reki with touretteās headcanons
[ID: itās reki from sk8 the infinity wearing a yellow sweatshirt with his hands on his hips. heās wearing a red bracelet on his right wrist and heās smiling. behind him is a touetteās syndrome awareness flag. end ID.]
so. @zukkaclawthorne got me hooked on reki with ts and now imma post headcanons i wrote oops
okay so firstāthat little skateboard he plays with??? stim toy, actually.
he likes the sound the wheels makeāthat whirrrrrr sound. it makes his arms flappy :)
he also finds the rolling motion soothing and relaxing and it always calms him downāit takes his mind to a happy place
he rocks back and forth and shakes his legs a lot. that also contributed to why he was terrible at skateboarding the first few times he triedābecause his body would be like ātime to rock back and forth!ā and it would mess him up
neck twitches for days :)
no but for realāneck twitching is one of his worst tics because sometimesāif heās in a bad mood or if heās sad or anxiousāit gets harsh and violent and really strains his neck.
so, langa gives him neck / upper back neck massages to help with the pain
he went through this phase for a couple of months where whenever his neck would twitch, he would snap his fingers two times.
he has a lot of hand tics which can be stressful when he makes skateboards because sometimes heāll be in the groove and then suddenly heāll mess something up
speaking of messing things up, he has a tendency to dig the bottom of his palm into his forehead whenever he feels like he does something stupidāhe doesnāt even realize it until someone points it out.
he feels like even more of a failure of a skater because of his tics because they can hold him back and make the course more dangerous.
if his blinking tic resurfaces, sometimes the blinking gets so intense that he literally cannot see for anywhere between five seconds and a minute depending on how bad it is. that is how he got some of his worst scars.
or sometimes heāll make a really aggressive hand motion and it throws him off balance on the skateboard due to the intensity
anyways back to hand tics: he points a lot and does symbols like the ārock onā sign or certain numbers (for some reason, the most common number for reki to throw up is fourāthough sometimes he throws up whatever number he hears) he also grunts a lot as a tic so he sounds angry even when he isāt.
sometimes, his hand tics really hurt and his hands become shaky and his fingers start to feel the way his heart feels when heās anxious. langa helps in different waysāhe holds rekiās hand, he gives him something to fidget with to try to distract him (sometimes itās his own fingersāheāll just set them in rekiās palm and be like ālet me carry some of the paināāno, reki didnāt totally cry when he said that what)
sometimes, reki sticks pencils in his ears. his teachers have been trying to stop it since he was young, but he always did it anywaysāhe couldnāt help it.
his hair is also long enough for him to chew on. yes, he chews on the tips of his hair because i say so. sometimes, to stop him from doing that (and from swallowing his own hair), langa will try to make him laugh so it falls out of his mouth and then heāll scoot close and tuck the hair behind rekiās earsā¦ once they start dating, he kisses him too. but also thatās one reason why he wears the headbandāto try to keep his hair out of his face so he doesnāt chew on it.
rekiās favorite form of stimming (other than his skateboard toy, that is) is stress balls. heās got a couple of stress balls in his room or backpackāeven one with string attached so he can carry it around his wrist. he just really likes the texture of them.
after his second race against adam, cherry and joe were so proud of him and also impressed and worried dads that they bought reki a big stress ball, like, the size of a stuffed animal. it was a blue cat. he uses it all the time.
speaking of fricking adam, we all know he would so use rekiās tics against him during a race. like, when he grabbed his wrist and ādancedā with him, he would mock rekiās tics or say creepy things about how his verbal tics are music and his motor tics are him dancing along and it makes him so uncomfortable and like even more shaken
oh and adam purposely does things to trigger his tics, like when i mentioned that number tic??? yeah, adam will purposefully say numbers to make reki do the hand gestures
one time, reki wanted to tell langa that he loved him but got nervous so he signed it in sign language instead. but, since rekiās tics are occasionally hand gestures, langa thought that it was just a tic and mentally was like āi wish that was for meā¦ā and reki is like āi wish he knew it was realā¦ā and joe, cherry, shadow, and miya are all facepalming and groaning at their obliviousness
reki prefers taking hand written notes to electronic notes because he draws / doodles to stim and he canāt really doodle well on a laptop. so, heāll doodle in class all of the time
sometimes, his pictures / notes turn out pretty bad / illegible depending on how bad his tics are, but that doesnāt phase reki. it used to when he was younger, but it doesnāt bother him at all anymore. in fact, he thinks it adds personality
during class, heāll draw pictures for langa and slid them on his desk. theyāre usually really random things like the teacher or the back of someoneās head or squiggly lines or whatever he sees outside. more often than not, itās abstract art. langa loves these drawings and he keeps them all on his desk in his room.
reki also started drawing pictures for the rest of the sk8 crew and gives it to them during races. when he gave everyone their first doodle, he was like āiām not the best artist ever and sometimes my tics mess up the doodle, but i thought of you while i drew it so i want you to have itā
(shadow didnāt shed a couple of unwilling dad tears when he got home that night what)
anyways, they all keep them. every single one. miya puts them in their school binder so they donāt feel as alone / isolated at school.
although shadow and miya give reki a lot of crap / teasing about not being as good as everyone else, the second they hear anyone comment about āthe weird red head that makes noisesā and comments on his ts in a negative way, oh, they will stop you.
sometimes, reki whispers words he hears under his breath as a tic (echolalia, baby~) and when he overhears people saying stuff about āthat redhead that always follows snow aroundā or about him not being good enough or how heās an idiot to face adam, he ends up muttering that too. and itās not a one and done kind of thingālike. he does it for days. it makes him so upset (and i already hc him, with depression so it just makes it worse)
having tics while having injuries is not a good combinationāespecially if itās with a broken arm. the crew made sure to keep an eye of rekiās comfort / pain level after adam broke his arm and literally tried to kill him in their final race. joe let reki squeeze his hand whenever he felt the urge to tic and cherry would ask him how much pain he was in after he ticced and depending on how bad it would be, would make joe or shadow fetch a heating pad or an icepack for reki.
joe also taught reki about the magical thing called physical therapy tape and helped him put it on his shoulders, neck, and back one time. it was his idea to use the tape on rekiās fingers when he was injured to make him feel better (because it literally makes my fingers feel better)
also langa kisses each of rekiās fingers and knuckles, slowly and tenderly, soft so he doesnāt hurt him or trigger a tic. a way of showing that he loves him not despite his tics, but even with his tics and that he loves him and his tics.
cherry isnāt always the best at showing he cares, so heāll wear a ts ribbon sometimes in a way to show support (and it makes reki beam)
shadow once gave reki a flower shaped stress ball because there were āextra at workā (not trueāhe went looking for one)
miya didnāt really know much about ts at first and asked why reki made those noises and made weird movements all the time and langa explained so then that night when miya got home, they did research on ts so they could understand it better. later, they told reki that whenever they called him a slime, they meant it purely about skateboarding and it had nothing to do with his ticsāeven that his tics didnāt make him less of a skater
all his life, reki had been the different one: the one no one wanted on the team because sometimes his tics messed him up, the one who was asked to leave classes during tests because his tics were too distracting and made him take the test in the hall, when sometimes heād get too overwhelmed by how close people were in the halls or at races and would have panic attacks, how he rocked in his chair and adjusted his position seventeen times an hour and sat on his feet while the other kids didnāt, how he shook his legs more aggressively than others, how he couldnāt skate as well as everyone else because of his tics and because he wasnāt good enough
which is probably part of the depression that weighs on his shoulders
the first time reki had a panic attack during a race due to closeness and overstimulating noises (and this is the first one after the sk8 crew happened) langa was racing and wasnāt there to help, so shadow kind of panicked and like picked him up under the armpits and carried him away from the crowd since reki could barely process anything other than panic and the sound and feeling of static and they sat in shadowās car for the rest of the race and once he felt better, he gave shadow a huge hug and shadow returned it.
one time it happened and cherry was nearby and he saw the signs before it got bad (remembered from the previous time / his own experiences) and helped talk reki down before it got bad (he has a soothing voice)
usually, though, when / if it happens (because reki usually feels safe there), langa is the one who helps
but it got so much worse after skating against adam the first time because he no longer felt safe and suddenly everyone cheering adamās name even after witnessing what he did to reki was too much but langa was racing adam so langa wasnāt there and this time it was joe who kneeled in front of him and started talking just loud enough for reki to hear and he was like āyouāre safeāwe wonāt let anyone hurt you. we wonāt let him hurt langa. youāre safe. iām here and so is cherry and shadow and miya and langa will be waiting for you at the end of the raceā¦ā
it happens again at the next race he goes toāand this time itās miya who notices and they tug on langaās sleeve and is like āi think you need to take reki somewhere elseā and langa does :)
okay iāll end on a positive ts note or twoālanga asks reki to add the ts ribbon to the design on his skateboard
shadow finds chewelry at the store one day when heās shopping and buys it for reki (and gets a matching one for langa!)
once reki came back after his mental health break, the first thing joe said to him was, and this is nonnegotiable āreki! i missed you and your tics!ā
miya once overheard reki muttering to himself about his annoying tics were, so they intervened and was like āyour tics arenāt annoying. theyāre you and anyone who think s theyāre annoying is an idiotā
and for the first time in his life, reki doesnāt feel alone and isolated and so different from everyone (at least, heās working on that last one) and heās finally found a group of people who want him on their team and a boyfriend who always supports him and makes him feel less isolated, tics and all <3
i uhh I have a lot of feelings,,,
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