Chapter Text
“So you—“Joe pointed to Miya. “You’re going to convince Reki to come to karaoke at my restaurant tonight, and you—“he pointed to Langa, “you’re going to help me figure out karaoke ‘cause I don’t know what song you want to have on there for your big confession thing, and because we’re doing all of this for you.”
“Wait, that’s what we’re doing tonight? And why do I have to be the one to get Reki here?” Miya protested. “What is Cherry going to do?”
Cherry leaned his chair back and folded his arms over his head.
“Nothing,” Cherry replied. “I’m going to watch this train wreck happen in 4K.”
“Geez thanks for the vote of confidence,” Langa grumbled. Joe put his hand on the blue-haired boy’s shoulder.
“It’s going to be fine, alright?” He assured him. Langa nodded but he still wasn’t sure what result tonight would yield.
“If you’re not doing anything Cherry, maybe there’s something that you’d like to tell Joe?” Langa teased the older boy. Cherry straightened his chair and gave Langa his coldest death stare. Joe, however, had been too preoccupied with his reflection in Miya’s game system to pay much attention to the others’ conversation.
“Huh?” He asked, confused.
“N-Nothing,” Cherry told him, before once again glaring daggers and mouthing “I’ll kill you” at Langa.
“To answer your question Miya, I’ve employed Cherry to film it with Carla’s help, of course.”
Cherry smacked Joe across one cheek.
“You didn’t employ me you stinky gorilla!” He exclaimed. Langa and Miya exchanged eye rolls.
“C’mon, Cherry, it’s TRUE LOVE!” Miya pressed Cherry’s cheeks together in a cutesy face.
“Ugh get off me! Fine, kid. Carla and me will look out for you tonight and help you find the song you want, okay?”
“I’ll help too.” Miya said.
“No, you’re going to get Reki,” Joe reiterated. “That’s the most important part of all of this. If Reki doesn’t come, then the plan completely falls through. You’re the only one who understands Reki’s situation, who can sympathize with him and get him to come around. Can you do that?”
Miya bit the inside of his cheek.
“Fine, fine, yeah I’ll do it.”
Langa couldn’t help but smile, blinking back surprised-but-happy tears. All of his friends were really doing him a solid, being there for him like this. If only I had been there for Reki…
Langa shook away the thought. It was okay. He was going to make it up to Reki tonight, explain everything, apologize to him for everything. He just hoped Reki actually showed up.
Even if Joe and Cherry had alterior motives, Langa still couldn’t help but feel lucky that they were helping him at all. Shadow was going to advertise the event on social media and at the behest of Joe, was going to act as security. Now all they needed to do was set things up and wait for Joe’s shift to be over.
“Alright, we got a lot to do. Let’s get going.”
Miya peaced out on his skateboard and Langa finally felt the anxiety creep in. He was really doing this.
“Hey Langa,” Joe’s gruff voice pierced through his brain fog. “Stop thinking and help me bring the karaoke machine and speakers onto the stage in the corner.” He instructed.
Of course Joe was probably strong enough to lift all three objects, but Joe knew Langa needed the distraction. Cherry moved his laptop over to the pizza counter, the signature purple tint showing that Carla was inside it. He clicked the track pad a few times and scrolled through the list of songs that he had created.
“So which song were you thinking of doing?” Cherry asked as Langa and his lanky arms struggled to move the karaoke machine with Joe.
“Uh,” Langa grunted. “Something…”He felt his cheeks heat up as he thought of his answer. “Romantic.”
“Hmm, I don’t have a good idea of English speaking love songs,” Cherry admitted. “And you’re not exactly fluent with Japanese enough to sing a Japanese song, right?”
There was a clang as Langa bumped into a chair as Joe and Langa moved the karaoke machine through the restaurant, Langa almost falling in the process, only catching himself at the last second.
“Well,” Langa continued, adjusting his grip on the karaoke machine. “I was thinking of something chill but kind of sweet and caring…like Reki. I guess the song is less romantic and just—something that I think will resonate with Reki in a way that will show my feelings. Something that will sort of wake him up, yknow?”
“Sure, ‘cause that’s exactly the kind of song I wanna hear when I’m getting confessed to,” Cherry muttered. Joe flashed him a death glare that Langa couldn’t see. Cherry knew Joe was overly protective of the two boys and he was not in the mood to be messed with. The truth is Cherry was blunt but he did care about all the boys and wanted things to be mended between Reki and Langa, so he should act more supportive.
“Whatever you think is best will be fine, I’m sure.” Cherry assured Langa.
Langa’s eyebrows raised as he and Joe finally dropped the karaoke machine down on the stage. Reki was a weird one, He didn’t like what most people liked in their music. He didn’t enjoy classic rock, folk, or most pop songs, but he once admitted to Langa that he liked musicals. Songs that were from the heart, from a certain kind of character, one who he resonated with, whose voice was gripping and beautiful. Langa snapped his fingers.
“I know which song I want,” Langa said finally, shoving Cherry aside to look for the song on the internet and download it to the computer.
“Oi, be careful of Carla!” He exclaimed. Joe laughed, going to grab the two speakers and moving them over to the stage himself.
“We still got a lot of work to do.” He said.
***
“What are you doing here Miya?” Reki grunted, as Miya rang his door bell and then invited himself inside Reki’s house. Reki chased him through his house, trying to get him to leave.
“Hey idiot, get out of my—”
“Nice room,” Miya commented, admiring Reki’s room and a certain picture of Reki and Langa on his wall.
“You didn’t come over here to see my room.” Reki retorted.
“How do you know?” Miya teased.
Reki crossed his arms over his chest like he meant business. Miya sighed.
“There’s a karaoke night tonight at Joe’s restaurant and we’re all going to support hi,. Would you please come? Joe says you don’t have to sing or anything, just, yknow, watch.”
Reki looked thoughtful, looking towards the floor.
“Will Langa be there?” Reki asked quietly.
“Well yeah, slime, Langa is going. Even Shadow is going. We all are. I just said we’re all going to support Joe, so Langa will be there.”
“Then I can’t be there.”
Reki turned his back on Miya.
“Oh c’mon Reki, don’t be like that. Cherry and Joe are always arguing, but Cherry’s still there to support him. What even happened beween you and Langa anyway?”
Reki turned back toward Miya. Miya noticed just how flat Reki’s hair was on his forehead without his headband. He had droopy eyes and like he hadn’t showered in a few days. He looked downright exhausted.
“It’s…complicated.”
“Come ON, Reki. We all have beef with each other, but look at us all. We’re all friends anyway. Hell you all made skating fun for me again. Skating is a fun sport that connects people, brings them together.”
This was as wise as Reki had ever heard Miya sound.
“Yeah, well, I’m not…I’m not like you guys.” Reki replied softly, lowering his head. Miya wasn’t hearing it.
“You like skating right?” He asked, lowering his head so he could be on Reki’s face level.
“Yeah but—”
“But nothing! That’s all that really matters. You don’t have to be amazing at something to enjoy doing it.”
Reki just stared at Miya, completely dumbfounded. Since when was Miya the one acting like an older sibling to him? It definitely should be the other way around. And what had he said about finding the fun of skating with him? Was that really true?
“Look, I got great—amazing even—at skating and then all my friends abandoned me and I don’t want that to happen to anyone else. That feeling is awful and I don’t want you to experience that. And I certainly don’t want you to be a lone skater like Adam.”
Reki couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He had been holding onto the idea that he had to be great at skating in order to become something, that skating made him something, famous, worth anything, but it wasn’t like that at all. Skating had given him something to look forward to every day, a community that enjoyed the same thing he did.
But, he thought, although that was nice, there was still his pride that made him overly compeititive, the part that couldn’t believe the person he had shown skating to had completely surpassed him after he’d told him all the secrets. It felt like a total betrayal. It was all so unfair.
“Joe’s been worried about you,” Miya added after Reki didn’t answer. “The least you could do would be to come out to give him peace of mind.”
Reki rolled his eyes.
“Ugh fine,” He said. “I’ll go. But not for you.”
Miya gave him a smug smile and shrugged.
“Whatever. As long as you come.” Miya picked up his skateboard and was about to ride away when Reki grabbed his arm.
“Why do you want me to come to Joe’s restaurant so badly?” He asked.
Miya put his helmet on and grinned his signature smug, cat-like grin.
“Oh, you’ll see.”
***