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Langa Hasegawa was always told that he wasn't a great gift giver. Well, he wasn't exactly told, but during the "Secret Santa" gift exchanges at his old school in Canada, he could tell that the person didn't like his gift. Which was saying something, since he wasn't normally good at reading facial expressions.
But he was determined to get Reki a good Christmas gift. He wasn't sure what he was going to get Reki yet, but it was going to be a good gift. Reki had told him that he would like anything that Langa gave him, but Langa had long since decided that he was going to find the perfect gift.
Maybe I should ask Joe and Cherry. Or his mom or sister. Langa thought.
He had lots of people to ask, but he wasn't sure where to start.
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Asking Joe and Cherry (oh, and Carla too!)
Langa decided to ask Joe and Cherry at S one night while he was with Reki, and he wasn't skating. He timed it perfectly, and went over to them at a point where they weren't fighting, and he wasn't wasn't with Reki, because the red-haired teen was with Shadow and Miya.
He approached the burly one first and tapped him on the shoulder. "Joe?"
"Huh? What? Where?" Joe startled, then when he looked down to see that it was only Langa, he let out a breath. "Woah, you scared me there, man! What can I do for you, Langa?"
"I need to get a good gift for Reki for Christmas, but I don't know what to get him." explained the teen, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. "I was hoping that you and Cherry could help."
"You know him better than the both of us, why are you coming to us for help?" Cherry interjected, raising an eyebrow.
Because I'm stupid and I'm an idiot. "Because I want input from a bunch of people so that I can like… combine them to make the perfect gift for Reki."
"Carla, what should Langa get Reki—" Cherry started, but Joe smacked him.
"Don't use your bot! That's not authentic." he chided, causing Cherry to hit him back.
"Stupid gorilla! Carla is not a bot, she's Artificial Intelligence. But I suppose idiots like you wouldn't know that." taunted the pink haired man, which caused the muscular one to fume.
Langa sighed and walked away. They were going to fight for the next while, and he likely wasn't going to get an answer out of them. He was better off trying someone else.
"God, Kaoru, we were supposed to help the kid! You and your stupid AI made him walk away—!"
"It was your fault for being useless!"
"You're calling me useless when you use a robot for everything? That's rich."
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Askin Miya
Miya wasn't much help.
In Miya's words exactly: "Just give him a kiss. You two are gay as fuck, and you still haven't kissed yet? That's the only advice I can give you idiots. Now screw off!"
Langa had flushed beet red and had immediately left.
So Miya was a scratch too.
And Langa really had no way to ask Reki's mom or sister without him noticing, because Langa would have to be physically at Reki's house, and that would probably entail Reki being there as well, so that was a bust.
It seemed like Langa was out of options except to use his own ideas.
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Step one
Langa had a semi-concrete idea.
He was going to get one of the unpainted skateboards from Reki's studio, and he was going to paint it for Reki. The only problem was going to be getting the blank skateboard.
Unless he could somehow trick Reki into giving him one, he would have to somehow steal it.
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Langa
13:42
hey reki, may i have a blank skateboard to paint?
Langa hoped that Reki wouldn't ask why. He crossed his fingers on both of his hands for good luck and prayed that somehow Reki would just give him the skateboard.
Reki is typing…
The Canadian sucked in a breath.
And then when he saw the message, he let out that breath.
Reki
13:45
yeah sure do you want me to drop it off at ur place or give ir to you at school
Langa told him to drop it off at his house, and celebrated that he hadn't asked any questions.
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Step Two
After Reki dropped off the skateboard, Langa set straight to work. He was going to paint the snow from Canada and cherry blossoms from Japan on the bottom, to match him and Reki. He thought that it would be a nice personal gift, since it combined both where he and Reki were from in something that they both liked; skateboarding.
Langa wasn't the best artist, but he wasn't bad either.
Some of the details were wonky, and he wasn't exactly sure how to make it look like snow was falling from the sky, but he made it work, even though the snow kind of looked like tiny globs of white.
He was proud of his cherry blossoms, though. They looked relatively realistic and pretty. The tree on the snowy side looked good as well, but it was sort of covered up by globs of white "snow".
When Langa finished, he was very happy with the results, and could only hope that Reki would like it.
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Step Three: Christmas
"Merry Christmas, Langa! Merry Christmas Langa's mom!" Reki said happily, hugging Langa and waving to Reki's mom as they entered the door. "Thanks for coming for Christmas dinner!"
"No, we should be thanking you!" Langa's mom said, shaking her head. "It's so kind that you invited us."
"Nah, it's no biggie." Reki said with a shrug. "The more the merrier, right Langa?"
Langa just nodded dumbly.
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Langa decided to give Reki his gift privately once they were all done the festivities, and they were camping out in his room, discussing something that was going on at S.
Holding the packaged skateboard, Langa was only half paying attention, because he was waiting for the perfect moment to jump into the conversation and gift the skateboard to Reki.
Once Reki started talking about Christmas and the gifts his mom gave him, Langa butted in. "Speaking of gifts, I brought you something." he said hesitantly.
"Really! Oh god, what is it?" Reki said, his entire face lighting up.
Langa held out the messily wrapped skateboard. "Here. You look for yourself."
When Reki opened it, he looked a little confused because it wasn't showing the painting, but when he flipped it over, he gasped. "…Langa. Did you paint this?"
The blue haired boy nodded.
"For me?"
He nodded again.
"Holy fuck. This is…" Reki looked flabbergasted. "I've…never been given a gift like this. I'm not even kidding."
"Really?"
"Really really."
Langa felt proud that he had gotten Reki a gift that shocked him this much, but he had to make sure that he liked it. "You… like it, right?"
"Like it?" Reki looked as if he were offended that Langa had even asking the question. "God, I don't even know what to say? Like I don't know whether I should hug you, thank you or kiss you—"
Langa paused. "What?"
"Hug you, thank you or kiss you?" Reki repeated, then flushed. "Oh, yep. I see what I said."
"I mean… I wouldn't be mad if you… in theory did?" Langa squeaked out, also blushing like crazy.
"Wait, for real?"
Langa was back to nodding.
"Awesome. C'mere, then."