#Also look at that!!! I wrote some Renga!!!!!

[reki-of-the-valley]

You Are in Love

Read it on AO3 here!

1 - You Are in Love

It’s the way Langa is crouched, the way his weight is shifted forward to his toes. It’s the way he smiles, the way his fingers fiddle with the buttons of the little pink coat. It’s the way Chihiro is standing as straight as she can, her chin tilted up. It’s the way the scene plays out, the way Langa, Langa who had always been so wary around the twins, now seems so comfortable. It’s as if he’d always been here, always been in this entrance, always helping around the Kyan household. It’s the way he fits in so well, as if he has always been a part of this family.

“Need help, Reki?”

Reki has to shake himself out of his trance, the rest of the world coming back to him. Chihiro is there, slipping her shoes on while Nanaka is waiting by the door, a grin that matches Reki’s. The sun is high, rays streaming through the glass panels of the door. The weather is perfect for a walk with the girls to the ice cream parlor; not too warm, but still not cool enough to not want ice cream. And the girls can’t wait, Nanaka already rambling away about all the ice cream flavors she wants to try.

“Well?”

A breath catches in Reki’s throat as Langa stands there, his fingers twisting around the strings of his yellow hoodie. His smile is soft, just like when he had been buttoning up Chihiro’s coat. There’s a peek of his teeth, pretty and white, between his ever so slightly parted lips. And the sunshine catches in the blue of his eyes, leaving them with a shimmer Reki’s never seen before. But there’s no time to linger on that, not when Nanaka’s fingers curl around Reki’s.

Everything goes fast from there: a sweater hastily thrown over his hoodie, the back of his shoe squashed under the weight of his heel, a wallet grabbed from the top of the show cabinet. Everything goes so fast: Nanaka and Chihiro running ahead, the path already memorized, the sound of Langa’s laughter filling the autumn air, another joke breaking up his laughter. If this is what it means to have a normal life, Reki’s ready for it. He doesn’t need the uncertainty that the past had handed him. He doesn’t need any of that, not when he can have this.

“Really, Reki, we can stop for a second to let you put your shoes on properly.”

“It’s fine, man. Anyway, the twins would kill me if I made them wait any longer.”

Langa shrugs before turning away from Reki. He looks ahead, hands in his pockets as he kicks a stone along the road. He looks older like that, his eyes riveted on the two girls ahead of them. He looks older like this, reminding them to not run too far head and to stay together. He looks older; his hair has grown a little, almost brushing his shoulders now, and his jaw seems sharper than it had before. His bare arms, they seem stronger, a little more toned. Maybe it’s from all the lifting they’ve been doing at work, from all those boxes that need to be pulled from the back to the front of the shop. Reki isn’t sure why he’s noticing all of this now, noticing the curve of Langa’s nose, the scabs by his ear, the squareness of his shoulders. Reki isn’t sure why he’s noticing any of this, things that have always been there. But these observations weight heavy on Reki’s chest. They weight heavy, but he doesn’t dare say anything. He can’t break the silence, not now.

Langa’s shoulder brushes against Reki’s, drawing his attention to something other than Langa’s build. It brings him to his eyes, always bluer than the ocean on the horizon, to his nose, pointing ahead, to his lips, tugged into a smile. Then, words spill, always in that velvety voice of his.

“Look up.”

And Reki complies; he always does.

It’s there, beautiful as ever. The sun sets, slow and careful. It’s gentle as it finds its way into the water, reds and oranges and purples swirling in the waves that crash over one another. The rays are tentative, as if afraid to break something that’s new yet has always been there. The sun does as it always has; it doesn’t change and it never will, but today, it feels different. It seems slower as it falls, almost as if it were asking for the ocean’s permission, asking the water to catch it. Will the ocean catch the sun? Will it hold on to every ray, cherish the warmth they provide? Reki hopes it will; he hasn’t known a better pair than bright sunshine and gentle waters. 

The ocean is gentle as the waves intertwine with the rays of sunshine. And as Langa looks back at Reki, that smile so soft as his pinkie locks with Reki’s, Reki knows he’ll be caught. He knows this is right; nothing has been broken, not now, not ever. This is the way they were meant to find each other. This is the way the universe had set them up: strangers, friends, this. This is what Reki has always dreamed of; this is what he wants; this is what he needs.

“C’mon,” a little tug from Langa, his fingers shifting to find their home between Reki’s, “we should hurry before the twins order the entire store to go.”

---

2 - He Is in Love

The morning is quiet, rays of sunlight filtered through the crack to the curtains. Still, the room is dark, and it’s colder than what Reki is used to. He has to pull the blanket up to his neck rather than have it bunched up at his ankles like he’s used to. And when he rolls over, he knows why.

The bed isn’t his. The room either, even if bits of him hang on the walls and sit on the shelves. He finds pieces of himself in the space between these four walls, but it’s still not his space, at least not completely his. It’s Langa’s room, so much is obvious as he sits up in the otherwise empty bed. It’s not crowded enough to be his own; the same could be said about the air that hangs in the apartment, nothing but distant chatter ringing in Reki’s ears. It’s missing the chaos of his house, the screaming and the tumbling of siblings first thing in the morning.

It’s almost strange walking through the small apartment. Reki knows the place like the back of his hand, but it’s still so disorienting to wake up in someone else’s bed, even if it’s far from the first time it has happened. It’s like walking through the streets of a new city; it’s so similar to home, and yet, it’s nothing like it. But when he finally steps into the kitchen, when he’s hit with that smell of smoke and the sound of curses, Reki knows he’s home. He’s home, and he doesn’t want to be anywhere else.

“Shit, shit, shit.”

It’s funny to see Langa like this, picking at the toaster. Langa, who’s usually so calm and composed, he’s so far from that perfect image Reki had once had of him. Now, in the morning light of reality, Langa’s just like any other dork who can’t cook to save his life. He’s ridiculous as he curses at the toast, if it can even be called that. It’s so burnt, so scorched, that Reki wonders if there’s any bread left under that crust of char.

One thing’s for certain: he could not be paid enough to eat that monstrosity.

“Stop laughing!”

Blue eyes are wide, staring at Reki as he doubles down laughing. How can he not laugh? How can he stay serious at the face Langa is making at him? How can he ever stop laughing when he’s with Langa, the same Langa so many people misinterpreted? How can Reki ever keep his laughter to himself when he gets this Langa, Langa who isn’t a prince, Langa who isn’t distant and mysterious? How is he to not laugh and grin when he has Langa, his Langa, goofy and dorky and adorable?

“How did you manage to burn your toast in a toaster, dude?”

The bubbling laughter slowly dies down, falling to a giggle, then a chuckle, before ending in a simply grin. It’s hard to stop smiling around Langa, but thankfully, he doesn’t ask Reki to wipe the look off his face. If anything, he joins him despite biting his lip, trying his best to conceal the sheepish smile.

“I… I forgot it.”

“Did’ya space out again?”

Langa huffs, pushing the toast filled plate across the counter. It’s so strange seeing all these emotions play on Langa’s face, emotions Reki didn’t even know him capable of. They play like a movie on Langa’s face, jumping from one scene to another. Frustration, embarrassment, dejection, and something new, something strange as he gets closer to Reki.

There’s a glisten in his eyes, bluer than Reki’s ever seen them. They almost sparkle under the soft lighting of the kitchen. That look, it’s so far from that night, the one Reki wakes up gasping from. They’re so far from that night, the night Reki thought he had lost it all. Now, they have it all. Everything that had haunted Reki for weeks, it has vanished. That night, it was a lifetime ago, an age Reki barely remembers anymore. All that matters is here, it’s now.

“You look cute in that.”

It’s a surprise, the arms around Reki’s waist and the compliment to his ear. It’s not something he’s used to, especially not from Langa. Sure, he’s always been forward, but still, Reki isn’t used to this type of forward. He’s not quite used to the hugs, the flirting, the sappiness. He may get a Langa very few know of, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t still retain the old Langa, the public Langa, the Langa that feels so unobtainable.

“Hope you like it, it’s literally your shirt.”

The chuckle is cute as Langa drops his head onto Reki’s shoulder. So, he’s given up on trying to cook; maybe they can go out for breakfast, or better yet, they can order something in. And maybe they should get something for Nanako; she shouldn’t be out for too long, not on a Sunday. But while she’s gone, well…

It’s sweet, the taste of Langa’s lips against Reki’s. Really, there isn’t much that can compare to this, to the way Langa smiles into the kisses, almost laughing into them. And with every kiss, Reki feels the butterflies erupt from their cocoons; he feels the flutter in his lungs and chest. Kisses from Langa wasn’t something Reki had ever expected, but now, he doesn’t think he can go without them.

One leads to another and another after that. They’re dizzying, leaving him lightheaded as he wraps his arms around Langa’s neck to steady himself. The world spins, fades, and leaves nothing but Langa and his sweetness. Maybe it’s the honey on his lips, or the chocolate on his tongue, but Reki’s pretty sure it’s just Langa. That’s just what Langa tastes like; sweet and addictive.

“Reki…”

His voice is low, raspy almost. Maybe he’s also breathless from the kisses, a little too caught up in the moment. Or maybe that’s just the way Langa sounds after he’s been kissed senseless; Reki isn’t proud to admit it, but stopping was a little more difficult than he had anticipated. But when Langa drops his head back into the crook of Reki’s neck, the world returns, colors other than blue reappearing around him.

“Reki, you’re my best friend, you know that, right?”

Such a statement is nothing new to Reki, but hearing it now of all times, it does something to him. He isn’t sure what it is, but he feels the pang in his chest. It’s nothing like the butterflies he had felt. It’s nothing like that. This pang, it means something else. He doesn’t feel lighter from the words, but at the same time, it’s lifts something that he hadn’t known was weighing him down.

This feeling, this reminder, it means everything to Reki. It’s everything to Reki because it means that every ghost that had once haunted him, that every insecurity that had locked into his closet, they fade. They fade because they mean nothing now. No fear can be greater than this statement. Nothing can be greater than knowing that he’s not alone. Because now, from now until the end of forever, Langa will be there. Langa will stand by him, never leaving him to face his demons alone.

The hug is automatic. There is no other possible response to the statement. There’s nothing else he can do besides holding Langa close to his chest, keep him where he wants him. A hug and a nod are all Reki can manage, and it’s enough. It’s enough for Langa to know it too. It’s enough.

---

3 - True Love

The skatepark is empty besides the two boards left unattended by a rail. There’s not a soul other than the two boys, legs dangling off the back of the ramp, a water bottle to their left and a carton of fries between them. They’re silent, each scrolling on their phone as they pick absent-mindedly at their food. Another Friday afternoon, just like so many others.

Or at least, it should be like every other Friday. There’s nothing different, at least, not on the surface. They’re in their spot, far from the rest of the world. It’s just them, as always, but there’s something weighing down on Reki. There’s something that lingers in the air, something that’s been choking him up all day. It’s there, he knows it, he just doesn’t know how to address it. Talking about things that aren’t skating, it’s not easy, not for Reki.

A smile tugs at the corner of his mouth as he swipes through his camera roll. Every one of them holds a memory, usually one that has to do with Langa. There’s a selfie, or two, or three, or twelve. There’s a video of Langa skating, or, once again, twelve. And there are pictures of the sunset, of a stray cat, of birds in the sky, yet they still remind him of Langa. He can hear Langa through the pictures, hear his laughter, hear his chatter, hear his breathing. Because Langa is in every one of these pictures, whether he’s visible or not. He’s in every single picture, in every memory Reki holds of the past year or so. Langa, Reki realizes, has become a staple of his life, and he wouldn’t have it any other way. Especially not when Langa’s head is dropping onto his shoulder, blue eyes pointed up at him.

“Whatcha looking at?”

“Just going through my pictures, see what I can delete.”

Reki knows he won’t be deleting anything; he doesn’t want to forget any of his moments with Langa. He wants to keep building these moments, not get rid of them. But saying that out loud, who knows what kind of waterfall of words would spill from his mouth afterwards. And he can’t risk that. Not before he’s figured out exactly how he wants to say it. These words, he can’t mess them up. They need to be perfect. So, until then, they will be silent.

The evening goes by as it always does: a few tricks here and there, a lot of laughing, a few scraped knees and palms. It’s another Friday evening, just like so many others. It’s another Friday evening, until they head home, still in silence.

“Reki, is everything alright?”

Reki hums as he readjusts his bag on his shoulders.

“You just…” Langa pauses, stopping under a streetlamp. “You haven’t talked much today. So… is everything alright?”  

Reki wants nothing more than to wipe away the worry that coats the blue of Langa’s eyes. He wants nothing more than to replace it with their usual shine, the one paired with the brightest grin Reki’s ever known. He wants nothing more than Langa’s happiness; if he could go another lifetime without ever having to worry, that would be how Reki would want it. He wants to remember Langa’s smile, memorize the curve of his lips and the creases at the corner of his eyes. None of that worrying that pulls his features in all the wrong ways.

“Don’t worry, dude. Everything’s perfect. Just been a long day, y’know?”

Langa nods, but he shows no sign of continuing his way down the road. He nods, but he expects more. He wants Reki to talk, to release whatever it is he’s holding in his heart. He wants Reki to talk, to spill, to let it all out. And even if it’s ugly, Reki knows Langa will take it. Even if it’s far from perfect, Reki knows Langa will smile, grin even, as he drinks Reki’s every syllable.

“Well, I mean…”

They hear it in the silence, the wait of Reki’s unspoken words. The silent words, they hang heavy in the air. And the more Langa stares, the more Langa waits with that beautiful look upon his face, the more Reki hesitates to say it. It won’t break them, far from that, but being the first to vocalize it, being the first to put it out there, it’s scary. It could ignite a fire, a flame that could leave a trail of beauty for Reki to memorize on Langa’s face and body, but it might also be a flame that burns the whole thing down. If he does this wrong, who knows what the future will look like for them.

Perhaps it would have been better if Reki had been a better liar, better at concealing the feelings fluttering in his heart. If he had been able to pretend there was nothing there, or pretend he didn’t expect the words to come to him first before parroting them back, maybe he wouldn’t have found himself in this situation. But if he had been better at conceal his feelings, at keeping them close to his chest rather than out for the world to see, then maybe he wouldn’t have found himself under the brightest moon, standing in front of the prettiest boy he’d ever seen. If he had been different, then maybe he wouldn’t be here today. He wouldn’t be standing in front of a boy whose eyes are filled with beauty and adoration, lacing their fingers together.

“I guess I just wanted to say…”

It’s now, or it’s never, Reki knows that. He’s started. He can’t stop.

“I’ve actually been thinking so much about this lately. Like, I can’t sleep from how much I think about it. So, like…”

Langa stares in anticipation, his shoulders caving inwards as his fingers tighten around Reki’s. He’s biting back a smile, Reki knows this. Maybe Langa’s just as bad at this as he is.

“Langa.”

He’s shaking. Or maybe it’s Langa who’s shaking. Or maybe they’re both shaking. Reki can’t tell. He doesn’t care.

“Langa, I love you.”

[mechazushi]

Salt Kick {a Sk8 the Infinity story} [Renga]

Preamble] I'mma be honest with ya'll.... I don't like how this turned out. I made this almost three? years ago I think? and I just.... some parts of this feel off. I hadn't finished Sk8 the Infinity ( I still haven't, mainly because I had watched all the crack vids on YouTube before I watched it so I already had a jist on how it goes. I just wanted to have the ability to say I watched it and finally figure out what scenes went in what order. I stopped at the beach episode, I know what comes next and I still can't bring myself to watch 😭) But I had enough of a hyperfixation to push this out. Much like giving birth, the more you make, the easier it gets, so consider this my first child that had me completely unprepared for the amount of labor I was about to go through and might of screwed up the initial parenting on. I will say this... I only really hate it because Reki feels out of character, but that's because I sacrificed his development to push a more Langa focused story (its entirely from Langa's perspective) I only threw in a few lines on his end because I wanted to imply that the pinning might be mutual without outright saying it until the end, but I hate how I handled it. That being said, this will not be getting a rewrite. I passed GO and collected the money years ago and this is how it will be staying. Hopefully, I will have finished the show before I write the next ones.

Notes] Nothing here to worry about, really. Just Renga. And Kissing.

Summary] Langa develops the worst salt tooth, but can't find anything to satisfy it. Can he figure it out before it drives him into an asylum, or is he past the point of no return already?

Can somebody who's in the Sk8 the Infinity fandom read this because I want this peer reviewed before I put this on Ao3.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From the moment Langa woke up, he felt off. He wasn't sure what it was about exactly, just… nothing clicked into place inside his head this morning. Which, if you knew him, is pretty much par for the course. He went through the motions. Got dressed, got his bag and school work together and met his mom at the table for breakfast.

"Morning Langa!" his mother, Nanako chirped, plateing something from a pot that was simmering on the stove."You ready for another day?"

"Morning." he said simply, sliding into his seat at the table, his brain seeing it only fit to process the bare minimun today.

"Now, I know you're a little hesitent when I try cooking new things, especially first thing in the morning, but taste tests show that this might accually be pretty good!", she said, confidently putting down a bowl of congee in front of Langa, cooked in chicken broth and served with eggs, bacon, and sauteed mushrooms, arranged like how a ramon bowl would. Langa, absent of mind, started spooning the meal into his mouth.Wait. Hold on. This was... good. Not that his mom ever made anything truly horrible; anything she made was, for the most part, edible. It was...just... missing something? He reached for the salt shaker, dusted his next spoonfull with it, and...

THERE. Right there. That's what this was missing. What he felt like he was missing all morning. Salt. He was just salt deficent. Which was odd for the amount of junk food he injested on a daily basis. Langa then preceded to almost violently shake the salt over his bowl of food.

"Wow. I know I forget to season things sometimes, but I thought it was okay?", His mother said, somewhat astonished at the speed her son was shoveling the now overly salted breakfast into his mouth currently. Langa paused and looked up at her, taking a second to think about what she just said.

"Oh! Sorry, I'm just… Really in the mood for salt today.", he said.

"I can see that.", Nanako quietly chuckled. The meal was quickly wrapped up, with the mom needing to head into work and Langa to school. Before he left however, he snagged a bag of potato chips of the top of the fridge, not stopping to see what flavor they were. Langa grabbed his skateboard and raced to his spot by the lampost, eagerly awaiting his… well, to be honest… he couldn't really think of Reki as a friend anymore. It had just been a few months after the race. The one against Adam… The one after Adam, too. And a WHOLE lot of other races afterword as well. Fun, personal ones. Just between Reki and him. Gun to his head, Langa would describe them as… almost… intimate. Crusing through the hills and tracks, the morning light or the evening dusky atmoshere blanketing them…just the two of them and whatever bubble of a world they found themselves in whenever Reki and Langa skated together, oblivious to everyone and everything. Maybe you wouldn't even need the gun to get him to say it.

' You might have to with Reki, though.' Langa thought as his personal ray of flaming sunshine came cruising down the sidewalk.

"GOOOOD MORNING LANGA!" Reki cheered, power sliding to a stop in front of him. They did their morning fist bump ritual and proceeded to cruise down the hill toward their school, with Reki leading the way. This was how it almost always went, Reki in the lead and Langa not far behind. Unless he had a trick he though he could pull off that would impress Reki, Langa almost never pulled ahead. Content to let the impressively red-headed high schooler light the path forward. Just the two of them, skating infinitely together. Langa popped open the bag of chips as Reki managed to land a rail grind in his somewhat restrictive school uniform. How he managed to fit his hoodie of the day under the jacket, Langa will never know.

He knew Reki didn't think of himself like this, but Langa always found him to be impressive and talented . He was always aware of how Reki's skateboard building skills were amazingly inventive, since he was the proud owner of a truly custom board. He felt Reki's talent was practically unmatched, next to Oka's of course. But Oka more or less just filled in paperwork and managed inventory, he hardly completed the boards he started nowadays. It was Reki's eye for detail and constant desire to improve everything that made all of Dope Sketch's boards unique.

That was another thing about him. Constant determination. It never mattered what it was applied to, Reki could always set his mind to the grindstone for it; you know, when he wasn't being completely scatterbrained and actually had motivation. Langa could go on forever about all the hidden strengths he thought his skating buddy had, but he knew Reki wouldn't hear them.

'Getting Reki to accept a compliment is like trying to teach someone to ollie for the first time' Langa chuckled at the thought, 'It takes a few tries, but it gets though. I know.'

After everything their friendship went through, they promised each other that they would get better about talking to each other. Not letting feelings bottle up and fester and making attempts to communicate genuinely. Neither one wanted to go through that feeling of loneliness and abandonment ever again. This was mostly for Reki's benefit, but Langa guessed he would have to lead by example if he was ever going to get Reki to open up in the first place. Speaking of open, he put a chip in his mouth and recoiled.

"BLAAA, wasabi flavored." he said, disappointed.

"You OK?" Reki said, turning to look at him.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just picked up my mom's wasabi chips by mistake. You want them?"

"Yeah, sure. Could use the wake up this morning.", Langa sped up to hand off the bag to his friend.

"Do you think we've got time to stop at a vending machine before we head in?" Langa asked.

"Why? Didn't get the chance to inhale the whole fridge today?" Reki said jokingly, pouring the contents of the bag in his mouth and wincing.

"Ha, ha, very funny. Just felt like something salty before class." Reki's presence had managed to distract Langa from his cravings for a short while, but the chips had caused his brain to hop back on its unyielding track.

Which, of course, got worse as they neared the school grounds and heard the final bell for class

"Whelp, guess thats a no!" Reki laughed.

Langa groaned, thinking that this better not somehow ruin his day.

The pair sped to class and, by a miracle, both of them made it in without repercussions. The two sat down and settled in as the teacher walked in to start the lesson.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The day went by as you would normally expect. Take notes, change classes , raise hands or duck questions depending on if they could answer them or not. You would think that the day would pass by uneventful, right? Yeah... about that.... This was Langa's third class period, and this salt addiction of his was really starting to grate his nerves.

'Only one more period, then lunch. Few more minutes and I can have all the salt I can get my hands on. I can survive until then. RIGHT?', Langa panicked in his head.

This wasn't just bad, he felt like he was shaking.

'Maybe I can play this up and head to the nurse's office. There's a vending machine along the way, I think?'. At this point, he lost all capability of paying attention. 'No, That's stupid. I'm not going to let this control me.' Langa felt a little tap on his arm and looked at his classmate.

Reki held a small piece of paper between two pencils, held like chopsticks. Langa took the note quickly, as the teacher turned around. He opened it up and read it.

"U OK?"

"Need Salt :(" Langa scribbled quickly before taking two pens and, in a similar fashion, snuck the note back to Reki.

Reki shook his head and handed the note back again, this time writing "THAT BAD?!? BRUH." Langa couldn't believe it either. Cravings never got this bad. He actually couldn't remember the last time he HAD a craving.

While running memories through his head, an important reminder popped in the forefront of his mind. He had packed a snack in his bag for emergencies. This was days ago so he wasn't sure what they were, but Langa would take anything at this point. As stealthily as he could, Langa leaned forward and tried to sneak his hand into his bag that was hanging off the hook connected to his desk. It was so tantalizingly close.

Now all he had to do was find what should seem like a snack package. Books, notepad, erasers, more notepads… There! Langa pulled out a small bag of… something. He had Reki tell him what they were and had practiced pronouncing it several times. Jagar…something. All he could remember was that it was made of potato and, most importantly, was SALTY.

He tried to open the package as quietly as he could, but it made a bit more noise than he was comfortable with. Had Langa been his right mind, he wouldn't have be comfortable with this at all. It's amazing what addictions can do to a person, cause this stopped being a craving the second he stepped into class. Reki caught onto this as well, looking at Langa like he had lost his mind.

"Dude?" He mouthed, wondering why Langa thought now would be a good time to risk it all for food. While this was Langa we're talking about, the craving had just become too much. Langa was so close. He forced himself to clear his throat loudly as he opened the package the rest of the way. This little maneuver earned him some strange looks from class and teacher alike, but thankfully no one interrogated him about it.

Reki threw his head back in dramatic disbelief as Langa tried his best to shake out some sticks from the pouch. A couple of sneaky handfuls later and Langa felt another tap on his shoulder. Reki made a pitiful attempt to persuade Langa to hand him some as well. Langa looked around the room nervously, wondering if he should take the chance. Looking back, Reki had turned on the puppy dog eyes on full blast, causing all doubt to be cast from his head. Of course he should. Just because he's severely salt deficient, doesn't mean he should leave his friend out to starve.

Langa shook a few pieces into his hand under the desk. They had to wait for the teacher to turn around, which was taking forever. For a moment the teacher turned around to write on the board. He waited half a second to make sure he wasn't going to turn around, stretched his hand out and-

"Mr. Reki. What do you think you're doing?" The teacher called.

Well, shit. The happiness Langa felt by not being found out was immediately replaced with fear as he nor Reki had an excuse on hand to give the teacher.

"Well?" He said, waiting with an air of exasperated patience.

"Aahh, erh… uhhh?", Reki uttered, floundering for a response.

"I was… asking him a question." Langa belted out in defense.

"And why didn't you direct the question to me instead?", The teacher replied, questioning the legitimacy of the answer.

"Because?… It was a… dumb question?" Langa replied, shrugging into himself. The teacher sighed as threw his head back in aggravated contemplation. The air was thick with tension as the two waited for a response, wondering if today would be merciful. The teacher drew his head back into position and decreed,

"Whatever it is that you're doing, stop it. Do it again, and I'm holding you both after class.", pointing to the two of them before turning around and resuming teaching. Langa and Reki let out a sigh of release after which they exchanged the handful Langa was holding onto and didn't acknowledge each other until passing period.

"Okay, are we going to talk about what happened or…?" Reki said, leaning against the locker neighboring Langa's as the snowy bluenette changed out books in his book bag.

"I wanted a snack, I got a snack. Just… not used to sneaking in bites in class."

"Yeah, as much as you eat, you know better than to pull that kind of shit during class. What is up with you today?"

"I don't know. I'm just… really salt deficient today.", Langa replied, shutting his locker and walking away.

"No, that can't be it. You're not acting like you're deficient, you're acting like a crack addict jonesing for another hit. I know I shouldn't really be concerned, but I'm getting concerned." Reki said, hop-walking to catch up to Langa's long legs. Over the din of the bustling hallway, the pair heard Reki's text alert go off on his phone, causing the two to momentarily pause to see what it said.

"Oh, cool! Joe just sent over a game plan before we head to 'S'. Looks like we're meeting up with Shadow at the restaurant and carpooling over." Neither of them had to work that night, so after a change of clothes and dinner at Reki's, meant a long, glorious night of high-octane fun and excitement with the whole group!

"Sounds great! Can't wait to get out of here.", Reki said, looking up and catching Langa's smile.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"Come on! We're going to be late!" Reki yelled, blazing down the smooth sidewalk.

"I don't know why you're worried. Its not like they're going to leave us behind.", Langa yelled back

"Shadow's the one driving and I wouldn't put it past him!", the redhead shouted back, pushing forward for more speed. Langa threw his head back and laughed, thinking that it does sound accurate.

"Maybe you shouldn't have done such a good job washing the dishes!", Langa retorted.

"After you ate mom out of house and home? It was the least I could do!" Reki threw back with a laugh in his voice.

The two continued to speed down the sidewalk onward to their destination without a care in the world, despite the desperation in Reki's tone earlier. Langa started to feel more like himself than he had all day. Nothing felt more grounding than skating behind his friend, his partner, his infinite companion. It was moments like this that he caught himself thinking things differently… about the two of them. Langa wasn't unfamiliar with thinking that, maybe, he and Reki could be… more than friends. Langa thought it was unavoidable at this point.

The two of them and been through so much, taught each other so much. He had long since came to terms with him thinking like this, feeling this want, this…longing? Yeah. You know what. That's what this was. Longing to tell Reki, to show Reki, that deep inside… Langa loved Reki. Again, he felt it unavoidable. Felt like that this was what he felt all along. Ever since the night at the skate park where they made up. The two hadn't ever said anything explictitly to each other, but it had come up in conversation once or twice that Langa might be into guys differently than most others.

To him, He felt Reki was trying to say the same thing too. With his preferred phrase being "Straddling the fence about it." Langa was never sure though, with his brain always coming around and saying that it's just wishful thinking. That Reki didn't want to say anything controversial, or it was just his way of trying to show support to Langa. He wasn't sure, and in the end just figured he'd play it safe. It wasn't like he wanted to change what they had, just thought they could make it a... special brand of better? Yeah, that sounds... right?

"Man, this salt kick is messing with my head if I'm thinking like this." Langa thought.

The friends finally made it to the restaurant a little later than they were supposed to, but found out there was a saving grace waiting for them.

"Joe went to the bathroom, since it looked like you two were going to be a little late tonight." Cherry mentioned, leaning on the side of Shadow's new van. The surprising reasoning behind the decision to carpool tonight.

"Sorry!" Reki laughed, "The dishes sorta piled up on me tonight. "Nice van Shadow! Looks very roomy."

"Thank You! Its technically the 'company' van, but my name's on all the paperwork and stuff. And another thank you for ACTUALLY appreciating it, unlike SOME people!", He said, pointedly nudging a small, occasionally bratty catboy.

"It's pink and it's got fold down seats. What's there to compliment?", said Miya Chinen, the brat in question.

Like most nights, these two started to argue like they do every time they get together. Everyone began to ignore them as they waited for Joe to come out so they could leave. Which, if the time frame was anything resembling the situation of Joe coming out of the closet about his feelings to Cherry, this could take all night. And with the wait, came the resurgence of Langa's salt deficiency. He bounced around on his toes as Reki and Cherry talked about new board designs they've seen. Suddenly, Langa quietly excused himself and went into the restaurant looking for something. The Sia La Luce might be a fancy Italian restaurant, but it wasn't above salt shakers at the table. However, these were fancy crystal shakers and Langa was pretty sure Joe wouldn't look too kindly hearing about Langa swiping away with one.

But he has bought take-a-way here on nights when he or his mother didn't feel like cooking. There was a counter close to a side door where you pick up your food after you ordered it. And if he was right, there should be a container full of paper salt packets they throw in as a courtesy. Making sure no one was looking; which, how could there be, the restaurant was closed. He leaned around the counter and grabbed a small handful before booking it out of the building. As Langa jogged-walked back to his group of friends, Joe finally emerged from the mysterious depths that was the men's bathroom.

"Great! Everyone's here and we can finally leave!" Shadow grabbed Miya by his jacket, tossed him in the van, and slammed the door before the now rabid child could retaliate. Cherry locked his bike and everyone piled into the comfortably roomy van.

The group finally arrived at S. The place seemed absolutely thrumming with energy tonight, almost bordering on sensory overload. Had someone come up to a younger Langa and told him that this place would become one of his most favorite spots on the planet, he would have considered them crazy. The wild flashing of the light, the pounding of music and voices, the heavy scent of… everything. One would have a hard time placing a scent, let alone describe it. And the night air, whipping up everything into a frenzy on the moutain. This place was the definition of free and untamed, and Langa loved it. He was itching to hit the race strips, but there already seemed to be a line for the top. Reki asked Joe and Cherry to reserve them a spot as the pair signed a waiting list, then the longtime friends hit a different path to the factory.

While the factory was considered part of the race track, that consideration only applied to the upper levels. The ground floor had plenty of debris and obstacles to pull tricks off of. Langa and Reki blew most of their collective energy grinding on the broken rails and kick-flipping off old wooden boxes. None of this was of course safe, but then again, when has that ever stopped them. As Langa popped off junk left and right, not caring about what the tricks were, just happy to be in the air, he was interrupted by a stranger.

"Hey You! You're the one they call Prince, Right?" A blonde, thin gym rat looking man in ripped jeans and an equally ripped sleeveless white denim jacket approached the pair in the far corner of the building.

"Yeah, I guess." Langa replied plainly, stopping his board to face the guy. "Prefer Langa though."

"Heard you're a good racer. One of the best around. That true too, 'LaNgA'?", the newcomer mocked, clearly showcasing how new to these parts the stranger was.

"Depends on who you talk to. Why?" Langa already had an idea what the stranger wanted. It's what all people new to "S" wanted, a beef with the legend that went against Adam and won. Honestly, this was already considered tiring, nearly turning onto outright obnoxious. But he was Canadian, it was polite to ask. Who knows, maybe he would get a break this time.

"I challenge you to a beef with ME!"

Nope.

Langa sighed in disappointment loud enough to attract Reki to his position.

"Oh, balls, not another one." Reki whispered to his friend. Knowing how tired his friend was of this and proceeded to take over the conversation.

"Look man, I know you want this to be personal and all, but we're signed up to go next on the track." He said, gesturing to the two of them. "Either you race against the BOTH of us, or you wait. And it's a long line tonight, by the way."

"Fine enough. It's not like it'll matter anyway, since you'll both be eating my dust!" the blonde asshole laughed.

Langa and the stranger shook on it, (again, He's Canadian), And the pompous douchebag walked off to take his place at the starting mark.

"Can't ever just be a nice night, can it?" Langa moped.

"Ahh, the cost of being talented… Wouldn't know what that's like!" Reki laughed, nudging Langa playfully and racing him to the starting mark.

The three of them, as well as others, took their places at the starting mark. The tension began to run high as everyone was waiting on the final signal light to drop. Lights flashed green as honed, practiced reflexes took over all the skaters as the beef began, with the main three in question taking a big chunk of the lead for themselves. Langa blasted out front of everybody, sacrificing style over speed in the hopes to make it a quick race. Only to see the stranger pulling up rapidly behind with Reki in the back, phasing in and out of their combined dust trails. Langa and the stranger began fighting for dominion of space on the high, sharp turns. Trying not to get too close, as at this speed, getting either board too close to each other would surely result in a wipe out.

'This guy is better than he looks.' Langa thought. He took a second to dance his board over some rocks that would have caused him to crash, just to see his opponent kick flip off a boulder and gain the lead.

'Of course this wouldn't be a problem, if I actually got my head in the game!' He screamed to himself.

Over a hundred of these races, against hundreds of skaters, professional and otherwise, and this one is practically kicking his ass because he can't stop thinking about salt! Langa pulls out a stolen salt packet from his pocket, only to lose it to the tailwind of Reki passing him as well. Reki had seen Langa pull it out and, thinking it was important, managed to snatch it from the air. Upon closer inspection however, threw Reki into a fit of laughter.

"Still going on about THIS?" He yelled back. "Well, if this is that important to you, guess you're going to have to catch me for it!" Reki turned on his board and angled his body in such a way to gain a burst of speed.

Langa made it a point to ignore the irrational part of his brain that kept saying he had more in his pocket and used the indignity of the situation to fuel his need to regain the lead. Popping over a bush, chaining the jump onto a ledge that lead to a short grind and using the momentum to launch himself from a tree branch over a small cliff, all linked together to form the most impressive retake of a gap in the history of "S". The order was now having the stranger being in the lead with Langa and Reki being neck to neck, if only for conversational purposes.

"Head back in place yet?" Reki playfully catcalled.

"It will be after I win!" Langa confidently declared back.

"If you lose, I'm taking your illegal salt stash away!" the cocky redhead wiggled the snatched salt packet threateningly.

Langa just snorted and continued to try and over take the talented new guy, finding it disappointing in himself that the threat was motivating. Having skated through this track so much he could do it blindfolded, Langa knew that the finish was only half a kilometer away. And at the speed at which the finalists were going, it was arriving frightfully soon. As they were coming out of the final turn, Langa gained enough momentum to fully flip himself over his opponent, rightfully gaining back his lead. The joyous moment was soon dissipated as the stranger, feeling indignified at the reality of the moment, had decided to pull out one last trick up his sleeve.

Reki's hackles began to raise as he saw the newcomer pull something out of his pocket. Langa couldn't see and Reki wasn't about to find out what it was. He could only manage an incoherent shout of warning before he sped up and rail grinded around the stranger to tackle his friend out of the way. As Langa looked back to see what the was doing that had caused Reki to warn him, the redhead was bent forward as his hands locked around Langa's waist in a defensive position. The combined momentum caused the two of them to slip out of control and break the railing to their right.

Langa's initial panic was swayed by the fact that he had been in this situation before. This was like Adam's Love Hug all over again. Langa took charge of the moment, righting his boardsin air and made his friend place his feet in line with his. He managed to land the board on to a beam under them and had to keep the balancing act up as they rail grind down its length. Their hands instinctively fell into the unmistakable tango position and held each other close, causing the wind to be sliced past their combined closeness.

As they reached the end of the beam, Langa planted a foot onto it and used the other to launch the board in front of the two of them. Reki pushed off as well, using whatever momentum they had to circle langa around to fling him into the air and toward the main track. Langa grabbed the board and tossed it down to the metal walkway, planting his feet solidly onto it. Keeping the momentum going, he turned to face Reki and guided him back onto the board, barely keeping them both upright as the skateboard zoomed past the positively stunned strange.

This is how they won. The two of them, absolutely inseparable since they met, just as so passing the finish line into the gathered crowd. All were cheering for their dramatic upset. They slowed their skateboards to a stop as the partners looked at each other, faces visibly showing the shock at what had occurred.

"Did you… just… Love Hugged me? And save me with it?" Langa asked as he stared at Reki, stunned by the experience and finding himself refusing to let go of his hand.

"Uhhh… yeaaah? Maybe? Look, all I saw was the asshole was reaching for something and I panicked and,-"

"Hey! Its… okay. You're… okay. We're both okay… Thanks to you." Langa professed soothingly, taking Reki's other hand in an attempt to ground them both. They tried to take a breather, but with the crowd closing in, along with the stranger starting to riot at his unexpected loss, the friends were starting to get overwhelmed. Along came the rest of the friend group, with Cherry and Shadow doing crowd control and Joe dealing with the stranger causing a fit. Taking the chance to slip away, Langa led Reki outside the old factory to a metal bench at the far wall and sat down in between other people. Langa started to rub his face in his hands. "That… got crazy there, right?" mumbling

Reki straddled the low bench, laying his board over his knees and nodding his head. "Honestly, yeah. Didn't know I had it in me to pull.. whatever that was off." Reki went on to fiddling with Langa's board and inspecting the trucks for damage.

Langa just sat there, watching Reki with unfocused eyes. His mind drifting back and forth, between the last five minutes and to the stash of salt in his pocket. To holding hands with Reki and back to his addiction to salt. Lapping between those two trains of thought, like waves on a beach. Almost like the salty water he soaked in on his vacation that he shared with Reki. Like how he and Reki liked to pass sauce containers on a skateboard when they shared a salty chicken nugget meal. Like when Reki passes his tongue between his teeth when he's concentrating on fixing his board. Similar to what he's doing now. Those teeth that are brushed with salt… crystal… toothpaste. Oh no.

"Heeeyyy… Reki?" Langa asked tentatively.

"What's up?" Reki chirped, looking up from his skateboard maintenance.

"Do you… still use salt crystal toothpaste?"

Reki craned his head back in disbelief. "Aww Ma gawd, LANGA, salt again! Are you hoping it'll fix something in your head or is this considered a last resort?" Langa just shrugged as he weighed his options. If he followed through on this absolutely crazy stupid idea of his, this would totally change the course of their friendship, for better or for worse FOREVER. BUT, this might be the one thing that cures him of this obnoxious salt kick, if he's RiGHT. Thus, the risk.

"Reki, would you mind if I… did something potentially…stupid?"

"Depends. Does it involve me?" Reki replied, innocent of Langa's intentions

"Yes." However, at the rate his brain is degrading from the lack of salt intake, this might just have to be a risk Langa will have to take.

Langa scooted closer to Reki, straddling the bench as well. He took his friend's face in his hands. God, he was so nervous. Langa could barely look him in the eyes. Those beautiful, incandescently golden eyes. The ones gazing into his, filled with innocent confusion and... awe? Before his nerves completely blew a fuse, Langa used his thumbs and pulled Reki's headband over his eyes as he dove onto his lips. He was gentle with it, not wanting to do anything to completely scare Reki, but hopefully enough to see if Langa wasn't crazy.

Crazy to think that this was what he was craving all along. The kiss lasted less than a second, with Langa only briefly making contact and just lightly sucking on Reki's lower lip. If Langa was in his right mind, he would have broken this off. Took his hands off his friends' face and apologized. But... he wasn't. Langa was not in a logical mindset in the slightest, for the smallest, slightest taste of Reki's lips was everything and more.

It was everything he was craving all day and everything he didn't know he was. Salt with sweet cherry chapstick mixed with spices from dinner earlier and… just… Reki. Some sort of flavor that couldn't be described, only named. Something so explicitly wild and spicy and sweet that it could only come from a source just as superb as the taste itself. Langa immediately swiped another kiss, this time whispering his tongue over the bottom lip again before forcefully pulling himself back from his friend. He did it. Langa kissed his best friend. Someone he vowed to skate forever with. And now he's gone and thrown a potential wrench in the mix.

Reki leaned back as he lifted the headband off his eyes. All they could do was stare at each other, expressions filled with more shock and awe than ever before. Cheeks were turning hot and red at the realization of the moment, and all they could do was just breathe and stare. A lifetime had passed between them before Reki decided to be the first one to break the silence.

"Sooo, uhhhh…. Was it everything you were looking for tonight?" He said, sheepishly. Surprising Langa by not turning and running for the hills.

"Would you believe me if I said… yes?" Langa turned his head away, not sure what to do with himself at this point. He was honestly shocked that they were still talking.

"Honestly… not really." Reki said with shocking confidence. Langa whipped his head back up, wondering why, of ALL responses, he would say that?

"To be fair, that kiss was kinda short, so I can't really believe that you actually tasted anything. Sure you don't wanna… try again?" Langa was stunned. Stunned that his friend, the one that always said that he 'wasn't sure', didn't express that he was interested in him EVER, would say something like that so casually.

"But… I thought…" Langa said. Confused, but grateful at the miracle that landed in his lap.

Reki righted his headband before taking a breath and spoke, "Look. I know I talk about girls a lot, and that I've been 'straddling the fence' about this. But that kiss...and everything that happened tonight and maybe during some moments that we've had together over the past month or so just... made me realize that... I'm not as much on the fence as I previously thought. And I want you to know that this... is okay." Reki took one of Langa's hands and brought it over the skateboard and held it, curling the blushing bluenette's fingers into his and lightly stroked his thumb over the knuckles.

"So… is this an open invitation to… try again?" Langa muttered, leaning in close to Reki. Their foreheads almost touching.

"Well, yeah! Gotta be sure and all. Else you're going to screw up your taste buds devouring salt packets all night!" The two of them quietly laughed at the thought before leaning closer in, sensing another intimate bubble world forming around them and this moment. Just the two of them, all over again and again. Langa rubbed his nose next to Reki's, hoping to indicate that he would like another kiss. Reki got the hint as they started to lean closer to each other and-

"I get this is probably a first time for both of you, but could you not? It's disgusting." Miya said. He was the only other occupant on the bench at the moment and was playing on his switch while chilling in the now shockingly brisk air.

"I'm… sorry?" replied Langa.

"exCUSE YOU?" screeched Reki.

"It's not that I'm against you two getting together or anything, but can you really not find a better place to do… all that? I'm trying to concentrate here." Miya said, drawing his hood over his head and returning to his game.

"Well, tough luck pussycat! I'm going back for another round." Reki almost threw his skateboard from his lap, He indignantly grabbed Langa's collar and went back to kissing him forcefully, pushing his "Prince" down flat on the bench and crawling onto his lap. This essentially traumatized Miya, especially after Langa joyfully started to reciprocate.

"JOE! CHERRY!! SAVE ME!!!" the child screamed in terror as he ran into the surprised arms of his (unofficial) surrogate parents that had just turned the corner, looking for the oblivious pair. Joe picked up Miya and held him close, wondering what could cause him to scream like that, Cherry began scanning the tree line, preparing to take his board and swing for the fences when he found the violator, only to see Reki and langa committing a mild case of public indecency.

"Are they-?" Joe said first, finally seeing the familiar red and blue mass on the bench.

"It appears so. Honestly? About time." Cherry replied, putting Carla down.

"Make them stop!" Miya whimpered, shivering in disgust and looking away.

"Avert your eyes kid, it's only going to get worse." Joe shifted Miya to one arm as he and Cherry walked away and back into the building.

"Should we warn Shadow?" Cherry asked.

"Na. With the way those two were going at it, he'll find out soon enough."

The three of them went out the other side, up the path to the top and left the intertwined teens to their now and forever present need for privacy.

[raindroppoetry]

WIP ask meme

got this from @dsudis, thank you!

How many wips do you have currently?

Eight wips in my Scrivener though most of them have only outlines or a few notes, I haven't actually started to write yet. I prefer to work on one thing at a time

Which one are you finding the hardest to finish? Why do you think that is?

I have this Sk8/renga AU I wrote last year. It's around 80k words and is only missing the last chapter. But since it was a project to start writing again without much of a plan, it would need a ton of editing and revising to get to a place where I could publish it, and well.... not the most exciting part of the project lol

What does it usually look like when inspiration strikes for you?

A vision comes to me haha. Whether it's a scene, a setting, a piece of dialogue between the characters that makes me go "omg I need this" but also "I dunno how to write this" and then it just spirals from there.

Do you curate playlists for each fic or is your process different?

I've never made a playlist for any of my fics. There might be a song or two that remind me of it or I might listen to something randomly and the vibes seep into what I'm writing later or offer some other inspiration, but I don't listen to music while I write. I get distracted by it, I'll start singing or humming along. I need to write in silence.

Do you go balls to the wall and write as you go or are you more organized?

I guess I am a plantser. Like for Protection fic (my current PhoenixFlare wip I'm editing) I got the idea and fleshed it out some with an outline (that often comes by freewriting). But the main planning for me is daydreaming. I brainrot on my story over and over, write it in my head and sometimes the inspiration strikes really hard and I end up writing hundreds of words or a whole scene down in my notes cause the words are just flowing out. By the time I get to a scene, I've usually imagined it from end to finish multiple times, but of course I also write what comes to me at the moment, fill things in, realize stuff as I am putting words down, get more details and get into the scene and the character's head more fully when I'm writing. It's not the most organized process but I enjoy it immensely.

tagging anyone who wants to do it!

[epickiya722]

Ask gameee: Sk8 the infinity, Shinkami and Anya from Spy x family.

This posy will be long!!

SK8 THE INFINITY!! 🛹

Favorite character: Reki, but I'm also going to Sketchy.

Least Favorite character: It's Adam, but I do think he's fun as a villain.

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): Reki/Langa, Joe/Cherry, Shadow and that woman he was crushing on, Nanako/Oliver 😭, and Oka/Tadashi

Character I find most attractive: It would be expected of me to say JOE, and he is attractive, but I gotta give this spot to Nanako. In fact, also to Masae. Beautiful, caring women.

Character I would marry: I'd be down to marry... hmm... I'd marry Nanako in a heartbeat. Or Cherry.

Character I would be best friends with: Joe, hands down, Joe. We can get on Cherry's nerves together.

A random thought: Miki, the green haired chick from episode 2, I think she has the potential to be skater. I actually wrote a whole fic with this idea called "You're Lime Green Jell-O".

An unpopular opinion: Reki actually has some great fashion sense and I would wear his hoodies. I want every single color.

My Canon OTP: Okay, since it's not exactly stated if they are canon, I'm not going to say Renga, but I will say Nanako and Oliver. Because... 😭

My Non-canon OTP: But I will say Renga here.

Most Badass Character: REKI. Look, I don't care what anyone says, that kid was the first to ever humiliate Adam. His plan involving the rain was solid! He's also crafty, makes skateboards!! Like the other characters are badasses in their own right, but Reki's race with Adam in the rain? That took the cake for me.

Most Epic Villain: Hands down, Adam. He's easy to hate, but you gotta admit he is an interesting character.

Pairing I am not a fan of: I do not like Adam and Langa together.

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): Kiriko, I actually wanted to see more of her and her investigation of Adam. But I hope for her return in season 2.

Favourite Friendship: Love it romantically, but I also love Reki and Langa as friends, too. They just click so well!! I also love Joe being like a big bro to Reki.

Character I most identify with: Reki, yes, Reki. A lot of how he felt about himself was relatable to me and his personality is similar to my own. Also, big siblings. I am a big sibling, the eldest, and have siblings just about all three of his sisters' ages and it be like that.

Character I wish I could be: Sketchy. Seems to have a lot of fun.

SHINKAMI! 🐈⚡

When I started shipping them: Ooh, when did I... okay in my early days of being in the fandom. It's actually one of the first ships I started shipping due to what my first ship was. (I'll let you guess who was my first ship, and yes, still ship it.)

My thoughts: I just love this ship! First off, individually, I do adore both characters.

What makes me happy about them: I like that they are friends in canon. That there is that foundation of their relationship.

What makes me sad about them: I actually don't have anything really sad about them. I'm just happy the ship exists.

Things done in fanfic that annoys me: Again, I really don't have anything here. I haven't actually read that much ShinKami fics enough to pick up on a recurring trait that may annoy me.

Things I look for in fanfic: I'm not really picky, to be honest. So I kind just explore when it comes to ShinKami.

My wishlist: I would love more interactions with them. Even just a single shot will do for me.

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: Okay, personally, for BNHA, I don't care for any ship to be canon. An ending doesn't need to have canon ships to be a good ending, that's just me. I don't hate the idea of ships being canon at the end though. But I don't mind Kamijiro, still a purple-yellow ship. For Shinsou? I actually don't have anybody. Maybe Midoriya, I like ShinDeku, too.

My happily ever after for them: See them partner up some more in the future.

ANYA FORGER 🥜🌸

How I feel about this character: That she deserves happiness and everything else she wants. She's adorable, she's precious, she's funny.

Any/all the people I ship romantically with this character: Damian and Becky

My favorite non-romantic relationship for this character: Gotta bring up Becky here again because her friendship with Becky is just too adorable. And I love Becky!

My unpopular opinion about this character: Hm, do I actually have one?? I don't think I do.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: There should be like those comedy segments, like shorts of Anya's antics with Bond, Becky, Damian and the other kids as guest stars.

Favorite friendship for this character: Again, Becky and I also adore her and Bond as pals! He's the best!!

My crossover ship: I actually don't have one!

FANDOM ASKS!

[that-was-anticlimactic]

nothing can keep me from loving you

written for @beachytablecloth - theatre au, renga

There were a lot of ways Reki could describe Langa: goofy, kind, determined, reckless… but something that Langa wasn’t was a quitter.

In the half a year that Reki had known them, he’d never seen Langa back down from anything. He was up for any challenge, up to pushing himself, and trying new things.

So, when he and Langa were at their class’ play rehearsal one afternoon and Langa bolted off the stage, Reki knew that something was wrong. Of all the things he’d seen Langa do, all the incredible things he’d accomplished, he’d never seen Langa give up.

Reki dropped everything after Langa ran off—literally. His clipboard clattered to the ground and he tore his headset off, tossing it to the side as he took off after him.

[or, langa doesn't want to be the lead actor in the school play and reki comforts him]

♡1,235 words | renga♡

[extorchic]

TOP 5 SK8 Episodes

So I got tagged by @akira-cr to make this list, it took some time but I think I've sorted out my mind, thank you for considering me 😊. Now here comes the list, sorry if it's supposd to be objective, but I'm gonna let my heart out over here (It's gonna be a long post and I'm not gonna cut it ):

NUMBER 5 - Episode 6 - Steamy Mystery Skating?! (A.K.A. The beach episode 🏊‍♂️)

Well this is supposed to be "breather" episode, and it's basically the one that sold the series to me. I like how fun and chill this episode is, although it does (further) foreshadow Reki's insecurity issues. The music is of course SUBLIME! "Seize the Moment" is probably my favorite insert song of all time! (it's been present in Reki's beefs as well, but here it really reflects the fun nature of his character and the show overall). And of coruse, FANSERVICE, not so much in how the boys were in swimsuits (though I gotta admit Reki does look good in them), but on the RENGA interactions!

That hug gave me life! How Langa was worried 24/7 about Reki being injured, at the end when they skated together to escape from the Bantu! I gotta admit that I have some mixed feelings about the implications of Reki being attracted to the faceless girl (I mean, Bi rep is very important too), but I guess my shipping side was just as jelaous as Langa was supposed to be (according to the fans LOL).

NUMBER 4 - Episode 11 - King vs. Nobody (A.K.A. Reki rising! ✨🌺🌞⚙️)

Reki is, without a doubt, my favorite character. He doesn't need to win, he doesn't need to be super flashy while skating, he just needs to be himself. He's been through a lot, many people (including me) have felt tremendously related to him, and seeing him in this episode is just satisfying. With his issues behind, with a promise to skate with Langa after he wins and no longer fearful, Reki rematches against Adam; and the way he does is fantastic! Taking advantage of his creativity, observative skills and mechanical knowledge on skateboarding, he faces up against the main boss and manages to not only endure his violent ways (which were gruelling to see, TBH), but also SOUNDLY HUMILIATE HIM in front of the whole S Community!

Yes, Adam, the "God of S", in the ground covered in mud by a boy almost everyone dissmissed! It was really sunshine through rainfall! I must also add how much I liked to see his renewed relationship with Langa, how much they treasure their company after patching up. I want to elaborate on this in its own post but I personally see that their interactions from this point on are more, I don't know, tender, caring, still playful but not in an entirely comedic way. The way they see each other is also deeper, anyway, it's just what I see.

NUMBER 3 - A DRAW: Episode 8 - The Fated Tournament! and Episode 9 - We Were Special Back Then (A.K.A. The month in which I was in an emotional crisis because of anime sk8t3r b0is 🍎🐍😭🛹❄��🌸 )

This is the point in which I got into the show, and the fandom (Yeah, haven't been around for too long). At this point the show wasn't the same, and I realized it when I caught up. Though there were some cool skating scenes in these episodes, the events that caught my attention were outside the road (Yeah, this was no longer just a skateboard anime, it's a whole lot more). Though I had been mainly focusing on Reki and Langa, I really liked having more backstory related to Joe, Cherry, Adam and Tadashi. Seeing how Adam went through a terrible childhood, convoluted teeange years to culminate in an adult with too much power for his own good and a twisted sense of "love", along with some extremely serious psychological issues was very interesting.

I acknowldge him as a complex villain, but that DOES NOT justify what he did to Cherry. This only proves that just because we know his backstory, we don't have to sympathize with him (Adam's just such a terrible person). On the RENGA side, we see Reki avoiding Langa after their rift, and how this affected both. We have Langa's sadness increase scene after scene, as well as his passion for skating dwindling as progressively. Reki on the other hand, just falls deeper and deeper in his depression, but also being unable to stop thinking about Langa, and he ends up going to S to see the latter's match against Joe. It's hard to see whether there's envy, jelaousness, frustration, admiration, pining or fear of being left behind in his mind. It must have been hard for a 17 y/o.

Reki also defends Langa from people speaking behind his back and shouting his name during the race boosts Langa's performance tremendously. This culminates on Reki realizing that the thing he actually wanted was to skate alongside Langa, not on the side, not as support, but together, he just couldn't. There's also the scene which may or may not confirm that Langa's feelings for Reki are more than just friendship! (Felt represented, for reals).

NUMBER 2 - Episode 7 - We Don't Balance Out (A.K.A. This was supposed to be a fun show!😭⛈️💔️)

I wrote a lot about the episodes in the previous spot, but this is the one that flipped the tables, the game-changer, and the one that hit closer home. It is a sad episode, no races there, it's just here for us to see how the circumstances affect the characters. It was hard to see how Reki, who at this point had been nothing but supportive and proud of Langa, starts to see him flying farther from him. Is it jealousness? Dissatisfaction? Is it fear of loneliness? Adbandoment issues? Is it feeling inferior? Frustration? Not being able to improve? Admiration? Care?

And on top of that a broken promise. I just can't imagine how hard is it for a 17 y/o to deal with all of those conflicting issues in his head, as well as the toxic competitive environment on the "S Community". This just came to show that he wasn't just the excitable, goofy sidekick character, he goes deeper than that, and makes him relatable. We also see a deconstruction of the cool, aloof prodigious character in Langa, as he just can't comprehend what's going on with Reki, and he's hurt by it, but still needs to figure out his own ambitions and desries. This leads to the emotional conclusion of the episode (which in turn left me in the aforementioned 4-week-long emotional crisis, thank you)

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Episode 12 - Our Infinity! - The race was cool, the Renga hug gave me life and everyone had a happy ending

Episode 5 - Passionate Dancing Night! - Despite the beef between Langa and Adam being cool, we start to see Reki worrying about Langa and opening up to him, further deepening their bond.

Episode 2 - Awesome for the First Time! - There's just something special about sharing something you're passionate about with someone else. Watching Reki teaching Langa the basics of skateboarding was heartwarming

NUMBER 1 - Episode 10 - DAP Not Needing Words

After 4 weeks waiting, the anticipation for this episode was gargantuan. Reki's depression was hitting its lowest point, bordering in self-harm, and hurting others as well. Langa continues to look for Reki after seeing him briefly at the hospital while visiting Shadow and we get to see this loving scene where he watches videos of Reki learining how to skate. After confronting Tadashi and realizing that he loves skating because it's fun, he returns home to find out that Langa had been waiting for him but left shortly before he arrived.

This leads to a heartful reunion, where words can't express their feelings, so they resort to do their thing, to skate, and that's where the feelings flow. This is when Langa tells Reki how he admires him tremendously and Reki understands that Langa'll be there by his side, and leaves his fears behind. With a mutual desire to skate together infinetely and a new dap, they rekindle their bond. People watched this show for different reasons, and though I like the skateboarding aspect because it looks cool, my interest leans more on the relationship aspect, and Reki and Langa's is so deep and intimate, and I liked seeing it grow from zero through different hardships (in other words, in all of the years I've been in a fandom, I had never shipped any other pair like these two, I needed to say that).

So I guess it's time to tag some people:

@pico-sour, @sleebycryptid, @elizabethslee, @itsamole, @kaorucherry, @blueflame97, @trieizieme, @tardiskitten, @lady-pendragon-9

So, if you've read until this point, thank you very much (I know it's not supposed to, but this post is yet again a very long "I love Renga" one, but it's what my heart wanted me to write 😅). I'd love to see people other than the ones I tagged showing their lists 😃

[heavensenthearty]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

@siambre tagged me a while ago, I've been thrilled to answer this, but I got a lot in my head and kept postponing it. I finally got around to it, thank you so much for the tag, it was really fun!! 💖💋

How many works do you have on AO3?

73. Feeling like doubling the number 😅

What’s your total AO3 word count?

360,591.

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

So far, 15.

ATLA

Shadowhunter Chronicles

Boku no Hero Academia

Shadow and Bone, The Grisha Trilogy (the story was kind of a mashup of the two)

Free!

Supernatural

Fairy Tail

SK8 The Infinity

Carry One Series

Seraph of the End

The Owl House

Cruella (again, it was a mashup with her original story from 101 Dalmatians)

Shatter Me Series

Carmen Sandiego 2019

Voltron: Legendary Defender (don't judge, I'm making things right for that show).

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Book One: Wind — ATLA, Zutara. Multi-chapter, Ongoing.

Summer Love — SK8, Renga, Matcha Blossom, Miya x Takashi. Multi-chapter, Ongoing.

Playdates — The Owl House, Goldric. One-shot.

Later that night — Carry On Series, Snowbaz. One-shot.

You had me at "Hello" — Supernatural, Destiel. One-shot.

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I love receiving comments, but lately I haven't been on my best mental space so I haven't felt like interacting as much as I usually do. I try to always pour out everything I want to say in the author's notes. I'll probably end up responding to all unanswered once I feel a bit better.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Mmmmmm... I really like to go for happy endings, but I guess it is The Words Never Said (ATLA, Zutara).

What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

Most of my fics already are tagged as fluff without plot, so it's kind of hard to pick 😅. I think I'll go for a rather recent one Don't You Forget About Me (ATLA, Zutara), the atmosphere where the fic takes place is very angsty but I love how sweetly it ends.

Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the craziest one you’ve written?

I wrote one between ATLA/Shadowhunter Chronicles, but I deleted it, it was pure self-indulgence. I am thinking of giving such a crossover another chance, I have a super crackship I want to finally write.

And maybe I'll keep up the crackships and crackfriendships for an ATLA/Voltron crossover.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Yeah. It reached a point where I actively avoided looking at the comments for a while.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I do, but most of it is unpublished. It's all "Angst with Feels", I headcanon many characters having issues with physical intimacy so it becomes a milestone for them when they finally achieve it with their significant other.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of, I don't know why anyone would want to steal my fics 😅

Have you ever had a fic translated?

I translate my own fics. It's a personal vendetta of mine because all published translations of bestsellers are in European Spanish (Spanish from Spain) instead of American Spanish (Spanish from Latin America).

Como sea. Los latinoamericanos también merecemos nuestras ediciones especiales 😑.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Haven't had the pleasure yet.

What’s your all-time favorite ship?

That's a trap question, I don't want to hurt any of my ships feelings! 🥺

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

There was inspired by the prompts for the ATLA-Summer Festival, but I'm not feeling the drive to all of them anymore. I'll probably write some one-shots with the scenes I have the clearest.

There was also this Jetko highschool AU, but I'm not feeling Contemporary YA. I don't want to discard it so soon though.

There was a Modern AU Zutara crackfic that I'm also not sure of right now.

Also, a MikaYuu (Seraph of the End) one-shot, but the recent chapters of the manga make it difficult for me to picture where to set the story.

What are your writing strengths?

I wouldn't know. I've been told I characterize very well, that I give the characters nice chemistry, that I make scenes readers can easily see play out in canon, so... I guess there's that.

What are you writing weaknesses?

Everything 😅.

It's just my opinion. I'm a perfectionist, okay? I know I shouldn't be when it comes to writing, I'm working on that, but for the moment, I am and I'm always practicing in order to improve, and improve, and keep improving.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I love multilingual characters, I can relate to them. I'm always switching languages in the middle of a sentence.

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Carry On Series. The first book, Carry On, awoke something after some reading hiatus I had taken, so I thought it'd be nice to give something back.

What’s your favorite fic you’ve ever written?

I'm currently very excited about my main WIP, Book One: Wind. It's an Avatar!Zuko AU. But the reason I write is because I sincerely enjoy all my stories, I reread them from time to time, so it's hard for me to choose. Also, I have many things planned and I'm excited to show them, it's really hard to choose.

Tagging anyone who wants to answer!! 💖💋💋

[redxblueihateloveyou]

regarding your comments on the ask about renga becoming canon, i think with the whole langa/reki relationship thing it really does depend on your age? like im reki and langa's age so i attached myself to them and their relationship because it was relatable to me and i can see myself in their relationship, but you, as someone who is older, are obviously going to gravitate towards the adults because they will be a lot closer to your life and experiences as you are right now.

(tho i will say i also was not expecting a renga kiss or them to become canon because i understand that there's differences in queer opinions and representation in japan and i can temper my expectations accordingly because you cant take the show out of its cultural context. i do think that there was enough queer coding/subtext in their relationship that it stands up to the test tho!)

True, I’ve said the same thing before, too, and we even joked how sk8 has 3 ships: pg-13, pg-16 and pg-20 lmao.

And while certain age categories usually can’t get attached to some, the benefits of being older is that you can in fact enjoy all 3. And while it’s true, that I totally gravitate towards more mature relationships everywhere, whether they’re adults or not, it in fact doesn’t mean that I can’t enjoy the simple cuteness of Rei/Nagisa or Tanaka/Oota or things like that, which are nice to see and just warm my soul. Like it might not be the otp I’m gonna be obsessed with, but I can still uwu bc I’ve been in high school too, you know xD

But here it’s the storyline that I didn’t like. Even back in the days (lmao I’m so old, half way to fifty damn it), I never got the comparing yourself to others/jealousy thing, so I couldn’t relate to their drama, even if I tried and was in high school rn. It’s the reason for me not liking JC in MDZS, partially the reason for me not being into Bakugou/Midoriya dorama, too. I know it’s a very relatable thing for teenagers, but as I mentioned before, I personally just don’t get it. I never reacted like that to seeing ppl being better than me at smth, so I can’t relate. 

So I just didn’t care for their whole shananigans anyways, and I’m still mad that he didn’t even apologize, like I know his stans think he’s right all the way and Langa was the only one in wrong, cause he broke the promise, but I have my opinions on this and the hypocrisy of the fact that he also promised smth and broke his promise, too. If they wrote some stuff differently, I could’ve been into it, but they didn’t, so I’m just not impressed. So it’s not just the “depend on your age” thing, it’s also very much“depends on the story” thing.

Btw when I gifted my mom the set of MDZS books, we started talking and we got to this thing and I was like “heck why I hate those jealous storylines so much? did you do smth?”, cause I literally do not understand why would you want to be like someone else, when you can be you, or do smth in your own way and I esp get annoyed when they hurt the person they’re jealous of, nevermind the fact that he loves them, cause who cares, look at me, pity me, praise me, cause I don’t love myself. And she said “you can laugh, but I actually did, and you might not remember, but when we lived together back in our old apartment, I even hang on the wall some damn wise poem smth about “don’t get jealous of someone who can play the flute so beautifully, cause only u can be such great listener”, I was like “mom, I don’t remember this shit honestly, but whatever u did, kudos, it worked” haha 

But I completely agree, I think all the ships got enough gay moments, so it’s all fair haha. It’s definitely not one of those, where you’re like “but there’s nothing there” xD

And yes, there are a shit ton of hidden subtext there everywhere, but my favorite thing about Tadashi and Adam is the fact that they’re not really gay-coded, they’re just gay lolz.

And like while both Renga and Matchablossom got their share of lets water it down with heterosexuality, my ship successfully escaped such treatment, they never looked at boobs and in fact each time they mentioned marrying Adam off, they showed Tadashi’s sad puppy face lmao.

[fandomsnfluff]

Got any specific Range headcanons? Cause I love your hcs. Can be t-related if you want ;)))

hi anon!!! i suppose you mean renga??? i wrote some soft headcanons here on my main anime blog but i can write some new stuff!!! and ofc i’m gonna make it t-related bc. i mean look it’s me HAHAHAHA

renga headcanons

i’m sure i’ve established this before but reki is ALWAYS rendered susceptible to langa’s attacks skjfhskdjf. after finding out how ticklish reki is, langa absolutely can’t help himself but tickle the shit out of him whenever he wants to

like langa will just come up behind reki and pinch his sides or kiss or blow a raspberry on the back of his neck and hold him as he leans back against him as he succumbs to the laughter

i mean the sounds that this boy makes just. snorts, squeals, high-pitched giggles, they’re all adorable ;o;

langa always gives him a kiss on his forehead whenever he’s done <3

the two always get into playful wrestling matches and they play fight ALL. THE. TIME. cue manager oka just staring at them in the middle of the floor at dope sketch and on the outside he’s like “what the fuck” but on the inside he’s absolutely melting

reki found out about langa’s ticklishness in private tho. he was frustrated that rough torso tickles don’t do as much for him, but he went to town when he figured out that the older boy would go absolutely crazy when he gets at his knees and feet

reki was also grumpy and was thinking “dammit, he’s nowhere near as ticklish as me, i’m absolutely screwed”

WAKE-UP TICKLES ARE ABSOLUTELY A THING I MEAN COME ON

and sometimes when they’re sitting close together in public langa will just reach over and squeeze his side while hugging him and choke back his giggles as reki just squirms and squeals in laughter

so yeah i think it’s safe to say that langa is addicted to reki’s laugh and will do whatever he can to hear it <33333

i hope that you enjoyed these!!!! 💕

[hopelessly-aro]

guess who finally wrote the qpr renga fic!!

(based vaguely off this post but it changed a bit since then)

it only took me like. 6 months.

summary and notes as well as the fic itself are under the cut (but its way easier to read on ao3 honestly)

But I Know That I Love Being Your Friend

"Langa," Reki said, swinging his legs where he sat at the top of the half pipe, "do you ever wonder if people think we're dating?"

Langa made a small thoughtful noise. "Not really. As long as we know we're not dating, I don't really mind."

"I think my mum thinks we are. She keeps giving me these weird looks whenever I talk about you. It's kinda annoying."

Or:

Reki is finding more and more that he really doesn't like when people assume he and Langa are dating, and when Langa comes out to him as aroace it gets him questioning a lot of things he'd always assumed about himself.

Words: 5715

Tags: Queerplatonic Renga, Minor Queerplatonic Matchablossom, Aromantic Asexual Hasegawa Langa, Aromantic Bisexual Kyan Reki, Demiromantic Sakurayashiki Kaoru | Cherry Blossom, Aromantic (specifically frayromantic) Pansexual Nanjo Kojiro | Joe, Mild Angst, Fluff, Self-Discovery, Coming Out, reki has a mild crisis but its okay, cherry "helps", Joe actually helps, langa is very chill and loves his best friend a lot

Notes:

Slight warning: This fic contains mild implied internalised arophobia and romance aversion. It's purely cause I still struggle with both of those and can't physically imagine it not being hard to accept oneself as aromatic. But yeah. Be aware of that.

Also! Pls don't take anything in this as 100% Factual Information. Firstly because I'm a loveless aro-ace writing about an aro-allo in a qpr so my experiences are far from similar, and secondly because sometimes descriptions have to be simplified so this doesn't sound like a damn dictionary.

That being said, please do let me know if I've badly misrepresented anything/written anything insensitive, and I will do my best to fix it.

~~*~~

"Langa," Reki said, swinging his legs where he sat at the top of the half pipe, "do you ever wonder if people think we're dating?"

Next to him, Langa made a small thoughtful noise. "Not really. As long as we know we're not dating, I don't really mind."

Reki frowned in thought. "I think my mom thinks we are. She keeps giving me these weird looks whenever I talk about you. I guess it's fair, she knows I'm bi and I do kinda talk about you a lot," he admitted that last part with only slight embarrassment, "but it's kinda annoying."

"It is."

Langa didn't say anything for a minute and Reki figured that was the end of the conversation. He wondered if it was weird for friends to hang out as much as they did, especially when one was attracted to guys and the other at least had never shown interest in a girl, but maybe it didn't really matter. He liked spending time with Langa - he'd probably spend his whole life with him if he could - and he wasn't going to stop doing that because some people thought it was an excessive amount of time to spend with a friend.

Then Langa spoke again.

"When I asked my mum for advice on how to apologise to you, she assumed I had a crush on you too. I had to come out to make her back off."

"What?" Reki's head snapped around to look at his friend in surprise. Langa was fiddling with one of the wheels on his skateboard, rolling it back and forth with his finger. "Dude you didn't have to come out to her if you don't want to, you know that right?"

As he spoke, Reki wondered why Langa would need to come out just to say he didn't like guys. He must have missed something completely.

"I did, she kept trying to give me dating advice."

Reki almost snorted out a laugh but caught himself.

"It doesn't bother me if people I don't really know think it, but it's my mum and I was uncomfortable. I'm uh..."

Langa was still staring at the wheel and Reki finally realised what Langa might be trying to do. He opened his mouth to say he didn't need an explanation but he was interrupted.

"I'm aroace and someone thinking I'm dating or want to date someone makes me feel...not good. So I try to ignore it most of the time." He paused, finally glanced over at Reki, then added almost as an afterthought. "You know what that is right?"

No. "Sort of? But you don't have to explain to me if you don't want to," he hastened to add, "you're still my friend dude."

"It's fine." Langa turned to look out over the skatepark. "Asexual means not being-" like the awkward teenager he was, Langa blushed, "physically attracted to anyone. Aromantic means not being romantically attracted to anyone. I'm both so basically I don't like anyone like that."

"Oh. Okay." Reki tried to process the new information. On the surface, it wasn't particularly confusing, but it clashed harshly with everything he'd thought about, well, life. People dated and/or hooked up until they fell in love and got married. He didn't know there were other options.

"You don't think that's weird?" Langa asked quietly, and Reki suddenly realised just how vulnerable he was being right now. Langa didn't often open up, in fact the last time he'd done so was when he'd said his dad died, and he'd changed the subject right after.

Reki cursed inwardly. He should have been more supportive; this was probably terrifying for him.

"Nah dude, I just never heard of it," Reki shrugged with only slightly forced nonchalance. "As I said, you're still my best friend, and it's not like you not dating anyone means we can't still skate together." He flashed a grin at the boy next to him and was rewarded with one of Langa's own soft smiles.

"Forever, right?"

"Forever!" Reki beamed. "Come on!" He stood, pulling Langa up with him, and positioned his board at the top of the ramp. Then he fell with a laugh, his best friend right behind him.

-----

By the time Reki got home that evening, his mind had drifted back to that conversation with Langa and he was buzzing with curiosity. Once in bed, he skipped his usual routine of skating videos until the early hours to open up a search tab, typing "aromantic asexual" just to see what would come up.

The first result was an article describing what it was like to be aromantic asexual and Reki skimmed through it before clicking away. He couldn't really process such a large amount of text, and he was pretty sure he had a grasp on the concept anyway. He skipped past a few "Are You Aroace?" pages, and clicked on one for explaining the difference between the two words. At the sight of another wall of text, he was about to click away again when his brain caught on something.

While the two terms are similar, and some people do identify with both, it is also possible to only be one or the other. Some asexual people still experience romantic attraction, and some aromantic people still experience sexual attraction. They may also identify with some other orientation such as gay, straight or bi.

Huh.

Reki read the section again, and then a third time. He could understand the words fine, they just weren't sinking in. Obviously, if the two identities weren't really linked then it made sense that people could be just one or the other, but it was only now that Reki properly registered this.

So you didn't have to want to date the people you found hot? That was allowed?

On impulse, he found himself opening a new tab, typing "aromantic" and clicking the first result. He got barely three words in before he shut his phone off and dropped it onto the bed.

This was stupid. He didn't need to look this up right now, or possibly ever. He understood his friend and he knew enough about the subject to not be completely ignorant and that was enough.

And he certainly didn't need to look any of this up for himself.

He liked people of all genders and one day he would meet someone nice and he'd fall in love and get married and that was that. That was what everyone told him, so it must be true.

Reki rolled over firmly and glared at the wall. Then he huffed, grabbed his phone again, opened YouTube, and went back to his safe routine of burning his eyes to skating videos until he eventually passed out.

-----

Reki woke the next morning, phone on his face, alarm blaring, feeling drained. Questions from the night before tried to resurface but he pushed them away, stumbling out of bed and trying to find clothes.

"You'd better hurry up or you'll make your friend late," his mother warned as he rushed into the kitchen just minutes before he needed to leave.

"Yeah yeah," he mumbled though a mouthful of eggs, then swallowed. "Its fine. If we're gonna be late, I'll just tell Langa to go on ahead. He's so fast you know? And completely fearless! Okay, maybe that's not a good thing all the time, but he does look so cool when he's dodging cars-" Reki paused in his gushing to shovel more eggs into his mouth.

From next to the stove, his mother gave him an odd look - a kind of knowing half-smile.

"What?"

"You really like that boy don't you?"

"Well obviously," Reki stood and grabbed his bento, "he's my best friend."

Across the table, Koyomi rolled her eyes. "'Friend', sure..."

Reki stiffened. Then on autopilot he was heading for the door, grabbing his bag, his shoes, his skateboard, and throwing a "whatever, see you later" over his shoulder. Only once outside did his brain catch up.

They definitely thought he liked Langa like that.

Reki stepped onto his board, letting muscle memory carry him down the road, and tried to shake the uncomfortable feeling.

Of course they thought that. Reki already knew they did. But the accusation felt worse than it used to. Usually he'd just give a nervous laugh or roll his eyes and forget about it when someone did that, but now his skin was practically crawling.

It must just be because he knew it would make Langa uncomfortable too and Reki was being protective of his friend.

Yeah that was it.

-----

Somehow, Reki survived most of the day without thinking about the conversation with Langa the day before. It was helped by the fact that Langa acted no differently, and their friendship hadn't changed in the slightest. They still texted all through class, they still bumped shoulders and ruffled each other's hair in affection, and they still sat close and watched skating videos during lunch.

Nothing had changed. But then, why on earth should it?

"I'm just gonna put this bottle in the bin." Reki said, peeling himself away from Langa's side and standing. Langa huffed slightly at the prospect of being away from Reki even for a moment, and Reki laughed at his pout. "I'll be right back."

Reki crossed the roof, humming lightly to himself, but paused when he heard his name.

"What about Kyan and Hasegawa?"

It was one of two girls ahead of him who'd spoken, both had their backs turned to him and hadn't seen him.

"Hmm...I'm not sure if they're dating but they definitely like each other."

Reki froze. He knew all too well that "like" meant "attracted to" in this context, and he started forward on instinct. But the girls must not have been talking about him and Langa specifically for the first one listed off another pair of names, and the second gave her very confident opinion that the two were secretly in a relationship. Reki stopped listening, stopped hearing really, and backed away a little.

Why couldn't people just leave his and Langa's friendship alone? And why did they all assume that to be so close they must be dating?

When it came to Langa's feelings, these people couldn't be further from the truth, but maybe an outside perspective could tell Reki had a crush on Langa even if Reki himself didn't know?

But Reki's insides squirmed at the thought. No, he definitely didn't want to date Langa. He wanted to spend the rest of his life with him, practice skating tricks together, talk about their days, and sit close to each other in comfortable silence, but he definitely didn't want to go on dates, or even kiss him. They were best friends and Reki was perfectly happy that way.

But was it wrong of him to want to be so close without their relationship being romantic? Logically, the answer was no, especially as Langa didn't want that either, but a gnawing voice in the back of his head wouldn't stop saying he was wrong.

Reki shook his head to force the thoughts out and marched back over to the bin to dump the bottle. He wasn't going to stop being affectionate just because some people were dumb and nosy. That was stupid.

He returned to Langa and plopped down beside him, leaning more firmly into his shoulder as if to prove a point. Anxiety continued to growl at him from his stomach but he firmly ignored it.

-----

His brave face didn't last all day.

He'd been spaced out all through his beef with Miya, letting him win far too easily for which he got thoroughly chewed out by the kid. Or at least, it would have been thorough if Reki had been really listening. But he'd hardly heard anything since school ended.

He didn't want to date Langa, but had he ever wanted to date anyone at all? The answer was a resounding no and it scared him. That was normal for his age, right?

"Oi slime! SLIME!" Miya screeched and flicked Reki's forehead, finally jolting him out of his thoughts. "Are you even listening?"

Reki absent-mindedly rubbed at where he'd been hit. "Um...no, sorry-"

Miya huffed loud enough to interrupt him, and stamped his foot. "Whatever, just next time you challenge me, actually follow through on it."

"I will, sorry," Reki mumbled, vaguely ruffling Miya's hair and getting a squawk and smack on the arm for his efforts.

Everyone - their whole group was at S today - turned to the screen to watch the next beef and Reki felt a hand tug his elbow.

Cherry was pulling him resolutely to a quieter corner of the warehouse, leaving no debate as to whether Reki was to follow. Only once they were out of earshot of anyone else did he stop and turn to look at Reki shrewdly.

"Something is on your mind. Either stop ignoring your friends or talk about it."

Ah, blunt as always.

Reki held Cherry's severe gaze for less than a second before his eyes dropped to stare at the ground. He scuffed the toe of his shoe in the dust.

Eventually he spoke. "Does it make you uncomfortable when we tease you and Joe for being obliviously in love?"

It wasn't what was on Reki's mind and Cherry knew it, but the older skater just sighed. "Not really, but that doesn't mean everyone has to be comfortable with comments like that. There could be any number of reasons for one to feel that way, and they're all equally valid."

Reki scuffed his toe again, hoping Cherry would elaborate but not knowing how to ask.

There came another sigh and Reki glanced up to see Cherry pinching the bridge of his nose. He took a deep breath and then folded his arms.

"It frustrates me however, because of the assumption that a very close relationship must always be on some level romantic, and usually sexual too." He raised an eyebrow at Reki. "Am I correct to assume you wouldn't know what I'm talking about if I told you I am demiromantic?"

Reki shook his head awkwardly. "Not really. I'm kinda new to this, sorry."

All credit to Cherry, he did try not to look exasperated. "In grossly oversimplified terms, it means I don't experience romantic attraction until I am emotionally close to the person in question. Technically, I am also demisexual but I don't experience romantic and sexual attraction separately so I don't often bother using that label too. It that clear enough?"

Sort of. Reki nodded yes.

"Good." Cherry's tone was clipped, though not any more than usual. "Now, Kojiro is my best friend and has been since before we can remember. I have been in love with him a very long time and he loves me too, but not romantically. I shan't elaborate on Kojiro's side because it's not mine to tell, but we've been in what we call a queer-platonic relationship for many years. I suppose you don't know what that is either?"

Reki shook his head, feeling more and more intimidated by the minute.

"Look up the official definition in your own time," Cherry said with a wave of his hand. "In mine and Kojiro's case we found a middle ground between romantic and platonic that we're both comfortable with and are perfectly happy like that. This, and the fact it is quite frankly nobody else's business, is why the narrow-minded assumption we are romantically involved is aggravating."

It took Reki a moment to realise Cherry had finished talking.

"Wait but," Reki heard Cherry sigh again but pressed forward, "why're you telling me all this? You could've just said it's annoying instead of giving me a lecture." He frowned up at Cherry who, to Reki's surprise let out a breath and unfolded his arms.

"Don't take me for an idiot, Reki. I can make an educated guess that you're questioning some things, probably relating to your relationship with Langa. It's also obvious you learn best with real life examples. Thus: real life example on relationships and attraction that should provide information and...comfort.

"Anyway," Cherry continued, "I've now done the bare minimum to be considered helpful. If you have further questions, the internet is free," he raised a sharp eyebrow, "and perhaps talk to your friend."

Okay, so all that was uncomfortably perceptive. Reki took in a breath and focussed on the knowledge that at least one adult in his life understood he and Langa were just friends.

He tried to reply but all that came out was a "Yeah. Thanks."

Cherry's face remained impassive but he gave Reki a stiff nod and turned back towards their group. Not another word passed between them, and Reki was left to deal with relief, and a simultaneous new flood of confusion.

It was a jumbled mess of feelings and questions, none of which he could sort through enough to really know what he felt. By the time he was back with the rest of the group, and dodging Langa's question about where he went, Reki had given up and pushed it all out of his mind. Now wasn't the time.

And maybe, if he just ignored all of his worrying now, the time would never have to come.

-----

Reki rolled his eyes when Langa finally returned from the vending machine with a pair of drink cans.

"Okay now will you let me sort out your hands?"

Langa passed Reki one of the drinks and huffed as he sat down next to him on the bench, shoulders brushing Reki's own.

"Fine."

Reki shook his head and moved to open the first band-aid. Trust Langa to zone out during a trick and go flying, only to care more about getting food than being patched up when Reki suggested a break.

"Langa," he started, smoothing the first band-aid across his friend's palm and opening another, "can I ask you something kinda personal? You don't have to answer if its rude though," he quickly added.

It was a few days since Reki had spoken with Cherry and he'd spent the time swapping between ignoring his problems, and thinking about them way too much.

"Of course."

"How did you know...?" Reki didn't look up from wrestling with another band-aid, and just trailed off.

Somehow, Langa seemed to instantly know what he was talking about. Must be best-friend powers or something.

"That I'm aroace? I didn't. When I first read about it, I refused to think I wasn't 'normal'," Langa said, making a gesture he'd once told Reki was called air-quotes. Reki let out a sound of annoyance and pulled Langa's hands back down so he could keep bandaging.

"But slowly the idea started to make sense. I'd never felt any attraction, and I didn't want to be in a relationship like that. It felt like I was broken, and I didn't have anyone to talk to, so it took a long time before I was able to admit it to myself. But now I'm okay. Sort of."

Reki stayed quiet as he smoothed down the last band-aid, and just nodded.

A long silence stretched between them. It was broken only by the opening of two cans, Langa immediately drinking about half of his in one go.

Eventually Reki spoke up again. "Can I ask you something else?"

Langa nodded, chugging down the rest of his drink.

Reki fiddled with the metal ring on his can."Do you know what a QPR is? I tried looking it up yesterday but I didn't really get it..."

Beside him, Langa nodded once. Then his eyebrows furrowed and he got that determined expression on his face that Reki knew meant he was thinking really hard about something.

He suddenly sat bolt upright and turned to Reki. "Its like a friendship but extra close," he said, as if that was all the explanation needed.

Reki blinked at him.

After several seconds of staring, Langa got the hint and tried again. "You do things that people say are only for romantic relationships."

Reki huffed. "Like what?" he pressed, "details Langa!"

"Like...spending all your time together," Langa's gaze began to get unfocused, "and maybe going on dates but as friends." He sounded faraway, but slowly leant closer and closer into Reki's shoulder as he spoke, saying something about physical affection and sharing interests. Discussing feelings and what you want in the future. Living together for the rest of your lives.

"It can be anything really, but I think it's something like that," Langa said, seeming to come back from wherever he'd zoned out to.

Reki looked down at where their palms had somehow ended up close enough to brush together, not quite holding.

"Oh."

Something was swirling in his chest. Something that loosened his breathing, and relaxed the tenseness of his shoulders. Something that eased the storm of questions in his head.

He felt Langa nudge him. "Are you okay?"

Reki shrugged, then nodded. "Yeah. I need to think about some things, but not right now."

"Then," Langa rose and offered out a hand to Reki, "let's race home!"

Reki grinned, glad to be offered a distraction, and let his best friend drag him from the bench.

-----

The bright light from Reki's phone made his eyes ache, and his head throb painfully. His gaze had been fixed to the screen since practically the moment he'd snuck back into his room, and he'd been reading and re-reading the same words over and over again for what felt like hours.

Never having a crush on someone. Rarely bothered by being single. Finding people attractive but having no desire to actually date them. Discomfort at the idea of being in a romantic relationship.

He felt shaky, breath fast and uneven, palms clammy. The screen eventually went dark and he didn't even move to tap it, just dropped it on the bed. His head hurt.

So he was aromantic.

He'd kept trying to find other reasons - he just hadn't met the right person yet, he hadn't gotten close enough to anyone to fall in love, he was still a kid and skateboarding took up all of his time - but whenever he tried to imagine himself dating someone he just couldn't. And when he tried extra hard, he just ended up feeling sick.

But the rush of relief that this was even an option was impossible to ignore, even with the knots that pulled his chest tighter and tighter. He couldn't even pretend the relief was new. It had been creeping in since Langa came out to him, and now, in the dark of his room and through watery eyes, it all came in a rush.

He was aromantic bisexual. He thought people were hot but he would never want to date them, and he would never fall in love.

Something hot trickled from the corner of his eye, and across his temple.

The pounding in his head threatened to split his skull clean open and all Reki wanted to do was bury his head in the sand and forget about it all. He didn't want to have to go through all this questioning, and he didn't want to have to explain to everyone he met for the rest of his life that he and Langa were just friends.

His room was suffocating him.

-----

Rain dripped quietly from the awning in front of Sia La Luce as Reki hovered on the doorstep, just outside the glow from the few lights left on inside. It had already been raining lightly when he left his house, but he'd walked out into it anyway, so desperate to get out of his room and clear his head.

It had worked. Sort of. The word aromantic undeniably made sense, and the realisation that he wasn't romantically attracted to anyone actually somehow made the label bisexual feel better too.

But he didn't want that to be right.

It felt...like being told something was wrong with him, that he was a bad person for this.

He didn't know how or why he ended up lurking outside the restaurant, damp and tired, but he was still stalling when the door opened suddenly and he jumped about a foot into the air, shrieking.

"Woah, woah kid calm down," Joe laughed, leaning against the door, "I only came to see if you were all right, not give you a heart attack!"

Reki grumbled something about some warning being nice, but followed Joe inside the restaurant anyway. He ended up slouched on one of the chairs, Joe leaning against the counter beside him, neither of them speaking.

He was just considering leaving (with an apology for imposing his company on Joe right when he probably wanted to go home) when Joe broke the silence instead.

"Hey, if you have something on your mind, you can talk to me, you know."

"Cherry told me about your relationship," Reki blurted out. Then he caught himself and muttered, "it made me think about a lot of things. Well I was thinking about them before but it made me think...more..."

"Ah," Joe made a small noise, like a knowing little huff of air, and sat down on the chair next to Reki. "I assume he didn't tell you much about my side of it?"

Out of the corner of his eye, Reki could see Joe was looking at him evenly, expression relaxed and open as always.

"No, he said that wasn't his to tell."

Joe nodded and turned to gaze somewhere in the direction of the cabinets behind the counter.

"I'm aromantic and pansexual," he began, in that calm voice of his, "so though I love Kaoru a lot, it's not romantic. Not like the way he loves me. We're extremely close, but our relationship is mostly friendship with just the romantic parts I'm okay with. I guess it seems pretty weird to other people, especially with all the play-arguing," he chuckled. Then he turned to Reki and leaned in like he was sharing a grave secret. "Kaoru gets frustrated on my behalf when someone assumes we're dating, but he'll never admit it."

Reki smiled a little at that, the lightheartedness of the comment easing the remaining tension in his shoulders.

"It takes a lot of communication," Joe continued, "because technically we both want different things, but it's not all that hard to make it work."

Watching out the corner of his eye, Reki saw Joe glance over at him, as if to check he was still following everything he was saying.

"I said I'm aromantic, but more specifically I'm frayromantic - which means I'm only romantically attracted to people I'm not very close to. I like going on single dates and having, well, one night stands, and I'm always clear that it's no strings attached."

Reki frowned as Joe said that, trying to wrap his head around just how calm he was. Of course Reki knew there wasn't anything wrong with any of this, but just the casual way Joe spoke was helping him to actually believe that.

"But that's why Kaoru's the only one allowed to call me a flirt, and I'm the only one allowed to bully him for being a prude. Because we aren't trying to hurt each other, and we know what's too far. It's not exactly a traditional relationship," he shrugged, "and people certainly think it's weird, but we're happy. And we agreed a long time ago that was all that mattered."

Reki was quiet as Joe finished, still thinking over everything he'd said. He fiddled with a leaf on the plant at the end of the counter.

"Are you okay kid?"

"Do you...do you ever feel like you're...bad because you only-" Reki's voice caught and he had to swallow, "-only want to sleep with people, and not...date them?"

Joe sighed quietly. Not out of impatience, just a little sad. Like he'd known exactly what Reki was going to say.

"Sure, sometimes I get down like that." He turned to face Reki properly, resting his arm on the counter. "But much less now than I used to. It's not on me to do something I'm uncomfortable with just because someone else expects me to."

Reki's throat tightened, though not out of fear or sadness now. He finally let his eyes raise to look at Joe properly.

"Having Kaoru helps. He's always there to be aggressively supportive, and I know I can trust him to communicate with me. But mostly it's just...time."

Reki's vision was going blurry for some reason, and he blinked rapidly to clear it.

"You'll be okay kid."

He nodded, once.

A little bit of weight had lifted from Reki's chest, like a heartbreak starting to heal. It would be a long time before he was okay with all of this, but it didn't feel quite so bleak now.

"Yeah."

-----

A week later, another slow day at school, and another night spent too long at S and Reki and Langa were slowly making their way home through the early morning darkness. Or at least, home was the intended destination. They hadn't been walking in the right direction for a while, just taking a meandering route through the quiet streets, savouring the time together.

Not a word had passed between them for the past hour, and they hadn't seen another person since they'd left S earlier that night. For all intents and purposes, they could have been the only two people left on earth, just wandering together.

It was peaceful.

He wasn't sure when they'd started holding hands, or even who started it, but they were, sweaty palms pressed together and shoulders occasionally brushing. His friend's very presence seemed to both cool down the stuffy night air, and warm the inside of Reki's chest.

Yes, this was where he wanted to be forever.

They were passing by a park when Reki felt a tug on his hand and Langa broke the silence to complain that his legs hurt.

Reki laughed and turned towards the park. "All right, all right, we'll stop here for a bit."

Langa let himself be pulled along eagerly as if that was exactly what he'd been hoping Reki would say (it was, and Reki knew that). Skateboards were dumped on the ground beside them and they flopped onto the grass, side by side, still holding hands.

They fell back into silence then, just watching the stars slowly blink out and light gradually collect at the horizon.

Lying here in silence like this, curling up together to watch videos, talking for hours on end about something completely random, skating through the streets and daring each other to pull off crazy tricks - Reki loved nothing more.

Except perhaps Langa himself.

He lost track of time too easily anyway, but like this they could have been together minutes or days and it hardly mattered. Time didn't matter at all when you had infinity.

"Hey Langa?" Reki's voice was barely more than a whisper.

"Hm?"

"I've been thinking a lot about what you said a while back - you know, about being, uh, aroace - and um," Reki took a breath, trying to persuade himself he didn't need to be so nervous, "well, you know I'm bisexual?"

"Yeah." There was a slight shuffle next to Reki and Langa turned to look at him, but Reki kept his eyes trained firmly on one particular star above him.

"Well I think - I mean I know - I'm aromantic too."

There it was. He'd said it.

Reki finally turned to look at Langa too and was met with one of his friend's rare grins.

"Cool! Hey, we can share a flag now!"

Relief rushed through Reki so fast it made him weak. He gave Langa a shaky smile back and blinked away the blur from his eyes. It was all okay. Of course it was.

He felt Langa squeeze his hand, reminding him neither had let go.

"This is nice you know," Reki whispered, shuffling a little closer to lean his head onto Langa's shoulder, "I love just being with you. Heh, that doesn't really make sense."

"It does to me."

Reki hummed. "Do you...do you think this counts as that QPR thing you were telling me about?"

Langa shrugged, making Reki snicker as his head bounced. "If you want, or we can just make it up as we go. There's no rules." He smiled. "Like skating!"

The warmth that had been settled in Reki's chest for the past few hours began to uncurl and spread through him. He imagined passing it on to Langa too.

"Yeah, like skating."

-----

Reki let out a whoop as he and Langa kicked off in unison, for once not ending up in a heap on the floor. They'd been at this for several hours, trying to hold hands while skating, and finally seemed to have it down. They kicked again, speeds perfectly matched and Reki grinned at his friend, seeing him smile back just as excitedly.

"We did it Reki!"

"Hell yeah!"

To everyone else in the park, it probably looked ridiculous, the two of them wobbling around on their boards, laughing each time the other almost fell, but it didn't matter. They kept going, falling into a steady rhythm, a slight push and pull as they kept each other balanced.

They'd managed to go quite a way through the park when they passed by Joe and Cherry sitting together on a bench, Joe looking at his phone and Cherry sitting sideways to lean on his shoulder and read a book. They both looked up as the two boys passed, giving Reki questioning looks. Reki just grinned, getting two nods in return, then he turned back to focus on Langa.

"Hey, Reki," Langa was still beaming at him, "you're the most important person to me."

Reki yelped and wobbled, still not used to how forward Langa could be, but his best friend's hand was there to steady him.

"Y-yeah," his heart did a happy little dance, "you too Langa."

They'd gotten into the same university, and were going to move in together after high school. Reki still got giddy when he remembered that.

Nothing had changed, not really. But then, why on earth should it?

~~*~~

By far the most difficult part of writing this was every time Langa had to say more than one sentence at a time. Heart to heart conversation? The boy hardly speaks!

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this! For a while it was a real struggle to write and then lo and behold, a week before uni starts, I suddenly regain the ability to write after wasting like. The entire summer holidays. Whatever.

Thank you for reading! Peace!

[sparkywanderer]

Parallels in SK8 The Infinity: Why Renga will (probably) get a happy ending

So uh. I had a ton of thoughts after the recent episode. So I wrote a thing about parallels and stuff and not gonna lie it’s kinda long (I get sidetracked like 5 times and have not edited this to be concise so it’s really bad???). Here it is, though, if you would like to read my rambling anyway!

Spoilers for Episode 8

Sk8 really likes its parallels. Whether it be how many times it likes to group Langa and Adam together as the “talented ones” or equals or whatever, or how the writers put Cherry/Joe and Adam’s separation with Langa and Reki’s in episode 7 practically back-to-back, it’s clear that they’re all tied up together in some specific way. Not only that, but Miya’s story of losing his friends due to his skateboarding talents rings eerily similar situation-wise to how Reki isolates himself from Langa due to the latter’s talents (though of course there are major differences and such, but other posts could probably explain way better than me so let’s ignore that for now).

Episode 8 adds another parallel to the mix with the reveal that Tadashi actually taught Adam skateboarding in the first place, because well, guess who taught Langa skateboarding? Guess who else enables the skateboarding of someone else, in Tadashi’s case handling Adam’s other work as a secretary and driving him in/out of S, and in Reki’s case building a skateboard for Langa? And not only that, but guess who else is compared to a dog (albeit more for the sake of a bet than anything)? Think back to the whole bet with Miya.

(I think there’s a manga panel that shows that Langa sorta thinks of Reki as similar to one too, but I’m too lazy to find it tbh)

Tadashi and Adam’s relationship is still a little unclear from episode 8, so there definitely could be more of these parallels, but what we do know is this: these are both pairs that were very, very close, sharing a mutual love for skateboarding, before eventually drifting apart as one became far more engrossed in the sport than the other to the point of danger. The writers portray this through Langa’s incredibly high speeds in Episode 7, and the flashbacks of Adam getting into highly dangerous situations with other people which cause them to get badly injured. Both of them don’t fear the thrill of this wild style of skateboarding, enjoy it even, while others like Reki, Cherry Blossom and Joe clearly do-- setting them apart as similar people, as Adam remarks. Langa mirrors Adam and Reki mirrors Tadashi, which bleeds into their equally mirrored relationships. 

Going more in depth on Reki and Tadashi specifically, both of them are not the best at communicating their feelings. In Reki’s case, he bottles up all of his doubts and anxieties about his relationship with Langa until they eventually culminate into one scene and force them apart. In Tadashi’s, he doesn’t stand up against Adam’s father about letting him continue to skateboard even when he clearly wishes to. They’re different, of course, but both of them are clearly the type to put a mask over how they actually feel: in Reki’s case with an “It’s nothing!”, and in Tadashi’s case with an “I have no opinions”. 

(One of the few times smiling Reki brings me Suffering instead of serotonin)

But what’s the point of this all? What’s the point of drawing out all these random connections between Adam and Langa, and Tadashi and Reki? The purpose isn’t showing the similarities, but the differences. Given everything that’s similar, it’s a lot easier to see what’s distinct, and in my opinion that is what will ultimately set these two relationships apart.

Because here’s the thing: Langa actually cares about Reki. Even if they’re so different in terms of skateboarding skill level (which is not necessarily true, but that’s a whole other thing), Langa cares enough about Reki to not leave him behind. The writers blatantly show this in Episode 6, when Langa stays behind and looks for Reki despite the tantalizing offer of a race with a bunch of very talented skaters right in front of him. (It could be argued that he DOES take the offer instead of focusing on Reki by breaking the promise with Reki in episode 7, but the thing is he also assumes Reki will understand and still support him, clearly surprised at his reaction, so it’s not really the same.)

Meanwhile, just think about what Adam does to Tadashi when he’s so focused on his stupid tournament, in contrast. Using him as a scapegoat for his own goals with no shame whatsoever.

(someone free this man. someone free this man please)

Not only that, though, but his passion for skateboarding isn’t just in the sport itself, but a major part of it is the people he spends time with. Before with snowboarding, it was his father, and when he was gone Langa stopped finding joy in that sport altogether. And now it’s Reki who’s gone, and he’s quickly realizing skateboarding that no longer brings the same thrill that it used to-- as made evident with the sudden shift to snowboarding in that scene, and the absence of his heart beating quickly, which could represent a lot of things but the point is he’s not having fun. Oh wait, that's another parallel.

On the other hand, Adam accepts that he’ll leave some people behind with his talents, dismissing them as unworthy rather than taking the time to actually try and recognize any flaws within himself or his way of thinking. This is perfectly exemplified in the first scene of Episode 8, where he shows little to no concern whatsoever over someone he’d been considering a possible match just a couple of seconds ago. Because it’s as he says: to him, when the perceived “distance” between two people is too great, to the point where it is “unreachable” for one of them, there can be no “real love”.

(oh yeah they both have blue hair too i guess)

But remember, Langa’s not like that. He isn’t willing to so easily give up on Reki like that, as seen with how he consults his mother for advice and still constantly checks to see if he’s there to talk to. He’s not going to so callously give up on him like Adam does with those he skates with, because his version of love isn’t nearly as twisted as his. Instead, he’s going to try and fix things, “repent and make efforts” (though of course neither of them are entirely at fault here), and communicate, as foreshadowed by the latest episode.

Reki, on the other hand, doesn’t show as many signs of wanting to try and reconnect with Langa, as of Episode 8 anyway. But I still have faith in him, because he seems to be having some doubts given his actions-- and more than that, remember what Cherry was talking about when he found him, words that he probably at least kind of listened to! Eventually he’s going to realize that he’s cut off a really good relationship for the wrong reasons, and he’ll have to apply some of these teachings and make efforts to actually communicate once he begins to realize it.

(Also, just take a moment to appreciate the bi calligraphy.)

So what can we take away from all this? Adam said Langa was the same type of person as himself. And sure, maybe that’s true in some ways, but it’s not entirely, and if the anime wants to have any clear thematic messages about relationships, it will most definitely reflect the results of their differences one way or another. At the very least, Reki and Langa will not turn out like Adam and Tadashi did. Because what’s the purpose of constantly comparing and contrasting characters in eerily similar situations, if their differences don’t have any actual effect on the story and the message that it’s ultimately attempting to convey, especially in a short 12 episode anime?

But anyways, if you actually did read this far for some reason, thank you! If I missed anything, you wanna add anything else, or just idk talk about this anime in general, let me know :D

(TLDR: Adam and Langa are sort of similar but also really different because the latter cares for Reki, so therefore this is yet another sports anime that will probably be about the power of friendship/love, and I Pretend I Do Not See whatever death flags there are for Langa I DO NOT SEE THEM!!!) 

[bunny-banana]

I'd love to hear a director's commentary on La leggenda di Niccolo please :D Have a star as well ⭐

HA! Okay well, I’ll talk about the sections that I actually wrote so here it comes:

Chap 1

Engulfed in the never ending masses of water, he reckoned one should feel intimidated. No ground under his feet, only limited amounts of air to his disposal, and the uncertainty of what lies within the darker corners of the ocean should normally frighten you. And yet, he never felt more at peace than when he was floating so freely in the sea, almost as if gravity and the world outside didn’t exist

the fucking IRONY of me writing this while being deadly afraid of deep water. its honestly like “yeah,,,,, lemme list all the things i personally hate about deep sea…. and lets add ‘well, but theres something good too about that for sure,,,i guess,,,, ”

But what was more important for me was this contrast to what Ermal dreams about, his lowkey fantasy - and where he is irl, the icy south pole. I’m rather fond of opposing things/contrasts. 

The soldier breathed heavily in and out, but there was no time to rest as the next blaze of fire was aimed at him.He countered and evaded but his opponent was more forceful, his flames harsher, faster until the soldier’s back hit the cold railing. He was caught, and when his opponent mercilessly stroke once more, he knew he had to save himself by escaping into the cold water.The man remaining on the top deck smirked. Ah yes, he’d almost assume those new soldiers were just too easy to take on even if only for practice reasons, but it pleased him more to say that he still got it.

i really hope this introduction just tells you everything you need to know about Renga’s character.

How much sooner the war could have been won had it not been for the Poles!

While actually reflecting on the universe, i realised, it must be incredibly difficult for firebenders on the poles. like, I just assume they really, really arent fit for the cold which would make invading incredibly difficult for them. also lol, renga hates it at the poles obviously.

  Shaking so hard that kids ran towards their mothers and the watchtower fell over and when the fog cleared up, Ermal felt his stomach drop. ”No.”

Nothing, absolutely, nothing in that universe is more frightening than seeing the Fire Nation military pull up to your doorstep.  

Also, lmao, love to imagine Rinald quietly going “oh nooo my watchtower D:” 

Ermal pushed himself through the crowd until he was right in front of everyone, until he was the last barrier between the Fire Nation soldiers and the village.

Ermal has Strong Opinions™ about the Fire Nation, with reasons of course, and seeing them here is the absolute nightmare to him.

  “You mean the Avatar that disappeared off the face of the Earth? The one that nobody has ever seen and that was probably never even reborn? That Avatar?”And if his cockiness gave off a certain invitation to smash his face in, then this was perhaps a little bit Ermal’s fault.

to quote the Smiths: Bigmouth Strikes Again!

“B-but he’s- he’s so young? I swear to the Fire Lord, if this is yet another trick then-”

Chap 2

Niccolò had always been in awe of the Fire Nation’s advanced industrial sector. The machinery that originated from the Nation had always had cutting edge quality which no one in the world could quite imitate nor match. This ship however was beyond anything Niccolò had ever seen. This ship was fully steam-driven with the powerful motors roaring under his feet. And those weren’t the only novelties.Steel processed so professionally that it makes impenetrable walls and doors which opened and closed only through quite sophisticated lock mechanisms. It all looked so modern, it all looked so futuristic.

so the idea was, since Nic had missed an entire century, the ship looked super modern to him. while its a canon fact that the FN is quite advanced with machinery, the ship itself is just to an up-to-date standard. But to Niccolo personally it seemed futuristic.  i like the idea of him being amazed at things he has never seen in his life just to find out they’re pretty common in the current timeline. 

There was not much time left, Niccolò had to think quickly. Extremely convenient how his nose started tickling right in that moment.The powerful sneeze that followed had two consequences: One, the guard in front of him was catapulted straight into the metal door of the cell, rendering him unconscious.Two, Niccolò and the guard behind him were also forcefully pushed back to the other end of the corridor, crashing into the hard wall.Well, at least the guard did. The young airbender was spared that fate, by that nice pillow the guard turned out to be, so he quickly got onto his feet and ran as fast as he could with his hands tied behind his back.

so yeah ngl, this was just copied from the OG ep

Now that his hands were freed, he opened the first door that presented itself to him, but in front of him, he simply saw the quarters of General Renga who stared at his now roaming prisoner in shock. Okay, time to turn around, it seems.

listen, i just love the thought of overconfident General Renga being so shellshocked to see his prisoner escaping that he just gapes at him. And ofc Nic slamming the door shut immediately jsfkld

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Niccolò cursed as he evaded a burst of fire that was aimed at him before taking the next corner “Where’s the exit?! Where’s the goddamn exi- AH!! A DOOR!!” He pulled it open to reveal a startled guy sitting there just minding his own business. An unexpected sight, with an even more unexpected odor following. “Oh? uhm- Sorry man! Just- just take your time! Also, perhaps light a candle when you’re done. Bye!” The young Avatar swiftly apologised as he closed the door of what was most definitely not an exit.

Fav OC so far!  That simple FN dude was just trying to take a dump in peace but who would have known that all hell would break lose and the goddamn Avatar of all people would walk into him smh.  Also, I really enjoyed the thought of while this is all hectic and dangerous, Nic still being human enough to go like “oh, my bad! sorry dude!” at this random soldier. Who knows, maybe we should bring that one back some time later. And i kinda wanted the whole escape to be funny, since its Nic’s POV, and it just wouldnt suit his carefree spirit to make this super serious (yet). 

“I’ll give you that, hiding for so long was sort of impressive.” Niccolò heard Renga’s voice behind him as the General had caught up with him. 

almost wrote “century” there but then remembered  nah omg he can’t know yet 

A piece of ice may or may not have also hit Renga straight into the face but nobody would complain about that anyway. 

yeah i just love the thought of this super dramatic scene of Nic entering the Avatar State and then theres a chunk of ice knocking Renga unconscious lmao get fucked, dude 

“Nic!” Ermal ran towards the slowly decreasing water pillar to catch the unconscious airbender in the last second, dropping to his knees in the process. That was beyond anything anybody of that age should normally be capable of. That was beyond what any waterbender could ever be capable of. And yet, lying in his arms, Niccolò looked so exhausted, so weak. Just like any other kid. Not a trace from the sheer force that was unleashed moments earlier.

I think this was really the moment Ermal started feeling real responsibility over Niccolo. Just seeing him do all these crazy things and yet being reminded that this huge burden of being the Avatar is literally thrusted upon a simple kid.  Also, this is the first time he called him “Nic”

Various noises and sounds buzzed through the air that afternoon: The loud shoveling of snow from the bow, the quieter crackling emerging from the hands of the firebenders who were melting their frozen compatriots, the fast steps rushing left and right over the ship. All these different sounds were heard, but none of them were chattering. Nobody dared to chat. Not after this disastrous defeat. What a disgrace that had been, General Renga thought grinding his teeth.

Everybody on this goddman ship is just scared shitless that Renga will roast them if they so much like whisper. they know he moody, they know he’ll blame them for the avatar’s escape. so lets all just work and repair shit and keep quite. 

When he found consciousness again, he was left with not only one horrendous purple bruise on his face, but also with a half destroyed ship. 

jdsfksajfklf OK SO YEAH, my first intention was “lmao let a piece of ice hit him” but then i realised “oh wait he’d have a bruise afterwards”  and then “LMAOOOO he’d be like Zuko, how perfect is that”   ok so granted, unlike our dear fire prince, Renga’s bruise is only temporary, but i really hoped someone would pick up the connection to Zuko

Whatever had happened to the Avatar earlier, it left a colossal mark on the ship, and secretly, on Renga personally too. He might have gotten fooled once, but he wouldn’t get fooled again.

basically, he feels personally insulted about being beaten by a kid. what a loser lmao

“Martino!”

“Y-yes, General?” stuttered the lanky assistant with the askew glasses, clenching his hands around his writing board. One would think you’d get used to Renga’s harsh tone over time, but that was simply not the case..

rip martino but renga absolutely needed a poor anxious assistant whom he could terrorise

“We need the best of the best to defeat him. And I just know the right choice for that job…”

heeeeheeee ….. no comment ..for now.  but im curious to what you guys think about that 

Thank you so much! this was a lot of fun to do ! :)