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“It’s not that funny,” Reki mumbled. Still wearing his blades, he’d shuffled from the snack station back toward the rink on rubber floors. His teeth chattered and his legs wobbled as he shifted back over onto the ice where Langa waited.
“It’s a little funny,” Langa said.
Reki pouted but clung to the wall.
At first, Langa had assumed that the long puffer jacket that Reki wore was to afford a little extra padding to his butt when he fell out on the rink.
And, while Reki’s legs had flown out from under him more than once and the padding certainly had rescued his tailbone, Langa quickly learned that Reki was simply cold.
“I’m not used to it. It’s not like Naha gets all that cold,” Reki mumbled. “And my mom made me wear it.” He pulled his fingers into air quotes as he pitched his voice up. “I’m cold just looking at you, Reki. Why do you torment you own mother like this!”
“I’m surprised you had something like that just laying around,” Langa said. He’d shoved his hands in his pockets, but even with short sleeves, sweat pants, and thick socks, the prickle of a chill radiating off the ice only made his heart beat with new life.
“Me too,” Reki said. “I think it was my dad’s maybe…” He stared down to where it fell just below his knees, long enough that it stifled his stride. Not that he felt confident to do much more than awkwardly scuttle from wall to wall anyway. He sighed. “I’m surprised you wanted to come down and do something like this. I thought snowboarding was more your scene. Or do Canadians come pre-equipped to do all the winter sports. What’s next, bobsledding?”
“Find me a sled and a mountain of snow and we’ll test that theory out,” Langa said, his tone as dry as ever. “I’m just average at ice-skating, but it’s something that my parents liked to do around the holidays when the lakes froze over back home.”
“Oh,” Reki murmured. “It must suck having traditions pulled out from under you like that. Do you miss it?”
“I miss my dad,” Langa said. “So it’s more I miss the time spent with him. But I’m finding new traditions and new ways to spend time with the people I care about.”
Langa stared out across the ice, where the cut of blades echoed across the rink and settled in with the murmur of conversation and tinkle of laughter. Most of the skaters were paired off, holding mittened hands, their scarves trailing behind the easy sway of their movement. Langa’s eyes trailed to Reki’s hands, still stuffed in his armpits, his elbows draped over the half wall, and he sighed.
Reki, however, stared glumly out at the mass of skaters. Somehow, the Christmas music wafting through loud speakers and the gold glitter of garlands running along the gating did little to lift his spirits. He stared down at his feet and clutched the wall tighter as his center of gravity threatened to upend itself once again. A gaggle of pre-schoolers drifted by in a chain of mittened hands, their supervisor leading the pack.
“Man, this kind of sucks… Even little kids are skating circles around me.”
“You’ll get the hang of it,” Langa said. “You just have to get back off the wall again.” He offered a hand to Reki.
His words fell on deaf ears. Reki now watched a couple play tag, darting through the crowd of skaters so deftly that every swerve was a near miss and yet the flow undisrupted. A sigh hollowed him. “You cool with ditching this place? I don’t think I’m having much fun…”
“WOOOOOO” A particularly loud holler rang out over the ice with the slice of blades kicking up into an airborne twist. The owner of the voice swerved into an arc upon landing, one foot still in the air.
Langa’s head whipped around. “Is that—?”
Reki followed his stare out to the far end of the ice, where Hiromi had pivoted to a dead halt. He wore ski pants and a black turtle neck tucked all the way up to his ears. Though he’d foregone his usual makeup, he’d spiked vibrant orange hair up.
“What’s Shadow doing here—?” Reki asked.
“I didn’t know he could skate,” Langa said.
Reki wobbled on his feet and clutched the wall harder. “Showoff….”
“And Oka…?”
Reki’s head snapped back up.
Oka, dressed similarly to Reki, scooted himself with halting grace over to Hiromi.
“Man, we all had the same idea, huh. If Cherry and Joe show up, I’m definitely out,” Reki mumbled.
“I think…they’re on a date,” Langa said, tugging Reki’s sleeve. “Look. They’re chatting.”
“There’s a snowball’s chance in hell,” Reki said, leaning forward as if he could catch their conversation from such a great distance. “I can’t decide who’d be more repulsed by the idea than the other, but they’re not each other’s type. Like at all.”
“Managerial is Shadow’s type,” Langa said. “In general.”
“Oka isn’t into punk clowns though,” Reki said.
Langa saw his chance. “Do you want to spy on them?”
“How?” Reki asked. “And they’d recognize us anyway if we got close enough to hear what they’re saying. It’s gotta be a coincidence and they’re just saying hi. Look, I’ll prove it by giving Oka an out.”
Reki shuffled around for his phone and used voice to ask it to call Oka. He put it on speaker, and the first ring snuffed out as Oka picked up.
“Everything good?” Oka asked.
“Yea, uh, just wondering what you’re up to. Shop’s closed and I’m bored.”
“Don’t you have friends to hang out with,” Oka said. “I’m a little busy right now.”
“Doing what?”
“Making a lasagna. Now go call Langa or something.”
The phone cut out and, across the ice, Oka shoved it back in his pocket. He and Hiromi seemed locked in an awkward shared laugh about it.
Reki frowned. “Okay. If he’s lying about it, something’s definitely up.”
Langa hummed and plucked the hood of Reki’s sweatshirt up out from under the collar of his coat and pulled it snug over his head. Then he unthreaded Reki’s scarf from around his neck and draped it loosely around his own shoulders so that it concealed his mouth and nose. Last, he took a pair of sunglasses someone had left laying on the wall to cover his eyes.
“There, just like a spy movie,” Langa said, offering his hands again. “Let’s get to the bottom of this.”
“Uh, and again, how,” Reki said. “I’m going nowhere fast.”
Langa pivoted to face Reki, holding out both of his hands. “Do you trust me? I won’t let you fall.”
Cautiously, Reki locked forearms with Langa. Langa eased him back out over the ice, skating backwards to pull him along.
“So far so good,” Langa said.
Reki nodded, eyes meeting Langa’s. He still wobbled, but Langa’s grip lent stability.
“There’s no need to go fast. You’ll work your way up to it. For now, let’s just glide. Sleuth style…” As he spoke, Langa had already started pulling them out toward the flow of traffic. The other skaters drifted easily past them, like a river pulling around a rock. They found an easy pace amongst the others and, slowly, Reki’s grip slacked enough that his fingers no longer dug into Langa’s skin and white knuckles found color again.
“Yes, move your feet just like that,” Langa said. “See how you can push off one at a time? It’s just like walking.”
“Yea, walking on knives without any friction,” Reki said. “But I see what you mean. It’s a bit easier once I get a little momentum going.”
“There’s a rhythm to it. Like pushing off on the skateboard. Push, balance, push, balance.”
Reki nodded. His stride became a little more steady, but he kept a loose grip on Langa.
Langa lowered his voice. “Okay, we’re nearly up on them. Act natural.”
“Right.”
“We can find cover in this group over here,” Langa said.
He drifted the pair into a gaggle of teenagers and matched the pace of their group. They chattered loudly about their next term of classes, lamenting the homework due when they returned. Someone said something silly and the whole group erupted into giggles.
Reki winced, but from where he was, he could just barely keep an eye on Hiromi and Oka just head of them.
They’d been chatting for quite some time, drifting easily side by side. Reki could only catch every other word.
“I mean, it is hard to shake Shadow once he gets going,” Reki reasoned. “That’s probably what’s happening. Oka’s a captive audience and he’s too polite to tell Shadow to beat it. It happens all the time in the shop with customers. For some reason everybody’s got their eyes on Oka.”
“Hmm, maybe,” Langa murmured.
Langa waited until the pair drifted past them, off to the side where both Langa and Reki could steal furtive glances over.
Hiromi and Oka eased to a stop and chatted a little longer. Hiromi scuffed his foot on the ice. Maybe it was just the chill of the room dusting pink across his cheeks. He was shivering because he was cold right?
Reki frowned, eyes widening.
Oka had slipped a hand into Hiromi’s, and the two launched in tandem down the ice. Reki was used to seeing a shit-eating grin on Hiromi’s face, but this smile seemed serene, a quiet thing. Shy almost.
And Oka’s smile matched, with a glint of laughter that tilted his head back.
“You’re shitting me,” Reki said. “You’re actually shitting me. They are on a date, holy shit.”
“Guess he got a date with a manager after all,” Langa said. “Wonder how long they’ve been hiding this…”
Reki groaned and released one hand from Langa’s grip to smear it down his face. “I feel like I’ve witnessed something terrible and forbidden.”
“Well, we did spy on them,” Langa said. “We took that risk knowing full well.”
Reki only groaned louder and longer. “Yeah, but what am I supposed to do with this information, Langa.”
Langa shrugged. One hand still captured in Reki’s mitten, he twisted around to match directions with Reki and urged him forward.
Reki had found some rhythm in the motion, and the pair kept time with one another, strides matching.
“How am I supposed to face Oka after this,” Reki continued.
Langa smiled in spite of himself and steered Reki around the end of the loop and back around.
He was a lot steadier on his feet, he noticed. More sure of himself. He’d wobble here and there, but he always found his balance and, if not, Langa was there to stabilize him.
“Like, it’s like my whole view of everything has shifted. I’m never going to emotionally or mentally recover from this.”
The pair cut across that same gaggle of teenagers and circumvented the fumbling cloud of toddlers.
“Like, you think you know a guy—“
“Hey Reki?” Langa said.
“What?”
“Race you back to the snack bar.” And he launched himself away from Reki, leaning low as he careened back toward the edge of the ice.
“Hey—no fair getting a head start—“ And without realizing that he’d been cut free and that he was skating on his own, Reki pummeled after him in a flash of his own blades.
The momentum through his hair and the ring of his blades against the ice bubbled into laughter when he realized he was flying.
And quickly pitched into a scream when he realized friction was not on his side. He barreled toward the wall, both hands shielding his face.
Langa caught him with an outstretched arm and the impact sent him crashing into the wall with him. The pair collapsed in a pile of limbs and blades and laughter.
“You should have seen your face,” Langa gasped as he climbed to his feet. He offered Reki a hand and pulled him back up. “When you saw that wall coming—“
“Not cool, dude. I could’ve ate shit—“
“I had you,” Langa said. He grinned as he set the pair of sunglasses back down on the top of the wall and loosened the scarf around his neck. He glanced up as Oka and Hiromi skated by, too wrapped up in eachother’s presence to notice them watching. “Anyway,” Langa continued. “Do you like it a little better now? Skating?”
Reki pressed a palm to his chest to feel the hammer of his heart and nodded. “Yeah, I think so. But you have got to teach me how to stop.”
“I can do that,” Langa said. “Now that you know how to go.”
Reki grinned. “I…wouldn’t mind doing this again next year. If you’re game. We can make a thing out of it.”
“I’d like that,” Langa said.