, unreadable glint in his eyes melted away. “Ah, sorry, guess I was spacing out there.”
If Reki was spacing out then that meant he must be more exhausted than he was letting on. Langa’s fingers fidgeted with the fabric of his pajamas and hesitantly, he asked, “Would you… like me to leave, so you can get some rest?”
He would respect Reki’s wishes, if he truly wanted to be left alone.
“What?” Reki blinked processing the question thrown his way. “Nah, you can stay. You’ve stayed over later than this before. Plus, I’d like it if you stayed.” Reki shot him a quick grin and lightly punched his arm, only wincing when he realized he’d done so with his injured hand.
The two locked eyes. Langa with a small pout of concern and Reki having turned his grin into an apologetic smile. It was very clear that Reki needed to rest after such an intense beef, but if he didn’t want Langa to leave then he wasn’t going to raise an objection. In fact, knowing Reki wanted him to stay made his cheeks flush.
They could stay up a bit later.
Needing something to busy himself with, Langa shifted slightly in order to start putting the strewn supplies back in the first aid kit. It was going to be a little messy, but it’ll do for now.
Reki let out a long groan and turned so he could kick his feet off of the side of the bed and flop down as carefully as he could. He still winced slightly as his bruised back made contact with the mattress. “Maaan, it sucks that I lost. And I know that’s not the point but, augh, I wanted us to race in the final together so badly.” Reki was gesturing again with his arms causing the mattress to shake slightly. “I’ll have to double check the bolts I’m using for my boards. Maybe if they had been a little tighter or if the trucks had been a different height…”
Langa tried to listen to his friend’s explanation on how to possibly improve on the board that had betrayed him at the last second, he really did. But even though he had his eyes locked on Reki as he spoke he couldn’t pay attention to the words. Loose strands of Reki’s hair caught the warm light from his desk and his eyes shone as he spoke about his passion. It was as distracting as Reki’s previous words repeating in his head.
Langa wanted nothing more than to skate against his best friend.
Unfortunately, they’d have to wait.
He absentmindedly clicked the latches closed on the first aid kit which pulled him out of his thoughts just long enough to catch the determined look Reki was shooting him. Reki said with a grin, “I’ll make sure we get our beef one way or another.”
That sent a jolt through Langa and he couldn’t help but shoot back his own confident grin. “Good,” he said and watched as a light flush took over Reki’s cheeks.
They held that gaze for a beat, blue eyes staring into amber and something electric thrummed between them.
And then it was broken as Langa failed to stifle a yawn with Reki soon following. Reki let out a small chuckle at their combined exhaustion and Langa let out a small groan. This meant he really should leave and let Reki go to bed. He didn’t even know how late it was and he wasn’t about to find out by checking his phone, though he probably should just in case his mom texted him or something. Urg… and he’d have to get his still damp jeans back on in order to ride back to his house, though he supposed he could just go out in Reki’s pajamas.
Langa was pulled out of his thoughts by a light tug on his sleeve.
Reki was looking at him and asked, “You wanna spend the night?”
He looked surprisingly vulnerable at that moment and Langa’s heart skipped a beat.
It wouldn’t be the first time Langa had slept over when a night at ‘S’ had gone on later than expected. It would be easy enough to text his mom and pull out the futon and get their sleeping arrangements situated, especially if they started now before they got too tired.
And even though Reki was okay and here holding onto Langa’s sleeve and not in a cast, memories of blood and broken bones and hospital rooms filled Langa’s mind. His chest tightened uncomfortably at the thought.
Langa didn’t voice his concerns, instead, he simply replied, “Sure.”
Reki’s smile beamed at the confirmation and something soft glittered in his eyes. Langa smiled back, feeling his insides melt a little. And in that moment Langa let himself soak up all of the warmth in the room knowing that no matter what happened next week the two of them would always have each other.