𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑 | L. HASEGAWA

いち

꒰ 01 ꒱ ── 12:34 am ❜

You pushed the shop door open, greeting the manager as you had so many times before. This time, there was a new person in the shop- though you paid no attention to him.

"Yo, Oka-San!" You leaned against the counter, the fox sniffed at your hands and pressed its head against your palms, "is Reki in?"

"He should be in the back- I think he's working on a new board,"

"Cool, thanks!" You popped up from the counter, startling the fox. You walked to the back of the shop, sticking your head through the doorway and seeing Reki squatting low to the ground with a skateboard in front of him, "Hey, Reki,"

"Oh, hey, [ y/n ], what's up?"

"You going to 'S' tonight?"

"Of course, why?" He glanced up at you, rolling the board under his flattened palm

"Good- I'm skating tonight,"

"What? Against who?"

"I don't know," the chuckle that left your lips made Reki's face twist into one of confusion, "I didn't get his name,"

Reki stopped the board's movement, shifting to a sitting position with his arms over his knees.

"And you just accepted?"

"Well, he did follow me down the street." You stated rather blandly, holding your hands behind your back as you leaned against the wall, "I couldn't really say no- something about him wanting to have a name for himself in 'S' or something," you waved your hand around in a dismissive way, "he didn't stand out very much like the other skaters, he is probably new to 'S'." Your eyes then landed on his arm, which was wrapped up in white bandages. You squatted next to him taking ahold of his arm.

"What happened?"

"My Beef with 'SHADOW' did not end very well," he said with a small chuckle.

"Of course- I warned you about him didn't I?"

"Yeah, well..." his voice faded into nothing as he failed to give you a reason; you shook your head, unsurprised by his recklessness.

"Of course," you sighed, "well, I'm off- just wanted to tell ya I'm skating tonight,"

"See ya tonight!" Reki called after you when you left the shop's backroom. Picking up the board you rested against the doorframe upon coming and nodding towards Oka, you left.

➽───────❥

Your foot was pressed against the board being held in one of your hands. You looked around, taking in the surrounding cheers and shouts of the crowd eager to see the Beef.
Reki shot a wink in your direction sticking his hand up in a thumbs up. You responded with a grin and a peace sign. Glancing towards your opponent, who you still did not know the name of, he was a smaller boy with shaggy brown hair tied back in a tiny ponytail at the base of his head; you gave him a nod, which he returned.

The Beef was quick to start.

You weaved along the paved road, dropping your center to speed up on the downhill. You glanced back shortly, seeing the boy coming up close behind you. He moved to your right, and you went farther to the right soon after. You followed each of his movements, blocking any opportunity he may have had to pass you.
You flipped the board under your feet as you kept swerving from each side of the pavement.
You turned around over your shoulder. Your feet slowly dancing across the top of the board as if you were an excited child impatiently having to wait in a line.
Your eyes locked onto your current opponent, giving him a smile. He looked at you with a look of pure surprise, obviously, he had never seen anyone stand on their board in the opposite direction they were moving, at least not with his own eyes, especially at the speed you were going.
You only turned around to see the path ahead of you as you neared the abandoned factory. Lowering your core once again, you sped up.
The main paved road of 'S' was the easy part- the abandoned factory is where it got tricky.
You had to position your board straight ahead of you to go where you wanted, wary of the old, weak metal underneath you. If it were to give out under either you or the boy behind you, you'd both go down with it. You flipped the board up and onto the metal railing before reaching the end of the metal walkway.

You felt the impact spread through your legs as you and your board landed on the stone floor rather hard.
The still-unnamed boy was less fortunate, his board came out from under his feet when he landed, making him fall square on his ass.

"Nice race," you said, offering your hand to help him up, "let's do that again sometime, 'kay?"

"Sure," he took your hand, hoisting himself up, "I'll be better next time,"

"We'll have to wait and see about that..." you paused, still unsure of what to call him.

"Hirohiko,"

"See you around then, Hirohiko,"

➽───────❥

"Reki!" you chirped, sticking your hand up and waving to him, shifting the board in your hands.

"[ y/n ]!" He grinned, holding up his fist and bumping it against your own before tossing his arm over your shoulders, pulling you down, "great job!" He said with a cheeky grin.

"Thanks!" you laughed half-sheepishly, letting your arms hang down and resting your head against his side, "it's been a while since I've skated," you glanced up at the person standing across from Reki, pulling your head from Reki's arm, "oh- are you the 'SNOW' that I've started to hear all about? I didn't know you knew Reki,"

"My name is Langa,"

"Oh, sounds foreign, cool!" You gave him a smile, "I'm [ y/n ] but they call me 'EMBER'... I don't know why- but they do,"

"He's from Canada," Reki said, nudging your side.

"Nice; how long have you been skating? I mean- I heard you were a snowboarder before or something like that,"

"That's right," he said, "I only started skating a week ago, maybe less than that,"

"A week!" Your eyes widened, thankfully you were standing on your board otherwise you may have had it slip out from under you, "and you beat shadow? That's super impressive! I've been skating for years and I managed to beat him by dumb luck!"

"Yeah, sure, 'Dumb Luck'" Reki rolled his eyes, doing air quotation marks with his fingers.

"Sure, sure," you nodded your head followed by an eye roll, "Say, Langa-Kun, we should skate sometime; maybe we could even have a beef,"

"I accept," he said, obviously excited about skating against you, especially after watching your Beef.