#if Alex introduces his boyfriend to Ray before xmas you bet your ass willie is getting a stocking too

[innytoes]

Winter/X-mas Prompts #4: “You got me a stocking?” - “Of course, you’re family.” - make Reggie a Molina 2kalways

All in all Reggie thought that Julie telling her family there were three ghosts living in the studio went rather well. Ray only screamed a little bit when they suddenly stepped through the wall. And when they told Julie's aunt later, she only threatened to get a priest for like an hour (after she tried to shove a crucifix through Reggie's head).

So now that they could be seen by people on the days they played with Julie, it meant all kinds of fun stuff. Like being allowed to sit in on family dinner if they wanted to, even though they couldn't eat. And playing video games with Carlos. And joking around with Flynn. And Reggie could hang out with Ray all he wanted and Ray would actually talk back and answer his questions. He'd even gotten permission to come to shoots with him when he was invisible, as long as he promised not to stay behind him and not orb up the shots. It was the best.

Today after band practice, Julie was heading over to Flynn's house to work on a history project that was due before winter break, and Alex had a date. Luke was deep into writing a new song that Reggie was pretty sure was about Julie's smile, so he figured it would be a great time to hang around with Ray.

"Hey Ray!" he called, beaming when Ray looked up and smiled at him. "Whatcha doing? Ironing?"

"Sort of," Ray said. "These were supposed to be a surprise, but..." He motioned Reggie over. Ooh, he loved surprises.

On the table were a bunch of different iron-on patches, as well as three big socks. A red one, a blue one, and a pink one. He blinked, then realised that the letters near the red sock could spell out his name.

"You... you got me a stocking?" he asked, uncertain.

"Yeah!" Ray beamed. "You're family. They won't be as nice as the ones Rose made, she hand-embroidered all of them, but I thought I could still personalise them a little, you know?"

Being solid came and went, but they were usually pretty solid just after playing, so he grabbed Ray in a tight hug. Ray startled, before squeezing back, running his hand over Reggie's hair. "Thanks, Ray," he whispered.

"Any time, mijo," Ray said, keeping his hand on Reggie's back even after Reggie let go. "Now, do you want to help? I'm afraid I wasn't quite sure what to put on Luke and Alex', so I just got a bunch of different options."

On his own stocking, there was already a little red guitar, an R2D2, and a slice of pizza, and a Baby Yoda. He beamed at Ray, before looking at the other patches on the table. There was already a little guitar and a music note on Luke's, and a drumset on Alex'. He picked out a little pencil for Luke, and a dinosaur. For Alex, he grabbed a rainbow flag, a little ufo, and a sparkly silver OK.

They spent the afternoon ironing on the patches and talking about holiday traditions. Reggie told Ray about how Luke and his mom always baked cookies, about how driving around to look at the Christmas lights was the only part of the holidays that didn’t stress Alex out. He saw Ray take note, and wouldn’t be surprised if these things just happened to be added to the usual Molina traditions this year.

“What about you?” he asked. “What’s important to you for the holidays?”

Reggie smiled. “Just being together with my family,” he said, knowing that he’d have no trouble in that department this year.