Chapter Text
In a fistfight it’s seen as disrespectful to throw a punch to the face with a thumb pointed in the eye. “Playing dirty” is what they call it.
Miya looks at him, face horrified by the words in the air. Like Reki is about to fight for his honor. But he doesn't really care about Miya right now. Reki just looks at the man standing tall, standing egotistically proud in front of his friend, encroaching on his personal space.
Why doesn't Langa mind? Is he stupid? Reki furrows his brows at them both, scrunching his nose up in disgust.
He doesn't say much about it later on. It's not his place to pry on Langa's feelings. He's his own person with his own moral compass. He's made his own fucking stubborn decisions. It's none of his business if the boy wants to kill himself at seventeen, racing at 120km/h speed against...Adam.
Adam. The mention of his name sends a nauseating feeling spiking through Reki's nervous system. He looks at his hands, one of them still tightly bandaged. His hands built Langa his board. The board that won him so many races at S. The board that gave him the opportunity to race Adam.
Reki shakes his head, desperately trying to catch himself before he spirals into a hole he can't get of. There's no fucking way this is his fault. He was just trying to be a helpful. A good friend. Reki clenches his fist, feeling the calluses on his fingers itch against his sweaty palms. He's good at building boards, so obviously he would do it.
"This isn't my fault." He whispers to himself, the words coming out like sandpaper against his tongue. Is it his problem that Langa decided to go fuck off and race the man that had tried to kill him? That was constantly sexualizing him? Is it?
"Did you say something?" He hears Langa say out his left ear.
Reki doesn't bother turn to him.
"Is something wrong, Hasegawa?" The teacher asks, saving Reki's pride from having to stumble through any kind of explanation.
"No." Langa sighs. He must have thought he was just imagining things. "I apologize for my disruption."
But, isn’t fighting always dirty? It doesn’t really make sense to have clean rules when blood will be spilt regardless. No. Time passes and people leave and lie. And people run and break promises. Fighting isn't always dirty. Not when both sides care about the outcome.
He assumed his mind would clear itself of all his pointless anxieties once he and Langa made up. He looks over the rail, at the horizon of stacked houses and busy roads, as he skates through the tunnel that lead to the place he was supposed to meet his closest friend. He closes his eyes around the thought of Langa being there, excited to see him. Ready to start their day together.
It didn’t make sense for him to still be upset, right? They’d made up. They’d apologized to each other.
So, why did he feel so empty still?
"Reki!" He turns to sound of the familiar voice. Langa smile upon seeing him glows, his hands wave excitedly to grab his attention. Foot firmly placed on his board, he seems raring to go and greet him properly, waiting only for the confirmation that Reki does, in fact, want that kind of attention today. Reki smiled weakly. He seemed so happy to see him. He'd truly meant everything he'd said, didn't he? He only got excited skating with him. Skating with Reki must have meant the world to him, right? Reki shook his head and skated to him, the biggest smile he could manage plastered across his face.
But, if both sides get hurt, at the end of the day, the outcome doesn't really matter now, does it?
"You're Reki, right?" A girl looks down at him inquisitively. Reki looks up from the board he was fixing, taking a few moments to merely, stupidly blink at her. Her long brown hair reaches down to her the middle of her back, pushed away from her face with a green ribbon headband. Her eyes are wide. Her smile is polite, a sliver of her white teeth shine through. Her friends are giggling in the background, one of them crossing their fingers.
"That's me." Reki affirms, returning the girl's polite smile. "What's up?"
"May I sit?" The girl puts her hands in front of skirt, nervously fiddling with the lining.
Reki swallows. "Uh...Su-"
"Are you ready to go?" Langa's voice enters from what feels like very far away. Moving his eyes away from the girl, he turns to his friend, who is, in reality, standing very close to him. He seems upset for some reason. Reki furrows his brows, suddenly concerned by his friend's negative demeanor. Then he hears the girl's friends start to whisper about being so close to SNOW, each one daring the other to go talk to Langa. And Langa, despite being in the same earshot, doesn't seem to notice. Or he doesn't seem to care.
Reki looks down and thinks for a moment. "Yeah. Just a second." He tells Langa. He turns back to the girl. She really is quite pretty. "What's your name?" He hears himself saying.
The girl's smile turns from polite to thrilled. "Watanabe Ami."
Reki returns the smile, ignoring the borderline aggressive aura radiating from his friend beside him. "I'm Kyan Reki. Do you have a pen?"
The girl frantically digs through her bag for a moment, then hands him a pen. Without hesitating, Reki takes her hand in his. He uncaps the pen and scribbles numbers on her soft palm. When he's done, he looks at it for a moment, running his thoughts over the idea of spending time with this girl. It'd probably be fun, right? A date? He's heard that they tend to be.
"Okay, Watanabe-san." He smiles and picks himself up off the ledge he was sitting on, board in hand. "I'll see you around."
The girl grins at him. "See you, Reki." She waves and turns back to her friends with a giddy expression on her face.
He watches her go, a smirk unknowingly crossing his face. Yeah. It could be fun, he thinks to himself. He turns back to Langa who is watching the girl go, a death glare situated on his expression. "What was that?" He says through gritted teeth. It's the most annoyed Reki has seen him in a while.
Reki furrows his brows. "What's your problem?" He pushes past him, making his way towards Shadow's. "Wish she'd talked to you instead?" Reki says bitterly. Of course, Langa wanted all the girls to be infatuated with him. He wants everything, doesn't he?
Fucking dick.
In the end, it's you that decides what really matters to you.
Reki wakes up with a soft hand on his chest. Ami is still asleep, forehead nuzzled against his side. He checks the time on his bedside clock. 3:52am. He sighs. It's gonna be hard to go back to sleep. He wonders if it's even worth it to try. He looks at his girlfriend. She'll probably be asleep for another few hours. '
Maybe he'll see if Langa's awake.
He shakes his head aggressively, trying to remove the thought of his friend from his mind. He doesn't want to disturb him.
And the two of them have been drifting apart recently.
It's not Reki's fault. It can't be.
Langa just seems more... hesitant around him than usual. Like there's always something he wants to tell him, but can't. Like the words will break him if they ever left his mouth. When Reki asked him if he wanted to talk about it, promising that he'd be as nonjudgemental as possible, Langa just shook his head, expression pained. Reki didn't want to pry further.
So, he didn't. It's not his fault.
Maybe, he'd just go for a ride around town. Clear his mind.
He looks at Ami, snoring quietly on his pillow.
She really is pretty.
And their relationship has been...nice.
Very nice actually. They'd only been together for three months and, yet, he found that he felt at ease enough to introduce her to his friends and family. And Ami was so kind to him and so gentle in the ways she comforted him. She always laughed with him when he fell. She promised she was going to learn how to skate so they could ride beside each other.
And she'd said she loved him. And Reki had...
He swallowed and got up to throw on some clothes and grab his board. He quickly left a note on his desk that read "BE BACK SOON" in case she woke up. He looked back at her one last time before opening his window and skating down the ramp into the empty streets.
The sound of board rolling down the tar is the only thing interrupting the cicadas echoing through the night. Reki cruises down the street, muscle memory leading him to the skate park he and Langa used to hang out in excessively. He takes a deep breath and skates up to one of the vert ramps, wondering if it's worth it to practice a trick at four in the morning.
"Hey!" A voice comes from behind him. Reki doesn't recognize it. He gears himself to run presuming it's the cops about to tell him off for breaking into public property.
"Wait! I'm not a cop!"
Okay... Nevermind then.
Reki slowly turns to the man coming towards him. The first thing he notices is that he's tall. His black hair falls in to his eyes. His style indicates that he's also a skater, albeit a little older than Reki.
"Do you need something?" Reki says curiously.
"Nah." The man says. "But you do."
Reki laughs. What the fuck? "I do? Do I even know you, dude?"
"Nah. You don't know me." The man takes out a cigarette from his pocket. "But I recognized you from S."
Reki snorts. The idea of someone recognizing him from there still felt obscene. If it weren't for that race with Adam, he'd probably still be a no name. "That's cool, dude. Can I help you?"
The man smiles a full toothed smile. The sight of it sends chills up Reki's spine. He keeps his face blank, however, unwilling to let his unease show.
"I think you can, Reki." The man says proudly. "I know a group of people that would be really excited to meet you."