Infinity, Taken Literally

Identity 21

All of Reki's anxiety is lost to the wind when he approaches the skatepark. Instantly, his eyes land on Langa. Dropping down the face of the drop, his hair flies up above him, showing off the perfect curve of his jaw as his face is set in focusing on the trick.

Reki gulps.

This was definitely a bad idea.

Unable to look away, he remains still and watches silently. Even though it's only been a week or so since they last saw each other, Langa's skills are already looking ten times better. His body moves as one with the board and his tricks, although not perfect, are done like they're second nature.

Thankfully, Reki doesn't have such a visceral reaction to seeing the headband decorating Langa's wrist as he did the first time. Along with the surprise that he's still wearing it, comes the same fluttering feeling that leaves him smiling like an idiot.

As if feeling himself being watched, Langa stops at the bottom of the slope to look over. Reki's traitorous heart jumps at the way his face instantly lights up when their eyes meet. Realising that there is no way out of this now, he steps onto his board to skate the short distance over.

"You're here," Breathlessly, Langa watches him get closer like he's not sure if Crimson is really here, or if he's imagining things.

Reki shrugs, trying not to feel too happy about Langa's reaction to seeing him again. "You said that you wanted a rematch, didn't you?"

"I wasn't sure if you were going to come back." Langa takes an eager step closer. "It's been a while." He adds, sounding a little embarrassed.

Reki regards Langa curiously, has he been coming here every night waiting for him? Technically Reki didn't give a time frame of when he'd be back. He hadn't thought that far ahead when he had made the promise to return.

"I said I would." He pauses, wondering if he should apologise. "It just took me a while to find the chance to come here." That wasn't a lie, it also wasn't the truth. Technically he could've come sooner if he'd been brave enough.

"You haven't been at S in a while either," Langa adds like he wasn't really listening to Crimson's response. This level of empty-headedness isn't anything new for him and Reki finds himself fighting a fond smile at it.

Langa did just admit that he'd been looking for Crimson at S though. "I hear that you've been asking around about me?" He smirks.

Langa's cheeks flush with embarrassment. "Yeah, you're a hard guy to track down." He chuckles nervously.

"That's because I don't tend to talk to people at S and I like to keep my personal life separate." Reki gestures to the disguise like it should be self-explanatory.

Langa frowns slightly. "I've seen you both inside and out of S." The frown deepens when Reki hums affirmatively. "And you came back tonight even though you didn't have to."

"And you challenged me to a beef despite avoiding skating for a year." He points out in retaliation.

"I did," Langa nods slowly. "You agreed to race me again."

"I did. I guess we're both breaking bad habits for each other." Reki's eyes shine in amusement as Langa smiles softly to himself. What he would do to know what's going through Langa's head right now. "You won't be able to race me if you don't win though." Gesturing towards the start line, he slowly skates over to it without waiting for Langa to follow.

"Do you need to warm up?" Langa grabs his board and jogs over. His choice to jog instead of skate strikes Reki as weird. Is there something wrong with his board? Langa is hopefully smart enough to not skate on a broken board. Although he is talking about the guy who duct-taped his feet to it the first time he ever stepped on one, he probably should be concerned.