Falling (Reki/Langa)

-1-

The first time it happens, Reki doesn't do it on purpose. It's just a small thing, something his mom always used to do. It's only when he's holding Langa's hand a second later, when he realises that most guys don't kiss their friends hand to make the pain go away.

Langa is staring at him, his blue eyes wide. "Ah, I'm sorry it's just-" But before Reki could continue apologizing, Langa had already shrugged it off. He quickly grabbed his skateboard and rolled away, back to practising.

Reki is still a little dumbfounded. Why, pray tell, did he decide to do that? To be honest, Langa just looked so pitiful. Holding up his hand like he didn't know what to do with it... Reki was trying to teach him to make a quick turn, when Langa had fallen. He had landed on his hand in an unfortunate way. Quick to help, Reki had grabbed it to inspect it. Luckily there weren't any signs of broken bones or anything else. Just a small scrape. Must've been shock then. While sitting there, his eyes shooting from Langa's sad eyes to his sore hand, Reki had moved without thinking.

Oddly enough, Reki could still feel his lips tingling where they had touched skin.

"Reki!" ,Langa shouted from a distance, shocking him out of his train of thought "Reki, what am I doing wrong?"

"I'm coming!" Reki ran towards Langa, shaking his head to rid of his worries, believing that would be the end of it.

As it turns out, it wasn't.

Just a few days later, Langa fell over a small rock in his way. He fell on his side, badly bruising his elbow. "I'm still not used to the extra friction." He told Reki, who was inspecting the wound. "Falling over such a small thing... I did see it, I just didn't realize the damage it would do!" Reki laughed. "Well, you have to be careful. You might be used to using an entire board to glide over a surface, but this isn't the case on a skateboard! Essentially, you're standing on four small wheels... Block one of them, and well-" he signatured at the bruise "you might make a nasty fall!" Langa frowned, obviously not sure what to do with this piece of information. Meanwhile, Reki had finished his inspection. "You got lucky again! No serious harm" Reki softly slapped the bruise, as to prove nothing was wrong. "Ouch!" Langa retracted his arm, looking even more displeased. "I must say, I preferred the kiss" "Eh?" "Well, it hurts less." He explained dryly, as if he didn't just say something outrageous. "Well, I could still give a little magic kiss" Reki joked. Langa's answer was without hesitation and immediate. "Yes please" He held up his elbow. Reki, too shocked to do anything, stayed still. It only took a few seconds before Langa pressed his elbow to Reki's lips himself. "Thank you!", He cheered. "Wait-" But Langa was gone. Again. He seemed to have quite the talent for leaving Reki questioning.

Langa had quickly gone back to skating, after he had thoroughly searched for small objects of which he was low-key convinced were out to get him. Reki couldn't really describe the feeling as anything other than odd. That's probably why he was blushing as well.

In the coming weeks, Reki kept wondering about a few things. Langa had lived in Canada for quite a while, hadn't he? Maybe this was more common practice to do this over there. He didn't seem shy or bothered about these kisses at all. He's from a different background, so maybe he doesn't understand how weird this is to me. And that brings us to the second point. Because despite being quite aware of the fact that people don't usually kiss their friends pain away, Reki didn't mind it. Why didn't he mind it? It had never been normal for him to kiss his friends... Even his mom hadn't really done it since he was a kid.

Despite Reki's identity crisis, life went on. Which of course meant skate practice went on. And while Langa might have been brilliant during his first race in S, he was still clearly a beginner during practice. And being a beginner, meant falling. Falling meant bruising. And bruising meant... Kissing?

Oh, yeah. That was the third thing Reki kept wondering about. If he found it so weird to kiss Langa, then why had it become so normal for them? Because they didn't stop after those two kisses. Nope. From that point onwards, whenever Langa fell, Reki was there to help. At this point, he had kissed his hands a multiple times. His elbows, his arm... Reki had kissed Langa's knees four times in total, which he had specifically counted for some reason.

Langa also sprained his ankles a few times, which Reki hadn't kissed. Which means there were... two times he hadn't kissed Langa better when he had hurt himself. Wait, was it two or three times now tha- "OOMPH-" Reki had been so distracted, he had skated right into a WALL. God. The last time that happened must've been... Five, six years ago? How embarrassing.

"Reki! Are you alright?" Langa came rushing towards him. He knelt down besides Reki, and quickly set down his board. "Was it a rock?" Langa asked very seriously. He still felt very strongly about rocks. And not in a good way. "No it wasn't- and I'm fine, thank you" Reki wanted to get up, but Langa gently held him back. "Wait. Look at my finger", he demanded, as he swayed it around. Reki followed it. Langa continued to ask him a few questions. Reki knew this was just to check whether he didn't have a concussion, but it was a bit embarrassing nonetheless. "Okay good. Now blink" Reki obeyed. "Everything seems to be okay!" Langa cheerfully announced. "Though this might be a sign that this is enough practice for today" Reki agreed, still a bit out of it.

"Well then" Langa tapped him on the forehead "we best be moving on" He moved forward, and pressed a gentle kiss on his brow. He held it there for just a second before he pulled away. Then Langa reached out his hand, and pulled Reki up. "Let's go" Langa grabbed his board from the ground, and tucked it under his arm. "Let's get some Italian food!" He seemed pretty set on it, as he was already walking in the right direction.

But Reki didn't immediately follow. He was still frozen in place, watching his friend walk away. His face was burning, tingling even.

"Oh.", he whispered.
"That's why I didn't mind..."