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What had meant to be a night spent together at S had ended up with both of them stuck inside of Langa’s house due to heavy rain and occasional thunder. Reki was currently sitting on Langa’s bed, covered in a super fluffy blanket the other had insisted on giving him under the pretext that “he would get sick.” Truth is, the rain had caught them in the middle of the street and they were both soaked. He was currently waiting for Langa to run a warm bath for him. He smiled at the thought of that, pulling the blanket closer to his face. It smelled like the other, even if it was just a bit: Lavender and chamomile, mixing nicely below his nose and making him wonder whether he would end up smelling like that after bathing with Langa’s soap and shampoo. He hoped so.
Langa was a great boyfriend, he thought as he waited. Only a few weeks had passed since they had started dating, but they had been the best weeks ever to him. The boy was a complete sweetheart to him… Tonight, it was making sure he stayed warm and preparing a relaxing bath for him. Other days, it was his hand on his hair, playing with it and complimenting how fluffy it was, or sending him pictures of everything he found that reminded him of Reki… Inviting him to ice-cream, with Langa ordering for him because he knew his favourite flavours by heart, was also on the list… And of course, there were other things, like the daily “good morning” texts when they were about to see each other in real life either way, or the “good night” ones that arrived every day even if they had spent the whole day together already. Langa was a great person and the best partner Reki could have asked for. How he’d managed to pull him completely escaped his mind.
“The water’s ready.” Langa came out of the bathroom and into his room, facing Reki. His shirt was still dripping and so was his hair, sticking to his forehead and darkened with the water. “You can go.”
“What about you?” Reki asked him, his worry evident in his voice.
“I will go after you.” The boy told him. “No need to worry.”
Reki remained where he was and tilted his head to the side. He didn’t want that. He wasn’t sure how long it had passed since they had arrived, or how long he would spend bathing, but he knew it was too long for Langa to remain soaked and cold.
“Are you sure?” Langa nodded in response, but he ignored it, not content with having his boyfriend risking getting sick like that. “Hm…” As a thought came to his mind, his cheeks blushed fiercely. “What if we bathed together?” He suggested. “Your bathtub is big enough…” The last words died in his mouth, with his volume lowering progressively.
“Are you sure?” It was Langa’s turn to ask him. Reki gave him a shy nod. It was embarrassing to do that together, but at the same time, he really wanted to. He loved Langa so much, every moment of intimacy they could have seemed like a treasure to take care of for the rest of his life. And he wanted to take care of their first bath together. “I wouldn’t mind that.” The boy was blushing as well and, when Reki faced him, he saw his eyes were looking somewhere else as he scratched the back of his neck nervously. “I think I would really like that.”
Soon enough, they both were together in Langa’s bathroom, standing side by side and not daring to look each other in the eyes. It was an awkward situation. Reki took it upon himself to start undressing while Langa remained stuck in place, as if the coldness of the rain had actually frozen him. He lifted his shirt above his hair and shook his still damp red hair before taking a quick glimpse at his boyfriend. The boy’s eyes were stuck on the wall, cartoonishly opened, and his mouth wasn’t quite closed either, as if he was perpetually surprised by something no one else knew about. A giggle made its way past Reki’s lips.
“You look cute.” He said as he fumbled to take his pants off. That was a bit scary, he thought to himself, but Langa had already seen him shirtless and with shorts before, when they had gone to the beach, so just underwear wouldn’t be much of a difference.
“Huh?” Langa turned to look at him, finding that he was already almost done undressing. He blushed all over and was quick to stare at anything else in the room while Reki took his underwear off. “You’re cute too.” He added, either way.
Reki got in the water, still pleasantly warm, after Langa said that. He tried to submerge his head in the water, wanting to get his hair wet with something that wasn’t rain before the other boy entered the tub as well and the lack of room made it impossible. He was successful, pulling out of the water by throwing his head back quickly.
“Oh, that was cool.” Langa’s voice caused him to turn to him. He was already fully undressed, but it seemed he didn’t wanna enter the bathtub with Reki yet. Reki’s face turned red at the sight. “Can you do it again? It kinda…” The boy’s mouth bent in a funny way with how nervous he was as he spoke. “It reminds me of the little mermaid… You know, because your hair is also red and…”
Reki smiled at him before he repeated the gesture, putting his head fully under the water to dramatically lift it, hoping his hair had looked cool as he did it. He faced Langa, trying to give his boyfriend the smuggiest expression he could manage. The other gave him some tiny claps in response, smiling like an idiot… Like his cute idiot.
“So…” He started to say. Langa was already entering the water with him. “Is now the part in which we kiss so I can get my voice back?” Reki asked, leaning in to where Langa was in the opposite end of the bathtub.
Suddenly, he felt one of Langa’s hands grab his face, thumb in one cheek and the rest of the fingers on the other, so he could pull him close to him and kiss him quickly. It was over fast, but very pleasant to both of them. Reki laughed fondly once their little kiss was over, not going back to resting his back on the tub’s other end like he had before. Instead, he shifted his legs slightly so he could comfortably rest his torso against Langa’s chest and let himself be hugged by the taller boy.
He felt safe like that, held by Langa and surrounded by warm water. If he hid his face on the crook of Langa’s neck, he could catch the soft smell of lavender and chamomile again, making him smile. The fact that just some minutes ago he had felt anxious about this looked silly in retrospect. This made him happy, very much so.
Reki sensed how one of Langa’s arms moved behind him to grab a bottle of shampoo and drop some of it onto his pale hands.
“Close your eyes if you need to.” He heard above him before he could feel Langa’s soft fingertips on his scalp, caressing it and shampooing his hair with care. Reki did as told and closed his eyes, resting his head close to where Langa’s soft heartbeat was. One could say he didn’t need to actually close his eyes, since it didn’t seem like shampoo was gonna get on them at any minute, but he felt like there was nothing he craved as much as being like that against his boyfriend.
“Want me to do yours later?” His mouth was too close to Langa’s skin, so his words came off slightly muffled.
“No need… Want you to stay like this.” His voice was a whisper above Reki, calm and peaceful enough to almost make him fear falling asleep like that.
“How come?”
“You’re so beautiful like this.”
Langa’s chest moved when he spoke and it caused Reki to smile like an idiot himself. Langa’s cute idiot. He found a cute mole in the sea of the other’s skin and drove his mouth to it, giving it a soft peck. A fond laugh reverberated from the boy’s lungs, charmingly luring Reki into looking up to find his beloved’s face, azure eyes staring into his full of love.
His stomach filled with a heavenly feeling, like the one he would feel after accomplishing a difficult trick or like the one he had felt the day Langa and him finally kissed for the first time, in a lonely spot at S. The feeling of getting to where he had really wanted to be for a long, long while. It was there, echoing inside his ribcage, and if Langa didn’t give him what he was sure they both wanted, if he didn’t hurry to tell him the three words he yearned for, he would simply do it himself.
But there was no need for that.
Langa’s hands, full of foam and shampoo, pushed Reki’s long hair away from his face, leaving his forehead on display in a way that would have annoyed him if he didn’t feel so in love right now.
“I love you, Reki.”
At that moment, all he ever wanted was there with him. The world had been reduced to him and Langa sitting together in the latter's bathtub and resting against each other. They hadn’t had a romantic dinner, a cute date, anything… But it didn’t cross Reki’s mind for a second. He needed nothing else than Langa between his arms, and that’s exactly what he had. His chest was exploding, pouring every emotion out and sending too many messages to his brain, causing it to melt into nothing but love for his boy. He placed a hand on Langa’s chest, caressing the same mole with his thumb, before he moved his head to kiss him in the lips once more, slowly and tenderly.
“I love you too, Langa.” He said it while their lips were still close, almost pressed together, enough for his words to get lost when Langa kissed him again.
“I love you.” He heard once more, after they separated. “I love you so much.”
“I love you so much as well.” Reki held onto Langa’s neck for dear life. He didn’t wanna say anything else from now on. He was addicted to telling Langa how much he loved him. “I love you.” He rushed to say before Langa kissed him again. His mouth felt even softer now, he thought as his boyfriend butchered another precious “i love you” onto his lips.
And so, they remained there, loving the other’s warm embrace and pressing sweet words on each other’s mouths till the water ran cold.