#scribbles & scratches

[punsmaster69]

4/MAR/20XX

papyrus is equally excited about the prospect of flowey having wheels as he is, so he's helping add various flame and racing stickers to flowey's new pot.

undyne is also amped about it, which is shocking since it's... flowey's wheels. guess it doesn't matter if it's a plant-rival or other getting the wheels - turning someone into a racecar is exciting regardless.

in the meantime, me and alphys have been tossing around ideas to keep it more on the functional side.

[On an inserted page, there are a few rough sketches of a flower pot on wheels. A long singular-wheel design labelled "mettaton style" is aggressively scribbled with an X in green crayon.]

[A sketch of a design with two wheels in the front and two slightly bigger wheels in the back is drawn in the same pen this journal is usually written in. With a pencil, surprisingly detailed racing engine mufflers have been added to the design. Drawings of large weapons of various indecipherability are also added to the sides.]

[Along the sides of the page are pen drawings that appear to be ideas for a braking system. In a different pen, chicken scratch handwriting lines the margins around the drawings.]

[artzybumpkin]

Oh dear lord I remember that episode when Charlie punched him in the throat-

Is it awkward for Charlie to speak with Allan during his pregnancy?

Oh ABSOLUTELY at first!

I feel like they both are kinda gun shy when it comes to conversation, at least for a little while. They both attempt some form of clumsy "Hey, how are you's" that seem to fall flat before they scurry off, out of one another's sight.

Their little squabble already made things awkward between them, but for Ch/arlie the pregnancy amped that awkwardness up TENFOLD. He hadn't really been in close contact with someone in the family way in his life. If anything maybe distant relatives he'd only see once or twice a year at best. So for him, this was uncharted territory. Besides a brief "Congrats, man. Happy for you or whatever," there was not much more he'd mentioned on the subject.

This probably went on for several weeks tbh.

However, when he'd gotten word from P/im that "It's a girl!" something edged him on to approach his coworker. As expected, he found him at the breakroom table, checking the signatures on some paperwork.

"Hey, man."

"Hey...." He didn't look up from the pages he was glossing over. He'd checked the stack over a time or two already but had to be sure there were no mistakes. (If for no reason other than to keep his mind off his upset stomach) "You and P/im done with today's client already?"

"Yeah, uh, turns out all the guy needed was a quick pep talk and to quit drinking so much Red Bull. Dude was drinking like 14 minimum a day for the past half a decade, I don't know how he hasn't gone into cardiac arrest."

"Holy shit..."

"For real! I can't even imagine what that'd do to someone. Couldn't be me, dude, couldn't be me..."

The room was plunged back into silence, sans for sounds of paper rustling and pen scribbles.

Ch/arlie scratched the back of his neck, trying to find the right wording. ".... Sooooooo, uh.... Heard you found out what Al/lan junior's gonna be."

Now this made the red critter pause momentarily before continuing on with his business. "Yeah, yeah, a girl."

"Ah, cool, cool.... Er, 'bout how far along does that make you now?"

"Just under 14 weeks. The OB says everything seems normal." His hand subconsciously made it's way to the small bump of his belly as he recalled what was said at the clinic, "Growth rate and size are about what's to be expected, so that was good to hear."

At this point Ch/arlie's curiosity began to pique. He grabbed the chair closest to him and sat. "How big is she? Did they say??"

Al/lan looked his way, slightly surprised by the sudden engagement. "Yyyyeah, actually." He quickly pulled out his phone and pulled up the browser. "There's this fruit chart online that's supposed to be a direct comparison.... If I can find it...," he mumbled as he scrolled through several images. "I think the size of a lemon? Or a nectarine? Or an.... apple? I dunno, but she's about this big right now." He made a "C" shape with his free hand, trying to mimic the correct size.

The yellow critter's expression was full of intrigue as his eyes bounced from Al/lan's hand to his belly a couple times. "Damn, dude. That's actually really cool," he chuckled, "I can't tell if she's bigger than I thought she'd be or smaller."

A smirk crept it's way across Al/lan face as he playfully scoffed and rolled his eyes in amusement. "Yeah, well, imagine an apple sized water balloon sitting on top of your bladder. Big or small, you notice it."

Long story short, they end up having a good ol' heart to heart; Exchanging the appropriate apologies (For basically attacking each other, kicking each other's asses, amongst other things), acknowledging that they BOTH acted a fool under pressure of having near been involved in a tragedy (Which, let's be honest, valid aF. Who wouldn't be at each other's throats in that kind of situation??), and finally ending with a well needed reconciliation. The emphasis on FRIENDS is so back, baby✨

By the end of it Ch/arlie gives him a (GENTLE) clap on the back of the shoulder. "Proud for ya, brother! I mean that!"

Before long, Ch/arlie also gets into “excited uncle” territory! Juuuuust a bit more chill than P/im’s level of excited of course but I digress lmao

[itsalltoobeautiful]

[ KEEP ]  - staying the night prompts [ whitney // rachel ]

[ KEEP ] sender fell asleep on receiver and when receiver tries to get up, sender whines so they stay put

It was another one of those nights, the nights spent working on stories and only a fraction of the homework they should’ve been focused on. The only homework Whitney was ever genuinely concerned with was English, and most of history anyway; and this time around, with it being any form of math, it got tossed to the side pretty quickly.

Considering the fact that it was a pull-out bed, Rachel’s nest could actually be pretty comfortable- at least to her. She grew to learn quickly that bringing over extra pillows and a blanket could amp up the comfort aspect when they would have writing nights- and Whit happened to bring even another extra pillow for the night. Between them they had three to provide extra cushion, and a big fuzzy blanket in case it got chilly; the girl was always planning ahead, very much a ‘just in case’ person.

Sitting with her legs crossed, she was too caught up in what her now cramping hand was quickly scribbling down to notice that Rachel hadn’t responded for a minute to a question she asked about their plot line; which wasn’t a big deal in of itself, of course- but it did make her quit her writing when she heard the most faint snore coming from her shoulder…

“Hey, we gotta finish…”

A smile grew across her face, looking down to see her best friend huddled against her, head of curly hair lying on her shoulder, absolutely knocked out for the night. She couldn’t help but laugh when after deciding to let him sleep, putting their story aside, he made a little sound of protest—

“I’m sorry, Rach, but my leg is falling asleep… c’mon..” Setting her notebook down beside her, another hushed giggle left her lips as she shifted her weight a bit, now laying down but still propped up a bit against the back cushion- which allowed him to lay a bit more comfortable against her frame. Whitney was wearing one of his many worn-in metal group tshirts and pajama pants, and truthfully, it was the most comfortable she’d been in a long while.

A fond smile kept its glow on her face as she pulled the blanket up over him, making sure he was comfortable and gave the top of his hair a gentle scratch - was it ever so painfully obvious that her love language was physical touch? Perhaps acts of service sprinkled in there? Either way, she thought it was best to let him sleep- it was late. She would continue writing anyway until her eyes fell too heavy, probably somehow also using Rachel as her makeshift pillow.

@heartxshaped-bruises 🖤

[aliensubstance-011]

Part Two!!

Steph's bag thunks as it hits the floor- she flops onto the newer sofa tucked in the corner of Paul's garage with a huff.

The shutter door of the garage clacks rhythmically as Peter pulls it down- Steph's head lolls to the side so she can't see him out of the corner of her eye. Richie and Ruth hop onto the old, tattered sofa across from her- the two have shit-eating grins on their faces as they look between Steph and the empty space next to her. Steph looks at them warningly, and they shrug innocently, almost perfectly in sync.

"Are you three already giving up?!" Pete complains as he turns around- Steph's drum kit lies in a big semi-organised pile next to him.

Steph groans dramatically, kicking her feet up onto the low coffee table. The jug of ice water and glasses that Richie's awkward but very nice uncle had brought them rattle and Steph scoops up a glass. She drinks it quickly, drips of water escaping from her mouth and dripping down her chin- she wipes it with the bank of her hand and turns to Pete.

Pete, who is no longer facing her and is working quite diligently on setting up her drum kit. Quite incorrectly too. Steph stand to help him- and Ruth breaks into giddily giggles, Richie shushing her just as suspiciously.

Steph gives them a flat look which Pete does not see- and vice versa.

Pete and Steph fall into working beside each other quickly and easily- he's a fast learner and is setting up his own half in no time. The silence stretches on. Richie and Ruth watch them work- which is somehow more distracting than if they were talking.

"Soooooo, do we have a band name?" Steph asks, expertly tightening one bolt after another. Richie takes a deep breath- Pete and Ruth burst into unintelligible yelling.

"I just think-" "We are NOT being called 'Ratsica'!" "I wasn't going to say 'Ratsica'-" "OR 'WHY, RATS, WHY?'" "WHY NOT?!" "BECAUSE- I- BECAUSE-"

"Guys." Richie looks at Steph, shaking his head, as Steph snorts in her attempts not to laugh.

"WHAT ABOUT-" "NO! HAVING A NAME IS DUMB BECAUSE NO ONE WILL-" "-RICHIE'S UNCLE!"

Pete lets out a yell in anger, but the impact is dampened by his voice cracking.

"GUYS" Richie leans over and turns the amp tucked next to the sofa up full- the two go silent. Steph does her best to breathe normally as Pete and Ruth look guiltily at Richie- looking more like two kicked puppies than teens.

"I think a band name is a good idea"

"THANK YOU" Ruth yells, waving her arms in the air in success. Richie sighs and reaches for a notebook, flipping through it quickly. He tosses it to her- she swears as she drops it and scrambles to pick it off the floor. The open page is covered in scratched out names and scribbles, certain ones underlines or circled, and Steph takes a few minutes to read through each one.

"What's the votes?" Steph tilts her head "like, who likes what? I could be a tie breaker." She suggests, looking at Pete who smiles softly at her.

"Good idea, Steph" Pete leans over her shoulder to read the notepad- he points out three names, his breath tickling her ear.

"So, I voted for 'Hatchet Town', Richie suggested 'Witchwood worms'," Steph looks at Pete, her face flushing as their noses almost touch. Neither lean away. "He didn't want to vote, and that's all he's suggested." he explains.

"And I voted Ratsica- Ow!" Ruth butts in, Richie's elbow digging into her side shutting her up.

"And Ruth voted Ratsica" Pete rolls his eyes and moves away from Steph, tugging at the sleeves of his sweater. Steph tosses the notebook onto the coffee table with a clatter. She hums, leaning against the wall as she turns each name in her head, her hands idly tapping out a beat on her thighs.

"I'm gonna have to vote for Witchwood Worms"

Ruth cheers.

"Ruth, why are you cheering?" Richie looks at Ruth, eyebrows furrowed in confusion "That's my one"

"I actually wanted Witchwood Worms" Ruth takes a sip of her ice water, spluttering into it when Pete shrieks, "I just wanted to piss Pete off"

Pete gives Ruth the finger and Ruth sticks her tongue out right back at him. Richie laughs, tucking his hands into his armpits as his laugh devolves hiccups. Steph watches the three of them, a small smile on her face.

Band AU - Name minific!

There's a vote going on right now for Band Name suggestions! Please go vote or put in your own suggestions <3

Richie plucks idly on his bass as Ruth and Peter argue. He smiles to himself as he figures out a pretty good melody and jots it down on the notepad next to him.

"We're a band, we need a name!" Ruth waves her arms about, flopping dramatically onto the old sofa Richie is sad on, her legs flopping over the arm. Richie shifts away, wary of hitting her as he plays.

"Ruth, literally no one is going to hear us play, why would we need a name?"

"Except my Uncle." Richie adds unhelpfully, switching up the melody he plays- it sounds vaguely like the opening to 'Hayloft' by Mother Mother.

"Except Richie's Uncle." Peter concedes, leaning back on the box he's sat on that reads 'antique cocks'. There's a smaller note that reads 'Roosters. They're Roosters, Richie' and a small badly drawn penis in response.

"Uh, and your brother!" Ruth argues and Peter snorts doubtfully.

"I'd never let that happen"

Ruth groans dramatically and shoves Richie- he frowns as his tune is messed up and finally looks at Ruth.

"Are you not going to support me, Richie?! This band was your idea!"

"No it wasn't" Peter and Richie say at the same time, Richie slaps the wooden body of his guitar as Pete searches frantically for something wooden- he gives Richie the middle finger silently. Ruth laughs, distracted from the fact that they're technically ganging up on her.

"We could be the-" Ruth swings her legs, feet thumping on the side of the sofa rhythmically as she looks around the room for inspiration- she spots a pile of low-quality horror movies Pete wants to watch "The Haunted Undead!"

Peter makes a vague sound of disgust, crossing his arms.

"I agree with Peter- shit." Richie sighs, throwing his head back as Peter let's out a triumphant 'Hah!'

"That's just a rip off of The Hollywood Undead and has literally nothing related to us! It should be something like...Beyond Hatchetfield or something" Peter suggests.

Richie flips to a new page of his notebook and jots it down.

"My bad idea got you to suggest your own, though" Ruth says smugly "I thought you thought the band didn't need a name"

Peter splutters, trying to come up with a response, eventually giving up and crossing his arms with a huff as Ruth and Richie giggle at him.

The three sit in near silence for a moment (Richie is still riffing on his bass), thinking.

"What about 'The Undead Panic'?" Ruth suggests, and Richie goes to jot it down-

"What is it with you and the undead?" Pete shifts where he's sat and the box groans, "I'm 99.9% sure you can come up with a better idea"

"I'm 99.9% sure you're a dork" Ruth mocks "and also sat on a bunch of cocks" she wiggles her eyebrows and Richie and Peter both complain loudly.

"They're roosters!" Peter says, standing up abruptly, his face flushed.

"That box probably has rats in it too, there's this big hole in the bottom" Richie starts playing the bassline to 'Laughing Makes it Worse' as Pete sits on the arm next to Ruth's legs.

Ruth gasps "Ratsica!" and Richie stops playing. Peter and Richie turn to Ruth who looks over joyed, and starts spouting out various Rat-themed band names "69 Rats! Why, Rats, Why? The Home Rats! They might be fun, Rats!" Ruth cuts herself off, laughing hysterically at herself as she tries to think of more Rat band names.

"Ruth are you okay?" Richie presses the back of his hand against her forehead and her laughter dies down.

She breathes heavily, whispering a small "The Undead Rats"

Peter finally laughs at that one, patting Ruth's knee.

"What about 'The Witchwood Worms?" Richie leans forward to rest his bass on it's metal stand.

Ruth makes a little 'ooooh' sound and Peter nods. Richie jots it down.

Ruth shuffles across so her head is in Richie's lap, and lifts her legs for Peter to sit down. She shoves her socked foot in his face and he pinches the underside of her knee before settling.

"What about Hatchet Town?" Peter suggests, leaning his head on the wall behind the sofa. Richie immediately jots it down- it's catchy.

Richie's uncle, Paul, pops his head into the garage.

"You kids, uh, want any drinks?" He smiles awkwardly, giving a thumbs up at the chorus of 'no, thank you's

"Paul, do you have any suggestions for our ba-" Peter puts his hand over Ruth's mouth, yelling in disgust when she licks his hand and wiping it on his jumper.

"We don't need any name suggestions because there is no band happening here ever." Pete rushes out in one long breath.

Ruth's laugh is muffled into her own hand.

"Oooookay." Paul nods, looking as confused and concerned as ever. "I'll leave you three to it."

The door clicks shut, and Peter flicks Ruth on the nose. She sticks her tongue out at him in return.

"Thinking of a name is actually kind of fun" Richie admits- "even if we don't need one" he placates at Peter's hurt look. Peter rolls his eyes- sighing in the way he does when he knows he's lost an argument. Ruth does a silent fist pump.

The three start brainstorming.

[angostyura]

guitarist!eren x gn!reader drabble (modern + high school au)

cw: soft guitarist eren playing a soft song for you </3

note: this is actually my first attempt at writing and i have no idea what i am doing. also english is not my native language so there are spelling/grammar errors or whatever but who cares

when eren asks you to come to the school’s music room after class, you gladly accept. after all, his band’s next gig is coming soon and he definitely could use some feedback from you. plus he mentions something he’d like to show you, piquing your curiosity.

as soon as your last class is over you head to the music room. immediately after crossing the simple stucco door with an old david bowie poster hanging on it, a smell of sweat and cigarette greets you. is he even allowed to smoke in there? you ask yourself, but your thoughts are cut off by the unmistakable sound of an amp’ being turned on. when you look on your right, you see eren with his headphones on, scribbling on his notebook while softly strumming his guitar. he looks both focused and calm and you don’t dare move. his long hair is pushed back from his forehead, exposing his numerous ear piercings as well as a thin layer of sweat. the band finished their rehearsal about half an hour ago but eren still hasn’t dropped his guitar. running his slim fingers along the frets, he’s been waiting for you. now sitting on top of the amplifier he just turned on, he starts grinning when he sees you, happy that you came. he quickly take off his headphones and motions you to come closer, telling you again that there’s something he wants you to hear. 

you hum and slowly make your way to the couch, expecting to hear another one of his noisy songs from some obscure band no one has ever heard of. but as soon as you hear the first notes, you’re taken aback by the soft melody. the strumming is calm, steady, and eren’s fingers only maneuver on the first strings of his guitar. you've always thought there was something peculiar about the way eren played the guitar. you can’t pinpoint what it is exactly; you just know it draws your attention in a way that has you staring, unable to tear your gaze away from the boy. to be fair you never thought you’d hear something so gentle coming from him. smiling, you take in the way the boy sways his hips every time he strums his guitar, strands of his hair escaping from his messy bun with each movement of his head. eren always looks so happy when he is playing, you think. mesmerized, you don’t even notice it when he stops playing until he collapses on the couch right next to you. he nervously looks at you, waiting for your reaction, leg bouncing in expectation. he is not used to play this kind of music and clearly feels shy about it.

“did you like it?” he asks, scratching his head, and when you say yes, you liked it, eren lets out a deep sigh and smugly crosses his arms, holding his chin high. he is so expectant of praise that you can practically see his tail wagging.

eren always looks so happy when he is playing, but he is even happier when you’re in the room, watching him play for you.

[i-jakeb]

Best apps to kill time on 😻

I've been seeing some posts circulating about popular websites/apps and wanted to make my own version.

These are apps I’m way too addicted to. Am I missing any?

Edit: Sorry for all the time I’ve taken away from your life

Commaful - popular fanfiction, story, and poetry community 👑

Photo Filters - makes my Insta feed look perfect

Spellbinding - super addictive bite-sized stories

Sweatcoin - get paid to walk

Terrarium 🌱 - build the ultimate garden empire

Idle Human - build a human from scratch. for reals.

Palm Reader - get your palm read!

Meditation and Sleep - helps me find happiness and calm!

Choices - get crazy in this role play choose your adventure game!

Fitnesss Coach - your indoor fitness coach, get fit!

Cat Game - cutest cat game ever 😻

Byte - watch the funniest videos on the internet

Weed Factory - grow your weed empire 👿

Idle Construction - build a city!

Tabou: juicy HS stories

Sushi Bar - run your own sushi restaurant and win big

Zooba - zoo battle royale!!!!

BIGO Live - the best live streaming app!

BitLife - a life simulator

Calm - how i deal with my mental health

My Story: go to back to HS in this choose your own adventure

Well - an awesome hypnotherapy app that makes you feel better

Idle Workout -get fit in this virtual workout game!

Draw it - how fast can you draw? So addicting!

Tennis Clash - the best multiplayer game on the app store

Hily - a privacy + safety conscious dating app!

Repair Master 3D - open up some electronics and fix em up!

Perfect Paint - how fast can you paint?

AMAZE - taking mazes to the next level!

Video Editor - an easy video editing app for your phone!

Bake It - bake some masterpiees for your customers!

Yubo - come make friends!

Cold Cases - solve some cold cases!

Go Fish - win trophies by catching hella fish

Golf Orbit - ever play golf on mars?

Basket Throw - just throw the ball into the basket. Easy right?

Gun Gang - build your gang and shoot your way through

Avakin Life - your 3D virtual world

Knock'em All - shoot balls, destroy everything!

Adventure Escape Mysteries - investigate clues and solve the crime!

Drop and Smash - smash it all!!

Bunch - really fun way to play games with friends

Crazy Shopping - spend as much as you can, as fast as you can!

Army Clash - build the biggest army and destroy them all!

Shoot out! - kill the bad guys, save the good guys 🔫

Dental Bling - pull out the rotting teeth

Fam - video parties!

Aquapark - race you down the water slide! (and push you off it!)

Jetpack Jump - fly this addicting jetpack!

Scribble Rider - Draw your wheels in this crazy adventure

2048 Balls - how far can you go in this one?

Ball Blast - upgrade those cannons and shoot some balls!

Smash Cars - race and smash some cars!

Taimi - finally a good lgbtq+ dating app

Wired For Youth - get knowledge and learn from interviews and books

Ultrahuman - a very calming meditation app for sleeping

Flex - work out with friends!!

FitnessAI - your personal home workout trainer

Unfold - make your Insta stories awesome

Flip Jump Stack - flip and stack all the way to the cheer tour!

Run Sausage Run! - Avoid the knives and save the sausage

Bee Factory - build and raise your bee empire!!!!

Draw Joust - draw your own cart and crush the other player!

Sniper - are you a good shot? prove it!!

Rolly Legs - race your robot to victory

Let's Be Cops - you're the only good cop in the city. Can you keep the peace?

Good Slice - slice that food!

Go Fish - win trophies by catching hella fish

AmpMe - amp up your phone speakers!

Betternet - a safe, fast VPN to get around bans!

Demolish! - demolish everything!

ASMR Slicing - the most satisfying slicing game

Paint The Cube - paint through a 3D cube maze

Car Restoration - let's restore some cars!

Curvy Punch 3D - swipe to punch!

Line Color - paint the road!

Flip Tumbling - just keep flipping! Parkour!

Baseball Fury - hit that home run!

Summer Buster - play these summer mini games!

Sharpshooter Blitz - your mission, storm the enemy base

Shred - your personal home workout planner

Spiral Roll - dig wood, make spirals, destroy enemies

Tower Run - grow your tower of humans

Foot Clinic - run a foot clinic to fix all types of feet!

Farmer Hero - run your own ranch! step into the farm land!

Jumpero - can you get through this obstacle course?

Sleepzy - Your sleep cycle tracker

Crash Landing - anyone can fly, but landing takes skill

Farmers.io - harvest as much as you can!

Ball Slider - slide that ball!

Blast City - Be the hero the city needs

Fast Driver - It's a race! Can you win?

Magic Woods - chop those trees!

Five Hoops - shoot hoops with millions!

Super Sniper - be the best sniper you can

Sleep - awesome bedtime stories!

Off The Rails - control the train!

Tie Die - make some awesome shirts, bikinis, and more

Woodturning - create your wood masterpiece!

Crowdmaster - blast those enemies away!

Ramp Car Jumping - do some crazy jumps with some crazy cars!

Stunt Truck Jumping - do some crazy stunts in trucks!

Doodle Run - it's a race!

Overtake - a racing game, can you overtake your foes?!

Acrylic Nails - run a virtual nail salon!

Spark - ran easy mobile camera and video editor

Braindom - figure out who's lying, cheating, and married!

Ramp Car Jumping - drive off a ski jump...in a car

Super Salon - run your own salon!

Bullet Rush - shoot everybody!

Itsme - hang out with your BFFs!!

Idle Slice and Dice - the most satisfying game for cutting all kinds of stuff!

9 Months - a pregnancy simulation!

NERF Epic Pranks - epic nerf battle!

Flipper Dunk - pinball meets basketball!

Ibotta - save money on everything you buy!

Wish - the funnest way to shop!

Wishbone - fun game for comparing stuff like hair, celebs, sports

Sticker Stack - epic stickers for you to send!

Celebs - the app that shows you what celeb you look like

Palm Reader - get your palm read!

Yarn - stories that are seriously creepy af

RemNote - the best freenotetaking site for students and professionals

WeBull - get 2 free stocks valued up to $1k!

Sweatcoin - get paid to walk

Idle Human - build a human from scratch. for reals.

Terrarium - build the ultimate garden empire

Spellbinding - super addictive bite-sized stories

You’re welcome 😉

[soft--dragon]

Rehearsal Mischief

I've got mock exams next week so I won't be able to write for a little bit, but I got this done within a few days for you guys before I have to go study again 💙

I hope you guys enjoy ^^

Word Count: 4,556

Warnings: None

This is a SFW tickle fic, if you don’t like that then don’t read :)

Wilbur strummed his guitar happily, humming the tune to Cause For Concern as his fingers slid into the familiar chord positions. Ash was close by, altering settings on his amp and harmonizing the melody every so often. It was a quiet day in the studio, just Wilbur, Ash and Tommy who was swinging around in his chair slowly. They were waiting for Joe and Mark to turn up to properly rehearse, but they were being delayed another fifteen minutes due to traffic.

"Will," Tommy whined. "I'm so bored."

The humming paused and Ash glanced at the lead singer of Love Joy to see how this would unfold. He’d witnessed the pseudo brothers' antics in action constantly, but almost every interaction started differently but ended the same. He was curious as to how this one would go.

“Then find something to do” came Wilbur’s very unhelpful response making Ash quietly snort.

Tommy tipped back in his chair with a loud groan. “Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiilll-”

A hand clamped over Tommy's mouth to muffle the whine, Wilbur’s exasperated but fond grin sent his way. “Shut the hell up child.”

Tommy made sounds of protest behind his hand, then once realizing he was practically unintelligible, he promptly licked Wilbur’s palm.

“EW!” Wilbur screeched, ripping his hand away, waving it like it had been burned as Ash and Tommy burst into laughter. “YOU GREMLIN-! YOU ABSOLUTE FUCKER-! TOMMY THAT WAS DISGUSTING!”

Tommy grinned evilly, kicking his feet up onto the soundboard of the studio as he giggled. Ash had taken to leaning against the wall to keep himself upright, he was laughing so hard.

Wilbur’s eyes narrowed and he wiped his hand on his trousers. “You are so feral, holy shit.”

Tommy stuck out his tongue with a sly look, waggling his eyebrows. “Shouldn’t have tried to silence me, bitch.”

“Oh yeah?” Wilbur glared then lunged for the boy who rightfully shrieked, tearing his legs down from the bench to hide from Wilbur’s playful attack.

Ash smiled to himself as Tommy’s childish giggles burst through the room, bubbly and adorable and reserved only for his friends. Tommy was batting at Wilbur's hands that kept slipping through his meager defenses to tickle his belly and ribs.

"WIHIHihihil! Nohohohot thihihis!" Tommy squeaked through his laughter.

"Not this? No?" Wilbur scribbled into his sides making him squirm and laugh loudly.

"Ahahahehehey!"

"Squealy thing today aren't you?"

Tommy's cheeks flushed pink and he ducked his head to hide it, blonde hair falling over his face. "Fuhuhuck yohohou!"

Wilbur giggled fondly, pinching at his ribs quickly. "Nawww, someone getting flustered? Getting all embarrassed and giggly? Aren't you just the sweetest-"

"WIHIhihihil! ShuHUHut ihihit!"

Tommy lifted his head in an attempt to glare at his brother but with his wide grin, sparkling eyes and flushed face, he looked more adorable than intimidating. Wilbur outwardly cooed, lifting a hand to scratch at Tommy's collarbone while the other dropped to his stomach. His mischievous grin only widened at the loud squeak and peals of laughter that burst from Tommy at the conflicting spots, squirming down the chair in hopes of escape.

"What on earth did Tommy do this time?"

Wilbur paused, lifting his gaze to the door where his two other band mates were watching fondly. Tommy immediately shoved Wilbur away and hid his face, giggles still slipping free from his lips.

"He licked my hand, I needed to teach him a lesson in messing with older brothers" Wilbur shrugged, ruffling Tommy's hair and approaching his friends and hugging them immediately. "Took you two long enough to get here."

"We told you there was traffic!" Joe argued indignantly but still hugged Wilbur tightly.

"Excuses" Wilbur tutted but his voice was playful. He drew back and spotted what they were both carrying. "Oh, so that's why you took twice as long, coffee run?"

Mark chuckled. "You could say that."

He slipped one of the cups out of the holder and crouched beside Tommy who was still composing himself. "Got you a hot chocolate mate, Wilbur said you liked the ones from this place."

Tommy blinked then smiled shyly, still giggling as he took the offered drink. "Thanks Mark."

His hair was ruffled gently by the drummer. "You're welcome big man, it's great to have you around again."

Tommy's face, that was just coming back to a normal colour, immediately went pink again.

The amps hummed to life as Wilbur attached the cord connected to his guitar, fumbling with the settings before rising and going to the microphone set up in the center of the room.

He loved rehearsing with the boys, excited to sing and share the music they'd created together. But this was the first time he'd performed the new EP in front of Tommy. His anxiety had faded over the last few hours, only to return at full force when they were setting up. What if he forgot the lyrics? An amp blew? They screwed up?

Or worse.

What if Tommy didn't even like the music?

The blonde had been practically bouncing when they finished their drinks and Joe said to set up the studio. He'd been looking forward to this meet up session for weeks. He was the first to hear their new EP, the songs had been carefully crafted over the months and fine tuned to be perfect. And they were! They were really good! Wilbur knew that.

But he couldn't shake the idea of letting Tommy down. The "what if's" kept circling Wilbur's mind like a buzzard over roadkill, swooping in with a new theory of how it could all go wrong.

Luckily, Tommy had always been incredibly intuitive about Wilbur's emotions. Obviously sensing his nerves, he'd yanked Wilbur aside to talk before he walked into the studio. Wilbur had seen the fiercely protective and loving blaze burn in Tommy's eyes multiple times, but it never failed to warm him inside when it was directed towards him.

"Wilbur, you know I adore your music, I adore everything you've done actually, you're really poggers. I've told you that, haven't I? Yeah. Every time when we call- you're so poggers Wilbur, I'm gonna like the music, no- I'm gonna love it. I'm your biggest hype man, remember?"

His words were so sincere, Wilbur had to hug him for almost two minutes, wondering how on earth Tommyinnit managed to make him so damn soft.

Tommy had smiled reassuringly, promising Wilbur it would go fine as he patted his back gently, rubbing his spine a little as well. Wilbur appreciated it. Tommy always gave good hugs.

Tommy was watching from the sound studio, excited eyes skimming over the different instruments and devices. And as much as Wilbur's brain wanted to come up with the ways the session could go wrong, Tommy's enthusiasm was very contagious. Wilbur found himself smiling every time he flicked his eyes over to his little brother who grinned back.

Wilbur clamped the headphones over his ears, plucking each string of his guitar to check the tuning. "We good to go lads?" He asked into the mic.

Ash and Joe, who were in the studio booth checking the audio, raised a thumbs up.

"We're good on the guitar, but your mic isn't the best Wil" Ash said, altering the settings.

Joe hummed in agreement. "Can you make some noise for a moment so we can test it?"

Wilbur opened his mouth to simply sing a note when fingers dug into his sides suddenly. Wilbur jumped with a squeal, arms slamming down.

"AHAey! Whahat!?" Wilbur gripped the offenders wrists, swinging his head around to stare at a smirking Mark in bewilderment.

"How was that lads?" Mark asked, his hands still on the singer's waist, "did you pick that up?"

Joe chuckled, messing with something on the board. "Yes, but it was still quiet, do mind doing it again so I can test the frequency?"

Wilbur spluttered. "Wha- hang on-"

"Course not!" Mark grinned.

His fingers curled into Wilbur's sides again, squeezing the soft skin with precision. Wilbur doubled over with a gasp, laughter bursting free immediately.

"Mahark! Whahat- thihihis ihihisn't nehehecessary!" He yelped, stamping his foot as he squirmed for freedom.

"It is Wil! You wouldn't want Tommy to not hear your lovely voice would you? We gotta make sure the mic is working!"

Oh god. Tommy.

Wilbur risked lifting his head and caught Tommy watching him, a grin on his face. Wilbur flushed pink, ducking his head to hide his warm face but jolted up with a squeal when Mark pinched at his lower ribs.

"Nohohot thehehere! W-Wahahait!" Wilbur pressed himself into Mark's chest, his cackles making his shoulders bounce.

"Mark could you please get him to a higher pitch?"

Ash's amused voice in his headphones made Wilbur squeak, shaking his head in protest but it was useless. Fast squeezes to his hips made Wilbur arch with a shriek, his laughter jumping octaves higher than normal.

"OHOHOho gohohod! NohOHO! Nohoho fuhuHUck- plehEAHAHEse- MAHAHARK!"

Wilbur's knees buckled, unable to stand the tickling any longer. Mark quickly caught the brunette before he could hit the floor. Wilbur giggled hysterically, holding onto Mark's arms that were wrapped around his chest to hold him upright.

Mark chuckled, looking back to the sound booth where the trio of onlookers were watching fondly.

"That good enough? Or do you need me to do a round two?"

Wilbur's giggles picked up again, curling his shoulders in shyly. "Nohoho Mahahark noho- nohohot agahain" He whined.

Joe's laughter bounced in his ears, followed by his voice; "Nah, we got it, thanks Mark."

Wilbur slumped in his friend's embrace, breathy titters still slipping from his lips as he recomposed himself.

"Thahat was mehean" he muttered, squeezing Mark's wrist gently to let him know he wasn't actually mad.

Mark simply giggled, hefting Wilbur to stand again and nudging his arm with his own playfully. "Well at least your voice is warmed up now."

Wilbur kicked him gently in the shins in response, too embarrassed to come up with a witty retort. At least his anxiety had receded from laughing, but Mark didn't need to know that.

The rehearsal went off without a hitch much to Wilbur's relief. At the end, Tommy couldn't contain himself from bursting into the studio just to hug Wilbur. He rambled excitedly, hugging the other band members too and practically bouncing up and down in pure euphoria as he complimented their music and hyped them up.

The members of Lovejoy would be lying if they said their hearts hadn't melted into goo.

Wilbur was bright red as Tommy hung off his arm, grinning up at him and kept saying how "fucking god tier talented" his older brother was. He had to hug Tommy and repeatedly call him adorable nicknames until Tommy was too flustered to speak proper sentences just to get him to stop.

Both of the Crime Boys were terrible with compliments it seemed.

They piled back into the sound booth, discussing lunch ideas but as a group of indecisives, it was not going well.

“Subway is the way to go” Mark argued.

“Nope, not in this building sir, we’re getting pizza” Wilbur shook his head.

“You can’t go wrong with McDonalds!” Tommy waved a hand but Ash grabbed him and stuffed him in a gentle headlock, making the teen burst into laughter and smack at his arm.

"Chinese maybe?" Ash offered while giving the struggling teen in his grip a noogie, grinning at the giggly protests Tommy made.

“How about we do something a little more diverse?” Joe suggested innocently but his eyes were evil. “Maybe follow the example of Wilbur’s favourite animal and go for ants?”

Wilbur whirled around on his second guitarist with a disgusted look. “Don’t you dare speak to me of those monsters, Joseph!”

Joe cackled loudly at Wilbur's enraged gaze, smacking his leg in his mirth. “Every time! Oh, that’s too good!”

Wilbur grumbled, turning his back on Joe as everyone else laughed. “I’m not talking to you, you’ve lost Wilbur talking privileges.”

“That’s a privilege?” Ash mumbled to Tommy who giggled loudly but quickly smothered it with his hand at the look Wilbur gave him.

Joe laughed, prodding Wilbur in his spine. “C’mon Wil, I was just messing with you.”

Wilbur only crossed his arms firmly with a disgruntled noise.

Joe narrowed his eyes and grinned. “Wil~”

The teasy voice made Wilbur’s stomach fizz, curling his posture a little on instinct. Joe chuckled, prodding his back again but aiming for his ribcage. His grin only widened at the sharp intake of air and flinch from the touch.

“Oh Wilbur~” he cooed. “Stop ignoring me now~”

Wilbur shook his head with a defiant huff but a smile was already pulling at his lips despite trying to stay stone cold.

"Wiiiiiil~"

A single finger trailing down his spine made Wilbur shiver, goosebumps rising on his arms. He refused to crack though, remaining steeled and solid. He merely huffed again, blatantly ignoring his friend.

Joe pouted slightly then narrowed his eyes with a smirk. "How long do you think you can hold out Wilbur? I can do this aaaall day you know~"

He shifted his hands to simply graze his fingertips over the sides of Wilbur's ribs, the brunette's arms clamping down over his hands not doing anything to deter him.

He giggled a little. "Oh? Did that tickle a little too much for you Mr Soot? Couldn't help but try and stop me, hmm?"

Wilbur visibly bit his lip to stop himself from replying, but his ears went red much to Joe's delight. "Nawww, is someone getting embarrassed?"

Wilbur balled his hands into fists, trying not to squirm and give his friend the satisfaction of a reaction and maintain his façade of ignoring him. Every tease, every slight scratch, every shape drawn into his back was slowly but very surely chipping away at Wilbur's resolve. It was taking all of his willpower to not burst into giggles-

"Try his neck Joe" Tommy piped up from where he was slumped in Ash's gentle hold, but he was more resting his weight on the bass player's shoulder at this point.

Wilbur's head snapped around to glare at his little brother but his expression crumbled into a wide smile as Joe's fingers skimmed over the back of his neck. He pushed his face into his hands and finally released a stream of flustered giggles.

"And he breaks!" Joe cheered, skittering his nails featherlight over Wilbur's neck, swiping a few stray fingers over his ears and relishing in the squeak from it.

"Yohou're thahe wohorst!" Wilbur cried, his happy titters making his insult very hard to take seriously.

"You love me though" Joe grinned, slipping a hand to skim under his jaw briefly, the other dropping to scratch softly at his lower back.

Wilbur twisted, a squeak bursting free at the sensations. He was torn between running from, and relaxing into the soft tickling. Then a raspberry buzzed into his neck causing him to squeal and arch his back.

He chose running.

Wilbur dove away from Joe, ducking behind Ash who was his last line of defense at this point. He giggled hysterically into the back of his hand and held onto the bass player's jacket like a child would.

"Ahahash hehe's buhullying mehe!" He whined, trying to control the laughter tumbling out of him.

Ash chuckled, dropping his hand into Wilbur's curls. "Not our fault you're so ticklish man."

Wilbur gave a mock offended, albeit flustered gasp, staring up at his friend. "Ash, I trusted you!"

Hours later, the boys were cleaning up the studio as Tommy unhelpfully whined about having to leave later, sitting upside down in one of the chairs because this kid just couldn’t sit properly.

“It’s just so unfair! I want to stay with you Wilbur! Can’t you call my dad saying you’ve kidnapped me? Mark? You’re a good actor right? It could be a team effort!”

Mark snorted, tousling Tommy’s hair in passing. “We are not calling your father for a fake kidnapping Tommy.”

“Awww c’monnn!” Tommy leaned into his hand and put on his best puppy eyes. “Please Mark?”

“Look away Mark” Wilbur piped up from where he was wrapping up a cord. “His puppy eyes are lethal.”

“Speaking from experience?” The drummer gently shoved Tommy’s head away from him and went back to sweeping up the crumbs on the floor.

Wilbur sighed. “Unfortunately.”

Tommy stuck his tongue out at the brunette while batting at the air after Mark’s hand. “I could make you commit war crimes if I wanted to.”

“Yeah right” Wilbur snorted, turning away and putting the cord in a cupboard. “You don’t have me that tightly wrapped your finger.”

Everyone in the room shared a long look. Tommy definitely did.

“Wilbur, come on please?” Tommy sighed, directing his big blue eyes at his brother.

The singer threw up his hands in exasperation. “I said I’m not committing war crimes!”

Tommy burst into laughter. “Noho! No. No, I don’t want you committing war crimes dumbass, I mean kidnapping me.”

Wilbur pinched the skin between his eyes with a huff. “Technically still a crime, and not happening.”

Tommy puffed his cheeks and glared at Wilbur but his eyes held a genuine sadness that Wilbur felt pull at his heartstrings. He really couldn’t say no to that look, Tommy had weaponized it against him.

He gave a long sigh, rolling his eyes. “If,” he held up a finger with a stern look, “if, your parents are okay with it, and you agree to behave yourself, you can-”

He suddenly had an armful of child who was grinning brighter than the sun itself.

“Yes! Yes I’ll behave- I promise!” He nodded rapidly, eyes shining. “I’m gonna call my dad right now! Thank you Wilbur! Thank you so much!”

He was out of the door before Wilbur could even reciprocate the hug. The man stared after him, lips parted before they quirked to smile softly. Damn kid turning him to goo. He turned slowly to return to cleaning and froze.

His three friends were grinning at him, eyes fond and Joe had his phone out.

“You two are adorable,” Ash smiled.

Wilbur flushed, crossing his arms. “Fuck off, all of you. Joe send me whatever photo or video you took. I want them.”

Joe cackled, pocketing his device. “Sure thing big bro Wilbur Soot-”

Wilbur flipped off his friend and went back to cleaning the studio, trying to shove down a smile.

“Tommy’s not wrong though” Mark hummed. “You really are wrapped around his finger.”

Wilbur scoffed, keeping his face turned away from his friends to hide his growing smile. “Yeah right.”

“Kid’s got you right where he wants you” Joe agreed.

“No he doesn't-”

“Wilbur, the kid could probably ask you for anything and you’d give him it.”

“He asked me to commit war crimes, Ash.”

“Okay something a little more within reason then” the bass player waved him off with a smirk. “Point is, the little guy has got you.”

“Tommyinnit has not got me Ash-”

“You’ve been got” Mark hummed, grabbing a dustpan to gather up his sweepings.

"N-No Mark- I have not been got-”

“Nah, mans has been gotten” Joe smirked, nudging Wilbur on passing.

“I-” Wilbur glared, ears tinged red. “I have not been gotten, got or anything like that, I am strong, I will not bend to the will of a child, I am a big maHAN-!”

Wilbur squeaked, twisting away when he felt a sharp prod at his ribs. Mark giggled, wiggling his fingers at the singer.

“What you are is ticklish, Soot” he chuckled. "And I don't think big men who have been got are ticklish~"

Wilbur stuttered out a protest, crossing his arms and backing away from the duo guitarist. “Mark- no- you’ve already tickled me today-”

“Oh right, I have...” Mark hummed.

“But I haven’t!”

Ash’s arms slipped around his waist and his fingers dug into his belly. Wilbur threw his head back with a squeal, jumping slightly but Ash kept him trapped against him.

“Ahahaey! Ahahash!”

“Yes Wil?” Ash grinned then gently pushed Wilbur onto a chair. He scribbled into his ribs quickly, smirking as Wilbur attempted to curl into a ball.

“N-Nohoho! Ahahash! Dohohon’t- whihIHIY?!”

His feet stamped the floor when Ash’s nails skittered over his collarbone and neck, shaking his head as he hiccuped, scrunching his shoulders up.

“Awww, hiding from me Wil? No chance~” Ash then grabbed onto his legs, quickly squeezing the muscle and chuckling at the high squeal that tore from Wilbur’s throat.

"NOHOHohoho!" He howled, "Ahahahash! Ihihi truhuhusted yohohou!"

"Bad luck Wil" Ash grinned, squeezing up and down his knees.

“Fuhuhuck youHOHOHOU!” Wilbur tried to swivel the chair around to avoid Ash’s ticklish touch, giggling like a hyena.

Ash smirked, swinging the chair back around. “No no no, the other two got plenty of time to tickle you! Don’t be rude Wilbur! I want to tickle you too!”

Wilbur shrieked, batting at Ash’s hands that had gone back to squeezing above his knees and up his thighs. “YOHOHOU’RE THAHAHAE WOHOHORST!”

“Rude much?”

“SHUHUHUSH!”

“No, I don’t think I will~” Ash glanced over to the other two who were smirking as they watched. “Care to hold him still boys? Mans is a squirmer.”

Wilbur flinched back with a fit of high pitched giggles, covering his face and shaking his head. He’d already been subjected to Mark and Joe’s tickle attacks, the idea of all three tickling him at once-

His wrists were gripped and hauled over his head much to his alarm, a loud squeak yipping out of him. Mark winked down at him with a snicker, and Joe sat by his feet, gripping his calves tightly to keep them still.

Wilbur gave a flustered whimper, caving in on himself as he broke into fits of nervous laughter. “N-NO! WAHah-wahahit! Guhuhuys! Nohot all ahat once! Thahat’s soho unfahair!”

"Sucks to suck Soft Boy" Mark snickered, scribbling a hand into his armpit.

Wilbur yanked at his hands with a squeal but Mark held firm, keeping his arms raised above his head.

"Hey Joe, hold onto his legs yeah? I'm gonna give these ribs some attention" Ash grinned then promptly started placing fast pinches into his lower set of bones.

Wilbur sucked his stomach in and arched back, trying to evade the quick fingers on his ribs as he cackled loudly. Mark cooed, scratching from his forearm down to his upper ribs, spidering over his armpit before trailing up to his elbow to repeat the process. His mind couldn't focus on anything but the sensations on his upper body, he couldn't even kick, squirming limited to twisting his torso in the chair.

'At least it can't get any worse than this,' he thought as he laughed so hard his whole body was shaking.

And then Joe squeezed relentlessly at his knees.

Wilbur screeched, thrashing on the chair but unable to find relief from the tickling plaguing his system. The overwhelming tingles sparked and fizzed throughout his body, his laughter squeaking when a bad spot was attacked. It was when Ash had simultaneously started pinching his upper ribs and lower ribs randomly that he started bucking his hips in desperation.

"Wowzers Wilbur, I knew you were part bull because of all the bullshit you say, but bucking is a new feature!" Ash joked, scratching up and down his ribcage with alternating patterns to keep him guessing.

Wilbur had tears pricking his eyes as he laughed hysterically, wishing he could at least hide his face from his attackers.

"It wasn't that funny Wilbur c'mon" Mark grinned, scuttling his nails into his sensitive pits and giggling at the hiccupping protests he got from the action.

"Yeah, your sense of humor is scuffed if you thought that was peak comedy mate" Joe tutted, scribbling underneath Wilbur's knees just to hear him scream like he always did at the feeling.

Wilbur scuffled his shoes on the floor before going limp as he was very quickly reaching his limit. "PLEHEHEASE! IHIHIHIT'S SOHOHO BAHAHAD! GUHUHUYS!"

Ash grinned but thankfully caught his wheezy laughter and drew back, cueing the other two to stop as well. Wilbur's limbs were released, immediately curling in to protect his torso from any further tickle attacks.

"Yohou guhuys ahare soho fuhuhucking unfahahair, hoholy shihit," he whined through his giggles. "I prahay for all yohour downfahalls."

"You could use those as song lyrics" Joe snorted.

Wilbur shoved at his head, glaring but his smile was genuine as he calmed down, rubbing at his stomach to relieve the last of the tingles. Mark's hands dropped onto his shoulders to massage the knots, his pressure light but firm enough to give the desired effect. Wilbur melted into the feeling with a content hum laced with lingering titters. It took almost another two minutes before Wilbur was breathing normally again. He made a mental note to never start a tickle fight with these guys if he wasn't sure he could win. They were all tickle monsters dressed in cozy jumpers and dress pants.

Actually speaking of which..

Wilbur flicked his eyes over the trio of band members, sitting up a bit further and swiveling his chair to be able to look at them at the same time. A moment passed before he broke the silence.

"Okay what is going on with you three?" Wilbur asked. The question had been weighing in the back of his mind for a while. "I get it, I'm ticklish and you enjoy torturing me, but you've been doing this all day. What's going on?"

His band mates shared a look before bursting into laughter. Wilbur blinked at them in bemusement as Mark had to rest his hands on his knees to stay on his feet. The other two weren't better off as they wheezed loudly.

"What?" Wilbur stared, lips lifting a little at their laughter despite his confusion. "What is it?"

"Your back man" Joe coughed an explanation through his tumbling laughter.

The singer blinked. "My…back?"

Wilbur reached an arm behind him and felt something thin and soft brush his fingertips. He managed to snag the end and pull it off, bringing the item in front of him. It was a sticky note.

"I don't understand" he lifted his gaze to the other three who were managing to somewhat compose themselves.

"Other side" Ash grinned, wiping a tear from his eye.

Wilbur raised a brow and flipped the paper over. His stomach dropped and his eyes widened at the words.

Tickle me!! I'm an anxious crime boy and I need to laugh! :D

Wilbur's face was red, he knew it was, and not just from the soft coos from his friends commenting on it.

"W-When- when-" he stuttered and tripped over the word.

"Almost all day man" Mark spluttered through his giggles. "Someone decided to stick it to you when you were worried about rehearsing this morning."

Mark had barely finished his sentence before Wilbur leapt up from the chair and bolted through the door, hollering at the top of his lungs.

"TOMMYINNIT YOU ARE A DEADMAN!"

The remaining members of Lovejoy really did fall to the floor in laughter as they heard the muffled, shrill scream followed by hysteric cackling from a teenager who was most certainly going to pay for his harmless prank.

[jellyfishloveletterghosts]

okay, one more thing and then I'm done probably maybe. I dunno. I'm still very tempted.

Steve and Eddie end up chatting through the night. Steve trying to get down to who the artist is and Eddie teasing the information but never giving it up.

It’s a good time, Eddie hasn’t had such an attractive reporter come looking for him in a long time. Why else would Steve be looking for the bat.

As much as Eddie enjoys the game and Steve’s company over all at the end of the night he doesn’t ask for Steve’s number or anything, he doesn’t fuck with reporters to much risk they’ll snoop. He packs him up in a cab after he’s paid his tab and sends him home.

Eddie feel light and amped up, as he walks back in to see the staff cleaning. Wayne is staring at something, a serious air about him as he waves Eddie over. Before Eddie can ask what’s up Wayne slides a credit card slip across to him. Eddie frowns looking over the  numbers for anything unusual.

Mouth dropping open when he gets to the signature, ripping his pants open to double check his hip. Finger tracing the chicken scratch signature that inspired his bat, a perfect match for the one scribbled on the recite.

He’s losing his shit internally.

His soulmate found him and then Eddie went and sent him away without so much as crumb to find him by. Fuck!

Now it’s Eddie’s turn to play detective.

Some more thoughts Based on this post where you have your soulmates signature and Steve is a bat by @strangersatellites

I'm putting them in a new post so I don't derail it. I hope to I see several take on the initial concept. It's so fun.

Nancy and Jonathan he knows from back home they moved out here before him and have jobs at the paper. Are they are romantically involved or just friends now 🤷‍♀️ either way they work well together.

And they help Steve in his search. Jonathan knows where most of the murals in the city are and Nancy gives him some tips on getting people to give him information and a list of questions to help him along.

Benny has a deli across from one of them. He won't give up much, things good for business draws a crowd and if Eddie just happens to a regular who always tips good well why would he sell him out. Still he does offer Steve a sandwich and a list of a few murals that are lesser known in the city.

Heather works in the shop across from on and is annoyed in the uptick of customers. They're cutting into her down time. She didn't see anything anyway and she tells Steve he's wasting his time. The Bat is a ghost no one ever seen him. Or so she says.

Steve still has to work so there are days when he makes no progress, gets nowhere on finding his soul mate. Spends sleepless night tracing the bat on his hip and looking at the picture Jonathan gave him hoping somewhere in the is a clue.

So on and so forth skipping ahead.

Then the Robin thing I initially brought up

I can see a Steve running around the city type of thing happening because of this. He’s turning into a real detective, asking about all the murals, folks who live in the area. Steve meeting other characters from Stranger Things as he moves closer to his goal of finding his soulmate. He’s checked every single one he knows of is commiserating at the bar by the latest one. Robin is a bartender, mostly waving off his search until he waxes on about his soulmate and how talented they are. Steve isn’t the usual sort looking for Eddie so she slips him the address for another bar, one that play live music, has art all over, tells him to check it out. CC is of course play in front of the biggest mural Steve’s seen from his soul mate yet.

Steve wants to memorize every aspect of the mural, wants to take in every detail but it's hard with a band playing right in front of it. Harder still when his eyes catch on the lead singer and can look away. Mesmerized for an entire set.

He doesn't even realize he's just been sitting there watching until the band leaves for a break. Then he's turning to the bartender, an older man in flannel, asking about the mural. Wayne chuckles, "you'll have to ask the owner about that but he doesn't usually talk about it."

Steve's a little tipsy form earlier as he accepts the beer Wayne slides to him like a condolence. Sulky over one more obstacle standing between him and his person. "Could you ask him anyhow, please?" Wayne looks him over takes in his downtrodden face and the begging tone of his voice before giving a nod.

Steve’s not very hopeful by the time Wayne slides another beer to him either a shrug. He stays for the band and hopes that maybe if he's persistent he'll get the information. Nancy always insists sleuthing takes persistence.

He's mesmerized all over again and feels like dark eyes are boring into him, like this one's just for him. Which is silly, he's drunk and he's never heard this band, much less met the man singing. No way would he be singling him out, just a trick of the lights and the third beer he ordered.

When the singer climbs down from the stage he trips over a light playing it off as a bow. But what stands out to Steve is dark eyes still hooked on him as Eddie dances through the crowd signing autographs and giving hugs.

Steve turns away, it's a lot, too much and he's still ninety percent sure he's imagining it. All up until there's a sweaty musician's chest brushing against his arm as Eddie leans on the bar next to him, "so I hear you've been asking about our favorite artist."

I dunno I'm sorely tempted to write it write it but I've got so many wips already so I jsut wanted to get out some thought because I found the concept so inspired.

[muselin]

See You Later - Part 1

Who: Beomgyu

Group: TXT

What: Beomgyu/f!reader, collegeAU, slow burn, eventual smut, college student!Gyu, model!Gyu

Word count: 2,238

A/N: this is for @bluekais ❤ Hope you enjoy! Sorry that it's taken so long! There will be a Part 2 coming but I got myself elbows-deep into Kinktober so might take a while as well 🎃

____________________________________

"Tch."

The dissatisfied noise leaving your lips had become habit by now. Just his presence annoyed you, but the fact that he had the nerve to show up late to class almost every time, carrying that stupid skateboard, made your blood boil a little bit. He never studied, never did the assignments, always showed up late and he was still somehow passing this class. This class that you had worked so hard to get into and had to keep working so hard to stay in. It didn't come naturally to you but it did to him and it made you green with envy.

"Ah, Beomgyu-ssi, how kind of you to join us," your professor quipped sarcastically as Beomgyu beamed a smile that was frustratingly charming and headed for the only empty space in the auditorium which, to your displeasure, happened to be next to you.

You didn't acknowledge each other as you continued scribbling furiously into your notebook while Beomgyu sat with his chin leaned on his hand. You noticed that he hadn't taken out anything to write with.

"Now I will hand out your assignments for the next lecture. Remember we have study week, so you will have one week to complete these. Please remain in your seats as you are now."

Your professor proceeded to hand out stacks of papers and you couldn't help noticing that he was handing only one stack for every two students. He was making his way down your row and dropped off an assignment right between you and Beomgyu.

"I can hold it for us," Beomgyu smiled pleasantly as he looked over to you, seemingly unaffected by your sour expression. As the two of you read the instructions for the music production assignment, Beomgyu would stop and mutter to himself every once in a while: "Hmm, I already have a bass guitar for this," "This would be very easy to add a snare to," "I just need vocals and someone to match the drum line to this".

"Alright, everyone ready?" The auditorium hummed with mumbled "yes"es.

"Good," your professor continued, "you will be doing the assignment in pairs, in the order that I've handed the assignments out to you".

You groaned inwardly, noticing yours and Beomgyu's names at the bottom right corner of the cover page.

"Class dismissed!"

You were unsure what to do. You'd have to spend quite a lot of time with Beomgyu to finish this but you didn't have his number and you didn't even know which dorm he was in. Before you could open your mouth to ask Beomgyu when you should meet up, he was getting up and slinging his backpack over his shoulder.

"See you later, Y/N," his voice laced with his regional dialect reached you as an afterthought.

"Tch. Fuck you too, Choi," you muttered.

___________________

It had been four days since you last saw Beomgyu and you were getting nervous. You had started the assignment early and done as much as you could do. You hated to admit it but you really did need him for this. You had worked out a base melody but it was too bare and uninteresting and you knew from hearing him talk to himself that he knew a lot of elements which could add flare and points to the assignment. You hunched over your laptop, browsing the music library. Begrudgingly, at 10 p.m. on a Tuesday, you decided to email him through the university central email list.

### 22:01 ###  Hi Beomgyu, it's Y/N, your partner for the music production assignment. I've thrown some things together but we need to meet to do the rest. I realised I didn't have your number or your dorm address, let me know when we can meet up. ###

You waited for a while after pressing send, just in case he was on his emails right now. At midnight you gave up and went to sleep.

### 03:44 ### Hi! Sorry about that! Can you bring what you have over to mine at about noon tomorrow? Here's the postcode ###

You woke up to the reply from Beomgyu and nearly panicked that you would be late. He didn't live close by at all, the post code seemed to be for a swanky area of newly built apartments downtown, miles away from your suburban campus.

You showered and dressed as quickly as possible. You weren't dressing up for anyone. Jeans, sneakers and a flannel shirt was all Beomgyu was getting from you. You grabbed your laptop and equipment and headed out the door.

________________

At 11:55, you knocked on Beomgyu's door. He lived on the 13th floor and on the elevator up to his apartment you hoped to whoever would listen that this wouldn't turn out to be as unlucky as the out-of-order sign on the second elevator.

The front door clicked and opened to reveal a somewhat sleepy Beomgyu, dressed in a tshirt and pyjama bottoms.

"Oh, Y/N, you're early," he said, then looked at his watch. You found this ironic, considering he never showed up to class on time.

"Well, not by much. Can I come in?"

"Sure," he said, opening the front door widely for you to walk in past him. "I'll make coffee," he yawned.

As you walked past him you couldn't help but note in your head that he smelled really good. You weren't sure if it was his cologne or laundry but it was the kind that settled pleasantly in your chest and made you want to breathe in deeper. You stopped that train of thought harshly as soon as you felt your mind drift that way. You were perfectly happy with feeling generally mildly annoyed with Beomgyu. It was your comfort zone, even if having to work with him was pushing it.

"So how come you don't live on camp-- Wow..."

Your jaw dropped as you walked into the apartment. It was nothing like the cramped dorm rooms you and your friends shared on campus. It was bright, spacious and well-decorated, with huge windows and a view that rivaled the best hotels in the business district.

"How the fuck are you affording this," the words tumbled out of you with little grace before you could stop them.

"Well, since you ask, I work a lot of side jobs," Beomgyu said nonchalantly as he poured water into the kettle in the open-plan kitchen.

"Really? What do you do?"

"Uhm...," he scratched his neck sheepishly, "at the moment I model."

"You? You model?"

"Yeah, why," he tilted his head at you, looking at you quizzically.

Those big brown eyes, the soft curves of his lips, his chiseled jawline... And his hair looked really soft too. Suddenly from thinking nothing of him you were imagining him as a model. You wondered what he modeled for. Could it be fashion brands? Lifestyle? Prints? Maybe even swimsuits? He always wore those baggy jeans and t-shirts, but maybe...

"Y/N?"

"Oh," you snapped back to him, realising you hadn't answered him. "Yeah I just... didn't know, that's all."

"Uhm, cool. Why don't you drop your stuff off in the room down the hall, the one on the left?"

You nodded and picked up your laptop bag and equipment, your feet sinking into the plush carpet as you padded down the hall. You nudged open the door to the room he'd pointed you to, jaw dropping again for the second time today as you walked in.

The room was a small makeshift studio, with mics, a sound control board and several guitars. Several notepads were strewn about along with a few used coffee mugs and muffin wrappers. It seemed to be the most lived-in space of Beomgyu's house so far and you were suddenly starting to understand why he never seemed to pay much attention to the classes. You dropped your bags off in the corner and sat down at his computer, looking at the various pieces of equipment connected to it.

"How do you like your coffee?"

You nearly jumped out of your skin when you heard Beomgyu's pleasant voice reverberate in the room. You hadn't heard him come in after you. Covering up your startled reaction, you mumbled your preference and he returned shortly with two steaming mugs, setting them down on his desk.

"Um, so... For this assignment I've tried layering the melodies but it's very bare. I thought we could use it as a starting point and build on it," you said, trying to sound more businesslike.

"That's good, thanks. I actually don't have a lot of time so a head start would be good. I have an hour now but then I need to head out."

Your brow furrowed. An hour? It had taken you three days to put together what you had so far.

"Let's see what you've got," Beomgyu reached for the USB stick in your hands and plugged it into his computer. He downloaded the files and ran them.

An unobtrusive melody filled the small studio. He listened politely, head tilted to one side until it faded out.

"Um... Yeah, I don't play guitar so I wasn't sure what would sound good with that," you started, hands playing with the edges of your shirt nervously. You hated feeling incompetent, especially in front of Beomgyu.

"Yeah, no offence, but it does need a lot more than that," he said. "Let's see what I can do with that."

You sat in your chair and watched him plug one of his guitars into the amp behind you. He tuned it according to the scales in your melody and started to play along.

"Nana naaa," he hummed along quietly. "I don't know about that bar, what do you think," he asked you.

"It's not bad but I think it can go for longer," you replied. Beomgyu nodded, stopping the recording and starting again.

You watched him get lost in his own world as the notes coming from his guitar breathed life into your melody. You watched his fingers strum and pluck, watched his lips open and close in concentration, occasionally the lower one being worried by his teeth. You watched his long hair fall into his face. You simply watched Beomgyu in his zone, not noticing when he stopped playing.

"Y/N?"

Your eyes focused and met his deep brown ones, your lips tensing as you tried to seem attentive.

"Yeah? Yeah, that was good, let's add that in," you spoke quickly.

"Cool," Beomgyu then stood up and reached behind you to switch off the amp. You couldn't stop yourself from breathing in again when his chest and neck nearly brushed across your face. His warm hand dropped to your shoulder, giving you a casual pat.

"Why don't you sit at the computer and keep replaying the recoding while I write down the chords," he suggested.

"Okay, sure," you stood up in the cramped space and there was barely room for you two to switch places. Beomgyu's hands instinctively came up to your waist to steady you as he brushed past you. Your breath hitched but you said nothing as you sat down at his desk and started the recording.

Your combined melody filled the small room and you found yourself nodding along. You hated to admit it but you liked it much more with Beomgyu's additions. You played it several times while he wrote down the chords.

"Right, awesome," he drawled in his dialect after he was finished. "I have to get dressed and head out now, but if you want we can meet up again later today. I won't be done until quite late but I sleep late anyway."

"How late are we talking," you asked suspiciously.

"I would be done about 11, we could meet back here," Beomgyu offered.

You hesitated for a second. It was a lot later than what you considered acceptable but at the same time you didn't trust Beomgyu. You weren't sure you would get any more time out of him than this.

"Okay, deal. Message me when you're done and I'll head over."

"Cool, here's my number," Beomgyu grabbed your phone to type his own number in and called himself. "You okay to let yourself out?"

He left the studio and went into the room across, which you guessed was probably his bedroom. You copied the new files onto your USB before you packed up your things and left the studio as well. On the way you saw that Beomgyu's bedroom door was ajar. You saw him standing with his back to the door as he was pulling his t-shirt over his head. Your lips tensed into a line as you tried to not to make any noise and not even to breathe.

"Yeah, I'm good."

"See you later, Y/N."

You stood frozen in place as your eyes traced the lines of his back muscles to his pretty shoulders, not missing his toned arms flexing as he reached up to push the t-shirt over his head. Your gaze trailed back down his body to his hips where his bottoms were slung low, exposing the two cute dimples at his lower back. He didn't look like he was wearing anything underneath.

Beomgyu dropped his shirt to the floor and you suddenly darted down the corridor, panicked that he would turn around and see you. His bottoms dropped down just as he heard his front door open and shut.

[happyocelot]

Just Shut Up and Come with Me

@secrettastemakerland, this one’s for you.

Written for Day 9: Misunderstandings!

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/35441995/chapters/88757515

FFNet: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13998133/9/Sunny-Days

Just shut up and come with me.

The words buzzed in her ears like bees. Naruto's face swam in the blurry field of her vision in a haze of blonde and tan and bright, sparkling blue.

No way...no way...out of the blue.

Blonde and tan gave way to black.

***

"Just shut up and come with me," Naruto's teammate monotoned to Hinata, a blank, curious smile on his pale, pale face. He was holding a book in his hands, but Hinata wasn't able to read the cover at this angle.

So she opted for staring at him blankly. She had heard of this...Sai, a former Anbu operative around her age, and she knew that Anbu tended to be strange (Kakashi-sensei being a prime example), having to regularly undertake dangerous, top-secret missions for the good of the village.

She did not know that they randomly marched up to people and started reciting lines from books.

"Naruto told me that you were his friend, and that he greeted you this way the last time he saw you and that you fell ill," Sai explained bizarrely. "So I wondered if it would be acceptable for me to greet you this way too, Hinata-san."

He held up the book, showing off an inky page of handwritten notes, saying things like

- note to self: calling Sakura ugly did not provoke a pleasant response

- should I tell someone that he has an asymmetric face(?)

- how to slurp noodles loud enough in public

- Naruto says he asked his friend to shut up and go with him (add to list of socially acceptable greetings or not?)

Hinata took a few steps backward.

"Would you like to have some tea with me?" Sai asked, getting the wrong idea entirely. "I have heard that it's easy to make friends over a cup of tea."

***

As it turned out, Sai was actually somewhat pleasant company. Sure, he was deeply, deeply socially awkward, but Hinata didn't have a hair-trigger temper like some other people, having endured far worse than whatever tips he'd written in his book, and Sai, surprisingly, didn't press too many of her buttons.

"You have very interesting eyes," Sai commented, smiling eerily.

"Um...thank you, Sai-kun." Hinata did not know what he meant by interesting, and she decided that she didn't need to know. "Your drawings are...nice."

His style was cartoonish, with stylized animals and humans and natural phenomena, and oddly enough, Sai was holding hands with his new teammates in a recent one, smiling a simple, happy, watercolor smile.

Sai smiled again, a real smile, one that turned up his cheeks and crinkled up his eyes.

Maybe...maybe...Sai wasn't so bad, Hinata decided. People who had nice smiles like that – people like Naruto – couldn't be too bad.

She was wrong.

***

Naruto was glowering at Sai, a silly, pouting glower that made him look about five years old.

Hinata had no idea why. Sai was just trying socially acceptable greetings with her over here in the training grounds, where no one else could hear and be confused or enraged. And Naruto, for whatever reason, had insisted on accompanying them.

But it still made her struggle to bite back an amused smile. Naruto was approximately as threatening as an angry kitten when he made faces like that.

"It is an incredible pleasure to meet you," Sai recited.

"You can just say "it's a pleasure," Sai-kun," Hinata said. "There's no need to add incredible."

"I see." Sai scribbled and scratched something down in his notebook, then turned back to her with another real smile.

This made Naruto amp up his death stare.

Hinata shot him a puzzled look, but continued. "All right, moving on. How about your next greeting?"

"Hello...Interesting," Sai monotoned again.

Naruto growled. "Sai...if you mean what I think you mean – "

Not this again.

Hinata sighed, blanketing a rare flash of chagrin in a kind smile. "Sai-kun, you don't have to give nicknames to every single person you meet. Just say hello. That will be fine."

"Ah..." Sai blinked quizzically at his notebook, X-ing out the offending advice. "Thank you very much, Hinata-san. You're a much better teacher than – "

She gave him a cool look, anticipating (and not wanting to hear) whatever nickname he'd given Naruto.

Sai shut up immediately. "You're a good teacher," he repeated.

Naruto had stopped glaring and growling. Now he was squinting suspiciously at Sai.

"Shall we move on?" Hinata prodded.

"Of course. This time, I'll use a greeting that I know for sure is socially acceptable." His smile was gone, to be replaced with a stare of intense concentration.

Foreboding dripped down Hinata's spine.

"Hinata, just shut up and come with me!" Sai yelled in what was clearly the loudest voice he could muster.

In the split second before Hinata blinked, a blur of black and tan collided with Sai's face, sending him sprawling on his back.

"Sai, you moron, she doesn't like you that way!" Naruto bellowed, nursing a bruised fist and still looking like a very, very angry kitten.

"But it's in my list of socially acceptable greetings," Sai protested, holding up his notebook. "In my book – "

"You and your book! You need to read the air! You can't just shout stuff out of the blue like that!" Naruto was rolling up his sleeves, and Hinata felt the oddest sense of deja vu. "Hinata's a really nice and shy person, ya know that? If you say things like that, she'll assume that you're coming on to her!"

"What?" Sai stared at Naruto, mystified. "So Hinata-san is your girlfriend?"

All the blood in her body ascended upwards.

So Hinata-san is your girlfriend?

So Hinata-san is your girlfriend?

So Hinata-san is your girlfriend?

The words seemed increasingly blurred and distorted the more they rattled around in her ears.

Hinata distracted herself by gazing up at the blue, blue sky.

This was a big mistake. The world pitched forward again, and she found herself glancing at the sun before everything went black.

"Gah, you're impossible! That's not what I meant! You just can't – Hinata, are you okay? Hinata!"

[taetaespeaches]

“I find you absolutely fascinating.”

namjoon x reader (oc) genre: fluff word count: 2.2K

a/n: Lovelies! Namjoon and Daisy/reader are being cute and soft and in love again :(( I mean at this point you probably know the drill. These two are about to take a big step and thinking back on how they started... they deserve this! I hope you all enjoy, and thank you for reading! :))

Strolling through the museum halls, you found it quite difficult to focus on the masterpieces surrounding you as you watched Namjoon stand in front of a colorful contemporary painting. Inspecting the piece, he leaned closer to it, his gaze bouncing from feature to feature within the work.

Nodding to himself, he put his pen to his notebook, jotting down a thought. You couldn’t help but grin at the way he absorbed knowledge, every piece of art intriguing him and inspiring him. It was something you truly loved about him.

Looking up from the paper, he slowly dragged his eyes from the piece to you, his orbs meeting yours as he noticed your smile. A bashful grin overtook his features, his dimples appearing as he stepped closer to you.

“Are you amused?” He asked, you nodding.

“Always by you,” you beamed. “I find you absolutely fascinating,” you confessed, amping up the cheesy tone of your voice to emphasize your playful teasing, though the words were genuine.

Shaking his head as he let out a breathy chuckle, he draped his arm around your lower back. Pushing his lips to your forehead, he snickered against your skin.

“Are you ready to go?” He asked, just before leaving a sweet peck to your temple.

“If you are,” you told him, Namjoon nodding his head. As he started leading you down the hall toward the exit, you halted, the man looking at you curiously. “Dimples, what do you think of this one?” You pointed to a painting, Namjoon’s head darting to the piece.

Humming in thought, he squinted at the painting. “I like the palette,” he nodded. “The colors are cool in tone, it’s interesting,” he continued, his eyes drifting back to you as you stared at the piece intently, feigning a serious expression. A smirk curved up on Namjoon’s lips as he watched you pretend to critique the piece. “What are you doing?” He chuckled, you fighting to hold back your grin.

“It’s phallic, is it not?” You asked, Namjoon’s eyes widening as he cocked his head, looking back to the painting.

“What?” He asked in shock. “Is it?” He questioned further, holding back a laugh.

“Yeah,” you held your hand out, dragging your finger in the air to draw the shape you were seeing. “Like that, see?” You asked, turning your head toward Namjoon.

“Fucking hell,” he chuckled, squeezing his eyes shut as he lowered his head, trying to hide his amusement.

“Jot that down,” you nodded to his journal with a smirk, Namjoon taking a deep breath as you began walking away from him. As you left down the hall, your boyfriend watched you go, shaking his head in utter amusement and fondness, a massive dimply smile spread across his face.

Crowds of people surrounded you as you walked down the busy Seoul sidewalk, your hand intertwined with Namjoon’s. After about thirty minutes of walking, and finding yourselves at Olympic Park, Namjoon bumped his shoulder against yours. “Are you hungry?” he asked, looking to your face to see you smirk.

“Starving,” you giggled, Namjoon chuckling as he nodded.

“Good, come with me, babe,” he said mysteriously as you led you further into the park, your confusion growing.

“Are we getting something delivered?” You asked him, the man simply smiling.

“Something like that,” he said, giving you no further hints, you huffing though you couldn’t hold back your grin.

You walked for a few more minute, watching other couples stroll the park, people play with their dogs, parents as they watched their kids run around, until your eyes landed on a couple across the field who looked quite familiar.

“Wait is that Jin?” You asked your boyfriend, pointing at the recognizable man and his fiancé.

“Ah,” Namjoon simply said, changing the direction of his walking to get to his friend. “I almost walked right past you guys,” your boyfriend called out to them, Jin lifting his arms into the air.

“I thought you already did, you took forever,” Jin complained, you looking between the three people completely lost.

“What is going on?” You asked, just before giving the girl a hug, not missing the way she randomly held your face between your hands as she beamed at you, though you chose to ignore it for the time being as you simply giggled at her. Namjoon smiled shyly at you just as you followed his gaze to the picnic setup in the field and slowly realized what was happening. “Wait is this for us?” You asked in surprise. “A picnic?”

“Yeah,” Namjoon chuckled. “These two set it up for us. And cooked everything,” he explained, you looking to the couple with widened eyes.

“Oh my god, guys, that’s so sweet, thank you,” you expressed your gratitude, Jin brushing you off with a wave of his hand.

“It’s all Namjoon’s idea, he just needed some help with the execution,” Jin explained as your lips spread into a warm smile, your eyes glued to Namjoon as he ducked his head slightly, the man bashful under the attention.

The couple didn’t stay long, leaving you and Namjoon to enjoy your picnic alone, however your friend kept looking back at you both as she walked away with Jin.

“They were acting weird, don’t you think?” You pointed out to Namjoon as you both sat on the cute little picnic blanket.

“I don’t know, they seemed about normal,” Namjoon countered as he opened Jin’s old picnic basket.

“No seriously, look, she keeps looking back at us,” you nodded to the couple, your boyfriend looking after them with a small chuckle.

“She’s always strange though, is that really any different to how she normally acts?” He reminded you of your friend’s sometimes weird behaviors. Giggling, you nodded.

“Ok, kind of true,” you confirmed. “And I’m letting you dissing my friend’s eccentricity slide for now since you planned this adorable picnic” you teasingly added as you watched Namjoon lift a bottle of champagne from the basket. “Ooh, fancy,” you smirked, Namjoon’s dimples on display as he dug further inside the basket, setting different food containers onto the blanket. “Jesus, it’s a feast.”

“You said you were starving,” he pointed out, you giggling as you reached forward and opened a container of fruit. Bringing a berry to your lips, you watched the man as he uncorked the bottle of champagne. His face was full of concentration as he twisted the metal cage that held the cork in place. Dropping the wire on the blanket, he pushed up on the cork, both of you flinching at the sound of the pop, the cork being sent a few feet away and landing in the grass. “Oh, shit,” Namjoon mumbled as he set the bottle down, nearly knocking it over as he hurried after the cork, you having to catch it before it spilled all over your picnic set up.

Chuckling to yourself, you looked toward the man as he adorably made his way back, holding the object out toward you with a goofy grin on his face. There were several moments, nearly constant actually, where you looked at Namjoon and remembered all over again just why you wanted to spend your life with him. And as he sat back down, less than gracefully, dropping the cork on the blanket proudly, you found yourself in yet another one of those moments. What a blessing it would be to spend forever with this man.

As you enjoyed the meal your good friends put together for you, all you could think about was how unbelievably lucky you were in this lifetime to have found Namjoon. And how privileged you were to be on the receiving end of his love, along with his forgiveness. The man could have given up on you early on in your relationship, leaving you behind when you gave him nothing but insecurity and inconsistency. But he stayed by your side, showing you the care and patience that you’d never been given before him. He was a treasure, and he was yours.

The sun was setting over the city, casting Namjoon in a heavenly golden glow. Staring at him fondly, you wondered if he understood how beautiful he was; how beautiful you found him to be.

“You’re gorgeous,” he suddenly interrupted your thoughts, your jaw dropping slightly as he stole the compliment you were just about to give him.

“I was just thinking the same thing about you,” you grinned, Namjoon letting out a breathy chuckle. “You really are gorgeous, Dimples,” you appreciated him sincerely. “I never tire of looking at you, or talking to you, sitting with you in silence,” you shared, Namjoon’s eyes softening as he stared at your face. “You really are the most fascinating thing I’ve ever come across,” you whispered.

Namjoon’s adam’s apple bobbed against his throat as he swallowed nervously, a warm smile overtaking his features. “I have something for you,” he announced, digging inside his bag. Watching him curiously, your eyes fell upon the envelope he pulled out. Presenting it to you bashfully, you beamed.

“What’s this?” You asked as you took it, reading your name that was written across the front of the envelope. Carefully, you opened it, pulling out a folded piece of paper. You weren’t sure what the contents of the letter would be, but you had a feeling this was going to be a major moment for you and Namjoon. Opening it carefully and slowly, your eyes scanned the words across the page, mostly scribblings with crossed out words. But the first sentence told you exactly what you were looking at.

Etched in hangul were the words person and love. And below that, You make live to a love, was written in English.

Your heart raced as you realized this was the draft he started with when writing his song Trivia: Love.

Other single lines were scratched across the page such as, What if I go? If I go, would you be sad? And You’re my person, my desire, my pride, my love, my one and only love.

You could feel tears pricking your eyes as you read over the paper, the sentiment of the lyrics hitting you all over again; the love and vulnerability and purpose he revealed on the page, all feelings you caused him. The word destiny was written with an arrow pointing to, we’re meant to be. Do you feel the same?

At the bottom of the page, he abandoned single lyric ideas where he instead decided to write his thoughts plainly.

“This is love. I know it is, I just feel it. I’ve never truly known it before, but this is it. Like how the moon rises after the sun. You give meaning to my memories. Will you make memories with me forever?”

Lowering the paper to your lap, you looked across the picnic blanket to find your boyfriend holding a ring between his fingers, his eyes soft and large as he stared at you nervously. “Will you make memories with me forever?” He asked you, your breath leaving your lungs as the love you felt for the man rushed through your frame.

You couldn’t even form words as you began nodding, smiles overtaking both of your faces as you stood on your knees. Namjoon mimicked your actions as he met you in the middle, your mouths crashing into a needy kiss. Ignoring the other park goers, you and Namjoon were lost on cloud nine together.

Trailing kisses across your face, he wrapped his arms around your body, pulling you against his frame as he held you close. “I’ve wanted to marry for years,” he chuckled against your hair, you smiling against his neck in response. “I wrote this song knowing I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you.”

“I’ve known for years too,” you assured him. “You’re incredible, you know that?” You asked him, chuckling as you pulled away from him to look at his stunning face. His eyes held your gaze for a moment before they landed on your hand, his fingers grasping your hand as he slid the ring into place.

“Here’s to a lifetime of being forever fascinated by each other,” he said cheesily with a massive dimply grin.

“A lifetime,” you beamed. “That sounds perfect.”

Staring at each other for a moment, Namjoon broke the moment first by lunging forward, pushing you to the ground as he positioned himself above you. Kissing you softly, your hands brushed over the sides of his face.

“I almost put the ring in your champagne glass but I was afraid you’d swallow it,” he giggled adorably, your finger tracing over the dimple in his cheeks before dragging over his smiling lips.

“Now that would have been a story,” you teased as Namjoon kissed the tip of your finger. “Thank you, Joon,” you said suddenly, his eyes widening in question. “For believing in us even when I couldn’t.”

Smiling softly, he shook his head at you as if he shouldn’t be thanked for such a silly easy thing to do. But instead of speaking against your gratitude, he chose to gently press his lips to yours. Because it didn’t matter how you started your relationship or who believed in what. You were there, and you were in love. And he knew you both would be loving each other for as long as you both lived in this lifetime, and even into the next.

[tickly-trashcan]

Tattoos {XiaoVen}

A/N: I still have some prompts, but here’s my birthday gift for @jokertickles​! happy birthday Leo, you’re literally the best i hope you have a great day full of birthday wishes and fun and have a great time, you deserve it!

Summary: It’s a surprise!

Word Count: 1.6k (under the cut)

Xiao sighed happily. He felt finally content after what felt like ages. He closed his eyes, leaning further into his partner who chuckled, playing with the Adeptus’ hair. 

“You look so beautiful,” Venti said sincerely as he watched his partner from above. Xiao’s face burned and he furrowed his brows, but he kept his eyes closed as Venti continued to play with his hair.

Venti sighed as he looked up at the sky. The sun was starting to set in the distance, and even though all they had been doing all day was relaxing in each other’s arms, he felt rather tired. He looked down at Xiao, who still dozed peacefully in Venti’s lap, his head resting on Venti’s thighs as he had his arms folded across his chest, looking rather peaceful. 

Venti smiled and looked at the tattoos on Xiao’s arm. He had known they were there, but right now he was truly noticing them. They seemed to almost glow in the faint light of twilight. 

Venti reached his hand down and gently traced along the outline of Xiao’s tattoos, running softly down his biceps as Xiao stiffened. Venti noticed this but was too entranced with Xiao’s arm to stop. He kept going up and down along the pattern of Xiao’s arm as he huffed beneath him, twisting slightly.

“That tickles…” Xiao said quietly, a small chuckle escaping his lips as Venti halted his hand, pulling it back. Xiao opened his eyes, slightly confused, and looked up at Venti. Venti looked back down at him, noticing what almost looked like a pout on his face as he stared up at his partner.

“Why did you stop?”

Venti looked down at Xiao, a smirk slowly climbing on his lips as Xiao’s face reddened when he realized what he had just said.

“I-I mean-”

“Xiao… you wouldn’t happen to like this would you?” Venti said, suddenly tracing Xiao’s arm again as Xiao stifled his laugh, biting his lip as he squeezed his eyes shut again. He shook his head, his face bright pink now from embarrassment as Venti grinned.

As one of Venti’s hands played along Xiao’s tattoos, his other went to Xiao’s neck, gently fluttering his fingers along his jawline and along his throat. Xiao squirmed beneath Venti and giggled softly, but otherwise made no effort to stop him. Venti easily caught on to this but said nothing as he kept up his gentle tickles.

Xiao huffed and squirmed around a bit more, unfolding his arms to swat at Venti’s hand, giggling quietly.

Venti leaned forward slightly, skittering his fingers across Xiao’s tummy as he gasped, quickly slapping a hand over his mouth as his hips rocked, trying to twist away from Venti’s feather-like touches.

“W-Wait! Hgnn, hehe, stop!” Xiao said, and Venti stopped his tickling again. Xiao froze and looked up at Venti, who smirked. Xiao’s face went red as he realized what Venti was up to, and he quickly pouted.

Venti hummed a little song as Xiao sat there, anticipating what he knew wasn’t going to happen. He could practically feel himself itching for Venti’s touch again, and he sat up.

“Hmm? Do you want to go home now, Xiao?”

Xiao shook his head softly and scooted closer to Venti, who cocked his head at Xiao.

“Do you need something~?” He said, his voice painfully teasing as Xiao felt his face grow hot.

“Can you… do that again… please,” Xiao said, and Venti only hummed, placing a finger delicately to his lips as he raised an eyebrow.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about~”

Xiao felt his face heat up again. He pouted and grabbed Venti’s hands, scooting closer until he was right in front of Venti. He placed Venti’s hands on his sides, face red as he averted his gaze, too embarrassed to make eye contact.

“The thing… can you do it again?”

Venti chuckled. He knew exactly what Xiao wanted him to do, and he decided that he had teased the Adeptus enough.

“You mean this?”

Venti very gently dragged his finger up Xiao’s side, going all the way to his lower ribs. Xiao giggled softly, wrapping his arms around Venti’s shoulders as he pressed his face into the crook of Venti’s neck.

Venti practically melted on the spot as Xiao’s giggles slowly filled up the air around him, all from just a few gentle tickles on his lower ribs and sides. And as much as Venti loved Xiao’s soft, quiet giggles, he wanted to hear more.

“Do you like this~?” Venti teased, digging his fingers in a bit harder as he crept up to Xiao’s ribs. He squeaked and buried his head further into Venti’s shoulder, biting his lip to keep himself from laughing.

Xiao shook his head, and Venti stuck out his tongue playfully, poking and prodding Xiao’s ribs, making him jump with every touch as he squirmed slightly.

“Let me hear you laugh, Xiao,” Venti whined, and Xiao shook his head. Venti pouted, reaching down and squeezing his hips, making him yelp. Louder giggles flowed from his lips like a waterfall, and he continued to wriggle in Venti’s lap, his arms flinching as they wanted to go and protect his torso, but he willed them to stay on Venti’s shoulders.

“You’re still not laughing, why are you holding back if you enjoy it this much?”

“I-I dohon’t enjoy it, I - hehe, I don’t!”

Venti grinned, skittering his fingers across Xiao’s tummy, feeling the muscles underneath his thin shirt as Xiao’s snickers grew louder in volume, the laughter that was bubbling in his throat finally threatening to break free.

Venti traced light, small circles all across Xiao’s belly, finally focusing around his navel as Xiao positively squeaked, barely able to contain himself.

“I think we’re getting closer~” Venti teased and Xiao whined, the words “stop” and “no more” threatening to burst from his lips, but he knew if he said them that Venti would really stop, and he would be back to square one. He was already embarrassed enough, he wasn’t sure he could ask for it again.

“Ventihi! N-Not thehere,” Xiao whined, giggling loudly as Venti continued to trace those agonizingly slow circles on his tummy, smirking as he switched tactics, suddenly spidering his fingers all over, digging gently into the flesh as Xiao gasped, trying to bury his face further into Venti’s neck, muffling his laughter.

“Mmhmf! Barbatos-”

“That’s not my name, silly~” Venti teased, suddenly amping up the tickling and scratching his nails against the lower part of Xiao’s tummy, making him shriek as his laughter bubbled over.

“V-Venti! I meant Venti! Wahahait!”

“There’s that laugh! Ah, Xiao, you’re laugh is like a symphony,” Venti cooed, making Xiao flush red as he continued to skitter over his tummy, finally having gotten Xiao’s laughter to fully emerge. His hands travelled up, away from Xiao’s rather sensitive tummy that Venti knew he needed a break from as he lightly scratched his nails under Xiao’s arms, making him yelp. His arms instinctively pulled, tugging to try and clamp against his sides to get rid of the sensations, but Xiao held them in place around Venti’s shoulders.

Venti had to admit, Xiao had some serious stamina and willpower to keep his arms in place like that, and it only made his smug grin widen. He could tell Xiao really liked this, even if it was a bit torturous with Venti being the one doing it.

“Are you sure you don’t like this Xiao? You haven’t even asked me to stop~”

“I dohohon’t! Nahaha!”

Venti chuckled at the adorable noises Xiao was making, finally fluttering his fingers behind Xiao, lightly scratching along Xiao’s shoulder blades.

“NO! Nonono, not thehehere! Venteeheehee!”

Xiao arched his back and squirmed around, trying to get away from Venti’s viciously ticklish fingers, but it was no use. His hands followed him with ease, able to stay on that bit of exposed skin easily as Xiao could do nothing but laugh.

“Stahahap! Plehehease, no more! I c-can’t…!”

Venti hummed, continuing his ticklish onslaught as Xiao continued to squirm. With his previous pattern, Xiao had expected Venti to stop when he asked him to, but he didn’t. He merely travelled right back to Xiao’s tummy, scribbling his fingers all over as Xiao continued to laugh frantically.

“I’ll stop if you admit you like it~”

What?! Xiao couldn’t do that, he was much too prideful. And he definitely didn’t like it!

“I dohohon’t! I don’t! Venti, plehehease, I can’t take it anymohore!”

“Hmm, I think you do though,” Venti teased, scratching at Xiao’s lower ribs, just above his tummy as Xiao continued to squirm, laughter filling the air around them. He shook his head, his arms tugging again in an attempt to try and fend off the ticklish sensations, but he continued to hold them in place, making Venti chuckle.

“So stubborn…”

“I am nohot!”

“Then say it, Mr. I’m-Not-Stubborn,” Venti teased, and Xiao only whined through his cackles, finally deciding that he might as well get it over with.

“Okahahay! I-I dohon’t mind it!”

“Nuh-uh, say you like it, my lovely Xiao,” Venti teased, making Xiao go bright red. He whined as he tried again, Venti’s tickling slowing to make it easier for the Adeptus to speak.

“I… like it,” He said, barely audible as Venti smiled widely. He stopped his tickling completely and wrapped his arms around Xiao, pulling him into a hug. 

“You’re so cute.”

“I’m not cute…” Xiao whined, hugging Venti back. Venti only chuckled, giving Xiao’s sides one more quick squeeze as he squeaked.

“Yes you are, and no denying it,” Venti said, and Xiao nodded slowly. Venti giggled, squeezing Xiao tighter. 

“I love you~”

“...I love you too.”

[bluefirewrites]

T.Rex, Velveeta, and Other Fun Names

A one shot I made, thanks to @lydias--stiles and @blush-and-books. 

We were talking about what Luke’s middle name could be and it sparked an idea for this quick little one shot (which is neither quick or little actually.)

Could also be read on AO3. 

ENJOY!

____________

Lucas T. Patterson

The madness of this week all started when Julie thumbed through Luke’s journal and found her songwriting partner’s messy scrawl inscribed in the behind the front cover.

Yeah, it was his name, Julie would have griped about how illegible it was and moved on to whatever song she and Luke had been workshopping the day before and thought nothing of it-

If it weren’t for the fact that there was a flurry of deep inset scratches of pen scribbling out the space where his middle name was supposed to be, leaving only the ‘T’ unscathed…

“So I was thinking, maybe we change the key. I thought I was feeling A Major,” Luke rattled off, playing the aforementioned series of chords on his electric, “But now, I think we could really intensify it by flipping to a minor key-”

“What’s the 'T' stand for?”

The ghost looked up, confused, “Huh?”

Julie held up the inner cover of the journal, pointing to his name, “Lucas T. Patterson. The ‘T’- what does it stand for?”

It was a simple question, but all color drained from his face.

“O-Oh. Oh that?” Luke stammered through, struggling to rid himself of his guitar, the skull and rose strap kept swatting his face in his hurry.

She nodded.

He was across the room in seconds, back facing her, pretending to fiddle with the amp settings, even going as far as inspecting Alex’s drums. Thank goodness the drummer wasn’t there right now or else he would be getting a thorough lecture. ("Tell him to stop touching my drums!" extended to his bandmates as well).

“It, uh, stands for my middle name,” he said, still not looking at her.

“I get that. So what is it?”

“It’s nothing,”

Julie rose from the piano bench, traversing the studio until she was right behind him. She forced him to pivot and face her, “No, it’s clearly something.”

Luke gave a dismissive wave and a weak nonchalant laugh, “It’s not a big deal,”

“It clearly is if you won’t tell me,”

Then his head cocked to the side. He cupped his ear, “Uh, what’s that? I think I heard Carlos!”

“What?” She couldn’t hear anything.

“Oh, you need help, Carlos? On my way!”

“He can’t even-”

In a flash of light and warp of reality, Julie was alone in the studio.

“- hear you...”

Oh boy.

Now what was that about?

________________

Ever since then, Julie’s curiosity only grew. Why was Luke so evasive when it came to his middle name? What could possibly be the reason?

With all the secrecy and going great lengths to omit it from his journal, she was betting on it being insanely embarrassing.

Which made Julie want to find out even more.

Luke didn’t get embarrassed so easily, not much to weaponize against him whenever they all made playful jabs at each other from time to time, like the friends they were. Really it was stuff like ‘Beware, Luke this shirt has sleeves’ which basically translated to ‘Haha, you’re attractive’.

Which did not pack quite the punch.

She was determined to decode Luke’s middle name, if not to quench her curiosity then to humble the guy.

He couldn’t be attractive and talented. Something’s gotta give.

(And no, she didn’t often think about how attractive and talented he was… Nope. Not at all).

“Tristan?” she threw out while they were backstage at their next gig.

Luke tuned his guitar, “Nope”

“Thomas?”

“Nuh-uh”

“Terrence?”

He finally looked up, smirking, “You will never find out.”

The tech burst in, phasing through the ghostly forms of the boys, to lead her out onto the stage.

She inwardly cursed. Saved by the bell.

“Break a leg, boss,” Luke wiggled his fingers at her before she was practically pushed past the curtain.

Even when she sat down to play the piano, Julie could not get the image of Luke’s smug face out of her mind. Oh, he probably thought her attempts were just so cute.

Yeah, cute for now.

But she wasn’t done yet.

____________________

“Alright, guys. Help me solve the mystery. What’s Luke’s middle name?”

It was one of those rare occasions where Luke was out of the house, leaving her, Alex, and Reggie alone.

The boys had been present for her previous tries to weasel Luke’s middle name out of him, and they were amused for the most part- Well, never as amused as Luke ‘Thinks He’s All That’ Patterson (not a serious contender in her guessing, by the way).

With their reactions, and however many years of brotherhood shared among the three of them, Alex and Reggie just had to know.

They were all chilling in the kitchen, Reggie perched on top of the counter and Alex lounging at the table. Julie poured herself a juice, waiting on the answer.

The bassist straightened up, “Oh. It’s-” Then he stopped, face scrunched up in a frown of concentration.

Julie directed her gaze at Alex, who was ready to jump in.

“No, wait it’s…” He faltered.

The two boys’s heads snapped to stare at each other as they pieced it together.

“Dude, I don’t think-”

“No. He had to have. I’m just blanking,”

“Guys?”

“Oh my god,” Alex uttered, pushing his golden locks back into his cap, “It took us this long to notice?!”

They were now on their feet, sandwiching Julie.

“We... don’t...know,” Reggie winced, admitting it out loud.

“How could you not know?”

“I don’t think he ever told us!” was the bassist’s defense, “He’s Fort Luke when he wants to be!”

He made the gesture of locking his lips and throwing away the key to which Alex nodded.

“Now I wanna know!”

“Me too!”

Now this was a development. If Luke’s boys had no clue, then it must be really juicy.

Taking a sip from her cup, Julie was all ready to recruit two new members for the noble cause…

_________________

Julie, Alex, and Reggie huddled in a circle at the studio, all bearing notebooks and furiously whispering at each other and scribbling away when Luke decided to make an appearance.

They dispersed, making their collusion all the more suspicious.

“Luke,” They all greeted, with the same level of enthusiasm… at the same time.  

The guitarist eyed them skeptically. Then he took in the notebooks, “You’re having a band meeting. Without me?” he asked, hurt flashed in his hazel eyes.

“No, silly. We’re having a band meeting about you,”

“Reggie!” Alex and Julie hissed.

That only added to Luke’s hurt and confusion.  

Sending him a reassuring smile, she guided him to an empty chair, placed right in the middle, just beyond the coffee table, “Sit down. Please.”

“Okay?” Slow steps and weird stares later, his butt plopped onto the seat, “Can someone tell me what’s all this abo-?”

“Lucas Theodore Patterson?” Alex leapt in front of Luke, reading his guess off his notebook.

Luke’s shoulders slumped, seeing where this was all going.

“Guys, really? You too-?”

“Is it or is it not Theodore?” Julie backed Alex up.

“God no,”

Reggie was up next, “Lucas Timothy Patterson?”

The nose scrunch answered for them.

“Lucas Tyrone Patterson?” as was Julie’s turn.

“No flow,”

And so they were stuck in a circle for the next 20 minutes, everyone taking turns guessing Luke’s middle name, their lists growing more desperate and random as they continued, even going as far as borderline yelling the names at him- that was how frustrated they were.

“Lucas Troy Patterson,”

“No”

“Lucas Trixie Patterson?!”

“That’s not even- that’s not even a guys name-”

“It’s Tyrannosaurus Rex. I’m telling you. It has to be!” Reggie slammed his notebook down, poking Luke hard in the chest with his index finger,  “Admit it! LUCAS. T. REX PATTERSON!”

“Boy, I wish,”

Their guessing game, once the last of the names have been recited, left all of them breathless (even though two of them were ghosts!).

On any other occasion, Luke would have been sympathetic, especially seeing how broken up and defeated they all looked collapsed onto the couch, glaring at him like he was the enemy.

But their fruitless attempts only made him all the more victorious.

“Nice try guys,” he patted each of them on the shoulder before heading out.

Best to give them a break.

Ya know, to deal with the defeat.

____________________

She was nothing if not persistent.

But Julie knew she might have been taking things too far when she had made the trip to Emily’s.

Look, she thought she could just pay the woman a visit, to check up on her, catch up-

Maybe ask leading questions in order to trick her into telling her her son’s middle name?

Yeah, the plan was flawed from the start because how could she so subtly direct the conversation to her dead son’s middle name.

Maybe get her to tell a story about Luke getting in big enough trouble that would have warranted the whole ‘yelling-out-your-full-name’ treatment? Which was a total stretch.

But she didn’t expect it to be the complete and utter disaster that it was.

If Alex and Reggie hadn’t gotten impatient and started snooping around Luke’s old room and digging through his things to find some sort of sign for his name, and if Luke hadn’t decided to intervene, creating all kinds of ruckus in other rooms for his mom to stop and check-

Then maybe they wouldn’t all be sitting on the Molina living room couch hours, getting read the riot act by Luke Patterson of all people.

“I had to tip over my aunt’s vase!!”

“Well, if it's any consolation, your mom always hated that vase?” Reggie chuckled before being promptly silenced by one look from Luke.

Alex spluttered, “But, like, you didn’t have to break it??”

“I did what I had to do,”

“Your mom was so freaked out!”

“Well, that’s on you guys,”

Julie just about had enough with all these games, she pushed herself up from the couch, squaring up against Luke’s unwavering gaze, “You’re being ridiculous!”

“Me?” he yelled, taken aback, “ You went to my house!”

“We just wanted to know!”

“Oh my god!” His hands gripped at his hair, “Why do you wanna know my middle name so badly?”

“I like knowing stuff about you, okay!”

Luke stepped back. Eyes wide.

That-

That wasn’t meant to come out.

Especially in the booming, shrill tone she used.

“Oh…”

Luke was playing with the sleeves of his oversized flannel, the air between them thick and brimming with awkwardness. It didn’t help that Alex and Reggie took this as the opportunity to flee.

Now it was just the two of them in the living room.

Breathing deeply to collect herself because it finally hit her- they were in a screaming match all because of a middle name . Like, Luke wasn’t the only one being ridiculous. It was her too. This whole quest to figure out what the T in his name stood for was so pointless.

They were fighting and Julie didn’t like it.

“And,” she cleared her throat, dislodging the unpleasantness, “there’s something clearly bothering you about it. Just… maybe thought I could help?”

Julie had been kidding herself. Messing with Luke might have been her initial goal, but what bugged her most about not knowing his middle name was the fact that even after all the time they spent together, there were things that Luke still wouldn’t tell her.

He was entitled to keep his secrets, yes, and she still felt bad for spying on him on his birthday. But, they were bandmates, writing partners, friends . She had confided in him a lot and he with her, and they just…

They always had this closeness. A closeness that she appreciated and didn’t take for granted.

And she had acted so recklessly because of it.

Luke nodded, taking it in. He didn’t look mad, but he understood. Julie could tell he was able to get more from her than the words she spouted at him.

“It’s, just,” his voice lowered into a self-conscious whisper, “It’s just something I don’t like a lot of people knowing...”

“I’m sorry. I pushed,”

“It’s okay,” the left corner of his mouth twitched, “You wouldn’t be Julie, if you didn’t” he playfully punched her shoulder.

She gaped at him in mock offense, “Hey!”

“Just saying. Tt’s not the first time you showed up on my doorstep, digging up my past,” she instinctively grimaced but Luke reached for her hand, intertwining his fingers with hers, “But I know it’s coming from a good place. Thanks.”

He really shouldn’t be so forgiving, Julie thought. But she was just happy that they could just leave this mess behind them.  

“I’ll get the guys to drop it,” she offered.

That made Luke laugh, “Good luck with that. Reggie’s wearing Alex down. Now he’s seriously considering my middle name to be ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’,”

“If it was that embarrassing, I’d see why you’d keep it a secret,”

It seemed like Luke wanted to say something but shook his head and thought better of it. Instead he tugged her by the hand to the door, “Come on. You never did give me your opinion on the key change…”

_______________

It was months later when it finally came out. 

They were in her room. She was doing homework and he was getting a jump start on their newest song, working side by side on the floor.

Her laptop was open, some randomly chosen Spotify playlist streaming in the background. All was well when the familiar chords of ‘Get Lost’ started playing, causing Luke to visibly tense up.

“Trevor,”

“Right. Sorry, I’ll turn it off-”

“No. That’s…” He sighed and moved into a kneeling position.

Pushing his already opened journal to Julie, Luke flipped it to the cover, where his name was written.

He pointed to the scribbles over his middle name.

Where only the T was exposed…

Trevor.

“Lucas...Trevor...Patterson?”  

“My full name. Ba-da?” his jazz hands fell flat, betrayed by the quiver in his voice.

“Oh,”

“I, uh, never liked how it sounded. And you know how I feel… about things that just don’t flow right”

Julie did. For sure. Scrapped lyrics and melodies were often what happened. Never to be brought up again.

He continued, “My mom would insist on writing out my full name on my notebooks for school- Luke Patterson is already so generic,” and the first genuine chuckle of the night huffed out, “Never used them for class of course. Just to write songs.”

“Tre-Bobby,” she corrected herself “He would have needed proof that he wrote everything...”

“My old notebook. That had ‘Get Lost’ and ‘Crooked Teeth’. Made the mistake of writing it in pencil. It’d be so easy to just-”

Slamming the laptop closed, silencing the song, Julie enveloped the ghost in a hug. He melted against her, hands gripping onto her shoulders from behind, for dear life, the weight of the reveal finally taking its toll.

“I didn’t like my middle name before. Now, I just- I just can’t stand it,” he whispered into her shirt.

“I’m so sorry, Luke”

“Were the songs not enough? He had to steal my name too?”

The ache carried by his voice made Julie squeeze tighter.

She had no words.

What Bobby did, what he took from Luke, was more than she could ever fathom. She didn’t know what to do, what to say to him to soothe the pain.

She only held him.

For as long as he needed.

___________

"How come Alex and Reggie never found out?" she would ask him later.

"Didn't make it habit to show off my journal"

She frowned, "But you let me read it."

Luke, too, had no words in response.

____________

“Hey, wanna go on a walk with me?” Julie asked him out of the blue one evening.

Luke could definitely use a break, especially from whatever row Alex and Reggie had just gotten into. He nodded and took her offered hand.

They took a stroll down her street, hands still joined but hidden in Julie’s hoodie pocket (as to not make it seem like she was grasping at air). The sun was beginning to set over the hills as they could see from their vantage point in the park, their set destination.

Julie seemed to have some purpose for this random walk because she was leading him around until they reached a tree in a more secluded part of the grounds.

Whipping out a pocket knife, Julie replaced her hand in her grasp with the odd tool.

“What’s this?”

“For a while, I lost all sense of what music meant to me. I thought music was my mom. That if she’s gone then there’s no point in going on,”

“Aw, Jules”

Her sunny disposition shone through in a smile, “It’s okay. I had to redefine music for myself. Give it new meaning. Music is not just my mom. It’s my family and Flynn. It’s you and the guys” she shrugged, “It’s me.”

“I would have told you that,” A tender touch to her forearm coaxed an even bigger smile from the girl, “You definitely are music.”

Momentarily distracted by the compliment, it took a moment for Julie to get back on track.

“What I’m trying to say is. I think it’s time for you to redefine yourself. There’s stuff in your old life that you miss, but there’s also stuff you want to leave in the past…”

It dawned on Luke what Julie was referring to.

“That ‘T’ is a placeholder. You could go by a different middle name. You could do whatever you want. You’re a ghost now. You can… move on. So,” she revealed the blade and placed it in his palm once more. She nodded at the tree.

“Go ahead. Go give your name a new meaning, Make your mark,”

Grinning, Luke picked up on her plan and began carving into the trunk, his initials, all three letters representing his name, with each mark easier to craft than the last, imbuing more love and meaning into them, just like what Julie said.

Once done, he admired his handiwork, floored by how cathartic it was, to have his name on something that was gonna last.

L.T.P

He was taking back his goddamn name.

He beheld it with pride.  

“I’ll ask again,” Julie leaned against the tree, tracing the letters with her fingers, “What’s the 'T' stand for?”

With no hesitation he said-

“Thundercat,”

“W-What?” Julie choked.

He lost it at her reaction, “You said whatever I want. I loved that show as a kid!” he giggled.  

“Lucas… Thundercat… Patterson,” Julie so badly wanted to make a comment, Luke could tell. But she changed her mind, “You know what? If it makes you so happy then go for it. Who am I to stop you?”

“Nah, I’ll think of something else later on. But it’s my afterlife. I could go through as many middle names as I want, right?”

“Exactly,”

Luke returned her knife and thought she was going to slip it back into her pocket. Instead, she strode up to the tree and proceeded to carve her own initials right below his.

“There. So your name doesn’t have to be lonely up there,” she folded up the blade and put it away.  

“You know that, uh, couples usually do that kind of thing,” Luke couldn’t help but notice that, with the way their initials were oriented on the tree.

A rosy hue graced the girl’s cheeks, “Oh...yeah.”

A beat of silence followed, just the two of them staring at the tree.

“I like how our names look next to each other though,”

Luke nodded, a warm feeling settling in the pit of his stomach and rising, “Me too.”

Squinting, he read Julie’s initials, “ J.V.M. What does the ‘V’ stand for?”

A devious glint sparkled in her eyes,  “Maybe you’ll just have to guess.”

“Aw come on!”  

She raised an eyebrow, “Oh as if you made it easy for me?”

Ok. She had him there, “Fair enough.”

The whole walk home, Luke ran through all the ‘V’ names he could think of.

“Julianna Valeria?”

“Nope,”

“Julianna Vanessa?”

“C’mon, songwriter. Where’s the flow?” she teased.

Luke snapped his fingers, believing he cracked the code, “Victoria. After your aunt,”

“No. But imagine how mad she was when she found out,”

“Venus, Vanilla, Vaseline-”

“Vaseline?”

They were at her doorstep, and he bounded in front of her, blocking her path, “I won’t give up.”

“I don’t expect you to,”

“Velveeta. Like the cheese”

“It’s Valentina,” she finally said, pushing him aside, fishing through her pockets for the keys to open the front door.

“You got Valentina while I got stuck with Trevor?” She lucked out in the middle name department, that was for sure. 

Of course someone like Julie got shacked up with a beautiful name like Valentina…

“I could change mine too. In solidarity,” she said offhandedly.

“If I go with Reggie’s suggestion: Tyrannosaurus Rex then would you be Velociraptor?”

“T.Rex and Velociraptor?” she laughed in disbelief, finally walking through the threshold of her house. Thank goodness everyone else was already upstairs.

“From this day forth, I will be known Lucas Tyrannosaurus Rex Patterson!” he confidently declared

“And I’ll be Julianna Velociraptor Molina!” she repeated, taking much pleasure in the absurdity of it.

“Were you a dinosaur kid?”

“You saw my slippers and my PJs...”

“True,”

_______

Luke didn’t expect for them to take the whole new middle name thing so seriously.

But if they so happened to greet each other next time with prehistoric roars and with him tackling her onto the studio couch and pretending to bite her like the carnivore he was, then that was for them to know…

And for Alex and Reggie to remain confused about.

__________

Bonus:

And after some years down the line and one magical reincarnation later, Luke decided to change his name again.

“Patterson’s okay,” he said to Julie, “But I think I need something new.”

“Oh yeah? What are you thinking?”

Luke went down on one knee, in front of the tree they marked up when they were teenagers, ring in hand.

“Molina sounds pretty good to me…”

[shyjusticewarrior]

Slippery Smile (a JatP fanfic)

[Word count: 1127

Pairing: Luke × Reggie]

The boys are shredding on their instruments, bouncing around. When Reggie and Luke make eye contact, Reggie smiles at him and Luke gestures for Reggie to come to his mic. He comes right over and they sing on each side of the mic together while dancing around.

When the song comes to an end Luke briefly pauses then rushes over to his journal, frantically opening it up to a fresh page and ecstatically scribbling into it with his pen. "Yes, perfect..." he mutters to himself, his face in upmost concentration on his work. Reggie and Alex immediately know what this particular look on his face means.

"Well, Luke's deep into song-writer mode, so I guess we're taking a break." Alex says, standing from his drums. "I'm gonna go visit the boardwalk" he tells Reggie, who puts on his most shit eating grin.

"Would that have anything to with the construction that a certain ghost is definitely gonna skate?" he asks, elbowing his friend. "Oh, are they doing construction?" Alex squeaks unconvincingly. Reggie chuckles. "Tell him I said hi!" "And that Luke would if he wasn't off in song land." he adds, smiling fondly at the before mentioned boy. "Okay." Alex poofs out.

"Bye," Reggie says to the empty space. He looks over at Luke, still buried in his work. He sets down his bass. When like this Luke would tune out most sounds, including people talking to him- as Reggie eventually learned. But music or any kind of rhythm could throw him off.

Reggie thinks about what to do. Julie was at school, and Ray was chaperoning Carlos' class trip.

He stretches as he feels himself coming off his adrenaline high from practice, realizing he's been moving around since this morning. He wonders if they can get physically worn out as ghosts. Alex did get a wedgie. Maybe these things are just a...something effect. Julie did an essay on it. Gazebo?

Suddenly an idea hits him. He should take a nice bath! Technically speaking, he didn't need bathing- being a ghost and all- but he really enjoyed those when he was alive. And what else was he gonna do?

Ray had just bought a ton of bubble bath while shopping at Costco, so they probably weren't gonna miss one bottle. They didn't all fit in the family's bathroom, so some of them were stored in this garage. Reggie rifles though the bottles and finds one labeled with the scent fresh meadow. He grabs it, perfect for brainstorming a country hit.

He scurries into the nearby bathroom and starts running a bath. When his bubble bath is set up, he peels of his clothes and sinks it. "Ah, this is nice," he breathes, closing his eyes.

Luke's pen stops scratching on his paper and starts tapping on his chin as he tries to think of the next line. He looks up to ask the other guys for help, but they've vanished. He figures Alex went to see Willie, so he looks around for Reggie. He searches in the kitchen and Julie's room but has no luck finding him. He wonders if Reggie decided hang out with Ray and Carlos on that school trip, but he doesn't know where it is so he has no way of checking.

Giving up, he heads back to their studio.  Then he notices a door and can't recall what's behind it. He considers that Reggie might be, so he opens it.

  Inside is Reggie, laying in the tub and covered in bubbles. He opens his eyes and sees Luke standing there. Luke blurts out "Uh, I got stuck trying to think of the next part..." He vaguely gestures with his journal. "Oh, okay." Reggie pulls himself into a sitting position, his upper body now above the water.

Suddenly his bass appears in his hands. "Wha-" Luke snatches the instrument. "Why would you play this over water?" "Dude, I'm already dead." Reggie reminds him. Before Luke can retort, he continues. "Plus, I already dropped it in water and was able to poof it into my hands totally dry."

"Of course you've already done it." Luke sighs. "What else should I expect from the guy who fixed his amp in the rain." "Uh, you're welcome for discovering one of our musician spirit powers!" He says, taking back his bass.

"So, what's your song?" He pats the edge of the tub. Luke sits down and puts his journal on his knees- as far from the water as possible, he doesn't know if his journal will be safe like Reggie's bass and doesn't wanna risk it. Luke recites the lyrics and Reggie strums his bass, the former progressively scoots closer to the latter's end of the tub.

Luke sings the last lyric, which mentions "crooked teeth." He notices Reggie making a sour face. "I'm sorry about that song- Crocked Teeth. When I first wrote it and played it for the band you liked it," Luke explains, "and it didn't occur to me that you didn't realize it was about you, so I thought you considered that when you gave your approval."

Luke looks straight into Reggie's eyes with a serious and soft expression. "I never meant it as a bad thing, and I never meant to hurt you. I'm sorry."

"No, it's okay. I understand it wasn't to hurt or secretly jab at me. I guess I just...would've liked to have known the song used my teeth as the hook." Reggie explains. "But it was a sweet song!"

He flashes Luke a smile that makes him feel so warm and good. The smile that inspired him to write a song about it all those years ago.

Luke isn't sure if Reggie meant sweet as in awesome or...sweet. He doesn't want to ask him so he moves on.

They bounce ideas off of and sing to each other. Reggie's scooted closer and their faces are as close as they tend to get when they sing together. Also like in performances, Luke is moving around. He's now swaying on the wet tub edge.

Then he slips.

  "Woah!" Luke falls above Reggie before catching himself, his hands on the tub floor and arms on either side of the other boy, who is laying like he was originally.

They share shy smiles and soft laughter, then...a kiss.

Eventually they pull apart then remember where they are. "I, uh," Reggie clears his throat, "I should get dressed. Then we could talk, maybe?"

"Yeah. That'd be good." Luke replies with a reassuring nod. He picks his journal off the bathroom floor and leaves, closing the door behind him.

At the next band practice they're doing a new song, Slippery Smile, with the two of them sharing knowing looks.

[nicknellie]

@sunset-reggie requested: A fic based off Reggie getting electrocuted that was mentioned in Snap.

Physics is my joint worst subject at school so for the purposes of this I might have made up my own rules for electricity? Maybe, I don’t really know. The issue was that in the US the mains voltage is 120V which won’t really do a lot (here in England it’s 230V but again you’ll probably be fine) so I made some shit up and I’m pretending I know what I’m talking about. I did research taking care of electric shock patients but sorry for anything that’s wrong. Still, thank you for the prompt, it was a lot of fun!!

Zap

Some nights, Reggie Peters would sleep like a log. The moment his head hit the pillow, he would be out cold, not waking up the whole night through and feeling happy and refreshed in the morning. Those good nights usually followed good days – days spent jamming in the studio with the band, days helping out at the rescue shelter and playing with his favourite animals, days he would hang out with his friends and laugh until their sides hurt and they couldn’t breathe. After a good day, the night was peaceful.

This was not one of those nights.

It hadn’t been a good day. In fact, it had been a decidedly bad day. When Reggie had woken up that morning, it hadn’t been to the sound of his alarm but to the echo of shouting from downstairs. He had guessed immediately that it was his parents fighting yet again – sighing haggardly, he had pulled a pillow over his face and pressed it hard against his ears, trying to block out the noise, but to no avail. Well and truly awake, he had grudgingly got out of bed and started his day.

School had been dreadful. In biology, the teacher had surprised them with a test. Reggie was a naturally high achiever, good in biology as he was in all his subjects, but that day luck wasn’t on his side. He hadn’t done any revision and his head was swimming with addled thoughts, cluttered and unfocused, and he could not for the life of him remember the different stages of meiosis. Throughout the whole test he had sat there, scratching his head, trying to remember that one little detail that was on the tip of his tongue, but before he knew it time had run out and he had only answered three questions. It had stuck him in that bad mood for the rest of the day.

He had thought that band practise would cheer him up like it usually did. For a while, he was right. In the Molinas garage, plucking the strings of his bass, Reggie felt his dark mood brighten. Perhaps the start of the day hadn’t been one for the history books, but he could salvage it by relaxing and playing his music with his wonderful friends.

“Let’s take it from the second verse,” Julie declared halfway through their run-through of Stand Tall, scribbling a note to herself on the bottom of her sheet music. “Reggie, can you up your bass a bit? I can’t hear it but your line is really great here and I think we should showcase it a little.”

“Sure thing, boss,” Reggie said, saluting. He fiddled with his amp for a moment (twisting the dial harder when it got stuck) to up the volume and struck a long, low note. Julie nodded, satisfied, and they picked the song up again.

It didn’t take long for things to start going downhill. At first, Reggie thought he was imagining the smell of smoke; after all, candles had been banned from the studio long ago after an incident with Luke and one of Alex’s favourite hoodies, so there shouldn’t have been anything burning. But after a moment, Julie’s face scrunched up in disgust and her singing dropped away as she glanced around the studio.

“Luke,” she said, reproachfully. He shot her an innocent look. “Did you bring in another scented candle? Even after what happened last time?”

“I never did get that replacement hoodie,” Alex grumbled.

Luke shook his head, sniffing the air like a dog. “It’s not me! I don’t know where that’s coming from.”

“It has to be something,” Reggie said, looking around. It smelled almost overwhelmingly strong near him – the others, whether they realised they were doing it or not, were all heading in his direction, sniffing the air for the source of the smell.

It was Alex who noticed.

“Reg, you’re smoking!”

Reggie shrugged. “I know I was kinda killing it, so thanks, but I think we have more important things to worry about right now.”

“No, no,” Julie said, eyes wide, pointing to Reggie. “Reggie, you’re smoking! You’re on fire!”

“Okay, I get it, thank you both, but we should focus on–”

“Reggie,” Luke all but yelled, “you are smoking! As in, there is smoke coming from you. Dude, do something!”

Reggie looked down at himself, immediately swatting at his clothes. It was weird – he didn’t feel like he was engulfed in flames. In fact, it didn’t look like he was either. Reggie was decidedly not on fire. But his bandmates had been correct about the smoke; it was rising around them, looping through the air and collating in a thick black cloud right above their heads.

It was then that Reggie had a horrible thought. If the smoke was coming from behind him, then it might have looked to his friends as if he were the one on fire. Slowly, dreading what he might see, he turned around and was met with a catastrophe.

It was his amp, sparking through the speakers, harsh smoke swirling into the air from its every crevice, cutting void-like black lines across the studio up to the ceiling.

“Not me,” he said, stricken, “it’s my amp. My brand-new amp. It’s broken.”

“What happened to it?” Julie asked, edging slightly closer. She placed a gentle hand on Reggie’s upper arm but he remained stiff. He barely even registered the touch.

“How can it have broken so fast?” Luke added, leaning probably too close and inspecting the amp. He jumped back and ducked behind Julie with a little yelp when a spark leapt at him. “You just got it two weeks ago.”

Alex pushed to the front, wafted his hand back and forth to clear the smoke, and squinted at the amp. For a moment there was an anticipatory silence, and then Alex said, “Ah. I see.”

“What?” Reggie prompted. “What went wrong?”

“What went wrong?” Alex echoed, straightening up and raising a condescending eyebrow. “I don’t know, Reg, maybe it was the fact that you tried to turn it up to a volume that doesn’t exist.”

Baffled, Reggie took Alex’s position, waving the smoke out of the way. He had been careful when Julie asked him to turn the volume up, he could have sworn that he hadn’t cranked it up any higher than ten. But lo and behold, the volume dial was twisted further than its highest volume, almost back at one.

“How did that happen?” Reggie wondered aloud. “All I did was turn it up, then it got kind of stiff, so I turned it harder and– oh.”

“I think when it went stiff it was because it wasn’t supposed to turn any more than it had,” Julie said quietly. She tugged Reggie away from the amp as a spark flew uncomfortably close to his face.

“Would that really do so much damage?” Luke asked sceptically, eyes narrowed.

Alex shrugged. “Looks like it.” He put a consoling hand on Reggie’s shoulder. “Hey, it’s okay, Reg. With the money we make from our next gig we can get you a new one, right?”

Reggie sighed heavily. After the nightmarish day he’d had, with this as the icing on the cake, he felt as if he’d had his very heart ripped from his chest. There was a weight there, a hefty, immovable boulder settled right where his heart should have been. He shrugged Alex’s and Julie’s hands from his arms, fed up and tired.

“I guess,” he mumbled, “but unless I’ve got an amp I can’t play that gig anyway, so you’ll be without a bassist.”

“I’m sure it’s fixable,” Julie reasoned, forced hope in her voice. They watched the amp cough out another jet of black smoke. Julie’s smile faltered. “Like, eighty percent sure.”

Alex checked the time and then patted Reggie on the shoulder. “It’s late anyway, we should stop now, get home. I’m sure we can get it fixed before our next rehearsal, don’t worry.”

“Yeah, and Reggie,” Luke added, swinging an arm around his shoulders, “don’t feel too bad, okay? If worse comes to worst we can just borrow an amp at the venue. It might not be as good as yours but it’ll be something.”

Reggie nodded. “Sure,” he said, “thanks.”

He checked the time for himself as the other three began to move about the studio, packing up their bits and pieces. It was almost ten o’clock – he hadn’t realised they’d been going on so long. He was exhausted, his limbs heavy with emotion and his head swimming with nothing much at all. No part of him thought he’d be able to walk himself home and on a day like this he didn’t want to take his chances in a car being driven by Luke.

“Hey Julie,” he said, tapping her on the shoulder. She smiled up at him as she put her microphone stand away. “Can I stay here tonight?”

“Of course,” she said as if it should have been obvious. “I’ll make up the couch inside–”

He shook his head. He wanted to stay in the studio – that was where the most comfort was. “No, no, in here is fine. Thank you, Julie.”

“Any time,” she said, beaming.

Not long later, Reggie and Julie said their goodbyes to Alex and Luke, who clambered into Luke’s beat-up car and sped away, over the speed limit by an amount that made Reggie’s head spin. Reggie waited in the studio while Julie went to get some pillows and blankets for him, his mind turning with thoughts of his parents and his bad school day and his amp that was still smoking in the corner of the studio.

Hence, tonight was not a good night for Reggie.

Eventually, Julie came back down, helped him make up the couch, and then they said their goodnights. When she left, Reggie shucked off his jacket and his jeans, then burrowed himself into the covers, clamping his eyes tight shut in the hopes that maybe, just maybe, he’d be able to catch sleep by surprise.

It didn’t work. He lay there for what felt like hours but couldn’t have been more than fifteen minutes, tossing and turning, switching which end of the couch his head was at, sticking various limbs out from under the blanket, trying to find some magic position that would get him to sleep. But nothing worked, and eventually he gave up.

The smell of smoke was enough to drive him insane. He didn’t want to have to wait to get the amp fixed – he wanted it fixed now, he wished it had never broken in the first place. Or rather, he wished he’d never broken it. He could have kicked himself; in hindsight, it was obvious that when the dial stopped moving the volume couldn’t be altered anymore – Reggie cursed himself for forcing it.

A thought struck him then. A crazy, stupid, reckless thought that Alex, if he were there, would have immediately forbidden. But Reggie thought that if it was his mistake then he should be the one to fix it, and the amp was right there, and he couldn’t sleep anyway, so he might as well…

He swung himself out from under the covers, flicked the studio light on and made his way over to the amp. It was still emitting a steady stream of smoke, sparks flying now and then. He inspected it a little more closely, yanking off the front to see the mechanics inside. He could see where the damage was and some cocky part of his brain decided that he could definitely fix it.

Lost in his thoughts, he was brought back to Earth by the grounding sound of rain falling on the flat roof of the studio. It was soothing and soft – Reggie had always liked rain, always found it calming. He wanted nothing more than to be outside right then, soaked to the skin, relaxed and carefree.

So his crazy, stupid, reckless thought developed and before he knew it Reggie was wheeling the amp from the safety of the studio to the wet and windy outside.

It was freezing and he regretted not bringing his jacket from the studio, but he couldn’t bring himself to go back inside now. The rain had him drenched within seconds, the amp too, and Reggie finally felt some of the tension in his muscles drain away.

He began to work.

Now, Reggie wasn’t to know that the amp was still plugged into the mains back in the studio. And he wasn’t to know that a power station half a mile away had just malfunctioned, letting a surge of electricity course through its wires, overwhelming every system and sending far too much electricity to every house in the nearby area. And he wasn’t to know that if he hadn’t been touching the amp then he would likely have been absolutely fine.

But the power surged through the mains, through the studio, through the amp, was worsened by the rain, and reached Reggie as he clutched the wires.

Zap.

Reggie was flung back with the force of the current, landing in a heap in the studio, finally asleep (if not in the way he’d intended to be).

*

He woke up. That was a good sign. His head was spinning as he tried to ease himself into a sitting position, raising a hand to his throbbing temple, but something pushed him back down. Reggie peeled his eyes open, but blinked at the harsh, too bright light and closed them again.

“Dad,” came Julie’s voice from somewhere above him, “he’s woken up!”

“That’s good,” called Ray’s voice from somewhere indeterminable, “is he okay? I’m still on the phone with the doctor.”

Reggie tried again to open his eyes and managed it, just barely. He was back on the couch in the studio, the lights were on but it was still pitch-black outside. He had been tucked into the blanket so tightly that he could hardly move, and perched on the edge of the sofa, clutching his hand like she was superglued to him, was Julie.

“Reggie,” she said gently, reaching out and brushing a lock of his dark hair away from his forehead. Her fingers were cool against his skin, soothing his headache that little bit. “How are you feeling?”

“Like hell,” he croaked. Just those two words felt like they were ripping his vocal chords out. He cleared his throat a little as Julie sent him a sympathetic, sad smile.

“Do you remember what happened?” she asked.

Reggie thought for a moment but found that it hurt his head to do so. He shrugged, then said, “I wanted to try and fix my amp so I took it outside and then… I don’t know.”

Julie gave him an exasperated smile. “In the pouring rain? Did no one ever tell you that water and electricity don’t mix?”

“Well, I know that now,” he grumbled.

“If it’s any consolation, you probably wouldn’t have been too hurt if the power station hadn’t gone wrong at the same time. The current was way bigger than it should have been – my dad’s talking to the doctors right now to see if we should take you to the hospital.”

“How long was I unconscious?” Reggie asked her, closing his eyes again.

“Well, when the power surge happened, I saw this massive flash outside my window and heard what sounded a lot like a teenage boy being thrown off his feet across a garage,” she told him matter-of-factly. “So, I came down to check on you and you were unconscious, so I got dad. But the whole thing hasn’t been more than twenty minutes. Does your head hurt?”

Reggie nodded, then winced. The movement ached.

Julie frowned. “That doesn’t seem like a good sign.”

At that moment, Reggie heard Ray say to the phone, “Okay, thank you very much for your help.” A moment later, he was crouched down beside Reggie, his kind face streaked with worry.

“You doing okay, kiddo?” he asked quietly.

Reggie sighed. “No. Everything hurts. Do I need to go to the hospital?”

“Well,” Ray began, “I just spoke to a very lovely doctor. She said that seeing as you weren’t in contact with the source for too long, and luckily the mishap with the power station wasn’t too bad, your situation could be a lot worse than it is. But we do have to keep an eye on you because it was an alternating current, which is more dangerous than direct.”

Reggie shuffled a little bit, trying to pull his blanket tighter around him for comfort. He felt Julie place a hand on his chest comfortingly, and he would have smiled if smiling didn’t hurt so much.

“Oh, and she gave me a list of things to ask you about,” Ray said, fishing a scrap of paper out of his pocket. “I wrote it down here, see. Loss of consciousness – obviously. Muscle spasms?”

Reggie should his head and Ray gave him an encouraging smile.

“That’s good,” he continued. “Any numbness or tingling anywhere? Or any breathing problems, or a headache?”

Reggie paid attention to his body for a minute. His legs felt numb, like they wouldn’t support him if he tried to stand up. And he had what was probably the worst headache of his entire life. But his breathing seemed fine to him. He reported his findings back to Ray, who made a few checks on his list.

“Problems with vision or hearing?”

“No,” Reggie said, “none.”

“Good. We checked you for burns and luckily there’s none. Seizures, well, we’ll have to keep an eye on you. Irregular heartbeat – Julie?”

It was only then that Reggie realised that Julie’s hand placed on his chest had been to check his heart. Slowly, he moved his hand out from under the blanket and covered Julie’s with it, wanting to keep the comfort close, stop her from leaving him. She smiled down at him gently, and put her other hand over his too.

“His heartbeat’s fine,” she said. “Normal speed, regular.”

Ray nodded, making a final check. “Excellent, excellent. Okay, Reggie, I’m going to call your parents, let them know what’s happened. It’s not a good idea to move you around too much; do you mind staying here for a few days?”

The thought almost made Reggie smile. The studio (and the rest of the Molinas’ house) was like a second home to him – he felt comfortable and at-home there like nowhere else. He had countless memories surrounding him, a thousand things to keep him preoccupied, even if that was just being lost in his own head.

“That’s fine by me,” Reggie said, trying to smile.

Ray beamed, then gently tousled Reggie’s hair as he stood up. “Good. Great. Okay, I’m going to make a call to your parents, you just let me know if you need anything. Night, Reggie.”

“Goodnight, Ray,” Reggie called after him as he left the studio. “Thank you.”

As Ray closed the door behind him, Julie stood up and made her way to the back of the studio where they kept all their equipment when they weren’t using it for rehearsal. Reggie watched in fascination as Julie dug around for a moment and then pulled out a TV on a wheeled stand, incredibly old and outdated. She blew a thick layer of dust off it then coughed when it flew right back in her face.

“When Carlos and I were little,” she began, tugging the stand closer to Reggie, “my mom used to watch old tapes on this with us. Mainly it was old home videos, or sometimes the tape of her and dad’s wedding, but we should still have some actual movies somewhere. I’ll find the DVD player and set it up, we can watch something together.”

Reggie was a little confused. “You’re not going up to bed?”

Julie looked offended at the suggestion. Reggie shrank back a bit from her glare. “Of course not! I’m staying down here with you for as long as you need me. I don’t want to leave you alone, Reggie, especially not when you’re like this.”

She rummaged about in the back of the studio for a little while longer. Reggie watched her collect an ancient DVD player and a stack of DVD cases, sorting through them and selecting a few. He knew he wasn’t alone in loving Julie – after all, she was an angel on Earth and it was hard not to love her – but right that moment he felt he couldn’t have treasured his sister any more. Just the fact that she was willing to forgo sleep to make sure he was safe meant more than he could describe. The moment she had finished setting up the DVD player and had put on Kung Fu Panda (knowing it was one of Reggie’s all-time favourites), she came to sit in front of the couch on the floor, and Reggie looped his arms around her neck in a weak hug. She held his hand tightly as the movie’s opening scene began to play.

*

Julie was truly a blessing. She stayed with him all night, not getting a wink of sleep herself because she wanted to make sure nothing bad happened to Reggie while he slept, and the next day she took turns with Ray and Carlos to keep an eye on him, waiting on his every beck and call. Reggie felt bad asking them for things so tried to do it as little as possible, only occasionally asking for a glass of water or another painkiller. But Julie, being Julie, seemed to know exactly what he didn’t want to ask for at all times and was more than happy to fetch anything.

Eventually, she had needed a break. Not by her own choice, but by Reggie’s.

“You’ve done so much,” he said at about midday, just as Julie came in to take over from Carlos again. “I’ll be fine by myself for a little, it’s not like anything that bad can happen.”

She shook her head. “You heard what my dad said. Something bad could happen, so someone needs to make sure you’re alright.”

“It doesn’t need to be you,” Reggie reasoned. “No offence, but you look worse than me right now. And you’re not the one who was electrocuted twelve hours ago.”

It was true – Julie didn’t function well on a lack of sleep, her eyes were heavy and she was teetering from side to side slightly as if she was going to fall over. She rolled her eyes at him but couldn’t deny what he’d said. She pulled her phone from her pocket with a sigh.

“Fine,” she said grudgingly. “Dad’s just taking Carlos to Little League, so it can’t be one of them. I’ll call Alex. Hopefully, he’ll be able to get here soon.”

Reggie listened to the one-sided conversation as Julie spoke to Alex. She sighed with relief, thanked him, and then said to Reggie, “He says he’ll be here in ten minutes. Do you need anything until then?”

Reggie thought for a moment, then let a grin split his face apart. “Can you sing for me?”

Julie huffed a laugh. “Really? That’s all you want?”

“Yes please,” Reggie returned, shuffling over to look at her, giving her his full attention. “Can you sing something by Johnny Cash?”

“Of course,” she replied with an easy smile. Reggie was privately proud of himself – he was the only reason Julie knew any of Johnny Cash’s country classics. She picked up Luke’s acoustic guitar (which he had forgotten to take back to his house the last fifteen times he’d been at the studio) and struck the first chord. “Love is a burning thing…”

Ten minutes later (or three performances of Ring of Fire, because it was the only Johnny Cash song that Julie knew the whole way through) Alex shouldered the door to the studio open, letting in a blast of cold air but also a delightful smell that Reggie would recognise anywhere. It was the aroma of Alex’s famous triple chocolate cookies, the kind he only made for special occasions like birthdays; it seemed that electrocution counted as a special occasion too.

He let the door fall shut behind him, shook his shaggy hair out of his eyes, and held a large Tupperware container aloft triumphantly.

“I brought cookies,” he announced.

He sat himself down at the end of the couch by Reggie’s feet and opened up the box. The already gorgeous smell doubled and Reggie groaned hungrily. Alex smiled, holding the box out towards him – Reggie took three cookies and tried to shove them all into his mouth at once.

“Alex,” he said around a mouthful of chocolate. “Have I ever told you that you’re the best cook I know?”

“Every time I make you food,” Alex replied. He extended the container to Julie who took one cookie, a lot less greedily than Reggie.

“Well, he’s right,” Julie said, beaming. “This smells amazing, Alex.”

“Tastes it, too,” Reggie added, licking the crumbs off his fingers.

Julie laughed, but then poorly stifled a yawn. Reggie ordered her to bed again, and with a tired little wave she left the studio. Settling down further on the sofa, Alex took one of his own cookies.

“I hope you weren’t doing anything important,” Reggie said, poking Alex’s side with his feet.

Alex shrugged and looked away, suddenly so interested in the studio’s ceiling that it was suspicious.

“What?” Reggie prompted, narrowing his eyes. “What were you doing?”

Alex seemed to be trying his hardest to act casual but wasn’t doing a very good job of it. Avoiding eye contact, awkwardly scratching the back of his neck, Alex said, “I was hanging with Willie, actually. But this is more important.”

Reggie felt his mouth fall open. He smacked Alex’s arm. “Dude,” he exclaimed. “That is way more important than me!”

“My love life is more important than your near-death experience,” he deadpanned, frowning disbelievingly.

“Yes!”

“No.”

“Come on, man,” Reggie said, prodding him with his feet again. He still couldn’t feel his legs so he wasn’t sure that his way of getting Alex to talk by nudging him was really working, but judging by the way Alex shifted away from him he was doing a good job. “Tell me everything!”

“There’s nothing to tell,” Alex said, raising his hands in something like surrender. But when he lowered them again, he shrugged and said much quieter, “He kissed me, though.”

“Nothing to tell?!” Reggie almost yelled. “Dude!”

Alex had a dopey smile on his face, a blush creeping across his cheeks. He ducked his head abashedly, his smile growing. “Okay, maybe there’s a little to tell.”

Reggie was about to press him a little more, get him to open up about what he’d been up to with Willie (the two of them had only made it official a week or so ago and Reggie would be lying if he said he wasn’t extremely invested in their relationship – Alex deserved someone who made him truly happy and Willie seemed to do exactly that) but all of a sudden he felt his abdomen contract and shake painfully. He doubled over, clutching at his stomach as the muscles squeezed, rapidly relaxing and pulling taut again.

Alex stood up abruptly. “Reg? What’s happening, what do you need?”

Reggie couldn’t answer. The pain had stopped (it had been brief yet sharp) but he was out of breath, breathing hard and fast. He shook his head, dreading another burst of pain, and tried to get a hold of himself.

Alex crouched down beside him and grabbed his hand. “Reggie, listen to me, alright? I’m going to try and get your breathing back to normal, okay? Breathe with me – in for four. One, two, three, four. Out for six. One, two, three, four, five, six. Great job, let’s go again, buddy.”

Reggie breathed in tandem with Alex, feeling grateful that he had such an amazing friend by his side. Alex didn’t let go of his hand once, getting his breathing back to something steady and safe. When he finally felt relaxed again, Reggie opened his eyes (he hadn’t realised how tightly he’d had them scrunched up and they watered when he opened them) and smiled smally at Alex.

“Thank you,” he said, “I’m okay.”

“What was that?” Alex asked, sitting back a little.

“Ray said something about muscle spasms,” Reggie explained, thinking back to the list Ray had mentioned before. “I guess that was one. It felt like someone was trying to shove my organs into a tin can.”

Alex nodded, though his expression said he had no idea what Reggie was talking about. “Okay. Was that the first time it’s happened?”

“Yeah. Hopefully, the only time it happens too.”

“You need anything?”

Reggie’s throat felt dry. He could feel it like sandpaper every time he swallowed. “Could you get me a glass of water, please?”

“You got it,” Alex said, hopping up. “I won’t be long. Have another cookie, you deserve one.”

Reggie took another cookie and silently thanked Alex for being so helpful. Alex had always been the most collected and resourceful of the group, so Reggie was glad it had been him there for this scary new side effect.

When Alex got back Reggie thanked him out loud, but he waved it away, saying it was what he had to do, no biggie. Reggie sat himself up and swung himself around, leaning against Alex and hugging him tightly. Alex rolled his eyes, but Reggie didn’t miss the way he smiled and hugged him back.

*

That evening, Luke arrived unannounced. He was in a complete and utter panic – it seemed that in all the chaos, nobody had actually told him about Reggie’s accident. When nobody had shown up to the busking session they’d planned down by the pier he had called Julie to find out what was going on and then made a mad dash to her house.

“I’ll take it from here, Alex,” Luke declared, marching into the studio, yanking Alex from his seat and shoving him out the door, shutting it behind him. Through the small window, Reggie could see Alex looking through, utterly bewildered. When Luke locked the door, Alex shrugged defeatedly, waved goodbye to Reggie, and left.

“Buddy,” Luke said to Reggie, sitting on the edge of the couch. “Reggie, dude. Bro. What happened to you, man?”

“Got electrocuted,” Reggie returned simply.

Luke rolled his eyes. “Well, yeah, I know that now. Julie told me. Eventually. Did you at least manage to fix your amp?”

Reggie sighed. Luke’s arrival had brightened his mood, but the mention of the accident and his amp had kind of ruined it. “No. Julie and Ray checked earlier but I think I made it worse. It’s beyond help.”

“That’s great!” Luke exclaimed. Reggie furrowed his brows, confused.

“No,” he said, “it’s not.”

Luke shook his head. “No, it’s fine. After I called Julie and she told me what happened, I mentioned it to my parents. And they immediately went online and ordered a new one, an even better model than the one you broke!”

“What?” Reggie said incredulously. “For real?”

“For real!”

“But they hate the band,” Reggie countered. It didn’t make any sense – the amount of times Emily and Mitch had explained to Luke and the others that they didn’t think the band was worth it didn’t exactly line up with this act of generosity.

Luke shrugged. “I know. But they felt bad, and they didn’t want us to spend all our money on getting a new one for you. Bro, you’re going to sound out of this world!”

Luke raved on and on about the new amp. Reggie made a mental note to give Emily and Mitch the biggest thank you and the tightest hug the next time he saw them. The amp he had broken hadn’t been cheap and he hated to think how much they were spending to get him an even better model.

But eventually, there was something else on his mind.

“Reggie,” Luke said, cutting off his own rant about a new song he was working on. “You okay? You look weird.”

Reggie grimaced. “I have to pee.”

“There’s a bathroom right over there,” Luke said with a shrug, pointing to the little door on the other side of the studio. Reggie just frowned deeper. Luke’s face fell as some sort of realisation dawned on him. “Please don’t say what I think you’re going to say.”

Reggie said it anyway: “I think you might have to take me.”

Luke groaned and fell back, covering his face with his hands. “Dude. Why?”

“I still can’t feel my legs,” Reggie explained, slightly desperately. If he didn’t get to a toilet soon he was sure there’d be an accident – and Luke would have to be the one to clear that up too, something Reggie was sure he wouldn’t like the sound of. “I’m not going to be able to walk without support!”

“What if you rolled across the floor instead?” Luke suggested.

“But then how would I get up to pee?”

Luke took a deep breath, steeling himself, then nodded and stood up. He swung his arms back and forth by his side then said resolutely, “Okay. Let’s do this.”

Reggie threw an arm around Luke’s shoulders, swung his dead legs off the couch and let Luke pull him to his feet. He couldn’t feel where his feet touched the ground and was letting Luke do practically everything movement-wise. Unsteadily, Reggie dug his fingers into the thin fabric of Luke’s shirt.

They entered the bathroom and Luke grimaced. “How do you want to do this?”

“Titanic-style,” Reggie decided.

Luke gave him a flat look. “What?”

“Like that scene in the Titanic,” Reggie explained. “You know, when Jack and Rose are on the bow of the ship and Jack holds her waist and she throws her arms out and–”

“How is this at all similar to me helping you pee?” Luke interrupted.

“You’ve gotta hold my waist and make sure I stay stood up,” Reggie said. Luke nodded and positioned himself behind Reggie as he did what he needed to do.

When he was done, Luke helped him limp to the sink to wash his hands, again clutching his waist to stop him from crumpling to the ground, and then they hobbled back to the couch in the main studio. Luke gently laid Reggie down and tucked him back under the blanket.

“I hope you never electrocute yourself again,” Luke said distastefully. “I don’t want to do that a second time.”

Reggie raised an eyebrow. “That’s the only reason you never want me to electrocute myself again?”

Luke shrugged. “Of course, bro. And, you know, the fact that you’re in horrible pain.”

Reggie laughed. It was the first time he had done that properly since he’d been shocked. It made sense – if anyone could tease a laugh from him then it had to be Luke. He raised his hand for a fist-bump and Luke indulged him with that tiny teasing smile.

*

Two weeks later, Reggie was back on his feet, everything back to normal. He had never counted himself so lucky to have such wonderful friends. Julie, who put him miles before herself; Alex, who had ditched all his other responsibilities and helped Reggie when it mattered most; and Luke, who had proved that he really would do anything for Reggie.

Perhaps the whole situation had been born out of a bad day, but Reggie had his friends there to remind him that things would always be okay in the end.

[blondsauduun-reads]

The Revolution That’s Been Singing In The Rain (JATP Reggie X Reader)

Pairing: 1995!Reggie x Reader

Word count: 1.5K

Warnings: some swearing?

Plot: Ok so, it’s a pride parade/riot/demo, in 1995 (or so), and the boys go to support Alex, but surprise! There’s music there too! And Reggie likes the person playing the electric violin at the march. But like it starts to rain and they gotta stop with the instruments and get off the stage but they don’t stop singing. So anyway Reggie is in first row and the band was singing a cover of We Will Rock You and Reg of course knows the lyrics as does everyone. So they start singing and dancing very energetically and passionately in the rain. At the end the violin person gives Reggie their number

A/N: nonbinary reader (they/them pronouns) The link to the electric violin cover of we will rock you without the lyrics. Also. This is the first one-shot I’ve ever written and stuff so please be nice :) yes I accept constructive criticism too.

After practice, Alex had finally mustered up the strength to ask his best friends/bandmates,

“So, there’s this gay thing, on Saturday, and I wanted to ask if it you guys wanted to come with me?” The three other guys were listening closely to him, while fiddling around a bit with their instruments.

“It’s okay though, if you don’t.” Hadn’t even given them time to react, let alone answer. “If you don’t wanna come, I mean.”

A second of silence, the three of them surprised, exchanging looks, the blond one dreading the answer.

“No, yeah, dude.” Luke finally said, leaving his guitar on the stand. “We’ll totally go with you!”

“Yeah! We were just shocked that you’d wanna go.” Bobby said, because he and the two other guys had heard about it but weren’t going to bring it up if Alex wasn’t.

“We’re really proud of you, bro,” Reggie said, hugging his neck from behind. Kinda looked awkward. “I wish I was half as brave as you.”

With the whole AIDs thing, the President, his parents, and you know, the anxiety he lived with, Alex couldn’t really live his whole truth most of the time without fearing for his life, so yes, going to a Pride thing was no small feat for the boy.

“Yep, you can let me go now, Reg.” He chuckled, or coughed, because Reggie wasn’t exactly a spaghetti build person, and was hugging his neck rather tightly.

“So when’s the date bro?” Luke sat down on the couch, spreading himself out like pancake batter on a pan.

It was Saturday. Somehow, Reggie convinced them all to paint lil rainbows on either their cheeks or hands. They all looked adorable, sitting in the metro pressed together like anchovies, all with backpacks loaded with water, their respective lunches, and whatever the hell more fitted in the backpack.

Once they got to the station, they went out, following another group of people dressed for a parade, and in a bit more than five minutes, they were smack in the middle of the parade, chanting something in favor of LGBTQ+ rights.

“Do you hear that?” Reggie asked Alex, but like, screaming.

“Yeah, its about to storm, or something.” He said, looking at the sky, which was getting grayer by the minute.

“Not thunder, it’s like,” The black haired squinted in thought. “it’s like, music, I think. Queen.” He said. “Imma go, be right back!”

Reg disappeared in between the queers at the parade, following that sound.

“Reg, no! Shi…” Alex opened and closed his eyes in disapproval and desperation. “Luke! Bobby! We got a rogue bassist!” Bobby and Luke’s reactions to that were similar to Alex’s.

Meanwhile, Reggie had successfully found the source of the music. At a nearby park, was a stage, like those kinds of stages that can be built in like a day, and on top of it, a rock band.

Said like that, it probably doesn’t sound too special, but the thing was, they were playing a We Will Rock You cover, with an electric violin, or that’s what he could tell from a hundred feet distance from the actual stage, so, continuing squishing himself through the crowd, feeling some droplets of rain on his face, he got closer to the band, until he reached a six feet distance.

Shit, the violin was so incredibly pretty, like, it looked like some sort of futuristic weapon. The guy was loving it. The person playing it though, divine; the way they moved their arms and feet and carried themself. Also, yeah, probably the prettiest person Reg had seen to date.

The band, apart from having the violinist, who also was the backup singer, had a drummer, a bassist, and a guitarist, also the lead singer.

Anyway, the scene, everyone stomping their feet on the ground, singing the song with the band, remembering the now dead Freddie Mercury and how iconic he was, the energy of all those people, together in the fight for freedom and equality. The revolution. And the fucking rain.

Droplets were suddenly drops, which then started falling faster, and suddenly the band started panicking a bit, they couldn’t break up these vibes, these people.

So, the three with the string instruments put away the instruments, amps, cables and everything as fast as they could, and the drummer rushing his music cylinders into safety, the only ones carrying the music were the people, among which was Reggie, tearing out his vocal chords singing along the various hundreds of people singing too.

Once all the electric shtick on stage was cleared up, the whole band jumped down from the stage, joining the crowd, singing and stomping.

Buddy you’re an old man poor man

Pleadin’ with your eyes gonna make you some peace some day

The violinist, which had seen Reggie look starstruck at them and later on give his all to the music, joined him to sing (and stomp).

They were almost dancing, doing a duet, smiling like children on Christmas morning, being completely soaked through with the rain, and looking at each other with a feeling I can only describe as electricity (and if they looked at each other more electricly, they would have electrocuted themselves along the way.)

You got mud on your face You big disgrace Somebody better put you back in your place

The violinist shot him a wink, he tried to not get flustered, and in return winked back.

We will we will rock you

One last verse to the song, everyone still as excited as they were at the beginning. And yet, this one was sung with intention, with motive, as if they were shouting at the world that they’d rock it to achieve their goal.

We will we will rock you

And that was it. After a couple of seconds, the crowd calmed down and scattered.

“Hey, what are your pronouns?” The violinist asked.

Reggie remembered both the dictionary meaning of pronoun and the context in which it was asked (which Alex so kindly explained to them earlier), “He/Him, I’m Reggie.” He smiled.

“You’re in that band, right? Sunset Curve?” They asked.

“Tell your friends!” I’m pretty sure you can imagine how exactly he said this quote. “I’m the bassist.” Ah yes, and now the important question, “What about you, pronouns and name, I mean.”

“Oh, yeah, that.” They thought for one second before blurting it out, “They/Them, the name’s Y/n.” Y/n stretched out a hand, he seized it and made a mental note to ask Alex about those pronouns after, “So, what brings you here today?”

“Oh, well, my best friend’s gay, but,” He leaned closer to their ear, “I’m like, 90% sure I’m bi.”

“Damn boy, same!” They laughed.

“Anyway, I gotta go now, the instruments are only safe from the rain, not from people,” Y/n scratched the back of their neck. “But, in case I’m not only bi and yearning,” They whipped out a marker from their pocket and scribbled their number on Reggie’s forearm, “give me a call. Maybe we can try to rock out again together.” Wow, so full of confidence, must be the adrenaline that implied losing their instrument over getting a cute bassist as a date.

“Uh, yeah sure,” Y/n was already walking away, smiling at him.” I’ll def give you a call!” There was no answer to that. Only a distant holler.

“Yo! Reggie!” Luke.

“Coming!”

And he did walk over, fishing from his backpack a piece of dry paper and a pen to write down the number on something a bit more permanent. Anyway, he found the guys.

“Remember when I told you I might be bisexual?” He asked, copying the number.

“Yeah, when we were watching Indiana Jones, why?” Alex remembered. Indiana Jones is hot, that’s so not up for discussion.

“Yeah, well” He ripped the page with the number out and stuffed it in his pocket. “now I know, I’m bi.”

“Yeah man, no shit.” Luke teased him. Joke’s on you bitch you’re too.