Chapter Text
Reki wasn’t sure when he fell in love with Langa. But he was pretty sure it was when Langa duct taped his feet to an old broken board and skated like the wind was disappearing and he was trying to catch up with it. When he made it snow on a warm night.
Langa is his best friend. One of his only friends. He couldn’t give that up. So what was he to do? Hide his feelings and suffer in silence? Or confess and risk losing the one person he loves the most?
He decided to ask Joe for help. Joe has experience in the love department, right? So one night at S, while Langa was chatting with Miya and Shadow, he asked, trying to be covert about it.
“Hey, Joe,” He asked, quietly. “Have you ever fallen in love with someone…close to you? Like your best friend? Or something like that?”
Joe gave him a long look, and a small, smug smirk. Joe knew exactly what was going on, but played dumb. “Well, yeah. I guess.”
“How’d you…deal with that? Did you confess?”
“Nope.”
“What? But why? What would happen if you did?”
“I didn’t need to confess. We just kind of…fell together. Helped that we’ve been friends since we were teenagers.” He smiled fondly, remembering his teen years with Cherry.
“Teenagers…?” He thought for a moment. Who the hell was Joe’s friend back then? “Wait, are you talking about CHERRY?”
“Who else would I be talking about? Just don’t tell him I told you, he’s under the impression everyone’s clueless about our relationship.”
“Everyone IS clueless!”
“Not anymore, thanks to you,” Kaoru said, from behind them. “You dumbass gorilla, I told you not to tell anyone!”
“I didn’t! He figured it out, four-eyes!”
“Oh shut up, asshole! You made it obvious!”
“He was bound to find out eventually! Besides, he needs help bagging Langa. The kid’s hopeless.”
A huge blush spread across Reki’s face. If you looked closely, you could even see steam coming out of his ears.
“Wha- I never said anything about Langa! Or me! This isn’t about me! I was just curious! That’s all!” He exclaimed, waving his hands around wildly and then covering his beet-red face.
“It's pretty obvious you’re in love with him, Reki.” Cherry sighed. The kid really was hopeless.
“N-no, I’m not!”
“Your face tells a different story.”
“Shut up!”
Hearing all the commotion, Langa walked over to where the three skaters were standing.
“Is everything okay?” He asked, a concerned look on his face. “I heard yelling.”
“E-everything’s great! We were just talking! About, uh, cars!” Reki said, smiling awkwardly and scratching the back of his neck. “Just cars!”
“Cars?” Joe said, raising an eyebrow and half-smiling. This was fucking hilarious.
“Yes, cars, Joe!”
“Oh, okay. Cool. I’m gonna go back to talking with Miya now. I want to race with him.” Langa said, giving them a look before turning back around and walking back to where Miya and Shadow were standing.
“Have funnnnn!” Reki yelled after him. Once the blue-haired boy was out of sight, he turned on Joe. “Idiot! You could have given me away!”
“I thought you weren’t in love with him?” Cherry asked cooly.
“I-I’m not!”
“Keep telling yourself that, kid.” Joe laughed.
“I’m not in love with him!”
“Yeah, yeah, we believe you.” Joe said, wiping a small tear from his eye. Cherry couldn’t help but laugh as well. Not very loudly, but a laugh all the same.
Reki sighed, looking over at Langa and watching him talk to Miya. A cool breeze swept across the concrete, blowing Langa’s hair around in a blue flurry. He wondered how soft his hair was. It looked like he took good care of it. When he thought about it, Langa looked like a snowflake. Sort of fitting.
Joe and Cherry looked at each other, both amused by Reki’s behavior. He was still red in the face. Slinging an arm around Cherry, Joe spoke up again.
“Well, Langa’s about as oblivious as they get, so if you want anything with him, you’re going to have to tell him how you feel.”
Reki sighed. “Yeah, I know. I just…don’t want to ruin anything.”
“I sincerely doubt that you’ll ruin it. Langa feels the same way for you. It’s blatantly obvious.” Cherry said, shoving Joe’s arm off. “And what did I tell you about PDA, you ape?”
“Oh, shut up! I do this with everyone!”
“You know I don’t like to be touched!”
“Do I look like I give a shit?”
“Don’t you make me get Carla, asshole.”
“Oh, I’m soooo scared!”
As Joe and Cherry continued arguing in the background, Reki looked up at the night sky, taking in the stars.
“Will I ever be able to tell him how I feel?”