Chapter Text
Streetlights lit up the pavement as Langa and Miya stepped out of the cab in front of the mansion. “Are we sure we should be doing this? He might not be here, and even if he is, how do you know he’ll talk to you?” Miya asked, looking around the garden that was on the property. Aromatic hedges and climbing plants neighbour a tousled patch of grass. An ornamental piece stands in the back, slightly overgrown with climbing plants. The flower beds are well looked after but still allow plenty of space to grow; they're attention-grabbing. The hedges and climbing plants reach 4ft high, but this is something that only seems to happen outside of the wild. Various stones hint at paths around the garden, offering a glimpse of the best spots. Grass, roots, and vines seem to refuse to try and claim more land than what they have, perhaps thanks to some intervention by green thumbs.
The ornamental piece demands all attention but, in doing so, also draws attention to everything near it. The flower beds are nothing to sneeze at, and the hedges and climbing plants are eyes catching in their own right, but nothing beats the majesty of the ornamental piece.
Once they arrived at the front door, Langa rang the doorbell while Miya sat down on a garden chair outside the door, placing his board on the table. “He’s probably not open–”
Miya’s sentence cut off as the door opened, but it wasn’t Reki.
Tadashi looked Langa up and down, “may I help you?” He asked, giving a glance over at Miya. “Please do not seat yourself there, Miya Chinen. Those chairs are for invited visitors in which you are not.”
Miya rolled his eyes before getting up, kicking the chair back and grabbing his board, and holding it with his hands behind his back. “We’re here to see Reki.”
“Master Reki is not ava–”
Tadashi got cut off as Langa grabbed his tie and pulled him towards him. “You either go get Reki this instant, or I will do it myself.” The bitter cold voice made Miya gulp. Had Langa’s personality always been like this, or did losing Reki in his life set off a specific trigger?
“Very well then, but I can’t promise he wants to talk with you,” Tadashi said as Langa let go of him before the assistant walked back inside the mansion.
“Langa, I think you should tone it down a notch. You’re scaring the shit out of me right now.” Miya mumbled, looking at the older and studying his body language. Langa had started cracking his fingers while his right foot was anxiously on his board, sliding it back and forth.
“Shut the hell up, Miya.” He snapped, sending a glare in the younger’s direction as the door opened again and a familiar redhead walked out, his board resting on his shoulders.
Reki spoke in a monotone voice as he looked Langa up and down. “You wanna race or something? You don’t seem too happy seeing me.” A crooked smile rested on his face.
“You–” Miya started and clenched his fists, but Langa raised his hand to silence him.
“Silencing the children? How unusual of you, Langa. Are you gonna say something for yourself then?” Reki said, removing the skateboard from his shoulders and placing it on the ground, leaning against the doorframe to look at the Canadian and what he had to say.
“Fuck it!” Langa broke the long silence before picking up his skateboard and looking directly at Reki. “Whoever I’m looking at right now is a different person than the guy who taught me how to skate. I don’t even know what to tell you.” He said, forcing a peal of laughter before dropping his skateboard to the ground, stomping down on it with his foot.
“Langa, what the fuck! ” Miya yelled as the board broke into two pieces before looking at Reki to see his reaction. After all, he’s the one who custom made that board for Langa when he first started skating.
He raised an eyebrow at Langa, “was that supposed to tell me something?” He chuckled as Langa picked up both board pieces and threw them at Reki.
“Done with skating? Oh no, I’m done with you and your fucking bullshit! I don’t know what made you think I would be all on board with how you decided to do shit. As soon as we graduate, you disappear off the face of Earth and then show up a year later with the person you hated with your entire body? How does that make any fucking sense in your head.” Langa snapped, pulling Reki closer by his collar. “You told me I was your favourite person. You swore to God that I was your favourite person. But screw that and screw you because you will never have to hurt the way you know that I do.” Langa paused to breathe, looking at Reki, who was looking elsewhere, not paying attention, so the former let go of him. “What’s the point? I’m talking to a wall anyway, just like always.” Langa paused slightly.
“Are you done whining?” Reki mumbled, picking up his board, “I need to get back to my training.”
“How am I gonna get through to you when you don’t even care for what I have to say?” He mumbled, turning on his heel to leave, Reki doing the same.
Miya grabbed the redhead’s jacket, stopping Reki from leaving. “Not so fucking fast, slime.”
“Oh, great…more third-graders who want to use me as their therapist.” Reki rolled his eyes and pulled himself out of Miya’s grip.
“You’re nothing except for a damn rotten slime who’s got less talent in skateboarding than the average middle-schooler, yet Langa did everything to find you, and all you do is bark like a loyal bitch for scum like ADAM? Do you have any fucking idea how much pain Langa is in because of you?”
Reki grimaced at the sight of Miya getting tearful while talking. “Please just leave and don’t fucking bother me again; I need to prepare for my beef with Joe.” He mumbled and walked back inside, closing the door behind him.
“You lousy coward!” Miya snapped, picking up a piece of Langa’s board and throwing it at the window with all his strength, shattering it before turning on his heel and dragging Langa with him. “We’re leaving.”
Reki turned around as the window broke and looked down at the piece of skateboard that ended up on the ground. He watched through the window as Langa and Miya left before walking over, picking up that part of the skateboard before opening the door to pick up the other pieces and then walking back inside.
As he headed back to his studio, Tadashi walked out from one of the rooms to walk with him. “Did you talk with Langa Hasegawa and Miya Chinen, Master Reki?”
“I did; they just wanted to be sore losers and vent about their struggles to me,” he said, letting out a stifled laugh before stopping in front of the door to his studio. Tadashi opened the door for him and let him inside first before following after.
“Shall I get you some dinner? Perhaps something to drink?” Tadashi offered while Reki placed the pieces on his work desk and sat down.
“I’m good, thank you. Close the door on your way out and turn my sign around, will you? I don’t want to be disturbed for the rest of the night.” He muttered while fidgeting around to find different types of equipment that he needed.
“As you wish, Sir.” He said, standing still for a few seconds and admiring Reki, eagerly starting to work on the skateboard pieces. He eventually left the room as Reki told him to by closing the door and turning the sign around.
“Reki, listen to me. You don’t stand a chance against JOE , and he will destroy you. Why the hell won’t you take my advice? I know what kind of skater he is, and it’s dangerous for you even attempting to beef with him.” Kaoru was, once again, blocked by security guards as he tried to speak with Reki.
“CHERRY , could you please leave PRINCE REKI alone? He needs to focus on himself now in the minutes before the race begins.”
“You shut your fucking mouth, ADAM. I don’t want to hear a single word roll off your tongue, especially not Reki’s name.” Kaoru snapped, sending a glare to the masked man, who gave a loving smile back.
“I appreciate your concern for me, CHERRY , but I only listen to real skaters. Last time I checked, using an AI to skateboard isn’t exactly real skating.” Reki chuckled, standing up and grabbing his board before walking over, the security guards stepping aside as Reki looked at CHERRY. “You’re in my way. Step aside.”
Reki simply pressed his skateboard hard and quickly down onto Kaoru’s feet when the older didn't budge. “ I said : Step aside.”
Kaoru grabbed Reki’s collar, “you better fucking learn how to treat your elders with respect, kiddo or I’ll have SHADOW make you a part of the pavement.” He spoke through gritted teeth before pushing him to the side. “Don’t come crying to me and tell me I didn’t warn you when JOE eventually crushes you in this race.” He turned on his heel, looking at Ainosuke with a scowl. “You’re downright cruel for making him do this, ADAM.”
“He’ll only learn if he makes the mistakes himself.”
ADAM got up on the stage afterwards, turning on the mic. “Hello, bitches and bros, and nonbinary hoes.”
The audience cheered as he appeared; although ADAM had started making more appearances on S lately, people got hyped up by it.
“Today, we are having a legendary beef between one of our infamous rookies, the Prince of S ; PRINCE REKI and the legendary co-founder of S , the man every girl, or boy, wishes to marry; JOE . Give it up for these two, everyone.” ADAM announced as the two skaters walked up to the start line.
Girls swarmed Kojiro, but he chased them away to look at Reki. “It’s not too late to back out, kid. I don’t mind calling off the beef.” He said and smiled softly, “we can always race against each other when it’s not on S in a more friendly manner.”
Reki burst into a fit of laughter, “ friendly manner ? Aren’t you almost thirty, JOE ? If you don’t want to race, then sure, we can call it off. But I’m not scared to race against a man whose entire personality trait is his muscles and has the hobby of being a fuckboy who flirts with ten women at once.” Reki chuckled, making JOE’s face flush red with anger.
“I gave you a fucking chance, kid. You’ll lose all your friends if you act like an ungrateful brat. Don’t forget which people were there for you the most. I’ll give you a hint; it was not ADAM and his dog.”
“On your marks!”
They both stepped onto their boards.
“Get set,”
The cheer from the audience got louder and louder.
“Ready,”
Most of the audience was cheering for JOE, considering he’s a significant legend who’s won countless races, but it didn’t bother Reki as he had already considered this factor.
“GO!”
They both sped past the girl with the flags and down the road.
Reki was slightly faster than Kojiro at the start of the race, but the older quickly caught up using the brute strength he had in his legs to get top speed. The kind of top speed that Reki could never achieve no matter how hard he tried unless he suddenly decided to do a bunch of workout exercises at the gym, but even then, it would not be enough.
Reki was starting to fall behind as he watched Kojiro use the wall during a turn to gain even more speed before landing back down on the road. Fuck, I’m going to lose if I don’t do something . Everyone in the audience along the road was yelling and cheering for them. A couple of them had their eyes glued to electronic devices, watching the live CCTVs that showed the skaters’ positions from each other as well as the start and finish line.
Kojiro leaned against the wall, girls swarming him in awe from his victory as Reki eventually crossed the finish line five minutes later. He walked over to the younger and placed a hand on his shoulder, “you’re still years away from challenging me, kid.”
Reki slapped his hand away, “don’t fucking touch me!” He mumbled and grabbed his board up from the ground, walking towards Tadashi to get in the car ready for him.
“You can’t keep running away like this, Reki. You’re going to have to realise that this isn’t you.” Kojiro yelled after him as Reki stopped in his tracks. He gave his board to Tadashi and turned around, walking over to Kojiro.
“Don’t speak a fucking word of how I should or shouldn’t act. I’m on top of the world right now; why stay grounded by the narrow-minded when I can just do as I want with my talent?” Reki looked the older up and down, “as the rest of you live a fragile life, I’ll make the most of it.” He turned back around to leave, walking over to the car.
“Your ride is ready for you, PRINCE REKI,” Tadashi said and bowed as the chauffeur opened the passenger door.
“Thanks, SNAKE,” Reki said with a smile before getting into the car. Tadashi placed his skateboard in the luggage room and then got inside the vehicle.
“Weren’t you the one who said you’d lose on purpose because you ‘felt bad if you had to wreck a child’, or was that just something you said?” Kojiro turned around as he heard Kaoru talk to him.
“The kid needed a wake-up call, but it looks like it didn’t work. If anything, I may have ruined him and made him too high on himself if I did lose on purpose.” Kojiro mumbled, grabbing his board as the two of them exited the abandoned warehouse to head home.
“Do you need a ride home?” Kojiro asked Kaoru, who sighed in return.
“I rather not sit in the same car as a gorilla, but Carla is dying, so I’ll accept the offer just this once.”
Kojiro decided not to say anything as they got to the car, and once they’d gotten inside, Kaoru pulled off his mask and removed the hairband.
“I don’t understand why you go to such lengths to hide your identity, Kaoru.” Kojiro glanced over at his fiancé.
“Because considering that S is technically illegal, I rather not lose my job and reputation over something like underground skateboarding.”
“Right…” he said, not understanding the issue but decided not to question it further. Of course, they both had reasons to hide their identity, but it’s not like the cops actively hunted down illegal skateboarding.
They arrived at Kojiro’s apartment, which had his restaurant downstairs. Kaoru stepped out first, waiting for the other to unlock the door. “Are you staying the night?
“No, I’ll just eat dinner and then I need to go home. I have some meetings in the morning.” He said and sighed, dreading them by just the thought of it.
Kojiro nodded before unlocking the door, and they headed inside. “Just take a seat, and I’ll get us something,” he smiled, going upstairs to change out of his S disguise.