#and again if i feed Reggie in the morning when i leave i could be gone for like three days and he would be fine but that's not enough time | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

invisibleraven · 1 year

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The more the merrier

A series of ficlets for @polyshipweek 2023

Day Five: Epistolary-Regal Jewelry <-AO3 link

Dearest Reginald,

We are well, considering the circumstances. I would ask if you are well, but I’m sure the conditions there are just ghastly. I hope you get the care package we’ve enclosed and it improves matters at least. Everything seems so quiet without you here dearest, and no matter how much pianoforte Carrie plays, nothing really fills the silence of your absence. Though I suppose you would live for a bit of silence given all the guns and cannons on your end.

I’ve been wandering the halls a lot, not knowing what to do with myself. There is only so much needlepoint I can do to distract me from the thoughts of you. It’s agony knowing you’re out there, fighting for God and your kingdom with no idea when it will all end. When you’ll be here with us once more. Everyone preaches patience, but they don’t seem to understand the pain of being separated from you.

I won’t ask how things are there, as I know you won’t answer, due to what you seem to think are my tender sensibilities. I just hope you are staying safe and you will return home soon. Just know you are missed here dearest and we are praying for an end to this idiotic conflict soon.

All my love,

Julie

PS: I made Jane smuggle a bottle of that blackberry jam you’re so fond of into the basket-treasure it for I fear the season for them is quite over.

Reggie,

I keep forgetting you’re away at war sometimes you know? I keep thinking that maybe you’re out riding Old Red-who is fine before you ask, we’ve been feeding and grooming him daily, and I think he misses you almost as much as we do. Or perhaps on a morning stroll through the gardens, maybe even asleep with a book in the library. Anywhere but where you are. Which is not with us, where you should be.

Flynn came to visit last week, if you couldn’t guess. Trying to raise our spirits I suspect. Or perhaps in search of a good gossip, she was always the type to have possession of the juiciest stories. Asked after you, and Luke. I think mainly because Robert has been pestering her, and he’d rather ask his employer than his own cousin. Why the both of you volunteered is beyond me, but I suppose the draft will come for us all eventually. I told her what I knew, hopefully that will set his mind at ease. Though I know I will not be eased until you’re home safe in our arms my sweet one.

Come home soon, I need a worthy croquet partner, as Julie is terrible at it and Flynn gloats too much to keep playing piquet with her.

Missing you fiercely,

Carrie

PS: I sent a book for you to read. I know you must not get much downtime, but I figured that if you did, it might keep your mind off the hell around you.

My darling girls,

I am only allowed so much post so you’ll have to forgive me for not sending you individual letters. I miss you both most ardently, so much that it aches. I would give anything to leave this muddy ravine and be home in your warm embrace once more.

Things here are hard, as it is cold and dirty. I have seen horrors I would not wish on the worst of men. But I know that I am fighting to keep us safe, to keep you both free. And that thought warms me enough to get through the frosty nights. Though a book or two of matches wouldn’t go amiss.

I hope that I should be home on leave soon, but I can make no promises. And yet even that brief respite will be bliss in order to see you both again. Even if I will have to return not long after. Keep strong my loves, I’ll be with you soon.

All my kisses,

Your Reg

PS: Please send more socks, and perhaps some chocolate, I can trade it for other goods.

Darling Reggie,

I wonder if this letter will reach the front before you do, as I am writing it right as you hop onto the train. It was so nice to have you home, even if our time together was short. I keep praying that this war will end soon, so you can be home for good. But then I question how any loving deity could allow such an awful conflict to occur in the first place.

Especially as I see the young men come back to flood the hospital. A gruesome sight, it turns the stomach. But I still go every day, to help. I can do that much so I stop feeling so useless in this whole thing. Carrie has voiced helping as well, but perhaps at the school instead. I’ve never known her to be interested in education or children, but I think this whole thing has given her a new perspective. Once this war is done, we all can be wed… well I know I wouldn’t mind a brood pattering around the halls not long after.

Come back soon my love, safe and whole. Just please-come back.

Te amo,

Julie

Sweetheart,

The last of the staff got called up today. We all wept when Bobby departed, but perhaps he and Luke will find each other on the battlefield. Perhaps he will be shipped home before either of them has a chance. I hope you return with them, your crooked grin as blinding as the sun.

The children at the school house don’t quite understand it, why their fathers and brothers are gone. Why some of them will never return. It breaks my heart trying to explain it to them. But I keep my tears at bay, keep strong for them. For Julie. For you.

I’ve knitted you a hat to wear. I know my knitting is atrocious, but I couldn’t bear to think of your head being cold as the winter months draw nearer. Be brave my love, but not foolish. Foolish men make poor bedfellows.

Besides, we have a wedding to look forward to after all.

XOXO,

Carrie

My dearest loves,

I hate this bloody war. The horrors I have been subject to-there are no words. Even as it ends, I know I return to you a broken man. For I can never unsee all the dying comrades in my arms. Too many to count as I tried valiantly and needlessly to save them. Never know what it is to have never taken a life. To know another’s blood is on your hands simply due to their geography.

I fear I will be haunted by this. My dreams are all nightmares of the battlefield, the smell of gunpowder and blood, the sounds of the cannons, the lieutenant shouting orders. The smoke and mud and death everywhere. I do not sleep much these days, but perhaps some fresh country air and your gorgeous smiles will help soothe me back to slumber.

I am writing to you from a hospital some ten leagues away. I hope to arrive home shortly after this letter does, so don’t rush to my side on any account. A bullet to the thigh, I’m afraid. I may need a cane to walk down the aisle come June. But rest assured, I am coming home to do so.

I don’t care if I have to crawl down that blasted aisle, I can’t wait until the three of us are wed.

I’ll see you soon my darlings,

Reggie

#polyshipweek23 #my stuff #writing #fanfic #regal jewelry #julie and the phantoms

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innytoes · 2 years

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Hi! Just wanted to let you know I am entirely sold on your caleb/ray/reggie abo au and am thriving on these snippets in it, I absolutely adore them all! It’s a niche I didn’t know I needed, but omega reggie has my heart and he deserves all the love ❤️ If you’re still open to it, I would love this prompt for them? ❛ hold still. this might sting a little. ❜

(Aaah anon I am so happy. Omega Reggie deserves all the love, indeed, and Ray and Caleb are Very Determined to give it to him. So just for you more of the Caleb/Ray/Reggie ABO AU.)

It took Reggie a while to get used to his newfound freedom. After Caleb and Ray sat him down and told him the Rules, he‘d had to fight disbelief. Because stuff like ‘don’t believe the cat and feed her again, she gets fed by Ray at the same time every morning, she’s not starving’ and ‘please leave a note and bring your phone if you’re going out’ were... well, after years with Paul slowly chipping away at his freedom and pushing him in a smaller and smaller box, and the strict schedule and regulations of the Shelter, they were kind of a joke.

But Ray and Caleb had been adamant that the short list of five rules were the only things they cared about. It took him a while to figure out that Ray and Caleb probably only made them up in the first place because Reggie asked for them. Still, something about knowing there weren’t any secret expectations or obligations, no landmines for him to step on, it eased something in his chest.

The first time he realised they were out of milk and that he could just go to the store and get some felt like both the best thing in the world and the most terrifying thing ever. Caleb had giving him a wallet with his own card and some cash, saying he could buy anything he wanted with it and giving him an obscene budget (rule five) per month.

His first time at the store without express permission in over seven years, he bought a jug of milk and a roll of Oreo cookies and never felt more free. He’d held his breath when he swiped the card, waiting for the little beep, before walking out of there with the biggest smile on his face.

It got easier after that. He still liked to do household chores when both Ray and Caleb were working, just to feel like he was contributing. But if there wasn’t anything pressing, sometimes he just sat in the garden with a book, enjoying the fact that there was no hour time limit of Outside Time. He’d play his guitar, serenading Pockets with little songs about her. He even made friends with the old lady across the street, who liked to pinch his cheek and call him a Charming Lad when he helped her carry heavy stuff or clean her gutters.

It became even more natural to leave the house without feeling like he needed permission, or a solid reason when they got Bucket. Of course the dog needed to go walkies. And Bucket didn’t care if they went to the beach, or the dog park, or to get ice cream, as long as he got to sniff stuff and do his business and harass Reggie for scritches every time they had to stop to cross the street.

Except it looked like he finally went to far. Literally. It had seemed like a great idea to take the bus and go to a nice hiking spot. Caleb was working all day in preparation for tomorrow night’s show, and Ray had a long shoot day.

He felt less great about his idea by the second as he tumbled down the steep hill. Especially when he finally managed to stop and realised his phone broke on the way down. Thankfully Bucket seemed okay, and yeah, Reggie was never going to live down that his three-legged dog was more nimble at making his way down than Reggie was.

By the time he got back on the bus, he had twigs in his hair, he was exhausted, and sore, and everything ached. Bucket had had the time of his life, though, and Reggie spent the ride back home bent over, snuggling the pup and avoiding eye-contact.

The second he came through the door, he was pulled into a hug by Ray. “Oh thank god,” he said, pulling Reggie close. Reggie winced, the sudden move hurting like hell, but before Ray could let him go, he wrapped his arms around him. Ray smelled upset, his scent spiky and anxious, but he still smelled like home.

“Where the hell were you, Reginald?” Caleb asked. His scent was sharp, rolling off him in waves, and Reggie whimpered. “We tried calling you several times and you didn’t pick up.”

If Caleb was home, he was definitely late. Like, super late. Stupid LA summers and their stupid late sunsets that made it impossible to tell what time it was. “Phone broke, sorry,” he mumbled into Ray’s shoulder. Then he pulled back, horrified. “Oh god I broke my phone.”

The fancy phone Caleb had gotten him, because it was red and it had a great camera to take fun pictures and so he could call home and be called when he was out. That was definitely in the Rules. He broke the Rules. “I’m sorry...” They’d only given him five and he’d broken one of the most important ones, oh god. “Caleb, I’m so sorry.” His eyes welled up with tears, and immediately, Caleb seemed to calm down, stepping back, his entire posture softening.

“We don’t care about the broken phone, pet,” Caleb said, cupping his cheek. “We were just worried about you. What happened?”

He let Ray guide him to the couch, trying not to wince when he sat down. He knew he looked a mess, dirt on his face and a hole in one of the few pairs of jeans that had been hole-less before, scrapes on his palms and knees. “I um...” he wasn’t quite sure how to say this without making his alphas anxiety worse. Just be cool. Casual. “I kind of fell down a mountain?”

The sudden spike in their scents was very noticeable, and he really should have done a better job thinking about what he was going to say on the way home. Instead, his mind had been swirling with ‘ouch ouch ouch’ and ‘don’t look at me please’ and ‘Bucket is such a good soft boy’ and ‘gotta get home, gotta get home’ and not much else. “We went to a nice hiking trail and I wanted to get a pretty picture of the view to send you... and then Bucket saw a bunny, and he yanked the leash, and I kind of... fell.”

“Oh pobrecito,” Ray said. “Let’s get you cleaned up, okay?” Reggie nodded, because now that he was home, all he wanted was his alphas to take care of him. And thankfully, even though he broke his phone and broke the Rules and made them worry, they seemed to want to do it.

He let Ray and Caleb peel off his clothes, Caleb wrinkling his nose a little and muttering something about maybe finally getting Reggie some Decent Clothes. Ray rolled his eyes, winking at Reggie as he eased his jeans down. Reggie tried to smile back, but it turned into a hiss of pain when the jeans caught over his scraped up knee.

“We need to clean out those wounds,” Ray said, inspecting his knees. “Hold still, this might sting a little.” He pouted but nodded, letting Ray dab at them with a wet cloth. It hurt, and he pressed his face against Caleb’s neck, whining softly. Caleb stroked his hair, muttering reassurances. His scent was slowly going back to normal, less blizzard and more first snow. When Ray moved away to get the first aid kit, he pulled Reggie in his lap.

“I’m sorry I made you worry,” Reggie said, curling into him. “I’m sorry I broke my phone, and I’m sorry I broke the Rules.”

“Oh kitten,” Caleb said. “It was an accident. We’re not going to be upset with you because of an accident. I’m sorry I snapped at you. It’s not an excuse, but I was scared something had happened to you.”

“It’s okay,” Reggie said, snuggling closer. Yeah, Mad Caleb had been kind of scary, but when he thought about it, Reggie realised that he hadn’t actually been that afraid. Not like with Paul. He’d mostly been upset that he broke his phone and made Ray and Caleb worry.

“We’re getting you a better, less breakable phone, though,” Caleb said, smirking and pulling Reggie into a kiss. He went eagerly, deepening the kiss, moaning happily when Caleb slipped his tongue into Reggie’s mouth...

Before gasping and jerking his knee back. “Hey, ow!” he told Ray, who pulled back with the antiseptic wipe looking kind of guilty. He glared back at Caleb. “You did that on purpose to distract me.”

“Perhaps,” Caleb said, looking way too smug about it. “Did it help?”

“Yes,” Reggie huffed. “Do it again.”

#calebxrayxreggie #the caleb/ray/reggie ABO AU #a/b/o dynamics #julie and the phantoms #fanfic #AUs are awesome #Yes Reggie spams the group chat with Ray and Caleb with cute pictures of Pockets and Bucket #and other cute dogs they meet on their walks #sometimes they are graced with a rare selfie #Willie totally weirded out when he came to Caleb's office to find him staring all heart-eyed at his phone like: welp can't unsee that #I wrote a thing

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bluefirewrites · 3 years

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'A Floral Fixation’- Juke Florist AU Part 2

Continuation of my last post about Flower Delivery Girl!Julie where she works at her family's flower shop, The Petal Pushers, and ends up making regular deliveries to Luke.

Note the title is silly. Does not allude to anything else :)

Julie has no clue how one favor for a friend could lead to all of this.

Ever since her brief stint as a singing telegram as well delivery girl, she’s now playing this... game? Yeah, game is the appropriate word for it. This ‘game’ with Luke Patterson.

And it would go like this:

There would be a delivery for Luke Patterson, Julie would drop it off, wondering why yet another flower arrangement is being delivered to a 17 year old boy on what seems to be on a regular basis, he offers her a flower, she declines, then leaves.

Julie's only the messenger, she doesn't see who keeps ordering them for Luke or if Luke's ordering these for someone. She doesn't check the card.

Or she would if there is one. There would usually be a card with each order. Tía nowadays just hands over the flowers with a telling arch of her brows and Julie instantly knows she's pedaling those to Sunset Curve's garage.

But she’s convinced that it really is Luke calling in and making the orders because every delivery she makes to him is always different and every time she would give it to him, he would always ask if they were her favorites.

Julie found the whole thing amusing, toying with him. But she had made numerous attempts in the past to get him to stop. She couldn’t imagine what kind of strain this would have on his wallet (flowers ain’t cheap), and she didn’t plan to string him on like that. It wasn’t fair.

But Luke Patterson is determined.

Why? No clue. By her deeming it a ‘game’ implies that there is a winner. Some sort of prize when they reach the end.

Whenever that is.

Maybe she doesn’t want it to end so soon. Not when these deliveries may be an excuse to go see him after school. She doesn’t stick around though. She is on the clock after all.

In the meantime, she’s good to play. And when Luke Patterson manages to guess her favorite flower (there’s no chance), she will accept it when offered to her.

So far, it’s been sunflowers, hydrangeas, chrysanthemums, and many other kinds of flowers.

This time, as she pedals up to the garage, it's zinnias in her basket.

And this time, the rest of the band is there.

Julie knocks on the door again and Luke's the first one to reach her. He leans against the entryway, taking the bouquet from her, picking one flower, and tilting it in her direction- the usual dance.

"Zinnias. Tell me that I'm right,"

"Hmm..." she makes the move to take it and Luke brightens...

Only for her hand to land on his forearm instead, where she gives him a couple of pitying pats.

"Nice try," she smirks, swiftly turning on her heel and walking back to her bike.

She could hear Alex and Reggie jeer at Luke's dumbfounded expression, 'ooooh'-ing at her trick.

Luke, after shooting his friends a glare and tossing the bouquet at them, he catches up to her as she mounts her bike.

"I'm getting close, aren't I?"

"What makes you think that?" She ensures the rest of her deliveries are secure in the back and front, pretending not to know what he's talking about.

"You're not a dainty flower girl. I know that for sure. That's not who you are."

Julie squints at him, "We haven't started talking until now. How can you say that 'know' me?"

"I heard you sing," Luke says. That makes her bristle slightly. "Trust me. I know everything I need to know about you from that. And with that powerhouse of a voice? No way you'd be a daisy or a daffodil."

Julie tries not to smile, not wanting to give any indication that he was heading in the right direction. The compliment, however delivered in his own Luke way, nearly makes her grin. Yet, it’s the singing part that reminds her way she’s been keeping the boy at arm’s reach and not outright telling him her favorite.

She and music have a complicated relationship at the moment. Her singing the first time she was here had been a one off. If Luke’s expecting her to belt out songs constantly and be as passionate about music as he is, then he’ll be sorely disappointed.

And Julie’s done disappointing people. She’d rather do something new. Even though a really cute guy is humoring her with these antics.

“You know there’s over 300,000 species of flowers?”

“352,000″

Julie raises an eyebrow.

“I research,” he proclaims proudly, rocking on his heels.

Wow, he’s really pushing this.

“What are you getting out of this, Luke?”

“Maybe I’m just very interested in... flowers?”

“Uh-huh,” Julie purses her lips, reading between the lines, “Flowers. Right.”

“And I’m gonna continue to feed that interest... as long as it takes,”

“Or as long as your allowance can take it. Do you even have a job?”

“I work at the diner. But,” he sidles up to her, “If you’re so concerned about my funds, then maybe give me a hint? This can all be over quicker if you’re so eager to get rid of me.”

The shit-eating grin on his face makes her roll her eyes. This boy...

"I guess..." Julie debates internally, "I guess you can cross small flowers off," she ends up admitting.

"Ha!" he jumps, "I was right!”

“Still not the right flower though,” she reminds him.

“Nah that's a victory for today and I'll take it,"

She shakes her head at him, "You’re ridiculous,"

“See you next week then?”

"Oh my god, Julie goes ahead and embarks on her bike, “More business for us, then. Be seeing you, Patterson.”

She rides down the street is about to turn the corner when she hears faint yelling from behind her.

"Your voice does sell more flowers!"

Stopping by the neighbors yard and looks back, "What?”

It’s Luke, standing in the driveway still. He cups his hands and shouts, “I was right!”

“What?” she answers back.

Now that does it. And she breaks out into a laugh, throwing her head back as she does. Luke Patterson- what a clown.

Julie promptly bikes away, and when she returns to the store, Tía clocks her smile immediately and asks about their favorite customer.

“An idiot, as always,” Julie reports back.

A cute idiot.

Tía hums something Julie couldn’t comprehend. Then she returns to pruning the flowers. Julie helps her.

“Well... whoever that young man is. He must have a really special girl in his life. To be ordering this many flowers.”

“Yeah... I guess,” Julie agrees, absentmindedly, focusing more on the task at hand.

“And I hope that girl knows just how special she is too,”

“Yeah- wait. Huh?”

Julie doesn’t get anymore out of her aunt that day, just knowing glances as if she’s meant to be in on this inside joke, but she isn’t.

Oh well.

And when she spots Luke the next day at school, he breezes past her, smiling, hints of floral scents radiating from his person. Much like how the shop would smell.

“Mornin’, Flower Girl,” he greets, tipping an imaginary hat her way.

“Morning, Diner Boy,” she shoots back, taking satisfaction from how thrown off Luke looks by her response.

He recovers and shoots her a wink, “Touchè”

Hey! If he knew what her job was, then she should too. And use it to her advantage. Maybe go to his work and tease him there, pester him about his favorite order, maybe and not be a passive player in this game they have.

Now wouldn’t that be a fun idea...

Tagging: @blush-and-books @lydias--stiles @thedeathdeelers @ruzek-halstead @pink-flame, @ourstarscollided, @nottheleastbrave, @echocharm17618 @smolfangirl @garc-i-a @simp-for-julie-molina @teenagepeanutbird @ifitsallyoudo @fandomscraziness22 @writerownstory @heademptynothoughts @writeineveryemptyspace

#julie and the phantoms #jatp #happy anniversary!#jatp anniversary #juke #jatp drabble #flower delivery girl! Julie #mention of Diner!Luke #julie x luke #luke x julie

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blush-and-books · 3 years

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Julie didn’t expect it to happen. I mean, she always felt like Luke was alive when he was around her, but she didn’t think-

She didn’t ever think about this.

They were on the couch – his couch, their couch, as he liked to say now – and he was, to be brief, kissing her senseless. It was a songwriting session that took a turn for the romantic, and ended with their notebooks on the floor; her back pressed into the couch cushions as Luke hovered over her.

He always felt the same: Warm but only on the surface, soft as he ran his hands up and down her sides, magnetic when his lips clasped hers with an urgency that neither of them could quite pin the origin of. But after a while, when Julie attempted to flip them so that she could be on top, her hand pressed solid against his chest as she lowered herself onto him-

And a rapid, ever-present, undeniable thumping met her palm like a greeting.

She barely had time to react before Luke’s callused hand was sliding up her scalp and tugging her down to meet him in another kiss.

“Luke,” she mumbles into his mouth with little effort to pull away. Even though it wants to wander, her hand hasn’t abandoned it’s position against his ribs where there is pressure echoing against it with frightening speed.

He only pulls her closer; thinking that her murmurs were the result of satisfaction less than shock.

He actually manages to distract her for another moment – the intoxicating combination of rough hands and sweet lips and Luke – but her hands find their way back home.

The beating is still there.

She speaks more forcefully this time; slightly pushing back against the hammer trying to make itself known. “Luke.”

Being the ever-aware boyfriend, he is in-tune to the tones of her voice, and he pulls himself out of her space.

“What? Are you okay? Did I-”

“Your heart,” she chokes out. Her hand pushes a little harder, as if she is giving him CPR. “I feel your heart.”

His hands, which are gripping her waist, loosen their hold.

“W-What?”

Her right hand briefly lifts from his chest to bring his hand back with her; both of them able to feel the thumping lightly against their skin. His eyes meet hers as it registers to him that they now share beating hearts, and that a beating heart is a sign that points to life.

His mouth has been gaping for so long that she almost cracks a joke, but she can only imagine she looks the same.

“How is…?” Luke trails off, and suddenly, Julie’s hands are fumbling over his body in search to contact his wrist and his neck; pressing firmly in a desperate search for the light pulse that should be present with an accompanying heartbeat.

Nothing is there for a while. Her middle and index fingers apply more pressure, less concerned about hurting Luke and more about the ability she has to hurt Luke.

But then-

It’s light, like a little butterfly flapping it’s wings against her fingertips. But it’s there.

And a relieved sigh flushes from her grinning lips.

“You have a pulse.”

He reaches up to replace her fingers and feel it for himself – and sure enough, there it is.

“Oh my God.”

His body against hers is no longer emitting a false sense of heat – he’s warm. Toasty, like a furnace, like a living teenage boy should be.

“You’re warm. You’re so warm, I-”

“Julie!”

Carlos comes barreling into the studio with little warning save for a loud yell after opening the barn doors. But when his eyes trace the space and focus in on his sister, they almost pop out of his head.

“You’re with a boy? The guitarist? Ew, oh my God! Does Dad know?”

The couple is less focused on the fact that they have been caught with Julie literally straddling Luke and more on the fact that Carlos can see Julie straddling Luke.

“Carlos, you-” Julie gulps. “You can see him?”

Her little brother, still equally as disgusted, looks hard and long at Luke. “Wait, isn’t he supposed to be a ghost?”

“Yes!” The two of them answer at the same time. As a trio, their eyes bounce from person to person with the clear question of what the hell is going on. “We need to find Reggie and Alex,” Julie whispers, finally.

Luke is still in shock over the fact that he has a heart – which is rapidly pounding under his ribs – but ne manages a nod, and tightens his hands around Julie’s waist to help her off of his lap.

“I’ll go see if Reggie’s in the kitchen,” Carlos informs them before giving the couple a moment to themselves. “Julie… We’ll talk about that-” He gestures around his sister and her boyfriend- “Later.”

Once he has left them to be alone together once again, Julie runs her hands over her face. “Or never,” she grumbles.

“So… What do we do?”

Luke’s question seems to snap Julie back into the reality of things. Less “my little brother caught me in a suggestive position with my ghost boyfriend” and more “my boyfriend is no longer a ghost.”

At seeing the panicked look in his eyes, her hands dart forward and tightly knit her fingers between his. They are so warm, and soft, and if she really focuses there is blood rushing through his veins.

“Hey,” she says, voice affectionate. “Whatever is going on, if you’re alive again, it- That’s a good thing. That’s a great thing, Luke. I know there’ll be a lot to work out. But… No more peaking over our shoulders for Caleb, or praying that I won’t pass through you when I reach for you, or…”

“Or what?”

“You worrying about me growing up.”

Her voice is so high, so weak, that she almost thinks she is on the verge of tears. It was always a fear for the two of them that was meant to be tucked away in each other’s presence, but now, if he’s alive…

There’s no leaving him, or any of the boys, behind.

Luke fights back his own tears as he unwinds their hands in favor of pulling Julie into his lap once again for a hug. “We can’t get out hopes up,” he reminds her with a rough voice. “But my heart is beating, and it’s beating for you, Julie.”

She somehow wraps herself around him tighter.

“My heart was always beating for you,” she informs him.

“I know. But I wanted to be able to beat back. Your heart was going to get tired at some point, wasn’t it?”

Neither of them dare to speak any more, both overthinking the implications of his final comment. He sniffles into her hair, and she fists her fingers into his shirt, and he can feel it: Their chests, pressed one and two against, heartbeats feeding into one another.

They go to find Alex after a long while of holding each other. The next morning, as he runs his fingers through her hair, both Julie and Luke notice that his nails have grown.

Tags: @willexx @unsaid-emily

#jatp #juke #jatp fanfic #juke fanfic #julie and the phantoms #i did a thing #otp: i think we make each other better #julie molina x luke patterson

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creativeashproductions · 3 years

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What If...? V // Alive!Luke Patterson

Summary: 1995 was Sunset Curve’s big break in the music world with a successful future. Between 1995-2004 a handful of things happen: Playing the Orpheum, the band buying a house, a car accident, a reconciliation, an engagement, a wedding and children. All things that potentially may have not happened had the boys continued to eating sketchy hot dogs from a car.

Warnings: Swearing, pregnancy, labour, minor angst and a bunch of fluff.

Words: 3.1k

Requested: By @beautifulblogsblog. The last part of your request 🥺😭

A/N: Wow. The last part in the What If…? Mini series is here. This was incredibly fun to write and while I wrote the last two parts I played a few covers and rewrites of Unsaid Emily. This is the first finished series. I’ll also let everyone know that there will be a part three for Lost Time.

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Hospital Maternity Room #284, 1999

“Have a child, they said. Pregnancy is a beautiful thing they said. I can confirm that asshole that said that had a dick.” You hissed from the hospital bed. A contraction contracting your midsection.

Nancy Y/L/N and Emily Patterson took up residence in the chairs on either side of Y/N Patterson in the afternoon of 1999. Nancy had been using the previous months making a scrapbook for the baby; the first bit with copies of photos from Luke and your baby stages. The rest would be the first year of your baby’s life.

“Would you like some ice chips?” Emily asked focused on knitting the baby hat for her impending grandchild.

Mitch and Lance each had made themselves scarce from the hospital in favour of working leaving the women alone.

“I’d like your son to be here to kick his ass.” Your eye twitched at the thought of your husband currently on an airplane. Sunset Curve had gone on a three-day interview marathon to the dislike of your friends and family.

Sunset Curve really needs to fire their manager with little respect for his charges’ lives. Especially the lead singer’s first child. Luke had no clue you had gone into labour.

“Your father had words with Jerry for his meddling.” Nancy told her daughter glancing up at the strained smile through another contraction, “I’m sure Jerry thought the controversy of Luke not making the birth would be perfect for publicity.”

“I swear I will strangle Jerry if Luke isn’t here. I will pulverize the son of a bitch.” You hissed relaxing against the white sheets in the private suite. The mothers had been constants in the room while Rose, the pianist from the wedding, had visited briefly.

Rose and the photographer Ray had hit it off so well they had entered a relationship that then blossomed a friendship with you. The couple had become dear friends in the last few months.

“Okay Y/N, we’re gonna check your progress.” The doctor spoke swiftly tugging the disposable medical gloves on his hands. Two nurses worked with him. Your eyes pinned to the ceiling during the short examination.

“We’ve hit ten centimetres.” The doctor announced pushing the wheeled stool away to study your expressions, “Do you have your partner here?”

The tears built up as it settled that Luke might miss the birth of his first child when he had been so excited about it. He had bought and read more pregnancy books than you he had been talking with his father on how he could support you. He took classes with his mom on how to change a diaper, check the temperature of the bottle and methods for colic and diaper rashes.

Overwhelmed the feeling of two pairs of hands comforted you with the reminder that while Luke wasn’t there, you still had support. The baby would be born with both his grandmothers in the room. It was as best as it could be.

In a fast pace, you then found yourself with your legs in the stirrups with a stranger, albeit a doctor, staring at your vagina. It was uncomfortable, but it faded when the pain really began.

“Okay I want you to push from 1-10.” The doctor soothed, “Good job.”

“You’re doing so well, darling,” Nancy told you, leading Emily to open her mouth. Unfortunately, she didn’t get the chance.

“I’m here!” Luke exclaimed rushing into the room, “Your dad was-“

Why was it unfortunate that Emily didn’t speak? Well, Luke unprepared caught sight of your exposed lower half. He promptly fainted with a thud to the floor.

“Are you serious?!” You yelled glaring at the puddle of your husband out cold with one of the nurses waving a package under his nose.

The smelling salt pack under Luke’s nose, bringing him back to consciousness, “Oh, boy. I fainted.”

“It happens more often than you would think.” The nurse told the young man while you focused on another push.

By the time the contraction ended, Luke had taken his mother’s place in holding your hand with encouraging words dripping off his tongue.

“This is the only child we’re having.” You hissed at the musician who continued to pale with a perfect view of the birthing in a reflection, “If you faint again I will…ARG”

A beautiful cry filled the room to the relief of baby Patterson’s parents bringing both of them to cry as well. Baby Patterson was scooped away to the corner of the room for a checkup and weight while the doctor inspected you. Time felt unreal as it passed quickly.

Baby Patterson was wiped clean as you delivered the placenta, got cleaned up with a sheet change and began to rest. Baby hairs plastered against your forehead you cooed at the swaddled form of your baby.

“So beautiful.” Luke whispered, unaware of his mother taking pictures with the lessons Ray had given her. The baby’s mouth opened with a gurgle that caused your heart to grow, “I’ll go let the boys know.”

Mesmerized by the baby, Luke made his way to the family waiting room on the maternity ward where it was packed. Opening the door, he counted Reggie, Bobby, Alex, Alex’s boyfriend Willie, your father Lance and Luke’s father. In the corner, Rose and Ray huddled together.

“Well?” Alex anxiously questioned picking at his cuticles, anxious for any news. His blue eyes begging his best friend for answers.

“Y/N is doing fine. The birth was smooth, and baby Patterson is healthy.” Luke proudly announced, placing his hands on the hem of his purple long sleeve shirt.

The room went silent before Mitch spoke, “So, do I have a granddaughter or a grandson?”

From the moment she was born, Stevie Eleanor Patterson had her father tied around her finger with her daddy’s matching hazel gaze. Lips like yours and a nose still unsure of but the nine-month-old was absolutely gorgeous with her short brown hair already curling. Of course, you could be biased as she was all yours.

Stevie wouldn’t settle without rock music of her father singing songs, but she did sleep through the night since day one. That didn’t mean she’d continue to sleep through the night, regression of sleep was tale your mother told about you as a baby.

“Hello sweet baby girl.” You whispered gently rocking the baby back to sleep mesmerized by the perfect combination of you and Luke, “So sleepy from feeding hmm?”

Stevie was heavy with the only complication being the minor tongue tie that was resolved increasing her feed. Stevie had such an appetite you had to compensate with formula to a degree, and you were sure the appetite was all Luke.

“Hey sweetheart.” Luke murmured from the door of Stevie’s bedroom wearing his Rush cutoff shirt and his staple black jeans.

The now twenty-year-old man had transitioned smoothly into fatherhood with the support of his best friends and family. Emily and Nancy had alternated staying in the guest room to help in the first month; the birth had been easy, but recovery had been at a near standstill.

“Hey!” You spoke as Stevie reacted to Luke’s voice, “I thought you said you would be late?”

Luke’s lips turned up at your words, “It looked that way, but Tom sent us home. God, I wish we had him from the first instead of Jerry.”

Both noses of the couple scrunched at the insensitive former manager that had both hit on you and insulted you when started showing with the pregnancy. The minute they could the band fired the man and found a saviour in Tom. Tom had left his previous employment with some magician with a name like Conner or something. The magician was narcissistic truthfully and had a slight obsession with the occult and death.

“Perfect. I need a shower.” You sighed shuffling Stevie into Luke’s warm embrace staring at the daddy-daughter duo.

��Have a bath. Relax babe. I got it.” Luke cooed, staring at his baby daughter’s bright gaze and dimpled smile.

Luke couldn’t believe how blessed he had been in falling in love with someone like you and receiving a gift. The gift being a father to the most beautiful angel in the world with the name Stevie.

“Love you!” You called over hastily make a flee for the master bathroom with the large tub before Stevie objected.

How lucky were you to have a husband like Luke?

Malibu, Patterson home, 2004

Luke, Reggie, Bobby and Alex, better known as Sunset Curve, had become legendary in the music world after their 1995 headliner debut at the Orpheum. In the nine years since the esteemed performance Sunset Curve had released two studio albums and toured four times. With the good times came the bad times as well.

Bobby Willis had decided he wanted to pursue a solo career creating a cavern between all four boys. He would change his name to Trevor Wilson at the suggestion of his label. He had little traction with his songs.

“Daddy!” Squealed, the three old little brunette girl ran through the modest-sized mansion to the man at the door, “I missed you!”

Luke, having memorized the routine, had already left his bag on the ground as his five-year-old daughter launched herself into his arms. Stevie had kept the hazel eyes with the chocolate coloured wavy hair. You could see yourself with her nose, chin, mouth and ears, but the rest is all Luke.

“Bug, you saw Daddy this morning.” You spoke, bringing Luke’s attention to the woman leaning against the wall. Luke’s heart fluttered, taking in the vision of his wife, who inspired so many songs.

Luke’s lips separated to reveal that perfect smile that stilled made your stomach flutter as it had since you were both fifteen. His hazel eyes glanced from your face to the one-year-old on your hip with his eyes closed. Little lips opened with quiet snores.

Hudson Jude was born in December of 2002 thankfully while Sunset Curve was on a break allowing Luke to be there. Hud was a near replica of you with the same eyes as his older sister and father. His infectious personality mimicking his uncle Reggie.

Mitch and Emily’s House May 2002

Last night had been incredible to Luke Patterson as Sunset Curve stood on the stadium stage as the sold-out crowd cheered as the song came to an end. ‘Now or Never’ had a special spot in the band’s hearts as they believed it had been the spark of interest from record execs back in ’95. Luke’s blue electric hung behind him as his best friends, his brothers, came to the edge with him. Grins splitting their faces the four boys grabbed hands and bowed to the audience.

“Thank you so much for coming out!” Luke’s voice reached every corner of the stadium drinking in the cheering and the signs in the crowd. And it felt like just yesterday they played the Orpheum before they hit it big.

The screams growing as Reggie’s winked in the direction of a group of girls, but Luke’s drifted to the VIP section. You stood with Stevie wearing the special headphones to protect her hearing. Her tiny hands clapping as her eyes wandered the large number of people.

The next morning, right now, he was in the living room with his parents, in-laws, his wife and daughter. So much had changed for the vocalist from fleeing this very house to returning to make amends. Now he watched his daughter playing with the toys Emily had found in the attic from Luke’s childhood.

“Hey I got you a gift.” You whispered to the man leaning against your legs on the floor. You sat seated on the couch while the other adults spoke.

“A gift? What for?” Luke questioned leaning to rest his head on your lap. His eyes found the little box you had hidden behind a pillow.

It was small and unassuming to the group in the living room. Luke’s fingers pulled the bow apart before the lid came off. Nestled in the velvet five guitars were. Taking one, Luke read the engraving.

“New Sunset Curve member: Coming December 2002.” Luke whispered blinking as he flipped it to see, “Daddy’s new music buddy.”

You stayed quiet for a moment, “The other ones are for the boys. The back has their names on it.”

“We’re having another baby?” Luke softly asked, turning to face you completely. His eyes wonder-filled at the news, “Oh my gosh!”

“I know. I’m about two months pregnant at this point.” You murmured back cupping his cheeks with the stubble he hadn’t shaved yet. Tears filling both his and your eyes, “With how busy the tour was I lost track of my periods.”

“Oh my gosh. Can I tell them?” Luke pleaded on his knees, bringing the attention of both your parents. Stevie was still so enthralled by her toys she didn’t catch any words..

“Go ahead.” You smiled at the excited man. Facing the other side of the room, Luke nestled into your side on the couch..

Hand pressing on your flat tummy he grinned, “Stevie’s gonna be a big sister.”

Luke was so excited when his second child was born, he was thrilled at having a son; he would have been just as excited for a girl. He had a son and a daughter he loved with everything in him. He collaborated with Lance on a song for his own children just as Lance had.

“Hi Hud,” Luke spoke, stepping close to kiss his son’s sleeping head nestled in your neck, “How’s my gorgeous wife today.”

“Tired. Hud is breaking a new tooth, but Stevie’s been better today. She missed her uncle Alex.” You spoke, looking at your little girl.

Stevie had become Alex’s shadow with the man even buying her a toy drumset for her fifth birthday. Alex and Willie had been away the past two weeks for a honeymoon; they legally couldn’t marry, but that didn’t stop them from having a dedication ceremony. The minute the law changed, you had no doubt Willie and Alex would find their way to a courthouse.

“We all miss Alex.” Luke sighed, “I hope he finds beach sand for the next year, there’s only so much I can take of Reggie. Bobby, Trevor came to the studio today. His sales have dropped, and his label dropped him.”

“He wants to come back?”

“To be fair he never really left the band. He went solo.” Luke admitted, “It’s hard to trust him after he took ‘Get Lost’ from us. At least he didn’t take ‘My Name is Luke’ from us.”

Your hand pushed up the hair hanging in his eyes below the orange beanie that had been a staple outfit piece for years now. Fronts pushed together, Luke kissed you for the first time today other than the quick peck as he left this morning. Hudson had a lousy sleep that left Luke staying up most the night with him.

“At the end of the day, it comes down to Reggie, Alex and you to make that decision. He’s never been a bad person, but maybe he felt like he wasn’t important. How many songs did he write?” You questioned your husband tentatively speaking to not spark his passionate anger.

You saw the annoyance in the crinkle of his nose and his eyebrows almost touching, but it didn’t take from the love in his eyes. With a sigh, he shifted Hudson to his embrace, tugging you to the spacious living room.

“If you look at it outside the band you have Stevie, Hudson and me. You have a family. Alex and Willie are connected at the hip. Reggie is with the band, volunteering at the kids centre, or with Ray.” It seemed it shifted something in Luke. His shoulders relaxed.

“The last few years have been pretty hectic.” Luke admitted watching as Stevie danced to the rock playing on the radio. Her little arms moving as if she was drumming.

Hudson shifted on Luke’s lap as you nestled into his side, watching the little loves you created with soft expressions. Stevie’s bright grin lighting up the room better than the natural light from the windows. The innocence she carried deep in her soul it felt like everything clicked into place.

“Daddy! Watch me!” Stevie giggled jumping as the song changed to Bittersweet by her grandfather Lance. The same song that played in the car accident back in ’96 that had a new meaning with having your own children.

It took a long time before Lance was able to pick up the guitar and perform; his lingering pain in his arm the cause. It took a few surgeries and physiotherapy along with relearning how to play before he performed Bittersweet. Lance performed for the first time live in your hospital room to his first grandchild.

“Whoo Stevie!” Reggie called from the front of the house. Behind him, Alex and Willie joined the same family.

“UNCLE ALEX!” Stevie shouted sprinting towards the tall blonde already crouching for the little girl.

The bond between Stevie and Alex was by far the cutest thing you had ever seen with how Stevie looked up at him. Alex would be the first to suggest tea parties and painting each other’s nails with newspaper for any spills. There wasn’t a better role model for Stevie to love. The bond was reminiscent of Uncle Jesse and Michelle from Full House.

“Ellie!” Alex shouted back swinging the little girl in his hug calling his unique nickname for her. He had taken to shortening her middle name; he really didn’t like when anyone else said it.

Peering over the pink sweater Stevie caught sight of Willie in the door, “Ready Uncle Alex?”

At Alex’s confusion, Stevie wandered over to the skater smiling at the sight of his partner with the little girl. Willie’s brow furrowed as the girl came over to him uncharacteristically.

“Hi.” Stevie spoke, playing with her little fingers, “How was your trip, Uncle Willie?”

A small gasp from both Willie and Alex at the new title given that Stevie was shy with the skater. Stevie had been very excited for her uncle to come back from the honeymoon so she could surprise them.

“What?”

“You married Uncle Alex. That means you’re my uncle now too. Can I call you that?” Stevie’s brows furrowed concentrating on the man with tears in his eyes. The room was silent at Willie collected himself.

“I’d love that Squirt.” Willie choked out when her little arms wrapped around his shoulders, “Learn any new tricks on the drums?”

“Not really! But I lost a tooth!” Stevie excitedly spoke dancing on the balls of her little feet in the kid-sized black vans.

“Oh! Ray wanted me to pass on that he and Rose are pregnant! Baby is a girl due next year.” Reggie gasped, remembering the announcement from lunch at the Molina house, “Ray’s pretty sure they’ll name her Julie.”

The little Patterson girl eagerly informed her uncles on everything that had happened since the dedication ceremony with Willie and Alex. Even the twenty-four hours since she saw Uncle Reggie before breaking out into the dance moves from her dance classes. Hudson now toddling after his older sister with a smile on his little face.

A twist of expressions appeased on the members of Sunset Curve at the same time spoke together. All thinking of a distant vision of a Puerto Rican girl with a blurry face and gorgeous voice.

“Julie Molina? I feel like I know that name?”

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heytherejulietx · 3 years

Note

okay you already know what I want, but that prompt 35 pls and if you want a kissing one with it, top of head kiss would work well 🥰 ILY BESTIE

Hurt / Comfort prompt list.

Kisses prompt list.

Reggie Mantle - Helping the other person when they’re sick and have nobody else to help. | Top of the head kiss.

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Y/N let out a low groan into her pillow when her phone started ringing, the noise so loud it hurt her head, which already felt like she had been hit with a shovel. She reached her arm out and patted across her bedside table for a moment so she didn’t have to open her eyes, which felt like they were glued shut; and managed to knock over a bottle of water and a photo frame in the process. By the time she had picked up the phone she was frowning, huffing as she answered it and put it to her ear.

“Hmm?” She managed to briefly hum as she rolled onto her back, her body aching and sore.

“Good morning sweetcheeks,” Her best friend’s voice boomed over the phone and she groaned, immediately turning the volume down. “Woah, ouch, not happy to hear from me?”

“You’re too loud Reggie,” Y/N complained quietly as she lifted her hand to rub her eyes. “Why are you calling, shouldn’t you be in class?”

“Shouldn’t you?” Reggie countered, and she winced a little.

Y/N had meant to tell him she wouldn’t be in school the night before but she must’ve passed out before she had the chance. She hadn’t been feeling too well for the whole weekend; her fever kept getting worse and each throb of her headache felt like a direct shot to the brain. To make it worse her parents weren’t home as they were out for two weeks on a trip, so she was on her own. And she definitely didn’t have enough energy to even crawl out of bed, let alone go to school.

“Sorry Reg I meant to say, I can’t come in today.”

“Why not?” She could practically hear him pouting over the phone and couldn’t help the slight smile that passed over her lips.

“‘Cause I don’t feel too well. I’ll sleep it off today and I’ll be back tomorrow, promise.” She said quietly, before she lifted her arm to muffle a coughing fit that came along suddenly, leaving her chest and throat burning as she frowned.

“Shit, Y/N, that sounds bad. Are you okay?” Reggie asked, his voice softer than before and full of concern, something rare for the jock. “Can you ask your parents to get you some medicine or something?”

“They’re not home,” Y/N told him, wheezing slightly when she started feeling another coughing fit coming along. “Look Reg I need to go, don’t worry about me I’ll be fine. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Yeah okay, see you.” Reggie responded before she lifted the phone from her ear and ended the call, sighing as she just dropped her phone onto the duvet, too tired to reach over and put it back on her nightstand.

As quickly as she had been woken up her eyes started closing again, drifting off into an uncomfortable and achey sleep that she expected to drift in and out of all day.

What was not expected was a loud knock at her door just over an hour later, followed by four impatient rings of her doorbell.

Y/N scowled as she opened her eyes, hoping whoever was there would go away, though after six more impatient rings of her doorbell and bangs against the door that she was sure could leave a dent she groaned and forced herself out of bed to open the door.

Everything was sore as she got to her feet and shuffled into her slippers, still in the same pyjama trousers and an old Bulldogs jumper that she had stolen from Reggie that she had been in for the whole weekend. Her hair was still up in the same beyond messy bun too, loose hairs spreading out like she had been electrocuted. The flush in her cheeks from her fever was prominent, sticking out against the pale sickly colour of the rest of her face.

By the time she had gotten to the door she was wheezing from another coughing fit, and had to cover her mouth with her arm again as she pulled it open to reveal who was there.

Reggie Mantle.

“M’lady.” He bowed falsely as she had opened the door and she frowned in confusion, eyeing him up.

He was still dressed like he was going to school, his backpack still slung over his shoulder, though in his arms he carried a flask, a handful of sunflowers that looked suspiciously like the ones she had in her front garden, a water bottle, and a bottle of medicine.

“Reggie, what- what are you doing here?” Y/N’s mouth opened as she stared at him, more confused than anything. He didn’t particularly like school but he never skipped Mondays - Mondays were the days for Bulldogs practice.

“I’m here to see my favourite little honey-bun of course.” Reggie teased as he reached out a somehow free hand and gently tapped the edge of her nose before he held everything with two hands again as he stepped inside without waiting for her to let him, allowing the door to shut behind him.

“You have school.” Y/N deadpanned, and he rolled his eyes as he looked at her.

“Thanks Captain Obvious, what a real find you have there.” Reggie responded and Y/N huffed as she crossed her arms.

“No seriously Reg what’re you doing here, you’re gonna miss class and-“ Y/N started before she cut herself off as she started coughing again, wincing as the pain spread through her chest with every cough she let into her sleeve.

“Okay calm down before you end up dying on me,” Reggie shook his head, emptying his arms onto the nearest surface so he could gently rub her back as she coughed. “You said your parents weren’t here and it’s really shitty to have to be sick on your own so I wanted to help.”

When Y/N had turned to look at him he was smiling genuinely which caused a similar expression to form over her lips, thankful that he would do something so kind for her. “Thanks Reg.”

“No problem,” He shook his head, before he paused and moved to grab the flowers again and held them out to her. “These are for you, sugar plum.” He teased and she rolled her eyes but took the flowers nonetheless.

“Thank you, I’ve got some sunflowers just like this outside.” Y/N smiled and almost laughed out loud at the panicked look that briefly crossed his face.

“What a coincidence,” Reggie mumbled, scratching the back of his neck, before he cleared his throat and took the flowers back from her. “Okay, you go get in bed and I’ll get these in a glass and sort everything else out.”

“Everything else? Reggie what-“

“Go, now, don’t make me count to three.” He threatened jokingly, and though she rolled her eyes she still turned to walk back upstairs, leaving Reggie to fumble around downstairs. He had been in her house enough times to know where everything was already. Reggie usually came to her house when things were getting hard with his dad, and although her parents claimed to have no clue what his situation with his dad was like, there was always a blow-up bed prepared on her bedroom floor when he happened to stay for dinner.

Y/N got back into bed and propped her pillows up so she was sat against the headboard, signing as she leaned back. It was another ten minutes before Reggie walked through her bedroom door, carrying a tray with him that he placed on her bedside table. On the tray sat the sunflowers in a glass of water, a bottle of water, a bottle of medicine, and a bowl of soup - which was what she was assuming was in the flask he brought. Even though he didn’t seem like the type, Reggie was an amazing cook, and made the best soup. She had mentioned how much she liked it once, and somehow since then whenever she was feeling sad or unwell Reggie brought her some of his soup for her to have.

Y/N couldn’t help but smile softly as she watched him carefully place the tray down before he moved to sit on the bed beside her, passing over the bowl of soup with a spoon.

“Thank you, Reggie.” Y/N said softly, her voice full of sincerity as she leaned against him slightly, smiling further into her first spoonful of soup when she felt his arm curl around her shoulders.

Y/N and Reggie had always been very close. It was normal for them to hold hands, or for him to carry her, or to pretty much do everything that a couple would do, other than kiss. Half of the time Y/N didn’t know where they stood on terms of their relationship, whether they were best friends or whether they were more, but she knew for a fact that she wouldn’t trade it for anything; she had the best person on the planet all to herself.

Y/N ate the soup quietly as she listened to Reggie telling some story about football, letting him do all of the talking as she had the soup that he had made for her. She didn’t look away from him as he spoke, and before she knew it she had finished the whole bowl of soup and half of her bottle of water by the time his story was over.

She wheezed again as she coughed which prompted Reggie to reach over and grab the bottle of medicine, causing her to frown a little.

“The liquid stuff’s really gross.” She pouted, and Reggie just rolled his eyes as he poured a spoonful out.

“Take it or I’ll spoon feed you.” Reggie threatened jokingly, and thinking he wouldn’t she just shook her head and didn’t take the spoon from him, leaving him holding it up in the air.

Reggie just shook his head and lifted his spare hand up to her, a finger underneath her chin which he used to tilt her head upwards. Her mouth fell agape upon shock of the action, her heart suddenly fluttering in her chest madly, so he used the opportunity to fit the spoon into her mouth so she could have the medicine.

Y/N pulled a face as soon as the bitter taste hit her tongue which prompted the jock to laugh as he took the spoon back, and handed her the water bottle to wash away the bad taste.

“Aww you’re so cute, you know that snookums?” He teased as he tucked her underneath his arm again, and she just groaned quietly as she nudged his ribs with her elbow.

“Cut it with the pet names, Mantle.” She huffed quietly as she let her head drop to rest on his shoulder.

“Why, pumpkin, you’re just way too adorable to stop.” Reggie teased again and grinned, causing her to just roll her eyes in response.

After a moment she watched as Reggie reached over to her bedside table to grab her hairbrush, and before she could ask what he was doing, she felt his fingers carefully pull the current hair tie out of her hair before he started running the brush through her hair gently. Her eyes fluttered closed as he brushed her hair, and then ran his fingers through it after; which caused butterflies to pool in her stomach and a stupid girlish smile to paint over her lips.

She stayed quiet for another few moments as she leaned into him, fiddling with the sleeves of his jumper she was wearing to keep her fingers busy before she turned her head to look up at him again once he had finished brushing her hair, leaving it in a loose ponytail once he was done. “Thank you for coming today,” She said softly, meeting his eyes as he smiled genuinely too. “It means a lot.”

“It’s no problem, I just didn’t want you to be alone.” He said softly and shrugged a little.

Y/N smiled softly, though yawned before she could say anything else, her eyes closing for a brief moment. With being exhausted from being sick anyways, paired with the warm soup in her belly and the comforting arm around her shoulders, it was extremely tempting to fall asleep there and then.

“Get some sleep,” Reggie mumbled as he gently rubbed her arm, prompting her eyes to close properly. “I’ll still be here when you wake up.”

“Thanks Reg.” Y/N whispered softly with a sleepy smile across her lips.

“Of course.” He muttered, and pressed a kiss to the top of her head which caused her to smile a little more as she relaxed into him, sleepy and happy in the arm of her best friend.

Best friend, though maybe more.

#amber’s writing #userlourdes #riverdale #reggie mantle #reggie mantle x reader #reggie mantle x y/n #reggie mantle fluff

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karlajoyner · 3 years

Text

Stressed Out (Sunset Curve x Reader)

A/n: So starting off I've made a master list that I'm posting real soon for you all to access my stories without the scrolling. In order to post it I have to update my post about my requests/taglist and soon because I do get a lot on that comments that ask for more Charlie or more Owen and I wanna give you guys that but I also wanna make sure that I get through the requests that you guys send me with plots and storylines. It just makes it like a thousand times easier to have something to work off of. Opposed to me coming up with my own storylines that I have to do a lot of reading on my own to get my gears working! But again thank you guys for the comments! And finally I wanna say thank you for sending in your requests and your feed back. It is much appreciated!

Disclaimer: Alex is bi in this one not taking away from the fact that he's gay in the show it just runs best for this storyline! There is no Bobby btw! Haven’t written a foursome with 3 guys before so it might suck ass. And it’s not much but it’s something so enjoy my fellow fantoms!

Warnings: Smut (18+)

————

I internally groaned walking into school. I wasn't the worst student. But by far I certainly was not the best. Which is why I had a reputation since I first arrived to high school.

That and I was in a band with 3 of my best friends. Who all happened to be guys. Hot guys at that.

Which automatically made me the schools slut. It was fine with me but the boys didn't like the label.

No matter how true it was.

"Hey y/n heard you gave Mike Dawson a blowjob this weekend. Just when I thought you couldn't be anymore of a slut"

"Mind your fucking business Hayley" I heard a familiar voice speak up for me. A smirk spreading on my face as I felt an arm wrap around my shoulder.

"Did she come to you right after Patterson? What's it like to be her sloppy seconds?" Hayley Becker spoke with a wicked evil smirk plastered on her face.

"Fucking amazing actually. God the long nights we have. It's so great" I heard another familiar voice from my left. A large hand intertwining my fingers with theirs. She rolled her eyes clearly not expecting my boys to speak up for me. But then again neither was I.

"Slut"

"Skank"

"Whore"

"Bitch" I spoke as the bell rang.

"Just watch your back y/l/n" She said before turning around and walking away.

"She will!" Reggie shouted after the dark haired girl. The three of us expectantly looking at our bandmate.

"What? I didn't even get to tell her we would too" I sighed shaking my head at the boy.

"Thanks for sticking up for me guys but I can do that myself"

"We know. But your our girl. And apart of this band so we're kinda obligated" Alex spoke as the four of us walked to first period.

"Your really not"

"Come on y/n you know we're still gonna do it"

"I know and I only let you today cause I can't deal with that bitch at this time of day. I mean seriously it's 8:00 o'clock in the morning. Does she not have anything better to do than spread rumors about me?"

"Apparently not. So you and Jake Mills behind the church?" Reggie asked.

"Didn't happen considering I was with you idiots all weekend. You know your the only guys I touch" I bit my lip hearing the three of them chuckle.

"Yeah well it better stay that way. I don't wanna hear Trevor O'Connor bragging about banging you in the boys locker room again"

"Schools golden boy?" I questioned.

"He tried starting the rumor yesterday during p.e but we quickly shut it down" Reggie explained as I stopped a few feet away from the science room to continue talking.

"So Hayleys boyfriend wants to bang me? Wow"

"Yeah but don't even fucking thing about" Luke said pushing me up against the lockers beside us.

"I wasn't. Unless you guys piss me off" I grinned pushing him off of me. Opening the door a few feet away and walking in.

"Gentlemen. And Ms. y/l/n. Your late"

"Sorry Mrs. Daniels we had to deal with something"

"And did this something give you tardy passes"

"It did not"

"Detention. All of you"

"That's nothing new to them Mrs. Daniels"

"Shut the fuck up Hayley" I scoffed taking my seat beside Alex.

"Ladies stop it before I send you to the principal"

"Yes Mrs. Daniels" Hayley and I spoke in sync.

"I can't believe Luke dated her" I whispered towards Alex glaring at the blonde bimbo.

"Jealous?"

"Why would I be? I already have him. And I could have her boyfriend too if I wanted him" I said taking down the notes on the board.

"Mrs. Daniels I can't focus on the lesson because they're distracting me with their talking" Hayley spoke pointing an accusing finger at us.

"We are not!" I shouted sitting up.

"Yes you are probably talking about who your gonna whore around with next"

"Yeah it's your boyfriend if you don't check yourself Hayley"

"Trevor would never do that!"

"I'm pretty sure he would"

"Ladies principal office right now" I scoffed standing up.

"Wait!" Luke shouted standing up. Everyone's heads whipping toward him. He made his way over to me groping my left boob.

I scowled at how hard he squeezed glaring at him.

"Dickhead" I muttered.

"Mr. Patterson! You too principals office" We looked at the other two boys expectantly. Alex immediately rolling his eyes before standing up.

"We could do this the easy way or the hard way Mrs. Daniels"

"If she goes we go"

"I cannot send you two away for absolutely no reason Reginald" Mrs. Daniels spoke challenging the boys.

I close my eyes preparing myself for what came next. Alex was quick to slap my ass while Reggie pulled me in for a sweet kiss. Immediately earning gasps from my classmates.

"Now I can do it. Office all of you! And detention today after school!"

I groaned walking out of the principals office with my bandmates.

"Detention for 3 weeks. Seriously?"

"To make it worse we have to spend 2 of those with Hayley" I spoke seeing the blonde talking with Trevor just a few feet away. Being sure to send them a harsh glare, I finally turned back to the boys.

"Hey you'll be with us everything's gonna be fine" Reggie said throwing an arm around my shoulder leading me away to our next period. That we conveniently had together.

"No it won't. I also have to chaperone the stupid homecoming with Hayley" I cried wanting nothing more than for the day to be done for.

That afternoon we spent in detention not leaving until late afternoon. Due to the fact that my detention went on longer than the boys.

I walked into the studio behind Luke not really in the mood to practice.

"What's wrong y/n/n? You seem down" Reggie asked as I plopped back onto the couch.

"I'm just tired is all. And a little stressed out"

"But we've gotta practice baby, for our next gig. Sunset Curves so gonna rock that book club" Luke said picking up his six string. I watched as Alex and Reggie sent him a glare, the boy immediately putting it back down.

"Or we could take a day off" He spoke coming to sit to my left while Reggie was on my right.

"That sounds amazing" I mumbled feeling Alex begin to massage my shoulders from behind. I craned my neck allowing him more access. Now feeling a little more relaxed than before.

"So tell us y/n/n why are you stressed out?" Luke asked as I shut my eyes.

"Well for starters I'm so gonna get my ass beat when I get home" I sighed feeling Reggie begin to rub my arm to comfort me. Something he did often with how anxious I got.

"And there's just nothing I want to do more than run your ex girlfriend over with a bulldozer" I mumbled hearing a chuckle escape their lips.

"Sounds like a plan" Alex said as Luke intertwined our fingers.

"We'll make a day out of it. Just us four and a bulldozer" He joked making me giggle. The laugh got caught in my throat as I felt a soft kiss on the side of my neck.

"Seriously guys? Not today. No way" I spoke opening my eyes.

"We just wanna help you relax"

"That's what you said last time. I couldn't walk right for 2 days" I mumbled the last part.

"We'll be gentle" Reggie spoke.

"I know you will Reg. It's them I'm worried about" I spoke earning a pointed look from Alex.

"Okay Luke"

"Am I that rough?" He asked a frown forming on his face.

"Sometimes" I admitted feeling a little bad.

"Gee I'm sorry baby" Luke spoke kissing the back of my hand.

"It's okay. I like it when I'm in the mood" I said watching as Alex walked around the couch.

"Well then boys why don't we help our girl relax for today" Alex said bending down in front of me. I bit my lip as he spread my legs open feeling a slight breeze hit my covered core.

"Well there's no need for your skirt or these" Alex spoke toying with the waistbands of both my skirt and panties.

I shimmied out of them with ease leaving me exposed to my best friends like I'd been many times before.

"She just gets prettier every time"

"And wetter"

"Mind if I taste baby?" Luke asked. I nodded my head, watching as he dipped his long fingers in between my folds. Moaning as he pulled them back up to see them glistening with my cum.

"So good" He whispered putting them in his mouth.

"Okay I want a taste now" Alex said opening my legs a little wider.

"Guys. A little help" I huffed as Luke and Reggie hooked themselves on each of my thighs to keep me still.

"Please" I begged getting more turned on by the second. The blonde didn't hesitate to latch onto my core. A loud moan escaping my lips.

"Oh fuck" I struggled to keep still as he moved his tongue skillfully through my folds. Lapping it inside and out as moans fell from my lips.

I whimpered as Reggie slowly began to rub my clit making the pleasure intensify.

"Use y-you're f-fingers" I mustered out Alex obeying my request sticking two fingers in my wet pussy. Picking up the pace. My eyes screwed shut as a familiar feeling of bliss coursed through me.

"Look at me baby" Luke muttered turning my head to look at him with his free hand. I opened my eyes looking into his blue ones covered with complete lust.

He was quick to smash his lips onto mine as the other two worked on building up my orgasm. Which wasn't far at the pace Alex was working on me.

"Holy shit!" I panted pulling away and throwing my head back at the amazing sensation of my orgasm hitting.

"You squirted princess" Alex grinned wiping away the liquids dribbling down his chin. I giggled at his swollen pink lips placing a quick peck to them.

"What now baby?" Luke asked rubbing his hand on my thigh.

I looked at the three boys before discarding any remaining clothes I had left. Watching as their eyes raked me up and down like many times before.

"Reg can you just fuck me today. I really need gentle" I begged as his cheeks turned bright red whenever I asked him to do something. Whether it was sexual or not.

"Sure beautiful" He smiled lopsidedly pushing his lips onto mine.

I sighed in content as he pushed me down on the couch. My head landing on Luke's lap giving me a little leverage.

"She's something else" Alex spoke to no one in particular.

"Your telling me" Reggie panted pulling away to undo his belt and jeans. I bit my lip looking up at the boy with the blue eyes. Who no surprise had a smirk plastered on his face.

"Condom" I heard Alex say presumably to Reggie. But I was too entrance in Luke's gaze wanting to include him. Upon hearing a ripping of a package I glance back at the boy who was hovering above me.

"I can do something for you after if you want" I bit my lip speaking towards Luke.

"It's okay baby. It's about you today" He said moving his hand down from my collarbone to my boob.

Reggie and I moaned simultaneously as he slowly entered me. Immediately stretching me out.

"So tight" He muttered beginning to move at a steady pace.

A squeal escaping my lips as Luke pinched my nipples paying close attention to each of them. He'd always been a boob guy.

I pulled Reggie down towards me our lips meeting in the middle as his speed began to increase.

Then there they were again. Fingers were now rubbing circles on my clit presumably Alex's sending my body into pure ecstasy.

I moaned loudly into Reggies mouth as I felt myself my inner walls clench around him. Earning a groan from the bassist. His thrust becoming more sloppy.

"Shit. Shit. Oh fuck" He cursed as his orgasm hit. Mine coming seconds after.

"Holy fuck Reg" I panted coming down from my high.

"That was pretty fucking hot princess" Alex spoke as Reggie got off of me to go throw away the condom.

"I try" I joked sitting up. Luke immediately removing his muscle tee and handing it to me.

"You do know this isn't gonna cover much up right?" I questioned him putting it on anyway.

"Who said we wanted you to cover up baby" He said pulling me under his arm. I sighed contently placing my hands on his bare torso.

"Anyways Reg why don't you go run her a bath inside the house" Alex suggested throwing me my panties that had been thrown onto the lazy boy.

"Got it!" Reggie said coming over and placing a chaste kiss to my lips before running out of the garage.

"I get to clean her up in the shower. Called it" Luke said as Alex wrapped his arms around my waist.

"Just as long as I get to put her to bed"

"Guys I've orgasmed twice today give me a break"

"Are you feeling more relaxed princess?"

Alex asked grinning at me.

"Much. Now if we could do that consistently for the next 2 weeks then I might be able to get through detention with Hayley without ripping her head off" I spoke earning a laugh from the two boys. Both of them knowing well that I wasn't joking.

————

Up Next: Carrie Wilson x Reader

Owen Patrick Joyner x Reader

Charlie Gillespie x Reader

Alex x Male Reader

Luke Patterson x Reader

Charlie Gillespie x Reader

————

@lolychu @headheartbellarke @bookish0918 @kcd15 @ifilwtmfc @moviesbooksandfandoms @lovesanimals @lavender-writer @kaitieskidmore1 @morganayennefertyrell @iloveteenwolf @ghostofmgg

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twoidiotwriters1 · 3 years

Text

Written In The Stars CXXXIX (Harry Potter xF!Oc)

A/N: I’m scared to see how you guys will react to this one, hope you at least find it enjoyable despite my very self-indulgent plots -Danny

P.S. Huge s/o to @bwbatta bc I decided to update my fic and now I have pretty dividers in all my books! Most of the ones I ended up using are her work so go check it out :)

Words: 4,641

Series’ Masterlist

Book V // Next Chapter

Listen to: ‘Need Your Love’ -by Joshua Wicker

Chapter One: Dumbledore's Mission.

"A galleon says Erick will crash the car —"

"Shut up!"

"Don't make him nervous," Emily scolded Harry. "If you continue this I won't teach you how to drive!"

"We don't need to learn," Mel snorted. "We'll apparate everywhere..."

"I thought you hated it," Her mother raised a brow.

"Yeah, but she's lazy," Harry smirked.

"Why is Harry here? He's not allowed to leave the house, is he?" Mel frowned.

"He's not allowed to be alone outside, there's a difference. We're babysitting two infants, unfortunately..." Erick taunted.

"What's the matter, Flint? You have stage-fright?" Harry replied.

"Oh please, he feeds on attention! Like a dementor but in a more annoying way..."

"Enough!" Emily looked over her seat. "Is that the kind of things you want to teach your brother?"

"I doubt he'll remember any of this!"

"We know he can do it, Em, we're just teasing," Harry said blithely.

"Yeah, he's the only adult here apart from you, mum. It's kind of his obligation to be good at driving."

The baby let out a squeal of agreement, he was three weeks old but had a good set of lungs that he was happy to use at any given time, especially while everyone was sleeping.

Harry leaned and checked that the baby's blankets. Mel beamed at the sight, the boy had pretty much adopted the boy as his own brother, which she thought made a lot of sense, not only because it was Sirius' son, but because he'd been part of her family for so long that anything else would've been silly.

They were well aware that bringing little Regulus to their driving lessons was a bit risky, but Emily wasn't as keen to leave Mel and Harry alone in the house as she used to, so she put a few safety spells on the chair once the baby was seated while Harry and Mel sat on both sides of it.

Erick turned out to be a good driver, but he still had a bit of trouble understanding how cars worked.

"I have to be pulling and pushing stuff all the time!" He complained as he activated the windshield on accident for the third time. "Why can't I just turn the key and press the pedal?"

"Cars don't work like that," Emily said patiently. "It's complicated, but you're good!"

"He's only gone up and down the street for half an hour, Leggie fell asleep already," The girl huffed.

Emily looked over the seat once again, she was frowning. "Erick, switch seats with Mel."

"You're joking... right?"

"Erick," The woman repeated.

"On it," He said happily. "C'mon Mel, are you scared?"

Ten minutes later, Erick was in the backseat and she was tightly holding onto the wheel.

"I'm doing it!" She said. "Is not that hard, is it?"

"A slug could move faster," Harry was looking at the roof of the car and dying of heat. "I thought you were going to be more... the reckless type of driver."

"Me too..." Erick agreed lazily, he was playing with one of Reggie's feet.

"I'm not going faster, my brother's in the car!" Mel scoffed.

"We're not asking you to! Just enough so we can feel like we're actually moving!"

"Bringing you three was a bad idea," Emily said over the boys' laughter.

"Fine!" Mel pressed down the pedal, the car immediately gaining speed. "I'm was just being careful!"

"Which makes me proud," Emily softly patted her shoulder. "It feels like it was yesterday when you were running around Remus' house in nothing but a diaper and now you're driving!"

"The other night I ran into her wearing no pants, so she's hasn't changed really," Erick murmured nonchalantly. "I stepped on Grey's tail thanks to that... maybe that's why he hates me so much."

"What?" Harry's head snapped to the side so fast he hurt himself.

"I forgot you live here now! Sometimes I sleep like that, s'not a crime!" She looked at Harry through the rearview mirror. "I've been an only child for sixteen years, sometimes I forget there are more than two people in my house..."

"I'm surprised her scream didn't wake up Leon," Erick sniggered.

"He's a heavy sleeper like his dad," Emily responded distractedly.

The conversation died instantly. It wasn't the woman's intention, of course, but it'd been only a few weeks since Sirius' passing, sometimes they would forget for a moment, just a brief second, then one of them would talk about Sirius and everything would start again...

It was painful, and it was weird. Mel had never endured something like this with anyone except Harry. Having a larger group of people sharing the same pain was strangely comforting.

Mel cleared her throat. "It's Harry's turn..."

"I'm okay," He said quickly. "I can learn another day..."

"Glasses, you and I have a tradition of experiencing things at the same time," The girl stopped the car and turned to look at him. "You're not going to ruin our streak. Besides, I need to know if I'm better than you."

Harry stared at her in amusement, then he looked at Erick.

"Is it fun, having her bossing you around all day?"

"I boss her around too," Erick smirked.

"They take turns," Her mother sighed.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Harry gave the woman a look of sympathy as he stepped out of the car.

"There are worse things than being stuck with two pushy teenagers..."

"Hey!"

"Sorry," Emily smirked. "A pushy teenager and a pushy adult."

"If it annoys you that much I'll move out," Mel offered humorously. "What d'you say, Prince? Should we try our luck outside our comfort zone?"

"You wouldn't last a day," Erick taunted.

"Fiddlesticks," Mel muttered, to which Harry laughed.

It was around three in the morning when someone knocked on her door. She'd been awake for a while now, so she stood up and opened it.

"Hi," She rubbed her eyes. "What's up?"

"Can't sleep," Erick mumbled. "Care if I stay a moment?"

"Go ahead..."

She went back to bed, Erick sat at the edge and stared at her for a moment. Grey let out a sleepy growl, curling further away from his reach. Erick pulled out his pocket watch, now hanging from a chain he'd found in Regulus Black's room back in Grimmauld Place. The reason why he'd taken it was unknown to Mel.

"What's up?" She mumbled, suppressing a yawn.

"I'm thinking."

"About?"

"How lucky I am."

Mel let out a puff of air without replying. He would do this often, say he was lucky to be there, that she'd saved his life... She just wanted him to shut up.

"I really don't want to punch you, Prince, I'd ruin your pretty nose."

He smiled, unbothered.

"You know, a few years ago you would've been pleased to hear me say that, you ungrateful git."

"Yeah well, a few years ago my biggest dream was to become a princess," She joked. "So you see my priorities were a bit messed up..."

"You'd make a cute princess."

"C'mon —"

"I mean it."

"Erick," Mel said in a tone of warning. "Stop."

He'd been acting like that for a whole week: flirting when no one was around, complimenting her... Mel had closed up so tightly around herself that she was barely capable of saying I love you to her mum. Erick had lived deprived of affection his whole life and was just getting out of that environment. At what point had she become the cold, distant one, and he the ray of sunshine?

She knew right away what he was trying to do, but she was so numb... Mel cared about him, but she was not there yet.

Erick leaned on the wall and tilted his head a bit so he could look at her.

"I'm sorry."

"Why?" She replied. "It's not your fault... I just — I need time."

He nodded shortly.

"We can talk later?"

He was wonderful, but she was in the middle of all that was wrong in their world, right next to Harry and the lifeline that she still hadn't decided whether she wanted to keep or not.

"We should go to bed," She murmured, still unable to make any real decisions for herself.

"Yeah," He stood up, carefully putting the blankets back in place and dropping them all over Grey on purpose. He put the watch back in his pocket as well. "Sweet dreams, Mely."

The Ministry of Magic

PROTECTING YOUR HOME AND FAMILY AGAINST DARK FORCES

The Wizarding community is currently under threat from an organization calling itself the Death Eaters. Observing the following simple security guidelines will help protect you, your family, and your home from attack.

"I have a better way to protect our house," Erick groaned, he was gently rubbing his temples. "Let Leon cry the whole night and not even Voldemort will try to enter... I myself am starting to consider living on the street just to get away from the noise."

"S'not that bad," She answered, the dark circles under her eyes giving her away. "It's hard to get used to being a human, you know?"

"Look at this," Emily unfolded the newspaper. "'Scrimgeour succeeds Fudge' — Well, haven't met him yet but I hope he's got a bit of brain, Tonks told me a few months back that he's certainly a bit brisker..."

The doorbell rang and Mel left to open the door.

The routine at that point was established even if it had been only two weeks since their arrival; Erick got used to life at Privet Drive quite easily, he spent two whole days examining every corner of the kitchen, and when Mel showed him what a movie was, he wasted a whole day in the drawing-room watching the movie adaptations of the books she'd lent to him.

Harry would go daily to check on"Reg". Once he'd stayed the night but refused to sleep in Mel's room, not that she'd tried to convince him otherwise.

"Goodmorning," She opened the door without paying attention, "you're a bit late for breakfast but I'll let it pass as soon as you —"

She stopped talking at the sight of her great-uncle, Dumbledore smiled at her and walked in.

"I can't stay for breakfast, but I dare say I regret it deeply."

"Professor... I — Is everything okay?"

"Certainly."

"To what do we owe the pleasure?"

Mel turned to see her mother standing near the stairs, gazing at Dumbledore coldly.

"Emily," Dumbledore said. "Good morning... I'm here to speak with Mr Flint."

"Is he in trouble?"

"Quite the contrary, I believe he's never been better."

"Professor," Erick's posture changed when he walked into the room, suddenly he looked more like a young man and less like a boy. "What can I do for you?"

"I have a mission for you... Mel as well, but only if she wishes to go."

"She's not of age," The woman replied quickly.

Mel was ready to accept whatever it was he wanted her to do, she needed to feel like she was doing something. Although she wasn't exactly happy to see him so soon after the end of their last term.

"As I said, only if she wishes to come. I assure you she'd be safe."

The girl looked at her mother and then at the men standing in front of her.

"Can I hear what this is about first?"

Emily crossed her arms without uttering a word, her uncle signalled towards the couch.

"A word, then?"

Erick nodded, making a beeline to the closest armchair. Emily turned to leave, but Dumbledore spoke again.

"You can stay."

The woman shared a look with her daughter, Mel couldn't hide her eagerness to hear what the old man had to say.

"I won't sit there and watch history repeat itself," Emily sighed.

The woman left before Mel could say anything. She would talk to her later, but first, she needed to talk to Dumbledore.

"I beg you not to interrupt me while I speak."

Both pupils silently agreed to his petition.

"Now, I find myself in need of a new Professor, but the man I'd been contemplating for the job has been on the run for almost a year — He's not guilty of any crimes," He added, noticing the way their faces grew worried. "He's just afraid like everyone else... I need you to track him down and point me to where he is so I can have a word with him."

"I'll do it," Erick responded instantly.

"Alone?" Mel frowned.

Dumbledore stared at her for a second too long.

"If I remember correctly today is your sixteenth birthday, isn't it?"

"Yes."

"Mr Flint turned seventeen in January — You may know that's considered to be the start of our adulthood."

"Yes."

"Erick is allowed to do magic outside school... But you still have a year left."

"I don't see —"

"You have Matthew's spirit when it comes to saving a friend, Mel. When you were eleven you left this house with Hagrid so you could look for Harry yourself... The time has come for me to finally be honest with you."

"What do you mean 'finally'?" The words were burning a hole in her brain. "You mean all the things you told me when I was in your office last month... that wasn't it?"

Erick stared at them with polite interest, even though she knew he was dying to ask. Mel hadn't told him a thing about that night out of respect for Harry's privacy.

"That was all I had to tell you regarding the Harry," Dumbledore replied. "There are plenty of things I haven't said, and I wish to talk about them with you."

"And if I agree to go with Erick on this mission... you'll tell me?" Mel raised a brow.

"I'll tell you whether you help me with this or not, but I believe there's nothing else I can teach you, Mel. All that's left for you is to start putting your knowledge to use; I recommend you to go on this mission."

"What about my animagus lessons?"

"Ah, yes," Dumbledore smiled. "I'll help you with that, but that'll be it. You've concluded your lessons with the highest marks, dear girl."

She would've been elated hadn't been because of the strange way her uncle was acting.

"Aren't you happy?" Erick nudged her arm gently. "You've worked hard for years, you should be proud!"

"I am proud," Mel replied shortly. "And I'd love to help, but I can't leave my family, it's not safe."

"They'd go to the burrow if you leave."

"What about Harry?"

"He'll go to the burrow too, but I have a few matters to attend with his family first."

"If Mel wants to stay that's alright, I can go on my own —"

"You can't."

Erick looked at her irritated.

"It's not like you can do magic outside school."

"It takes more than magic to survive out there — You don't know how to blend in with the muggles, do you?"

"You can discuss this throughout the day," Dumbledore grabbed a letter from his pocket. "In this, you'll find all about Horace Slughorn's last known whereabouts and a picture so you can identify him. If you do, don't approach, he'll know you're following him. As soon as you find him come back to Privet Drive and write to me."

"This is all just in case we decide to go, right?"

"I'm going," Erick scowled at her.

"We'll talk about this after dinner," She glared back.

Dumbledore stood up and they followed, Emily was at the entrance ready to let him out.

"I'll wait for your response, then," Her uncle stared at her for a moment. "You and Harry..."

"We haven't decided," She was quick to reply. "We need time."

"Very well."

"You're quiet."

"I have a lot to think about."

Her day had been slightly ruined by her great-uncle's visit. Although Lupin had been there for a couple of hours and stayed for dinner. Mel and Erick talked about the mission and she'd promised to tell Harry after the party was over, which was now.

The Slytherin was upstairs taking a shower and Emily was putting Reggie to bed. Mel and Harry were sitting on the grass, watching the stars above them. She'd fallen into contemplative silence, pondering what to do. She could go chase some stranger for Dumbledore's benefit, or she could stay and look after her family.

"This would be much easier if my mum had asked me to stay!" She pouted.

"I reckon she knows that," Harry responded, throwing small rocks over the fence.

"Won't you?"

"Hmm?"

"You won't ask me to stay?"

Harry stared at her.

"No."

He didn't explain his reasons, but he didn't need to. Mel had made up her mind even if she didn't want to admit it. That was exactly why she was so upset, she wanted to look after her family, but her responsibilities were keeping her apart. Three years of hard work had led to this, and although Mel was a big sister now, winning the war was more important than changing diapers.

Her mother was a whole different problem too. Around them she was always cheery, but Mel was sure she'd heard her cry when none of the boys was around to hear.

She believed it was about Sirius, but it could also be about her and Harry, that she was scared for them. Mel didn't have the heart to lie if her mother were to ask about the prophecy. It was, as they had agreed without even having to speak about it, too much weight to put on their loved one's shoulders. The idea of Emily, the closest thing to a mother Harry ever had, finding out there was a big chance one of them would die after having lost Sirius in such a brutal way...

"I don't think I'll be able to look at Dumbledore in the eye if I come back empty-handed..."

"You're one of the best witches I know," Harry shrugged. "You'll be fine, just try not to murder Flint while you're away."

"He's less annoying now," She grinned. "Ever since he left his parents' house, dunno, he's improved. Although I might murder him if he doesn't stop —"

She was going to say 'flirting', but for some reason, she didn't feel ready to talk about that with Harry. She wasn't ready for anything and yet the world was forcing her to keep moving, it was exhausting.

Mel got up and offered her hand to her friend.

"Do you remember when you were just Harry and I was just Mel, and we were the odd kids at school?" She fixed her gaze on her bedroom window. "Wish we could go back to that."

"When I didn't know I was a wizard?"

"Things were easier back then, don't you think?"

"Maybe," He retorted. "But they were never entirely good."

In Harry, Mel found another reason to stay.

They could have the summer to talk about the things they needed to. She would stare at his aged features and compare them to the ones of that young boy she used to call her best friend...

Their bond still had thousands of cracks that had to be fixed, Mel was having a hard time letting him in again and they needed to be okay in order to know if they wanted to keep the lifeline or not. It wasn't that she didn't want to like him, she wanted the comfort he used to provide, the warmth and security of having someone who understood.

He knew it, and he was trying his best to not mess it up, but Mel didn't want to love him again, cutting the lifeline was the best way to assure that... It was easier said than done, though.

Harry was confused. Sometimes it felt like nothing would ever happen, then an overwhelming affection would crush his chest whenever Mel laughed or touched him. He didn't want to put a name to it, he was terrified of saying it, even to himself. All he knew was that the connection was a way to make sure Mel would be safe, and he didn't want to give that up.

"I should go."

"Yeah..."

"Happy birthday," He said. "I have to be honest and tell you that your present was meant to be sent last Christmas, but..."

"I didn't give you a present either, it's okay... I'm a bit angry though, that was a missed opportunity, I could've won."

Harry laughed.

"You'll have a new chance this year, but I doubt you'll be able to beat me — I've already gotten yours..."

"It's July!"

"I know," His smile vanished suddenly, then he added. "Be careful out there, please."

"Erick'll make sure I don't do anything stupid," Mel smiled. "He's so obsessed with protecting me — as if he didn't know I can do it alone just fine!"

"Yeah, but now's different."

"Different how?"

"We need you alive," He told her. "You want to live long enough to become Headmistress, right?"

Mel froze, not knowing what to answer.

"What?" Harry tilted his head.

"I lied," She blurted out. "I never wanted to be Headmistress — I saw you that night, in the mirror... I saw..."

"What?" He asked again, this time softer.

"You kissed me. A real kiss... like the type we used to gawk at as children."

Harry cleared his throat. "Oh."

A tense silence surrounded them. The variations of colour in his eyes were remarkably easy to notice from where she was standing. She was tilting her head up now, perhaps they were too close.

"Be careful."

"You told me that already," Mel whispered, unable to look away. "Anything else you'd like to say?"

"Yes," He paused, his eyes took a quick glance to her lips. "But if I say it you'll get mad."

Harry kissed her, Mel responded by pulling him down.

It was hard to tell whether she was euphoric or scared, perhaps both, or perhaps neither. As soon as it happened Harry jumped away, and she was dropped back into reality.

"I can't do it — We haven't talked about the lifeline — We won't make the right choice if we let our feelings —"

"You're right! Yes!" Mel said, acting just as agitated. "It's a terrible idea — I like you, but—"

"—it's confusing," He said anxiously. "Do you have feelings for me?"

"Do you have feelings for me?" Mel asked in a high-pitched voice.

"No!" He responded, but his voice trembled with a lack of confidence. "I care about you a lot —"

"— I care for you too —"

"— But just —"

"— as friends!"

They stared at each other with the same frightened expression.

"I'm sorry if I made things uncomfortable," He groaned, running a hand through his hair. "I... I don't want to lose you."

"We need to spend some time apart," She nodded, avoiding his eyes. "We can ignore this happened, right?"

"Absolutely," He agreed. "You're spending the summer at the burrow?"

"My mum and my brother will be there, so I kind of have to... is that okay?"

"It's okay," Harry looked around. "We... we should go."

"Did you ever regret falling for my dad?" Mel asked randomly. "I mean, you ever wonder how things would've turned out if you'd stayed as friends?"

Emily stopped folding her clothes.

"Something nagging that head of yours?"

"I think relationships are a waste of time. They all break and you always end up hurting..."

"What makes you think such nonsense?" Emily raised a brow, leaning back on the couch. "Who are you and what did you do to my daughter?"

"You don't think that way?" She asked doubtfully.

"Because I lost my partners that means I have to be bitter?"

"I didn't mean it like that," Mel replied quickly. "But... yeah."

Emily remained silent for a moment, gathering her thoughts.

"Solitude can do weird things to your heart, love. It can pull you towards bad or good places... People that make you feel a little less lonesome, someone who understands you. You should hold onto that for as long as you can, no matter how scary it is. You never know what wonderful things may bring you..."

"Sirius said something similar a year ago," Mel said quietly. "Something about finding my equal, that the earth's full of options and stuff..."

"I won't force you to find a partner if that's not what you want, but you're young and the world is big, you can't turn your back on every opportunity."

"It's not like I have lots of prospects right now..." She huffed.

"You don't need lots, just the right one."

Mel hesitated for a moment, then added:

"I know you used to have a crush on James Potter."

Emily looked up from the laundry again, she raised a brow. "Oh?"

"I know it was a long time ago," She shifted in her place awkwardly. "But do you ever wonder what would've happened if you two..?"

The woman sighed.

"Only once."

"When?"

"When I found out Voldemort was after his son," She folded the last shirt and handed it to Mel. "I asked myself if I had made the right choice by giving him up... When I look at you I know it was the right thing to do. What happened to James and Lily... it was horrible, but it wasn't my fault. I was happy with your father; maybe Matthew wasn't my first love, but when it comes to this, your first love rarely is the one that lasts."

"Mel?" Erick walked into the room. "If we're planning to drive around all day tomorrow, you should sleep," He nodded shortly at both of them and left the room, her mother chuckled.

"You know, Erick reminds me of your father... I know Sirius said he was like his brother, but Regulus made all the wrong choices... Erick's done all this for himself, to be better. Just like Matty."

Mel's gaze lingered on the doorway long after Erick had left.

"Thank you, for letting me go," She sighed, looking back at the woman. "I don't love following Dumbledore's orders but I... I want to make this world a better place."

"Love," Emily cupped her face adoringly. "I know why you're doing this. Just how I knew why you flew that car to save Harry, and why you went to the Ministry... but you're my daughter, and it's my job to worry about you anyway."

Erick and Mel took three changes of clothing and put them in the trunk, Emily gave them muggle money. Mel had a fake driver's license as well as Erick, and they would take turns driving. Harry was nowhere to be seen, but it was expected since it was five in the morning. She hadn't mentioned the kiss to either her mother or Erick, she was determined to keep it that way, much like the whole lifeline stuff and the prophecy.

'Just pile more secrets on top, why don't you,' She thought bitterly as she walked out of the house.

Emily hugged both and let them kiss Reggie goodbye, Mel promised they would see each other soon, and Erick vowed he'd make sure Mel would be safe (she snorted loudly at this). Once inside the car, her friend took a deep breath.

"Ready?"

"This isn't our first adventure, Prince."

"This one's the first we do with permission."

"You're an adult, you don't need anyone's approval."

"You know what I mean," He rolled his eyes.

"Sorry. I get defensive when I'm —"

"I know," He sighed. "I talk too much when I'm worried."

"I know," She put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed lightly. "I'm ready... We'll be okay."

Next Chapter —>

Taglist.

@dee123ksha @vampiregirl1797 @siriuslysirius1107 @stardusthigh @mikariell95 @vernon-dursley @thesuitelifeofafangirl @tomshollandz @wlwmaximoff @reverse-hxlland @hamiltonwc @omiwashere @t-rexs-world @just-here-to-escape-from-reality @21bruhs @i-am-scared-and-useless-bisexual @dielgonacoffee @thelastpyle

#twoidiots writing #hp fanfic #Harry Potter #harry potter xoc #harry potter fanfiction #WITT fic

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writingformymentalhealth · 3 years

Text

Chapter 7

Josephine Fawley or as her brother liked to call her the tomboy Princess had a striking romance with Hogwarts very own Pureblood rebel Sirius Black.

Sadly her parents deemed his Brother the so called Slytherin Prince as a better fit and arranged a marriage with the younger Black.

Tw: Arranged marriage, possible smut, swear words, lots of fluff, angst,

Part 1

Part 8

Masterlist

Wattpad

The next morning, Joey woke up to an empty bed. Everything was folded neatly, and it looked like the bed had been untouched for the night and even though she felt hostile towards the Slytherin, she would have preferred to wake up next to a familiar face instead of a cold and empty room.

Sighing, she put on a dress, guessing that Orion and Walburga probably weren’t the breakfast in Pyjama kind of people.

In the dining room she only found Regulus eating his breakfast while reading the newspaper thoroughly.

She cleared her throat. “Morning.”

“Good Morning, Kreacher will bring you breakfast in a minute.”

She nodded, sitting down next to him, nervously playing with her hair till the house-elf brought her breakfast.

“My Parents aren’t going to be home till the evening and I have no idea where Sirius went.” Regulus informed her, not looking up from his newspaper.

She let her mind wander to Sirius; he was drunk yesterday and although she wished it was different; she doubted that Sirius Black would want to be the dirty little secret of somebody - yet alone herself. She looked at her fiancée who didn’t even spare her a look and had to blink back tears - she was in for a lonely summer and probably an even lonelier life.

She shuddered thinking about her married life with Regulus, her only source of affection being cold gazes and snippy comments.

After both teens finished their breakfast, Regulus got up, making his way to the door.

“Can we explore the house today?” The words tumbled out of her mouth before she could stop them.

“I live here there is nothing to explore.”

“I don’t live here.” She said, fully aware of how pleading her voice sounded.

“There is nothing interesting here, besides maybe Sirius room - if you are into half naked woman on motorcycles, but I guess you already explored that thoroughly.”

“Reggie-” the nickname slipped from her lips so easily that it surprised even herself. She expected Regulus to be angry, but he just nodded curtly.

“Alright I’ll give you a tour.”

He walked her through the hallways showing her some of the guest rooms that all had a similar eerie decor that made Joey’s hair stand up.

“Told you.” He muttered after guest room number three, but Joey was adamant about seeing every room in the enormous mansion.

The last door of the hallway looked different, less dusty, and Regulus hesitated before opening it.

The room was beautiful. Huge bookshelves decorated the walls, a comfortable-looking sofa next to a fireplace, and a huge piano in the middle of the room.

“I like this room,” Regulus informed her, his eyes slipping over the furniture as if he wanted to make sure that nothing was missing

“It’s beautiful.” she walked to the piano, gently caressing the expensive wood. “Can you play?”

“A little.”

“Play for me.”

“Is this an order?” Regulus asked and Joey felt her body tense up, although the boy didn’t seem angry, just curious.

“Just hoping you will consider my request.”

He made a smacking sound with his mouth before his long, slender fingers found their way to the piano keys. He started playing a melody that Joey didn’t know, but she liked it, and most importantly she liked how regulus looked when playing the piano. So peaceful, so emotional, so young, so very human. Joey found herself fascinated by the boy she saw, and she clapped excitedly after he finished his play and for a short second she thought she almost saw him smile a little.

But his face soon became cold again as he informed her he had some work for his parents to do and she was welcome to look around on her own.

Shocked by his sudden change in demeanor, Joey just nodded, making her way back to Regulus room, plopping herself on the bed trying to read a book.

The next few days went by in a blur, the Black parents being occupied by something they called ‘important business’, Regulus practically ignoring her and Sirius still not coming back.

It was Monday evening during dinner that Sirius decided to rejoin the Black household.

“Late as always,” Walburga sneered as the boy sat down opposite of Joey.

Sirius stayed silent, shoving food inside his mouth while Walburga went on about what a disappointment Sirius was. Joey opened her mouth to say something, but Regulus shook his head, giving her a warning glare.

“And now to you,” Walburga said, looking at Joey and regulus, “you seem so distant with each other, why don’t you hold hands or something?”

Orion snorted dismissively. “They sleep in the same room I’m sure they are far past hand holding.”Joey felt her cheeks heat up as the two adults talked about her sex life so nonchalantly and her eyes automatically looked to Sirius, her subconscious still holding on to all the years that he has been her comfort but Sirius eyes were filled with something that could only be described as pure rage as he glared at his brother who didn’t even flinch under the older Black boy’s gaze instead he swiftly slipped his hand into her’s.

Sirius looked ready to burst and Joey felt comfort in Regulus casually holding her hand as Sirius stood up abruptly, walking up the wooden stairs in his room.

Joey’s heart sank. She hated it when Sirius got angry, especially when it was because of her, but there was nothing she could do for this situation - at least till the adults were asleep.

It was past midnight as Joey slipped into Sirius’ room, half expecting him to be fast asleep but instead finding his head in his hands sitting on the floor next to a fist shaped hole in the wall.

“Sirius.”

She didn’t get an answer she slowly made her way towards him as if he was a wild animal. Joey lowered herself next to the trembling boy’s body, reaching out a hand to comfort him but stopping a few inches before his skin.

Was it okay for him if she comforted him? After all, he wasn’t hers anymore.

Did he even want to see her?

Was he sad or mad?

“I’m sorry,” she stated, not sure for what exactly she was apologizing for.

The drunk make-out session? The break up? The hand holding?

“It’s just so unfair.” he breathed. “You’re the girl who called me an asshole the first time we spoke. The girl who tried to pay for our sweets even after she learned I am a Black and have more than enough money. You’re the girl who risked falling out of the window to feed the orphaned birds, who makes my breath hitch whether you’re wearing a tight dress or oversized sweatpants. You’re- “ he paused, his grey eyes locking with her green ones “You are my girl.”

She swallowed thickly. “I’m sorry. For what it’s worth heart still belongs to you.”

“But everything else belongs to my brother, doesn’t it?” Joey shuffled away at the sudden harshness of his voice.

“He didn’t touch me, if that’s what you’re asking.”

Some emotion swirled in his grey eyes, making her bite her lip.

“Do you love him?”

“No. You’re the only one for me, you’ll always be.”

Tears started pooling in her eyes as she faced the bitter truth her words held.

“You feel nothing for him?” Sirius clarified, shifting closer to her.

“Nothing, he is just the guy I am forced to marry.”

And then Sirius’ lips crashed against hers, holding her body close as if he was scared she might disappear. She buried her head in his neck, pressing kisses there too, inhaling his familiar scent of expensive cologne and smoke.

“It’s only for our parents? You don’t like being close to him?” Sirius asked for the hundredth time, searching her eyes for any sign of a lie.

“Yes Sirius. You are the only one I want to be close to.” He nodded, letting his head fall back down on her chest. “I still need to sleep in his room though.” She said, playing with Sirius’ soft locks.

He gripped the sheet tightly, trying to control the boiling anger that came with the image of his girl sleeping next to his baby brother. “I Hate him”

“He did nothing wrong, Siri.”

He gave her a dirty look. “He touched you.”

“For your parents. Now c’mon let me leave before we both fall asleep.”

Sirius grumbled as he pushed his body off of her so she could get up.

“Wait,” he said as she went to the door. She turned around, seeing a grinning Sirius handing her one of his shirts. “wear this.”

“Sirius-“

“It’s one of the shirts my mother purchased, she could never make out which shirt belonged to Regulus and which one was mine.” He grinned mischievously, “but Regulus can.

She rolled her eyes although taking the shirt out of his hand. “You’re such a child, Black.”

With one swift motion, she pulled her shirt over her head, practically feeling Sirius’ dark eyes boring into her body before she pulled over his oversized shirt.

Sirius smirked darkly, “Perfect.”

She rolled her eyes again before sneaking out of the door into Regulus room, only stopping in her treks as she found Regulus wide awake writing something on his desk instead of finding him fast asleep as she expected.

“I thought you were asleep.” She stammered awkwardly as his gaze met hers.

“I don’t usually sleep early.”

“But you are always awake before me?”

“I don’t sleep much.”

“We always went to bed together,” she exclaimed, puzzled by the boy’s behavior.

“Figured I’d be less awkward like that.”

Joey blinked slowly. Her brain couldn’t fathom Regulus black sitting somewhere thinking how he could make things less awkward for the girl he was forced to marry.

“That’s” she paused, clearing her throat, “very kind of you.”

He didn’t answer, turning around and packing away his things. And Joey had the feeling that she was supposed to say something, but she didn’t know what.

“I suppose you made up.” He said turning around gesturing to her shirt, “assuming that’s his shirt.”

“Uh yeah.” He nodded, pulling his shirt over his head before slipping under the covers. “So you always go to sleep when I go to sleep?” She asked awkwardly.

“No. I am going to bed, sometimes I fall asleep eventually sometimes I wait till you sleep to get up and read something downstairs.” He said, turning to the side, clearly signaling that the conversation is over.

Even though Joey thought she would have a good night’s sleep, being in the clear with Sirius and all, she couldn’t help but toss and turn in bed, Regulus confession stirring up a weird feeling in her stomach. Only an arm's length away from her Regulus too couldn’t sleep. Seeing Joey in his brother’s shirt, her legs covered in dark hickeys for some reason rubbed him the wrong way.

Next part

Hope you liked it :)

What do you think about reg and Joey ?

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tangledstarlight · 4 years

Text

hi im back again with another jatp 5+1 thing because i have no self control and work has been real slow lately. this time it started because i was thinking about the plants in the studio garage and who watered them yknow?? and well. now we have this. i’m very sorry.

sidenote: this is apparently turning into a lil series so if anyones got any ideas of reggie or alex hmu cos im drawing a blank

ANYWAY it’s a 5+1 julie centric with a happy ending because Julie Molina can and will save those boys with the power of love.

also on ao3

trigger warnings! death mentions (because they’re ghosts (also her mother is yknow. dead)), mild swearing.

one.

When she was six Julie had made a very detailed presentation - including glitter and coloured print outs, courtesy of Carrie’s printer - on why she should be allowed to get a pet fish. There had been charts and graphs - because she’d seen someone on tv using charts and graphs and getting what they wanted so obviously it was the way to go - and little hands outs in the form of flyers and posters she’d found in the school library.

She’d stood in front of her parents in the living room, Carrie holding up the bar graph, Flynn supporting the pie chart, and she had made her case. She had promised to feed them, to help clean out the tank and filter. She’d pointed out how having a fish didn’t need walking and that they were quiet and there was never really any mess to clean up. A fish would be the perfect pet.

A week later on a sunny Saturday morning, the three Molina’s walked into a pet store. Julie had done a lot of thinking in the last week about what kind of fish she wanted. Carrie, Flynn and herself had spent a painstaking afternoon looking through photos on google until they found the perfect fish.

So she almost didn’t notice the tank in the back corner of the store that looked a little dark and dingy, with two fish swimming aimlessly around the decoration-less tank. There wasn’t anything particularly special or different about these fish, they looked like every other goldfish she’d ever seen. Yellow-gold scales, large eyes, fins that always reminded her of wings, one of them seemed to be turning almost white while the other had little spots of black mixing with the gold.

Julie tilted her head as she peered into the tank, blowing a stray curl out of her face as she furrowed her brow. She couldn’t say why, but these fish just seemed so very sad to her.

“They’re sad,” she said out loud, looking over at her parents where they were standing talking to a shop assistant about different types of tanks. “Why are they by themselves?”

“Those two are returns. Kid didn’t want them anymore so they bought them back,” the man said, already sounding bored of the conversation. But the frown on Julie's face deepened as she looked back at the fish. No wonder they were sad. Pulling her lower lip between her teeth, Julie looked around at all the other fish tanks around her, at all the bright happy fish swimming around and made up her mind.

“Can we get these two please?” She pointed at the tank in front of her, careful not to touch the glass because she didn’t want to scare them. That would be a terrible first introduction.

“I thought you wanted one of the ones with orange and black splotches?” Her mom said coming to stand next to her, because that’s all she’d been talking about on the drive over. About the fish that she’d wanted. Julie nodded her head quickly and then shook it once, hair flying in front of her face again that her mom gently moved away.

“I did! But these two are sad and no one wants them which isn’t fair. They didn’t do anything wrong. But I want them. And I’ll look after them and love them and they can be happy! Please momma, these ones?” Julie watched as her parents exchanged a look, eyebrows raising and lips twitching. She didn’t know what any of it meant, but her dad said something about needing a tank big enough for two and forty-five minutes later they were leaving the shop with a tank and two sad looking fish.

Julie had been so engrossed in looking at her new fish, naming them and telling them all about their new home and how they were going to be able to see the TV so clearly from their spot in the living room that she didn’t hear the shop assistants comment about how they probably only had a few months left to live.

Two years later as Juile went about her usual Saturday morning routine of breakfast and cartoons and pretending to help her mom with the crossword she paused to say hello to her fish. Empty bowl in her hand and halfway to the kitchen when she looked into the tank and felt her heart drop.

“Mom! Dad!”

Her parents both came rushing in from the kitchen at her distressed call, finding her staring into the glass tank she had taken hours to decorate with silent tears dripping down her face as the two fish floated listless at the top.

“Oh sweetie,” her mom said, a hand resting on her chest and as she wrapped her other arm around her daughter's shoulders, pulling her close to her side.

“They’re dead,” Julie said quietly, because she had done all her research two years ago about fish and how to look after them and what they liked. And how to tell if they were dead.

“Yeah they are,” her mom gave her a gentle squeeze, turning her away from the tank and leading her to the sofa so they could sit down. “But you gave them the best two years with the way you looked after them. Decorating their home and making sure they got only the best food and keeping them company. They weren’t so sad anymore.”

And Julie just nods her head, wiping tears away on her sleeves and swallowing when she feels more tears welling in her eyes.

“Can we bury them?”

“Of course we can mija. There's that old shoe box in the closet upstairs, why don’t you go get it and we can decorate it for them, huh? Put their names on it, make it look nice,” her dad, perched on the arm of the sofa said, running one hand over her hair as he smiled down at her.

“Okay.”

They bury the two fish in a cardboard shoe box decorated with glitter and stickers in the back garden, next to a little flower bed near the studio garage and Julie cries again but it’s not so sad. Because she had given her fish the two best years she could and her mom is holding her hand while her dad has her hugged to his side. And maybe death isn’t so sad if they’ve lived a happy long life.

two.

The plant sat on her desk staring at her.

Okay, so maybe it wasn’t staring at her, because it was a plant and, as far as Julie knew, plants couldn’t stare. But if they could this one would be.

Actually it would probably be glaring at her. Using it’s last dregs of life to make sure it’s murderer knew what they had done and felt guilty about it.

Julie hadn’t meant to kill the little plant. She’d just… forgotten it was sitting on her windowsill in her bedroom, in direct sight of the sun everyday for the last three months. Without getting watered once.

She was eleven years old and a plant killer.

Julie dropped her head into her hands and let out a groan, throwing herself backwards onto her bed so only her feet were dangling off the end. That’s how her mom finds her twenty minutes later.

“Everything okay in here?” She asked, a laugh in her tone that just makes Julie groan again.

“No!” She whines, not sitting up but at least moving her hands from in front of her face as her mom comes further into her room and sits on the edge of her bed.

“What’s wrong, sweetie?”

“I killed the plant,” Julie mutters, a pout on her lips as her eyebrows are drawn together and she glares at the ceiling. Just how she’d imagined the plant glaring at her.

“Ah,” is all she gets in response which just makes Julie glare harder at her ceiling, even as she feels tears pooling in her eyes.

“I’m a plant killer mom. Does that make me a bad person?”

She can almost feel the shock coming from her mom as she looks down at her, eyes a little wide as the older woman shakes her head. And then her eyes soften and she’s pulling Julie up so they’re sitting side by side on the bed, looking at the plant she has murdered by default.

“Oh Julie. Did you mean to kill the plant?” She asks and Julie immediately shakes her head, hair flying everywhere and eyes widening in horror at the thought.

“No! Of course I didn’t! I swear!”

“Well there you go then. You just made a mistake my love, everyone makes mistakes. Sometimes they can lead things like a plant dying,” her mom gestures in front of them with one hand while the other brushes tears off her cheeks. “Sometimes they can lead to bad things happening to someone else. But it’s what you do in response to your mistake that really matters. You’re not a bad person Julie, I don’t even think you’d know how to be a bad person.”

Julie sniffed, eyes locked on the plant as she thought over her mom's words and what they meant and what she could do with them.

“Can we get a new plant? And maybe– maybe keep it in the studio so I’ll remember to water it when I go practice?” She turned her eyes up to her mom and was greeted with a wide smile, eyes crinkling at the corners.

“That sounds like a great plan!”

three.

Sometimes you make friends when you’re a little kid and just assume they’re always going to be in your life. Because when you’re a little kid and when you say someone is your best friend, you mean it, whole heartedly and without a single doubt in your mind.

For as long as Julie can remember it had always been the two of them.

Julie and Carrie.

Carrie and Julie.

Best friends forever.

She knew they had met because their parents knew each other, that they’d always gone to the same schools, the same parks. She knew that when Carrie’s mom had left her dad spent three weeks drinking and shouting and playing music too loud, that Carrie had spent the majority of those three weeks at her house. She knew that whenever she learnt a new song that Carrie would have a dance routine worked out within hours.

Julie knew that no matter what went right or wrong in her life, Carrie would be there to have her back.

Because they were best friends.

Nothing had ever really changed in their friendship, not even when they’d met Flynn on the first day of first grade and immediately decided their duo was now a trio. Because they were kids, and when kids declared they were best friends, they meant it.

At least Julie had meant it.

Now, curled up under the covers on her bed, tear tracks on her face and a headache forming behind her eyes, she starts to wonder if Carrie had ever meant it. She starts to reevaluate their entire friendship, her entire childhood. There’s very few memories of the last fourteen years of her life that don’t involve Carrie in some way.

That thought just makes a fresh wave of tears fill her eyes and dampen her pillow.

The words are still echoing in her head. The tone she had used, the hand on her hip, the tossing of her hair, the look of disgust on her face. Julie had seen it all before, she’d just never seen if directed at her or Flynn.

“Don’t you get it? We are not friends anymore. I don’t hang out with pathetic losers like you.”

Around and around in her head the words bounced. Julie doesn’t know what changed from Friday afternoon to Monday morning, doesn’t know what she did or didn’t do, doesn’t know how she’s meant to react other than crying.

Which is apparently one of the many, many, things that make her a pathetic loser.

Along with being childish and unfashionable and boring and not the right type of person for Dirty Candi – a group that Julie had helped her form, encouraged her to start, helped brainstorm a name for and decide on who would wear which colour. A band, that no Julie thought about it, she had never been asked to join. Not once during the whole process did it ever come up.

Julie had never even seen the distance growing between them. Hadn’t noticed when Carrie decided on who she wanted to be, and who that person was didn’t need someone like Julie around.

Twenty minutes later, with Julie still hiding under her duvet and some playlist of sad songs playing on youtube, Flynn comes through the door. Dropping her bag next to the bed and joining her under the covers. Julie turns to face her, closing out of the app so they’re left in silence. Flynn’s been crying too, she notes, because Carrie had ended her friendship with both of them. Said mean and hurtful things about both of them.

“Carrie’s a bitch,” Flynn mutters her eyes on the ceiling but there’s no real heat in her words. They’re both too in shock and sadness right now, Julie realises. Do you have to go through the five stages of grief even if the person you lost hasn’t died? She’s never thought about that before.

“Yeah, she is,” Julie agrees. Because it’s true. Carrie has always been a little bit of a bitch, she’s just never directed it at them. In fact she’d never actually been so outright mean to anyone and in the back of her mind, Julie wonders what happened in the forty eight hours that they didn’t see her.

They’ll probably never find out the answer to that question. It’s just a fact of life that Julie is going to have to come to terms with, she supposes. Her and Carrie had been best friends once. They weren’t anymore.

Her mom finds them twenty minutes later still tucked under the duvet and concocting plans on how they can possibly egg Carries house without being caught. She leans against the doorframe, her cheek pressing to the wood as she crosses her arms over her chest and smiles at them both.

“How about I make us some hot chocolate and we come up with a plan that doesn’t involve you two doing anything illegal, huh?” And who are they to say no to hot chocolate when they’re sad?

four.

Music had never been about being the best or winning or even competitions to Julie. It had always been about the emotions, the lyrics, the actual music. That’s not to say she didn’t like it when she won though. Because she did. She very much liked it when a group of strangers gathered together and decided she was the best of the bunch.

So it also hurt when she didn’t win. Even if the loss was deserved. She’d messed up the intro to the song, had forgotten some of the lyrics half way through, had even been a little out of tune at the beginning she knew.

So she knew she wasn’t going to win. But it still sucked. It especially sucked when Carrie strolled past, tossing her hair over her shoulder and glancing in her direction before saying something that made her friends laugh long and loud. Julie felt her face flushing, tucked a stray curl behind her ear before pulling it back free and trying to hide her face behind it.

It wasn’t that losing in a silly school music competition was really a big deal. It was just one really bad performance that just happened to be a little more important than any of her previous ones. It didn’t count for a grade, it wouldn’t go on her report card or in her file. It was something she’d signed up for for fun. For a laugh.

She just happened to be the one people were laughing at. Which just, it really sucked. There was no other way to describe it.

She said as much later when she sat on the sofa and Carlos wandered into the room, a box of cereal tucked under one arm with a handful of the stuff in the other, and asked what was wrong. He stands in silence for a few seconds, stuff the cereal into his mouth before coming to some kind of conclusion and sitting next to her on the sofa, offering her some of his cereal. It’s enough to jerk a surprised laugh out of Julie as she accepts the offer.

“You’re way better than all those people at your school. I should know, I have to listen to you sing all the time,” he says it so matter of factly. And even though he’s nine year old and hasn’t heard anyone else from her school perform (other than Carrie and Flynn, but he dislikes Carrie on principle and knows that Flynn didn’t perform) Julie finds herself believing him for a moment.

She leans back on the sofa, pulling Carlos down with her with one arm around his shoulders until they’re sprawled together, box of cereal between them.

“You’re a good brother,” she mutters, tries to make it sound like a rare admittance to the fact, even if Julie often thinks it.

“In that case will you watch Ben10 with me? There’s new episodes out.” He grins at her, big and toothy because he knows that she doesn’t like the animation of the new Ben10 but that she’s never quite been able to say no to him when he asks.

So Julie huffs out a sigh, disentangles her arms from around his shoulders to reach for the remote and flips through the channels until she finds the right one then settles back down next to him.

They share the box of cereal, sheepish smiles on their faces when their mom comes through half an hour later and finds them covered in crumbs and giggling at the screen. She just shakes her head at them, but there’s a fond sort of smile on her lips that Julie knows means she’s more amused then annoyed.

As they all sit around the dinner table later that evening, Julie arguing with Carlos about how much better the original Ben10 was and her dad nodding along as if he knows what they’re talking about and her mom humming some new song she’s been working on under her breath, she forgets all about losing some silly little music competition.

five.

Julie had never really thought about it before – mostly because she’d never had to spend much time in one – but hospitals were strange places.

They were a bit like airports she decided. Places where time lost all sense of reality. It must have something to do with the lights, she thinks, how they’re never turned off. You could walk into one at two in the afternoon (lights bright) and leave at three in the morning (the lights still bright) without even realising it had been more than an hour.

The difference was, she supposed, that if you were in an airport you were probably going somewhere nice and fun. You might even get a fun meal and a new book. There’d be people crowded at the windows to wave at planes as they left. An airport was a strange place but it had an underlying feeling of fun and excitement about it.

Hospitals just screamed dread and worry. And, if she could go her whole life without ever stepping foot in another hospital Julie would.

She finds herself thinking the same thing about the studio garage as she stands outside it. One door is open and she can see half the piano, papers sitting on the top and the plants she had helped pick out waiting to be watered.

That’s why she’s stood there, she needs to go in and water the plants. But she just can’t make herself take the next step, the one that will have her crossing the door and being inside. Julie doesn’t think she’s ever been inside the studio without her mom. Or without knowing that her mom would be joining her inside in a few minutes.

Julie doesn’t know how long she stands there for, one hand gripping the door handle tightly while the other shakes at her hand, fingers trying to find purchase in the soft material of her black skirt.

She needs to water the plants, it’s the only thing in her mind.

She needs to water the plants because she had promised her mom she’d water them when they’d gone to the store to pick them out even though they’d split it between them.

She needs to water the plants because it’s been a week and they’ll start to die soon and Julie doesn’t want to be a plant murder again.

She needs to water the plants because her mom is dead and it's her job now.

Flynn finds her still standing there, staring at the piano and the plants and the quite empty room. Dimly, Julie notices the black dress her friend is wearing, the muted accessories and the concern in her eyes.

“Hey,” she says. And it’s quiet, careful in a way that Flynn is rarely quiet and careful when she speaks.

“I need to water the plants.” Is all Julie can say, unable to draw her eyes away from where they are in the garage.

Because she needs to water the plants but she can’t make herself step foot in the garage because her mom is dead and it’s the funeral in an hour but she needs to water the plants because there’s no one else who knows where the watering can is or which ones need spraying instead but she can’t move because her mom is dead and the studio is quite and the plants are dying and her mom is dead.

“Okay. Okay, how about you tell me what to do and I’ll water them, yeah?” Flynn is holding her hand, the one she’d had gripped painfully tight to the door handle. Julie doesn’t even know when she took it. She’s not sure if she nods or makes some kind of sound, all she knows is that Flynn is squeezing her hand quickly and then she’s in the studio garage and following the instructions Julie forces past her lips.

When she’s done Flynn helps her close the door, lock it up and leads her back into the house. There’s family and friends already milling about. Offering condolences and deepest regrets and offering empty help. Julie can see her dad and Tia Victoria talking to a large group of people. Can see them keeping it together.

She can see Carlos sitting at the dining room table with an untouched mug of something in front of him and watches as Carrie sits down next to him. Watches as she says something that makes him smile just a little, because Carrie had always been able to make Carlos smile, even when he was mad or upset at them all. They used to joke it was her super power.

Julie didn’t even know Carrie was coming today. Doesn’t know how she’s meant to feel about it either.

As if sensing them looking Carrie looks up, makes eye contact and gives her a small smile, a tilt of her head. There’s something in her eyes that Julie can’t decipher. Doesn’t have the energy to try to. Flynn squeezes her hand once even as Julie nods back at Carrie. They haven’t been friends in a long time, but they used to be best friends and Carrie had once been like family.

She supposes it makes sense that Carrie is here. That she is sitting next to Carlos and talking to him quietly. That she can see Mr Wilson talking to her dad. It’s been a long time since either of them were in this house and Julie wishes that they weren’t here because of this.

Julie supposes she should be good at losing things and people by now. She’s learnt to deal with it via a fish and plants and friends. She’d just never thought the thing she’d be losing would be her mom. That she would have to find a way through all this hurt without her mom by her side. Because she had always been by her side through every other loss.

She cries quietly, stood in the kitchen with Flynn holding her hand tightly and people passing by them with sad looks on their faces and concern in their eyes.

She cries quietly as she thinks about how cruel and awful the world is for taking away one of the people she loves most.

She cries quietly as she wonders how the hell she is supposed to get through it all.

+one.

They’re not sure when it happens or what's changed or what they did. One day they just wake up and things are different.

Or, not different per say, but more how they used to be BHD – before the hot dogs. Which is what the boys insist on calling their stint as ghosts no matter how many times Julie vetoes it. And she’s vetoed it a lot.

Really, the first sign that something had happened should have been the fact Julie walked in on them piled on top of each other on the sofa in the living room, passed out asleep. They were ghosts. Ghosts weren’t meant to sleep. But she brushes it aside, thinks maybe it's more of a reflex thing.

It isn’t until three hours later as she hugs Reggie in celebration of a particularly good shot with the basketball outside that Julie notices the thing that’s different.

She can feel his heart beating in his chest. A steady thumping where there hadn’t been before.

“Reggie…” she starts, eye wide as she looks from his chest to his face, trying to see if he’s noticed. If he knows that his heart is beating blood around his body. But he just looks at her confused, his eyebrows drawing together and his lips quirking to the side like they do when he thinks he’s in trouble.

“I swear I didn’t cheat. I’m just that good!” He holds his hands up in defense, but Julie reaches out to grab his left wrist and cradles it in one hand while she presses two fingers along the inside, trying to find his pulse point like she’s seen doctors do (she blinks back the memories of the last time she saw a doctor press their fingers to someones wrist, searching for something that wasn’t there and the small shake of their head) and letting out a small gasp when she finds it.

“Er what’s going on over here?” Luke asks curiously as he eyes the way Julie is holding Reggies wrist and the growing realisation on Reggie’s face.

Julie doesn’t answer him, just reaches out to grab hold of Luke’s wrist and proceeds to do the same thing. Fingertips pressing into the soft skin on his wrist, and for the first time Julie sees the light blue tell-tale sign of blood flowing through veins under his skin.

And then she feels it, the faint pulsating.

She lets out a choked sob, letting her hand that was holding his wrist steady fly up cover her mouth even as the other stays in place, almost scared that if she moves her fingers the pulse will vanish and with it this strange miracle she thinks they’ve been given.

“Holy shit,” she hears Luke whispers above her and she looks up to see him with his free hand resting over his heart, eyes widening with each beat they can both feel.

She doesn’t have any words to say in response. Holy shit seems to be a pretty accurate reaction. Still holding on to Lukes wrist, Julie turns around to see Alex and Reggie each holding the other's wrist like some strange handshake. Unconsciously they all seem to move towards each other, in awkward small steps as no one is prepared to let go of the other until they stand in a loose circle and Julie can press her fingers into Alex’s free wrist and feel his pulse too.

Three pulses where there hadn't been one before. She lets out a half laugh, half sob.

“Is this real?” Alex asks, his eyes wide with unshed tears, as if he’s holding himself back. And Julie remembers when they all first met and how he’d said he never dealt well with change and how death was a big change and how now. Now they might be going through a bigger one. She lets her fingers slip down from his wrist so she’s holding his hand and squeezes it tightly.

“I think so.”

There has never been any answers for their situation. For being ghosts. For being seen by Julie or seen when they play. Definitely no answers for why they could suddenly be touched or seen by others. (Though secretly, in the dark of her room in the dead of night Julie had wondered if it was love that had done it all. Her love for them, her mom's love for her.)

The last two years had just been them guessing at every turn and getting lucky each time. They had written their own ghostly rule book, and getting a heartbeat again would just have to be the newest chapter.

“We’ll just have to figure it out, like we’ve figured everything else out,” Julie says, squeezing Alex’s hand and Luke’s wrist and smiling wide at Reggie. A few moments of silence pass between them, the boys still feeling their hearts beating, counting each one before it’s broken by a startled gasp and they all look to Luke.

“Hey! Do you think this means we can eat now?” Luke asks, his eyebrows shooting up at the thought. No doubt already planning what he wants from the kitchen.

“Only one way to find out man,” Reggie shrugs but his smile is wide and Julie knows not being able to eat has been one of the biggest disappointments of their afterlife for all three of them.

That’s how her dad and Carlos find them half an hour later, gathered around the island in the kitchen with sandwich ingredients scattered around all available surfaces. And three not-so-ghosts eating their creations as Julie looks on with a wide smile.

“Um–” is all dad gets out, a hand half up in the air as he points at them with confusion. Her dad has been pretty understanding about the whole ‘my band is made up of three teenage ghosts, oh, and by the way they kinda live in our garage’ thing, but she can’t blame him for being confused by this scene. Ghosts aren’t supposed to be able to eat after all.

“Woah what did we miss!?” Carlos, ever the enthusiast for all things ghost related, is already running across the kitchen, pulling out the chair next to Julie’s and kneeling next to her, eyes darting between the three older boys as he leans on the contertop to be even closer. “Are they eating? How are they eating?”

Julie shrugs one shoulder, turning her eyes to Carlos and her dad, who’s moved from the doorway to stand at the end of the island, watching all of them.

“We’re not sure but–” Julie starts only to be cut off by Reggie who drops his sandwich back to his plate and stretches out his arms, one to her dad and one to Carlos with possibly the widest smile Julie has ever seen on him.

“Check this out. Go on, feel y’know, with your middle and forefinger. Right there, yeah.” The four of them watch as her dad and Carlos do as instructed, fingers resting over the pulse points on Reggie’s wrists. Her dad finds it first, and Julie can pinpoint the exact moment he must feel the thrumming of a heartbeat because his eyes widen a fraction even as they fill with tears she hadn’t been expecting.

Which is silly, if she really thinks about it, because the boys have found a way into all their lives and hearts so seamlessly.

Because Reggie spends time with her dad helping out around the kitchen or while he fiddles with his camera and jokes around with Carlos and talks with him late at night when he’s supposed to be sleeping.

Because Alex watches all the terrible telenovela’s with him that her and Carlos hate and asks questions about all the movies they’ve missed, and he spends time helping Carlos with his history homework and practices his ball throwing when their dad is busy.

Because Luke listens to him talk about composition and lighting and perspective with real interest and takes his music suggestions seriously and has been teaching Carlos to play guitar when they think no one is around.

They’ve filled a gap in their family that they hadn’t even realised was there.

It wasn’t like their home was lacking in love and laughter and light, it had just been dimmed down. It was like they’d shut all their curtains after her mom had died, and were making do with a cheap light bulb and rare rays of sunlight that peaked through and lit up their life in tiny bursts.

But then along came three dead teenagers and without them noticing, without Julie even realising, they’d opened up the curtains again. Let all the light stream back in and never asked for anything in return other than being allowed to stick around.

So maybe this was their reward.

As her dad and Carlos worked their way through feeling the pulse on each of the boys, pulling them into hugs and sharing in their excitement, Julie let herself smile, tears trailing down her cheeks as she felt her own heartbeat with one hand over her chest.

She didn’t know if this was her mom’s doing or her own or if they’d just accidentally done it themselves with sheer will power.

All Julie knew was that her boys were here, were breathing and eating, had hearts beating in their chests, and were being given their second chance at life.

All Julie really knew was that she loved them, had hoped for a way to keep them, had proud every bit of love and hope into each hug they’d ever shared.

All Julie knew was that she wished she could thank whoever or whatever it was that was answering her pleaded request and allowing her to keep them.

She doesn’t notice them moving, too busy thinking and sending thanks into the world, but all of a sudden there are three pairs of arms wrapping themselves around her in an uncomfortable and awkward hug. But she doesn’t care. She just grabs onto whoevers arm she can, lets out a small laugh of joy and holds them tight. Never intending on letting them go.

#julie and the phantoms #julie molina #carrie wilson #flynn jatp #luke patterson #alex jatp #reggie jatp #jatp #enjoy!!! sorry the ends a wee bit naff tho i think #rosie vs writing #*#*fics

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jamespotterthefirst · 4 years

Text

Ocean Eyes (Ethan x F!MC)

_______________________________________

Donahue's was far more crowded that night than its usual Friday night tally. The dance floor she had just inhabited with Bryce was brimming with twice the number of dancing couples, all drunker and louder than usual. Lilac didn't mind, though. Everyone in general seemed to be having a good time and the high spirits were almost contagious.

Before she could stop herself, her eyes darted to the same spot at the bar where they had been wandering to all night. He was still there, completely disinterested in the revelry around him, his attention instead on the nearly empty glass of scotch in his hand. He seemed to sense she was looking at him because his piercing blue eyes locked on hers for the first time that night.

Ethan's expression, as usual, was unreadable but the way he looked at her sent a spike of adrenaline through her body. It was almost painful, like looking directly at the sun. Lilac could not look away.

“Lil?”

“Hmm?” she said, finally breaking away from Ethan's spell to look up at Bryce.

Bryce, seemed unfazed by her distraction. If he noticed her exchange with Ethan, he didn't comment on it. “I was saying my surgeon buddies want a game of darts. Want to come with?”

Just then, a tiny figure dropped down next to Lilac in the booth, breathless and flushed. “Don't even think about stealing her away into enemy territory, Lahela,” teased Sienna. “You've been hogging her all night.”

Bryce put up his hands in defeat with his signature, dazzling laugh. “No arguments from me. I know better than to mess with you, Trinh.” Giving them both a mock salute and a wink, he strutted off to meet his friends.

Sienna laughed. Once Bryce was out of earshot, she took a hold of Lilac's arm and leaned in to say in a lovely sing-song voice, “You have an admirer.”

Lilac didn't have to look to know she meant Ethan. “My goodness, he is giving you some serious bedroom eyes,” her friend commented with wonder.

“That's how he always looks.”

“That's how he always looks at you,” Sienna corrected. “Any updates?”

Lilac gave her a noncommittal shrug.

“Things are still…weird,” she allowed, even though “weird” was a poor descriptor. Things between them were downright tense and miserable since their phone call a few days ago.

Lilac cringed inwardly at the memory. Leave it to her to get plastered enough to desperately throw herself at him. Where had she found the courage? Was she really that desperate for Ethan Ramsey? She knew the answer to that immediately.

Sensing the shift in her mood, Sienna rubbed her forearm comfortingly. “This calls for a round. You can tell me all about it over mind numbing alcohol. What do you want? The usual?”

But Lilac shook her head, already standing up. “If I'm going to burden you with my dreadful love life, then drinks are on me.” And before Sienna could protest, she was off to the bar.

Ten minutes later, Lilac thanked Reggie for the drinks, left as generous a tip as her salary allowed, and turned back towards her booth. She only made it half a step when she almost collided into a solid, cable sweater clad chest.

“Oh,” she yelped, ready to apologize. The words were struck dead when her eyes met bright blue ones. She froze, internally hating the fact that someone could paralyze her entirely with just a look.

“Dr. Allende,” Ethan said with a brief nod.

“Dr. Ramsey,” she returned.

The music blared just as loudly as before, bodies moving and dancing all around them, yet all she could hear was the ringing silence between them. Lilac bit her bottom lip anxiously, struggling to find something, anything to say for neither made an effort to move away.

Ethan was giving her that same indiscernible look from before. It was driving her to the brink of insanity. Just when she thought she could decode what it meant, he opened his mouth, as if to say something. He seemed to think better of it because he shook his head so imperceptibly that she might have missed it.

“Enjoy your night, Doctor,” he said instead, before continuing his way.

Lilac blinked, so stunned that she did not even turn to watch him walk away as she always did.

“Oh my God,” Sienna squealed when Lilac rejoined her. “That was the most sexually-charged interaction I've ever seen in my life.”

“He barely said two words to me.”

“It gave me Pride and Prejudice vibes. That scene where Mr. Darcy visits Elizabeth at Charlotte's house and he doesn't know what to say."

Lilac gave her an unmoved glare that did nothing to quell her friend’s amusement.

"What have you done to poor Dr. Ramsey?” Sienna cackled with unconstrained glee.

“Very funny, Sienna.”

“Okay, okay,” she said, sobering up. “No more Austen references, I promise.” She took the drink Lilac offered. “Is he still stalking your Pictagram?”

“Not sure. I stopped checking,” Lilac lied. The last time she looked for the username "ejramsey" in her notifications was the previous night.

“Only one way to find out,” Sienna told her, already scrolling through Lilac’s Pictagram feed on her own phone. It didn't take long for Sienna to freeze, grab Lilac's arm with a sense of urgency, and almost shout, “Lilac, go to your last post right now.”

She did as instructed with some reservation. Her last post had been that very morning, a selfie of her in bed, carefully constructed to appear casual and offhand when the reality was that she took several shots before she settled on one she liked. Lilac had captioned it "good morning" for no particular reason. But then again, was there any real purpose to posting on anything Pictagram?

And there, among the comments mostly from people she hadn't seen or spoken to in years was his.

“He liked it!” Sienna declared, victorious. “And he commented, too.” Her friend said this with a certain finality that suggested the deal was sealed. Lilac and Ethan could practically marry now.

“Is this what made you almost late to work, Allende?”

She reread his comment, unsure what to make of it. In her mind's eye, she could see the small, carefully guarded smirk that would accompany such a comment in real life. A small indicative that he, regardless of what he might say, had a soft spot for her.

“Call this wishful thinking but,” Sienna started, “he is totally flirting with you. In his own weird Ethan Ramsey way made even more bizarre by technology. But flirting nonetheless. ”

Lilac would have immediately disagreed, dismissed the comment, and changed the subject, but her attention was robbed by a post on her Pictagram feed. It was from the man himself, time stamped only a few minutes after hers that morning.

She almost choked on her drink.

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

Ethan was weak-willed and a tad bit pathetic, he had to finally admit that. Nothing else could explain the uncontrollable grin spreading across his face when his phone pinged with the notification: "Pictagram: dr.allende commented on your post."

“Unfair,” was all she had commented.

His grin broadened. God, he knew then why people were so addicted to social media. The thrill of instant gratification he felt then could be sold profitably in doses if it could be bottled.

No, he had reached the ultimate low of weak when he decided he had had enough of being tormented by her posts. He wanted to turn the tables on her and hope he had the same effect on her. The thought that he might have made his stomach swoop.

He took a swig of his drink. What was wrong with him?

When Reggie kicked everyone out a few hours later, Ethan retreated to his favorite lounging area in the now deserted beer garden.

It did not surprise him that she joined him a few minutes later. At her brief hesitation, he nodded, a silent invitation for her to join him.

“You win,” she said by way of greeting, taking a seat next to him on the sofa.

Their bodies were so close that her thigh almost skimmed his. As if that wasn’t enough to wreck his sanity, she was looking at him with a glint in her eye that was telling of the effect his picture had on her.

“What did I win?” he asked, humoring her. In his state of absolute abandon where his defenses had been rendered useless by her mere presence, he could give her anything.

“You win at Pictagram. I could never top that picture.” There was that look of longing again, unmistakable in the golden lights of the beer garden.

She was going to be his demise.

“You’ve already done so,” he said quietly. “Many times.”

Lilac looked up at him, a quirk in her brow. “The green dress?”

There was a moment of silence in which they both remembered that night.

“Yes, but also the one this morning. It was…” again, he was at a loss for words. “Nice,” he finished flatly.

He almost laughed at the inadequacy. The picture inspired this male brain to fantasize about waking up next to her, kissing her neck, making his way lower and lower until her body twisted in pleasure against his mouth. Ten years of higher education proved inefficient at the sight of green eyes, full lips, and bed sheets. He was reduced to the simplest of beings.

“Yours was very... nice too,” she returned, allowing a small pause before the insufficient word. “I miss that sight,” she confessed with no filter.

An all too familiar tug in his chest.

“Earlier, at the bar, when we bumped into each other,” she started when he failed to respond. “You wanted to say something.”

It wasn't a question but an observation.

She knew him so well. Ethan had been arrogant enough to believe he had concealed his intentions so masterfully. Yet, she always saw right through him with the same precision that made her a brilliant doctor.

“What did you want to say?” she asked in the softest of whispers, eyes locked on his.

Ethan himself was not sure what he meant to say. He had seen her, suddenly in front of him, and he wanted to desperately say something. Anything. There had been no point. No words would be sufficient aside from the three that tormented him everyday.

They were fully facing one another now, bodies mere inches apart. Before he realized what he was doing, he raised his hand to brush a strand of hair away from her face. His thumb lingered, stroking a feather light touch on her cheek.

Her eyes fluttered closed and when she opened them again, they dropped directly to his lips.

That was all it took for the last bit of his resolve to break.

“Ethan, I—”

Fueled by weeks of yearning, Ethan interrupted, filling in the distance between them and pressing his lips to hers.

The kiss started with a rough force that she matched at once, their pressed bodies swaying Lilac back and almost toppling him on top of her. She didn't seem to mind, too entranced by moving her lips against his, arms clasped securely around his neck.

Ethan was a fool for ever thinking two months in Brazil would be escape enough when what he wanted the most was right there, on Lilac Allende’s lips.

“How do you do this to me?” he whispered gruffly against her neck, where his lips had found refuge.

Lilac’s response was a soft moan. The things he'd do to hear that sound repeatedly, preferably echoing every wall of his apartment.

Not breaking his lips' ministrations on the ridge of her collarbone, his hands fiddled with the front of her dress. In his eagerness, he struggled with the damned contraption.

“Need help?” she teased breathlessly.

Ethan broke apart to give her a wolfish smirk. She was going to pay for that.

Without warning, he moved his hands to her hips and in one swift movement, he flipped her on top of him. Her skirt rode dangerously high as her thighs straddled him. Lilac's little yelp of surprise gave way to another maddening moan when his fingers lazily brushed the inside of her thigh.

“I can manage, Rookie,” he whispered hotly against her ear. The old nickname had its desired effect for her legs quivered in response.

His small triumph was short lived, however. Her small revenge was swiveling her hips against his entirely. The pulsing, straining front of his trousers came in full contact with her and Ethan groaned.

“I'm not a rookie at this,” she whispered defiantly, moving against him again with agonizing steadiness. “Lucky for you, I know what I'm d—” she broke off, biting her lip in a futile effort to repress a small cry. Ethan had lifted his hips off the sofa with ease, suspending her entire weight against him.

“I know a thing or two as well,” he growled. His fingers moved higher up her thigh.

“I remember.”

“Do you remember moaning my name?”

His hand roughly moved the lacy fabric of her underwear aside.

“Yes,” she gasped.

His fingers teased her.

“Make me scream it,” she begged in a whisper.

Ethan groaned again.

“Lilac,” he muttered huskily, any other coherent thought interrupted by the way she took his lower lip between her teeth.

“I want— ” she started, but was far too distracted by his expert fingers. She buried her face against his shoulder, desperate to stifle her moan.

“What do you want?” he asked, his voice a husky sound deep in his throat.

Before she could answer, however, Reggie's voice called from inside the bar, “Ten minutes, Ethan.”

Thank God Reggie had not bothered to come outside. Otherwise, Ethan would have spent the next five minutes trying to find a sensible reason why his colleague straddled him shamelessly, his hand lost in the depths of her skirt.

They looked at each other through hooded eyes, skin flushed bright.

“Any chance that's enough time for you?” she joked.

Ethan attempted to shoot her a look dripping of indignation, but the effect was ruined by his own chuckle winning out. “You insult me,” he said dryly.

Lilac laughed out loud at that. When she sobered up, she regarded him with a very serious expression. Wordlessly, she pressed a tender kiss against his lips.

“Lilac,” he said softly when they at last broke apart.

“I know,” she said in a small, defeated voice. With that, she carefully climbed off him.

She fixed her dress in thoughtful silence. “You know what this means, right?” she asked, a hint of a mischievous smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. “You posted a devastatingly hot picture on Pictagram to bait me. You won't be able to stop now.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Presumptuous of you to assume it was for your benefit.”

“I'm your only follower.”

Ethan rolled his eyes but he smiled regardless.

“Don't worry. I'll post for you too,” she assured him. “Hope you're ready.”

He laughed despite himself. “Is that a challenge, Dr. Allende?”

Lilac matched his laughter. “Game's afoot, Dr. Ramsey.”

_____________________

AN: THANK YOU for all your wonderful comments on my last one. I appreciate everyone who read, liked, and/or commented!

Masterlist

#ethan ramsey #open heart #ethan x mc #playchoices #choices stories you play #OPH #OH #OHSY #My writing #ethan ramsey fanfiction #Ethan ramsey x mc #dr. ethan ramsey #open heart fanfiction #choices fanfiction

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chaoslaura · 3 years

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Can this be for Willex please. Fluff 11 “I’m so proud of you.”

If it’s ok to ask, can Alex have a bad panic attack when he’s out with Willie.

I know Alex having a panic attack has been done a few times but I always feel like once he’s gone through it, the fic just ends and I’d like to read one where Alex is really embarrassed and Willie is just so caring afterwards and really protective.

Hi hi I loved the Willex prompt you did it was so good. Can I ask for them for a prompt? Fluff 11. “I’m so proud of you” I had an idea Alex has a panic attack, it’s the first time Willie has seen it happen, Willie helps him through it and he says that to Alex

First, thanks for the kind words I’ve gotten so far.

For this prompt I have gotten two requests that were kinda similar, so I mixed them together to create one story, I hope you like it though.

Read it on AO3

Warnings: panic attack, mention of self harm (nails digging into skin)

As someone who has never experienced anxiety or panic attacks, I didn’t feel comfortable to write a full panic attack scene in case I wrote it wrong because the only things I know about it are from reading fics myself. But please feel free to talk to me if I depicted anything wrong.

In retrospect it wasn’t perfectly clear what had set it off. It wasn’t one specific event, or person, or thought, rather the whole day was just one big disaster. From the minute Alex woke up nothing was going according to plan. Which wouldn’t be catastrophic per se but on some days even a minor accident could be enough to push him over the edge, and today these accidents just kept piling on top of each other till Alex couldn’t see over the mountain.

When his phone had gone off with a beeping sound and vibrated on his bedside table and Alex peeled his eyes open, he was confused for a moment. Why wasn’t the sun shining in his face? Alex would always wake up with sunrays covering his bed and face from where he didn’t close the curtains the full way. Liking waking up with the bright sunlight. But this morning it was different.

Peeking at his phone he realized it wasn’t morning at all, that’s why. “8:30? Fuck!” Class would’ve already started by then and Alex was never late. Never. It was one of his fears. Having to come in while every student and every pair of eyes was aimed at him and the teacher was pinning him down with a reproving look and writing with red ink into the class book that he had been late. To Luke and Reggie, it would’ve just been another line next to their name, nothing unusual since they started high school, but to Alex punctuality was a sign of respect and a part of keeping his day together. He always knew when to be where, dragging his other two friends with him because as Julie once said he had their collective brain cell at all times.

With a hop Alex sprung out of bed into the bathroom. While hastily brushing his teeth, he wondered why his parents didn’t wake him up. Didn’t they notice his closed door or his shoes next to the front door? They were aware of Alex schedule; they must have been knowing he was running late so why on earth did they just left for work without waking him? Alex could’ve worried about it for hours but frankly he didn’t have time for thinking about his parent’s behaviour. Not since it changed drastically after they found out about Alex ‘habit’ to kiss guys. More precisely Willie. His boyfriend.

Not having time for dreaming about his perfect boyfriend either, Alex raced back into his room and searched through his wardrobe for his favourite sweater, the pink one, his friends nagged him to get, saying pink was really suiting him and it would piss of his parents for sure.

Coming up with nothing after searching through it for three times, he came to the daunting conclusion it must be in the laundry. It was his feel-good hoodie, it was comfy and soft and warm, and just gave him safety, he really needed it today. Resting his head on the closet door with more force than necessary, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. And one more. Come on you can survive one day without your hoodie. Alex tried to persuade himself and quickly grabbed another Shirt to put on without putting much thought into it.

He decided to skip breakfast, school lunch wasn’t that far away, and headed out of the door after making sure he had at least all the books he needed today. He always packed his bag the evening before but who knows what he could’ve missed. Standing in the front yard of the house, for the second time today, he was confused. Shouldn’t his bike be standing there? Racking his brain and shortly fearing someone stole it, it came back to him. His brother had it today since his own was in repair. Just great. Now he had to walk. Without one of his parents taking him with them in their car, without his bike, and the school bus long gone.

It wasn’t that far, but it meant he would be even later. He at least would miss the whole first period and could walk in the next classroom like everybody else and no one would give him questioning looks. Oh no Alex groaned internally; his next class was math. Right, today was Tuesday and his second period being math with Reggie. Reggie at least had an idea of what topic they covered this week, but Alex was completely lost, and he was pretty sure Mr. Smiths hated him for his lack of knowledge. He was trying, he really did, even hiring Reggie as his tutor but it just wouldn’t stick, and now he had to suffer through it while his brain was already distracted. Hopefully Mr. Smiths wouldn’t pick him today, that’s the last thing he needed.

Taking big steps to hurry up, he arrived quicker than he anticipated. Rushing in and through the hallways he stepped into the room just as the bell rang, indicating class started. Hastily taking his seat next to Reggie, he took his book out of his bag while Reggie fixated him with a questioning look, raised eyebrow and all. ‘Where have you been?’ Reggie mouthed but Alex shook his head, he would explain later. The last thing he wanted was for Mr. Smiths to catch him talking in class and getting another mark.

Even though he was physically there now, his brain decided to race in the other direction. It worked on full speed since he had woken up and concentrating on the math problem written down before him was not achievable. But to his luck Mr. Smiths left him alone and Reggie passed him notes with the right answers to which Alex threw him a grateful smile.

Finally, after two more classes he walked with Luke to the cafeteria only to discover he forgot his money at home. His wallet must be sitting on his desk. Groaning he put his head in his hands and then carded swiftly through his hair with his fingers. He was really hungry, if his grumbling stomach wasn’t indicator enough, after skipping breakfast, but without money there were no possible means to get any food.

Luke sensed Alex distress immediately. “Alex? What is it?” Oh, yeah, Alex almost forgot Luke was beside him, having zoned out completely.

“Forgot my lunch money, tis all.” He replied defeated.

“I buy you one today and you can get me something next week. Don’t worry about it.” Luke gave Alex a pat on the back and marched on towards the doors. “Are you coming or what?” He asked over his shoulder.

Alex was so grateful in that moment but quickly followed his friend.

Sitting down on the table with their plates the others were already there. Meaning Julie, Flynn, and Willie who gave him a short peck on the mouth. “Hello, hotdog.” He greeted Alex with a bright smile Alex could only compare to the sun and a warmth spread through his body, calming him down at least a little, it was a side effect that always came while being in the presence of Willie.

Reggie and Flynn were deep into a conversation about frogs to which Alex could not contribute anything, and Julie and Luke were already discussing songs they could rehearse later the day and Alex wasn’t really in the mood to interfere with them, their energy was too high for him to match right now. Leaning against Willie’s shoulder while his boyfriend scrolled through his Instagram feed on his phone Alex couldn’t help but bounce with his leg up and down. The uncomfortable feeling from this morning still settled deep in his bones and it seemed it wouldn’t leave anytime soon, and Alex knew shaking his legs wouldn’t do anything but there was no harm to try.

A ping signalled an incoming message. Fumbling for his phone in his pockets he instantly regretted pulling it out as soon as he saw the name on the screen. It was his mum and she never messaged him if it wasn’t important and recently important messages meant reminding him to behave.

Wrestling with himself for a short minute he decided to open it and skipped over the text. He must’ve zoned out for a bit because as he came back a hand was seeking out his right one and Alex realized he was biting on the skin around his nails as he did so often unconsciously. Willie took the hand in his and laced their fingers together, giving him a small smile to say he was here. Luke who was sitting on the other side of Alex laid a hand on his shaking knee. “What has gotten you today? Are you okay?” There was always worry weaved in his voice and Alex was again reminded that today isn’t a good one.

Alex didn’t like having the attention on him and he was glad that Reggie and Flynn were still deep in their conversation, knowing it wouldn’t help if they stared at him too. He knew Julie was listening, but she at least scribbled on a piece of paper what could’ve been lyrics and didn’t openly questioned him and his behaviour. Alex knew that his body always betrayed him when he was anxious, showing the tell-tale signs when he was spiralling, and he didn’t have to say anything before one of his friends gave him the opportunity to vent.

Alex sighed deeply. “Just not a good day. And my mum wrote me. My grandparents are coming by this weekend. From my fathers’ side.” Pocketing his phone again to try to get the message out of his mind, he leaned further into Willie and found a pair of arms winding around him but giving him space to breath.

“Shit.” Luke let out. He was the only one of them who had met Alex grandparents, but they all knew how much Alex despised them. Having to put on a front whenever they came around, it was just plain exhausting, and Alex wanted to push away the reminder of their visit until the day arrived.

Alex nodded to show he shared Luke’s sentiment and began to play with the rings on Willie’s finger. Today was truly one bad thing happening after the other and he couldn’t wait till he came home and could slump down on his bed and just breath for a minute before he had to start with his homework.

He asked his English teacher if he could get any extra credits since his essay only got an 80 and his parents wouldn’t be pleased with that result but what else could he do? Hide the paper till his parents found out on their own? No, he needed a plan before he would show the note to his parents and if that meant extra work, so be it.

The end of the school day didn’t come as fast as Alex had hoped, the hours dragging by and with every look to the clock, just a few minutes had passed, and it might have been the slowest time had ever gone by. The buzzing under his skin that had started not shortly after lunch when Alex couldn’t help but overthink what could happen over the weekend didn’t help his nervousness and by the time he left the school building the skin around his nails was red and bitten down and Alex knew he shouldn’t but he had done it for so long it was hard to stop the habit.

Alex decided to walk the way home, the thought of sharing his space with other students on the school bus made his skin crawl, the fresh air should help clear out his head a little bit and he could put his nervous energy into walking. The faster the better till his calves were burning. Before he turned the first corner though, he could hear someone yelling his name behind him. Spinning around in case it was one of his friends he had to discover it was not in fact one of the boys but instead John. John, a guy with the most average name and most average face, had been on his case since he came out in school and hadn’t stopped yet no matter how often Luke threatened him with a serious ‘talking’ after school or Flynn and Julie actually talked with him while letting out their frightening personas that even made Luke and Alex take a step back.

Alex wasn’t in the mood to listen to John’s comments and hastily turned around to continue his run home. Not today. It was the last thing he needed today. With all the spiralling thoughts already spinning in his head he didn’t need another person pulling all his fears to the surface.

Closing the front door behind him Alex didn’t know when or how he arrived at home, the walk was completely erased from his mind, replaced with a static in his head and he realized once he got to his room his breathing had picked up. No no no come on; you know the breathing techniques. He told himself and tried to calm himself while he sat on the ground before his bed, his bag lazily thrown into the corner.

Alex doesn’t actually know how much time had passed until he sensed someone sitting down some distance before him. The tears in his eyes made it difficult to see the room before him clearly and he could only made out the long dark hair and colourful Shirt, trying to concentrate on the pattern.

“Alex?” Willie’s tentative voice pierced through the fog in Alex mind, but he could only nod shortly to indicate he heard him. Speaking was not yet in the realm of the possible.

Some more minutes or what felt more like hours to him, but Alex knew wasn’t the case, Willie’s figure stood more clearly in front of him and the room wasn’t spinning as much. His hands were still shaking and the tear tracks on his cheek still not dried. But it was better.

Willie settled beside him now that Alex could see him. “Hey hotdog.” Alex turned his head to the voice. “Is it okay if I touch you?” Alex gave a quick jerk with the head to say yes, not quite trusting his voice yet.

Slowly and so that Alex could see it in the corner of his eye Willie took Alex hand and opened the fist it was in and turning it around to inspect the crescents indents in the palm of his hand. Deep and red against the skin, not bleeding but he had almost pierced the skin with his nails.

“I’m sorry.” Alex voice was scratchy, and he looked to where Willie was holding him, shame flooding his body as he tried to pull back his hand and hide the dents.

But Willie didn’t let him, gently holding on to the hand and closing his own around it, his attention shifting to Alex face. With his other hand he wiped the remaining tears from the splotchy cheeks and then shifted a bit to rummage through his bag that sat behind him and brought a bottle of water to light. “Here, you need something to drink.” While Alex accepted the drink with a thanks and took a few sips, Willie’s gaze never left him, but Alex realized it was filled with the same affection Willie always looked at him with and not with annoyance or nuisance as he had feared for so long, afraid of what Willie would do or say once he saw that side of him.

Alex wanted to start apologizing again when he put down the bottle, but Willie got ahead of him, “I’m proud of you.” And that put a hold on Alex thoughts because what? “Huh?” Was all that came out of Alex mouth instead from his confusion.

“I mean it. How many times did you go through this already? Even alone? I know it’s terrifying but every time you bounce back, and I think that’s noteworthy.” Willie’s thumb was brushing over the skin on his hand and Alex was almost ready to cry again because no one ever said that to him and all he could see was a bundle of mess sitting in his place in his room, in front of his bed.

“But- but now you have seen what it looks like, how can you still want to be here?” The with me was left unsaid but Alex was sure Willie got it nonetheless.

“Alex, I don’t care how messy it gets, I’m here for you, always.”

To say Alex was grateful was an understatement but then something else came to his mind and he groaned, letting his head fall back against the bed and squeezing his eyes shut, already feeling ashamed. “I forgot our date.” Willie and he were to meet at the skatepark because Willie saw some videos and wanted to recreate some stunts he found cool.

“You didn’t forget. It’s okay, really. We have enough time to catch up.”

Before he could say anything else, they could hear the front door slamming shut and Luke calling Alex name and two pair of feet were heard stamping up the stairs. Alex looked at Willie questioningly. He was perplexed as to why Willie was here but also Reggie and Luke?

Willie looked sheepishly suddenly. “I texted them when I found you here. Sorry, it was the first time seeing you like this, and I was afraid I would do something to make it worse, so I asked them to come around.”

“It’s okay.” Honestly, Alex was a bit relived. The boys knew how to handle him. Did so for years before Alex even knew what was happening with him.

Reggie stayed in the threshold to not crowd him, meanwhile Luke sat down on the other side of Alex, taking him in and examining the situation. “Hey, how are you doing? We came as soon as we got the message, but we were shopping for Julie and Reggie stopped me from ignoring the red lights.”

“Could be better, but I’m okay.” He answered honestly, he knew Luke was always the first to worry over him. But know he was worried what other stupid things besides ignoring traffic laws the boys had done to quickly come to him all the other times before today.

Luke didn’t give him time to ponder over it. “If you good to get up we can take this to the couch.” He proposed.

“Great idea. And I doubt it was ever a better time for ice cream.” Reggie said already on his way to the kitchen.

“You just want to take the opportunity to get your hands on the deluxe stuff Mrs. Mercer always buys.” Luke half yells after him and Willie snickered from where he was still sitting next to Alex, hand clasped around him. Alex meanwhile tried to gather his remaining energy to stand up with a little bit of help from Willie.

The couch was way better than the floor in his room, definitely more comfortable and providing more space for all of them. Alex was seated between Willie’s legs and leaned into his chest, a blanket over them to keep Alex warm and he really appreciated that his boyfriend didn’t left after the whole mess he had to witness. Willie who sensed Alex shift in demeanour and could feel him tensing up against him, hooked his chin over Alex shoulder and whispered in his hear so the other two couldn’t overhear them. “I love you Alex.”

Alex cheeks turned a bit red but luckily no one commented on it, Luke and Reggie were deep into an argument about the best feel-good movie, finally resting the case on Rise of the Guardians while Luke pouted in his corner of the couch that the others weren’t willing to watch Back to the Future. Again. But with a pint of ice cream in his hand, his pout quickly dissolved into a small smile and he regularly glanced beside him to make sure Alex was doing okay.

Alex was indeed content were he was, in the arms of his boyfriend, sharing the ice cream with him, breathing in the scent that relaxed him further until his eyes were almost closing on their own accord. He always got sleepy after, all energy drained from him and he slipped further into the embrace until he fell asleep after initially only wanting to rest his eyes for a bit.

Willie noticed when his boyfriend didn’t try to steel from the ice cream anymore and put it aside in favour of carding through Alex hair, making sure he was comfortable while sleeping.

Luke and Reggie were giving him a thankful smile. “Thank you for being there for him.” Reggie spoke up with much more earnest Willie was used from him.

“I didn’t do anything. I was just nervous to make it worse for him.”

Luke put a hand on his shoulder. “You couldn’t. You did great. Alex has been in a much worse state before we found him. Just stay by his side no matter what. We’re glad he has you. With his parents and these assholes from school, he needs every support he can get even though he wouldn’t admit that so outright.”

Willie smiled to himself. The boys never gave him the stern talking when Alex and him had gotten together but he had sensed the protectiveness coming from them whenever he was around the first times, only fading away after a few months, and Willie would make sure to never get on their bad sides, not that he wanted to. If it meant to stand by Alex side with his anxiety and watch animation movies (or Back to the Future five times for Luke and Star Wars seven times for Reggie) with him and the boys while eating sweets and talking nonsense to distract Alex mind for a while, he wouldn’t trade it for the world.

#julie and the phantoms #willex #alex mercer #willie jatp #luke patterson #reggie peters #mine #my fic

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nobody-wants-ice-cream · 4 years

Text

Everything Wrong With The Umbrella Academy. Episode 1, We Only See Each Other At Weddings and Funerals.

Some context before the cut: This is all in good fun! I wanted to do a really nitpicky re-watch of the series and found some really cool and interesting things I didn’t notice before. This is meant to have a Cinema Sins-esque tone. However, I did take off a lot more sins than Cinema Sins would have because I do genuinely like the series and the people that made it possible. So all of the good things got one sin off and all the bad things got one sin added. This is a really long post, so grab some popcorn. If there’s anything that I missed, feel free to add it!

We Only See Each Other At Weddings And Funerals

The story opens with a random scene. I know why this is important now, but for a first time viewer this is a strange Russian show with no subtitles. Sin for the fact that this opening scene could drive away audiences when they could have opened with Pogo’s monologue or the sudden birth scene. +1

Sudden birth. I know that this is what starts the whole series, but not once do these assholes discuss the implications of sudden birth. That shit is traumatic and must have induced a lot of trauma in the mothers. Sinning for trauma. +1

The russian ladies all help this poor girl. Teamwork and togetherness gets a sin off. -1

How did they get her swimsuit off enough for her to give birth without just taking the whole thing off? Did one woman happen to have a pair of scissors on her so they could cut the crotch? Because one piece suits are not that flexible downstairs. They didn’t take it off her, it’s still covering her. Sinning for lack of realism or explanation. +1

This narration should have happened much sooner. +1

Buying children. Literally buying children. And he gets seven so he buys them wholesale. Seven sins because Sir Reginald Hargreeves is a dick that bought seven children. +7

One sin off for the soundtrack now. All the songs used in this show are bops! -1

Ellen Page starts playing the Lindsey Stirling Phantom of the Opera piece on the lowest string when the piece starts on a high note. One sin for lack of musicality. +1

Minus one sin for Ellen Page’s vibrato. Not many people pretending to play the violin get that so accurate. That or this was the talented body double. Either way one sin off for musicality. -1

“Please send more food” Reginald Hargreeves is a dick to his adopted children. He didn’t feed Luther enough, so who knows what he did to the ones he didn’t like as much. +7

Also, Luther has presumably spent four years in this base on the moon. Did he hit his head every morning? You would think that he would learn to duck. +1

One sin off for the moon plant. -1

I’m taking 10 sins off for the special effects of this entire series. -10

That car transition between Diego’s and Allison’s entrances was out of place. I know it’s meant to show that Allison is far away from the action. But did we really need that? It’s not shown when transitioning from the red carpet to Klaus in rehab. +1

What is keeping the lawnchair that Luther has on the moon down? It looks lightweight. Does he have it nailed to the moon? Is there now a lawnchair on the moon forever? +1

Tom Hopper is an excellent actor. He nailed the “just got the news that my father is dead” without saying a single word. -1

Diego doesn’t bother to untie the family he saves. He caused property damage and severely injured the thugs that broke in. No wonder Patch has a problem with him being a vigilante. +1

“Allison, will you wear Valentino to the funeral” +1

One sin off because Robert Sheehan has already won my heart as Klaus and he hasn’t said a single word yet. And for the little jig he does when he gets the drugs. Interesting choice, but I like it. I could be biased because I’ve watched the series already, but I don’t care. One sin off for Robert Sheehan. -1

Why was Vanya allowed to be playing to this empty theatre with spotlights on her? Does she have an arrangement with maintenance? Is that why the orchestra isn’t set up? +1

One sin off for the Hargreeves mansion. The set designers did an amazing job.-1

Creepy shrine portrait of Five is creepy and somehow manages to not look like Aidan Gallager. This could be a stylistic choice to show that Reggie didn’t care about Five, in which case, another sin for child abuse. +1

Creepy statue of Ben is creepy. And it doesn’t look like Justin Min or Ethan Hwang. Who is this statue honoring? +1

It has been stated that Ben’s death broke up the academy. Yet, the other four assholes stuck around for one more portrait after his death? +1

Vanya doesn’t close the doors behind her when she walks into the mansion. +1

Diego’s outfit is central to introducing his character. However, it is dumb as hell and he probably stabbed himself with the knives in the harness multiple times. Especially the ones on his back. +1

Diego is a dick to Vanya at their father's funeral. I know Reggie was a jackass, but Jesus Christ, Diego. Have some tact. I know this is meant to show that Diego doesn’t have any tact, but this is such a severe line. +1

In the first shot of Reggie’s bedroom there are 6 freaking lamps. What is he, Bella Swan? And later, there are three more. +1

David Castaneda really brings Diego to life with his interaction with Luther in Reggie's bedroom. -1

I know I already took sins off for the special effects, but Pogo deserves another two off. Special Effects team, you did good. -2

“How long has it been since Five dissapered” is the most obvious bit of exposition/foreshadowing. To the point where it reads lazy. Another option would be Vanya asking “How long has it been since” and trailing off from there. Pogo knows what happened. This is a crucial reveal, let the audience wait for it a bit. +1

One sin off for Vanya being a good sister to Five. Fluffernutter sandwiches and leaving the lights on is heartwarming. -1

Props to these child actors for being able to portray the way Reggie treats them and how that affects their emotions in the scene where they wanted to say goodnight to Reggie. -1

However, Reginald Hargreeves is a dick to his adopted children. I will keep sinning this. +7

After Reggie shuns and ignores his children, Luther’s hand on Ben’s shoulder is a subtle way to show that Luther and Ben were sort of close, which is what an excerpt from Vanya’s book implies in the comics. Good job directors or actors for making that choice! -1

Robert Sheehan in the office scene. This is where we meet Klaus as an audience for the first time with dialogue, and he fucking nails it. -1

“Thank God he’s not our real father so we couldn’t inherit those cold dead eyes! Ahh! Number Threee-” The delivery on that line is excellent. -1

Klaus’s dangly necklace that looks kind of like dog tags foreshadowing the real dog tags he wears later on in the show. -1

No way in hell Klaus’s skimpy outfit provided enough concealment for that massive box. In fact, in the shots we do see of his back, we should have seen the outline of the box. +1

Sir Reginald Hargreeves is as obsessed with lamps as he is with collecting children. His office is full of them! +1

“Do you think he wears that thing in the bathroom” “Like in the shower” “Yes, absolutely” Allison and Luther have some good interactions. This is where they really act like siblings making fun of another sibling. -1

A woman who told bedtime stories to her kid about her uncle on the moon forgets that said uncle has been on the moon and judges him when he doesn’t know about her divorce.+1

“Rumor thing” Way to be specific, Luther. +1

Allison’s expression at the family meeting when she takes a sip of her drink. Emmy Raver-Lampman is what makes this character likeable. -1

Reginald Hargreeves was a dick to his children. The whole favorite spot thing? Yeah that. Golden child abuse victim. +7

Sir Reginald playing tennis with Hitler line. -1

Luther accuses his siblings of killing their father. Have some tact man, not at the funeral. This makes sense for the character and his circumstances, but I am still sinning it because Luther doesn’t think he did anything wrong. +1

I feel kind of bad for Luther after his siblings leave the room. Great acting on Tom Hopper’s part. -1

How did Allison get into the bank? +1

Luther straight up throws this man out of a building! That guy is 100% dead. And then he admonishes Five for being a killer later! +1

“Guns are for sissies, real men throw knives!” is a line that would only be spoken by a twelve year old that has never faced the judgement of people he isn’t related to. Also, Diego practiced this line in front of a mirror. +1

But that throw was badass, so... -1

Also, how did Klaus, Diego, Five, and Ben get into the bank as well? We only see Luther enter. And presumably Five teleported in. So were the rest already in there? +1

Five manages to jump faster than a bullet here, but in episode two he’s a lot slower when jumping from one side of the table to the other. You could make the argument that the table is in the way, but there was a human being and a bullet in the way here. +1

“Woah! That’s one badass stapler!” This is the first sin off because Aidan Gallagher can act, and it will not be the last. For all his grumpy 58 year old man, he also manages to shine while playing a young version of said grumpy 58 year old man. You would think that one or the other would be a little weak, but no he nails both performances. -1

But, how did Five switch the gun and the stapler? And why do we never see him do this again with more useful items like a briefcase or one of the machine guns used by the local commission hires? Can he only switch items with a similar mass? How does this power work? +1

Luther is the one that tells Ben that there's more guys in the vault to kill. Not Klaus who could have been like “a ghost said there's more guys in the vault”. What exactly did Klaus do on missions? He isn’t shown helping the hostages or fighting in any way. +1

“I didn’t sign up for this.” yeah Ben, like it’s a summer camp and not your abusive father buying you as an infant and then forcing you to kill people. +1

Kenny’s mom appearance. Also, the woman mixes leopard print leggings, a black dress, a square pattern cardigan, and a hat with stripes and a pom-pom. +1

“Can we go home now” Ethan Hwang had great delivery on that line. -1

Sir Reginald Hargreeves is a dick to his children. He forces 6 of them to kill, and then makes it seem like it’s all fun and games to the one he isolates. +7

When did they get coats and scarves? Did Reggie bring them coats and scarves while coming down to address the crowd? +1

Also, Reggie was on the roof of a different building with vanya! What did the kids do while they were waiting for him? Stand around and look pretty? Not likely, Ben was covered in blood. +1

Also, when did Ben have time to clean up? He is significantly less bloody in the scene where Reggie talks to the press. Yet his mask, uniform, and a bit of his jaw still have blood. This suggests he had time to wipe down. What kind of magic wipes are these that soak up and remove blood quickly and where can I get them? +1

The way the children wear their scarves show their personality. Luther has it done properly, Diego has his flapping around, Allison and Klaus have tied it fashionably, Five has it done well, but not as proper, and Ben has it done like Luthers. Well done costume people or actors who made that character choice. -1

The entire scene when Klaus attempts to summon Reggie from the afterlife. -4

I forgot that Klaus actually calls him Reggie in this scene. I thought it was just a fandom thing lmao. -1

How did Klaus clean up the ashes without leaving evidence on the bar? Did he vacuum it? +1

The cutesy fighting posters are a great set design choice. -1

Allison had her trauma tattoo refreshed at some point. It’s faded on Klaus, but on her it’s perfectly visible and stark. I’m sinning because they don’t show or tell why Allison might want to do this. +1

Also, that guitar Klaus was cuddling in a later scene, was just in the kitchen for some reason. Why? +1

Five and Ben are not part of the I Think We’re Alone Now dance party. I know it’s for plot, but come on! They don’t even have another dance party later to make up for this. +1

Diego and Vanya totally saw each other when Diego went to close the door between the foyer and the living area. +1

Luther and Vanya’s dance moves. No hate on either though because I dance like them if it isn’t swing or any other partnered dance +1

Diego, Klaus, and Allison’s dance moves. -1

Also, the song is heard all the way in the kitchen. There is no soundproofing in this mansion. +1

Luther punching down the airplane is funny. -1

David Castaneda doing those amazing dance moves in character. -1

Oh hello Five. Nice of you to show up and kickstart the plot into being something other than washed up superheroes are really sad and abused. +1

“Daddy!” -1

Why were Five’s powers affecting random objects? +1

Klaus is the only one with self preservation. “I vote for running” +1

“Does anyone else see little Number Five, or is that just me” is a great line because Klaus can see the dead. However, the dead don’t show up in massive portals, otherwise something like that would have happened when we see Dave in The Day That Wasn’t. +1

Five asks for an exact date and then Vanya gives him “the 24th” real specific, Vanya +1

Five doesn’t close the fridge properly because that doesn’t matter in the apocalypse -1

“In the end I had to project my consciousness forward into a suspended quantum state version of myself that exists across every possible instance of time” “That makes no sense” “well it would if you were smarter” the mark of someone being smart is being able to explain concepts like this in layman's terms. If Five were as smart as he said he was, then he could have been able to come up with an analogy. That or the showmakers have no clue what they’re talking about and wrote a bunch of science-y bullshit to make Five sound smart. +1

Diego was ready to throw hands with Five, someone who looks thirteen and was thirteen until Five explained otherwise. +1

“Dolores kept saying the equations were off” so in other words, Five knew that his equations were off, but he still risked it. +1

But also, Five knew his equations were off, but he was so desperate to see his family that he risked it anyway. -1

Nations Gazette paper has articles that look like they’re actually about the headline. -1

“What part of the future do you not understand.” -1

Aidan Gallagher’s delivery in that scene really set the tone for his character. Impressive. -1

Five decides to dress in the full on school boy getup. Complete with the tie and the blazer when those items aren’t necessary. +1

Aidan Gallagher and Ellen Page are two kick ass actors. They play off each other surprisingly well. -1

“You mean like what happened to Ben” “Was it bad?” What happened to Ben? This remains a sin until they explain it. +1

“May the darkness within you find peace in the light” that sounds really bad. What a horrible thing to have on your statue. +1

Jordan Claire Robbins’s performance of Grace -1

Luther and Diego are so emo that they don't need umbrellas. You’re in The Umbrella Academy! This had to be a personal choice to not carry one. +1

Klaus’s face when Luther dumps out the ashes. -1

The camera cuts to Five when Diego says that Mom gave them actual names. -1

The fight between Luther and Diego is stupid. +1

Klaus and Five fight over who is going to protect who. +1

“Stop it!” “Hit him! Hit him!” -1

The detail on Ben’s statue. It shows his toe and knee have been touched many times by people who presumably miss him and love him. -1

Luther punches Ben’s statue in the crotch, which makes Klaus’s face 10x funnier once you remember that Ben was probably there too. -1

Luther punches Ben’s statue in the crotch and beheads it, suggesting that Luther had something to do with Ben’s death. -1

Luther punches Ben’s statue in the crotch. +1

Klaus puts his cigarette out in reggie’s ashes. -1

Reggie narration +1

Reggie is a dick to his kids +7

The stupid, bright green jumpsuits +6

What is the point of this exercise? How does running up the stairs make them better heroes? +1

Young Diego either practiced “That’s not fair, Five’s cheating” or his stutter is only there when the plot calls for it. +1

Child Abuse tattoos +12

The fact that Vanya feels left out because she didn’t get a child abuse tattoo. Reggie, you fucked up these kids real bad. +2

We think that Reggie is comforting Luther after he got a child abuse tattoo, but no, he’s actually just attaching monitors to his head. +1

Reginald Hargreeves likes to watch young children sleep. +7

Vanya foreshadowing. Her monitor showing more activity then the cut to her taking one of the pills is brilliant. -1

Vanya still doesn’t close the academy door behind her when she leaves. +1

“An entire square block, 42 bedrooms 19 bathrooms” Five are you a real-estate agent now? +1

“Dad hated children too, but he had plenty of us!” Klaus would be excellent at cinema sins. Seven more for child abuse +7

What are the rules to Five’s jumps? We only really see him jump to places he can see unless he is time traveling or in the instance where he jumps to the car. Speaking of, the car had the keys in it. Reggie, are you trying to get it stolen +1

Diego is a dick to Allison about her divorce. +1

Klaus and Diego’s interactions make me happy. -1

The Klaus theme is a wonderful piece of music. -1

Robert Sheehan making David Castaneda laugh. -1

We get our first glimpse of Luther’s arm here. It’s super weird and vague and only teases the reveal. This is where the ape reveal should have been for the audience and where it would have made sense. Doing the reveal in a later episode is weird. +1

Five doesn’t know how to break correctly, which contradicts “I know how to do everything” +1

Something I just noticed, Five completed the uniform not only with the tie and blazer, but with the hair gel too. +1

The towing guy chooses to sit next to Five at an empty counter. +1

Five looks so offended when Agnes refers to him as “the kid” -1

The creepy smile Five pulls in an attempt to look innocent doesn’t make Agnes scream in terror. Seriously Aidan Gallagher, what the fuck was that that was absoulutely terrifying. +1

Five attempts to relate to a man that looks the age that he should be, but it ends up exceedingly awkward because Five looks 13. +1

The tow truck driver helps him out, but how was Five going to pay for his coffee? We don’t see him with money. Was he just going to jump out to the car? +1

Five never gets his cup of coffee :( +1

“Istanbul was Constantinople/ Now it’s Istanbul not Constantinople”. This whole scene is great. Five plays with them like he did in the bank scene which shows that even if he did age, he didn’t do it around people so he doesn’t have maturity. -1

Five stabs a guy with a mop and kills him. -1

Five stabs a guy in the crotch with a pencil, then uses the same pencil to stab him in the eye. In between he throws a plate at another guy. This is badass. -1

Five jumps in a way that actually does make two of the idiots shoot each other. Which means that technically, Patch was right. -1

Five kills a man with his bare hands. -1

But he stops to put his fucking tie back on. +1

And yet after all that, the goriest thing is when Five pulls the tracker out of his arm. Props to the makeup department and Aidan Gallagher’s acting skill for making that look so real. -1

Five should be way sweatier when he walks out of Griddys. Unless he moped that up with some napkins? What are these super absorbent napkins and where can I buy them? +1

Agnes should be far more traumatized. And definitely shouldn’t have survived that. +1

Diego is emo with the monocle. +1

Luther flashback narration. +1

Klaus, thankfully interrupts this. -1

“Number 6 “Ben” (deceased)” -1

We can see Ben depending on if it’s Klaus or Diego talking. -1

The vigilante mask Diego wears +1

Five jumpscare in Vanya’s apartment. +1

“Rapists can climb” yes Five. Continue with the criminals that can climb. Including you. +1

This whole scene is the best ending to an episode in the entire season. -1

Aidan Gallagher and Ellen Page play off each other with subtle expressions. This acting talent is amazing. -2

“The world ends in eight days and I have no idea how to stop it” “I’ll put on a pot of coffee” roll credits. I love this ending for many reasons. It’s a total mic drop moment. -2

Overall review:

While actively looking for nitpicky things, I got to see the first in a whole new light. Both the great parts and terrible parts stood out in a way that they didn’t when I wasn’t looking for them. Robert Sheehan, Aidan Gallagher, and Ellen Page were the stand out actors in this episode. All three contributed something significant that didn’t heavily rely on the script writers.

The child cast also really stood out to me. All seven of them had very limited screen time (I am counting Gallagher playing a child version of his character in this assessment) and they absolutely made the best of it. Out of all of them, Ethan Hwang stood out to me because of his overall great delivery. I hope that we see him play Ben in a more in-depth way in season 2.

Don’t get it twisted, I genuinely like this series and I think that it tells a great story. I just think it’s fun to nitpick and look deeper. After over analyzing everything else, it’s time to get back to basics. Especially because the season 2 trailer could drop any day now.

Total: 82 sins

Sentence: Tennis with Hitler and Sir Reginald.

#The Umbrella Academy #all in good fun #luther hargreeves #diego hargreeves #Allison Hargreeves #five hargreeves #ben hargreeves #vanya hargreeves #i worked really hard on this

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only-here-for-jatp · 4 years

Text

The Boy in a Beanie

Couldn’t sleep last night so I wrote a kind of angsty Juke fic.

Luke discovers Julie writing a song with Nick. (Spoilers: He doesn’t like it) https://archiveofourown.org/works/26600749

Julie’s been lost in her own mind for days and frankly it was freaking Luke out. It was totally out of character for her to be so spacey. She’d been missing band practices and running into things and spending a lot of her time in her room, with the band shut out completely. All of the boys were starting to get worried, ever since they’d gained the power of touch they’d gotten used to group hugs and casual touches. Yet with Julie’s brain who knows where she’d barely looked them in the eye. Reggie tried talking to her yesterday, but it was almost like she couldn’t hear him. At one point, they’d tried to have band practice without her, but Luke was too agitated. He couldn’t sit still. It felt like he’d never gone this long without connecting with her and he didn’t like it.

After talking with the guys, they formed a plan to be on Julie watch. One of them would always be within eye or earshot at all times, so they could figure out what was going on. Luke was on first watch the next morning as Julie went to school. He followed her through the halls, always within hearing distance, but she still didn’t seem to notice him.

Eventually, she walked into an empty music room with a piano. She pulled out her songbook and he watched as he saw her eyes focus for the first time in days. That’s what this was all about? Songwriting? Pain sliced across his chest deep. He loved Julie’s songs, but ever since the three ghost boys had busted into her life, they’d always done it together. It was one of the things he’d held most precious about their relationship.

Part of him felt like he should run away and hide. Clearly, she didn’t want any of them to hear this since she’d been ignoring them for days to come here and make music in secret. It felt like the worst kind of betrayal and despite knowing that he was being a little melodramatic since he’d definitely gone on song binges himself before where he’d shut out the world, he couldn’t help the hurt of knowing that Julie had shut them out. That she’d shut him out.

He didn’t think it could get any worse until he watched Nick walk into the room and join her, guitar in hand. Her face lit up at the sight of him and she greeted him enthusiastically. Luke was sure his undead heart was breaking. She’d shut them all out, so she could make music with him. He had to get out of there, he needed his friends. His brothers. He poofed just as she turned his direction, but he was gone so fast she wasn’t even sure he’d been real.

----------

Julie was eternally grateful to the kindhearted Nick. Even after rejecting him, he was still there supporting her and helping her. Besides Luke, he was the best guitar player she knew and the haunting melody drifting just out of reach needed a guitar. The elusive song had been evading her for days, it coiled around her as if it were part of the air she breathed. It all started when the dreams began to keep her up at night and the song played in the background. She would wake not quite remembering it, only for it to slip by her in a daydream.

The song about the boy in the beanie.

She’d been upfront with Nick from the beginning about who the song was for and why it seemed to escape her so. He’d been patient with her these last couple days as they tried combination after combination trying to nail down the melody. The only thing she’d hidden from him were her lyrics.

The chords and notes may be out of her grasp, but she knew the lyrics as if they were her next breath. How could she not, when she knew their subject as if he was an extension of herself. Her partner, her mind reader and god how she missed him. Everything would be so much easier if she could just be working on this with him. But she knew. She knew that he would want to know everything about it. He’d want to know the words and the why and she just wasn’t ready yet. So until then her lyrics were tucked away in a secret container of her dream box, one that she’d never shown the boys given their pension for snooping.

For a brief second she heard the music. Nick played the combination again and it felt right. They’d finally found it. Now that she could pin the first couple chords it felt like the rest laid itself out in front of her. For the first time in days, she felt her mind ease and she sat down at the piano to begin the work of writing it down.

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

Luke’s bandmates looked startled when he popped back into the studio so suddenly, but they could see how agitated he was. They watched him quietly as he paced, his body so tense they thought he might snap with his fist clenched down by his side. It was his face though, that really had them tentative it looked as if he might scream or cry or both. The thought of what he might have seen to make him rush back here, to look like that, it made their nonexistent blood run cold.

Reggie took a cautious step forward to attempt to reach out, but Luke waved him off as he explained what he saw. He could feel the venom in his words, the simmering anger that was feeding off his pain. Alex and Reggie knew him well enough to know, that he needed to get it all out. The hurt of finding her like that, the betrayal of seeing her light up at the sight of Nick. The frustration and fear that comes from the feeling that everything that was most important to you was slipping away. Truth was, Alex and Reggie were feeling a little hurt and a little lost too, so when Luke decided he needed some space they let him go without too much of a fight.

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

Julie had rushed home after school that day, desperate to get back to her boys. Her mind was finally clear after taming the song that had plagued her and the realization of just how much she’d neglected her best friends laid her gut heavy with guilt. She’d been so distracted she’d barely seen them and everything in her needed to reconnect with them once more. To touch them and hold them and ground herself.

When she walked in to find Alex and Reggie sitting on the couch forlornly, she knew her absence had wreaked much more damage than she’d realized. She knelt down in front of these boys that she loved like family and reached out to hold their hands, squeezing tight. At that point they finally looked up at her and for a minute she just looked at them. Really looked at them and she murmured her apologies and reassurances that she was here. That she loved them and missed them.

Reggie gave in first, pulling her onto the couch and enveloping her in a hug. She could feel his sigh of relief as he squeezed just a little bit tighter. Alex looked away bitterly revealing that they knew she’d been writing music with someone else. Worry and pain hit her like a sucker punch to the gut. Luke had been there this morning, had seen her working with Nick.

Oh her poor ghost boy.

She knew she had to tell Alex and Reggie, make them see somehow. So she gently stood and dragged both boys with her to the piano. She pulled a chair up for Reggie so he could be right next to her and sat next to Alex on the bench. Making sure she could maintain contact with both boys she hesitantly lifted her fingers to the piano and played her new song.

She could tell the moment they fit the pieces together. Reggie sat straight up a smile growing on his face and a light twinkling in his eyes. Alex was more subtle, a deep inhale and a small smirk, but he wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close and she knew she was forgiven. After the last remnants of the song died away, she explained that Nick was the only other person who could play guitar nearly as well as Luke, and the song couldn’t be finished without it. At that the boys beamed and pulled her into a group hug.

Luke poofed back into the room. After all, it was time for their typical band practice. He split into a soft smile at the sight of the group hug at the piano, but quickly shifted into a smile that looked normal, but didn’t quite reach his eyes. All of the words, phrases and gestures seemed like any other day, but they could all tell that it was robotic. His heart simply wasn’t in it. Julie attempted to explain that it was a one-time deal, that it wouldn’t happen again. He shrugged it off and brushed her off telling her not to worry that everything was fine.

Of course, everything was not fine. He wouldn’t look her in the eyes and when they played there was no drive, no connection. All of their music sounded fine, but he spent practice ignoring Julie and every attempt she made to grab his attention. She wondered if this was how he felt when they’d played Edge of Great last year. Well, at least he’d given her the perfect plan and from the looks Reggie and Alex were passing between them, they’d probably let her get away with whatever. She threw them a smile and the three of them nodded.

The part of the song where she and Luke harmonized was coming up and she timed it so that just before their cue, Luke was suddenly sharing a mic. He’d been so focused on avoiding her that he was not prepared for her to be so close to him. She kept brushing up against him, inching her way closer to him, crowding him in a way he couldn’t escape from.

The abruptness dropped his mask and finally their eyes met and she could see the anger and the hurt as his face twisted into a scowl before he could regain control. Her heart ached at the pain he was in, but she smiled that at least they had connected somehow, someway. Until he vanished, poofed away in the middle of the song, leaving her stranded and staring into an empty space.

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

Luke could feel the pain morphing into anger and as much as he didn’t like it, he needed that fuel. He was livid. How dare she. How could she do this to him after spending her morning with Nick. He’d been doing everything he could to keep everything fine, to keep his emotions in check, but she’d had to push him. She had to get so close that it would’ve taken a small lean for his mouth to be on hers. She had to get so close that he could smell her shampoo and feel her fire. Never before had he been angry enough to storm out in the middle of practice, but apparently Julie Molina was enough to drive him crazy.

He needed to get his emotions back under control, he couldn’t keep running out every time Julie got close to him, no matter how much he hurt. Keeping his cool was the name of the game until he could get over these feelings of his.

Thankfully they didn’t have band practice the next day, but it didn’t seem to stop Julie on her quest for, well he didn’t know. She kept giving him small casual touches. Never long enough for him to move away or tell her to stop, just little things like brushing past him a little too close when she walked by. Or letting her fingers briefly meet his.

Every touch warmed him up a little and he had to keep reminding himself of what he’d walked in on. He couldn’t keep falling in love with her when she had chosen Nick. Slowly though he could feel the warmth she was passing on grow and soon it was becoming difficult not to smile at her.

The next day was a band practice day and Julie was back at her efforts to make him connect with her. He just couldn’t though, the anger and hurt was still there swirling under the surface. He couldn’t drown himself in her, drown himself in their connection without remembering that she’d hid music from him so she could play with Nick.

The flash of anger and pain that came with that reminder timed itself perfectly with Julie reinserting herself at his mic. This time though, something in him boiled over and he stopped playing so he could make a snide remark about how if she really felt like she needed to be this close to some guy with a guitar then she should go find Nick. As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he regretted them and he watched his best friends’ eyes go wide as they poofed out to avoid whatever fight was coming.

Somehow though she smiled? before launching into an angry sounding diatribe about how he was being a jerk and for the sake of the band this and the sake of the band that. He could feel his anger running high and before he could stop the words he told her she should go be in a band with Nick if she didn’t like how he was doing things. Her eyes widened a little before she proudly exclaimed That’s it! And grabbed the beanie from off his head and darted away with it.

Before he could give it too much thought, he gave chase, poofing in and out as he tried to catch her to get his beanie back. She was surprisingly good at dodging him, leaping this way and that to stay out of his grasp. Once though she let him get close, where she looked him dead in the eyes and said that it was a one-time thing and that she had absolutely no interest in Nick. Beanies suited her much better.

At that comment she slid the beanie on her head, and he was in shock just for long enough for her to escape out of his clutches again. He resumed his pursuit, but this time he didn’t stop the smile or laughter from bursting out. She darted by him again, determined to make a clever escape, this time though he was ready and soon he’d tackled her to the couch.

He took a brief moment to enjoy the feel of her under him and the mischievous glint in her eyes before snatching his beanie back off her head and readjusting it on his. Yet neither of them moved from their spots. She smiled at him, Another thing beanie boy… and with that she kissed him.

It took only a moment for him to give back as good as she was giving him. He thought nothing had ever tasted as good as her lips. They were so soft and he could’ve sworn that somehow they were made to go against his. He moved his arm so he could wrap around her and pull her closer while her arms went around his neck with her fingers tangling in his hair. If he could just do this forever, he would be the happiest ghost.

Much sooner than they wanted, they broke apart. One of them did need to breathe after all. He pressed his forehead against hers blissfully happy. He let out a small deep laugh and remarked about how she liked beanies. She gave him her biggest grin and specified that really she liked the boy who wore them. Interlacing their fingers, Luke maneuvered Julie into his lap where he alternated between kissing her breathless, something that was quickly becoming his new favorite activity and burying his face in her hair and holding her close.

Eventually their other two bandmates popped back in with a knowing smirk, and Julie blushed happy to be surrounded by her people and know that all was right in her world. Her song long forgotten in the hidden compartment of her dream box.

#juke #julie and the phantoms #jatp #luke patterson #julie molina #late night writing

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chicgeekgirl89 · 4 years

Text

Country Roads, Take Me Home: Chap. 6

Fandom: NCIS LA

Characters: Marty Deeks, Kensi Blye, Eric Beale, Nell Jones, Sam Hanna, G Callen

Read Chapters 1-5 Here

A/N: Shouts out to @bluenet13 who made me finish this fic!

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“Whoa,” Kensi said, putting her hands up. “Bill, what’s going on?”

“Well that’s a question I think we’d like you to answer,” Bill said kindly. “Is there a reason you and Marty were poking around here earlier?”

Kensi chose her next words carefully. “I’m not sure what you’re talking about. We stopped by to see if you were home.”

“I think we both know you did a little more than that,” Bill said. “Mighta seen some things we didn’t mean for you to see.”

“Bill, I’m not sure what you think is going on here, but let’s go back outside and see if we can sort it out.”

“Works for me. Carol’ll want to hear this I’m sure.”

Kensi moved carefully past him and walked to the front of the RV. When she stepped outside she found Carol still sitting at the picnic table with Deeks. But Deeks had his head on the table and seemed off. “Babe? You okay?” Kensi asked loudly, careful not to make any sudden movements.

“He’s a little sleepy dear,” Carol said. “I think that port really did him in!”

“Okay, what’s going on here?” Kensi asked, worry spiraling through her. Deeks owned a bar, the man could definitely hold his liquor and one glass of port shouldn’t have him face first in his desert.

“Remember how we told you that you have to keep things fun as you get older?” Bill said. “Well Carol and I started this road trip and thought we needed a little action. Something to spice it up.”

“So you committed a robbery,” Kensi said.

“Well just a tiny one,” Carol said. “But it was so easy. So we went bigger.”

Kensi was trying to listen while also keeping her eyes on Deeks. He was stirring but seemed lethargic. “Did you drug my husband?” she asked incredulously.

“Just a little bit,” Carol said, patting him gently on the back. “If you’d just drunk yours like you were supposed to we wouldn’t even be having this conversation.”

“You were going to drug us and then drive away,” Kensi said. “Deeks was right.”

“See, I told you they were getting suspicious,” Bill said.

“You called it dear,” Carol said with a sigh. “I should have listened to you.”

“And I should have listened to Deeks,” Kensi muttered.

“Kens?” Deeks slurred, lifting his head a bit.

“I’m here babe. You okay?”

“I….think ‘m drgged,” he said, eyes glassy and unfocused.

“Yeah you are,” Kensi said. “Just take some deep breaths okay?”

Deeks squinted up. “Dss he havea gn?”

“Yes, he does,” Kensi said. “So we’re just going to behave and not cause any problems, all right?”

“He prbly cn’ evn use it,” Deeks mumbled.

“Hey, I am the reigning, three time rifle champion of Sheboygan!” Bill said indignantly.

“Of course you are,” Kensi said with a sigh of long suffering.

“Well, now that plan A is all used up, we need to move onto plan B,” Carol said. “I think a little walk is in order. Take in some of that fresh mountain air!”

It was past dusk and most people had retreated indoors for the evening. The few that were out were laughing and chatting and took no notice of the strange parade walking by them. Not that Kensi would have asked for help anyway. There were weapons involved now and she wasn’t interested in getting any civilians shot.

She held Deeks up as they walked, stumbling along over the rocky terrain. He seemed to be all right, if uncoordinated and a little confused. “Wre we gng?” he asked repeatedly.

“Just for a little walk dearie,” Carol said every time, patiently, as if she were talking to a five year old.

“How did you get past the security cameras?” Kensi asked.

“Oh we just bypassed the feed and spliced in a loop of footage,” Bill said.

“It’s so easy, our grandson taught us. He’s nine, very bright boy,” Carol said fondly.

“Got a little trickier when it was closed circuit but we figured it out,” Bill said. He’d traded his rifle for a slightly more inconspicuous pistol, another reason no passerby had noticed something off.

“So what’s the plan here?” Kensi asked as they moved further out into the plains. “Shoot us and leave us for dead?”

“Darling don’t be gauche!” Carol said, horrified. “No, we’re going to tie you up. Someone will come along eventually.”

“f we don’t get etn by wlvs first,” Deeks said, coming around enough to be present in the conversation.

“No wolves in this part of the country,” Bill grunted. “Coyotes’ll get you though.”

They walked for several miles before Bill made them stop. And of course he knew how to tie knots like a boy scout. “There,” he said after he tightened the last one around Kensi’s wrists. “That oughta do nicely.”

Kensi sent him a pointed glare as Deeks’ head lolled against her shoulder. “Now, you two sit tight,” Carol said sweetly. “You’ll be found by morning.”

“And we’ll be long gone. It really was a pleasure meeting you,” Bill said.

“It was nt ours,” Deeks said, rolling his eyes up into what he apparently thought was an angry scowl but looked more like a fish face.

“No more vacations,” Kensi said, when Bill and Carol were out of earshot. “None. No road trips, no cruises, no flights. Nothing. Home. A dark room. No visitors.”

She worked furiously at the knot in her hands. “Deeks, hey, come on. I need you to wake up and help me here.”

“m wake,” Deeks said, hefting himself off her shoulder.

“The knife in my boot. I need you to get it.”

His current lack of coordination and awareness made things tricky. He ended up with his head in her lap, sliding down along her legs until his hands found her boot. It took several minutes and a lot of awkward maneuvering to retrieve the knife and then another several minutes before he was able to get it into Kensi’s hands.

In no time she had them free and then went to work on her ankles before moving onto Deeks’ bindings. “This was not the kind of tying up I had in mind on this vacation,” Deeks grumbled as she split apart his ankles.

“Now’s not really the time babe. Can you stand?”

“Everything’s a little wobbly,” he said.

She cupped his face and tried to see into his eyes but it was too dark, even with the full moon out. “Well your speech sounds better. Come on. We’ve got a long walk back. And the Weekes’ have at least a forty minute head start.”

She didn’t mention that it would have been a significantly shorter walk if he’d been less drugged. She pulled him to his feet, sliding an arm under his shoulder to help him balance, and off they went, stumbling through the darkness in the direction of what Kensi thought was the campsite.

It was nearing on two in the morning now and they were still nowhere near their destination, when Deeks froze, causing her to stumble. “Deeks, what—“

He dropped to his knees and puked. “Oh god,” he gasped, wiping his mouth. “I hate being roofied.”

“Yeah, I don’t blame you,” Kensi said, putting a hand on his back. “You good or is there more?”

“Help me up,” he said as she hauled him to his feet once again. “Wait.”

They both froze. “What?” Kensi asked.

“I thought I heard something,” Deeks said, squinting to try and see in the moonlight.

Then they both heard it. Hoofbeats. Coming fast. “Is that—“

“Buffalo!” Deeks yelled.

There was an outcropping of rocks silhouetted up ahead and they ran for it, hoofbeats still pounding behind them.

They made it to the outcropping just in time, collapsing against the stones, breathless. “Oh god,” Kensi gasped. “I didn’t know buffalo could run that fast.”

“Neither did we.”

Kensi and Deeks both jumped as they realized that they had once again been reunited with their road trip pals turned hostage takers. And they both looked a little worse for wear.

Carol’s hair was a mess and her knees looked like she’d taken a tumble. Bill was bleeding badly from a wound in his arm. “How did you get free?” Bill asked. “I made those knots tighter than a footballer’s shoelaces.”

“I’m a federal agent,” Kensi said. “And he’s an LAPD detective.”

“No kidding!” Bill said with a chuckle. “Well how ‘bout that Carol. We got the best of an FBI agent and a police officer.”

“I’m not FB—-never mind,” Kensi said with a roll of her eyes. “Let me see your arm.”

“We were just walking back and they came out of nowhere,” Carol said. “I wanted to get a picture of them with my iPhone but it was so dark so we got closer and they just came charging right at us!”

“Yeah well, buffalo don’t really like other people,” Deeks said.

“This looks really bad,” Kensi said. “I think you hit an artery.”

“What does that mean?” Bill asked.

“It means you’re going to die if we don’t get you some help fast,” Deeks said.

“Well how are we going to do that?” Carol asked worriedly.

“We have a lot of connections,” Kensi said, looking meaningfully at Deeks. “If you give us your cellphone AND the pistol, we can probably help.”

“Well what if we just call 911?” Bill asked.

“They might show up in time, they might not,” Deeks said. “Up to you. You might only lose the arm.”

“Lose my arm?!” Bill cried. “This is my shooting arm!”

“Like we said, it’s up to you,” Kensi said. “Phone. Gun. Or no deal.”

“Bill give them the gun!” Carol said. “Here.” She handed Kensi her phone. “Please you have to help him.”

“Gun,” Kensi said, holding out her other hand.

“Take care of her,” Bill said. “That’s my best pistol right there.”

“Yeah, I’m sure it is,” Kensi said with a roll of her eyes, handing it to Deeks who immediately emptied the chamber and flung the bullets as far as he could.

Kensi ripped off a portion of the bottom of her shirt and used it to tie up the wound while Deeks dialed. “Reggie, hey, it��s Deeks. I need a helicopter.”

It was less than twenty minutes before a chopper swooped down and landed in the middle of the plains, scaring the buffalo away and allowing Kensi, Deeks, and the Weekes’ to escape from their rocky prison. Two EMT’s jumped out and hustled toward them. “Please help my husband,” Carol said worriedly. “He’s bleeding out.”

They peeled back Kensi’s makeshift bandage and frowned. “Looks like the bleeding’s stopped. Might need a couple stitches, but your husband will be fine ma’am.”

“I will?” Bill asked, turning to look at Kensi. “But you said—“

Kensi shrugged. “You took us hostage. What did you expect?”

“Now wait just a minute!” Carol said, looking irate as an officer cuffed her.

“No thanks,” Deeks said leaning heavily against Kensi.

“Hey, I do need you to take a look at my husband,” Kensi said to the second EMT. “They drugged him with something.”

“Oh it was just a little Benadryl,” Carol called. “Nothing dangerous.”

“I thought that port tasted awfully sweet,” Deeks said, swaying a bit.

“Even so, Benadryl and alcohol don’t mix. We need to get you checked out,” the EMT said.

It was not a fun helicopter ride. Bill and Carol chattered away the entire time, as if they weren’t about to be arrested for grand larceny and kidnapping. Deeks had rallied enviably toward the end of their walk but now he slumped against the seat, eyes closed, fingers pinching the bridge of his nose.

Things got fractionally better when they arrived at the hospital. Bill and Carol were taken away, cuffed, into police custody, but that was where the relief ended. The police wanted statements from both Kensi and Deeks, not once, not twice, but three separate times and no amount of pointing out that they worked for NCIS was going to shake the local PD who were having the most exciting night of their lives in about ten years.

They did give Deeks a look over at the hospital and decided at this point it was best to just let things run their course. He was still a little confused and a lot tired by the time local PD drove them back to the RV park.

“I want a shower,” Kensi said as she got out of the car and pulled Deeks with her.

“I want a nap,” he said as she unlocked the door.

“And where have you two been?” someone asked.

“Oh god!” Kensi yelled, clutching a hand to her chest as she realized there were people sitting at their table.

Eric and Nell were looking at them in a very parental fashion.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Deeks asked.

“Um, you two were obviously in trouble so we borrowed an old Airstream from my parents,” Nell said. “We got in about an hour ago. You want to tell us about the little adventure you clearly just had?”

Deeks and Kensi exchanged a look. “Let’s just say it involved a herd of bison, a demon dog, and a drugging incident,” Kensi said.

“You were drugged?!” Eric asked.

“Oh my god are you okay?” Nell added.

“Not me,” Kensi said.

Eric shook his head wide eyed. “Callen and Sam aren’t going to like that.”

“Well Callen and Sam don’t have to know,” Kensi said. “That’s why we called you Eric.”

Eric and Nell exchanged a slightly guilty look. “What?” Deeks asked. “You told them already?”

The RV door opened behind them and voices trickled in. “It will be fine. There’s plenty of space for both of us.”

“Have you seen yourself? You’re the size of a small building. There’s no way we can both fit in that tent.”

“You brought them with you?!” Kensi asked.

“Brought is a strong word,” Eric said. “Followed a direct order is more accurate.”

What had initially seemed like a spacious RV now seemed suffocatingly small. “Hey you’re back!” Callen said as he and Sam came inside. “Everything okay?”

“It is now,” Deeks said, running a hand through his hair. “What are you all doing here?”

“We’re making sure you’re all right,” Sam said. “Did you think we wouldn’t find out about that emergency call you made last night?”

“But the call wasn’t to you,” Kensi said in exasperation.

“We still found out,” Callen said.

“I have alerts set for everyone,” Eric said, as if it should have been extremely obvious.

“Well we don’t need you, everything is under control,” Deeks said.

“Doesn’t matter,” Sam said. “We’re staying.”

“Not in here you’re not,” Kensi told them.

“Oh no, of course not,” Nell said quickly. “No Eric and I will be in the Airstream.”

“And Sam and I are camping,” Callen said. “In a tent. The size of matchbox.”

“That tent has plenty of space!” Sam growled.

“Okay then, if you all don’t mind, we’d like to take a nap since we’ve been up all night,” Deeks said.

“Oh, sure of course, go right ahead,” Eric said.

Nobody left. Callen and Sam immediately dissolved into an argument about whether they were going fishing or hiking first, as Kensi and Deeks slowly made their way to the bed at the back of the RV. “I’m telling you, it doesn’t compare to the ocean,” Sam protested.

“How would you know?” Callen fired back. “Have you ever tried it? Not everything has to be a deep sea, Navy SEAL diving adventure you know.”

“I think we should hit up Glacier Point,” Nell said, studying the map Deeks had left on the table. “Ooh but the Cathedral Rocks look great too.”

“Is anybody getting a good signal out here?” Eric held his phone up high, forehead wrinkled in frustration.

Deeks looked wryly at Kensi. “Is this what it’s going to be like to have kids?”

“Probably.” She shook her head. “But when they’re actually our kids, we leave them at home with a babysitter.”

#NCIS LA #Country Roads Take Me Home #Chapter 6 #Densi Summer Vacation #Marty Deeks #Kensi Blye #Deeks whump #Minor #But there #The final chapter

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