Real-Life Fairytale; a renga oneshot book

Mountains pt.2

A/N wrote this during my english class lmao , hope you enjoyy

Thankfully, Reki saw the familiar logo for YouTube on the Roku and was able to get signed into his account despite the language barrier. He watched his homepage's recommended assortment of skate videos, which relaxed him and relieved all the stress of the day.

He started yawning and rubbing his eyes. He tried to remember the last time he slept, was it on the plane or back at home? His brain was tired.

His mind wandered to its favorite topic after skating: Langa. He hoped Langa was having a good time seeing his grandpa, most of all. That was the whole reason for this trip.

But his mind also wandered to wondering what Langa's sculpted marble body would feel like wrapped in his arms. How would his ribbons of silk hair feel if Reki could run his hand through?

Or his sharp, strong jawline, as Reki traced it with his fingers, then pulling his chin up gently... What would his lips feel like? They looked as soft as velvet, and they were pale and warm and wet–

Reki shook his head back to reality. It was definitely time to stop fantasizing. He had made himself blush furiously, and he felt a familiar heat starting to fill him.

He squished his face between his hands and focused on the skate videos. He managed to calm himself down, and adjusted the pillows to lean back against the headboard.

It was pretty comfortable. At least, comfortable enough that he dozed off mid-video. He slept soundly until he heard the bedroom door open and Langa come in.

It had gotten dark in the room, it looked like twilight outside. Reki blinked his eyes, trying to wake up, while Langa crawled onto the bed.

He made his way to Reki, sitting next to him with no space between them to speak of. He dropped his head sideways onto Reki's shoulder, letting out a breath that sounded like he'd been holding for some time.

"This is really hard, Reki."

Reki thought (hoped?) for a moment that Langa's sudden and surprising closeness wasn't platonic, but he was an idiot. Of course Langa was just seeking comfort in his friend. He was having a really hard time.

Don't be so selfish! Reki berated himself. Langa is going through a lot! And all you can think about is romance. How self-centered.

"I know everyone dies, but I wish they didn't. It's so hard to miss them."

Reki nodded softly.

"And it's so rough to see how sick people get before they die. They degrade more and more until they're gone. It can be slow like my dad, or faster like my grandpa, but the end is the same."

Langa sighed. He put his hand on top of Reki's, gripping it loosely.

"How was your grandpa?" Reki asked.

Langa shook his head, "Not good. He's already dying. Shaking and coughing up blood... I don't know how much longer he'll hold on."

"Blood?"

"Yeah, he has lung cancer. He was only diagnosed a month ago, but it's spreading faster than anyone thought it would."

"I'm so sorry, Langa." Reki flipped his hand over and laced his fingers in between Langa's and held his hand tight.

"I'm here for you, anything you need."

I'd do anything for you. I'd reverse death if I could. Free you from all of this pain. Anything.