#Julie got Willie to agree not to tell them anything and let them figure it out on their own

[spacebugarts]

I'm doing to Mike and Martin from V what the OG Star Trek girlies did to Kirk and Spock <3

[tangledstarlight]

...i said i was going to make it and well, here we are i guess. im so sorry for this.

Carlos Molina’s to Guide to Ghost Hood (title subject to change) 

welcome to the 1st edition, maybe i’ll make a 2nd if i get inspired enough but also, this is such a mess already i don’t think the world needs a part 2 dfghg

Link to the power point is in the first reblog. (i’d highly recommend watching it for the full experience dfgh)

Link to ao3 also in the first reblog. 

below the cut is the accompanying fic and description of the rules/guide.

The tape recorder lets out a low buzzing sound as Carlos presses a button on the side and stands it up between them on the dining room table. Julie shoots an amused glance at Reggie who’s taken up residence in the chair next to him, the two of them flipping open notebooks and clutching pencils. 

“Where did you even find a tape recorder?” She wonders, stretching out a finger to touch the silver rectangle only for her hand to be swatted away by Reggie.

“Found it in a box of moms stuff and dad said we could order some tapes from amazon,” Carlos replies matter of factly, straightening up in his chair once he seems to have found the page he was looking for. “Right. Let's start off easy, shall we?” 

He looks at her expectantly and Julie rolls her eyes, waving a hand at the two of them, “Lets.” 

“Question one,” Carlos taps his pencil at the top of his page before squinting at her, “Did you conduct any séance related activities before the ghosts showed up?” 

Julie blinks at him, wondering if he’s joking but the pair of them just look back at her, heads both slightly tilted and it’s at that moment that she realises how serious they’re going to be about this. It was going to be a long afternoon of questioning apparently. 

“No, I didn’t conduct any séance related activities. I just put on their CD and they y’know, fell out of the sky.” 

“Interesting, interesting,” Carlos mutters as he looks at Reggie’s notebook as the older boy writes her answer down, underlines something and taps it with his pencil that makes Carlos let out a small hm. “So you don’t know anything about the dark room? Didn’t make any wishes?” 

“No,” Julie shakes her head, watches Reggie write something else down and tilt his notebook to Carlos. It’s weird, watching them communicate like that, like they’ve created a shorthand between them and don’t even require her presence to have a conversation. Which is obviously true because they’ve clearly discussed all this beforehand. 

“You walked through Luke right? What did that feel like to you?” Reggie’s question catches her off guard and she looks between them, but Carlos is already looking at her, waiting for her answer. 

“It was um cold? But also not. I--” she frowns, trying to think back to that first night in the kitchen when she’d turned around and walked through him. Back when she’s barely known any of them and was more annoyed by their presence then comforted. “It was weird. The first few seconds after I walked through him I just felt cold but then it was like a rush of warmth? You know when you get one of those random shivers that runs through your whole body? It feels all weird and tingly but also kinda nice? Like that.” 

“Did it feel like you got a feel of Luke?” Carlos asks and Julie shrugs, a slight blush on her cheeks and somehow, despite the fact they can’t see each other, the two of them share a look. 

“What’s the next question,” anything to move off the topic of walking through Luke and how it felt. 

//

“Oh Julie is gonna be so pissed at you guys,” Alex mutters but makes no move to step in and stop the ‘experiment’ currently going on. He watches as Reggie tries to put a hand on Carlos’ shoulder, fingers phasing through the younger boy's jacket with a frown. 

“She won't be pissed if it works,” is all Reggie says, face morphing into one of concentration as he slowly lowers his hand on to Carlos’ shoulder again. 

For his part, Carlos bounces slightly on his toes, eyes fixed on the notebook in Alex’s hand in case they need to tell him something. And okay, Alex might not fully agree with the way the two of them are going about this whole thing, but he can’t say he’s not on board with it. Their whole stint as ghosts has been nothing but confusion after confusion that not even Willie has answers for. Does he think Reggie and Carlos are going to uncover some fundamental thing that makes them the way they are? Probably not. Will they maybe get him some kind of answer? God he hopes so. 

Especially since there’s been small moments in the last few weeks where Ray and Carlos have been able to hear them even without them playing music or Julie nearby. Which had scared all of them. Thought it was nothing compared to Ray’s reaction when he’d apparently walked into the kitchen to find Julie and Luke hugging, only for him to vanish when they suddenly let go. It was a hell of a way to find out they could be seen if they were touching her. 

“Oh!” Carlos suddenly exclaims, head whipping to look at his shoulder where Reggie’s hand is resting solidly on the fabric of the jacket. Alex feels his eyes widen a fraction and watches Reggie’s smile widen as he squeezes slightly on Carlos’ shoulder. “Oh my god! I can feel that!” 

“Holy shit,” Alex whispers, grip on the pencil in his fingers growing. 

“Hey! I heard that too! Quick! Write it down! 30 minutes and- and however many attempts it took!” Carlos grins, face turning towards him and Alex doesn’t even have time to feel guilty about swearing before he’s scribbling in Reggie’s notebook.

//

“Thanks again for taking me,” Carlos says as he pulls his seat belt across his chest and clicks it in, eyes drifting from his tia in the front seat to the little notebook resting on the back seat and the pencil that’s hovering just a few inches off the paper. Subtly he sees it tap on the page, once, twice, and he bites down on his grin, tucking his hands under his thighs to stop from bouncing in his seat. They’re ready. 

“Of course mijo,” Victoria smiles over at him as she turns on the engine, fingers already messing with the buttons on the radio to find her favourite station. “I have to say I’m impressed. Planning ahead for your dad's birthday.” 

“Mhm,” he agrees, his eyes on the notebook that he can just see in the rearview mirror. The pencils resting between the creases in the pages and he holds his breath as the radio jumps to a different station. 

Victoria frowns slightly, her eyes darting from the road to the radio and back, hand reaching out to change it back. When it jumps to another station. And another. Carlos feels his eyes widen a little, legs bouncing on top of his hands as he watches the radio cycle through station after station, only lingers for a few seconds on each before moving on. 

Finally it stops, the words of Despacito ringing through the car and it’s lucky they’re at a red light he thinks, because when Victoria tries to change it it jumps right back. 

“What the f-” she starts, the furrow between her brows growing deeper and the knuckles on her hand that’s still gripping the wheel turning white. 

“Can we leave it? I like this song,” he looks over at her with a smile, blinking in what he hopes is a completely innocent way. He’s pretty sure she’s too distracted by the radio to question it. 

“Sure, sure,” she mutters, not even looking at him, eyes going from the road to the radio. 

The song ends and from the corner of his eye he can see the pencil in the back moving, Reggie or Willie writing something down and he has to stop himself from turning around to see what it is. Instead he watches as tia starts changing the radio station again, her fingers never leaving the touch screen as if that was the problem. But the second she lands on her favourite 80’s classics station and is moving her fingers away it changes. Skipping through stations again until Despacito is once again filling the car. 

It’s probably lucky that they’re at another red light and that there’s no one behind them because her eyes widen and she’s suddenly saying words in Spanish that he knows he shouldn’t know and is pulling over to the side of the road. 

“We have to get out! The car is being possessed! Out, out Carlos! Come on!” Her seat belt is off and her door is open before Carlos even has a chance to process what’s happening. The notebook from the back is pushed in front of his face and he tilts his head a little to side to read Reggie’s familiar handwriting, 

Too far? 

“Maybe,” he whispers back, taking the notebook out of the ghost's hand as he starts to get out of the car, plucking the pencil out of the metal spirals and making a note about not pushing tia in a moving vehicle and to wait until after they’ve gone shopping first. 

She’s got her phone pressed to ear when he joins her on the sidewalk, pacing up and down. Carlos is pretty sure there’s going to be a family dinner story time in their near future. 

//

Luke watches as Carlos sets his tape recorder up, idly plucking out a half finished tune on his guitar in order to be seen and heard. He doesn’t really get the other boys interest in figuring out their ghostly state of being. The same way he doesn’t really care about finding answers to all of Alex’s questions. 

They ate some bad street dogs. They died. Julie brought them back and then she saved them a second time. They can play music and sometimes be seen. He already has all the answers he needs and it’s two words: Julie Molina. 

Would it be nice to know what the black room was? Sure. Did he sometimes wonder why they could be seen but other ghosts couldn't? Sometimes. Did he want answers? Only if someone was going to give them to him without having to do the work. Was he going to sit here and answer all of Carlos’ questions because it was important to him and to the others? Fuck yeah he was. 

“Does that think pick up our voices even if we’re not playing and not near Julie?” He nods at the recorder on the table after Carlos hits a button. 

“Yeah! It’s so cool too. You sound like, all static-y and I have to listen really hard sometimes because your voices fade in and out but they’re there!” 

Okay, Luke can admit that is pretty cool, “That’s wicked. Maybe we should start using that to communicate instead of writing.” He was really sick of people commenting on his handwriting. 

“Dude that’s genius! It would be like leaving each other voice notes!” He gestures in the air with his pencil the same way Julie does when she’s realised the issue with a verse and Luke smiles softly. He doesn’t know what voice notes are, but he’s glad he could contribute to the communication issue. 

“What questions have you got for me then little dude?” He raises an eyebrow at Carlos as he flips through his notebook. 

//

When he’d first knocked Alex down Willie never thought it would lead to him sitting in the Molina’s family living room, a whiteboard resting on his knees as a twelve year old shows him bar graphs and pie charts of information on ghosts. 

There was probably some kind of domino-butterfly effect going on that had led him here. But he’s too busy trying to fit all his know ghost knowledge onto a whiteboard so Carlos can fill in the gaps in his knowledge. 

Over the years Willie has met a lot of lifers, has interacted with a handful at the HGC but he’s never met a family like the Molina’s. Who found out ghosts were real and instead of running, or trying to profit off of them, had just...welcomed them into the family. Arms wide and hearts open. 

And more than that, here was Carlos trying to get answers to questions that none of them really had an answer too. 

“Black room, yes or no?” Carlos asks, holding up a flash card and a clothes peg, ready to add it to the line of string stretching across the room. It was already littered with other cards in an order that Willie really didn’t understand but seemed to make perfect sense to the younger boy and Reggie. 

Not for me, or anyone I asked at the club, he scribbles down, turning to the board around. 

“Just like we thought,” he nods to himself, taking two steps to the left and reaching up to attach the card, “An anomaly.” he whispers it to himself and Willie has to bite his lip to stop from smiling before remembering that Carlos can’t actually see him. 

“Hey,” Alex’s voice from the doorway drags his gaze away from the lifer and the smile he’d been trying to stop spreads across his face, “How’s it going?”

“I don’t think we’re even half way through,” he chuckles, gesturing with one hand at the stack of flashcards and the charts he hasn’t even seen yet. “Do you understand this system?” 

The exasperated laugh that leaves Alex’s lips is answer enough before he’s even shaking his head, strands of blonde hair dipping into his eyes and Willie wants to reach to move away, “Not a clue. They’ve tried to explain it to us but it makes zero sense to anyone but them.”  

“Hey, Alex, stop distracting him, we’re working here!” Carlos’ voice makes him jump, head turning back to where he’s standing with his arms crossed and shaking his head in disappointment in the vague direction of where Alex is standing. 

“Wait, can he see you?” Willie frowns, mind trying to remember if he knew this or not. 

“No, he’s just really good at sensing us these days,” Alex sighs, but there’s a fond look in his eyes as he looks at Carlos, “He says it’s his ghost powers kicking in from how often he hangs out with Reggie and from all the failed teleportation experiments.” 

“The failed what now?” 

“Oh, you’ll find out. I think it’s section 7?” Alex grins, pushing off from where he’d been leaning against the doorway and waving.

Willie turns back to Carlos feeling a little more confused than he had minutes ago but also much more intrigued about teleportation experiments. And if he could help get some answers for any of the many questions Alex had, that was cool too.

//

Carlos Molina’s Guide to Ghosting. So you became a ghost, huh?

 (working title, subject to change)

By Carlos Molina, with special thanks to Reggie Peters and Willie Skateboard. 

1st Edition. 

Dedicated to Alex Mercer, so he can stop asking so many questions. We’re working on it buddy.

1. Tangibility 

They can walk through anything (except my sister now, reasons still unclear). 

Works especially well with walls, doors and locked vaults (see exhibit a) 

When they walk through people it “allows them to get a feel for the person” – Reggie Peters. “It’s weird” – Alex Mercer. No comment from Luke Patterson as he was too busy staring at Julie. 

2. Souls

Objects can be attached to their souls. 

Still unclear if it has to be an object that they were close to in life, or if they can attach their souls to any object once a ghost. 

Experiments with Reggie Peters are still ongoing. Updates will follow.

3. Being Seen

Can be seen by “lifers*” when they play music with Julie. 

This is the first rule which only applies to our ghosts. 

They can be heard when they play music without Julie. This is also unclear as to why, working theory is “Our music is just so awesome it transcends deaths!” – Luke Patterson.

Mr Willie Skateboard was quick to point out it’s “weird” and “ghosts aren’t supposed to be seen by lifers.”

4. Touching

Our ghosts can now touch Julie. The biggest change in their afterlife. 

Still no explanation for it. Experiments are ongoing (see exhibit b) 

Have witnessed Julie hugging the air many times only for Alex or Willie to appear. Same with hand holding. (see exhibit c for dads reaction) 

5. Magic

Some ghosts have powers and abilities. 

Willie* can control different types of technology. Appears to work best with cars. This we believe correlates with who a ghost dies. 

In our expedition to test his skills he skipped through 15 different radio stations of Tia’s car until he found one playing despacito. Test was a success. Tia does think her car is haunted now however.

6. ???

There was a dark room. 

All other ghosts interviewed had never heard of it before. 

All our ghosts agreed it was weird and creepy. 

We are choosing to pretend it didn’t happen. 

Working theory: a hole in time that they fell through. Must find a way to test.

7. Teleporting

part 1)

Ghosts can teleport wherever they want in the world. 

Only the most powerful can teleport a lifer with them (will keep attempting)

part b) 

Our ghosts can pinpoint Julie’s exact location wherever she may be in the world. 

Will be helpful if she is ever kidnapped, Julie however wishes they would stop using said power to find her in gym class.

“I already have find my friend activated” – Flynn had to say on the matter. 

part c) 

Julie can summon the boys to her if she concentrates hard enough. Came in handy when an evil magician tried to kidnap them.

Also possibly how they escaped the dark room, no way to prove or deny this as dad won’t let me eat a bad hotdog to become a ghost.

Working theory: magic of music and family 

See Exhibit d 

See Exhibit e  

[quillsandtypos]

Ski Trip

Summary: when the reader agrees to go on the annual ski trip up to the mountains with her boyfriend, Luke, and her friends she expected to go looking at mountains. But what she ends up doing doesn't require much hiking

Pairings: alive!Luke Patterson x reader

Words: 2.4k

Warnings: THIS IS NSFW FOREPLAY SMUT PEOPLE

If any of you have ever had a conversation with me and you read this fic, no you didn't

...........................................

"What are you two doing tomorrow?" Julie asked you.

You rolled into your stomach and propped your head up in your hands. “I’m not sure, but I know what we're doing next weekend, unfortunately.”

That peaked Julie’s interest, you weren’t usually much of a complainer. “Why unfortunately?” she questioned.

“Because I'm going on the Ski trip with him,” you whined. You wanted to spend time with Luke, you just didn't wanna go on the trip.

“Oh my god, you get to go?” she excitedly asked.

“Not helping,” you commented.

Julie smirked. “Sorry not sorry, I’ve been trying to get you to go for the past two years. And the first year, I couldn’t even go,” she pointed out.

“Yeah, so why would I have gone if you and Flynn weren’t even gonna be there?” you asked. As if on cue, Flynn walked down the stairs.

“Heard you guys were talking about me, all good things I hope?” she spoke as she walked down the stairs.

“Always,” you said, somewhat sarcastically.

She motioned for you to scoot over so she could have some space on the couch.

“So, if we’re done talking about me, did I hear someone say something about the ski trip?” Flynn questioned.

Before you could open your mouth Julie was already telling Flynn about how you were coming on the trip.

“You are?” Flynn squealed.

You tried to not get excited from their joy, but it was impossible; they were contagious.

You shyly smiled. “Yes, I’m going.”

“Yayyy!” Flynn yelled. The girl was practically jumping up and down.

“Oh who are you sharing a room with?” Flynn asked.

“Luke and I are,” you answered.

The girls exchanged a look you knew all too well.

“Shut up!” You covered your face with a pillow.

“We didn’t say anything!” they protested in almost complete unison.

You could feel your cheeks burning up. “Yeah, but you thought it,” you argued.

“Well whether we thought it or said it, you’re sharing a room with your boyyyyyyyfriend,” Flynn sang.

“If you guys start sing teasing me, I will leave,” you threatened.

“Don’t you need us to pick out your outfits?” Julie remembered.

“Oh, shit, yeah.”

“So in other words you have no leverage?” Flynn realized.

“I’m your ride home,” you reminded her.

“Outfits it is, but do not think we will be forgetting about this!” Flynn cried as she walked up to your bedroom.

“Whatever Flynn!” you yelled back.

“She’s right you know,” Julie slyly commented.

You just huffed in response.

The two of them did a very good job at helping maximize your california wardrobe for the mountains. Granted you had to go buy a couple things in advance, but overall, you felt confident that you could bear the cold of the mountains.

“Alright, I think you’ll survive,” Flynn proclaimed.

You closed your suitcase, and surprisingly you didn’t even have to sit on it.

“Thank you guys, I really appreciate it.”

“No problem, it was our pleasure, especially since you’re actually coming this year,” Julie said.

You dropped them both back off their houses and they were nice enough to spare you from embarrassing you in the car ride.

...........

You heard someone creeping up behind you as you grabbed your stuff to head to your second class, and as you felt arms wrap around your waist you knew it was Luke.

You turned to face him. “So I was thinking if we get one of the window rooms then we can see the snow when it falls,” he proposed.

Your face lit up. “Wait, it’s gonna snow when we’re up there?” you excitedly asked.

He happily watched your beaming face “I mean that’s what the weather said.”

“Oh my god! I haven’t seen snow since-” you paused, “actually I don’t remember, but it’s been awhile.”

“Well there’s a good chance that’s gonna happen,” he said.

“You know you’re actually required to show up to school for them to allow you to come right?” you teased. Though originally it had been a legitimate concern.

He licked his lips. “I’ve been coming everyday so I could come on this trip,” he defended himself.

“Coming to school and staying in school are two very different things Patterson,” you playfully reminded him.

He leaned in closer and his voice got quieter. “And what’s that?”

You resisted the urge to swallow and pulled away from him. “One is what I’m doing right now, because I need to go to class.”

He pulled his lips tightly before sighing. “You got me there,” he admitted.

“I always do,” you said, as you started walking off. You turned around to see him still standing there, you would be lying if you said it didn’t bring you joy.

“Go to class Luke!” you yelled back at him.

“You got it!” he saluted you and walked the other way.

You playfully rolled your eyes. That boy would be the death of you, but you supposed there were worse ways to go.

That Friday you didn’t have any school since the school board figured it was pointless to send a bunch of kids to school the day before they went on a ski trip. There wasn’t going to be any actual learning anyway. You usually would’ve spent some of the day at Julie’s; which you did, but today it wasn’t in the studio for practice. You figured since she had helped you pack, you could at least keep her company as she packed.

“So who are you sharing a room with?” you asked her, as she sorted through her jeans.

“Me and Flynn just figured we’d share one,” Julie said offhandedly.

You chose to not comment on how she was obviously forcing herself to be casual.

“Ah I see, do you know if Alex and Reg are coming?”

“Yeah, and get this Alex and Willie are sharing a room,” she gossiped.

“I’m calling it right now, they're gonna start dating by the end of the weekend,” you hypothesized.

“I 100% agree.”

The two of you spent the next hour or so just discussing what sort of things you wanted to do while you were there over the weekend, and of course how much Flynn was running around her house frantically changing outfits. You actually were excited about going, not necessarily about the actual trip, and about dealing with certain classmates, but you were looking forward to being with Luke and hanging out with your friends.

For some reason when you woke up the next morning you were a little nervous, you supposed it was because you had never been skiing or snowboarding for that matter.

You got ready pretty minimally considering you were soon to be on a five hour bus ride. None of your family was up yet so when Luke pulled into your driveway you slipped out the door.

“You got everything?” Luke asked.

“Everything except my chill,” you responded with a smile.

“You’re gonna be alright, and you don’t have to do anything there you don’t wanna do, so if you don’t wanna risk a broken leg, then don’t.”

Despite your anxieties, you knew he was still right.

“Thanks Luke.”

“Anything for you.”

When the two of you got to the bus everyone else in your group had already gotten there. You, the rest of the band, Flynn, and Willie had made a plan for the bus.

“We have arrived,” you announced to your friends as you and Luke took your spots.

“And just in time too, people kept trying to take your seats,” Willie reported.

“Thanks for saving them,” Luke responded.

The two of you continued chatting with the rest of your friends until the bus driver instructed everyone to take their seats. The majority of everyone slept on the way up there but you were too anxious to get there to sleep. Instead you watched youtube as Luke napped on your shoulder.

“Luke, Luuuuuuuuuuuke, Luooooooooooooooke,” you spoke. You were trying to wake him up quietly but you were starting to realize that wasn’t going to work.

Luckily Reggie was awake. “Oh he’s a heavy sleeper, that’s not gonna work.”

Reggie basically got himself so he was dangling off both sides of his chair before yelling in his ear.

Luke awakened with a jolt, looking fairly startled.

You weren’t entirely sure whether you should laugh, throw Reggie under the bus, or maybe both.

“What happened?” Luke asked.

“I woke you up,” Reggie answered innocently.

“By yelling in my ear?” Luke groggily questioned.

Reggie quickly tried to backpedal himself out of this situation. “I mean I don’t think the method is relevant, the important thing is that you’re up.”

Luke wasn’t awake enough to deal with the situation at hand. He just chose to lay his head back on your shoulder.

By the time you had made it to the hotel you were ready to collapse. Luke laughed when you flung yourself onto one the beds.

“Should I be worried?” he asked, mostly as a joke.

“No,” you smiled and rubbed your face, “I’m just really tired.”

“You couldn’t sleep on the bus?” he guessed.

“Yeah,” you groaned.

“You know what would help?” he asked.

“Do tell,” you inquired, from your face down position.

“This,” he said, before he jumped on the bed beside you. He curled his warm body around you and pulled you in.

“Better?” he asked.

“Yes,” you responded. You attempted to melt further into him. You laid there in a comfortable silence for a couple of minutes.

“Luke we should probably go do things,” you suggested. You attempted to get up but he pulled you back down.

You stayed with him but you turned around so you were facing him. “Luke?”

“Yes, y/n?”

You bit your lip, you had to admit, it was pretty cute. “Are you going to let me get up?” you asked.

He looked into your eyes lovingly. “Well if you’re trying to leave then no.”

“So that would be a no.”

“Well if you look at it that way then yeah,” he admitted with a mischievous smile on his face.

“Luke come o-” the rest of your sentence didn’t quite make it out. Your smart boyfriend decided to use your weak spot on your back against you.

“You wanna go now?” he teased.

“Not necessarily,” you lazily responded.

You could feel your willpower fading as the light stokes up and down your back sent a calm wave of chills through your body. But you knew if you didn’t use your chance now there was a good chance you weren’t getting out of that bed today.

“Luke come on we gotta go,” you whined. It’s not like you weren’t enjoying yourself, you most definitely were, but your friends had to be wondering where the two of you were.

“Alright, alright, fine,” he gave in.

“Can I have a kiss though?” he sweetly pleaded.

You gladly agreed, but you realized his plan of not leaving the room hadn’t quite ended when the kiss started leading down to your jaw.

“Luke you’re not sly,” you laughed.

“Oh is that so?” he asked, as he moved down to your jawline.

You nodded your head.

“Then why aren’t you moving?” he purred.

Okay, so he maybe had a point.

“You can tell me to stop,” he reminded you. He looked into your eyes for any sign of you wanting him to stop and waited.

“Unless of course, you don’t want me to stop?” he asked, with the biggest smirk you had ever seen on his face.

“Not necessarily,” you said, completely avoiding his eye contact.

He crawled over top of you, “What was that princess?” he asked.

You forced yourself to look into those beautiful blue eyes, and that devilish smile. “No, I don’t want you to stop Luke.”

“That’s what I needed to hear.” He bent his head down at your jawline, this time starting on the side of your jaw bone. He sucked at the skin and you bit your cheek down on a moan. He moved down from your neck pressing harder and making it harder for you to control yourself.

“Luke,” you moaned.

“Yes?”

“No marks.”

He smirked. “It’s a little late for that one.”

You rolled your eyes at his antics. “You suck.”

“I don’t think you're exactly in the position to be saying those sort of things,” he warned.

You raised your eyebrows. As if he thought you would back down that easily. “Really?”

He licked his lips and shrugged.

“Make me,” you insisted.

“Bad choice of words,” he threatened. In a second his shirt was off and one of his arms held your’s down and above you.

This time he noticed when you swallowed. “Nervous?” he asked, his lips quirked up.

He might’ve been starting to get to you, but you weren’t going to admit to it. “You wish Patterson,” you tested.

His head dipped down towards your collarbone. He lightly sucked on it and gradually increased his intensity until your body unwillingly gave you away and you gutturally moaned.

He jutted his chin out, the fire in his eyes on stage was nothing in comparison to this. “What about now?”

“Yes, Luke,” you groaned out.

He somehow managed to pull your shirt off with you laying down, and managed to unhook your bra with minimal difficulties.

His mouth softly sucked on the very top of your nipple.

“Fuck,” you moaned.

As he continued sucking at a rapid rate you felt the knot in your stomach twisting further, just as you thought it was going to release Luke stopped.

“How much do you want it?” he asked as he slowly pulled your pants down.

You were not going to give him the satisfaction of begging.

You felt a finger glide across your clit ever so slightly and back and forth he kept going, ever so slowly.

A whimper escaped your lips.

“Beg for me, that’s all you have to do,” he promised. He was most definitely enjoying himself.

He moved back up to your nipples but instead he moved as slow as he could, he was trying to break you.

“Come on princess, you know you want it,” he taunted.

A sole finger swiped down your pussy and your breath hitched.

“Luke please,” you moaned.

“What please? I think it has something to do with fucking you silly,” he hinted. He once again crawled over top of you to be able to see your face. Like a predator stalking prey.

“Please rail the shit out of me Luke,” you whined.

“That was all you had to say princess.”

[zerolostwalks]

Chaos prompt: are you crying about dogs on the internet again? Rarepair or odd couple (platonic or romantic!) of your choice

“Where is everyone?” 

Flynn jumped in her seat on the couch at the sudden appearance of Willie. Guess Alex was right and Willie decided to ignore the fact he was technically grounded. She quickly wiped her hand under her eyes and hoped her eyeliner had managed to remain intact. “They all ran out to get food.”

“Oh.” Willie perched himself on the back of the couch. “All of them?”

“Yeah. No one could agree on what to get.” Flynn smiled at Willie who raised an eyebrow at her. “Want me to text them to get you something?”

“Nah it’s cool.” Flynn snorted knowing Willie fully intended on stealing food off of everybody. She felt his arm land around her shoulders as he slid to sit properly on the couch. Both things he’d never done before, what was he up to? “Have you been crying at dogs on the internet again?”

“I did that one time.” Flynn groaned through a massive eye roll. Willie merely laughed. “It’s not like I was the only one either. That video made blubbering messes out of all of us.” Why was she the only one they had decided to single out over that? If anything Reggie and Luke had been the biggest messes.

“Ok. ok,” Willie conceded with a chuckle. Then the mischievous glint that usually resided in his eyes dimmed as he glanced over Flynn. “Soooo, if everyone left to go get food, why are you crying here alone?”

Shit. Flynn forgot how perceptive Willie was. Not that the other four weren’t perceptive, well Luke and Reggie were hit or miss. Julie was usually the only one who would ask point blank if something was wrong. Guess Willie was actually learning something from his mandated counseling sessions.

Flynn did really want to talk about it with someone. However she barely knew Willie, and she hadn’t even told Julie yet. She’d be a bit of a hypocrite to talk to someone besides Julie first, even if that was something both of them were working on. 

Screw it. She hurt and needed to say something. Plus she had no clue when she’d be able to get to speak to Julie alone about it. “I just got dumped.”

Willie looked confused. Flynn didn’t blame him. “I didn’t even know you were dating somebody.”

“I didn’t tell anyone. We both agreed to keep it a secret.” Flynn sighed, that wasn’t the truth and it was part of what hurt, “Actually she asked to keep it secret and I went along with it.”

Willie hissed through an inhale. Flynn nodded, her hurt began to morph into fragmented anger as she continued “I had actually been texting her to see if I could at least tell Julie. She called just as everyone was leaving to get food, which is why I stayed.”

“Right.” Willie said as he removed his arm from around Flynn to slap his knees. He jumped into a crouch beside her, “Vent, distract, or quiet?”

Flynn raised an eyebrow. Willie leaned in conspiratorially, “Being dumped is sucky enough. Having been kept a secret, especially when you are as awesome as you are, even more so. So would you like to continue to vent, be distracted, or just sit in silence?”

Before Flynn could think it over, Willie hopped excitedly on the couch and waved a hand, “Oh, oh! Wait. Vent, distract, or revenge?”

Flynn barked out a laugh, “revenge?”

Willie nodded a smile splitting his face, before he attempted to look serious. The dancing mischief in his eyes betrayed him, “You should know, after we fill everyone else in, revenge is probably inevitable whether or not you participate.”

“Two problems with that plan of yours. One you don’t even know who they are.” Willie looked contemplative at Flynn’s argument. Probably trying to figure out a way to find out without incurring her wrath by stealing her phone. She glared back in a way she hoped told him to not even think about it. “Second, didn’t you just get in trouble for your museum B&E’s?”

Flynn scowled at his dismissive shrug. “For now, let’s go with distract. You did promise to show me how to effectively use spray paint, after all. Now seems like a good time for that.”

Willie smiled as he ran to where he’d stored his spray paints and began to go over the different techniques with Flynn. Just as he predicted once the rest of the band had been filled in, they were out for blood. Flynn managed to calm everyone down, even if she did entertain the idea of a good house egging longer than she would admit.

________________________

Soooo, the chaos prompt turned into a hurt/comfort one. . .oops

JATP Fanfic Masterlist

[hey-there-juliet]

llora por una rosa, dijo el ruiseñor

➤ Written for Day One of Jukebox Appreciation Week: Canonverse @jukebox-week

Summary: Dr Turner said that there was no such thing as a schedule for grief and that everyone dealt with it in their own way, so it was okay if some days were worse than others. Although it helped to have a cute ghost to cuddle with. (Read it on AO3)

Notes: Thank you so much @sunsetcurbed and @felicitysmoaksx for betaing this for me! You guys are amazing, and any remaining mistakes are my own. 

Title: El ruiseñor y la rosa, by Oscar Wilde. | Song: A La Nanita Nana, from The Cheetah Girls 2.

Enjoy ♡

llora por una rosa, dijo el ruiseñor

Sometimes, Julie would wake up feeling like her world had turned on its axis as the pain of losing her mother hit her all over again. Dr Turner said it was normal, that there was no such thing as a schedule for grief and that everyone dealt with it in their own way, so it was okay if some days were worse than others. 

The problem was that every 'worse' day seemed to get worse.

Reality came crashing down on her on a Thursday morning with absolutely no warning. She still hadn't figured out what triggered the bad days, but she was pretty sure they were intrinsically connected to the good ones. 

Ever since the ghosts of three teenagers from the '90s fell into her life, Julie had been having (mostly) good days. Sometimes it all felt like a too vivid daydream, a fantasy she'd come up with to escape her painful reality. Ghosts, the band, music back in her life, stronger than ever, curses and playing the Orpheum; it was crazy. So crazy that it might as well be true. 

Five days after the Orpheum, after being able to touch the guys, Julie woke up with the realization that her mom would never meet them. She would never be there for Julie to tell her about how much Reggie enjoyed spending time with her dad. Or how cute Alex looked with his pink-tinted cheeks as he spoke about Willie and museums. Her mom would never be there for Julie to tell her about Luke's passion for music, about his endless energy and encouragement, about his perfect smile and ever-changing eyes and how it felt to finally, finally be able to wrap her arms around him. Her mom would've loved Luke. She would've loved all of them.

Only minutes after Julie turned off her last alarm, her dad knocked on her door, brows furrowed in concern when he peered into the room only to find her still in bed, eyes puffy and red, nose stuffed up and burrowed in her covers. 

"Oh, mija," he sighed, making his way into the room. He sat down next to her, and Julie dragged herself into her father's arms, unable to hold back the sobs that were begging to be let out.

"I miss her," she gasped between cries, burying the words into her dad's shoulder. 

"Me too, cariño. Me too." He wrapped his arms around her and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “Your mom would be so proud of you, Julie. Wherever she is, I know she’ll be watching over you and Carlos and cheering you on like she always did.”

Julie nodded, thinking about the three boys who had literally dropped into her life. Her dad had no idea how right he was.

“Why don’t we take the day off? I’ll call the school and empty my schedule.”

“No, no,” she protested, leaning away and wiping her eyes with the sleeves of her sleep t-shirt. “Don’t miss out on work because of me, I’ll be alright. I think I’d just like to be alone today.”

He didn’t seem really convinced, raising an eyebrow in her direction and lowering his head to meet her eyes directly. “You sure?”

“I’m sure, Papi.” Julie sent him the most reassuring smile she could manage, which must have been good enough because he soon relented and pushed himself up.

“I’ll bring you something today after work, how about that?”

She frowned, unable to stop the lighthearted smile from forming on her lips. “Like what?”

Her dad shrugged, stepping backwards toward the door. “I don’t know, something cool. A surprise.”

Julie chuckled, but agreed, “Okay.”

“Don’t stay in bed all day. And eat something.”

“I won’t, and I will. Thanks, Papi.” She threw him a soft smile.

“Te quiero, mija.”

“I love you, too.” With a last worried glance in her direction, her dad stepped out and closed her bedroom door, taking all of Julie’s lightheartedness with him.

Like a dark cloud descended over her, Julie’s mood crashed again. Left alone with her thoughts, she couldn’t keep herself from imagining if anything would’ve been different had her mom still been there. Would Julie even have told her about the boys? After all, she still hadn’t told her dad, and now with her being able to touch the guys, it could be just a matter of time before they became visible to her family. 

One thing she knew for sure it’s that she definitely would have never stopped playing, and maybe she wouldn’t have immediately kicked Luke, Reggie and Alex out. And maybe, without needing to earn back her spot in the music program, she never would’ve played with Sunset Curve in the first place. That was a terrifying thought, but she’d like to think that they would’ve found their way to Julie and the Phantoms eventually anyway, and her mom would be cheering for them every step of the way.

Julie sighed, dropping back down into her pillows and burying herself into her covers again. With one hand, she reached over her nightstand for a picture of her mom and her. It wasn’t her favorite one — that one was in her dresser, — but it was definitely a close second. Rose was sitting on the couch with a five-year-old Julie on her lap, fresh out of the shower and rolled up in her towels like a burrito. They’d been watching something on TV when her dad captured the moment. Years later, Julie had no idea what they were watching, but what she did know was that there were several pictures of that day because that was when her parents found out they were having Carlos and so her dad wanted to have the whole day on record.

With a soft laugh at the memory of her mom and dad telling her that story, Julie traced her mother’s smiling face in the photograph, lightly humming her favorite lullaby that Rose used to sing to her.

Julie was startled out of her thoughts by a sudden knock. She dropped the picture down on the bed, body tensing up since her dad and Carlos had left minutes ago, until she remembered they weren’t actually the only residents at the Molina household anymore. She rolled her eyes before calling the knocker in.

Luke’s beanie covered head phased through the door. He had a bright grin on his lips and a bounce on his step as he made his way inside, stopping by the foot of her bed.

“Skipping school? Damn, Jules, I didn’t know you had it in you,” he said, apparently before getting a good look at her and immediately frowning in concern. “What is it, what’s wrong?” Luke came closer, kneeling by the side of her bed and resting his chin at the corner of her mattress.

Julie took a moment to take him in; the way his bottom lip stuck out just a little in a pout, and how his hands fiddled with her sheets, his eyes focused and intense, filled with worry and never leaving hers. She had to look away. “Nothing, I’m just- I’m just missing my mom today, that's all.”

“Oh.” His voice was low, barely a whisper, and it drew Julie’s eyes back to him. This time, he was the one staring down at her bed. He crossed his arms over the mattress and rested his chin on them, only sticking a hand out to tap lightly on the picture that rested between them. “Is this her?”

She looked down at the picture again, tracing the frame with her fingers. “Yeah, that’s mom.” 

“You look like her.”

Raising her eyes to meet his again, Julie couldn’t help the soft smile at the sincerity she found in his face. “Yeah? Thanks.”

They were silent for a moment, both lost in thought. Julie was sure that Luke’s mind had gone to his own mom. She knew he still visited his parents, and sometimes she honestly couldn’t say what would be worse: to never be able to see or speak with her parents again, or to see them and talk to them, only to receive no response and have them look right through you.

“Scooch over.” Luke’s voice brought her out of her thoughts abruptly, and Julie could only blink at him in confusion as he got up and started toeing his shoes off.

“What?”

“Move over,” he shooed her with his hands, and Julie was a little too shocked to protest when he grabbed a corner of her blankets and crawled into bed next to her. 

For a whole minute, Luke fumbled around, fixing the pillows behind him however he wanted and covering himself with her blankets except for the one leg sticking out of the side. Finally, he opened one arm in invitation and threw her an expectant look.

Julie could do nothing but look at him in bewilderment, on the edge of freaking out about having a boy (a boy she had a big, fat crush on, no less) on her bed. Before she could let herself spiral into nervous laughter, Julie shook her head with a chuckle, and moved closer, fitting herself into his side with the picture of her mom in her lap. She was unable to contain the sigh of relief at actually being able to feel him there — the boys’ solid-state was still new, and she was always afraid that it would suddenly go away. 

Luke shuffled around a little more, getting both of them comfortable before tapping the picture in her lap again. “Tell me about her.”

With her brain still struggling to catch up, all she could manage was a “Huh?”

“Well, you got to meet my mom, but since I can’t meet yours, I figured the next best thing is that you tell me about her.”

Julie looked at him then, soft eyes meeting hers, and she felt her breath catch, the familiar butterflies fluttered their wings in her stomach. She couldn’t quite put a name to what she was feeling, she just knew that she had never felt something like it before.

She gave him a smile, and turned forward again, leaning her head on his shoulder to look down at the picture in her lap. There were a million things she could tell Luke about her mother, but the decision was made for her once she caught sight of the dahlias on the cushions next to her mom in the picture.

“My mom loved flowers. All kinds, and plants, and she would make the most beautiful flower crowns you’ve ever seen. Anytime we went to the park, she’d find these pretty, wildflowers and make crowns for me and my friends. Carrie and I used to say we were fairy princesses,” Julie chuckled, losing herself in vague memories of two little girls chasing each other around the swings while her mom sat on the ground nearby, weaving flowers together. Luke laughed softly with her at the image she painted. “Her favorite were dahlias, though. Mom absolutely loved them, they’re everywhere in the house.”

“Dahlias,” he said, and Julie glanced at him over her shoulder to find him lost in his own thoughts. “My mom likes those too.” He sent her a sad smile before motioning for her to go ahead.

“Uh… She loved sparkly things. Every time an outfit wasn’t quite what she wanted, she’d just… bedazzle the hell out of it.” Julie laughed, happy tears forming in her eyes. She sniffed. In the back of her mind, she remembered the latest bedazzled creation of her mom’s she’d found — the Sunset Curve shirt, and made a mental note to ask the guys about it later.

“She, uh, she didn’t like sugar on her tea, but she had the biggest sweet tooth. She loved breakfast for dinner, especially pancakes. She was a great dancer, she’s the one who taught me how to salsa, 'cause dad’s a little useless in that department.” Using the sleeve of her shirt, Julie wiped away the few stray tears that had fallen down her cheeks. If Luke was bothered by her crying, he didn’t say anything.

“She used to leave notes all over the house. Sometimes reminders about Carlos’ games, or where dad had put his keys, but other times just little encouraging messages like 'you got this' and ‘I love you’...” Julie’s voice trailed off, remembering the last note her mom ever left for her at the end of Wake Up; You can do it, Julie. Love, mom.

The few tears multiplied. She sniffed again.

“She sounds amazing,” Luke said softly, brushing his cheek over her hair and using the arm he had around her to reach for her hand. 

“She was,” Julie agreed, distracting herself by playing with the rings on his fingers. He was such a rockstar. She chuckled, tilting her head to the side just a little but not looking away from his hand as she traced the calluses on his fingertips. “When she was younger, she was actually in a band. A couple of bands, even.”

Julie felt Luke tense up in excitement, and she imagined he was having a hard time actually staying still.

“Really?” he asked, and she heard the awe in his voice just like the first time he said her mother was a really talented writer.

“Oh, yeah. They never made it big, but… they sounded pretty good. And mom was an amazing singer and writer, and the way she shredded on the piano?” Julie shook her head, no words would ever be able to describe the admiration she had for her mom and her talent.

“Kinda like you, then?” His tone was teasing, but Julie could hear the sincerity in it plain as day, and couldn’t help but tilt her head up to throw him a thankful look. 

“She taught me everything. The first song I learned on the piano was the lullaby she used to sing to me. Every night, she sang Carlos and I to sleep, and my dad too, if he happened to be sitting down,” she told him, and they laughed at the image of her dad being lulled to sleep.

As their chuckles faded out, they lapsed into silence. Using Luke’s knuckles as keyboards, Julie practiced the lullaby she hadn’t heard in years. She kind of wished she could go back in time and tell twelve-year-old Julie that she would never be too old to be lulled asleep by her mom’s voice. 

A few moments later, Luke’s voice broke the silence. “Will you sing for me?”

“What?” she wasn’t sure she’d heard him right.

“The first song you learned, the lullaby. Will you sing it for me?” he asked again, voice just barely above a whisper, drawing her eyes back toward him, like a siren luring a fisherman into the sea. 

For a second or two, Julie got lost in his ocean eyes — the late morning sun that was shining through her open curtains making them look bright blue. Then she cleared her throat, taking the moment to remember some of the lyrics. Julie’s Spanish was never as good as her parents’, but the words for this song she knew by heart.

“A la nanita nana, nanita ella, nanita ella,” her voice started out low and slowly built up to the song’s rhythm. Julie didn’t look at him, but she could feel Luke’s warm gaze fixed on her. “Mi niña tiene sueño, bendito sea, bendito sea.” She repeated the first two lines, letting her volume rise just a little. The song felt like an overdue embrace from her mom, and Julie let herself get lost in the memories it brought.

She felt Luke’s fingers tapping against her own hand, and could imagine almost perfectly how the melody would sound coming from his guitar. A part of her wondered why it felt so natural to share this with him, but she also knew that if it wasn’t for Luke, Stand Tall would probably still be sitting unfinished inside her Dreambox. Music flowed through him the same way it did through her, and the same way it had flowed through her mom. It felt right to share this with him too.

Ascending to a major key, Julie started the next verse effortlessly. “Fuentecita que corre, clara y sonora. Ruiseñor que en la selva, cantando y llora. Calla mientras la cuna, se balancea. A la nanita nana, nanita ella...”

Julie sat up a little, leaning her shoulder against Luke’s and finally turning to meet his eyes. The look on his face… she couldn’t describe it, but her heart understood it anyway. Without looking away from him, she continued. “A la nanita nana, nanita ella, nanita ella. Mi niña tiene sueño, bendito sea, bendito sea.” Before Julie could start the last verse, Luke started to hum, following the song’s rhythm as if he’d heard it several times before. His fingers were still tapping against her wrist, and she couldn’t help sending him a small smile before continuing.

“Fuentecita que corre clara y sonora. Ruiseñor que en la selva, cantando y llora. Calla mientras la cuna, se balancea. A la nanita nana...” she sang, then drew a deep breath and closed her eyes, remembering her mom’s kind and smiling face. Dragging out the last couple of notes, Julie finished the song, a single tear making its way down her cheek. “... nanita ella.”

The silence that followed wasn’t heavy or even charged. It was peaceful and comfortable, and Julie could have basked in it for a long time, but she couldn’t say she was surprised when Luke ended the peace quite soon.

She felt his hand leaving hers and wiping away the tear from her cheek just as her eyes fluttered open, meeting his awed eyes and impossibly soft smile.

“That was beautiful, Jules.”

She smiled, accepting the compliment with a nod before settling back down against him. Julie burrowed her face against his neck, the lullaby from her childhood had left her feeling light and sleepy.

Luke seemed to have gotten the message because he shuffled around a little more before settling down too. Julie didn’t know if the boys could sleep now; they couldn’t before, but after everything that had happened post-Orpheum, to ask whether they could sleep or not wasn’t exactly high on her priority list. 

She felt his fingers lightly run down her braided hair, soothing her further into sleep. Just before she could doze off completely, Luke spoke again.

“You know, you never told me her name.”

Julie yawned, wrapping an arm around his middle and pulling herself closer into his side as she answered. “Rose. Her name was Rose.”

She didn’t see Luke’s frown, or notice the way he looked down at the picture that had fallen from her lap and into his with a dawning sense of realization. All Julie knew was that she felt safe, and loved, and that wherever she was, her mom was still watching over her.

After all, she'd sent her Luke. 

[sunsetsandcurves]

Willex and “cat”

When Willie shows up in the studio in the middle of the night, holding three of the smallest cats Alex's ever seen in their hands, he knows he's about to hear a crazy story.

Because nothing's boring with Willie- every single thing they do comes from a probably bad, impulsive decision and crazy circumstances Alex doesn't understand how he manages to get into.

But whatever. He loves it.

"Are those-?"

"Kittens, yeah," Willie says with a smile, raising one of them with their hand- the kitten's white and its eyes are closed, and okay, he's adorable, but still-

"Why do you have so many kittens?" Alex asks, walking towards him and taking the white kitten from his hand. It's so cute, god, he's going to die, again. From like, cuteness overload or something like that.

There's no one else in the studio- Luke and Reggie left to do- something, so he walks towards the couch and sits, carefully leaving the kitten on top of his lap. The cat meows and lays on top of him, moving a little, its paws lightly pressing against his legs.

"I stole them from a shelter," Willie answers, and of course they did.

"You- what?"

"They were going to, you know-" Willie makes a gesture, dragging his hand through his neck, and Alex feels his stomach shrinking. "I couldn't leave them there. They're just babies, Alex, we-

Alex nods, patting the space beside him, inviting Willie to sit next to him. The other two cats are even smaller. One is gray and the other one's orange, and they look like newborns.

"So," Alex starts, passing his fingers through White's fur. "What are we going to do with them?"

Willie purses his lips. "Keep them, maybe?"

"We're ghosts, Willie. We can't have three kittens."

"Why not?"

Alex rolls his eyes fondly. "Well, first of all, this isn't even my studio, it's Julie's. And I don't know if she'll be okay with having three newborn kittens around here."

Gray meows, and Alex raises one of his hands to pet him too. They're just too adorable.

"I named him Hotdog," Willie says, pointing to Gray. "Because of you."

Alex blinks. "Should I be flattered?"

Willie laughs, and then kisses his cheek, and Alex kind of feels like he's melting.

"It's a good name for a cat."

"Did you name the others?"

Willie nods. "That's Hawk," they say, pointing to White. "And this is Tuna," he finishes, petting Orange between its ears.

"So," Alex chuckles. "We have Hotdog, Hawk and Tuna. Oh god."

Willie chuckles too. "Do you think they're hungry?"

It turns out that neither of them knows how to take care of kittens, so Alex and Willie grab the cats and poof into the Molina house, trying to be as quiet as possible.

Alex grabs Carlos' laptop, the one he always leaves on the dining room table, and googles 'kittens' just like Julie taught him to. It turns out that newborn kittens can't eat solid food, or drink normal milk, so they decide they need help.

"Carlos?"

Carlos is sitting on his bed, playing with some those weird- wii stations or something like that. He looks up at Alex with a raised eyebrow and a kind smile.

"Yeah?"

"Do you know where we can get some kitten milk replacer?"

"Get some what now?"

An hour later, each one of them is feeding a kitten with a bright pink bottle Carlos got from a vet store.

It's probably the cutest thing Alex's ever done, with Hotdog sucking from the bottle, swallowing slowly. Willie's holding Tuna, so delicate and gentle and Alex feels like he could stare at him like that for the rest of his afterlife.

And then Julie comes through the door, and Carlos barely has time to leave Hawk in Alex's hands before he and Willie poof back to the studio.

He doesn't know why they haven't told Julie about the kittens yet- maybe because it's been two hours at most and Alex's already attached to them, and he's scared Julie will tell them they can't adopt the kittens after all.

He and Willie hide the kittens in the loft of the studio, letting them sleep on top of one of his hoodies, that's on top of Luke's guitar case. He figures it'll have to do until they can get them an actual bed.

Willie and him sit near them, leaning against one of the walls. Willie's arm is around Alex's shoulders, one of their hands warm against his upper arm.

"We're dads now," Willie teases him, and Alex shoves him playfully.

"Are we? I don't recall signing any adoption papers-"

Willie scoffs. "If you want to I'll take them and I'll leave."

"Nah, I think I'm warming up to them." Alex's about to kiss Willie when he hears Julie's voice calling them.

He poofs in front of her, offering an inocent smile.

"Hey, Jules."

Julie looks unamused. "Where's your boyfriend?"

"Boyfriend? What boyfriend?"

"Care to explain why are three bottles of formula on my living room and why Carlos ran away when I asked him about it?"

They're all idiots.

Alex shrugs. "I have- no idea."

Julie nods sarcastically. "Yeah, right, no idea."

Of course that's the exact moment when the kittens start meowing, their soft noises painfully loud in contrast of the loud studio.

Julie looks up at the loft, and starts walking towards it. That's when Alex starts rambling.

"Willie brought them here because they needed to, Julie, and we can't kick them out! They need us. They even have cool names, Julie, please don't-"

Willie's sitting on the floor, hugging the three kittens close to him, their eyes pleading and his lips pouting.

"Before you say anything-" they start, lifting Hawk a little, who yawns and meows and looks painfully adorable. "Just look at him and let us keep them."

Julie does not let them keep all three of them. Which is fair, actually, because three cats is way too much for three ghosts.

Flynn adopts Tuna. Tía Victoria keeps Hawk -even if she changes its name to Pelusa- and, thank god, the Molina family agrees to let them keep Hotdog.

Alex likes cuddling with both of them- Willie, him and Hotdog, laying on the studio's couch, Willie against his chest and Hotdog purring close to his neck. It's great.

*

Changed "cat" to kittens because I feel like the world needed it. Thanks for the prompt!

*

Send me a ship and a word and I'll write a little something!

[gay-ghosts-committing-crimes]

Two Best Friends Going to the Thrift Store!! (They Don’t Kiss)

AO3 link is here

Summary: Bobby and Flynn decide that watching people get their nails painted isn't fun, so they figure that shopping is the only answer.

Warnings: swearing and a sickening amount of platonic friendship

Words: 1,472

taglist, just ask to be added or removed: @barrel-of-cat-mituna @completekeefitztrash @tiergan-andrin-alenefar @lemontarto @hershis-kotlc @genesiscaveat @everything-else-and-mars @juline-dizznee @chaotic-basics @an-absolute-travesty @classyfunnyquotesmuffin7 @iamstealingyourgenderaswespeak @itstiger720 @introvertedscarecrow @sunset-telepath @an-idiot-in-a-trenchcoat @cowboypossume @anaccidentwaitingtohappen @sofia-not-sophie @fire-sapphics @dr-alan-grant-blog-blog @real-smooth @juline-dizznee @it-tastes-like-lizard

Flynn groaned from where she lay sprawled out on Julie's bed.

"I'm bored," They complained, idly picking at the covers, "I'm too gay and adhd for this."

Bobby agreed from his spot on a beanbag. "Don't get me wrong, I love the vibes, and if anyone can pull off red nail polish, it's Reg, but watching nails get done? Not my version of a hot girl summer."

Julie rolled her eyes at them and continued painstakingly painting Reggie's thumbnail, making sure it was completely even before responding.

"First of all Flynn, don't pick at the blankets, your nails are still drying, second of all, Bobbin, you are literally nonbinary. You don't get a hot girl summer."

Bobby clutched dramatically at their  chest, purposefully deepening his voice and pouting.

"Jules! The pain- who knew you were the gatekeeping girlboss of the Molina family? That's so transphobic." They paused, clearly waiting for someone to stand up for him. No one did.

"Fine, I see how it is. It's because I'm amab, isn't it? If Luke and Alex were here, they would let me have a hot girl summer."

Reggie piped up, "They probably wouldn't. Luke would be on Julie's side, and Alex would either agree with Willie, or if they weren't here, say something sarcastic about how you haven't earned a hot girl summer."

Bobby huffed, flipping over on the bean bag so he was basically upside down, and made a face at Reggie, who only smiled and shrugged, his cheeks lightly pink.

Flynn laughed but didn't disagree, and Bobby glared at them before flipping them off and haughtily crossing their arms. She only cackled more and he gave up, scoffing under his breath.

Julie hummed quietly under her breath as she worked, and Flynn made various noises to stim in an effort to not ruin her nails, but otherwise the small group fell quiet.

Finally Bobby couldn't handle the silence and pushed themself up, stretching and ruffling Reggie's hair before grabbing Flynn around the waist and lifting them up onto his shoulder, ignoring her protests about being careful of her nails, and heading for the door.

"Flynn and I will be back, we've got hot he/they and she/they shit to do." Flynn grumbled from where they were thrown over his shoulder, complaining about how they treated her like a rag doll, but didn't put up a fight to leaving. After all, she had been bored too.

"Alright half-pint, where to?" Bobby gingerly set her down once they made it outside, this time noticeably more careful about their nails, and she gave a nod of thanks.

"I'd pinch you for calling me that, but my nails are still drying," She glared disapprovingly at him, but they only gave a cheeky smile and started walking, leaving her to follow. 

"I think there's a new thrift store we could check out; I've been meaning to get some nice platform shoes."

Bobby nodded in understanding and plucked at their black shirt, which they had cropped himself "I've been wanting a new crop top or two," They replied.

Flynn checked out their outfit and raised her eyebrows approvingly. Bobby was sporting his black crop top, a pair of red high-waisted cut-off shorts, and black combat boots with rainbow laces. Their hair was loose, and he had black winged eyeliner to finish off the look.

"You can't really go wrong with a crop top," She agreed, and he grinned in response.

"Thanks half-pint." They went to rub his knuckles on her head, but laughed and pulled away when they threatened him with being called a CisHet™.

"Hey hey!" He gestured placatingly as he laughed, "No need to be harsh!"

She rolled their eyes, but gave a soft smile and bumped their shoulders together.

They slung their arm over her shoulder and started walking again.

~~

The thrift shop was mostly empty of people when the friends got there, but the selection was good and they both enjoyed searching the racks and showing off the random treasures they found tucked away, like a pair of boots that would have been a near perfect match of the combat boots Bobby was wearing, except for the fact that they were a beautiful floral pattern, and an adorable button up with sunflowers and bees that Flynn found between an atrocious neon orange jean jacket, and cute quarter-zip jacket with handmade embroidery on it.

Bobby paused their search for the Perfect Crop Top to hold a teal dress against his chest, and raised an eyebrow at Flynn.

"Well, what do you think? Figure this would convince Julie that I deserve my very own hot girl summer?"

Flynn snorted and shook her head, grabbing a garish purple dress with more frills than square inches, and handed it to him.

"Try this," They smirked, "You'd have the hottest girl summer of us all. Might even catch yourself a man in that outfit."

He stopped as if considering, and then regretfully shook their head, "I couldn't. There's only one person I'd want to catch, and I wouldn't want to make anyone feel bad by being the hottest in the group." He winked and bit his lip to make the fuck-boy face, to which Flynn responded by slugging them in the arm.

"Never, and I mean never, do that at me again, and also? I literally exist. I'm the hottest of the friend group. We all know this." She posed for a second and then turned back to the dresses, eyeing them up and down and smiled to themself.

"'Only one person'," They teased, partially pulling out a sequined pink dress and wrinkling their nose before glancing back at Bobby, "Please, you are head over HEELS for him. I'm surprised you haven't made a move yet honestly."

She grabbed a lavender sundress and held it up for his approval.

"Cute, I like it for you. And it's not "surprising" that I haven't made a move. I'm just... being patient. Besides little miss disaster lesbian, you haven't stopped pining over Carrie in years, and you haven't even asked her out once!! at least I've done more than that."

Flynn spun on him, "What?! You didn't tell me?!?!?"

"Wait wait wait, it wasn't anything big!" Bobby held up their hands and took a step back, "We were all up until like, four in the morning, and high on lack of sleep and all that, and I said we should all go on a double date. Luke pouted because he didn't want to go without Julie, and Alex was already asleep, so it was just me and Reggie.

"I guess now that I think about it, it was kind of a date? But like, a platonic one." They shrugged and turned back to searching the racks of clothes, but Flynn wouldn't let go of it so easily.

"So you're telling me you went on a date, with your crush, alone, and you think he doesn't like you back?! Are you fucking kidding me?? Oooh, pretty!"

They paused their rant momentarily when a cute pair of pants caught her eye, and she held them up to see how they looked. Flynn put them back and shook her head.

"Anyways, he's as much in love with you as you are with him. And. I'm getting these sunglasses because fuck you, that's why." 

Bobby rolled his eyes, "I wasn't going to tell you not to, but aight. And he might like me back. It's not like-" They waved their hands vaguely, "- like Luke and Jules." 

They were practically made for each other, and it was never a question about whether or not they liked each other back. They just. Did. 

"With Reggie it's different. He's been through a lot Flynn, and I'd die alone a thousand times before hurting him. I just don't know if he feels the same about me."

They were both quiet for a bit, flipping through hangers and assorted shoes. It wasn't an awkward silence, just a thoughtful one, and Bobby was grateful that Flynn was able to tease and annoy, but ultimately listen and offer advice too. They were a good friend, and Bobby wouldn't trade it for the world.

After a while they went to check out, the cashier offering them a smile and polite goodbye when Flynn pushed open the door, warm air flowing around them as they began the walk back to Julie's house. 

"Hey Bobbers?"

"Yeah half-pint?"

"I don't think the boys, or you, would ever let you come close to hurting Reggie. And by the way? He tooootally likes you back."

"Yeah?" He gave a grateful smile.

"Yeah."

"Thanks half-pint." They laughed when she flicked them, and pulled her into a hug before linking their arms and singing a song under his breath.

It was a good day to have friends like his.

[bluefirewrites]

Honestly... Willie and Alex need a child.

Well they maybe don’t need a child. At least not at the present moment, and if its within the canon of them being ghosts. It would be cool if they’re older and in an AU that they adopt a child. 

But if we’re going by them as ghosts, I could definitely seem them taking in a ghost kid later on. 

Imagine how traumatic it would be for this kid to have died so young and can’t go back to their family. 

Willie would stumble on the kid walking around the streets, looking so lost and upset. When they locked eyes on Willie as he drew near, his stomach dropped. If they could see him then... 

“Hey kid,” He hopped off his board and kneeled in front of them, “What’s up?” 

And then the kid would be shy at first. Their parents did tell them not to talk to strangers. But their parents were nowhere to be found... they couldn’t even seem them when they tried going home. Why couldn’t they see them...?

Willie could sense the kid’s panic and tried to put them at ease. He took them to various spots around town to hopefully keep their mind of what was troubling them. 

Not a total fix, but Willie died young. He got it. But he couldn’t imagine what it would be like to be this kid’s age and being on their own. 

He was going to do his best to entertain the kid until he figured out a way to give them a home. 

He took them to the playground, pushed them on the swings and helped them out on the monkey bars. 

He took them to the movies. (It broke his heart to not get them any popcorn or candy. The kid was having a hard time grasping that they couldn’t eat anything anymore). 

By the time the movie ended, Willie knew he had to get the kid off the streets and somewhere more suitable. And even though Caleb was gone and the HGC was under new management, a club was no place for a kid...

So that was how he ended up at Julie’s (the first time the kid poofed -“Can we do that again?!”)

By then the kid was comfortable with Willie and he was able to scoop them up into his arms as he knocked on the door. 

Reggie opened the door and greeted them, “Hey dude,” then he noticed the child in Willie’s arms, “And little dude.” 

Then his eyes widened, and his gaze bounced between the two of them, “Oh,” he uttered, once he realized. 

His smile dimmed slightly before he quickly ushered them inside. 

Alex was the only other person in the studio. Luke must have been in the house with Julie. The drummer was on the couch when they walked in. 

“Hey Willie,” Alex quickly rose to his feet once he noted the kid, “Hey, uh, who’s this?”

“A new friend,” Willie set the child down, “This is Alex. And the guy at door is Reggie. They’re my friends. They’re nice.” 

The kid nodded and waved shyly at the other ghosts. 

“Hey, Hot Dog. Can we talk?” 

“Sure,” 

Then Willie left the kid in Reggie’s care and the bassist proceeded to draw pictures with them, “I’ll be right back.” 

Willie and Alex poofed up to the loft so Willie could still keep an eye on the kid. 

“Are they-?” 

“A ghost. Yes,” 

“Damn,” Alex glanced over, “How old-?” 

“Doesn’t matter anymore, does it?” But the truth was Willie didn’t ask. He didn’t want to know. 

“So what are we going to do?” 

Willie fumbled with the zipper of his windbreaker, “We?” 

“Yeah, we. Or were you gonna hand them off to someone else?” 

He shook his head, “No. I don’t think I could trust anybody else with them at the moment.” 

“Ok,” Alex could hear Reggie and the kid giggling about the pictures they were making and he smiled, “You know I’m going to have to ask Julie. But I’m sure she would say yes,” 

“If it gets too much for you, for them to be here. I’ll find somewhere else. This could be a temporary solution, until we figure something out,” 

“You like them, don’t you?”

“They’re growing on me...” 

Alex places his hands on Willie’s shoulders, “Then they’re staying here. Me and the guys, we know better than to turn someone away in need of a home.” 

“Thank you, Alex,” Willie smiled, “I’ll always be around to help. Just because it’s your place doesn’t mean-” 

“Why can’t it be yours too?” Alex blurted out. 

Willie stopped, “You... want me to move in? With you?” 

“Y-Yeah. I mean, me and the guys. And Julie. But... yeah,” The blonde stammered, rubbing the back of his neck nervously, “I mean, so you can take care of the kid too,” 

“That’s 5 ghosts in a garage. Are you sure Julie’s going to be cool with it?” 

“Please. The second she takes one look at the kid, she wouldn’t say no. And besides, she likes you too. She says you don’t cause trouble,” 

“Did she forget about the whole ‘getting-you-stamped’ fiasco?”

“You landed us a gig at the Orpheum... she knows you’ll do everything you can to fix it,” 

“Thanks...” Willie blew out a sigh, “And... yeah. If you want me to-” 

“Yeah, for the kid-” 

“-right. For the kid. I’ll move in,” 

Alex beamed, “Wow. Great. So, uh, welcome to the garage then,” 

Willie returned the sunny expression, “Now let’s go tell the kid the good news,” 

They poofed back downstairs to Reggie and the kid struggling to hold in their laughs, their pictures hidden behind their backs. 

“What’s going on?” 

The kid whipped out their drawing, “Look, I drew you and Hot Dog Man!” 

And fair enough, there was a crayon drawing of Willie on his skateboard and Alex with his fanny pack. Willie could see that there was a hot dog peeking out of the fanny pack as well. 

Willie looked at Alex, raising an eyebrow, and the blonde was trying so hard not to groan at another person adopting his embarrassing nickname. But he smiled and knelt down in front of the kid, inspecting the drawing. 

“This is amazing. A masterpiece. Don’t you think so too, Willie?” 

“I agree. This artwork should be displayed,” 

And true to Alex’s word, Julie met the kid the following morning and loved them instantly. Luke too. Already itching to play with the kid and teach them music.  They all were. 

The kid not only got Willie looking out for them, but everyone. 

But the kid was closest with Willie and Alex, because they spent the most time with them. 

When Willie was busy helping new management run the club, Alex was the one taking care of the kid. 

Alex, already the mom friend of the group, was the one to set up rules and gave the kid some structure in their life. 

He would scold Luke for jamming past 9pm because that would be the kid’s bedtime (”Ghosts don’t sleep, Alex” “They need to rest! Let them have some sense of normal, guys”). 

And he was adamant in continuing the kid’s studies and got everyone involved. 

Reggie would be in charge of teaching them some math. Julie would go over some science books she had from elementary school. And Luke would teach writing and reading. 

Alex held the fort down at home, but Willie was the one to take the kid out around town a lot, exploring all parts of LA. 

The kid loved art, so Willie was stoked to bring them to the museum that he took Alex to. 

(And they screamed there too, but the kid was now under the impression that it was acceptable to scream everywhere. And Alex was cross with Willie for a while after that...)

Willie even taught them how to skate, but was super protective and made sure he got them proper gear and a brand new helmet (”Willie, they’re already a ghost. They don’t need-” “It’s part of the learning experience...”). 

But how proud Willie was the day the kid was able to balance on the board on their own. 

And sometimes, Willie and Alex were able to take the kid out for the day together. And they would usually go to the beach. 

Once, the kid ran ahead and started kicking the waves that crept up the shore and Willie chased them. The skater picked them and spun them around, and Alex remembered his heart swelling at the sight of the two of them together. 

“Hot Dog Man! Help me!” The kid giggled as Willie playfully captured them and tickled them. 

Alex ran up and grabbed the kid from Willie’s hold, “I’ve come to rescue you!” He set them down before telling them to climb on his back, “I’m now your noble steed. Let’s go!” 

Willie smiled fondly seeing Alex giving the kid a piggyback ride and ran along with them, howling as the cold waters reached up and drenched their feet. 

It wasn’t easy, practically raising a kid. There were definitely difficult moments. 

But with Alex at Willie’s side, and Willie at Alex’s- it made it all worth it. 

[doyelikehaggis]

Rowing the Rarepair Rowboat: Luke Patterson x Willie (Julie and the Phantoms)

Requested by @phoenixfidelity

Luke can't help but be distracted every so often. He can tell that it's starting to get on the rest of the bands nerves every time he misses a chord or he accidentally glances away from the lyrics so he misses a word and then the whole thing is forced to an abrupt halt. He's really trying to stay focused.

Usually it's a piece of cake! He loves the band and he loves playing, because he gets so lost in the music that he forgets the rest of the world exists half the time.

He catches sight of Willie out of the corner of his eye again as they're building up to the chorus of the new song they've been working on. Luke resists the urge to look away from the notebook in front of him.

His fingers keep moving determinedly... while his eyes dart off to the side. It's just a split second, then they're right back on the page, and he hasn't missed anything!

But his mind is quickly taken over by the brief glimpse of Willie that he got. He's just sitting cross-legged on the studio floor, hair tied up in a messy bun, nodding along to their music while he paints. While wearing one of Luke's hoodies. He found it lying on the back of the couch when they came in and he said he was cold, and so he asked if he could borrow it, and Luke wasn't going to say no, was he? That would be rude!

Besides, the orange actually really suits him. It matches the streaks of yellow paint on his cheeks--

Luke quickly glances back over. Sure enough, there is actually paint smeared across Willie's face. And a paintbrush in his mouth while he carefully paints with a different one. He's so focused, his eyebrows scrunched, his foot tapping to the beat on his knee--

Luke catches the mess up in his chords but not before he can stop it. He abruptly stops playing, the rest of the band once again halting along with him.

"Sorry! Sorry, I didn't mean to--" He takes a deep breath and looks determinedly down at his guitar. "Let's just go again, yeah? I'll get it this time, I promise."

"Yeah, I don't think you will," Julie says, and Luke's surprised to find her smiling rather than being mad about it. She and the rest of the band share a look.

"Probably better if we take a break for now," Reggie agrees, clearly trying to suppress a smile of his own and failing miserably as he lifts his bass strap over his head.

"I'm... getting kinda hungry anyway," Alex lies, nodding way too eagerly.

Willie looks up for the first time since their last brief pause. "Are you guys done?"

Another look is shared. Luke shakes his head vigorously, staring at them all in disbelief.

"No! No, we're not! Come on, we still have to practice this song or else we're not gonna have it ready for tomorrow!"

"You'll be fine!" Flynn assures him, hooking an arm around Julie's shoulders. "You guys sounded great! Well... most of the time."

"Yeah, you were really good," Willie agrees, beaming at them with such sincerity that Luke's heart melts under the rays of sunshine he radiates when he turns it on him.

He barely notices Reggie muttering, "And that's our cue..." and the four of them scattering around the studio, and practically leaving the two of them alone.

Luke doesn't know why they're acting like this. So, yeah, he keeps getting distracted from the music. But he's trying to stay focused! It's not exactly going to help if the rest of them just decide to give up!

He sighs and decides he may as well put his own guitar aside for the moment.

"You okay?" Willie asks with a slight laugh, but his eyes are concerned when Luke glances up at him.

His stomach flips over like a pancake. It's weird but it's been doing that a lot lately and he can't seem to figure out why. Maybe he's coming down with something? That would be super inconvenient timing considering they have a gig tomorrow!

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," Luke says, but even he feels like he's somehow lying even as he tries for a grin.

Willie isn't buying it either. He takes a moment to think, his eyebrows only creasing the tiniest bit this time as his thumb rubs a circle into the crease of his elbow. Luke finds the movement strangely calming to watch.

Then it stops, and Willie lights up. "Well, since you guys are... taking a break for the time being, do you wanna help me with this?"

Luke finally tries to take a proper look at what he has actually been doing this entire time as Willie moves over to sit beside him on the couch.

There's a poster -- multiple, actually, as well as what Luke swears is a pile of what were once his guitar picks. He doesn't really play his acoustic too much anymore because it never sounds right with any of their songs, and his fingers just got used to the feel of the strings on his electric, so there wasn't ever really a use for them anymore.

Willie notices him picking up one of the plectrums and turns sheepish. "I found them lying about in here and thought they could use a little... sprucing up." He shrugs. "I didn't think anyone would really mind."

Luke shakes his head and grins as he picks up another in amazement. Each one is painted, and not just a solid colour, but a whole piece of art is painted onto each one. Scenes of bridges with the sunset behind them, fields full of vibrant plants, a starry night sky, a gh--

Luke raises his eyebrows at him. "Is this meant to be me?"

Willie peers at the one he's holding up which features a ghost silhouette wearing an orange beanie with a guitar strapped around its translucent little body.

"Yep," Willie confirms, then breaks out into another sheepish laugh. "I got a little bored of the fancy designs, and I thought that it would be funny, seeing as how you're, you know, Julie and the Phantoms."

"So," Luke glances at the pile of plectrums, "did you do one for all of us?"

"I haven't gotten around to it yet. I wanted to start with you 'cause I figured you'd make the cutest ghost. With the beanie and all."

Luke's stomach does the thing again. And he swears his face is burning up. He better not be getting a fever, because the thought of getting sick right before a gig is giving him a little too much deja vu.

"Does that mean you don't think I'm a cute ghost when I'm not wearing the beanie?" Luke teases, mock serious.

Willie laughs, caught in surprise by the question. But he shakes his head, gazing at Luke with creases around his eyes and a soft smile.

"No way. It's, like, totally impossible for you to not be cute."

Luke laughs as well now and gives him a gentle push, his hand lingering on Willie's arm. "Shut up."

"I got you smiling, at least," Willie points out.

"Yeah, well." Luke doesn't really have anything else to say because he's right.

He looks at him for a second as Willie shifts his attention back down to the posters and plectrums. Luke doesn't mean to stare, but there's something about watching his fingers move that feels... comforting, even when they're just moving a stray bit of hair behind his ear.

"Have you ever played guitar?" Luke blurts out without thinking.

Willie looks back up in surprise but shakes his head. "No. I like listening to music and sometimes performing with Caleb was fun but that was only ever singing. I've never really gotten the hang of an instrument. Takes too long to figure it all out."

"What if I helped?" Luke asks, not fully sure why he's offering. "I'm not saying perform with us. I'm just saying it could be a fun hobby, if you had someone helping you figure it all out."

Willie considers it then shrugs, beaming at him again. Luke's beginning to think he needs sunglasses just to be around him because he finds himself grinning back before Willie's even answered.

"Yeah, okay. Let's do it! But I will warn you, I'm not the most patient person."

"Good thing I am then," Luke says.

"No he's not!" Reggie shouts over to them from the other couch in the corner.

Luke glares at him but Reggie just raises his hands with a confused expression as if to say, what did I do?!

Rolling his eyes as Willie laughs, Luke says, "Don't listen to him. We can practice later and use my old acoustic, that way it'll be a bit easier and you can use one of your awesome designer picks."

He gestures to the pile and Willie scans over them, looking for one to use. Then he picks up the one with the ghost version of Luke on it.

"A great choice, if I do say so myself," Luke says, grinning. "Now, what are we painting?"

Willie hands him a paintbrush and one of the posters. He explains the design and they both start working on them. At some point in between Luke finishing one and Willie just adding a few last touches to his own, Luke tries experimenting on one of the blank picks himself.

When he shows it to Willie, his eyebrows raise and he almost doesn't seem to know what to say for a second. Then his face splits into a smile of pure joy and Luke doesn't think he's ever felt so pleased with himself as he does watching Willie gush over the little ghost hovering over a skateboard like it's the best thing he's seen.

[julies-butterflies]

love like a storm  //    2300+ words, reggie / julie / luke ot3, pillow forts and comfort

                                      ( read on ao3 here! )

No one actually tells Julie that Luke’s afraid of thunderstorms. She figures it out during a particularly violent gale, when Alex has gone off on one of Willie’s daredevil escapades, Reggie has taken refuge in the Molina’s living room, and Luke is nowhere in sight.

“Where’s he gone?” Julie asks, curling into Reggie’s side as the TV flickers on. Reggie’s arm wraps around her automatically. When Julie’s head pillows against his chest, he sighs, the sound rumbling against her ear.

“He, uhh.” 

For a minute, that’s all he has to say. Reggie being close-lipped about anything is weird. Tilting her head just enough to look up at him, Julie furrows her brows, prompting him to continue. 

“He’ll be back soon,” Reggie says, looking away. That’s not enough. The full force of Julie’s puppy dog glare is still trained on him, and he huffs, blocking her face with one hand. “Cut it out! No cute faces at me. You want a battle, we can turn this into a war.”

“I’ll win,” Julie replies. “I’ve got the best puppy dog eyes.”

“We’ll make Luke play judge,” retorts Reggie. The sheer evil of the idea causes Julie’s eyes to widen. There’s no way Luke could ever choose between them both; he’s equally helpless to both their pleading faces, a slave to fluttering eyelashes and pitiful pouts. Luke is a weak man, and puppy dog eyes are his kryptonite.

“Fine,” Julie agrees, as though they’ve just settled a business deal over brunch. She drops her head back onto Reggie’s shoulder, content. “Next time, then. That can be his punishment for missing movie night.”

Luke eventually does return — late into the evening, once the storm has died to a light drizzle, and Julie and Reggie have already made it through two Mummy movies. Julie is half-dozing, her head a heavy weight against Reggie’s chest. Luke’s sudden appearance in the living room barely stirs her to consciousness.

“Hey,” Reggie says softly, mindful of the dead weight draped across him. Instead of asking any questions — offering any of his usual enthusiasm — he just inquires, in a low voice, “You okay?”

Luke says nothing. In the dim light, Julie can make out little more of him than a silhouette; she watches the way his shoulders shrug, the way he runs a hand across his face as though wiping something away.

Maybe she’d have pretended to remain asleep, just to watch him, but the uncharacteristic silence is enough to rouse her. She stirs against Reggie’s chest, barely lifting her head; her arm extends towards him with a lazy grabbing motion.

“Luke,” she sighs. “We missed you.”

He’s at her side in a second, kneeling down; one hand lands on Reggie’s knee, while the other runs a hand through Julie’s curls. His touch is light, smile soft as a blanket wrapping around her completely. “Sorry I’m late,” he offers, and his tone is sweet enough that she forgives him instantly. “You just gotta catch me up on what I missed.”

“Later,” she murmurs, eyes fluttering shut as his fingers stroke through her curls.

“Mmm-hmm. Tomorrow,” he agrees softly. Though Julie can’t see it, she knows the boys are smiling over her head — Reggie’s eyes glittering, Luke’s smile sharp-edged in the darkness. When Reggie shifts beneath her, she lets out a groan, trying to cling to him. Instead, Luke guides her up, supporting her weight as Reggie shimmies out from under her. Letting her head loll against his shoulder, Julie takes to dozing on him instead. He’s not as cozy as Reggie, but his flannel is soft, and his embrace is safe. For a few hazy moments, she’s content to bask in the familiar warmth of Luke.

“If we really focus, do you think we could, like... carry her?”

“What if her dad sees her floating up the stairs, man? That’d be weird.”

“Or awesome! Ray seems like the type of dad who’d appreciate cool sleep-levitation powers.”

“‘M awake,” Julie volunteers.

“Yes, you are,” agreed Luke, pressing a kiss to her temple. Smiling, she nuzzles into the crook of his neck. A dozy, floating-on-a-cloud feeling lifts her up, buoying her completely in Luke’s embrace; she’s too drowsy and content to pull herself out of it, even at the risk of her dad catching her floating up the stairs.

Somehow, the boys manage it. She’s not sure how; their voices are distant, their touches too familiar. She only registers the far-away feeling of moving, safe in a familiar pair of arms... and, when Julie opens her eyes again, she’s being settled down on her own bed.

“Get some rest. We’ll see you in the morning.” Reggie’s lips linger over her brow like the promise of tomorrow. She wants to ask him to stay, but he’s gone too fast, and has already pulled away when Luke leans over her, tucking the blankets around her shoulders.

“Gotta call it goodnight, Jules,” he says softly, adjusting her pillow. 

She blinks up at him in the dim glow of her fairy lights. The world is soft and blurry, her head is half-dreaming, but Julie always knows her boys — and she can read Luke like the lyrics of a half-written melody, unfinished notes playing in her head without anyone needing to fill in the gaps.

“Luke,” she says softly. “Why were you crying?”

He blinks in surprise — eyes that are red-rimmed and still puffy. His face is too pale; tear tracks still linger on his cheeks. A casual observer might not notice, but Luke is inches away from her, and their relationship is anything but casual.

Her fingers knot in the sleeve of his comfy flannel — the one he only ever wears when he needs reassurance. Luke takes a minute to recover... and then he’s shaking his head, smiling, and grazing his lips over her brow.

“Don’t worry about it, Julie,” he whispers. “Sweet dreams... okay?”

A part of Julie regrets how easily he can coax her — if her puppy dog face is Luke’s kryptonite, his gentle voice is hers. She finds her eyes fluttering shut before she can stop them, and all lingering worry slips away like glitter on the breeze. Julie sleeps, and dreams of safety... of familiar embraces and sundrenched kisses, in the aftermath of a summer storm.

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

She doesn’t actually think of it again until weeks later. There’s another big storm in the forecast, and the moment she mentions it, Luke gets twitchy.

“He’s afraid, isn’t he?” she asks Reggie later, out of earshot from Luke and the others. “Of thunder?”

Reggie winces, caught in the lie of omission... but at least he knows better than to play dumb about it. “Yeah,” he sighs, running a hand through his hair. “Kind of? It’s more... the storms themselves, really. Since he was a kid, they’ve always freaked Luke out.” He purses his lips, as though trying to bite back the urge to confide more... but Reggie can never keep a secret for long, especially when Julie’s leaning into his space, urging him to spill. “He used to hide in his bedroom closet during the worst ones... it made him feel safe. I think he still goes there now, even though his parents don’t know he’s around.”

Julie’s heart breaks for him all over again — Luke, frightened and lonely, beyond even the comfort of his parents, riding out the storm surge on his own.

They can’t allow that. There’s got to be something they can do.

When her eyes light up, Reggie perks up automatically; their hearts are linked, after all, even if they haven’t learned to read each other's minds yet.

“I’ve got an idea,” Julie says, gripping his arm. “But I’m going to need help.”

Reggie grins at her, and a stormcloud bursts in her chest, raining warmth wherever it touches.

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

It turns out, she asked the right person. Reggie’s experience is unparalleled; he might as well be an expert architect, for his attention to detail, and the critical way he assembles each piece of their makeshift structure, down to the bare-bones furniture skeleton. He rearranges her bedroom, helps her push her bed aside, navigates bean bag chairs and enough pillows to drown in. Nothing slips past Reggie. By the time he declares their project finished, there's no question — they’ve created a masterpiece.

“Laptop?”

“Check.”

“Fluffy blankets?”

“Check.”

“Snacks?”

“Check, and rude, because you know we can’t actually eat them.”

Sometimes Luke likes to snuggle with packs of cookies, just to feel close to them. Julie knows what she’s doing.

“We’ve got everything,” she declares with blatant satisfaction, “except the most important piece of the puzzle.”

Rain is just starting to drum against the outside window. It’s just a drizzle now… but in twenty minutes, they’ll be telling a different story. Reggie glances over his shoulder, turns back to her, and winks; in a flash, he’s vanished from the room.

When he returns a minute later, it’s with a baffled Luke in tow.

“Dude, I told you, I gotta — whoa.” He chokes on his words, blinking. His eyes widen, like a kid seeing fireworks for the first time. “Wh— uhh, what's this?”

“A little surprise... just for you.”

From inside the massive blanket fort, Julie reveals herself, pushing the bedsheet curtain aside to wave. Fairy lights flicker and gleam, warming the inside of the fort with cozy luminescence; the amount of pillows crowding the blanket cave should honestly be illegal, but Julie is of the personal opinion that you can never have too many pillows.

Clearly, Luke agrees. He doesn’t waste a second before bounding inside, nearly taking down the entire fort with his enthusiasm. Flopping down in the pillow nest, his arms spread wide.

“For me?”

“For you,” Julie confirms. “We can have our movie night in style.”

“No way! This is the coolest — ah man!” Luke rolls onto his side, beaming up at Julie like a kid on Christmas morning. “The best idea ever!”

“It was my idea,” she confirms, with a bit of pride, “and Reggie’s art project. Together, we pulled it off pretty well, don’t you think?”

The fort is just large enough to fit all three of them comfortably… and just small enough to press together, to feel just the tiniest bit crowded, and completely safe. Luke is still grinning as he rolls over. He stretches out both arms through the entranceway, making tiny, grabby motions. Reggie chuckles, but he doesn’t need another hint. In a second, he’s slotted in on Luke’s other side, letting himself be pulled into a one-armed hug.

“This is the coolest surprise ever,” Luke declares, burying his face in Reggie’s neck. 

“Does this mean you’ll stay with us?” Reggie asks softly.

Luke goes still.

At that moment, a clap of thunder bursts overhead. Outside, from a distance, it’s not nearly as loud as it might be… but Luke flinches nonetheless. He curls in on himself, entire body going tense. Though he tries to pull away, there’s no room to do so. Trapped between two walls of unconditional love, he finds himself penned in. Instead of pulling away, Luke remains very still in their embraces. When the next thunderclap sounds, he goes rigid, as though struck by the flash of lightning he cannot see.

Reggie hushes him. Julie trails her hands along his shoulders in a soothing massage… and slowly, a bit of the tension in his body starts to leech away, like a sink being unblocked. She presses a kiss to the nape of his neck, and Luke shivers. When Reggie begins to run fingers through his hair, he makes a noise close to a whine, burying his face against his chest.

Reggie catches Julie’s eyes over their boyfriend’s head, and they exchange a brief nod. Yeah, this was definitely necessary.

When the next boom of thunder comes, and Luke goes tense all over again, they’re ready for it. “We’re here,” Julie murmurs as Reggie holds him close. “We’re right here with you, and you’re safe, Luke. It’s okay.”

“It’s too loud,” he mutters. “Gonna bring the house down. Break a window or something.”

“I’m pretty sure thunder can’t —“ Reggie catches Julie’s gaze, and hastily changes his tune. “Get past us! No way. This is… the safest place in the whole galaxy. We’re the Jedi warriors, sticking by your side to keep anything from touching you.”

Gently, Julie shuffles around, until she pulls out what she’s looking for — a pair of large, fluffy headphones, connected to her phone. She’s already got her anxiety relief Spotify playlist pulled up; when she offers the gift to Luke, his eyes widen.

“Reggie and I are going to watch some Star Wars, but if you’d rather just listen to music for now…”

She doesn’t have to ask Luke twice. He’s seen Star Wars with Reggie fifteen times… and music is music.

By the time he’s set up, the fuzzy headphones fixed over his ears, he looks content. When the next crash of thunder sounds, Luke is deaf to it. Julie and Reggie exchange victorious glances; finally, she can breathe a sigh of relief. When she slumps, Luke’s arm catches around her shoulders, pulling her closer to him. He turns just enough to press a kiss into her cloud of curls; Julie giggles, patting his chest.

“Can’t believe I’m lucky enough to have you two,” he murmurs. “You don’t need to take care of me like this, but… thanks.”

Though deaf to his own words with the music in his ears, his face is impossibly fond. His eyes are gentle; when they graze over Julie, she feels like she’s being caressed. Reggie’s cheeks flush as Luke’s gaze turns on him. After a minute, he chuckles and leans into his boyfriend’s side, letting Luke’s shoulder take the lion’s share of his weight.

“We love you, man,” Reggie says. “That kinda makes taking care of you our hobby.”

And it’s worthwhile every single day, just to see the smile glowing on Luke’s face when he pulls them both close — into his arms, into his heart. Luke’s heart deserves to be looked after… and if loving him means taking on the challenge, Julie and Reggie will embrace it eagerly.

As another roll of thunder washes over them, Julie presses her lips to Luke’s cheek, and smiles.

[violetwolfraven]

Ghost Guitar Battle (2/3)

((Part 2 of I have no impulse control and squirreled on this random idea, ignoring those asks in my inbox. Don’t @ me this concept is fuckin awesome if only to me.))

Part 1 here.

Part 3 here.

Warnings: mentions of mind control.

...

12 days ago

“You what?”

Julie was pretty sure she was hallucinating, because this was something she had honestly never expected to happen.

Sure, there were days when she missed this certain ex-friend, but she’d never expected her to actually let go of her ego long enough for something like this to happen.

Carrie sighed before repeating herself, “I need your help.”

“Oh, we heard you,” Flynn said, “We’re just trying to think of reasons why we would ever help you with anything.”

“This doesn’t concern you, Flynn.”

“It concerns Julie, so it concerns me. Why would either of us ever help you with anything?”

“Because I’m not asking for myself,” Carrie snapped, “It’s about Nick.”

...what?

Nick and Carrie had broken up weeks ago. Why would she be asking for help involving him?

“What’s up with Nick?” Julie asked.

Simultaneously, Flynn laughed out, “We’re not helping you get him back.”

“It’s not about getting him back,” she insisted, “He’s acting weird. Like, really weird. And no matter what’s gone down between us recently, I’m worried about him.”

“Have you tried talking to him about this?” Julie asked, honestly unsure what was going on.

“No, because...” Carrie made a frustrated huff, “Because have you been paying attention to him at all recently? It’s like he’s a completely different person.”

By the look Flynn was getting in her eyes, it was starting to dawn on her that Carrie was being serious about this.

Julie, for one, still wasn’t sure what to think. Truthfully, she hadn’t been paying much attention to Nick lately. She’d been pretty preoccupied with the band, with the guys now able to give hugs and stuff and be seen whenever directly touching her. Plus, there was the new weirdness of figuring out if she and Luke wanted to try out some form of dating. Honestly, that uncertainty was creeping into their songwriting, which they’d still been doing a lot of.

In short, she’d been pretty busy.

Nick had been hovering around but barely starting a real conversation lately, which was weird now that she was thinking about it, but... was that just awkwardness left over from when Julie rejected him?

“How do you mean?” she asked cautiously.

“Well for one thing, he’s actually talking to me,” Carrie explained, “Which he really hasn’t done since the breakup at all. And for another, all he does is ask about you.”

Flynn rolled her eyes, “This is weird how?”

Carrie glared at her, “It’s weird because mostly, he keeps asking if I’m mad about Julie and the Phantoms upstaging Dirty Candi. Bringing up the fact that it happened twice, as if I’m supposed to hold some kind of major grudge.”

“Okay, that’s weird,” Julie admitted.

“You don’t know the half of it. As if that’s not suspicious enough, he asked if I found your band members suspicious. Like, sure, I knew you’d only hurt him cause you’ve got a crush on your guitarist, but—“

“What?!”

“Oh honey, it’s obvious,” Flynn admitted.

Julie really, really hoped it wasn’t and Flynn and Carrie just knew because they’d known her for a long time.

“Whatever,” Carrie said strategically, “Getting back on topic, what really tipped me off is... he asked about my dad. He asked how much I knew about his past, about bands he was in before he made it big, or whatever.”

Okay, that was a big red flag, Julie had to admit. Rule #1 of being friends with Carrie had always been to make sure she knew you weren’t in it because of her dad’s fame. Bringing up Trevor at all as anything other than a dad was off limits, and would have been even more so to Nick.

If he was acting that off, Julie felt a bit guilty for not noticing.

“Look, I don’t know what’s up with him,” Carrie admitted, “But I know something is. Besides just what he’s been talking about with me, he’s been playing jazz in music class. He carries himself differently when he walks. And if nothing else, have you both seriously not noticed how much not like himself he’s been dressing the last couple days? Nick doesn’t wear that many dark colors except for dance performances.”

Wait... there was something familiar in that description.

Reggie had done a good enough impression, according to the others, that Julie and Flynn had a good idea of the style of a certain dark color-wearing, jazz-loving ghost.

A ghost with magical powers they didn’t really know the limits of.

Flynn was clearly thinking the same thing, so there was only one last decision to make.

Unfortunately, Flynn would probably hate Julie’s call on this one, but Carrie had brought this to their attention in the first place and probably deserved to be kept in the loop.

“Are you free to meet at my house after school?”

Carrie nodded, but looked kind of surprised.

Flynn also looked surprised. And mildly horrified. Julie ignored that.

“Good. And fair warning, you’ll need to get real cool with some weird stuff real quick.”

...

Now...

“So you haven’t heard from your boyfriend at all?” Carrie asked, frowning.

Alex was pacing, which meant Julie had to pace with him so that Carlos, Carrie, and Flynn could keep seeing and hearing him.

Maybe that was for the best. She was pretty anxious, too.

“Well, Willie’s not exactly my boyfriend,” Alex mumbled, “We haven’t labeled anything. And plus, he’s risking everything every time he even sees me. That’s not—“

“Alex,” Luke said pointedly, despite the fact that half the room couldn’t hear him, “Get to the point.”

“Right. No. No, I haven’t heard from him. He said Caleb was possessing Nick and he was going to try to help him and that was it. It’s been a day. I’m getting worried. This is the first time he’s really ever stood up to Caleb openly. Who knows what could happen to him because of it?”

“I’m sure he’s fine,” Flynn said.

She didn’t sound very certain, but she was glancing over at Carlos like she was worried this would scare him.

Julie wasn’t that worried. She knew her little brother was tough. And that he actively sought out creepy cryptid videos on YouTube.

“I mean, he’s already dead, right?” Carlos said with a shrug, “So it’s not like he can kill him again.”

Luke raised his hand, beckoning Julie over to come and grab him so the other lifers in the room could hear him.

“No, he can’t kill him, but he can hurt him.”

“Yeah, death’s not the worst thing that can happen to a person, shockingly,” Alex muttered, the worry clear in his voice.

“Wait, what does this mean for Nick?” Carrie asked, “If Caleb’s controlling him, does that make him, like, partially dead?”

That was... that was a good point.

It was just starting to fully register that Nick was really in danger.

God, he didn’t deserve that. He was in danger and it was all because he’d gotten closer with Julie.

“I don’t know,” Alex admitted, “Willie made it sound like Caleb was... shoving him down. Like, Nick’s fighting it, but he’s losing.”

“But he’ll be okay, right?” Julie asked, “Once we figure out how to get Caleb out?”

“Willie said he’s still alive in there, and he’s okay, for now. But... but the longer he stays out of control, the harder it’ll be to get Caleb out of his head.”

Despite all the differences between them, Julie could see the same anxiety she was feeling reflected in the look Flynn and Carrie exchanged.

It had already been two weeks.

All the supernatural stuff aside, that had to be a nightmare, to be out of control of your own mind and body.

“He must be so scared in there,” Julie muttered.

“Yeah,” Reggie agreed, coming over to put a hand on her shoulder so he’d be visible, “And we lost our inside man, so we don’t even know what’s going on in there now.”

Luke smacked him upside the head, “Dude, not helping.”

“Sorry.”

Carlos perked up suddenly, which was... alarming.

Julie knew that look. It was the look he got right before he was about to say something that in all likelihood would cause trouble.

“Do you think we should call Ryan and Chad?” Carrie asked quietly.

“Oh, how would that go?” Flynn shot back, “Just, ‘sorry, your son is under the control of an evil ghost and we don’t know how to get him out?’ That’s a great thing to tell a parent.”

“How long do you think it’s going to take them to notice something’s up on their own, Flynn? Sure, Lizzie needs more attention than Nick does, but he’s still their son and it’s only a matter of time. Heck, they probably know something’s weird already and just don’t know why.”

“They probably just think he’s going through his emo phase. Why make them panic when there’s nothing they can do, anyway?”

“Wait,” Carlos said slowly, “We don’t know what’s going on in there... but what if we did?”

Carrie rolled her eyes, “Yeah, but we don’t anymore.”

“Not in the Hollywood Ghost Club,” he clarified, “In Nick’s head.”

“I applaud your out of the box thinking,” Reggie said, “But we don’t really have a way to do that.”

“We don’t. You do.”

Julie slowly started to realize what he was suggesting.

“What happens if one of you tries to go in and possess Nick while Caleb’s already in there?”

“What happens if you can drive him out?” Flynn realized, “You’d be able to just let Nick go.”

“Theoretically,” Alex admitted.

“It’s worth a try,” Carrie said hopefully.

“It’s risky,” Julie corrected, “What happens if you can’t push Caleb out? Would you just be stuck in there, too?”

Luke shrugged, “There’s no way to know... I’ll do it.”

“Whoa, Luke—“

“Reggie, we’re already dead,” Luke said firmly, “Nick’s not. He got pulled into this because of us. It’s our responsibility to get him out of it.”

“But why you specifically?” he argued, “Why—“

“Because unlike you and Alex, Nick and I have something in common.”

Julie wasn’t sure if he was talking about guitar or her.

Either way, he had a point. She didn’t like the idea of the risk, but she couldn’t see another option that possibly ended in getting everyone back.

“You said you resisted Caleb before,” she pointed out hesitantly, “Before our Orpheum performance. At least a little.”

“Yeah, exactly. Alex and Reggie, neither of you could do that. Going in to try to get Nick out, I’m the only one that stands a chance.”

They both clearly wanted to, and honestly, Julie did, too, but none of them argued.

“Willie said Nick had a chance if he ‘dug deep enough,’” Alex said quietly, “Something about needing to not hold anything back?”

Luke nodded, “I’ll tell him. And I’ll try to find out about Willie if I get the chance.”

They were all well aware how much risk this was taking, and even Carrie seemed hesitant to send Luke into it.

Still, Julie nodded as they made eye contact.

“Make sure you both come out of this.”

[fuckitup-in-style]

JULIE AND THE PHANTOMS!

Hey guys, so I just finished watching JATP and I am absolutely obsessed with it! The songs, the characters, the plot - it’s just beautiful how the creators have brought to life this light, whimsical but also very heartfelt and warm show and I am so glad to see the wonderful reception from the fandom here on Tumblr and other social media outlets because the more reception, the more likely the show will come back for season 2 - which, I think we can all agree is something we all want to see (OH, and the TOURRRR)

But I couldn’t help but notice that there is some budding tension in the fandom concerning the controversy over shipping the characters Julie Molina and Luke Patterson, which I have noticed makes a lot of people uncomfortable (and I understand).

But I got some red flags when I saw words like predatory and sickening were labelled to the ship, and specifically to Luke as a character (and the casting team). I also noticed people attacking others for shipping Luke and Julie and I felt like I needed to say something.

So, as you probably can tell, I ship Juke or Jukebox as some people have started to call them (which I think is really cute). I only ship Juke, I do not under any circumstances ship the actors because 1) I dont ship actors as a principal because too many times have actors and the relationships they have held with others in their life been damaged because of people taking the chemistry they demonstrate with their onscreen relationship out of context 2) Maddy is underaged and I don’t ship child actors at all especially with 3) their co-actors, especially if they’re over 18 like Charlie is because 4) they have a very controversial age gap.

Now that I have gotten that out of the road, I was to explain why I ship Juke - and I can’t believe I feel so anxious about defending myself for wanting to see the relationship/friendship explored with Julie and Luke over the seasons but I understand. 

1. The characters themselves are 2 years apart. It’s an interracial relationship and I love the representation with Juke as well as with Willex. Maddy has promoted and publicly shipped the idea of Julie and Luke as a couple on social media and I think that if she was okay with it, than it shouldn’t be a problem (we’re the same age and i could see how, as a actress who would have the emotional and mental capacity to consent to acting out romantic scenes, it would be ok - keep in mind, it is a G-PG teens show so it would be limited to kissing. Wishing for anything beyond that to be presented as canon is wrong and I can admit that without any shame or regret). Julie canonically has a crush on Luke and Luke has canonically confirmed strong feelings/ chemistry with and for Julie. I love seeing this demonstrated when they are singing, songwritng, performing and dancing and even during really soft or playful moments like Unsaid Emily and Edge of Great and would like to see more of these really powerful moments between the two characters as the show progresses.

2. Be that as it may, I don’t want the characters to get together in the second season. I still believe that this show is primarily about Julie and the Phantoms, a band of friends consisting of a girl rediscovering her love and passion for music and continuing to do what she loves in her mom’s memory and three boys who died before they could make their dreams come true. The Orpheum was their first step to becoming legends and I don’t believe that’s over yet.

3. I also love the idea that Charlie and Maddy both have implied that they want Luke and Julie to build a strong, formidable friendship in the show before they even consider acting on any romantic notions and I support this and would look forward to seeing it! It would be great to see how their friendship, and she friendship she has with Alex and Reggie, grows and evolves over the show. Some people might argue that this will be boring and would slow the seemingly fast progress of the bond that has been shaped but I don’t think so.

There is so many subplots for the show to explore based off of what the show creators gave us in season 1:

- The obvious, Caleb possessing Nick. I have seen the Juke shippers jump right onto this one and saying how Caleb (as Nick) trying to get closer and make moves on Julie would make Luke jealous but I think we have seen a bit of that already from when Luke first interacted (kinda) with Nick when he and Julie were talking by the lockers. I think that the Caleb subplot would not only be a good idea to show how Luke will be conflicted with how he feels about it, but it would also show how Julie might be conflicted with her own feelings if she sees Nick presenting a different attitude. As to Caleb’s true motives, this presents the opportunity for some advenutre kind tropes where Julie and the Phantoms have to stop Caleb and save Nick from possession. Both Caleb and Nick have demonstrated an affintiy for performing (Nick with guitar and Caleb with singing) so that will be interesting to see. Also Willie is still under Caleb’s thumb so that will cause some angst and tension between himself and Alex.

- Willie and Alex’s relationship has a chance to develop. The last time they saw each other, Willie thought that Alex was crossing over so I think it will be super cute to see their reunion. (Boo Boo Stewart is a cutie) so I’m interested in seeing him and the Phantoms interact. Also - I kind of want to see him and Julie meet. I want to see if Julie’s ability to see ghosts extends to all ghosts or just the boys (this can relate back to the Phantoms connection to her mother and that can be explored).

- I want Reggie and Alex’s backgrounds to be developed and explored with music and with their friends. They didnt get much bonding moments with her and I want to see their friendship with Julie grow like Julie and Alex talking about relationships and Willie and Julie and Reggie talking about how he sees Ray as a father figure and how this might relate back to his own family history. 

- Carlos knows about the boys being ghosts and I want to see how that will play into everything. I know that Reggie has shown to be playful and indulgent in his ‘Ghost Hunting’ hobby so maybe they can have some fun playing pranks on Aunt Victoria. 

- I want to see Flynn’s character become more involved in the Phantoms and helping Julie reach her dreams but I also want Flynn’s dreams to be introduced and to be explored because she is such a fun and relatable character - and her and Julie’s friendship is pure - and she deserves to have a storyline independent of that or dominant and explored.

- I want more flashbacks too of Carrie and Julie’s friendship, of the boys when they were still alive, of Julie’s mom and how her connection with Sunset Curve was forged. I just think that would be super cool to see.

- Bobby has now seen the boys perform with Julie, finally achieving their dream performance at the Orpheum so I wonder how that will go on. I want to see the boys confront him and I want to see like some real shit going down on why and how he could cheat them out of their music. They were his friends and they died and he stole their dreams, their musics, their very souls laid bare on paper and I feel like that’s some good angst.

- Like I said before, it’s a show about Julie and the Phantoms and they want to make it big. After the Orpheum, it will be interesting to see them go on to play at other venues, tackle getting involved in the music industry and making more songs. I WANT MORE SONGSSS BRUH.

- Guys, if Julie and the Phantoms are going to become stars sometime in the show, they’ll be pretty famous. Like maybe they’re going to be on TV and they’re supposed to be dead and what happens if Luke’s parents see him like Bobby did? WHat will ahppen then?!

- As for romantic relationships (besides Juke and Willex) I want to see Reggie have a love interest or maybe even come out as Bi. That would be so cool! As a fellow bisexual, I think that would demonstrate a lot of representation to not only have a openly gay character (maybe two bec Willie’s sexuality hasn’t been confirmed yet but fingers crossed) but also a bi character. Maybe another ghost ? I want to see more ghosttss.

As for how I want Julie and Luke’s relationships to be explored:

- MORE MUSICCCCCC (because I feel the safetest bet right now considering, I feel everyone agrees that their music chemistry is A+ and gives their performances some fire😉)

- Some shenanagins with them and the rest of the Phantoms (+ Flynn) like them being actual teenagers (the boys were 17 when they died and I think that’s pretty sad as a 17 year old) and showing up at school and Alex dancing with Carrie when she throws Dirty Candy performances. I think it would be funny if the two of them ever met.

- Luke making fun of Nick (jealoussyyy) and him and Julie bickering like they always do. Maybe Flynn and the boys making fun of them both. Flynn will definently want to protect her friend after seeing what a wreck she was before the performance when she thought the boys might have crossed over or gotten destroyed by Caleb’s curse, so she might convince Julie to keep her distance like in ‘Edge of Great’. Alex and Reggie will make fun of Luke def. No questions. It’s what they do best but they love each other.

- Guys, they can’t just ignore Perfect Harmony like - come on. Like, if Luke goes snooping inside Julie’s dream box (because, let’s face it, it’s sitting right there and it’s full of LYRICS people and he loves MUSIC and he loves JULIE’S MUSIC and - yeah, come on.) I also think it would be funny to see more of Julie saying Luke’s name by accident or daydreaming because I thought - ACTUAL TEENAGE GIRL REPRESENTATION!

- More fighting because her and Luke have such strong, dominant personalities and I can see them clashing in the future over the direction they want the band to go in and, more or less, petty teenage stuff.

- Possibly being more diverse with their style of music like in Perfect Harmony and Unsaid Emily. Maybe exploring some really deep and emotional lyrics and changing it up with their performance (although, don’t get me wrong, I LOVE THAT BIT WHERE JULIE DOES THAT HIGH NOTE AT THE START OF THE SONG AND THAN THE BOYS JUST ROCK IN LIKE LEGENDS AND - ) but yeah, I want to cry again like I did in Unsaid Emily so. 

Anyway, feel free to add what you guys most look forward to but the whole point of this was I want this fandom to be a fun, free and safe environment. So don’t ship actors, I don’t support sexualizing child actors and don’t expect Luke or Julie’s relationship to go past the soft, chaste, fluffy kisses you see at 16/17 because it is a kids show and once again because Maddy is underage and her and Charlie’s age gap is controversial. But shipping Juke isn’t predatory because Luke isn’t a predator, the character is 17, 1-2 years older than Julie. It’s a kids show and it’s very tender, very pure and very sweet. We have seen nothing to contradict this so don’t make it something it’s not.

Anyway that’s my two cents so don’t @ me to yell at me, okay?

[nicknellie]

I hope that this didn’t take too much time to do so that you were able to get your schoolwork!! This is definitely after the fact but I wish you the best of luck with your work.

(Accidentally forgot to answer about Reggie having a box similar to Rose’s so I’m going to do that briefly)

1. Unlike Rose’s box which was going to be used by someone else Reggie’s was just going to be used by himself also probably only looked at by the rest of Sunset Curve so he probably didn’t think/care about what it was going to look like.

2. The fact that Reggie would go to Luke’s parents and ask for baby pictures is perfection. Also the fact that he just casually stole a box of baby photos and or has pictures of a random baby (if it’s not Bobby) is hilarious and I was laughing so hard at that.

3. Yes, and that would explain that why Reggie didn’t recognize the box at first just because it was a mindless one he made, maybe not even one of his boxes that he put thought into it (what photos/items should I use ect) but just random stuff

Now onto this post (just starting at 2 so the numbers line up)

2. Yes, maybe the guys don’t even get a chance to ask him what’s wrong but Reggie randomly blurts this out and then about five minutes later they’re all crying. Bobby forces all of them to talk, even Alex.

3. Yes that’s exactly what I mean! Just because although he does have his moments of indecisiveness he’s mostly not really an indecisive person so once he believes in some thing he stands with it 100%. For sure, if someone (usually Alex) points out why/how he was wrong Luke will admit that he was wrong (depending on the reasoning it’s mostly begrudgingly)

4. You took the words right out of my mouth and I also love the fact that you said that it’s usually when he’s writing and not in general, because I feel like outside of writing Luke tries to be as conscious as he can about his bandmates well-being and stuff. (‘Luke, once again you are not a solo artist if that was the case then Reggie would already have a country album out and me and Bobby would make our own little band of ourselves just to spite you’ Alex at some point)

5. Alex definitely has quick wit, however a lot of time he just doesn’t say it (unless it’s the boys)

6. Oh, that’s just hurtful thinking about that. After they passed Bobby was never the same, especially since everything that he loved and did had so many memories of the boys that for the longest time he couldn’t do some of them without thinking of them. Also when he went to the garage he was so overwhelmed with memories and the fact that they would never be anymore Sunset Curve memories.

8. Yes, I love that so much. Also I think part of the reason why the police alerted Emily and Mitch was because Luke was supposed to be a missing person so once Bobby confirmed that the body was Luke’s that’s when they were reached out too (long shot but just thinking)

The Rubik’s cube aw, maybe that’s the one thing that Bobby took just to remember them (a drawing of Reggie’s and a small jigsaw of Alex’s)

10. The theme park idea is genius, and I love the detail of Reggie feeling like a proud parent although the boys would gladly go onto a ride that Reggie is comfortable with (for some reason he loves roller coasters as long as they up closer to the ground, with being afraid of heights definitely not not something that goes up high). However Reggie doesn’t want to be a problem and has no issue watching them for a ride or two, hence the feeling of being like a parent.

Yes, and although Alex can tell that it’s a lie, Reggie gets rather emotional about it. (Reggie might have been the one who gave him the drink with the 6 shots of toffee nut and burst out into tears upon realizing)

11. That’s exactly what they are like, I feel like people may be able to tell that Reggie is lying however that’s a normal thing that he does so he easily could not be. (He is)

Luke “where is your kitchen by the way?” Patterson is the great thing I’ve seen. (yes Bobby is so causal to a point that it’s very obvious that it’s not causal hence for it being easy to tell that he’s lying)

13. Phew, wasn’t sure if I would be able to get the link to work or not so I’m glad that it was! (They are so talented, and that is such a great drawing of Reggie in my opinion)

Line dancing, yes also they random break out into square dancing. (Also the boys in cowboy hats and cowboy boots, all the fashion, is an image that I never thought I would need in my life)

14. I’m glad that you liked it! Also yess, also I just want to see one of the boys kind of make fun of Caleb with the devil point of view (bonus points if ‘nick’ is there and has to see everything)

Also I completely forgot to comment this last time, but Reggie is a huge Johnny Cash fan and those three songs are his favorite from the artist. (They are the most played songs and whenever the other boys hear them they are so done but eventually start singing along)

15. Also just randomly has Star Wars characters in the drawing, for the longest time a small Han-solo is what he used instead of a signature.

16. Wait yes I love that. I wasn’t thinking along those lines but that’s exact what happens. Reggie would also be the one who always tried to eat the batter (as does Luke and technically they are both banned from the kitchen)

17. Oh my goodness young Alex. I completely agree with what you said, also picturing a baby Alex with frosting all over his face from baking gone wrong

19. Yes, also Reggie randomly has the boys join him for dancing in the rain (thought of that due to the fact that you said rain is relaxing so Reggie would just always want to be out in the rain but not when it’s storming)

20. This is literally it’s the mindset of anyone who meets Alex

Even Willie gets on board, especially when he fell off his board (worst line I’ve ever said but Willie would be the pun making type of person)

Also if it was for anyone else then Emily and Mitch wouldn’t let them however since it’s Alex exactly as you said ‘boys let’s get in the car’

21. Yes, Alex always randomly shows up. Even has his own key for whenever he needs to stay there but no one is around, honestly Mitch doesn’t have a lot of characteristics (I mean the song is mostly focused on Luke’s mom and stuff) so him being a supportive father figure is everything

23. Agreed, I want all of this. Honestly anything and everything Rose is needed

24. I just want more performances from both actors because they are fantastic. Also the fact that Flying Solo didn’t have Flynn singing at all was a lost opportunity to be honest. Not sure if you’ve seen lemonade mouth however with Flynn as their rapper they would be that band

Willie and Alex singing together is everything I need, just a duet needs to be in season 2. Also we were robbed of them dancing and I blame Caleb, so them dancing is also needed in season two.

Exactly, Flynn is so loyal and we need more of her (also her and Carrie moments)

25. I agree I think it took him sometime to go to therapy. (Possibly when he had Carrie just because he didn’t want to fail as a father and thought it would help him stress less about being a father, also raising a kid with no support from his friends that would’ve definitely helped out)

26. Wait yes, I want to see all of this as well. Especially him explaining his actions and apologizing, and that idea of him being their manger is brilliant. Going on with that, just like with Sunset Curve he books the gigs and stuff and Flynn is their social media manger (just because she can not be apart of the band somehow)

27. I didn’t think about that fully but yes, the fact that Julie is getting older and he’s not would definitely hurt him

28. I love those songs titles, we also have ‘if you wake me up at 4AM again it will not be nice’ ‘Bobby I don’t care how much I love your pieces if you keep leaving your yarn in random places I will scream’

30. Yes, yes, that is precisely what happens and the only way Ray should find out that the boys are ghosts. Tia Victoria does react that and her and Alex bonding is everything (also her and Willie bonding because)

31. There are so many ruined photos and Reggie being so upset about it which is exactly what causes Bobby to master the skill.

32. Alex always has about five stickers, some that are for Reggie and a handful that fans also give to Alex because they can. Legitimately Sunset curves fan base is so supportive and one of the best boy band fan base ever. Luke was once given a portrait of the bandmembers as animals and it is probably framed somewhere, also Bobby has one that someone painted of the band. Honestly the reason why Alex was probably given a jigsaw is because Reggie randomly said that he liked them to a fan and they just had to give one to Alex.

34. Yes, Luke also got stuck in a fridge once much to everyone’s confusion. Him randomly being in a suit of armour is the greatest thing I have ever heard

35. Willie is extremely photogenic, yes. Legitimately Reggie has so many pictures of Willie and Alex and Willie being photogenic has just cause Reggie to take even more. And once this discovery is made, on the photography account there’s a lot more photos of someone skateboarding (also just in general photos of Willie). Just photo shoots with Reggie, like everyone has had one at some point (even Carlos)

37. Alex just gives Julie a massive hug, all of the time and especially when she is sad. Also she definitely takes that hoodie, all of them take his hoodies. Legitimately by this point it’s not just Alex‘s clothes it is the bands (also Flynn has a hoodie) (Willie has takes hoodies)

39. Wait yes, (possibly could’ve been Trevor who gave Carrie that idea for costumes because he remembers when Sunset Curve did). All of those colours fit so well, also I can kind of see Bobby is yellow. They definitely have matching onesies, like two or three pairs to be honest.

Best photo ever, that is exactly what they look like

40. Alex teaching Willie how to dance is adorable and I’m just thinking about how cute that would be. Due to seeing Willie dance during ‘the other side of Hollywood’ Alex thinks that he would be able to waltz pretty well (at least be a better beginner than the rest of the band who can’t dance) and then is mistaken very quickly

This is just me saying the boys about 100 times because I can’t say three names together apparently 😂😂

You know the drill, under the keep reading 😂

I did manage to do my school work thankfully! We won’t mention the fact that I handed in every single piece late, but I don’t really think that’s my fault, it’s theirs for not explaining how all this was going to work. Anyway! Not the point! I keep getting so excited to respond to these lmao let’s gooo!

1. Yeah exactly, he was probably more concerned with just finding something to hold all his random bits and pieces. Or I just thought right now it could be like not just a “normal box” but maybe like an old case for his bass? Like he got a nice newer one and needed something to do with the older one, and it had locks so that was handy, so he just uses it for that. Or another type of less boring box maybe idk

2. Lmao yeah I laughed so hard when I came up with it and I like I totally think he would! Like if he couldn’t find real Bobby photos (I reckon there weren’t many anyway) then he just got those and Bobby was like “Reggie that baby looks nothing like me” and Reggie just shrugs like “close enough”

3. Yeah exactly! As if he’s only just starting to make the box and is putting whatever in it, not just the things that mean something

Ok now non-box-related stuff lol

2. Yesss omg I love that. They’re just in the middle of playing through a song and Alex notices that Reggie is slowly dropping out and turning distant and he stops drumming (which makes the other two stop playing as well) but before any of them can ask Reggie what’s up he just kind of explodes. Tears all round, mostly Luke because he’s so guiltily relieved it’s not just him feeling like this

3. Totally! Alex points out all the logical stuff and Luke is just frowning the whole time like a furious puppy, and when Alex is finished he just says “right Luke?” and Luke just keeps scowling but nods at him. Doesn’t work if Reggie or Bobby try it, it does work when Julie does it, and surprisingly also works when Willie does it (because Willie is really good at reading people, as seen with Alex, so he knows how to approach any situation like that)

4. Yes exactly Luke is so caring (like in ep 7 when Alex is practically attacking his drums and he just gives a quick “hey Alex you alright?”) it’s just sometimes he lets his passion get in the way, that’s usually where music comes in! And omg that’s so perfect lmaooo I live for Alex kindly telling Luke off to get him back on track I love it

5. Yeah he knows the boys won’t take him seriously but he’s more careful around other people - the first time he says something sarcastic to Julie that he meant as a joke he worries for like a split second but then she immediately comes back with something terrible (because we all know Julie is terrible at comebacks and does not have Alex’s quick wit) and from then on they have this friendly-mean banter going back and forth between them

6. Yes exactlyyy 🥺😭 I feel like he went back to the garage once and then either he couldn’t make himself go back there ever again OR he couldn’t make himself leave for a long time and stayed there alone for days on end - either way he suffered a lot, being alone with his thoughts and his guilt. He started trying to talk to the boys - like Julie talking to her mum when she runs out of the Orpheum in ep 9. “I don’t know if you can hear me guys, but I am so sorry. I’m sorry I let you down, that I wasn’t there, that I can’t make this right. I miss you so much and... I don’t know what I’m ever going to do without you.”

8. Ohhh yes that makes way more sense actually, I like that a lot! They probably just passed Bobby as he was leaving the morgue and they were coming in to see Luke and that hurts to think about actually oh god. And yesss he so took the Rubik’s Cube and for a long time he would fiddle with it when nervous; he never managed to solve it though, not even once

10. Yes definitely!! He loves rides like the Spinning Teacups (or whatever variation they have at the theme park of that ride) and it’s Luke who will sit out on that one because the spinning makes him feel ill. He’s less happy to sit out than Reggie is because he worries he’ll miss out on the fun, but he’d rather not vomit everywhere. Now it looks like I’m going off on a theme park tangent so I’m just gonna let it happen - Alex adores rides, there’s nothing he won’t go on. Like he’s unafraid even though people would expect them to hate it but he knows they’ve been tested and they’re safe so he’s more than happy to spend all day on the biggest rides. Bobby likes water-based rides and logflumes and stuff like that - they always make sure they go on those at the end of the day because they have to do it for Bobby but they don’t want to walk around soaking wet all day. Reggie likes getting/taking photos with all the dressed up mascots wandering around, Luke is thrilled by any interactive rides (except ghost trains because we’ve already established he hates horror movies and he thinks it’s like being in a horror movie), Alex also really enjoys just wandering around the big park and seeing people have a good time, and Bobby actually likes co-ordinating their day and making sure everyone gets to do what they want to

Yes I can totally see that! Like Reggie somehow didn’t know what one of his best friends was allergic to and felt so guilty afterwards. It’s a sore spot, they can’t bring it up or he’ll just start crying and hugging Alex for hours on end. Reggie will say “I’m so sorry Alex I could have killed you that day!” and Alex just goes “dude we all died anyway”

11. With Reggie it always turns into a game of “is he lying or is this actually some totally messed up thing he really did?” The most difficult time anyone’s ever had to figure it out was when he said he’d met Queen Elizabeth - like yeah it’s unlikely but it’s definitely the sort of thing Reggie would somehow accidentally do so??? (It was a lie, but not on purpose - he thought he had met her but it was just some random old lady at a store)

13. Omg yes!!! I feel like they just get bored during the day and Luke would just go “hey Reggie, come and Dosey Doe with me” and it would turn into all four of them dancing around the studio. And yes I think out of all the unlikely things I want in season 2 full cowboy outfits is very high up on my list

14. Ahskfldo YES Nick witnessing the entire thing!! Assuming lifers still can’t see the boys next season it’ll be so funny if Nick can see them because obviously he’s actually Caleb so he has to mentally restrain himself from reacting at all to them mocking him because he can’t reveal himself. So it’s just Nick shaking with anger and Julie saying “Nick? You okay?” and how biting back something mean about the boys and growling “fine” instead. And yes 100% Reggie plays those songs on repeat and the guys pretend to hate them but they can’t deny good music when they hear it so they do join in

15. THAT IS THE CUTEST THING EVER OMG THANK YOU FOR SAYING THAT! A tiny Han Solo in the corner of every piece, no matter if it’s Star Wars or not omg I love it I will never get over this

16. Yes lmao both of them are trying to sneak around Alex and duck under his arms to get at the batter and he’s just like “GUYS I am literally using an electric whisk, are you trying to get your fingers chopped off? Don’t even answer that, you’re banished from the kitchen, goodbye. Go annoy Bobby instead”

17. That is so cute omfg and like all over his clothes and in his hair. He just looks an utter mess but he’s smiling so wide and is the cutest baby ever (he was easily the cutest baby out of Sunset Curve, Reggie as a close second)

19. Wait yes I love that! Reggie’s just like “y’know it’s a lovely day outside d’you want to go dance with me” and Alex just goes “Reg it’s tipping it down. Of course” and it takes a while but Luke and Bobby eventually join them. Lots of splashing in puddles because the four of them are literal children and think it’s funny

20. That is the greatest thing ever andkdllf and I love how that was literally my reaction after episode 1 of the show too like wow Alex really is just that lovable. That pun as well I literally laughed out loud - I’ve reblogged/added to a post a while ago where I said Reggie and Willie communicate with each other only in ghost puns so I wholeheartedly support that. And exactly! If Luke suggested throwing eggs at anyone else’s house he would be sent to his room but he mentions it’s the Mercers’ and Emily just goes “I think we’re out of eggs, I’ll need to go shopping first, come on”

21. Yes omg idk why but the image of Alex having his own key is the sweetest thing ever - maybe because it symbolises him finally having a place to call home?? And yes I totally agree, Mitch doesn’t have a lot of characteristics (I wrote a massive list before where I made a load of headcanons about him because he didn’t have enough screen time lol) and he would develop so much if he took Alex under his wing

24. Omg yes you read my mind! She so should have had a verse in Flying Solo! Like thinking about it it’s totally plausible that Julie read her the poem before and Flynn, being Flynn, wanted to add her own verse about how much she loves Julie and how she’ll always be there for her! Or she could have at least like added harmonies or something?? Idk it’s just that Flynn is in the music program too and frankly I’d like to see her do a little more music. And I haven’t seen Lemonade Mouth but I did see a commentary video about it on YouTube (I think it was I’M LEMONADE MOUTH by Danny Gonzalez if you’re interested (but that might not be the title idk)) and if I’m remembering it right then YES absolutely! And yes exactly Willie would have danced with him if Caleb hadn’t made him leave! I’m still really angry about that because just think about how much fun they would have had together!!!!

25. Omg yes! I love that, I agree that it was because of Carrie being born that made him finally go. He wanted to be strong for her now that he finally had a second (third I guess?) chance at getting family life right and he knew he wasn’t in the right state of mind for it. And omg that mental image 🥺 if the boys had lived they would have been Uncle Luke, Uncle Alex, and Uncle Reggie to Carrie (and possibly even to Julie if they stayed friends with Rose too) and they would have raised her and maybe she would have grown up to be a little nicer and she and Julie and Flynn would have all stayed friends 🥺😭

26. Yes yes yes!! He gets back into his role of managing the band and even though the boys haven’t totally forgiven him he still finds himself able to write good music again and make jewellery again and he steps foot in the garage for the first time in decades because he has his band back and he feels so much happier and freer and he’s just ecstatic to have another chance!

28. Lmfao yes those are perfect! “Bobby I don’t care how much I love your pieces if you keep leaving your yarn in random places I will scream” was written after Reggie tripped over a bit of yarn that was somehow stretched all the way across the garage like a trap and when he fell he somehow managed to get totally tangled up in in

30. Omg yeah I can totally see her and Willie bonding!! I feel like Willie is kind of like an old soul and can just get along with everyone but he takes a special liking to Victoria for whatever reason and loves finding ways to talk to her

32. Yes! Sunset Curve just have the nicest, friendliest fan base and everyone is kind and respectful and all they want to do is give them stickers and fanart! Luke absolutely adores that portrait omg so Reggie and Luke would be puppies, I feel like Bobby could be a cat, and Alex would be something like an owl or something idk but they just are all captured as whatever the perfect animal for them and it’s adorable. Yeah you’re right I think Reggie just likes talking to fans and casually mentions it one day and the fans show up to the next gig with a 1000-piece puzzle for Alex

34. In a fridge omg I love it that’s brilliant. The boys laughed at him for a solid hour before helping him get out

35. Yes to all of that I love it!!! I also thought about Ray helping out - like he can’t see Reggie, but he goes along to all these photoshoots (and mostly can’t see who they’re taking pictures of either) and helps with angles and lighting and says well done to Reggie whenever he does a good job - Ray can’t see but Reggie smiles so wide at that

37. Ahsklfskdlfl yeah Alex has no hoodies left because they’ve all gone to a different band member or Flynn or Willie

39. YES OH MY GOD. When Carrie was just starting Dirty Candi she was saying about how she needed something to make them stand out and Trevor just immediately said “matching outfits, colour co-ordinated” without even thinking about it

40. Oh absolutely - but at some point Alex has to wonder if Willie is tripping so often because he can’t dance or so that Alex is forced to catch him. Willie is very eager to learn how to do lifts and stuff like that (even though it’s been years since even Alex did them) and he thinks it’ll be romantic. It is, but not because the lift is like this perfect moment, because it’s them messing up and being silly and just enjoying each other’s company 🥺

Not gonna lie this whole post might be my favourite we’ve made so far 😂

[sunsetcurbed]

you showed me faith is not blind (miracles happen)

Pairing: Alex/Willie  Words: 4,279  Rating: T Chapter Warnings: none  Chapter: 9/11 read on AO3 

Chapter Summary: Alex has the personality of a shut-in, but the mind for bettering the lives of the common people. That's what his country needs.

But… can he?

Princes, kings, rulers… they're born. They're not made. And that's what his grandmother is trying to do. She's trying to make him one. And it's not like she's doing poorly, per se, but… he's Alex. He wasn't born to rule a country.

(*) 

Weeks pass. Time blurs by Alex and he just barely keeps up with it. Julie and the Phantoms plays a large company's winter holiday party, Willie attends more lessons with Alex (this, Alex particularly enjoys as Willie is tied to his chair at dinner for posture like Alex had been at the start of lessons), his dad stops talking to him again once he finds out Alex is dating Willie, and at school they've just finished finals and started on their break today. In the past two weeks Caleb has approached Willie twice more when he's out around Hollywood. They've been brief. Just exchanges of Caleb asking how Willie is, and then asking how Alex is, but Alex knows Willie is put off about it. Alex is too, and becomes even more so when Wednesday the 15th, six days before the Ball, Willie texts him again.

(17:59) Covington just legit sat and had tea with me and started talking with me and flat out asked if you were gonna accept the crown or not

(17:59) "It's killing us all, is he gonna accept or not? Do you know?"

(18:00) So not only does he lack manners and discretion, but also patience lmao

Alex tenses his jaw and clutches his phone tight in his hand. He raises his arm as if he's going to throw it, but then lowers it back down, slowly. He lets out a long breath and texts Willie back quick, telling him to get home safely, and apologizes for Caleb. Then he tosses his phone to the side and looks back to where his band is sitting. He was just about to get up to join them so they could work on some harmonies, but he wanted to check his phone first. Now they are all staring at him and he is frozen to the spot.

"Sorry," he murmurs.

"What's up, buddy?" Reggie asks cautiously.

"You, uh, remember that Covington guy we showed you and warned you to stay away from?"

"Yeah?" Julie asks.

"He's been going after Willie the last few weeks. He had tea with him today."

"What?" Reggie frowns. "Why?"

Alex sighs, not really wanting to get into it but also knowing his friends deserve the explanation. "Caleb is next in line for the throne if I choose to decline. And… he wants it. He's trying to get information out of Willie. About my decision."

There's a minute long pause in the room. No one has anything to say to that. He didn't really expect them to. It's a shitty thing, and it's a shitty thing that can't be changed or stopped. Willie's already being tailed by two security every time he goes out in public for safety, but he's told them not to interfere unless he motions to them. He's yet to feel threatened enough that he's had to. He's been handling it incredibly according to his grandmother and security though—giving enough information to keep Caleb from getting angry, but not enough to give anything away. Still, it makes Alex's blood boil. That Willie is in the situation in the first place to 'handle it incredibly.' God, he fucking hates Caleb Covington.

"You remember what I said last month?" Reggie's voice cuts through Alex's thoughts. Alex looks up. He frowns, shakes his head. Reggie smiles. "Even if you move, become prince of some country, we'll still find a way to make this work. We're a band."

The way Reggie says 'band' doesn't sound like he's saying 'band.' Not even close. No, because the weight behind the way Reggie says 'band' is the weight behind the way many people say 'family.' Alex can hear clear as day in Reggie's tone that Reggie is calling Alex and Luke his brothers and Julie his sister. That Reggie is calling this band his family.

Luke stands up from the couch and swings his guitar onto his back. "Yeah man, look," he says, "I'm sorry for how I reacted that day, but even if you—even if you choose to be prince you're still our drummer, y'know? It might complicate things, but Reg said it. We'll make it work."

Alex blinks the welling tears out of his eyes and clears his throat. "Well—I'm not. I-I can't, you know? That's not… I'm not. It's just not who I am."

"But it kind of is, now," Reggie argues. "I mean aside from the argument that you could redefine their monarchy to fit who you are, you… you've been in those prince lessons for over a month now and you've made serious progress with your social anxiety. You… you don't just have a prince's title anymore. You are a prince."

"He's right," Julie agrees. "You've made so much progress in just over a month, and you'll have so much more time to grow into this role. I think this is your thing, you just haven't accepted it yet. Don't write it off yet. I don't want you to regret it down the line."

"Where is this coming from?" he demands. "I thought you guys knew I wasn't going to accept."

"We knew for like, the first few days," Reggie says, "because you told us. But after that you never mentioned it again, but you talked about Beasiga a lot. So we like, kinda started to doubt it a little."

"I think I know more about Beasiga than the US at this point," Luke grumbles, grabbing at the guitar strap across his chest. "But yeah, dude. You literally just said 'if' not 'when' a minute ago. And if you were serious about giving it up, you could've just told Willie to tell that Caleb guy that you were stepping down and then Caleb would leave him alone."

Oh.

That is a thing Alex could have done.

But Alex really, really isn't sure if he wants to renounce his claim, and now he's even less so.

Alex swallows around the lump in his throat and looks away from his friends. His eyes fall on his hi-hat, and he thinks: they're willing to make it work if he accepts his role as prince. His shoulders feel looser, his head feels clearer, his heart feels lighter. He's not sure how they'll make it work, but he's positive that they can find a way. Which makes his decision a whole lot harder now. In the start, there had been a lot of reasons that he had been ready to reject his role as prince, but over time, more and more of those reasons had fallen away until only a few remained. Today there had been two main reasons remaining: the band and his anxiety. After this talk they're having now, only one of those remains. And even that one has been slowly falling away the better he became at coping.

The further Alex delved into the Beasigan world over the past month and a half, no matter how reluctant he had been at first, the more he loved it. He was fascinated with his country's history, he was eager to theoretically be a part of solutions to problems the country faced, he was in love with their culture. And the more he envisioned being a prince, the closer he stepped towards the role. His etiquette lessons had changed him in small but meaningful ways, he was more confident in himself due to the therapy and coaching both, and, watching his grandmother, he was struck that he could do much, much worse than to aspire to be like her. He is confident that he could be a better ruler than Caleb—policy wise, anyways. Caleb has the personality of a public figure, but the mind of a conqueror. Alex has the personality of a shut-in, but the mind for bettering the lives of the common people. That's what his country needs.

But… can he?

Princes, kings, rulers… they're born. They're not made. And that's what his grandmother is trying to do. She's trying to make him one. And it's not like she's doing poorly, per se, but… he's Alex. He wasn't born to rule a country.

"Do you think I can?" he asks

"Buddy, you definitely can," Reggie says. "You've got this."

"Apart from being cheesy and saying that I think you can do anything," Julie smiles, "I really think you can do this, Alex. I think you think you can do this too; you just don't want to admit it because you're scared."

Alex doesn't know if it's that he's scared, exactly, but he's just… he really doesn't know if he can do this. There's so much to it and Alex wouldn't even know where to begin. No, he wouldn't be all-powerful, so he would be helped along, would be more of a voice than the voice. But even that was daunting. What if he wasn't up to snuff? What if he made a fool of himself? What if he did something that hurt the country? Is he willing to take those risks? Again, he asks himself: can he do this?

"In third grade you were the last of us to make it all the way across the monkey bars," Luke says. He's staring at the notebook that's in front of him but then his eyes flick up to meet Alex's. They're intense and Alex feels himself sitting up straighter under his friend's gaze. "But once you made it across, you could do it faster than me or Reg. And then in fifth grade when we started school band, you got a satisfactory on your report card for drums for the entire first year. Fucking look at you now. When you asked me to teach you guitar, you couldn't get the strumming patterns right for forever. Now there isn't a song you can't play. You got a thirty on the ACT, which was great. And you did it as a sophomore. But you wanted to do better. So you studied, went back, and took it as a junior and got a thirty-four to get your pick of colleges. … And then your grandma shows up. And calls you a prince. And that's the thing you decide you can't do?" he asks. He scoffs and shakes his head. "No. You can. You have been. Dude, you are."

Alex stares at Luke, completely stunned. If he's being completely honest, he didn't expect Luke to support Alex in this—didn't expect Luke to be pushing Alex towards being a prince. Sure, Luke had already agreed with Reggie, had already said that they'd find a way to make Alex being a prince work with him in the band, but Alex wasn't entirely sure if he was serious or not. Apparently he was. Very.

He carries Luke's words home with him that night and thinks on them as his family eats dinner, and as he plays MarioKart with Ava and Austin, and as he gathers up his dirty clothes for his mom to do laundry. As he brings them to her, he draws in a deep breath. When he reaches her, he lets it out.

"Mom?"

"Oh!" She spins around, dropping the laundry basket in the process. "Oh, sweetie, you scared me."

"Sorry," he says.

"It's fine," she shakes her head and leans down to grab the basket. She starts loading the washer back up and twists to look at him. "What's up?"

"I—Beasiga."

She hesitates with her next handful, and then stops loading the washer entirely. "Yeah?"

Alex draws in a deep breath and starts. "I've been—thinking a lot lately. You told me to keep my mind open at the start of this and while I didn't originally, it… I opened it up after a while. And now I've been thinking about… about accepting my role as prince." One of his mom's hands drifts up to her chest and she sucks in a breath. "I haven't made up my mind. I… I really haven't made up my mind. I have no idea how the hell I'm going to make up my mind, and how I'm going to do it in six days. But… but I wanted to ask you. If I do… do you think I can?"

His mom looks off to the side and the hand on her chest presses down and rubs over her heart. She blows out a breath. "Well… that's a heavy question." She looks at him and tilts her head. "I think… I think probably. I… I don't think you could have done it before those lessons your grandma gave you—"

"Oh, not a chance," Alex snorts.

His mom smiles. "Right. But I think now you probably could. I mean, no one really knows if they can until they try. I think you could try."

Alex smiles and thanks her, and turns to go back to his room.

"Alex?"

"Yeah?"

"You don't feel like you… have to do this, do you?" she asks.

"No, Mom. I don't. If I felt like I had to there wouldn't be a chance in hell I would be considering it."

He retreats to his room and opens his laptop to put on Netflix. He barely pays attention to what he puts on, and pays even less attention to the screen while it plays.

Prince lessons the next day start in the morning since there's no school. Alex makes it until lunch before he breaks.

"You… you know I've been considering accepting my role as prince," Alex states. His grandmother nods. "I've not come to a decision. But I wanted to talk to you about it anyways."

"All right," she says, putting her fork down. "We can absolutely do that."

"There are a lot of reasons I am considering taking my place as prince. I'm sure you know most of them. But there are a lot of reasons I'm wary of it as well. My band—they say we'll make it work, but we haven't actually figured out how we'll make it work, and I don't want to give that up. And, well. My anxiety. It's gotten better, I've developed coping mechanisms and I'm sure over time I'll develop more, but as of right now it's… I'm really, well, anxious about it. And… well. The main one, and the thing that has been pestering me all f—freaking night. I-I—" he looks down at his plate, nerves getting the best of him. "I don't know if I can. The band told me I could, and my mom told me I probably could, but… I don't know how I'm supposed to know if I can."

"Alexander," his grandmother says immediately. He looks up at her and finds her smiling at him. "I have… watched you study century old texts, memorize policy after policy, research Beasigan law. I have seen you change the way you hold yourself, develop coping strategies for anxiety, step into who you are in ways that you never thought you could before this last month and a half. And I have seen your ideas for the future of your people, seen your care for your people, seen your heart for your people. I don't think there is anyone who can do this better than you can."

"My people?"

"They've just been waiting for you to arrive," she tells him, and Alex knows that she's speaking of the people of Beasiga.

He bites down on his lip and looks down at his chicken.

His people.

He… really likes the sound of that, actually.

The next few days fly by quickly, too quickly for Alex to really process. It's mainly because he's stressed, like, majorly so. He still hasn't come to a decision by Monday. He's at Willie's at his grandmother's suggestion, trying to decompress and relax, but it's not… it's not really working.

They're lying in Willie's bed watching a movie, but Alex isn't even sure what movie it is. Willie's head is pillowed on Alex's chest and Alex is running his fingers through Willie's hair. Willie's got one hand tucked underneath Alex's shirt, rubbing his side with his thumb, twitching his other fingers every once in a while, brushing against the side of Alex's back. It's nice and quiet and Alex wants to stay here forever but.

But the ball is tomorrow.

The ball is tomorrow and he still hasn't made up his mind.

For days now he's been asking people if they think he can do this. Obviously the band, his grandmother, his mom… but also his limo driver, also Tasha, also Alden and John and the security guards managing the consulate doors and a few of the other staff he'd gotten to know. He'd even emailed Mrs. Harrison and Principal Lessa. He'd texted a few of his friends from school that he mainly talked to in class. The overwhelming majority have been yeses. Alex doesn't know how many of those are genuine yeses, and how many just don't want to hurt his feelings. Not that his feelings would be hurt, because he's the one constantly telling himself that he can't do this. A few people, like his mom, have said 'probably.' They've backed up their reasoning, though. They've said that no one really knows until they do something. They've said that Alex-before-prince lessons wouldn't have been able to but Alex-now probably could. They've said that as long as he keeps his head on straight. There haven't been any nos, but again, people might just not want to hurt his feelings.

He hasn't asked everyone though.

"Willie?" Alex whispers.

"Hm?"

Alex waits for a long moment. He's scared to ask, because he doesn't know what he wants Willie's answer to be. He wants Willie to be honest, but he desperately doesn't want to hear Willie say that Alex can't do this. Also more importantly, he doesn't know what he'll do with Willie's answer. What if Willie thinks he can? Will that influence his choice?

Willie shifts his head on Alex's chest to look up at Alex, and he realizes he's taking too long. He draws in a deep breath, making Willie's head fall with his chest, and asks, "do you think I can do this?"

"The speech at the ball? Yeah, Alex, you'll be fine. You've been doing really great with your anxiety," Willie assures him, squeezing his side.

Alex sighs. "No. I mean, thanks but, I—being a prince. A king. Ruling a country. Do you think I can?"

Willie flips so he's on his stomach, his arm curled around Alex's waist. He shimmies up the bed until he's face to face with Alex and looks him in the eye. "Man, I don't know," he says, and Alex's heart starts to drop. "All I care about is whether or not you're willing. That's the important part. That's the part that's gonna make a difference."

Alex blinks.

So, he has to be willing.

… Well, is he?

The short answer is he doesn't know.

The long answer is that, first, Caleb Covington is next in line for the throne and Alex (and countless others) doesn't want him to take the throne. Alex is the only one who has the opportunity to stop him. By taking his rightful place as prince and eventually king, and then by eventually having a child, Caleb would no longer have his claim. Second, Beasiga is a country with strong ties to many countries around the world. It didn't survive for over three hundred years, over one hundred of those without an army, by being anti-social. Alex would have an opportunity to impact not only Beasiga, but also the world. It wouldn't be anything revolutionary or that would create world peace, but if he can take even a single step towards making even one country a better place for even one group of people… he thinks the entire thing would be worth it. Finally, Beasiga is full of people he cares about, even if he's never met them, and he wants to make their lives better. The people in the country are passionate and full of life and Alex can tell that just from hearing and reading about them, just from news stories, just from social media. He wants to make a difference, wants to leave a mark.

After that though, he has to think of the life he'd be giving up. Even if they managed to make things work, what are the chances he'd ever get to go on tour with the band? Slim to none. Security wouldn't hear of it, and he wouldn't have the time to leave for six months. Willie said he would stick with Alex, but what if things got too hard? What if the pressures of royalty were too much for Willie and he didn't want that anymore? And his future kid—kids? His mom and biological dad had hidden him from the royal world because they wanted him to live a "normal" childhood. What would a royal childhood mean for any children he'd have? One of them would grow up to be ruler of Beasiga one day and would be feeling the same pressure he is right now. They'd also be wondering if they could do it. Or—or maybe not. Maybe he was right when he said that rulers were born. Maybe the fact that he was thrown into this at such a late age is the reason he doubts himself so much.

And then—then he thinks… he can recite many Beasigan policies and when and why they were developed, he can quote multiple Beasigan laws and tell you when and where they were passed, and he can discuss Beasigan history back to before the start of the country. And he's proud that he can do that and he likes that he can do that and he wants to learn even more about Beasiga. Over the last month and a half he's prepared for this. And it's not like he's going to become king next week, just prince. He's still got plenty of time before he becomes king. He'd have time to graduate college before he becomes king, and in that time, he could learn plenty more about Beasiga's policies and laws and history, and even its people and culture and architecture and so much more.

But… he's scared.

There it is, he admits it now. Julie was right again, no one is surprised.

He's absolutely terrified.

Stepping into his role as prince means giving up the life he's known for sixteen years and accepting the life he's known for one month. It means giving up the life he expected and taking on the life he… well, that he couldn't have even dreamt up. And it means accepting something about himself that he really, really didn't want to accept.

That he is, in fact, a prince.

Being a prince, later king, makes him separate from everyone else. It makes him somehow more untouchable to a certain group of people—actually, to most people. It takes away his normalcy. Beyond that, it puts him on a pedestal and in a spotlight and illuminates all of his flaws, all of his mistakes, all of his missteps and setbacks and failures.

A prince. Could he be that?

He technically is, whether he likes it or not, but… if he accepts it, well… There'd be no going back. Is he willing to give up this life for that?

In economics, they learned about opportunity cost. It's the concept of what you miss gaining by opting for a different choice. For example, by going to school, a person is gaining knowledge, but the opportunity cost is that they're giving up a few extra hours of sleep. If they choose to go out with friends rather than study, they gain time with friends, but the opportunity cost is the hours they could have spent studying and the potential grade they could have gotten had they spent those hours studying instead. As Alex thinks on it, he wants to laugh. Those examples are accurate but they seem so insignificant compared to his situation. What's the opportunity cost if he decides to become a prince? What is it if he doesn't? All he knows is that there are two things that Alex can't sacrifice in his choice. There are two things that he will not allow to be his opportunity cost. His band and…

Alex blinks up at Willie, who's suddenly even closer than before, and it doesn't take much at all for Alex to lean up and close the gap between them. Willie kisses him back, opening his mouth under Alex's lips and sighing. Alex presses back into the kiss, and slips a hand into Willie's hair and guides him deeper until they're both lost in each other. Alex feels his heart fluttering, hears their shaky breaths between kisses, and tastes traces of Willie's toothpaste on his breath. Willie has been with him through this all, and has pushed him not to do what he thinks he should do, but what he wants to do. Alex wants Willie, yes, but what he really wants… he wants Willie to be beside him in Beasiga.

He pulls back.

"I'm going to be Prince," he whispers.

Willie smiles. "Yeah?"

"Yeah."

There's a long pause in the room, the only noise being the sound of whatever movie is playing in the background. Willie is staring at Alex, flicking his eyes over parts of Alex's face, searching for any sign of hesitation. He settles on Alex's eyes and gives Alex a weighted look.

"Love you, Prince Alex," Willie says, and then they're back to kissing, and Alex feels like these are the two best decisions he's ever made.

[ghostboybabies]

little ghost boy || [JATP Agere/CGLRE]- “Panic Attacks and Secrets” (Chapter 8)

A/N: been planning *this* plot point for a while. Hope y'all enjoy.

Reggie panics and involuntarily regresses after a nightmare, Alex meets up with Willie at a skatepark when band practice is cancelled, and Reggie makes a big decision.

--

Reggie wanted Luke.

Now.

He couldn't breathe. Or at least, it felt that way. He didn't remember what was so scary about his dream at first, all he knew is that it upset him.

Tears ran down his face as he sobbed, sniffling. He sat up, taking in his surroundings. He was in Julie's bed. He didn't recall why, but he was glad he had the stuffed bear Julie gave him for comfort.

He knew that he was very little but he didn't care. This was to much for him. And he needed Luke.

"Reggie, it's time to get up for band practice-"

Reggie heard Julie's voice as she opened the door, speaking casually until she got a glance of him. "Oh my god, Reg! What happened?" She shut her door behind her, and quickly came to sit next to him on the bed.

She had let him nap in her room because he had stayed up late the night before doing something, planning to come wake him up before band practice.

Reggie shook his head, closing in on himself and squeezing the bear. "Mama!" Reggie cried, babbling over his words. He panicked, his breathing becoming more quickened and panicky.

"Baby, I need you to breathe for me. Like me, okay?" Julie continued to breathe in deeply, and then out. Reggie nodded, attempting to follow her lead. She didn't care that he was little at a bad time, she just wanted him to be okay.  Julie didn't ask for an explanation, nor did she question what was going on. In the moment, she just did everything she could to help him calm down.

She continued on, muttering praise and reassurance until his breathing was more level. "Bad dream, mama! Scary and I wan Luke..." he whined, still sniffling.

"It's okay, baby," Julie opened her arms, letting him hug her. He snuggled into her chest, hugging her tightly. "And I'll see if I can get Luke for you, yeah?"

"Band pwactice?" Reggie pulled away, tilting his head. "Gotta be big."

"No, you don't. You just had some sort of panic attack and that's what this is for, remember? To deal with your mental health and emotions."

Reggie nodded, and Julie continued. "We don't have a gig for a week, we'll come up with another time to practice. And...I'll come up with something to tell Alex. You just play with your stuffie, okay?"

Reggie picked the bear back up from the bed, hugging it and nodding. Julie's breathing exercise and affection helped comfort him a bit, but he still didn't feel well. He wanted Luke.

Luke's comfort seemed so important in the moment due to the contents of his dream. The nightmare made him afraid of losing Luke, and he needed to know that he wouldn't.

Julie leaned forward and kissed his forehead. Reggie hugged the stuffed animal, trying to focus on keeping his breathing level for the time being, watching his Mama leave the room.

--

"Julie!" Luke cheered once Julie entered the studio, dropping his smile when he saw how serious she looked. "Where's Reggie?"

"I need to talk to you," Julie said, in a serious tone that scared him a bit. . Luke lifted his guitar over his head, going over and setting it on his stand.

"I'll be back." He told Alex, following Julie out of the studio and leaving the blonde very confused. Once they were outside, and the garage doors were shut behind him, he spoke aloud, questioning what was going on.

"What's up, Jules?"

"Reggie had a panic attack," Julie sighed, seemingly worried. "He said something about a bad dream and he's very little and he's asking for you. Can we cancel band practice? Can you please go spend some time with him?" Julie pleaded. She was really worried.

"Of course...I'll tell Alex that Reggie had a nightmare but leave out the details. He used to get them pretty bad, about his parents and stuff, and he'd be sensitive after. I'm sure he won't think anything of it," Luke decided, nodding. "I'll talk to Reggie, and then we can all do something as a distraction for him, okay?"

"Sounds like a plan." Julie confirmed, still on-edge.

"Hey," Luke spoke softly to her, picking up on her stress. "He's gonna be okay. We'll figure this out."

Julie hummed, nodding. "Yeah...thanks for that." She thanked him for the comfort, and Luke smiled.

"Of course."

--

"Nightmares? I feel so bad...I thought those went away," Alex frowned, worried for his friend. "Can I see him? I used to help him when he had them when we were alive."

"No!" Julie said, immediately. She awkwardly chuckled, "We got this. You go hang out with Willie or something, and we can all hang out later tonight." she compromised. Julie understood that Alex was worried and tried to come up with a solution that would allow him to see Reggie, without exposing him for being an age regressor.

"O-okay, yeah. You sure you got this?" Alex looked to Luke, who nodded. "When I come back, can we talk all about something?" Alex asked.

"Uh, yeah. Whatever you want, just not right now." Luke wasn't really worried about whatever he was planning to bring up, just trying to get him out so that he could go help his baby.

Alex nodded, setting his drumsticks down and stepping away from the drum set. Luke gave him a soft smile, before poofing out as Julie exited through the door. Alex didn't know what was up, but he was worried.

It seemed like Luke was always trying to keep him out of the house, and while he loved spending time with his boyfriend, he was missing his friends too. But he was kinda thankful about it, because they never questioned why he was gone all the time, they just seemed to be glad that he wasn't in the house to discover whatever they were keeping from him.

They were hiding something from him, but he was hiding something too. It wasn't his secret to tell anyways. It was Willie's.

He figured that he should go check on the boy in question anyways. With everything going on, Willie was always pretty stressed. Hiding a relationship from the person who owns your soul will do that to you. He poofed out, appearing on a bench at a empty skate park.

How long would it be before it hit them that their secrets were exactly the same? At least, Willie and Reggie's were.

--

"Luke!" Reggie made grabby hands towards his friend the moment he appeared in the room. Luke came forward, leaning down to hug him without making him get up from the bed. Reggie cuddled into his chest. "Scary dream, Luke! You didn't wanna be friends anymore- and Julie left too. And Alex-" he started rambling, working himself back to tears again.

"Baby, none of us would ever leave you, okay? I know nightmares can be scary but they're not real. "  Luke assured, kissing the top of Reggie's head softly. "None of us are going anywhere, I promise you."

He let go of Reggie, letting him settle back into the bed. "I heard you kinda panicked. Are you feeling okay?" Luke sat on the bed next to him, hearing the door open as Julie entered. She didn't interrupt, closing the door behind her and taking her spot on the other side of Reggie as he replied.

"Still sad." he mumbled, shaking his head. "Don't wanna lose you," he said.

"I know, baby. You won't," Luke repeated. Julie seemed concerned. "Do you wanna tell Mama what the dream was about?"

Reggie turned to Julie, bringing his thumb to his lip. "Lost Luke, and yous, and Alex. Didn't wanna be friends anymore," he pouted.

"Poor baby," Julie opened his arms, letting him hug her. "Luke's right, we're not going anywhere. I can promise you that, Little Prince."

Reggie hummed, cuddling into her too. "Hey, Rockstar?" Luke asked after a minute of just them hugging. Reggie pulled away from Julie, tilting his head as he looked over at him. "Will a movie make you feel a bit better?" Luke asked.

Reggie shrugged. "We could watch Winnie the Pooh!" Julie suggested, in a excited tone that made Reggie really wanna watch it. He pouted though, shaking his head. "Why not, Flower?"

"Makes me littler," he mumbled shyly, his face a little pink.

Luke gave an amused smile. "And exactly how big are you right now?" he questioned in a teasing tone.

"Dunno," Reggie pouted. "Not a baby," he decided.

"Hmm, well...does Winnie the Pooh make you happy?" Julie interrupted, joining back in on the conversation. Reggie nodded slowly. "Then what does it matter if it triggers a younger headspace? You're allowed to be little, even if 'little' is very young."

Reggie seemed hesitant to agree, but Julie leaned forward and kissed him on the forehead, distracting him from whatever he was going to say. "I'll set up the show. Julie, is there any way to get more blankets so that the baby is more comfy? We can build a little pillow fort!"

Reggie bounced it place. "Yeah, Mama, can we?"

Julie rolled her eyes, playfully glaring at Luke, chuckling a bit. "Yeah, I'll see what I can do. Reggie, you can be my little helper!"

"That's a very important job, mister." Luke said playfully. Reggie nodded, seeming determined to help Julie with whatever she needed. Julie stood up, reaching out her hand for Reggie to take.

What Reggie needed right now was a distraction. And Julie and Luke were providing just that. They always seemed to know what he needed and how to help him.

And Reggie would always be thankful for that.

--

Alex poofed onto a bench in an empty skate park, looking around for Willie.

"Alex!" Willie cheered, stopping his skateboard in front of the bench. He sat down next to him. Alex still had no idea how they were always able to correctly guess where the other was most of the time. It was weird.

"Hey, Willie," Alex chuckled at his excitement. "How are you?"

"Not little, if that's what you're getting at," Willie told him. "Actually though, I'm pretty okay at the moment! I've been skating and just hanging out. You?"

"Well, I was supposed to practice with the band today but then they cancelled it because of Reggie. He was pretty shaken up after a nightmare, they wouldn't let me see him for some reason." Alex explained.

"It sounds like they're hiding something related to Reggie from you. Do you have any ideas on what it could be?" Willie frowned, sitting back in the bench and getting settled.

"Actually, I think I might."

"Go on," Willie seemed interested.

"At first I thought it was just a weird Reggie thing- but on Halloween night, I caught Reggie sleeping and sucking his thumb. I-i think he might be like you," Alex seemed hesitant, like he wasn't completely sure.

"I mean, I think that's possible. You said that he deals with anxiety too, right? And that he didn't have the best childhood?"

Alex nodded in affirmation. "Those are both two things people can use age regression to deal with."

Alex nodded again, "There's so many other things too. I was thinking it in the back of my mind since you told me about you a month ago, but I didn't know for sure. He will disappear with either Julie or Luke, or both, for extended periods of time. Whenever I come home, one of them will distract me until the other two come back, and Reggie always is kinda shy."

"Like I am when I come out of littlespace," Willie connected.

"Yeah, I don't know, but I do think it's possible. Either way, I'm gonna ask them about it tonight, see if I can figure out what they're keeping from me." Alex ran his fingers through his hair. "But while I'm here, do you wanna do something?"

"I-i know I said I wasn't little-"

"You can be if you want." Alex cut him off, smiling at him. Willie smiled back, nodding.

"Okay. Cool. Can we go to the park?" Willie was thankful. He could only ever feel comfortable being little away from the club, and it was much easier to be a kid when you had someone to play with.

"Of course."

--

"Luke! Look at all the blankies we got!" Reggie giggled, coming over to Julie's bed and dumping a pile of soft blankets on the bed. He looked so proud of himself for helping, even though it was obvious that Julie carried more and did all the work.

"Whoa! Those are a lot! You must be so strong, baby."

Reggie blushed a little bit. He was still getting used to the praise thing. Instead of pointing out things he did wrong, or getting mad at him, they made a point to tell him what he did well. While softly correcting and helping him improve in spots he could do better. Instead of 'You're not good enough', it was 'You're amazing, and we're gonna help you be even better'.

"Now you get to help me set this up! I don't know how we're gonna do a fort though..." she trailed off, looking around her room. "We could pull the chair over here, and use the stool to create a roof? Just drape the blanket across it and set up on the floor?"

They eventually figured out the blanket fort thing, setting it up on the ground. They all cuddled up inside of it, Reggie sitting between his friends with the computer on his lap. Reggie was definitely right about the show making him littler.

He was sucking on his thumb and cuddling both his bear and Luke. Julie had been the one mainly taking care of Reggie the past few times he regressed, and he seemed to want Luke now. That dream spooked him, and out of the two people he trusted, he wanted the one he knew longer. Julie didn't take offence to that, just glad that he was feeling better.

Reggie kept giggling at the movie, but he eventually fell back asleep against Luke. Luke reached forward,pressing the spacebar on the laptop to pause the show once he was sure the baby was sleeping. "We should let him get some more sleep. He can stay in the pillow fort, though." Luke suggested.

Julie nodded, "The crying probably tired him back out. We can let him sleep for a while and hopefully he'll be big when he wakes up."

Luke nodded a bit in response, closing the laptop and setting it aside, working to carefully lay Reggie down without waking him up. He stirred a bit at the last minute, whining. "No go.." Reggie mumbled sleepily. He fell back asleep basically immediately, but Luke's heart melted.

"Julie, he's so adorable-"

"I know, but if you spend a million years cooing over him, we're never gonna come up with something to tell Alex."

Luke rolled his eyes, proceeding to climb out of their little fort, followed by Julie.

Little did they know, there was no need to lie to Alex. They'll figure it out eventually.

--

"I have to go home, kiddo. I'm sorry," Alex looked at the pouty kid in front of him, frowning a bit.

"But Awex!" Willie whined. "Wanna keep playin'."

Alex smiled a bit at his mispronunciation of his name, "I know, Little One. But we can always play later, right?"

Willie nodded, casting his eyes down. "Mkay. I miss you."

"I'll miss you too, Willie." Alex opened his arms, letting the little hug him. Little Willie had an older headspace age then Little Reggie, for sure, but they were alike in many ways. When they eventually met, and interacted in littlespace, it was undoubtedly going to be an absolutely adorable sight to see.

But of course, there were many things that needed to happen before they got there. Many secrets to be told. Many conversations to be had.

"Can you be a big kid for me, buddy? I know big Willie can take care of himself, I don't know about you, though."

Willie pouted, but he nodded nonetheless. "Be big after you leave, pwomise." he held out his pinky childishly.

Alex gave an amused smile, wrapping his pinky around his. "I know it's hard to pull yourself out of headspace. It's okay."

After a moment of silence, Alex leaned forward, kissing Willie's forehead before smiling at him. "I'll see you later."

Willie hummed, stepping back as he poofed out. Willie frowned, sad that he was gone. He stepped back onto the playground, going over to the swings and taking a seat.

He had to be big before heading back to the club. Sometimes, Caleb wasn't the nicest person about the more childish part of him. Only sometimes, when things at the club weren't doing well and there was a lot going on. And Willie knew he had been pretty stressed after failing to possess a teenage boy for more then a few day. And getting yelled at for not being able to understand orders wasn't something on his 'to-do' list for today.

He was glad he got to spend some time with Alex, though.

--

"There, all the pillow fort stuff is put away. I think Alex will be heading back soon, though." Luke said, looking over to a nervous Reggie as he set one of Julie's pillows back in place on her bed.

"Are you sure you wanna tell him? We can come up with a lie." Julie offered, coming to sit next to him. Reggie shook his head a bit.

"I'm okay. I-i'm sure about this. Nervous out of my mind, but sure."

"Okay, Reg. Just let us know if you change your mind." Luke told him, sitting down as well.

"I will." Reggie assured, biting on his lip and bouncing his knee. He was very nervous. This was the first time he'd be willingly telling someone, and it was terrifying. He could still back out, but he didn't think he wanted to. He trusted Alex, and he knew somewhere, deep down, that he'd probably be okay with it.

The most he'd do is tease him playfully like Luke did. But it was still scary.

Alex walked through the door, talking about how he had gone to the studio to find them first. Reggie waited until he was done with his rambling, speaking up nervously.

"Alex, I have something to tell you..."

Was he really doing this?

--

A/N: Reblogs and asks with your thoughts/reactions to this chapter are very much appreciated! Thank you for reading!

[staarblaster]

Bad Moon Rising (ch.2)

Chapter Two

Fortunate Son

Willie looked pale, like if he had gone through the same shocks that he had seen Alex and his friends endure. He knew he had seen that text right. But how, how was that possible, he was dead. They was no way the afterlife even had cell reception. 

"Y-yeah. I- Listen Alex. I got this message and there's no possible way I could get it. " 

Alex frowned, not understanding, but looked at Willie silently before nodding. 

"What was the message?" 

Willie tilted the phone screen to face Alex, who looked just as confused as he did. 

"Miss me? With a cat and a ghost picture?"

Willie cracked a small semblance of a smile. 

"They're called emojis. See um. They can be like code.” Alex nodded understanding,

“So what does this mean?” 

Willie sighed, running his hand through his hair 

“It could be nothing but my friend used to send texts with the cat emoji a lot. But to the best of my knowledge they’re still a lifer”

Alex held Willie’s hand, “Maybe it’s just Caleb messing with you. Maybe using a new way to keep tabs on you?” Willie nodded smiling at Alex, while trying to hide a feeling of unease if Caleb was tracking him, he decided it would be best to get up to go to the Hollywood Ghost Club, which had became less of a sanctuary but more of a prison since Caleb’s curse on the boys. Willie knew he needed to preserve the facade so Caleb wouldn’t be suspicious of him.

“I’ll listen for anything, not just about Caleb but them too.” Alex tilted his head, the pronouns, confused him a little, but he looked at Willie understandingly “What was their name?” Willie smiled, “It was Jinx.”

 ---

Los Feliz High School

7:30 am 

Julie stood at her locker, still riding the high from preforming  at the Orpheum with the guys. Plus breaking Caleb’s curse. It was pretty cool to say the least, sure people were constantly asking for selfies or what was coming next for the Phantoms. But she was honestly unsure, the Orpheum wasn’t the guy’s unfinished business.  Maybe they’d write some new songs, but where do they go from here.

Loud hip-hop music snapped Julie out of her daze, Flynn must of been playing something in the music room.  Julie walked into the room, but instead of seeing Flynn, she saw someone dancing to a routine for a mashup of  two songs, Thunder by Imagine Dragons and Sunflower. It was almost hypnotic, they had an enchanting flow that could only be described as rhythmic.

  They had gotten to the chorus of Thunder when they noticed Julie in the doorframe, a black hoodie covered their head and a pair of ripped jeans. They froze instantly, 

“You did really good! Y-you can keep going!” Julie said comfortingly trying to reassure the mystery dancer.

They ran out the door she stood in front of, and soon left Julie in silence, maybe she’d see them around. It wasn’t long before soft footsteps snuck up behind them before gently putting hands on Julie’s shoulder.

Julie jumped, and saw Nick standing behind her,

“Nick! Hey! Hi” She said awkwardly. She looked past him expecting to see the mystery dancer in the halls but nothing unfortunately.

“Hey, you look like you’ve seen a ghost. You okay?” He said with a warm smile. He followed Julie’s eyes intently.

Julie frowned, before noticing Nick was following her gaze, and awkwardly laughing.

“Ghosts aren’t real what are you talking about.”

Nick chuckled,

“Yeah but it would sure be cool though right?”

Julie smiled,

“Yeah maybe. We should head in there aye partner”

Nick chuckled, before coughing in an attempt to fill the silence

“Hey um, I know we agreed on no going out, but hanging out? That’s still on the table? As friends..” 

Julie looked at Nick, she knew that it would be unfair to him, to Luke and  to herself, but at the prospect of maybe taking a break she conceded.

“You know that actually  sounds really nice. Just as friends?” 

Nick smiled and nodded, before waving and  off in another direction “Just as friends. Oh! By the way, I heard  Mrs. Henderson might  be announcing a new play. You should audition, you’d be a shoe in with your band!” 

Julie only chuckled, watching him leave, before waving at him 

“See you this weekend”

As she turned she saw an all too  familiar streak of blonde hair,

“Carrie.”

“Julie. I saw you lasat night,  it wasn’t... awful but just know Dirty Candy is coming back at you with a vengeance. I will make sure that we get signed. Before you and your holograms or whatever they are”

Julie only let out a small chuckle with a sarcastic eye roll.

“Sure Carrie, maybe you should stick to your songs, and hope your dad doesn’t steal from anyone else”

Before Julie could even stop herself the words just spilled out

Carrie paused, turning to look at her, her face reddening with anger

“What.Was. That?!”

Julie swallowed nervously. Why did I say that out loud, now she’s really going to be on me and the guys.

“Slip of the tongue”

Carrie glared daggers at her former friend. 

“You better hope so.”

----

On the lacrosse field, a short person, say 5’2” grabbed a stick from the equipment bucket and caught the ball several times getting a few practice catches before aiming at goal a few feet away successfully getting it in the goal.

“Nice shot!!” Nick shouted over at them.

The figure turned, freezing,  about to run away again.

“Hey wait!” He ran down from the stands intercepting them at the base. He finally got a look at the person who almost ran away.

They were shorter than he was, and had curly green hair and  piercing brown eyes. They tried to look for a way past them.

“I’m Nick... Are you new?”

Silence.

A few seconds passed,

“Most people call me Jem, but my friends call me Jinx.”

“Well are we friends?”

Jinx/Jem looked at Nick,

“I haven’t made up my mind, but I’m sure I’ll see you around” They said with a small grin

Nick gave a small smile, intrigued by the mystery of this new person, and Jinx sensing his intrigue wrote her number down on a scrap of paper.

“Text me. If you want”They said before walking back into the school.

----

HGC

8:30 pm

The party at Hollywood Ghost Club was already underway, it wasn’t quite time for “Dessert” but Caleb Covington paced in silence in his quarters. They were supposed to be his band.  How could one human, no lifer, was it possible they were The Lifer from the legend. Well, this was going to be interesting. He would need to get confirmation,  and obviously he couldn’t send Willie he was too preoccupied with the band that he was previously intrigued by. 

Dessert was in one  hour.

He would have to make a new plan both to make sure the link between the lifer and band was severed and furthermore ensuring when the time came everything was in position. He had been stopped once, he would not let this happen again.

A soft knock, and a simple wave of the hand later he saw Willie standing in the door frame.

“William what a pleasant surprise”

Willie looked at Caleb nervously, showing him the phone

“Caleb... I-I got this message and I need to know if you know if you know anything about it”

Caleb frowned,  and then chuckled, 

“William you can’t honestly expect me to know what that means. Just because I own your soul doesn’t mean I control everything that happens to you. If I did you would be thanking me for bringing Alex to you. Wouldn’t you?”

Willie looked uncomfortable getting the sense there might be more but decided against prying further.

“R-right. I’ll take my seat”

Caleb put a hand on Willie’s shoulder.

“A wise decision, I’ll be on momentarily. Don’t go anywhere”

As Willie walked away, Caleb walked to a set of stairs and opened the door, to see a small black cat with brown eyes.

“It’s about time” He said picking up the cat.

“You stay here. Something tells me we have a lot to discuss.”