Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Langa,” Miya sighed. They were slurping the last of their slushy across from Langa in a small burger place that Langa had insisted on dragging the two of them to for their lunch break.

“Hmm?” Langa looked up, half of his burger already in his mouth. Their orders got there not even thirty seconds ago, how did he eat so fast?!

“Oh my god,” Miya groaned, rolling their eyes.

“What?” Langa asked around a mouthful of burger.

“Just… you.”

“Me?”

“You. You’re a mess.” Langa squinted at them, confusion in his eyes. Miya just sighed again.

“I didn’t even do anything,” he said, going back to his burger, apparently unbothered. Of course he would find his burger more interesting than Miya’s inner turmoil.

“No, it’s just you and the continuous problem of your existence and general lack of socialness.”

“Socialness isn’t a word,” Langa commented. Miya groaned and dropped their head to the table.

“That’s not the point,” they whined, glaring up at Langa. “The point is that you need somebody else in your life that you can drag to burger joints because I’m fucking sick of it.”

Langa lowered his burger from where he was about to take a bit of it and frowned at the table. Fuck him for accidentally having the perfect sad puppy dog look. “You don’t have to eat with me if you don’t want to.”

“Ooooooh my goooood, Langaaaaaa,” Miya groaned, hiding their smile in the crook of their arm. “That is not the point. I love hanging out with you. But I also have other friends who I can hang out with too. I know for a fact that you don’t.”

Langa was still frowning, but he’d lost the sad puppy dog look, instead just sort of vaguely glaring at Miya. They smirked. They loved annoying Langa. It felt like a huge achievement every time they got a glare out of Langa and his normally expressionless face. “I have other friends.”

“Saying hi to cashier at your favorite snack shop doesn’t count,” Miya snipped.

“I have other friends,” Langa insisted.

“Sure ya do, buddy,” Miya agreed, still smirking, and patted his arm consolingly. “But seriously. You need to find someone else to hang out with.”

“But—”

“—And I have someone who’ll be able to keep up with your quiet personality.”

“You literally tell me to shut up everyday.”

“Shut up, that’s not the point. He’ll be able to keep you entertained or whatever.”

“I don’t even know what that means.”

“Do you want a friend or what?”

“I—”

“I swear to god, Langa, if you say you already have friends I’m going to leave right now.”

“…”

“That’s what I thought.” Miya opened their phone and sent a text, the plan that had been bouncing around the back of their head for a few days finally coming to light. Langa’s total lack of social skills was funny at first, like, really funny, but then Miya became his friend and Langa’s social problem became Miya’s problem, and they were very much over it now thanks (well, most of the time. It was still hilarious to see Langa respond to obvious flirting with a blank face).

Miya’s phone dings with a message of a row of thumbs up emojis and exclamation marks. They smirk a little bit, proud of their work. They’re awesome at this friendship shit.

“I’ll pick you up tomorrow at ten, ok?” Miya said, standing up and dropping their empty slushy cup in the trash on their way towards the door, Langa scrambling to stand up and shove the last half a burger into his mouth while following Miya. “Hey Langa?” He looked up at Miya, eyes wide and hamburger half shoved in his mouth. Miya pointed at their table. “You forgot your bag.” Langa’s eyes widened as he ran back to the table and picked up his bag, Miya snickering at him.

“Come on, idiot,” Miya laughed, holding the door for Langa as he flailed his way out of the restaurant.

-------------------

“I can’t believe he’s late,” Miya muttered. Langa was sitting with them at the skate park, and they were grumbling into their hands as the two of them waited for Miya’s friend to show up. Langa didn’t see what the big deal was. It had only been a few minutes past when they were supposed to meet up. No one was dying or anything. Well. Maybe Miya’s patience was dying, but when was it not.

Miya was back to typing furiously on their phone, squinting their eyes and practically hissing. “Fucking moron. He’s not replying!”

Langa laughed quietly. Seeing Miya upset at someone else for a change was actually pretty funny. Normally it’s just endless eyerolls and sarcastic jabs towards him, but seeing him in a literal hissy fit over somebody else was amusing.

“I’m going to go get a drink from the vending machine,” Langa said. Miya didn’t respond as he walked away, still glaring at their phone as if that would be enough to summon their friend. Really, it might be. Miya’s glare was pretty scary.

It was kind of sweet of them, though, to try and get Langa another friend. While he did have other friends, despite Miya’s insistence otherwise, he wasn’t exactly the most social person out there. He definitely appreciated the help. Besides, this friend of Miya’s liked skating too. Langa would never say no to meeting another skateboarder.

Langa grabbed his soda from the vending machine and walked back to Miya who was still glaring at their phone.

“Still not here?” Langa asked, laughing under his breath.

“If he forgot, I’m going to kill him,” Miya grumbled.

“I’m sure he’s just a little late—”

“Miya! Hey!” Langa was cut off, the sound of a skateboard skidding to a halt right next to him.

“It’s about fucking time, Reki,” Miya snapped, hissing at the boy as he threw an arm around Miya.

“Sorry, man! There was construction on the road I usually take so I had to go the long way around,” Reki said, smiling brightly.

“Get off of me,” Miya grumbled, glaring at him before turning to Langa. Langa, who’s eyes were wide and heart was thumping. “Langa, this is my friend Reki. He’s an idiot, but he’s fine, I guess.”

“Hey!”

“Reki, this is Langa. He’s on the skate team with me, and he has the social skills of a wet piece of paper. But he’s nice to talk to, or whatever.”

“Uhhh.”

“You talk too much and you barely talk at all—”

“Umm, Miya—” Langa tried to interrupt, but Miya ignored him.

“but you both like skateboarding, so you two—”

“Miya,” Langa tried again.

“you should get along pretty well at least. And if not, well, suck it. I tried. You can thank—”

“Miya.”

“What is it Langa,” Miya deadpanned, glaring. He almost shut his mouth and stayed silent like people normally did when they glared, but really, this was kind of important.

“Miya, that’s my boyfriend.”

Miya’s glare dropped immediately. “Your what now.”

“Ok, this is kinda hilarious,” Reki said, laughing behind his hand.

“What.” Miya was looking back and forth between the two, eyes wide. “No. You two are dating?”

“Yeah,” Reki snickered. “Have been for a bit.” Langa reached out and took Reki’s hand, smiling down at him. He can imagine the look on Miya’s face that goes along with the spluttering indignance, but Reki’s very badly holding back his laughter and that’s much more interesting to watch.

“No. No! I don’t believe this. I spend so much time with you,” Miya pointed at Langa, “that there’s no way you wouldn’t have brought up the fact that you’re dating someone at least once. And you!” They point at Reki. “You wouldn’t be able to shut up about it! You can’t shut up about anything! The fuck! How!”

“I’m sorry we didn’t tell you?” Reki said, snorting at Miya’s furious expression. “Look, dude, I figured you wouldn’t want to know. You always talk about how gross couples are.”

“That’s a lame excuse,” Miya sniffed. “And the only convincing thing about this is that he—” Miya wrinkled their nose in Langa’s direction— “keeps looking at you like you hung the damn moon.”

“That’s the only convincing thing?” Langa asked, confused.

“Well, I don’t know,” Miya spluttered, looking like they were ready to run the two of them over with their skateboard. “It’s just, the two of you, I don’t, just, how?”

“Reki works at a skate shop. I skate,” Langa said. Reki snorted.

“Yeah, and that’s the only reason you chose to repeatedly show up at DopeSketch,” Reki teased, nudging his shoulder. Langa frowned, considering what he could be missing, before he realized what Reki meant.

“You’re right. There was also a really cute boy who worked there,” Langa nodded. Langa smiled as a bright red crept up Reki’s face before he ducked his head and rubbed at his nose. He really always cute, but he was especially cute when he blushed.

“That’s not what I meant,” Reki mumbled. “I was talking about Manager Oka’s board designs.”

“But he didn’t create my design. You did,” Langa said, tilting his head.

“Oh my god,” Reki groaned, glaring up at Langa, his face still flushed red. “That is so not the point.”

“Holy shit, you two really are dating.” Miya was staring at them in shock. Langa frowned.

“It’s not that surprising. We just told you that we were,” Langa said. Reki started laughing again, falling against Langa’s chest. Langa wrapped his arm around his boyfriend and held him up as he continued to frown at Miya.

“Holy shit, you two are really dating!” There was now glee in Miya’s eyes, a manic smile forming on their face. It was unnerving.

“Miya?” Langa asked warily. They smirked at him. Reki took one look at their face and sobered immediately.

“Oh no. I know that look,” he whispered, his eyes wide.

“I just gained so much more blackmail,” Miya cackled. Reki looked up at Langa.

“Dude, we’re so screwed,” Reki whispered, gripping Langa’s arm.

“That’s ok,” Langa said, smiling at him. He leaned in and pecked Reki’s lips. “We’ll be screwed together.”

Reki blushed and Miya fake gagged, their phone out and snapping photos. Reki tried snatching the phone, falling on top of a laughing Miya as they tackled for the phone. Langa smiled. Maybe he hadn’t made a new friend, but this was definitely worth it.