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OK, so this was a little more embarrassing than Reki had planned. His fingers dug into the couch pillow he was holding trying to stay strong. It didn’t help. He could feel his nose start to drip.
“NOOOOOOOO!” Nanaka screamed, instantly triggering Chihiro’s tears as well. Even Koyomi couldn’t stop a sniff from escaping her.
Reki had looked up at the movie at the worst possible time, really.
—
The weekend hadn’t started the greatest.
The Kyan parents were taking Grandma off to visit some distant family overnight, leaving Reki and his three little sisters alone. He was used to babysitting but it always kinda sucked when it happened on an S night with an interesting beef. Oh well.
Reki: hey can u film joe + shadow’s beef tonite?
Langa: ?
Reki: did u forget i’m on babysitting duty this weekend?
The long pause before Reki got a response said pretty much everything.
Langa: but I wanted to skate today :(
Reki let out a loud sigh. Since he was currently wearing a princess crown and the twins were tying his hair into pigtails with scrunchies, that wasn’t happening.
Even if it was super cute when Langa pouted and sulked about having to stay away from Reki. Reki’s heart fluttered a little. Stupid crush. Nonetheless—
Reki: u can come over if u want. We’re going to stream some movie their classmates love
Five minutes later, Langa still hadn’t responded. Reki had been really hoping that Langa would want to come over anyway. Alas, he knew exactly what face Langa was making right now: the one he always made when Nanaka or Chihiro were anywhere nearby.
It took a whole lot of effort for Reki to not burst into laughter. His best friend was so afraid of his baby sisters it was hilarious. If he even so much as heard little footsteps in the hallway outside Reki’s door he would freeze.
Reki: don’t worry dude. We’ll go tomorrow afternoon, my parents’ll be back
Another long pause.
Reki could just about hear Langa agonizing over what to do. Such a drama queen.
“Done!” Nanaka declared, sticking a hairclip into the pigtail she’d made in Reki’s hair. “We’re hungry!”
Reki crossed his fingers, then shot off one last text before heading to the kitchen.
Reki: lemme know if u change ur mind. Gotta go order lunch!
—
And change his mind Langa did, because he showed up pouting not too long after. God, he was so cute. Reki’s heart started pounding when he saw Langa shuffling awkwardly past one of the twins through the door.
Apparently, pizza delivery was strong enough of an incentive to come over despite Reki’s sisters’ presence. He was going to have to remember that.
—
The movie his sisters wanted to watch was pretty good. The music was sick, Reki already had plans to make skateboard decks with those designs, and one of the characters even skated. (For like, only three seconds but there was backstory there!)
The whole time, Langa kept pestering him with skating memes he found, totally uninterested in the movie. Reki’s neck was starting to hurt from looking at the movie when Chihiro yelled, “LOOK!” and then Langa jabbing him in the side and shoving his phone in Reki’s face hissing, “LOOK!”
God, it was like Reki was babysitting three toddlers sometimes.
And yet, he still couldn’t be mad at Langa. The videos he was showing Reki while hanging off his shoulder were pretty sick. His warm hand on Reki’s shoulder and leaning in toward his face was practically giving Reki a heart attack.
He was probably going to end up with whiplash after this.
Reki somehow still had a decent grasp on the movie’s plot and attachment to the characters by the time the film was at its climax. He was on the edge of his seat watching the heroes stand off against the villain. He’d completely forgotten Langa, to be honest.
Big mistake.
Reki had no idea if Langa just had terrible timing or if he was actually jealous of Reki paying attention to the movie. Because Langa just had to go and ruin the moment building up on the TV by shoving his phone in Reki’s face again.
“Hey, can you teach me this trick?”
“JEEZ, LANGA!”
Reki shoved Langa’s hand out of the way. Just in time to see the very heartbreaking moment playing on the screen. Oh god, what this movie was doing to him! His sisters started tearing up and Reki could feel his own heart throb in pain, Langa forgotten. These characters were just so good. Reki sniffed.
Koyomi sniffed.
The twins sobbed.
Langa sulked about being shoved aside. Reki would have laughed at his best friend if Langa hadn’t suddenly put an awkward hand on his shoulder.
“There, there,” he said robotically. Reki’s heart melted and his tears stopped. Langaaaaaa. He had no clue what was happening in the movie but he wanted to comfort Reki anyway. The tears in his eyes were from happiness now at the gentle touch from his crush. Reki wiped his eyes with the sleeve of his hoodie.
Then Reki looked over.
Langa was already fucking back to looking at skate TikToks on mute with his other hand while everyone else broke down. And he made the moment even worse when he opened his big fat mouth to say, “Do we still have more pizza?”
“SERIOUSLY, DUDE?”