Chapter Text
Langa was a notoriously bad gift-giver. It wasn’t that he didn’t care or he didn’t try. It was just hard figuring out what people wanted, so he normally asked them straight up what they wanted for their birthdays or for Christmas. Even then, he still made mistakes. Cherry had said brushes for his birthday, so Langa had given him a set of paintbrushes. He thought he’d done well—Cherry had even given him a thin smile after opening the box—but then Miya had smirked and whispered that none of the brushes were calligraphy brushes.
Joe had said that he didn’t want anything in particular for his birthday, so Langa had gifted him a huge box of protein bars because who would turn down food? And Joe had laughed and squeezed him into a hug, but apparently Langa had made some sort of mistake there too because Shadow had told him not to bother for his birthday. The only present Langa had gotten right was Miya’s, but that didn’t really count. It had been Reki’s idea to make Miya the skateboard for his birthday and Langa had only helped out with the cost of materials and some of the work.
Sighing, Langa sat down on one of the flat rocks surrounding the outcropping of the bowl complex at Crazy Rock. Reki’s birthday was just a few days away and Langa still didn’t know what to get him. He had some ideas, but nothing seemed good enough. He needed to get Reki something meaningful, something that showed him just how much he treasured him.
The sound of Reki’s laughter rang out across the bowl complex and Langa’s eyes fell on him. Reki jumped out of the clover bowl, called for Koyomi and gestured for her to follow him out. He looked up at Langa, shot him a split second wink and flashed him a grin that made Langa’s heart flutter, then sped off on his board with Koyomi following close behind. Langa dropped his elbows on his knees, propped his chin up with his hands, and sighed softly. Even from far away, he could tell that Reki’s eyes were sparkling.
“So cool,” Langa breathed.
Beside him, Miya scoffed and mashed the buttons on his Switch without taking his eyes off the screen. “Oh wow, he skated in a bowl. No one’s ever done that before. Reki’s totally the definition of cool.”
“Yeah, he is,” Langa said, completely missing the sarcasm in Miya’s voice. “Hey, Miya?”
“What?”
“Did you already get him something for his birthday?”
“Uh-huh.” Miya smiled with satisfaction when the sound of tinny trumpets indicating victory sounded out from his Switch. He paused the game and set it aside, then took out his phone and pulled up an order confirmation email. “I got him this stupid hoodie. It’s ugly and tacky, so I know he’s gonna like it.”
Langa peered at the screen. The hoodie looked very much like the one Miya typically wore, but in red and yellow and with dog ears instead of cat ones. “Did you get him that so you can match with him?”
“What?! No!” Miya snapped, his expression a mix of annoyance and embarrassment. He shoved his phone back in his pocket and reached for his game. “Why the hell would I wanna match with him? That’s stupid.”
Blinking, Langa glanced over at the bowl just as Koyomi skirted the coping. Her hoodie was red, just like Reki’s, and even though he couldn’t see them due to the distance, he knew that Koyomi had blue bows with Spannergon’s face on them to match Reki’s headband. “Koyomi’s matching with him.”
“Yeah, and they look dumb,” Miya muttered with a scowl as he hunched over his game. “Why would anyone want to match with their brother? Especially if their brother’s Reki. Not that I really care. I’m just doing Reki a favor by getting him something different so he’ll stop wearing the same five hoodies over and over again.”
“You sound . . .” Langa paused thoughtfully, mentally searching for the right word in Japanese to describe how Miya sounded. “Jealous.”
For a moment, Miya looked stunned. Then he huffed and hunched over his game again. “Well, I’m not. Why’d you ask what I got for him anyway?”
“I, um, don’t know what to get him.” Langa frowned and dragged the heel of his shoe across the dirt. “I really want to surprise him. What do you think will surprise him?”
“How should I know?” Miya asked and frowned at his game as the final boss broke through his character’s defenses. “You’re the one dating him. Just think of something you know about him that nobody else knows.”
“Something nobody else knows . . .” Langa’s eyebrows creased with concentration as he thought of the various things he knew about Reki that other people probably didn’t know. “He likes it when I kiss his—”
“Oh my god, Langa!” Miya cried and fumbled with his Switch, accidentally hitting the wrong button and moving his character out of hiding. With red cheeks, he turned to Langa and glared at him. “Don’t tell me anything about you two kissing! I don’t need to know where he likes being kissed, okay? God, it’s like hearing about my parents kissing.”
“Sorry,” Langa said, confused by Miya’s embarrassed reaction. “So what should I get him?”
Miya scowled at the Game Over sign flashing on the screen of his game and shoved his Switch in his pocket. “Why don’t you just ask him?” he groused.
“Because it needs to be a surprise.”
“Then ask Koyomi.”
“I did.”
“Looks like she’s on her way to give you a status report then,” Miya said as Reki’s sister skated over.
“Miya!” Koyomi exclaimed. “Did you see me? I almost got that invert down!”
“Didn’t see you, sorry,” Miya said as he stood up and stepped on his board. When Koyomi’s expression dropped in shock, he smirked and added, “But I didn’t hear you fall, so you probably did okay.”
Koyomi laughed and playfully punched him the arm. “Shut up! Quit playing games and go skate. My brother wants to race you through the tunnel.”
“Don’t tell me what to do,” Miya said with a good-humored roll of his eyes as he skated away in Reki’s direction.
With a huge sigh, Koyomi plopped down next to Langa and tugged on the collar of her shirt to fan herself. “Hey, Langa-kun, aren’t you gonna skate today?”
“Just taking a break,” Langa said quietly. He watched Reki and Miya race around the bowl complex for a few moments, then asked, “Did you find out what Reki wants for his birthday?”
“The usual stuff,” Koyomi said as she blew her bangs off her forehead “You know, skateboard supplies, paint, a new sketchpad, pencils, paint pens—oh, but you can’t get him those last three ‘cause I already got him that. You still don’t know what to get him?”
Langa shook his head. “No.”
“Why don’t you make him something? He’s always making stuff for other people, but nobody makes anything for him.”
Langa smiled softly. Reki delighted in working with his hands and Langa loved watching him make something new from things that other people would just discard, but Koyomi was right. Nobody really made things for Reki.
“If you want, I can help you,” Koyomi continued. “If you wanna try and make him a skateboard, I can keep him busy so you can use his garage. Just lemme know, okay?”
“Okay.”
With a grin, Koyomi jumped up and hopped back on her skateboard. She waved goodbye and skated away. Langa waved back and frowned thoughtfully. A skateboard made sense. Reki would love it and it would definitely be meaningful. Dope Sketch carried blank boards and it wouldn’t be too expensive with his employee discount, but would that really be good enough?
“Yo, Langa!”
Langa looked up just as Joe approached with an entourage of girls in tow.
“You look like you’re doing some serious thinking there,” Joe said. “Got something on your mind?”
“Uh, yeah,” Langa said. “I don’t know what to get Reki for his birthday.”
“I see.” Joe waved goodbye to the girls and sat down. “Reki’s not complicated. Get him some skateboarding stuff and he’ll be happy. Or if you really want to be fancy, make him something to eat. Every guy wants to eat something made by the person he cares about the most.”
“Koyomi thinks I should make him something. Maybe a skateboard, but I don’t want to make an ordinary one. I want to make something that’ll really surprise him.”
“What, like a board big enough for two people to skate on?” Joe said with a laugh.
Langa’s eyes widened. “Maybe that’s it. That’ll surprise him, right?”
“Uh, Langa, that was . . .” Catching sight of Langa’s animated expression, Joe trailed off and decided not to tell him that he’d been joking. “Sure, that’ll definitely surprise him.”
Langa sat back against the rock and smiled as he imagined how Reki’s face might look when he opened his present. There would be some logistical issues to work through—How exactly was he going to properly cut a long piece of wood into a skateboard shape without sawing off his fingers?—but surely he could ask Oka or somebody else for help on that.
“Langa!”
Reki skated up the outcropping with two water bottles in hand. He sat down next to Langa, knocking his knees against his, and held out one of the water bottles.
“Here,” Reki said. “Have some water. Hey, Joe.”
Langa took the water bottle and twisted the cap off. “Thanks, but you didn’t have to bring me any water.”
“Uh, yeah, I did,” Reki said with a smile. “I haven’t seen you skate at all tonight and that tells me the weather’s still too hot for you and you’re dehydrated, so drink.”
Langa chuckled. He’d gotten somewhat used to the warm, muggy nights in Okinawa, but there were days when the weather really was too much for him. Tonight wasn’t one of those nights, but he still appreciated Reki’s thoughtfulness.
“Hey, guess what?” Reki said eagerly. “I came up with a new idea for a skateboard. A two-person board!”
Langa choked on his water. Alarmed, Reki dropped his water bottle and slapped Langa on the back. Joe threw back his head and burst into laughter.
“You okay, dude?” Reki asked anxiously.
Langa nodded and gave Reki a thumb’s up, but on the inside, he was miserably thinking that now he had to get Reki something different for his birthday.