365 Days

8

"On three. 1... 2...3!" Reki said taking it off, and Langa couldn't help gape, mesmerized by the sight: in front of him was a number of obstacles that would be found in a skate park.

"I didn't know there was another skate park." Langa smiled at the beauty of the neat slopes and metal beams, walking toward a banked ramp.

Reki put his headband back on, rushing to him, putting his left arm on Langa's right shoulder leaning on him.

"There isn't." Reki said, watching Langa whip his head around quickly.

"Then... who did all this?"

"Who do you think?" Reki laughed. Langa looked into his Reki's eyes, that looked like something he couldn't describe. He knew there had to be a word for it, but for some odd reason, his brain couldn't catch up with his feelings.

"Reki..." Langa trailed, looking back at the man-made park. "It's amazing... but when? And how?"

"I was hoping you'd ask that. Wait here, I'll be right back." Reki ran to get big parchment of paper and pencil from his backpack, then ran to the dip of the half pipe, gesturing Langa to follow.

As Langa and Reki settled themselves, Reki unraveled the rolled parchment to show a map.

"So, when you took an extra shift at the shop, I would go to "S" and do beefs and stuff, but I didn't have much to do outside of that." He explained. "So, I start roaming around Okinawa and I found this place. It was abandoned, totally left to rot."

"I still don't understand." Langa slouched, looking at the map in confusion.

"Well, if you'd let a guy finish his sentences." Reki groaned. Langa scoffed and shook his head, gesturing him to continue.

"Anyways, we can always go to a bunch of places, but we don't really have a place that belongs to us and only us. So, I looked into this place and I found something out." Reki said, picking up his pencil and beginning to draw circles.

"That's my house, then that's yours. The school's over there, the shop's right here, and then the skate park is right there." Reki said, pointing at the circles.

"Okay..."

"If you put them in lines, then the intersection of all the locations is right here." Reki continued, drawing lines to meet and drawing a circle where they all met. "That's this place. Langa, we're basically sitting in the center of our everything."

Langa lost himself the all the lines and circles, knowing damn well that those very lines and circles were meant to represent them. Those lines represented their story, which was light years away from being over.

"Reki, that's..." Langa trailed, keeping his focus on the circle in the middle.

"There's one more thing I'm dying to show you, come here." Reki said as he grabbed Langa's hand, dragging him to the right side of the half pipe.

He let Langa go, tracing his finger around the flat surface. His face brightened up as he found what he'd been looking for.

"Langa, here! Look at this." Reki said, tapping on Langa's shoulder. Langa leaned to see what Reki was pointing at and smiled again for what felt like the hundredth time since he arrived.

"It's a snowflake.... and a flame?" Langa said, touching the semi-rough texture of the drawings.

"Yeah, because they call you Snow at "S" and they've been calling me Wildfire...'cause once I get fired up—"

"Nothing or no one can stop you." Langa finished. Reki smiled as he moved his hand closer to the snowflake, unintentionally entangling his fingers with Langa's.

"Yeah, well, no one except you." Reki added. "We're like fire and ice, you know? You can cool me down when I'm out of control and I can fire you up. We balance out, you know?" Reki said, leaning his head on the wall beside him.

"Yeah, we do." Langa replied, tangling their fingers into a deeper handhold.

Neither of them dared to look away or let go, afraid of what would happen if they did.

The longer Langa looked into Reki's eyes, the more the word he'd been looking for previously became more clear. The look in Reki's eyes was fire—complete and raging fire.

It was attracting—he was.

It was near silent, with just a little breeze blowing on their clothes. As cold as it was, Reki had never been so warm. His cheeks must've been as red as his hair and he couldn't look away. How could he?

Langa was a blue paradise that had saved him from loneliness, heartbreak, and Shiro. He was a true hero, but most of all... he was Reki's.

Reki knew all too well what was right and what was wrong, but he learned and he could do better. Feeling what was right and acting on it are and always have been two completely different things that after a long time, he figured out how to do it right—how to feel.

Once Reki brought his full consciousness and attention back to Langa, he began to notice their space getting thinner.

Langa slowly moved himself closer to Reki, bringing their intertwined hands down to their waists. As he leaned into Reki, he felt everything in him tighten, but not even that could stop him.

Though Langa had no clue what he was even doing, Reki did. And the reason he knew was because he had those intentions once, too. The real question now was if he was allowed to do it again.

They had known each other for months now, they trusted each other more than anything in life, and Langa was the one that leaned in first so it had to have been okay. Then again, three years is definitely longer but even that wasn't long enough.

"You're still paying right?" Reki blurted, as Langa came dangerously close, causing him to stop.

"What?" Langa backed off, blinking rapidly, as if to bring himself back to reality.

"You lost by default, so you're still paying right?" Reki asked, looking away from him.

"Oh... yeah, I can still pay." Langa nodded, looking down at their hands, pulling them apart. "Sorry, I didn't mean to..."

"Don't worry about it, man. Let's get out of here, I'm starving." Reki said, patting him on the shoulder, grabbing his belongings with Langa, just like when they left the shop.

This time, however, they were both faking a smile, letting their would-be kiss overtake their heads.