Star Crossed

To be friends

School. It started way to early for the sleepy redhead. He laid his head on the desk, eyes half closed. The noise of his classmates drowned out as his tired brain tried to recover itself. Reki’s eyes closed slowly.
“We have a new student today.” The teacher stated. Reki grunted his brain more asleep then awake. “Why don’t you introduce yourself.” The teacher glanced over at the boy. Miya punched Reki’s shoulder. His head picked up slightly.
Blurry eyes attempted to focus on the front of the room. “I’m Langa Hasegawa.” Stated the blue haired boy.
“Anything else.?” The teacher prompted.
“I’m from Canada.” Langa stated.
“Is that all?” The teacher asked. Langa freaked out nearly shouting.
“Uh, what else do you want?” The teacher just sighed.
“Go find a seat.” He instructed the teen. Once more failing to get these kids to open up about anything. The teacher sighed returning to his lesson plan.
“Reki, wake up.” Langa cooed softly. He brushed his hand through the red hair. Reki turned his head into the petting gesture. They were on the roof of the school eating lunch.
“.. five.. min…mom…” came a sleepy quiet voice. Langa smiled at the boy. He wondered what the teen would choose. He had decided he wouldn’t force him one way or the other. In fact, Langa had forbidden anyone in the clans to brooch the subject of wolves with the boy. If Reki brought it up, then they could discuss or answer his questions.
As the school day came to an end, a man stood outside waiting for Reki. “Can you watch the store for a few hours? Sketchy isn’t eating.” The man frowned back at his car.
“Yeah, sure.” Reki mumbled. Miya dropped their boards. The man rushed away.
“Who was that?” Langa asked.
Reki stepped up to his board. “My boss.” He said as he kicked off. Langa ran a ways beside them, but the other two reached a hill. He waved as they picked up speed disappearing quickly down the slope. Langa smiled. He was sure Reki forgot he couldn’t ride. Instead the teen trudged towards the shop.
When he got there Reki was leaning on the counter, a small toy skateboard in his fingers. Miya was sweeping. Reki looked up as Langa walked in. “Sorry.” The teen greeted him. He stood up. “You bring your board?” Langa nodded. The teens went outside. Reki remained close to the store but gave Langa his first skateboarding lesson.
When Oka, the store manager returned with a very unhappy Sketch, he told Reki he could head home. The small foxy dog had gotten into something and the vet gave him some pills to make him poop more. He was fine two days later.
Over the next three months, Reki went out of his way to spend time with his sisters. The twins came to the park with him. Kaoru loved the little girls. He would sit and watch them on the playground while Reki gave lessons to his quick learning prime. They would often be found eating dinner at Sir la Luce, Kojiro’s restaurant. The warm days of summer passed and fall was quickly upon them. Langa was a master at skateboarding. He had already made a name for himself at the underground skating scene known to the locals as S.
Snow, for his ability to snowboard, had grown a fan base. “Is that even smart?” Reki asked one day as the three teens were waiting for the gates to open. “I mean with you being prime soon?” He added. Langa smiled over at the boy. This had been the first time he had asked about the other life his friend lead.
“Many of these skaters are my clansmen. They are wolves, Reki. At least three quarter of them, I would say.” Reki had realized where he had seen the founder Adam before. The man was a show boater. Loved to have all eyes on him. Before Langa arrived he hardly showed himself to his fans.
Since Snow had made an appearance, and showed his profound ability on wheels, Adam was all over him. His voice, those red eyes and flashy blue hair all looked familiar to the red head. It took him until Langa had stated that about the wolves to put it together. His golden eyes widened.
“The Shindo Alpha!” He gasped. Langa nodded. This night Reki was to skate a beef against an old frenemy. A guy he had known for sometime. They often had fun this way. But lately the guy had been absent from their regular skate times. He had returned just this week. Bigger, more muscular and a bit more pissy than usual. He had smashed into Reki, nearly breaking his board, just last week.
“Shadow!” Reki growled. “Where have you been, and why can’t you watch what your doing?” The kid cried checking out the deck to make sure it wasn’t cracked any further. Reki knew he would have to rebuild the board soon, but this one had been a favorite of his. He was nursing it as long as he could.
“Well, if it isn’t wrecking it Reki!” Shadow taunted. “See you haven’t killed yourself yet, should we change that tonight?” Shadow got into the boys face. They couldn’t beef that night since the board was full. Their beef was scheduled for tonight.
Shadow had made Reki bet the very board he nearly destroyed. If Reki lost the board would be burnt. If Reki won, Shadow would have to spend a week without his clown makeup on. Reki had laughed at the fear in the others eyes. He knew his friend would do anything but give up his scary persona. Tonight, the teen was betting the other would pull out all his cute little tricks. Reki was ready, or so he thought.
With the idea that his long time friend/ enemy might in fact be a wolf in human guise, Reki was eyeing the twenty four year old. He was watching for any sign that the muscular friend was in fact a canine. Due to this, the teens head wasn’t in the race.
The countdown started. The red lights flashed, the green signed the start, Reki was slow to take off. He picked up speed on the down slope, but lost some on the first straightaway. Shadow loomed ahead of him. Reki watching his every move. That was until something flicked out on the corner of his eye. Was that a tail? Reki turned to look. Seeing nothing he cried out as he almost missed the turn. He went into it a bit too fast. Barely holding onto the curve, the teen came out of it, only to find himself in the warehouse. Shadow had vanished inside.
Reki came in fast and high. This was an attempt to get above the clown of S. Instead, he got a face full of fireworks. The exploding lights and the shadows of the crowd caused the teen to lose what little focus he had. Reki wrecked. Falling off of his board and into a bush. He felt the scrapes and bruises that would show up quickly on his pale skin. He sighed, at least he didn’t break anything this time.
Langa tapped a finger against Reki’s hand as the two stood side by side within the board burn in the barrel fire. “At least it wasn’t a new one.” The prime attempted to make the teen feel better.
“No. I’ve been putting off making myself a new one.” Reki admitted. He sighed. He didn’t tell the light-colored boy that he had been wondering about keeping his position at S.
“Reki?” Langa asked as they walked out of the crowded gates. The two strolled through the streets heading towards Reki’s house. Langa had became a fixture there. With his own mother working a lot of nights, Langa often slept over with the red head.
“Yeah, Langa?” Reki asked. Langa looked away, a slight blush spreading over his cheeks. Reki smiled, finding this cute. Wait? Did he think Langa was cute? The redhead shook his head. Of course, he did. How many nights did he spend awake watching the boy sleep? How many times did he forget to eat because he was too busy watching how much Langa enjoyed eating? How often did he observe the other… wait what did he just say?
“Langa, what?” Reki stopped in the middle of a dark street staring at the blue haired blushing boy.
“Only, um if you, you know want too?” Langa was looking anywhere but at the red head in front of him. He was rubbing the back of his head, the tops of his cheeks a darkening pink. Reki sprang forward to shake the teen by his shoulders.
“I’m sorry I was daydreaming about how cute you look when you blush, and sleep and eat, I didn’t hear what you said!” Reki cried, finally letting the boy go.
“You think I’m cute?” Langa asked.
“Not as cute as me in my new tail!” Miya announced. Reki smiled at his small friend.
“No one is as cute as you in your cat outfits!” Reki reassured him. Miya laughed.
“You got that right slime!” He squealed. As he dashed away on his board. Reki smiled fondly at the boy. When he turned back to Langa it was to see a look of wonder on the other boy’s face.
“Come on.” Reki blushed elbowing the taller teen. “What did you say?” He asked.
“I wanted to know if you would go on a date with me.” Langa whispered. “It’s been a few months and I made sure the others wouldn’t bother you with talk about our situation.” He looked away unable to meet the wide-eyed gaze of the boy watching him. “Until tonight you haven’t brought it up. I told them all to not discuss it unless you brought it up first. I didn’t want you to feel any pressure but…” Reki snatched the boys head.
One hand went behind his neck, the other over his mouth. A little laugh escaped the redhead’s lips. “You’re babbling. If you don’t shut up, I can’t answer.” Reki let go. Langa gave him a sheepish smile.
“Sorry.” They looked away from each other.
“So, you told them to not bring up that around me?” Reki muttered. Langa nodded. Reki ran a hand through his hair.
“That’s a relief. I thought they weren’t talking about it because they didn’t want me to be your mate or something.” He chuckled nervously.
“Is that why you haven’t spoken to anyone about it?” Langa asked. Reki nodded more than a bit embarrassed. Langa reached out to take his hand.
“I’m sorry, I thought I was helping you to figure out what you wanted without the pressure of always hearing about it.” He said.
“I like you, Langa. I’ve been thinking of what it is I want in someone I want to spend my life with, and honestly, it all leads back to you. Yes, I will go on a date with you. Yes, I will date you, but, I don’t know about giving up the twins.” Reki sighed. “I’m the only father they know. I don’t want them to think I abandoned them too.” He finally voiced his biggest fear.
“We still have time.” Langa whispered moving closer. He rubbed his thumb over the back of Reki’s hand. The redhead wasn’t even aware they had been holding hands. “I told you, they still might change, or we can do something so you can stay in their lives until they are old enough to understand.” They both knew how hard either option was going to become. Neither suspected that the choice would be taken away from them, that very night.