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He blinked slowly, sun shining strongly in the early afternoon sky, making Reki’s hair a fiery red he couldn’t look away from. It was difficult to focus on Reki’s explanations when he looked this pretty.
“Hey Langa, are you listening?” Reki stopped in front of him, leaning in close. Langa could feel his cheeks grow warm, the urge to lean back in and kiss the other boy nearly irresistible. “Woah, your face is really red, are you okay? Maybe we should head back, I don’t want you to get a heatstroke,” he put his arm on Langa’s forehead, which was growing increasingly warmer, as Langa tried to calm his racing heart.
“I’m fine, really! We don’t need to get back yet, I want to try that new trick,” he said, louder than necessary. Reki looked at him in disbelief, but leaned back eventually. Langa had to stop himself from chasing after the contact. The redhead moved towards their bags, crouched down and started rummaging through his own.
“Catch!” he called out and before Langa could react a bottle of water was flying towards him. He barely caught it, fumbling a bit before he managed to open it. He drank greedily, mouth suddenly dry. Maybe he was getting a heatstroke? Or he was in denial. Caught up in his thoughts, he didn’t notice Reki looking at him with a frown on his face.
Soon after, he started practicing the new trick, suddenly realizing he really should have listened to what Reki was saying. He couldn’t figure out what he was doing wrong and looked at the other helplessly. He caught Reki’s eyes; the redhead looking at him with an unreadable expression on his face. Before he could ask what was wrong, Reki was walking up to him.
“Your posture is all wrong,” he said, moving closer to help him adjust. Langa felt the blush return full force and made himself breathe slowly, to not alert his friend. Reki moved back and looked at him critically. “Try now.” he said, backing away a bit further.
Langa concentrated and jumped, this time succeeding. His face snapped towards Reki with an excited shout, looking for approval. Reki’s eyes met his and the soft smile on his face made Langa want to melt into the ground - or preferably Reki’s arms, so he could stay there forever. He gave the best hugs in the entire world, Langa would swear and then participate in the ensuing argument with Cherry, who was adamant that it was in fact Joe, who was the best hugger in the world. But that was neither here nor now, and Langa realized he was tumbling down onto the pavement, after getting lost in his thoughts.
He groaned in pain, his cheek scraping against the rough gravel of the skatepark. He squeezed his eyes shut and heard hurried footsteps running away from him, towards the backpack with supplies, presumably. Then, suddenly, there was a hand turning his face gently away from the ground. He gasped, pain radiating through the left half of his face.
“Are you okay? That was a nasty fall,” he began to gently wash the scrape with an antiseptic. Langa whimpered and leaned into the hand on his good cheek. Reki thumbed under his eye and he realized belatedly that he was crying. How embarrassing, he fell so many times before and he never cried. Granted, this fall was particularly bad. And it’s not like Reki would judge him for it.
“Sorry,” he whispered and heard Reki sigh above him. He opened his eyes and looked at the boy leaning over him. How could he possibly be this pretty?
“What are you even apologizing for, dummy?” he put a bandaid over the scrape. Then, suddenly, the exasperated look on his face turned mischievous. Before Langa could react, he smacked a loud, exaggerated kiss on the bandaid. “There, good as new!” he laughed brightly.
Langa stuttered, throwing him a bewildered look, heart racing. Then, before he could think too much about it, he leaned up and put a hand on Reki’s neck, pulling him towards himself. Reki stopped laughing, looking at him with wide eyes, but not fighting against his grip. And then their lips met and Langa couldn’t think anymore. They moved slowly against each other, clearly inexperienced. And yet Langa was sure this would be the best kiss in his life. At least until they kissed again.
They separated, and Reki smiled down at him.
“Took you long enough,” he teased, and Langa could feel a retort rising in his throat, but then Reki was kissing him again, and actually, maybe he didn’t need to argue about that one. As long as he and Reki stayed together like this, he didn’t need anything else.