#reggie with missing teeth just grinning from ear to ear and then immediately pulling out an ‘i object’ for the drama

[queenmolina]

alex and luke got married in the kids playground with daisies instead of rings. bobby was the officiant and reggie was the entire crowd of witnesses, flitting between various reactions of their family and friends. it was a childish game to them at the time but to this day, alex threatens to divorce him and often comments that ‘his husband’ is infuriating.

it’s all very lighthearted and jovial until reggie points out that ‘till death do us part’ was technically over and they’re no longer married.

(julie officiates a renewal of their vows.)

[invisibleraven]

Another kiss prompt! 98, let's just kiss to see what it's like, then oh oops it goes on longer, Flynn x Reggie

Flynn stood back as she watched the bottle spin around in the circle before her, her friends oohing and aahing as it slowed, landing on Luke. Julie blushed but crawled forward, pecking a kiss onto his lips. Luke blushed, but pressed his lips back, everyone crowing and laughing as the pair blushed and pulled back.

Flynn backed up a little bit, screwing her face up as her friends continued to play, swapping spit and she just doesn't get the appeal. So she scampers off to the kitchen, hoping to steal some of the high quality snacks that Carrie always stocks her fridge with.

Only she finds Reggie there, happily stuffing his face with spinach dip and crackers, a wine glass almost full of the fancy root beer that Carrie's dad likes. "Oh hey Flynn!"

"You staying out of it too?" Flynn asks, thumbing towards the living room and swiping a cracker full of dip from him.

"Eh, I was hungry and last time I played I ended up kissing Nick which was... not a pleasant kiss. Carrie needs to give that boy some lessons on how to not have fish lips when kissing," Reggie replied. "Though I suppose my braces didn't help matters much. I do not miss them at all." He smiled at that, showing off his now straightened teeth, running his tongue over them.

"I just don't see what the big deal about kissing is in general," Flynn commented, nodding as Reggie offered her a glass of her own and pouring the rest of his bottle into it. "You are literally mashing your lips against someone elses, and for what? To share saliva and germs?"

"I mean, in theory, it is gross," Reggie said, popping another cracker into his mouth. "But if you find someone who knows what they're doing, it can be nice. And you're showing them you care about them, you trust them, and you like them enough to share germs with them."

"Do you know what you're doing?" Flynn asked. Reggie gave a small shrug, which wasn't a no. "Alright then, show me what all the fuss is about."

"You want me to kiss you?" Reggie asked. Flynn nodded, and Reggie took a small swig of his drink, then rubbed his lips together. "Okay, I can do that."

Reggie placed one of his hands against her face, cupping her jaw, thumb rubbing gently over her cheekbone. He leaned in, his forehead pressing against hers, his nose rubbing her skin in a feather light motion. Flynn's eyes closed despite herself, and finally she felt it. Reggie's lips pressed against her, sweet and gentle.

And it wasn't gross, or wet. It was... really nice actually.

Reggie then started moving his mouth, his lips caressing hers, and Flynn started kissing him back, the sweetest push and pull, a quick dart of tongue, until their mouths opened. Reggie licked into her mouth, Flynn tasting like their shared snacks, and a inherent sweetness that he immediately craved more of. But he knew he was pushing the limits of what Flynn had asked for, and slowly pulled back. Their eyes blinked open, and Reggie plopped back onto his stool.

"So how was that?" he asked, hoping his voice didn't betrayed his nervousness.

Flynn touched her tingling lips, and looked at Reggie, a warm feeling filling her up. "I think I see the point of it now."

Reggie grinned at that. "Well any time you wanna try it again..."

"How about right now?" Flynn asked. Reggie beamed, and almost crashed into her, their eager mouths meeting once more. They didn't even notice their friends coming in after the game had broken up, not until their teasing filled the air. Both of them blushed, but Reggie didn't let go of Flynn's hand in his as they endured the gentle ribbing.

But then Carrie caught sight of the counter and admonished them for taking her dad's snacks. "He's gonna be so mad at you guys, and no way am I taking the fall for it."

"Totally worth it," Flynn whispered into Reggie's ear, and grinned as he leaned down to press yet another kiss to her lips.

[sunsetcurvecuddles]

10. Is something wrong?" And 11. “Is there anything I can do to help?” For boggie or rebuke

hey you know how i just sent you the mystery rebuke fic? yeah it turns out it was your ask that prompted it. anyway here you go apparently all i can write is rebuke cuddles on the studio couch.

you're the swimmer with pockets of stones | rebuke | G | 2.3k

ao3 link in reblogs!

--

Bobby doesn't mean to let it show during practice. Usually, he's pretty good at keeping all this stuff under the surface, smoothed and hidden, layered over with a mixture of standoffishness and charm that tends to turn people in the other direction than whatever's going on for him internally.

Concerningly, he might be getting close enough to the boys that they can start to tell. This wasn't his intention, initially — the music thing has always been about gaining a reputation, some sort of following, maybe getting famous one day, and he really does believe in the music Luke Patterson writes, thinks it could really get them somewhere. But he didn't necessarily intend to get to know the members of the band like he has. Didn't expect for one of them to move into his studio, for sure,

It's not like he wasn't intending on getting to know them at all . It's just that he didn't anticipate how quickly Reggie would tilt his head, narrow his eyes, and ask, "Is something wrong?" when Bobby misses his entry spot for the fourth time in a row.

"No," Bobby barks, and it's a little sharp. Alex and Luke both give him equally sharp glares back. They all know they don't talk to Reggie like that. Immediately, Bobby amends, "Sorry, Reg. Just scattered today. Not your fault."

Not your fault . The mantra of apologising to Reggie. Swallowing and trying to take it on board (Bobby can see it, can see Reggie telling himself that it's okay, that Bobby didn't mean it, that not everything is his fault, that's why they always remind him, that everything's okay, over and over, because all these things show very easily on Reggie's face when you know where to look for them and how to read them) Reggie says lightly, "Yeah, no worries."

"We can try something else?" Alex suggests carefully, tone still crystal in a way that lets Bobby know he’s fucked up but Alex is choosing to let it slide. "Luke said he wanted to go over Long Weekend again before the gig on Friday."

"That's a good idea," Luke agrees. "We're more familiar with that one and besides, I just sorta wanted to see how this new song sounds out loud. We won't have it ready for Friday."

They totally could have it ready for Friday. Bobby knows he's being the weak link here.

So he tries extra hard for Long Weekend . Really does his best to nail all the timing, all the pitch, throws in a few improvisational notes just to make Luke grin over at him, delighted and surprised, because Luke might seem like a control freak but he actually loves to collaborate more than anything else in the world.

It just sucks that the rest of the rehearsal can't go as well as that does. Bobby fades in and out, his eyes scramble the music on the page, and before he knows it, Luke is calling things off, saying they can catch up tomorrow, that this isn't going to work itself out tonight, clearly .

It stings a little, but Luke's not wrong. Bobby, master of keeping his face neutral, can barely keep his eyes open even though he knows they're lying to him, even though he knows that he's going to be stuck wide awake the moment he lays his head back against anything and tries to sleep, because that's how it's been for weeks now.

The Mercers never let Alex stay over any more, not since he came out (and it sucks, and Bobby kinda hates them even though he and Alex aren’t all that close), so he packs up his sticks and the homework books he'd left scattered in the corner ready to head home. Alex says his goodbyes mostly like normal, though his eyes linger on Bobby, narrow and a little too insightful for Bobby’s liking.

Bobby replies, and to his own ears he sounds pretty normal, which is why he doesn't understand when Reggie and Luke exchange glances over the top of Bobby's head as soon as Alex is gone.

“What’s gotten into you, man?” Luke asks, ditching his guitar in favour of sitting cross-legged on top of the table in the centre of the room, across from where Bobby sits on the couch. “You’ve been acting kinda weird for a while, but this is a new level of weird.”

“I’m fine,” Bobby grits out. He feels cornered, the way that Luke is sitting there, and Reggie’s hovering awkwardly between Bobby and the door, hands behind his head, probably stretching out his fingers if Bobby knows him well enough, which he does.

How did he end up knowing them so well? And why are they pushing so hard to find out what’s going on with him? He hates this conversation. He wants it to be over.

He wants to sleep.

“Dude,” says Reggie quietly, “you weren’t acting like yourself at all today. Like, yourself is always a little weird,” he says, like a joke, but he looks a little scared, like he might be stepping over the line. But it’s Reggie, so Bobby allows it.

“There’s nothing wrong with talking to us about it,” adds Luke hopefully. “We’re your friends.”

“Right,” Bobby says, rubbing his eyes, “because you’re so honest with us about everything, is that it?”

“Well – hey, that doesn’t seem fair,” Reggie interrupts, tone a little protective. “We’re not talking about Luke right now. If we want to stage a Luke-tervention later, we can, but—”

“A what?” Luke says, baffled.

“Like an intervention,” Reggie explains, in an exasperated tone, like this really should be obvious, “but for you.”

“Oh,” says Luke, nodding like that actually did clear it up.

They’re idiots. Bobby wishes they weren’t making him smile. Maybe he’s just delirious. He listens to them banter for a few more minutes and feels himself slipping, feels the way the room is spinning a bit around him. Knows he won’t be able to sleep, feels it in the ache in his body, but it hurts anyway, how bad he wants it. How much he wants to be able to reach behind the veil and pull the sleep to him, pull it over him like a blanket.

His bandmates are suddenly on either side of him, like they’re ready to catch him if he falls, Reggie’s voice cautious as he says, “Bobby? You good, man? You looked woozy for a sec.”

"Tired," is all Bobby manages. His voice comes out a little strangled.

"Yeah," says Luke, in a sort of punched-out voice that makes Bobby think Luke understood more than Bobby meant him to. “We know.”

How do they know? Bobby hasn’t told them. He hasn’t told anyone. It’s just been him and his empty room and the ceiling staring back down at him for hours, until he gives up, gets up and switches the lights on and tries to read, tries to write music, tries to do anything. Though honestly, lately he’s been too tired even for that. Too exhausted and frantic to do anything but stare at the roof and wish it would fall on him and knock him out, send him down into the black lake of sleep where he so desperately wants to drown. But he hasn’t told Luke or Reggie about any of that.

"We want to help, man," Reggie continues, almost painfully earnest and sweet, "Is there anything we can do?"

Bobby shakes his head no before he's even let himself process Reggie's words, because help and Bobby are only things that go together when Bobby's doing the helping, not the other way around.

Without even opening his eyes, Bobby feels Luke push Bobby's arm up so Luke can snuggle up against his side, resting his cheek on Bobby's shoulder, stubborn and warm and soft. Seemingly following his initiative, Reggie loops himself around Bobby's other side, a little gangly but just as safe, tucking Bobby's head under his chin instead.

"Does this make it better?" Luke asks, in a small voice. Bobby feels his throat move, the vibrations of his voice. "Or, uh, or worse?"

Bobby goes to say neither, to say, it doesn't matter, to say, you guys will sleep better without me here taking up all this space . To say, I should go to my own room . But he doesn't say any of those things, because having them so close and warm around him is sorta making him want to cry, in a really weird, horrible, overflowing way, like he's a bathtub filling up with tears and they're reaching his throat, not too far from reaching his eyes.

"Better," Reggie decides for him. Takes the weight off his shoulders. "C'mon, Luke, let's go to bed. Bobby can just lie here until he feels better."

Luke makes an affirmative sound, pulls the blanket back up over the three of them, and Bobby feels like he's sinking deep in his own achy, exhausted body, like he's finally letting it overcome him, like suddenly instead of being the bathtub, he's just in one, and he's letting his head slip under the water, letting it engulf him. Reggie runs a hand through Bobby's hair, light and gentle, and Bobby sinks deeper. Luke wraps an arm around Bobby's stomach, fingers squeezing at Bobby's waist, and Bobby sinks deeper.

Instead of lying awake for hours until his eyes burn and his teeth ache, he's asleep without being sure when it happens.

—

When he wakes, Reggie and Luke pushed in on either side of him still, wrapped even more tightly than he remembers them being the night before, he feels unbelievably light, even with their weight pressing in all over him. He feels like his eyelids weigh ten pounds less than they did the day before, even as his body succumbs to being part of the couch cushions, even as a yawn pulls at the edge of his mouth and suggests to him that maybe, they try to sleep for just a few more minutes.

—

Bobby wakes again when the sun starts to spill in properly through the garage window at the back, illuminating the studio and casting their instruments into bright colours and dark shadowy relief across the floor. This time, he's only being restrained by all four of Luke's limbs, somehow, like their genius songwriter has decided to abandon his pursuit of music for the better pursuit of fully transforming into a koala bear. For a few moments, blinking and looking around, Bobby can't see Reggie anywhere.

It doesn't really alarm him, though. It's not like there's anyone else around, and Reggie's always been an earlier riser than him or Luke, more spritely than the rest of them. Luke’s still snoring, has drooled a tiny bit on Bobby’s t-shirt. Bobby should probably be more grossed-out by it than he is.

Before he can start to theorise about where, exactly, Reggie might have gone, he’s already returning, nudging the door open with his hip because his arms are full. He gives Bobby a big grin, as usual far too awake for the hour (Bobby doesn’t think he’s been that awake at any hour, recently).

“Aw, man. I was hoping you’d sleep a little longer, but… I brought us breakfast?”

Reggie must have gone up to the house, which means he probably would have had to talk to Bobby’s parents, at least his mom. Bobby’s stomach twists in embarrassment at the thought, not of Reggie, but of his mom, her scattered workaholic brain probably so far from being able to handle a conversation with a sweet kid like Reggie first thing in the morning. But still, Reggie’s carrying plates that have toast and jam, and he’s got a big bottle of orange juice, and he looks so proud of himself, like a little kid with a picture they want you to put on the fridge.

“You didn’t have to do that,” Bobby says, his voice still hoarse from sleep, but sounding better than it did at any point yesterday. He must have gotten more sleep just last night than he did in the five nights beforehand.

“I know,” says Reggie brightly, setting the plates and bottle down on the table across from the pullout, “but that’s what friends are for, right?”

Huh. Friends. That’s one way to put it, Bobby guesses. In his head they’ve just been – bandmates, always, but – he guesses if Luke and Reggie are snuggling up to him overnight, hanging out at his place on days when they’re not doing music, if Reggie’s casually chatting to his mom –

Maybe they are friends.

He looks down at the toast. Reggie’s spread the jam almost neurotically evenly, but on one piece he’s drawn a wonky smiley face, with two circle eyes and a big stripe of jam in a curve that mirrors their band logo for the smile. It looks vaguely demented, but Reggie grins and points and says, “That one’s for you. So you’ll be in a better mood today.”

Luke yawns, stretches and wriggles, squishing Bobby a little bit in the process with his warm limbs. Bobby looks from one to the other, from Reggie’s face to Luke’s body curled up against him, and suddenly his stomach is full of something that’s a little more concerning than just the sense of being friends unexpectedly. Something different.

Bobby sighs a breath out quietly to try and shake off the feeling, and Reggie grins, like he gets something, which is nerve wracking until he says, “You don’t wanna move, right? I can feed you so you don’t have to get up!”

Honestly, Bobby would really rather Reggie didn’t, after the possibly concerning revelation he had moments ago, so he shoves Luke maybe a little harder than he needed to, ignores Luke’s startled yelp, even though it makes him want to laugh and the want to laugh makes the fluttery feeling come back to his stomach. Rather than laughing, or showing any of his feelings, Bobby just mutters, getoffme , and sits up to grab a piece of toast. He'll deal with everything else after breakfast.

(He takes the smiley face piece. He’s not a monster).

[aliasimagines]

One Hell of a Night // Luke Patterson

a/n: HAPPY HALLOWEEN Y'ALL, it officially passed midnight here.Are you guys going to celebrate Halloween at home? And if so are you going to dress up? Tell me all about it lovelies, I wanna hear it ❤️. prompt 18 nad 15 from this list🎃 this fic is chaotic, hope you enjoy😊

word count: 2692

warnings: a few (three i think?) curse words, and a..uhm a line of dirty talking (I'm sorry I'm not like this all the time I promise 😅) and scary stories

The dry, colorful autumn leaves creaked under hiking boots as you walked into the woods. A smile appeared on your face as you heard some noises. Only a few seconds later you spotted the source. The Sunset Curve. The boys worked on getting the campfire lit while joking and laughing loudly. You stopped by a tree and leaned against it. Alex just hit Reggie on the back for just sitting around and not helping with putting logs and dry leaves on the fireplace. Thanks to Alex, Reggie swallowed the huge marshmello he had in his mouth and started coughing. 

Bobby was trying to light his lighter again and again but it just didn't work. That's when Luke threw a pack of matches at him causing the rhythm guitarist to stumble back and fall into a pile of leaves. You started laughing quietly and walked up to them.

"That wasn't nice of you, babe." you said from behind Luke. He jumped, not noticing you creeping up on him.

"BAH! I almost got a heart attack, y/n!" he shouts pouting. You giggled and placed a small kiss on his cheek. 

"That's what you get for not waiting for me." you smirk. Luke looks down embarrassed and goes to scrape the back of his head. 

"Yeah…Sorry about that. I was too eager to set up the camp." he gestured at the two tents. Both were full of blankets and pillows. It looked super comfortable. You also spotted his acoustic guitar, and a whole bunch of food in you guys' tent. 

"You did a great job."you smiled before walking over to the other boys." Hi guys! What's up?"

"Y/N! Finally! Tell Alex to stop hitting me!" yelled Reggie. You shook your head laughing. 

“Stop being so childish than Reginald!”

“Boys, come on!! It is halloween, have some fun!” and with that you fished out a huge bag of candy from your backpack and threw it into Reggie’s hands. He looked up at you like you were some kind of miracle maker. 

“Is this..is this all candy?” the dark haired boy asked, still in awe. You laughed, nodding your head slightly. 

“Yeah. I don’t really want to think about how much money I spent on sweets.” 

Soon after everyone got to work (this time for real) and the fire was lit in no time. Just as it started to get darker. All five of you sat around the campfire. You sat next to Luke, opposed to  Reggie and Alex. Bobby sat beside them in a camping chair. Thanks to the warm californian weather you didn’t need jackets just yet, despite being the end of october.

"It's getting dark. I think we could get started on the ghost stories?" asked Bobby looking up at the sky then around the little clearing in the woods where your tents were set up. Reggie munched on some candy corns but immediately stopped upon hearing those words. 

"Ghost stories? Don't mind if I do." he sat his candies aside and prepared to tell a story that would send shivers down your spines. You leaned over to Luke, placing your head on his shoulder. He looked down at you with a smile before turning his attention back to the bassist. 

"One day, a little boy, while walking around the woods, found a big toe on the ground. He ran home with it and-" 

"-his mom cooked it in the soup which revolted in the toe's owner haunting them." you suddenly cut Reggie off. He gasps, offended. 

"What? I knew the story. Was I supposed to just sit around?" you ask, earning a soft laugh from Luke. Reggie huffed and gestured at you. 

"Alright then, take it away y/n. See if you can do better."

"Not to be that person but she definitely can. You only said like two sentences." Alex jumped in, not wanting to miss an opportunity to roast his friend. 

"Because she cut me off!!" 

The woods, once again erupted with the boys' laughter as you stared into the fire, waiting for them to quiet down so you can start your story. 

"I was only a small kid when this happened, around five,maybe six, but I still remember it like it was yesterday. My mother was out of town for the weekend because of her work, so naturally, it was my father who read me a bedtime story in the evening. Everything was great, he was reading from my favorite book but right before he could finish the chapter we heard a quiet tapping noise from downstairs. My father looked puzzled and put his finger against his lips, signaling me to stay quiet so he could listen. The tapping didn't stop, it got louder before turning into banging and a final loud crash which sounded like the front door flying open. I looked at my father, scared to death, not knowing what to do." you kept your voice low, your face straight and never removed your eyes from the fire."He grabbed me and quickly ran with me to the small bathroom that was connected to my room. He instructed me to lock my door and only open it when he says so. I don't know what happened after that, but heard my father going down and some muffled noises before hearing him climb back up the stairs. I remember his voice. It was just so nice and comforting. He said it was a false alarm and I could come out. I reached for the doorknob but then he leaned down and looked inside through the keyhole. My little hands stopped midair. I kept staring at his eyes. He repeated that it was safe to come out and that everything was fine. But I did not believe him. Because that wasn't my father. He sounded exactly like him, but his eyes… They were a different color. Not my father's welcoming eye color. So I just stood there. For minutes. Maybe hours. He wouldn't stop talking, reassuring me but I still didn't unlock the door."

Reggie leaned forward with a worried and scared expression.  

"What happened next?" 

You lifted your gaze, slowly to look at the spooked boy. 

"He started tapping. It sounded just like it did on the front door. And it wasn't long before he started banging his hand against the wood." 

"Oh my god.." Reggie whispers. 

"He is hitting harder and harder until finally the door breaks and flies open. And the creature, no longer looking or sounding like my father, rather like a tall bloodied figure with sharp teeth, jumps at me, opening his huge mouth and SWALLOWS ME WHOLE." you shout the last part causing Reggie to scream and the others to jump just a little. 

"Fuuckk, i think I peed myself!" exclaims Reggie. You only laugh, seeing all the boys being a bit paler. 

"So who's next?" 

"I'll go." Luke said beside you and you shifted away from him, knowing that he will need the space to gesture along his story. You watched as he started to speak. His expression changes with every sentence as he introduces his characters. His frown as he talks about a creepy night in the woods. Your eyes wander down to his lips, too busy just staring at them to actually listen to the words that make them move. You distantly hear various curse words from the guys as your boyfriend goes deeper into detail with his horrifying story. With eyes still glued to Luke, you smile slightly. 

"../n...y/n...Y/N!" you hear making you jump and almost falling backwards on the log you have been sitting on. You see all the guys staring at you. 

"How are you not scared? Did you not hear Luke's story?" Reggie asks, earning a knowing laugh from Alex. 

"No, she did not. She was too busy staring at his lips." as your friend's words hit your ears you feel your face heating up. 

"Dude..,alright I might have zoomed out. A bit but I am here now. Where were you, babe?" 

Luke looks at you, amused. 

"I finished like 3 minutes ago. You 'zoomed out' for legit 20 minutes." 

Looking up at the sky, you realized they were right because it got pitch black since you last looked up. Your lips curved into an 'o' shape before mumbling a sorry.. 

“We should put more wood on the fire. It's starting to weaken.” says Reggie. Bobby points into the dark woods.

“Suit yourself, man.” 

“What? I am not going alone. Someone come with me.” he whines. Alex visibly changes his posture and sits into a more comfortable position.Luke puts his muscular arm around your shoulder grinning.

“You’re on your own, man.”

“No! Please??”

You bite back a laugh and carefully remove Luke’s arm from you. 

“Alright, I’ll go with you.” 

“Thank you!You are amazing!” 

You grab the basket ,that’s been laying on the ground, for the twigs. You also reach into your bag for your flashlight. 

“Ok, I’m ready to go.” you step towards Reggie but Luke grabs your hand and places a small kiss on it. 

“Be careful, love.”

“Always.”

The two of you start walking towards the woods.

“Try not to pee yourselfs guys!” Alex calls after you in a sing-song voice.

“Ha ha, very funny Alex.”

To be honest you were a little spooked but didn’t show it.Not like Reggie who was literally shaking beside you and jumped up at every little noise he heard as you got further into the woods. You picked up a few sticks and bigger twigs, slowly filling the basket with them. Or rather, you tried but when Reggie stoped right in front of you you accidentally dropped it spilling the stuff everywhere.

“Dude! I am trying to help you here!”

“Shhhhh! Didn’t you hear that?” he whispers, voice panicked. 

“Come on, Reg. This isn’t going to work on me.”

He turns to look at you.

“No, y/n! I am serious! I heard a whisper! I’m sure of it!”

You roll your eyes, not believing your friend.

“You gotta be more convincing next time. I dont scare that easily..AH” just as you assured Reginald how it takes more for you to get spooked, someone, or something grabbed you from behind and started to pull you while shouting ‘WAA’. The flashlight landed on the ground too as you let out a bloodcurdling scream. You kicked your attacker(s?) wherever you could. 

“Ahh! WHoo, stop, it’s just us.” you suddenly hear your boyfriend's voice and feel the arms around you letting go. You turned around your fear vanishing and turning into anger.

Reggie behind you falls on the ground,clutching his chest while he tries not to cry.

“ARE YOU GUYS INSANE?!” you shout at Luke and Booby. Alex is nowhere to be seen, he probably stayed next the fire to keep an eye on your stuff. Luke's eyes immediately  widen upon hearing you raise your voice.

“I..I am sorry we thought-”

“What?! Lucas Patterson I am, so, so mad at you right now” you say shaking. You hear Bobby giggle quietly. You snap your head in his direction. “And don't even get me started on you Bobby...Bobby..uhm” you stop to think about his surname, only to realise you don’t know it. For a moment you let go of your anger. “What is your surname?”

He only scoffs and smiles. Alex must have heard the shouting and come to investigate with a flashlight in one hand and a drumstick (as a weapon?) in his other.He soon puts them down tho as he sees that you are all in one piece. Luke looks at Bobby with a puzzled expression.

“That is actually creepy, cause I don’t know it either.”

“What?! How? He has been in a band for, what? A year and a half? And you never actually asked his last name?” you ask, more interested in the mystery of Bobby’s name than shouting at them now. Luke shrugs.

“Do you even have a last name?” you hear Reggie asking from the ground. You all turn to him with questioning looks.

“Everyone has a last name Reginald.” says Alex.

“Not celtic gods, no.” he responds.

“What?” Luke exclaims clearny not understanding the bassist.

“Bobby is not a god.” says the drummer annoyed. “ He is a normal teenager like us.”

“Is he tho?”

Meanwhile Bobby leans back against a tree and stares at Reggie.

“You are creeping me out...Please stop creeping me out oh majestic god of...what are you the god of?”

Booby just smiles mysteriously. 

“Oh for f…’s sake.Y/N back me up here, there are no gods and even if there were, Bobby is not one of them.”

“Thanks Alex but I am not offending a celtic god.”

“What is wrong with you guys?!”

Luke doesn’t know who to look at in this chaos. Soon he decides to pick up the twigs and collect more while you, Reggie and Alex argue whether Bobby is a god or not. Bobby bends down too, to help the lead singer.

“You do know my name is actually Wilson, right?” 

“Yeah. Of course I do, I think Reggie does too, he just forgot.” the two boys laugh. 

You all walk back to the camp and Booby, upon seeing Reggie still looking at him suspiciously walks over to him.

“I am not an ancient god, you know.”

“That is exactly what I would say too.”

Not hearing Reggie’s nonsense reminds you of what Luke did so when you feel him wrapping his arms around you, you push him away.

“I sorry, bae. I was an asshole. I shouldn’t have. Please look at me?” he stands before you so there is no way you can avoid him.

“Don’t do this again.” you said with a firm tone. You can't help but smile, seeing Luke’s shit eating grin. He opens his arms once again but waits for you to hug him first. You do, and for minutes you just stand there in his embrace. The silence was broken by the familiar sound of the acoustic guitar which was followed by Reggie’s voice as he started to play some country song. 

“Dude, no, put down my guitar.”Luke ran off to get his instrument or to, at least convince him to play ‘normal’ music. You laugh and walk over to Alex and Bobby.

“Hey, y/n, I am sorry about scaring you.”

You wave your hand. 

“It’s fine. However don’t be surprised when I get back at you.” you say before sitting down next to Reggie and giving him a hug because let’s be honest he was pretty traumatised in the woods too.

“Woo,hey! Why does he get a hug?” Luke asks, upset he couldn’t change Reggies mind about playing country songs. And from the fact that his girlfriend was hugging him.

“Maybe because you decided that it was a funny idea to scare the living shit out of him and I.”

“Stop guilt tripping me.” he pulls you up and away from the fire, closer to the tents. ”I said I am sorry. And you are right, I shouldn’t  have scared you. Besides…” he leaned closer to your ear “I know more fun ways to make you scream.”

You gasp upon hearing his words and right when you are about to react Alex walks by casually. 

“No, no. With the tents it’s like we are sleeping next to each other. If you guys try anything I will murder you myself.”

Both of you look after him, blushing before breaking into laughter.

Luke’s watch showed 3:58 when you all agreed to call it a night.You put out the fire with the help of Bobby while Luke went to pack away the trash you all left out.

Reggie yawned and looked up at Alex.

“I am still pretty scared...Can I cuddle you Alex?”

He looks at him like he heard it wrong.

“Absolutely not.”

“What about you Bobby?”

“No way, Reg.”

Despite them saying this, all three of them woke up hugging each other in the morning.

[julies-butterflies]

“I can tell you’re upset. Do you need anything right now?” for (platonic) Alex and Reggie?

cuddle dialogue prompts  ( accepting!! )                                        ( read on ao3! )

Alex’s friends don’t come over to his house anymore.

It’s a weird change, because they used to. Bobby’s garage has always been home base, but the boys used to go over to Luke’s or Alex’s just as often; and when things at Luke’s started to get weird, tense, like a powder keg on the verge of erupting, Alex’s doors were always open. His parents were friendly, if a bit overbearing. They didn’t even seem to mind the mess his friends brought with them, or the noise, or the inevitable chaos; they just liked seeing Alex hang out with other “boys his age”. Their cabinets were always well-stocked with Girl Scout cookies, and Alex’s little sister (the aforementioned Girl Scout) was a pest, in a way he didn’t really mind. 

The guys seemed to...  like it at his house, for some reason — and yeah, that filled his chest with bubbles and made him feel like coming off the high of a drum solo. Alex liked to be liked. He liked that his place could be somewhere his friends felt safe... even if they all conscientiously toned down the casual physical affection when Alex’s parents were around.

Ever since he came out, though... things have changed.

Everything’s changed, and his friends not coming over anymore is the least of it.

The biggest change is, he’s no longer welcome at church. Pastor Hamilton made that very clear with his final sermon — a fire and brimstone rant against the ‘sins of sodomy and perversion’. Alex sat there for an hour, boiling in his own skin, as the eyes of the rest of his congregation bore into him. He couldn’t get out of the building fast enough... and after that, swore never to go back. He wouldn’t be welcome, anyways.

There was no chance of his parents missing the yearly church retreat, though — and Christina has been looking forward to a camping trip for ages, so Alex doesn’t resent how eagerly she clambered in the family station wagon. She barely waved goodbye, too busy cramming her bags in the trunk; his parents, predictably, didn’t say anything at all. They trust Alex not to burn the house down in their absence, at least, so he’ll consider that a compliment.

Alex almost wishes he was bothered. If he were — if such blatant rejection from his family actually stung, if he could stew in his own hurt feelings and resent how quickly they pulled out of the driveway — then maybe it would actually matter. (Maybe it’d mean he’s a good son after all.) 

Alex is a lot of things, though, but he’s never been good at lying to himself.

An entire weekend home alone, with no one but the dogs to keep him company? Honestly, it sounds like heaven.

By nine o’clock at night, he’s well and truly deep in this teenage rebellion thing. He’s got Sixteen Candles queued up on the DVR, has his legs up on the sofa, a bowl of popcorn in his lap, and an entire bottle of Fanta threatening to stain his mother’s precious white carpet. There’s something to be said for living on the edge; he relishes every second of doing something forbidden, fueled by the thought of his parents’ faces if they could see him. Just imagining their horror is sweet; almost as sweet as Molly Ringwald’s bubblegum-pop fashion statements. 

The night stretches before him like a promise, calm and comfortable. He’s free to be himself in his own home. It shouldn’t feel as amazing as it does, because it shouldn’t be a novelty... but considering nowadays, Alex feels more like an intruder, he’ll take what he can get.

His first sign of anything amiss is the sound of barking from the front hall. Alex sits up, dislodging the bowl of popcorn from his lap. He scrambles to catch it before it can go everywhere. After a few more seconds of fumbling, he pauses the movie, and springs to his feet.

“You guys! I swear —“

As he trudges into the foyer, he’s thoroughly unsurprised at what he finds. Zoey, giant maniac that she is, is literally bouncing off the front door. She hits, rebounds, and is immediately back at it, scratching at the wood and barking her head off. A few steps behind her, Cooper hovers, his tail hung low. When he spots Alex, he lets out a relieved whine, and paces a circle around the foyer. Alex — who gets it, really, weird noises at the door are even more nerve-wracking than surprise phone calls — gives him a soothing scratch on the head. Cooper glues himself to his side, and Alex keeps one hand on his collar as he steps towards the door.

“Someone out there, girl?”

Zoey hurls herself bodily against the front door. She hits like a wrecking ball. From the other side, Alex hears a noise — somewhere between a gasp and a  “Whoa!”

He knows for a fact he didn’t order pizza; the neighbors are the “keep to yourselves” types; and the Jehovah’s Witnesses are like reverse vampires, never seen outside of daylight hours. There shouldn’t be  anyone at the door. A shiver of anxiety runs down Alex’s neck… but it’s drowned out by irritation at just how loud Zoey’s being. “Hey, hey,” Alex exclaims, hauling her back as she makes another jump towards the door. “Cut it out! Get outta here!”

He’s too busy wrestling with the dogs to be nervous when he throws the door open. (Worst case scenario, he can just let go of their collars, and sic them; let the dogs drown any potential burglars to death in kisses.) The face that greets him on the other side is… unexpected.

“Heya!” Reggie pulls his hand back from the doorknob, and offers a tiny wave. “What’s up, man?”

Zoey answers the question with a running leap.

Reggie’s ready for her. He hits the deck, arms open wide — and when she barrels him over, his whoop of delight rings through the quiet neighborhood. Alex grits his teeth, glancing anxiously around the street. His neighbors mind their own business, but that doesn’t mean they want to be disturbed in the middle of the night; this isn’t Reggie’s neighborhood, where sirens and bonfires are raging at all hours. Of course, though, Reggie has no concept of quiet… and he loses all self-control whenever dogs are involved. He’s too busy rolling around on the porch, ambushed by two giant golden retrievers, to notice anything else.

Alex leans against the doorframe, taps his feet, and sighs. He’s just starting to examine the calluses on his palms when Reggie finally emerges from the literal dogpile. “I know it’s late — I woulda called first, but — aaah, Zoey, that tickles!”

His screeches ring out like sirens, and Alex’s neighbors are  definitely going to call the cops if this keeps up. Alex has to cut in. Wrestling one dog back inside, and then the other, he hauls Reggie to his feet just as swiftly. “Come in then, quick,” he mutters. “Did you come here exclusively to steal my dogs?”

“Alex, I swear, you’re the one I wanted to see the most. Stealing your dogs is just... a fun side quest.” Reggie strides in like he owns the place. As the door closes behind him, he glances around the foyer. “Home alone, huh?”

“Yeah,” Alex replies. “It’s been fun.”

“I bet.” Reggie dodges another jump from Zoey, nearly tripping over Cooper. The dogs both recognize him, even though it’s been ages since he was last here;  animals and Reggie get along like pizza and pepperoni. If he really wanted to steal the Mercers’ dogs, it wouldn’t be a challenge. Thankfully, Reggie’s parents have a hard and fast “no pets” rule, and stick to it. (Reggie was able to hide an injured squirrel in his closet for a whole  three weeks  before anyone caught on — after it got loose, chewed through the wires of the family TV, and wreaked havoc in the kitchen. His parents still don’t know how it got in the house, but Reggie spent weeks mourning the loss of his “Beloved Frank”.)

As Reggie hits the ground on his knees, enthusiastically petting both dogs at once, Alex tucks his hands into his pockets. He’s not used to feeling nervous around his best friends… but suddenly, he’s on unstable ground, unsure of what to do. It’s just Reggie… but it’s Reggie in his house, where Alex’s friends, Alex’s life, are no longer welcome. It’s just Reggie showing up in the middle of the night, without any warning… and he’s acting fine, sure, but this also isn’t like him. Alex’s instincts are thrumming with a sense of wrong, wrong. He can’t help frowning as he steps back, watching his friend play.

Reggie feels his gaze. He ignores it.

“Who’s a good girl? Oh, yeah, you’re the  best  girl, yeah —“

Alex clears his throat. Reggie ignores that, too.

“Come on, Cooper, gimme a kiss — there you go! Did ya miss your old pal Reggie? I missed you!”

Enough is enough. Alex turns to the switch on the wall. The foyer is suddenly flooded with bright light, sparkling through the crystal fixtures overhead. Reggie falls back and blinks rapidly, entire face scrunching up against the glare. When his eyes adjust, he finds Alex crouched at his side.

“Not to be all ‘what are you doing in my house, Reg’, but…” Alex reaches over and pats Cooper’s head. “What are you doing here?”

Reggie’s blank stare lingers on him for a beat too long— a quarter of a second, but still, it’s the only giveaway Alex needs. 

“Just visiting! I knew you were home alone… figured you might want some company.” His friend grins, like everything’s normal, just another wild antic in the life of Reggie… but Alex knows better.

“Okay, that’s real generous, but…”

He drags the word out for a few seconds too long. Somehow, his brain gets stalled on Reggie’s face; the strain at the edges of his smile, the dark circles under his eyes. His eyes are a little puffy — he’s been crying. He holds onto Zoey, not just like he’s happy to see her, but like he needs her — needs something soft and comforting to ground him.

Reggie rode his bike all the way to Alex’s house in the middle of the night. He wouldn’t have done that without a good reason.

Alex sighs, and scratches behind Cooper’s ears. When he looks back up at Reggie, his smile is small, but Reggie’s clearly reassured by it nonetheless. “Yeah, you’re right. Things were getting pretty lonely around here.” Alex nudges his shoulder. “You feel like some popcorn?”

Reggie bounds to his feet. “Always!”

“We can finish watching the best John Hughes movie, and then I’ll generously  give you next pick…”

Reggie’s no fan of the classic 80s teen romances, but he’ll suffer through them for Alex’s sake. Alex, in return, has seen Star Wars fourteen times.  He honestly couldn’t care less about defending the galaxy, or whatever Mark Hamill’s trying to do with the long stick and the gross robes… but it makes Reggie happy, and for that, it’s worth it.

So he’s surprised when, instead of insisting on  A New Hope, Reggie buries his face in Alex’s most comfortable blanket, and murmurs something Alex barely catches.

“What?” Reggie doesn’t answer. “Dude, you’ve got to speak up, I can’t — did I not tell you to keep the popcorn in your mouth?” He snatches a few kernels out of Reggie’s lap before they can fall into the cushions and get lost forever. When he looks up again, Reggie’s cheeks are bright red. Alex nudges him in the shoulder again, prompting him to speak up.

“It’s just — uhh—“ Reggie shrugs. “Don’t really feel like Star Wars tonight.”

Alex’s brows shoot up. “Oh… kay. What do you want to watch, then?”

Reggie clears his throat, and studiously doesn’t look Alex in the eye. “Could we watch the Wizard of Oz maybe?”

Alex stares at him; after a few seconds, he snorts. Reggie’s head snaps toward him, indignant in a second.

“It’s a classic, okay? Iconic cinema! You can’t get any better than Judy Garland, and tell me the Wicked Witch didn’t scare your pants off as a kid! And, and, and the flying monkeys are crazy cool, and—“

“You’re such a dork,” Alex scoffs. 

Reggie’s cheeks flood with heat; he looks down again, picking the blankets with his chewed-up fingernails. “Am not,” he mutters — and that’s Alex’s third clue something’s really up.

Second clue: Reggie will never pass up a chance to watch Star Wars. It’s always his top pick… so, for him to choose a kid’s movie instead, he must need something familiar. Something comforting. Something where the ending is a foregone conclusion.

And a Reggie who doesn’t bounce back from Alex’s sharp edged comments like a rubber-band ball is clearly in one heck of a bad way.

Alex’s smile slowly fades. He leans forward on the couch, elbows on his knees, and studies Reggie sideways. When his friend refuses to look up, he nudges their knees together. When he still avoids him — as stubborn as Cooper at the groomers, god  — Alex inches closer to him, pressing their shoulders together.

“Okay,” he says, “what’s up?”

Reggie finally looks up at him, but it’s no victory. His eyes are wide and guilty. “Wh— what?”

“What’s going on, Reg?”

Reggie shrinks back from him… but there’s nowhere to go. Caught between Alex’s body and the couch, he settles for burrowing further into the blanket. He looks like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar… who’s expecting to get spanked for it.

“Nothing,” he mutters. “Nothing, man.” The way he hunches in on himself gives the game away, even if his miserable face didn’t. Alex’s stomach twists. “I just wanted to hang out, I just thought — didn’t want you to be lonely, I mean, it gets quiet here, in a big house all alone, and I know you get nervous, so I just thought maybe, but if you want me to go I’ll g—"

“Reggie.”

His voice breaks through the tidal wave of thought, somehow. Reggie goes still and silent, frowning down at his lap. When Alex lays a hand on his shoulder, he reluctantly looks at him.

“I can tell you’re upset, that’s all,” Alex says… and, as a flicker of something absolutely exhausted passes through Reggie’s eyes, the decision is made for him. “I’m not gonna press. I don’t need you to tell me anything, Reg, but I don’t want you to go.” He pauses, considers, and rubs his hand over Reggie’s shoulder. “Do you need anything?”

“I—“ Reggie exhales a shuddering breath, and shakes his head. “No. I’m, uhh, I’m… good.”

It’s hardly convincing… but Alex suspects it's the best he’s going to get.

Which is okay, because Reggie’s right here. They have the entire house to themselves for the night… and Alex has the Wizard of Oz on cassette tape.

Alex’s house can be a safe place, just for tonight, and that seems like what Reggie needs most of all.

Alex digs the movie out of their cabinet, and pops it in the VCR. As he sits down on the couch once again, curling up at Reggie’s side, he considers his mother’s suede couches — the pride and joy of their living room, which she dotes over and vacuums religiously every Tuesday. The Mercers have a lot of house rules, but Rule Number Two (after No Gays Allowed!) is Don’t Mess Up The Couch.

Alex glances at Reggie, raises his brows, and taps the leather couch three times in quick succession.

“Zoey! Cooper! Up!”

They don’t even have time to brace themselves. All at once, Alex and Reggie are buried under twin lumps of golden fur… and Reggie’s laughter might be the sweetest sound Alex has ever heard.

As the movie starts, and the dogs settle down — Cooper with his head in Alex’s lap, Zoey flopped practically on top of Reggie — a quiet contentment settles between them. The anxiety humming underneath Reggie’s skin quiets so much that Alex can’t hear it anymore… and, in turn, Alex’s own nerves find some peace.

“I’m glad you’re here, Reg,” he says softly, tucking an arm around Reggie’s shoulders. 

“I’m glad you are, too,” Reggie murmurs,.

It might not be exactly what he needs — him, and dogs, and cozy blankets and comfort movies — but as Reggie curls into him with a sigh, Alex hopes it’s enough.

[the-edge-of-great]

can i request julie&luke with either 19 or 25? thank you

oh, did someone say “sweet and fluffy juke”???? another long one, but I just love them so much :)))

25. “I’m here.”

-----

It’s too late for her light to be on.

He’s pacing. He can feel Alex judging him this time.

It’s one in the morning—why is her light still on?

“Dude,” Reggie says. “Boundaries.”

“But why is she still up?” Luke argues. “She’s usually in bed by now.”

“Creepy,” Alex teases even though they’re all aware of her sleep schedule. They can see her bedroom window from the studio; each has noted when her light finally goes out for the night. It’s usually ten, sometimes eleven, rarely midnight. Never one AM.

“What if she needs our help?” Luke tries.

“Then she’d let us know,” Alex answers.

“What if she can’t?” He knows he’s getting ridiculous. Even Reggie is beginning to give him a look. Still, there’s a bad feeling in his nonexistent stomach, so he persists, “What if she’s, I don’t know—what if she fell and she can’t get up?”

Reggie chuckles. “Seriously?”

Luke huffs as he looks up at her window. “I’m going up there.” “At least knock first,” Alex warns. “She could be… indecent.”

“Indecent?” Reggie mocks.

Alex shoves him hard, but then he scrambles to catch Reggie’s arm before he topples into the drumset and wakes the whole neighborhood. Reggie sighs with relief when he’s steady on the ground again.

“I’ll knock,” Luke reassures. He turns to leave, but before he does, he looks back at them. “Don’t piss off the neighbors while I’m gone.”

Reggie sighs heavily. “Fine. I was gonna hit the town anyways. Alex—”

Luke is in Julie’s house before he can hear the end of the sentence. The hallway outside of her door is still, like the house is holding its breath. He raises his hand to the door to knock, but before he does that, he hears something. It’s faint, soft, barely even there. If not for the silence of the house, he wouldn’t hear it at all. Sounds like it’s coming from… He leans forward, ear inches from the door.

Then he’s in her room, blipped in with a glimmering light. She’s on her bed—doesn’t notice him at all. A chest sits open at the foot of her bed, and clothes scatter her floor. She’s hugging her knees to her chest. Head bowed, hair covering her face. Muffled sobs have her shoulders trembling.

He’s on the bed in seconds, whispering her name, tucking her hair behind her ear. His fingers trail down her cheek and across her jaw. When her glossy eyes flitter to him, his everything stops. She’s got him captivated—utterly frozen in despair and worry and love, so much love for this girl with the puffy red eyes.

“Julie,” he says, cupping her cheek with his hand.

Her lower lip quivers, and then she’s against him, burying her face in his shoulder. His arms are immediate, acting on their own, wrapping around and holding her close. Fingers comb through her hair gently; it’s pretty but curly, her hair. She amazes him with how well she styles it.

“I’m here,” he tells her in a hushed tone. Anything louder must be a sin, it seems. “I’m right here Jules, it’s okay.” He kisses her hair,  rests his forehead against hers, rubs her back—small circles with his fingers.

“I miss her.” She speaks, finally. Though, Luke is wishing she hadn’t. Her voice is all crumbly and covered in fissures. It trembles on every word, like each syllable takes too much energy. Is this still Julie Molinas? The same girl with power when she sings?

“I know. I know.” His chin rests on her head. “I’m sorry.” He holds her tighter. Maybe he can create a cage that will protect her from everything bad. Maybe if he can keep her there, she’ll be safe and happy and carefree. He’d make it happen if he could. Anything—he’d do anything.

When she calms down enough, she starts talking. “I had a dream about her.” She’s stopped crying, and her voice is much stronger than before. Good, he thinks. “Carrie and I were at her house wearing Mom’s clothes, putting on a concert for our families, like we used to do when we were kids.”

Luke raises an eyebrow. “Carrie?”

“Yeah. I told you we were best friends once. I wore her butterfly boots—they were like clown shoes on me.” When Luke laughs, he catches a ghost—ha—of a smile on her face, and his cheeks begin to hurt from how wide he’s smiling.. “Carrie had on Mom’s leather vest. She loved leather jackets when we were kids—she looked so cool. We had little concerts there every Sunday. One of his neighbors called a noise complaint on us once because Carlos hooked up one of Trevor’s guitars and turned the amp up as high as it would go.”

Luke snickers. “That’s awesome.”

“Then that neighbor conveniently moved out a month later.”

“Conveniently.”

She chuckles, and his heart skips a beat. He swipes a thumb across her cheek, wiping away leftover tear tracks. They hold each other's gazes for a beat, then three.

“Thank you for coming up here,” she whispers.

“You’re not mad I broke the boundary?” Even as he asks, he knows the answer. He can see it in her eyes—she’s not angry.

Julie shakes her head. “I kind of wondered if you guys would notice my lights were still on.”

He nods. “Of course we did. It’s not like there’s anything else to do.”

She chuckles, rolls her eyes playfully, and tries shoving his shoulder. Instead of giving in, he presses closer. “Actually,” he admits softly, “Reggie noticed first. It was one AM, and he said you were still awake. That tipped Alex and me off.” He brushes her hair to the side, then his fingers trail over her temple and down her neck. “We got worried.”

Julie rolls her eyes. “Is it really so shocking that I’m awake this late?”

“For you? Yeah. You care about getting enough sleep and everything.”

“Wow.” She chuckles. “I didn’t know I was such a dork.”

Luke grins. He cups her cheek. “A cute dork.”

Her laugh is cut short by a yawn that she covers with her hand. His thumb strokes her cheek. “You should get to bed,” he says. “Can’t have you falling asleep in band practice.”

She huffs. “Yeah, that’s the most important thing tomorrow.”

“What’s more important than music?”

“Try having that conversation with my dad on a school night.” She snickers as she pushes back her covers and crawls underneath. While she’s laying her pillow flat, he’s rolling off her bed. His work here is done, it seems. Now he has to go see what Reggie and Alex got themselves into.

“Luke?”

He can’t fight the smile that appears immediately after she speaks. It’s impossible—hearing his name come from her lips has this warm effect on him.

“Yeah, Julie?” he responds, turning to her again. She’s laying down now, bed sheets pulled to her chest and hair brushed out of her face. She looks up at him with her shiny brown eyes. They always have a spark in them, you know? Even under the Los Angeles moon.

She opens her mouth to say something, but then she closes it again. He frowns and steps closer to the bed. “What’s up?” he asks.

“Can you…” Julie pulls her lower lip between her teeth while her eyes drift, obviously thinking things over. “Can you stay?”

“You want me to stay?” The corner of his mouth curls.

“If you… You don’t have to. That was probably weird, I…” She shakes her head, laughing it off.

But he’s not laughing.

Instead, he’s kicking his shoes off. He’s crawling back on the mattress, and he’s laying right next to her.

“This okay?” he asks, rolling onto his side to look at her.

Her smile is hesitant at first, then something makes her relax—and there’s that beautiful Julie Molina grin he loves so much. It’s contagious; he’s mirroring her in seconds.

“It’s perfect.”

[betwecouldmakesome]

car full of moments untold

fandom: julie and the phantoms

pairing: luke/reggie/alex and julie/flynn

word count: 3,656

read here on ao3:  https://archiveofourown.org/works/27090439                         

Julie watches critically as Luke and Reggie seemingly play Tetris with everyone’s bags to get them to fit into the trunk of Alex’s Subaru outback. She isn’t sure why they have so much packed, they only plan on being gone 3 weeks. Flynn made sure to mark where their route and local laundry mats overlap so lack of clean clothes shouldn’t be an issue.

She also has a sneaking suspicion that one of Luke’s duffle bags is entirely beanies. She’s going to let it slide, knowing she’ll end up borrowing them.

She, however, won’t let whatever Reggie is trying and failing to smuggle into the car by hiding it behind his leather jacket, slide.

“Reginald!” Julie calls as she pushes off from the garage she was leaning against, hiding her smile when he jumps and flails. He looks to Luke for help, who shrugs and gives him a look, one she knows means “you’re on your own dude” before he heads back inside.

Reggie leans against the car and brings his hand up to hold his leather jacket closer to him, “Hey! Julie, fancy seeing you here, how’s it going? I’m doing fantastic, totally not doing anything."

“Whatcha got there?” she asks, purposefully ignoring his question and pointedly looks at his hand. Now that she’s closer, she can make out that the something he is holding is moving.

“What? this?” He lifts his hand and chuckles nervously before rubbing at the back of his neck, “it’s just uh, my binder? Yeah! my binder! I wanted to make sure I have a few extras on the trip just in case?” It sounded more like a question then anything.

Julie hums, knowing the boys made sure their binders were the first bags packed. They even checked to make sure they were in the car three times.

It only takes 13 seconds of making direct eye contact with him before he cracks, which to be fair, is a new record for him.

“Okay! Stop giving me the disappointed mom face.” Reggie sighs. He pulls his hand out from underneath his jacket, revealing Miss Petunia, his pet corn snake.

Julie continues to stare at him, slowly raising her eyebrows higher.

“Okay! Okay I’m going” He turns around heading back inside, presumably to give Petunia to Carlos who agreed to take care of her while they were away.

Julie sighs, this is going to be a long trip.

                                     «»

They haven’t even made it out of Los Angeles before it starts.

“Why does Luke get shotgun?” Reggie complains, shoving his upper body between the two front seats.

“Because I won rock-paper-scissors.” Luke says, shoving Reggie back by his forehead. He sounded way too proud for someone who won a child’s game that involves no skill.

“Why is that how we always decide things? I always lose” Reggie pouts, crossing his arms across his chest. 

“That’s why we do.” Luke laughs, quickly flattening himself against the door when Reggie lurches forward again.

“Hey! Cut it out. Reggie put your seatbelt on, you can switch with him when we stop.” Alex interjects, his gaze flickering between the road and Reggie.  

                                   «»

They’ve only been back on the highway ten minutes when Julie slurps down the rest of her slushie, noisily sucking on air at the end. It only takes a few seconds of her shifting around before she leans forward and announces her need to pee. Reggie and Luke quickly agree with her, although Luke looks sheepish about it.

“Seriously?” Flynn asks, raising a less than impressed eyebrow.

“Why didn’t you go at the gas station?” Alex also is not impressed but his eyebrows are less expressive then Flynn’s.

“I didn’t have to go then” Julie defends, Luke and Reggie nod in agreement.

“This is why Flynn is my favorite.” Alex complains. Although he changes lanes to get off at the next exit, so it doesn’t hold much weight

                                  «»

It is pushing half past nine before Alex decides they’re done for the day. They planned on driving until eleven but there are only so many road games that he can take. If he had to listen to one more game of eye spy, he was going to drive them straight off a bridge. Flynn, the goddess she is, finds them a motel to stay in with two available rooms and reads off the directions to him.

For the first time since they left, silence takes over the car when they pull up to the motel. The place is creepy looking, like straight out of a horror movie.

After spending about a good twenty minutes trying to convince Reggie the motel is not haunted and that they won’t die, they cautiously make their way up the old rickety stairs leading to the second floor. They all jump when a loud clang echoes out from the alleyway and quickly scuffle up the rest of the stairs and into their respective rooms.

Alex lets out a relieved sigh, locking the door behind them and looks around the room. It’s not as bad as he was expecting. There is a weird smell he can’t, and doesn’t, want to identify, but it looks relatively clean.

Reggie comes out of the bathroom with Luke right behind him, both now having taken off their binders, changed into pajamas, and brushed their teeth. Reggie drops his backpack at the end of the bed and flops next to it, immediately grabbing the tv remote, “I’m so tired, driving is exhausting.”

Luke shoves at Reggie till he groans and moves to the top of the bed. Reggie takes the side farthest from the door and Luke lays beside him, taking the middle as he called dibs on it, “You didn’t even drive, Alex did all the work.”

Alex listens to them bicker while he brushes his teeth, dreading going back out there. He might have been the one to convince Reggie the motel wasn’t haunted but that does not mean he wants to sleep closest to the door. He spits out the mouthwash and heads back into their room, not at all surprised to see Reggie already asleep cuddled into Luke who looks seconds away from passing out himself. Alex smiles softly and shuts off the lights, he leaves the tv on but turns the volume down. He slides in next to Luke, who immediately, even in his half-asleep state wraps his arm around him and pulls Alex closer to him, burying his face into Alex’s neck. It doesn’t take Alex long to fall asleep, the comfort of laying with his boyfriends outweighing the worry of being haunted.                           

                                  «»

Julie and Flynn wait till ten am for the boys to wake up before giving up and going to explore the town on their own. They walk down main street, hands intertwined, weaving their way through the crowds of people, stopping at any store that catches their eye.

So far, they had stopped at a local café for coffee, a bookstore where they got books for themselves and for each of the boys. Their favorite spot so far was a thrift store that they spent most of their morning trying on the most ridiculous clothing items they could find. and were now googling places they could go next.

Flynn keeps her attention on her phone as she walks, googling places they could go next. She glances up once and awhile but mostly relying on Julie to make sure she doesn’t run face first into a pole. She hums in question when Julie tugs at her arm, only to get her arm tugged on harder in response.

“Look!”

“What? Is there another dog in a stroller?” she asks, locking her phone and sliding it into her back pocket.

Julie grins and points across the street, “We have to go there.”

Flynn eyes where Julie is pointing and grins back at her, letting Julie pull her across the street to where a tiny tourist trap store is.

The bell rings when they push open the door. The person behind the counter jumps at their arrival, startled by the bell, and plasters a smile on their face before just nodding at them in greeting and goes back to flipping through their magazine.

They decide to split up and peruse the shelves for Knick Knacks. Looking for gifts for their families and funny things for the boys.

Julie ends up getting Carlos a snow globe with a ghost inside, her dad a joke book, a pair of earrings for her tía, some shoelaces with rainbows on them for Alex, and two cowboy hats for Luke and Reggie. 

Flynn gets her mom a scented candle gift set, her dad a 1,000-piece puzzle of the town, her older brothers each a screaming goat figurine and a world’s okayest brother coffee mug, an assorted pack of stickers for cryptids for Alex, a pair of socks with ostriches on them for Luke, and a kid leash for Reggie.

 (She got him a stuffed horse as a real gift but the look on his face, and the laughter from everyone else, when she hands him the leash is worth spending the extra money.)                                                                                                  

                                  «»

It takes 3 days and too many coffees and red bulls for them to get Alex to let Julie drive. 

It takes an additional 15 minutes for them to convince him that they will not, under any circumstances, let Luke drive, before he hands over the keys and climbs into the back with Luke and Reggie, falling asleep in seconds.                                                                                                                                     

                                   «»

They are somewhere in Arizona when it becomes evident that it is too hot to keep driving. The temperature pushing 106° Fahrenheit and they are sweating through their t-shirts, hair sticking to the nape of their necks. They are practically all climbing over each other to get out of the car when Alex slows to a stop, having found a river nearby to stop at. Reggie and Luke collapse on the grass under the shade of a tree, leaving Alex, Flynn, and Julie to rummage through the bags for their bathing suits. They jerk upwards with a yelp when Julie throughs their swim trunks and tank tops at them, managing to hit them right in the face.

Luke is the first one changed and immediately runs towards the water. He dives under as soon as it’s deep enough before coming up again just as quick, a wide grin on his face as he shakes out his hair.

“Last one in has to pay for dinner!” He yells out.

The rest of them all share a look before sprinting towards him, letting out battle cry’s as they hit the water                                                                                                                                    

                                    «»

After spending a few hours having chicken fights and wading through the water they decide to camp out beside the river for the night. Alex makes a quick trip to the nearest store to get the supplies to make sandwiches and s’mores, Reggie and Flynn oversee the fire while Luke and Julie set up their sleeping bags.

They settle into their sleeping bags, the sound of crickets chirping, the river flowing, and the crackling of dying embers from fire the only noise, everyone silent as they look up at the stars. It’s dark, the fire barely going anymore, the moon and bright stars now their only light source. It’s peaceful and reassuring in a way the city could never be.

“What if we didn’t go back?” It’s Luke who whispers it, but it doesn’t matter, they were all thinking it, this is the most relaxed they’ve felt in forever.                                                                                                                           

                                     «»

They take lots of pictures during their trip, snapping them whenever they get a chance. Photos of Luke, Flynn, and Julie passed out in the back seat, cuddled up and drooling on each other. Videos of Reggie yelling “Horses!” and pressing his face against the window every time they drive by any and Alex saying “if you do that one more time, I swear I’m going to crash the car” every time. They take pictures of themselves at every state sign they pass, and every landmark they visit. They take pictures of the scenery, the sun rising and setting. There are videos of them singing along to the radio at the top of their lungs. They have videos of every dumb stunt the others try, videos of them joking and laughing. They take as many as they can, trying to capture every moment, hoping to savor as much as they can.                                                                                                                                       

                                    «»

It takes Julie and Flynn 5 days to realize Reggie and Alex never call their parents.

It takes a few more for them to realize Luke doesn’t answer when his do.                                                                                                                                      

                                    «»

Julie and Flynn are leaning against each other drifting in and out of sleep, Luke already snoring in the passenger seat when they get startled awake by Alex swearing loudly and slamming on his breaks before making a U-turn.

“Alex! What the hell?” Julie yells, smacking the back of his headrest repeatedly.

He swats at her hand halfheartedly, “We forgot Reggie at the last stop!” 

They all exchange a look, knowing they will never hear the end of this.                                                                                                                                      

                                  «»

Alex knows, rationally that it’s dumb to worry. Reggie can take care of himself, but there’s still a hollow feeling in his stomach as he pulls back into the run-down gas-station. He sure they’ll laugh about it later, just another funny story to tell, but the silence that hangs in the air as they pull in to see Reggie nowhere in sight is chilling.

As soon as the car is in park, they all spill out, running across the parking lot and into the building.

Reggie is fine, of course. They find him sitting on the checkout counter, kicking his legs back and forth as he chats with the cashier who’s working. He beams when he notices them, waving at them with the hand he is holding a hotdog in.

“Hey guys!” 

Alex is the first one to react. He rushes forward and pulls Reggie into a tight hug, lifting him right off the counter, “Oh my god, I’m so sorry.”

Reggie hugs him back at laughs against his neck. “Took you long enough.”                                                                                                                                     

                                   «»

They get ten miles down the road before Reggie clutches his stomach and groans, “I’m gonna hurl.”

They pull over three more times for him to throw up before deciding to stop for the night.

Reggie swears that he is never eating another hotdog again.                                                                                                                                     

                                  «»

It’s six am, raining and gloomy out as they leave the motel. It is entirely too early after checking in after midnight. Alex wordlessly hands the keys to Julie and climbs into the back, Reggie and Luke both still half asleep following him.

They don’t wake up for another few hours and even then, it’s not by choice, it’s by the girls shaking them awake. Flynn hands the cardboard tray with 3 coffees back to them and goes back to quietly talking to Julie.

Reggie yawns and takes a sip of theirs, leaning forward after to kiss the girls on the cheek in thanks.

“It’s a Them day.” They say, slouching back against Luke. They only stay awake long enough to hear the groups hums or mumbled “okay’s” in acknowledgment.                                                                                                                               

                                   «»

They get a flat tire in the middle of nowhere. A straight stretch of road going for miles and big open fields going as far as they can see.

“Shit,” Alex swears under his breath and looks to Reggie hopefully, who shakes his head and looks to Luke, only to get a sheepish shrug in response.

“Shit.” Alex repeats, louder this time.

Julie and Flynn exchange a glance before rolling up their sleeves, “We’ve got this, boys.”

“How did you know how to do that?” Reggie asks in awe, as the girls stand back up while wiping the dirt of their hands. The flat tire now replaced by the spare.

“My mom taught us.”

“We’d be lost without you.” Luke grins.

Flynn pulls him into a side hug and ruffles his hair, “Damn right you would.”                                                                                                                                    

                                    «»

Alex pokes at the paint on his cheeks, checking to see if it was dry. He had rainbow stripes on one side, and purple, white, and green on the other. He had been the one put in charge of doing everyone’s face paint and he had waited to do his own last. Luke had the demiboy flag painted on one cheek and the ace flag on the other. His nails painted pink, yellow, and blue, and is wearing a crop top with a trans flag wrapped around him like a cape. Reggie had Alex paint the genderfluid flag and trans flag onto his face, and his nails painted with the bi flag colors. Julie has the demigirl colors on one cheek and the bi colors on the other, with an ace flag wrapped around her. Flynn has dark orange, light orange, white, pink, and dark pink, representing the lesbian flag painted onto both cheeks.

Alex reaches around Reggie to grab his trans flag, the last part of his outfit, and wraps it around his shoulders. 

Julie claps her hands together, getting everybody’s attention, “Everyone ready?”

Reggie lets out a shout of excitement, grabbing Alex and Luke’s hands, lacing his fingers with their own and tugging them out the door. Julie and Flynn follow them, shaking their heads and laughing as they watch all three of them try and walk down the narrow staircase side by side.                                                                                                                                      

                                   «»

“I’m dying.” Reggie gasps out, dramatically flinging themself over a rock.

“We’re almost there, it’s just a few more minutes.” Julie reassures them, the rest of the group taking the opportunity to stop and rest. All of them had woken up at five am to hike a mountain and watch the sun rise. The trail was about two miles, and this was the third time Reggie had announced that they were dying, although this one was more dramatic than the others.

“You’ve been saying that for the last 20 minutes!”

“Well this time I mean it.”

“Luke.” Reggie whines, drawing out the name as they shift their gaze to Luke, who is pouring some of his water over his head.

“No.” 

“Babe! Please, I’m dying here.”

Luke sighs and rolls his eyes before crouching down, not being able to resist Reggie’s puppy dog eyes, “Hop on.”

Reggie cheers, jumping up onto his back, “Have I told you how much I love you?”

“I think you should remind me.” Luke grins, tilting his head back towards Reggie.

“Maybe I will.” They laugh, leaning forward and press their lips against Luke’s, smiling into the kiss.

“Hey!” Alex calls after them, “I’d like to be reminded too.”

“You were going to let me die, you don’t get any kisses.” Reggie looks back over their shoulder, sticking their tongue out at him.

“Well I’m the one carrying the food so maybe you should reconsider.”

“Are you bribing me?”

“I don’t know, is it working?” Alex asks.

“Yes. Yes, it is.” Reggie slaps at Luke’s shoulder, telling him to let them down.

Julie and Flynn make their way around them, wanting to make it to the top of the mountain in time.

Reggie skips down to Alex and wraps their arms around Alex’s neck, pulling him down to kiss them.

“So, can I have a snack now?”

                                   «»

“Guys,” Flynn looks at the scene before her in exasperation, “I was gone for literally five minutes.”

“We know, help now scold later.” Reggie shifts, trying to yank his foot out for underneath Julie

“How did you even manage this?”

“We couldn’t decide which one of us got to sit in the cart and we thought we could all fit.” Julie peaks her head out from behind Luke. She blows a piece of hair out of her face so she can see, only for it to fall right back.

“You too, Alex?” Flynn asks.

Alex shrugs, looking guilty, “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

“You’re apart of a human pretzel!”

“We won’t do it again, just get us out. I have to pee, and Luke is crushing my bladder.”

“Hey! at least you don’t have Reggie’s knees in your back,” Luke argues, “and I’m not even that- wait, Flynn are you taking pictures?”

“Oh yeah, definitely” She nods.                                                                  ��                                                                    

                                   «» 

“That’s the fourth store we’ve gotten kicked out of this week.” Flynn complains, glaring at the grocery store.

“That’s not too bad.”

“Luke, It’s Wednesday.”

                                     «»

They sit on a pier in silence, feet dangling off the edge as they lean with their upper bodies over the bottom railing. The sun is setting, gradually receding into the waters below. The sky is more purple than red now, further indicating that their night is coming to an end. 

It had been a few hours since they made their way away from the carnival that was bustling with activity to somewhere quieter. Further away from the bright lights and loud music, the yells excitement and overwhelming noise of big crowds of people all talking and closer to the sounds of waves crashing against shore and seagulls squawking.

Julie picks at her cotton candy, ripping a piece off and hands it to Alex, who accidently dropped his into the ocean below them.

“Maybe we don’t go back.” Again, It’s Luke who says it. He sounds more confident this time.

“Are parents would kill us,” Alex says. He looks down awkwardly when Luke looks at him pointedly. 

“Okay, Ray would kill us.”

“Hey! Ray’s cool, he would never.” Reggie objects.

“We can’t just not go back, right?” Alex looks around at each of them, “Could we?”

Flynn shrugs, “I hear Maine is really pretty in the Fall.”

                                    «»

Ray is cool and he does not kill them. His exact response is “I get it, I’ll miss you! Stay safe and be careful. Send post cards. And because I’m being so cool about it, you get to be the one to tell your tía.”                                                                                                            

[reversedscene]

Does She Mean, Like, Pizza?

Summary:

“Why couldn't they have made mine into a pizzeria or something?” – Reggie Peters, 1x02 “Bright” “I wish I had a puppy! A hamster? Pizza?” – Reggie Peters, 1x02 “Bright” “Wait, so, when she says “deep dish”, is she talking about, like, pizza or...?"  - Reggie Peters, 1x03 “Flying Solo” “Let’s not forget we have somewhere else we can play and eat pizza.” – Reggie Peters, 1x06 “Finally Free”

OR

A 5 + 1 fic detailing the origins of Reggie’s love of pizza.

Word Count: 4502

AO3 link in the notes

AN:

This is 100% inspired by this post by @willexx, thank you so much for letting me use this idea!!

TWs:

overall - discussion and onscreen eating of food section 3 - discussion of coming out to homophobic parents and offscreen Catholic-based homophobia, something adjacent to a panic attack but not quite that severe section 4 - discussion of missing meals/teenagers being dumb about what counts as a meal (you can easily skip the noted sections if there's a trigger, they're all independent of each other)

Does She Mean, Like, Pizza?

1 --

Despite the perceptions Reggie’s friends have, his parents weren’t always that bad. There was a time growing up when they were the type of parents any kid could’ve asked for.

“And then we learned about evaportat – evaporation, where the water goes back to the sky!” Reggie raises his hands, bringing his older brother’s hand up with his left.

“Yeah?” Charlie prompts. “How about when we get home, we put a little water in a bottlecap by the window and you can see it happen?” Reggie cheers his agreement and starts pulling Charlie down the sidewalk. “Calm down, Reg, the water will still be there when we get home.”

Reggie slows down slightly, content to walk beside his brother until they get home. They make it home fairly quickly, Reggie only getting distracted by a wildflower on the side of the sidewalk that he insisted on picking for their mom. When they get home, Charlie reaches up to the front door and lets them both in.

“Charlie? Reggie? That you?” Reggie hears his mom call from the kitchen, quickly followed by her footsteps coming down the hall.

“Hi, mom!” The boys chorus back to her as she rounds the corner.

Reggie holds out the wildflower to her, “Here, it’s pretty just like you!”

“Is this for me?” She asks. When Reggie nods, she continues, taking the flower from him, “Why thank you Reggie, it’s gorgeous. How was school, boys?” Reggie hums in acknowledgment as he crouches down to pull the Velcro on his shoes. He sees Charlie rip open his backpack beside him and hand a small package of paper to their mom.

“I got my multiplication test back today!” Charlie says with a bright smile. His mom flips over the paper and Reggie sees a big colourful sticker at the top before it’s fully turned around.

“A 100, oh Charlie how wonderful!” Their mom coos, wrapping Charlie in a hug. “I’m so proud of you, I know how hard you worked for that.” She pulls away then continues, “You know, I was going to make a casserole tonight, but how about we order pizza instead, boys?”

Charlie and Reggie both cheer as they follow their mother into the living room. First though, they make a pit stop in the kitchen to pin the test up on the fridge with a magnet, the circled bright red 100 stark against the white of the paper and fridge. They settle down in the living room when Reggie’s mom turns to him and asks what he got up to today.

“We learned about evaporation! Water just disappears!” Reggie exclaims.

“Do you still want to do that experiment, Reg?” Charlie asks, already getting up. Reggie nods enthusiastically, with a massive grin on his face – exposing his missing front teeth.

Later that evening, all four Peters sat around the table with a large pepperoni pizza between them. Laughter filled the air and four little bottlecaps of water sat on the windowsill. Reggie was happy.

2 --

Reggie is practically bouncing in his booster seat – scratch that, he actually is bouncing. Luke Patterson, who was in his class for the first time this year, had invited him to his birthday party. They only met on the first day of school but, since their last names are so close, they seem to have spent every second in class talking to each other.

His mom pulls the car into the Patterson’s driveway and Reggie jumps out. He’s halfway to the door when his mom calls him back to get Luke’s gift. Reggie runs back to grab it and goes to run back again before his mom tells him to walk with her. Together they walk up to the front door and Reggie reaches up to ring the doorbell, and a woman with long brown hair answers the door.

“Hello, you’re here for Luke’s party?” At Reggie’s enthusiastic nod, she continues, “And what’s your name?”

Just as she finishes her question, a small boy comes barreling down the hallway. Reggie hears his name being yelled before Luke slams into him, almost knocking them both to the ground.

“C’mon, Reg, everyone’s in the living room, let’s go!” Luke says, grabbing his hand and pulling him into the house.

Reggie looks over his shoulder and waves, “Bye, mom!”. She waves back while talking to Luke’s mom.

Luke turns a corner, and they enter the living room that already has most of the guests there. Reggie can immediately see Jennifer and Sarah sitting in the corner of the couch talking with Mikey who was on the floor, and then Luke’s best friends Alex and Bobby sitting in the chairs a little further into the room. Unsurprisingly, Luke pulls him over to the boys.

“Alex, Bobby, this is Reggie, he’s my friend from class since you’re in Ms. R’s class this year and left me all alone with Mr. K.”

“We didn’t leave you all alone!” Bobby says.

“And it’s not our fault!” Alex adds, before turning to Reggie. “Hi Reggie, I’m Alex.”

Bobby turns and says, “And I’m Bobby, I like your shirt.”

Reggie looks down to see his Back to the Future shirt he was wearing then answers brightly, “Thanks!”

Mrs. Patterson then enters the room, putting Reggie’s gift down with the rest, and told them it was time for party games.

Reggie stuck with the three boys for the entire afternoon. He was in stitches with Luke and Alex when Bobby pinned the tail on the TV instead of the donkey poster at the other end of the room, and immediately paired up with them when Mrs. Patterson – “call me Emily, honey” – had announced it was time for charades.

The pizza arrived in the evening and Reggie ate it sitting crossed legged on the floor surrounded by three new friends and having the time of his life.

3 --

Through elementary school and middle school, the boys stay thick as thieves, even starting a band in grade 8 that went unnamed until midway through grade 9. Bobby’s parents were kind enough to let them use their garage as a rehearsal space – in actual support or just to get them out of the house, the boys didn’t know. Throughout this time as well, Reggie’s dad got laid off and his idealistic childhood came crashing down along with the family’s savings. His parents started arguing more, first about money, then about each other, then about Reggie and Charlie. As it stands now, a few years down the line, Charlie moved out to go to college and Reggie spends more time in the garage than in his own house.

Currently, Reggie is sitting on the couch in the garage, fiddling with the tuning keys of his bass while the body lays on the couch. It’s a few hours after band practice and Bobby had just left to make popcorn in the house.

The studio doors slam open and Reggie jumps at the noise, just barely catching his bass before it crashes to the ground. He looks up to see Alex just inside the doors harshly sucking in air with tear tracks running down his face. Now that Reggie is paying attention, he can hear the difference in Alex’s breathing, the clear signs of hyperventilation that Reggie initially attributed to his hasty entrance.

“Jesus, Alex, what happened?” Reggie says, getting up to try and comfort his obviously distressed friend.

“I – I … I don’t know what came over me. I, I –“ Alex stammers out, his breathing picking up pace.

“Okay, that’s okay, how about we go sit down?” At Alex’s slight nod, Reggie guides him over to the couch, moving his bass off the couch and into its normal position in the process. “Do you want me to count your breathing or distract you? You can use the tap system if you want.” The tap system was a little communication method the four of them had set up a few years ago after Alex had a particularly bad panic attack where he couldn’t speak. One of the three of them ask a two-option question, and Alex taps once for the first option or twice for the second. Alex taps Reggie’s leg twice.

“Okay that’s good. Did I tell you about the bulldog I saw at the beach the other day?” Reggie starts and then continues without waiting for an answer.  “He had these little blue goggles on and a life jacket – because bulldogs can’t float because they’re too dense – and he couldn’t quite walk right, so he kept losing his balance and falling over! He was almost all white, with these brown spots on his ears and a few on his back, I think his name was Winston? I’m not sure if his parents were yelling at the dog or the kid with him though. He loved fetch too, the kid kept throwing the ball into the surf, which explains the goggles and life jacket, he was just so cute!” Alex’s breathing had evened out a little through the story, and Bobby comes in with a bowl of popcorn just as Reggie finishes.

Bobby walks into the room, places the popcorn on the table, and sits on the other side of Alex, clearly sensing the things-are-not-okay-right-now vibe. He looks over to Reggie with a questioning look on his face and Reggie responds with a small shrug and raised eyebrows.

“Hey, Lex, I wasn’t expecting you to be here tonight, is everything alright?” Bobby says.

Alex opens his mouth to respond but he chokes a bit on his words and ends up shutting his mouth while shaking his head.

“That’s alright, man. Do you want to talk about it?” Bobby continues, and Alex answers by nodding. “Okay, do you want me to grab Luke so we’re all together?” Another nod. “Sweet, I’m gonna go call him now, is that good?” After Alex nods a third time, Bobby gets up to go back into the house to the phone. “I’ll be right back.”

A second wave of whatever Alex is going through hits, his shoulders begin to shake, breathing picks up, and his eyes fill with tears again. Reggie calls Alex’s name softly and opens his arms in a silent invitation, which Alex immediately accepts. Reggie shifts them around until they’re both half sitting, half laying down on the couch, with Alex’s face resting on his chest and his arms wrapped around Alex. Reggie starts carding his hand through Alex’s hair hoping it soothes Alex like normal.

When Bobby returns, they’re still in that position and Reggie’s hand is still in Alex’s hair. Alex’s breathing has returned to semi-normal, only hitching occasionally, but his face is still red and covered in tear tracks.

“Luke says he’ll be here in 15.” Bobby says while lifting their feet and settling beneath them. Even though Bobby said 15 minutes, Reggie knows it’ll be closer to 10 – Luke will ride his bike as fast as he can over here if he knows one of them is in trouble. Reggie resumes his hand motions and Bobby begins rubbing his hand up and down Alex’s calf.

After a few minutes of silence, Alex mumbles something into Reggie’s chest.

“What was that Alex? We didn’t quite catch that.” Bobby says.

Alex lifts his head slightly and repeats, “I came out to my parents tonight.” A sense of dread washes over Reggie. Alex was one of the two bandmates with good parents, despite them being on the more extreme end of Catholicism. Reggie hugs Alex a little tighter, and Bobby rearranges himself, so he finally properly joins the cuddle pile. It’s difficult fitting three 16-year-old boys horizontally on the same couch but they’ve had enough practice that they make it work.

Reggie loses track of time but soon enough Luke is bursting through the door in a very similar fashion to Alex earlier that night.

“What did I miss?” Luke pants out. “Is everyone alright?”

“That depends on your definition of alright?” Reggie says from the bottom of the pile.

“I came out to my parents.” Alex adds. Luke is crouched beside them in seconds.

“Are you okay? How did they react? Well, not good considering you’re here. Did they kick you out? Do you need a place to stay?” Luke rapid fires.

“Luke, Jesus, take a breath, you’re overwhelming the guy.” Bobby says.

“It’s okay.” Alex intervenes. “I’m okay now, and you’re right, they didn’t react well. They didn’t quite kick me out but they’re definitely not okay with it. I don’t know why I thought they would be really, I just thought their love for me would overshadow what they believe.” Alex lets out a humorless chuckle. “But I should’ve known with how they spoke about the AIDS crisis.”

“Hey, no, no thinking like that.” Bobby interjects before Alex can spiral too far. “It’s not your fault you trusted them to support you as parents, it was theirs for letting you down. Okay?”

“Okay.” Alex responds.

“Good. Now, have either of you had dinner yet? Because me and Reg haven’t.” When Alex and Luke both shake their heads, Bobby continues. “Okay, I don’t think mom made enough for two extra plates and, frankly, I think we’re overdue for a pizza and movie night out here. How does that sound?” Luke and Reggie voice their affirmative.

“Can we watch My Cousin Vinny?” Alex asks quietly. When all the boys agree – as if they could disagree with Alex after everything that happened today – a small smile graces Alex’s face, the first Reggie has seen since he burst through the door.

As the final few minutes of the movie play out on the screen, all four of them are piled on the couch with two empty boxes of pizza on the coffee table in front of them. The painful events of the day are not quite forgotten but they’re definitely a distant thought.

4 --

Junior year ends and senior year picks up along with the fights between Luke and his parents. Post-secondary applications had opened two months ago, and the deadline is drawing nearer every day. The band’s getting closer and closer to their big break, they can feel it, but unfortunately, that belief doesn’t transfer to Emily and Mitch Patterson.

“I just don’t understand how they don’t get it!” Luke says from the space under the loft and raising his arms in frustration to Reggie, who’s on the couch. “They always said they’d support me, but all of a sudden I don’t want to go to college and everything comes crashing down?”

Reggie hums, trying to think of something that might comfort his friend. “You could get them to come to our gig next weekend? It’s a pretty big venue and we’ve got some consistent fans now, that might help them see this is a feasible path.”

Luke collapses on the couch beside Reggie with a huff. “I could, but I invited them to all of our early gigs and they didn’t come to anything besides the school talent show in sophomore year. I just don’t know how a degree would help a rock band. It just seems like a distraction.” Luke laughs a little to himself, obviously seeing the same irony Reggie does in that statement.

“Maybe do a music degree? It might be helpful, especially if you have to go for something.” Reggie suggests. He’s just trying to diffuse the situation; he already basically lives here, and it’d be a pity for Luke if he had to join him.

“Yeah, and spend hours on audition pieces when I could be spending hours on band practice? No thanks. Also, what the hell am I gonna do with a music degree? I don’t think Bach or Beethoven will help with rock.” Reggie thinks sampling from other genres might be pretty cool, but like hell, he’s going to say that to Luke right now. Reggie knows there’s no helping this cause right now, there’s no way to fix years worth of parental problems in an evening, so instead he does what he does best – distract.

“You know, I’m pretty hungry and Bobby and his parents are with his grandparents, you want to order pizza and play Mario Kart? I brought my SNES over here a month ago.”

“Honestly, Reg? That sounds amazing.” Luke flops to the left, his head landing in Reggie’s lap and his feet kicking over the other arm of the couch. His beanie falls off his head a little and Reggie pulls it all the way off so he can run his fingers through Luke’s hair.

“How much should we order? I missed lunch so I’m good with ordering a bunch.” In reality, they had made quite a bit of money from their last gig, so between the both of them, they could definitely afford for Luke to eat his feelings tonight. This statement, however, had the opposite effect on Luke. He sits up quickly, dislodging Reggie’s hand, and turns to Reggie with a concerned look on his face.

“What do you mean you missed lunch? I thought we stocked protein bars in here for the explicit purpose of preventing you from skipping lunch?” That’s a half-truth and they both know it. Initially, that is why they were stocked – Reggie had spent one too many weekends in the garage while Bobby either wasn’t there or didn’t know and there was no food in the studio. As time passed, however, the bars became communal band snacks as it was a lot less disruptive to grab a bar quick than to trek into the Wilson household if someone got hungry during band practice.

“We ran out of bars last week. Bobby’s mom said she’d pick up more when they got back on Sunday. Anyway, pizza?” Luke sighs but doesn’t fight the lunch issue any longer.

“Only if we get cheesy garlic bread too.” Luke says with a bit of a smile on his face.

“What type of pizza night would it be if we didn’t?” Reggie shoots back.

Later that night, both boys were fighting yawns while trying to stay awake long enough to get a definitive Mario Kart winner. If they were getting the controllers a little too greasy and scattering the pizza boxes around the studio instead of keeping them around the table, well Reggie wasn’t complaining tonight.

5 --

All four members of Sunset Curve exit the venue, walking calmly down the street until they turn the corner. As soon as they know they’re out of view of the building, they all break out into whoops and cheers, jumping around, and grabbing onto each other.

“I can’t believe we booked the Orpheum, holy shit!” Luke yells in their faces. The remaining three yell incomprehensibly back at him.

Once they all calm down, Bobby says, “I can’t believe we got it.”

“It only took us, what? Two years?” Reggie asks.

“And every single favour we’ve ever had.” Alex adds.

“But we did it, boys, we finally made it.” Luke says, slapping each one of them in the chest with a massive smile on his face.

“How about we take the day off?” Bobby proposes.  “We’re right by the beach, there’s months until this gig, and frankly, I think we all deserve to celebrate a little.” Reggie and Alex both voice their approval, while Luke looks slightly apprehensive.

“C’mon Luke, the gig isn’t ‘til July, and Bobby’s right – we do deserve to celebrate for a bit, we’ve been rehearsing nonstop for at least two months now.” Alex says, resting his hand on Luke’s shoulder.

Luke wavers for a moment before his smile breaks through and he agrees. They take off down the street, bumping their shoulders together occasionally and sharing massive grins.

They’re just passing by the pier when Reggie smells the telltale grease of a pizzeria and realizes, since their meeting at the Orpheum was at noon, none of them have had lunch yet.

“Hey, do you guys want to get pizza? We could bring a box down to the beach.” Reggie says.

Luke grabs Reggie’s face with a hand on either side. “Reggie, that is the best idea I have ever heard.” He says, completely seriously.

Fifteen minutes later, Bobby’s carrying a probably overpriced pizza while they all settle into the sand farther down the beach. They each grab a slice and Luke holds his up like one would a drink during a toast.

“To Sunset Curve, boys, we’re gonna be legends!” He says.

“To Sunset Curve!” The three cheer back, toasting their slices against Luke’s.

They spend the rest of the day laughing and joking around. Reggie knows they’re all going to be finding sand in their shoes for weeks after this, but he can’t find it in himself to care. As the sun starts to set, they all get up and throw out the pizza box at the top of the beach. The trek home is a little long but none of them care.

They’re gonna be legends.

+1 --

They, in fact, were not going to be legends. Well, most of them wouldn’t be. Instead, they find themselves 25 years in the future, with no Bobby and no Sunset Curve. There were some good things about the future though, they have a new name, a crazy talented lead singer with the voice of an angel, and they finally got to play the Orpheum – even if they did have to go through hell to do it.

Ever since Julie saved them from Caleb’s stamps, they’ve found the boys are more like lifers. They can now sleep and eat, although they haven’t tested if they have to like lifers, but they can also still teleport and pass through doors. Another ability that came with this half-lifer status is that they can choose to make themselves visible to lifers without playing music with Julie. This particular ability came in useful when Julie decided to tell Ray about them; it’s a lot easier to explain ghosts when they can just appear right in front of your face.

As it stands now, Ray has all but adopted the three of them. Reggie shied away from Ray at the beginning, unable to handle the potential rejection he had grown to expect from parental figures, but it’s been over a month and the other shoe hasn’t dropped yet. In fact, the exact opposite had happened, Ray not only had accepted Reggie’s near-constant presence around him, but he had started including him in what he was doing. Reggie has learned more about photography than he ever knew possible and was even told the super-secret Molina family recipe for hot chocolate.

The boys have slowly started to be incorporated into Molina family traditions and tonight was time for another: monthly Friday pizza nights. They’ve been outsiders to this tradition before, losing Julie for the night back before they could eat, but now that they could, there was no way they would miss it.

Currently, they’re all in the living room waiting for the pizza to arrive. Alex is in the middle of a story about one of Sunset Curve’s first times busking on the pier. Luke is laughing along with it, clearly forgetting about the fact that this story ends with him tripping over his guitar case and almost ending up in the water.

“Wait, Alex, I forgot to ask, how’s your ghost boyfriend doing?” Luke abruptly says, interrupting Alex mid-sentence, seemingly remembering the end to this story if the pink dusting his cheeks is any indication.

Alex’s reaction to his question is instantaneous – his ears heat up and he starts fiddling with the strap of his fanny pack. He just barely manages to spit out a, “He’s not my – okay,” before turning beet red. Just then, the doorbell rings and everyone starts getting up – Ray to get the pizza and the rest to go to the dining table.

“Saved by the bell.” Reggie says to Alex on his way past, jostling Alex slightly with his elbow.

“You could say that, yeah” Alex responds with a slight laugh.

“Seriously though,” Julie chimes in. “You should invite him to band practice again, it was a lot of fun when he was here.”

“You can’t even see him!” Alex says. Everyone was a little disappointed when they found that out. Julie and Willie were looking forward to meeting each other, but it was quickly obvious that Julie’s ghost-seeing abilities only applied to the former members of Sunset Curve.

“Still, it was fun to have him around. Also, I think I think the day you brought him over was the best you’ve ever played in rehearsal.” Julie says with a wink and then walks away to the table.

“That wasn’t – okay.” Alex says defeatedly, turning to Reggie.

“You really did kill it that day, man.”

They both turn back to the table just in time to see Luke pull out Julie’s chair for her. Both Alex and Reggie look at each other, exchanging knowing glances.

“So, we all saw that, yeah?” Carlos loudly whispers to Reggie and Alex, looking directly at Luke and Julie who are holding eye contact that’s just a little too long to be subtle.

“Yeah we did, little buddy. But c’mon, let’s go have some pizza.” Reggie says, ruffing Carlos’s hair, just as Ray comes back with the boxes.

As the six of them sit down around the dining room table, Reggie is reminded of the family pizza nights he would have as a kid, with everyone crowded around a table and laughter filling the air. Except now instead of a large pepperoni pizza in the middle, there were two pizzas – a vegetarian and Hawaiian – and a box of wings. There was also a sad-looking salad that Reggie was 75% sure Ray only threw together in case Tía Victoria came by. The laughter and sense of yes this is exactly where you’re supposed to be feeling of home was the exact same though.

Alex bumps Reggie’s shoulder, knocking him out of the slight daze he had fallen into, and Reggie turns to him and smiles. It had taken a slightly horrific death, twenty-five years, and a brush with another second death, but Reggie had finally found his way back home.

[noorakardemmomesaetre]

The Jack-O-Gram 

Or read it on AO3 

Pairing: Betty x Jughead 

Summary: The Jack-O-Gram has become the perfect way for Riverdale High students to express their feelings for someone special before the Halloween Banshee Bash at the end of the week. 

Betty can't help but hope she receives one from the only boy who's ever captured her heart, Jughead Jones.

She’s sifting through her locker when she hears the sound that never fails to spread a warmth through her chest.

Silence.  

Jughead Jones is making his way through Riverdale High’s entrance doors with the blasé attitude of someone who simply can’t be bothered. The large Serpent emblem stitched across the back of his jacket serves as a warning to those students brave enough to steal a glance in his direction.

But Betty can’t help herself and his newly established Serpent status has done nothing but intrigue her further.

He’s beautiful.  

But not in the conventional way that Veronica gushes about those men from the magazines she pours over when she hangs out in Betty’s bedroom.

He’s beautiful in the way that makes Betty’s breath catch in her throat when he genuinely laughs at something his friends say.

He’s beautiful in the way that makes the tips of Betty’s ears redden when he catches her eye from across the hall, a playful smirk on his face.

And he’s beautiful now as he runs his fingers through his dark waves before tugging his worn, crown beanie on in an attempt to tame them.

She feels as though she’s in a bit of a daze, her hand still reaching absentmindedly into her locker as she takes him in.

Until his gaze suddenly shifts to meet hers.

She immediately turns, cursing herself for getting caught up in such an obvious moment of complete infatuation and begins shoving her books around in an attempt to look busy.

It’s only when chatter erupts in the hallways once again that she knows he’s gone and she takes a moment to close her locker and press her forehead against the cool metal.

“Be more obvious next time, Betty, really,” she breathes to herself as she calms her pounding heart.

“Am I interrupting something, Cooper?”

His voice has her wondering if walking into traffic would be a good enough reason for her to never show her face at Riverdale High again? In fact, perhaps she should just board a flight and leave the country.

“Of course not,” she says quickly, turning to face him while pressing her pastel pink binder tightly to her chest. “It’s just usually quiet when you get here...you’re like all anyone sees.”

He tilts his head at that, his eyes searching her face, and she nervously tucks a loose strand of hair behind her ear. Was it really necessary for him to be standing this close to her?

“Anyways. Can I help you with something, Jones?”

He shoves his hands into his jacket pockets and casually leans against her closed locker door as if the Serpent Prince talking to Betty Cooper is something that occurs all the time.

It doesn’t.

“No, actually,” he finally responds, glancing around the emptying hallway before turning back to her. “I just wanted to tell you thanks for that article you wrote for the Blue and Gold. It was written well and with an interesting perspective.”

A heat crawls up the column of her neck as she works through the fact that he’s complimenting her. About her writing. The one thing she cares about.

“Oh, no, it was my - I mean, thank you for, you know, that’s so sweet of you to say,” she’s stumbling over her words again and he looks down, drawing his bottom lip between his teeth to keep from smiling.

“Alright, well-” he stops and his eyes narrow ever so slightly and Betty prays she doesn’t have smeared lipstick across her face or something in her teeth. Why did she have to eat that spinach omelette this morning?!

He reaches out, gently pulling off a small leaf that had fallen atop her head, his face inches from hers. She feels her breath catch as his gaze lingers on her lips for more than a brief second.

But then the school bell pierces the air, signaling that they are officially late to class and Betty motions past him. “I better get to class-”

“Yeah, me too. I guess I’ll see you around?”

She smiles coyly, her ponytail swinging lightly behind her as she moves past him. Her cheeks are burning and she can only hope it looks like she overdid it with the blush today and not like she can’t even be two feet from him without needing an ice bath.

“Oh, and Cooper,” he calls out and she turns around so quickly the ends of her ponytail smack her cheek.

“Happy Halloween.”

_________________

“Betty dearest, you have not sent a Jack-O-Gram since the Reggie Mantle Fiasco of freshman year.”

“We’ve nicknamed the first and only time I’ve sent a Jack-O-Gram a ‘fiasco’ and you’re really expecting me to send another?”

Cheryl purses her cherry red lips before sharing a look with Veronica. They are standing behind the Jack-O-Gram booth Cheryl had spared no expense in having built and set up in the main hallway of Riverdale High. It costs one dollar to send a Jack-O-Gram, or a pumpkin shaped piece of paper with a king sized candy bar tied together with dark green ribbon, and all proceeds go to the prom budget, of course.

The booth had become a wild success their freshman year and Cheryl had quickly taken over management, having already been part of the prom committee though she wasn’t old enough to attend.

What had started under the guise of a friendly Halloween-themed gram had quickly become a way for one to express his or her feelings for someone before the Banshee Bash dance at the end of the week.

Betty has always received one from their other best friend, Kevin Keller, but with it being their senior year they had come to the mutual decision that they should pursue actual Banshee Bash dates.

Or, Kevin had wanted desperately to send one to Fangs Fogarty and Betty couldn’t bear to stand in his way.

Even if the only person who had ever sparked her interest wouldn’t touch a Northsider with a 10 foot pole.

“B, this is the perfect year to send one to Jughead! You even said he complimented your writing this morning!” Veronica is writing the longest Jack-O-Gram Betty has ever seen to her long-time boyfriend, Archie.

As if they aren’t already planning to attend the Bash together.

“If you don’t write one to him, I will.”

Betty’s eyes widen as Cheryl uncaps her pen and pulls the orange scrap of pumpkin shaped paper to herself.

“No, Cher, seriously-“

“‘Dear Jones’ see, this is already convincing since you two refuse to acknowledge you have first names-“

Veronica snorts into her latte and Betty frantically reaches for the pen Cheryl’s using to continue her note.

“‘If you’ve been wondering why I take extraaaa long at my locker in the morning, it’s so I can stare at your slim yet proportionately toned ass-‘“

“Cheryl, I swear, give me-“

Cheryl jumps up, twirling out of Betty’s reach as Veronica giggles. She’s tying her little green bow around her orange pumpkin cut out, clearly amused.

“Did I miss something?” Toni Topaz asks through a giggle, putting her hands up to catch Cheryl who is still currently avoiding Betty’s reach.

Cheryl immediately rights herself, flipping her hair over her shoulder as she puts down the pen and scrap of paper so she can focus her full attention on Toni.

But Betty’s eyes widen as she sees Toni lean over to read the scrap of paper, her smile widening. “Someone’s going to send Jughead a Jack-O-Gram?”

“No!”

“Yes.”

Betty shoots Veronica a glare so intense she’s surprised lasers aren’t shooting out of her eyes. Veronica flashes her an innocent smile as she reaches for Archie’s favorite candy bar.

“He did mention something about sending one this year,” she says with a shrug as if Betty isn’t suddenly hanging on to her every word.

“Are you planning to send one this year?” Cheryl asks softly, reorganizing the markers and candy bars.

“I might be.” Toni twirls one of her pastel pink waves around her finger as she watches Cheryl work.

Veronica catches Betty’s eye, arching an eyebrow suggestively and Betty can’t help but laugh quietly to herself.

“If you do decide to send one to a Banshee Bash prospect...the cost is one dollar,” Cheryl says, as if there isn’t huge signs staple gunned to the booth with that exact information.

“Sounds like a worthy expenditure,” Toni says, offering Cheryl a sweet smile before she turns on her heel and makes her way down the hallway. Cheryl remains fixated on Toni’s retreating back and Betty takes the opportunity to lean across the booth and grab the orange piece of paper she’d been writing to Jughead on.

She tears it up and tosses the pieces in the trash as Cheryl mumbles something about her need to “catch a dick.”

_______________________

On Tuesday, she remains undecided about whether or not she’d like to send Jughead the Jack-O-Gram. She could play if off. Write something simple. Or anonymous! That way, if he shows up at the dance and looks disappointed when he sees her, she can pretend she didn’t write him one at all.

Seems simple enough! And yet...

Kevin sends Fangs his gram in their AP Calculus class and Betty doesn’t miss the way Kevin’s entire face lights up when Fangs grins and nods in excitement.

Wednesday has Betty standing near the booth, still deciding on exactly what she would say to him if she sent anything at all, when Jughead appears next to her.

His fingers run along one of the pumpkin papers and Betty pretends not to notice, though she’s hyper aware of his every movement.

“Would you like to buy one, Jughead?” Veronica asks brightly, pushing one of the markers in his direction in a not so subtle hint.

Jughead taps his finger along the tabletop before he glances at Betty. “Are you buying one, Cooper?”

“Oh, um, I might.”

“What? Who’s the lucky guy, Betty?” Kevin asks excitedly, hopping up to sit on the booth table top next to Betty.

Jughead’s gaze has not left hers and the intensity of it is only making her wish she hadn’t worn such a dense sweater today.

“Are you going to send one?” she finally asks, ignoring Kevin’s disappointed sigh.

Jughead glances down at the pumpkin papers one more time before shaking his head. “I don’t know, this isn’t really my thing.”

His friends call him over in that moment and he gives Betty and Veronica a half-hearted wave before heading over to them.

Kevin and Cheryl are already chatting amongst themselves about what they’re planning to wear to the Bash and Betty excuses herself, her heart having dropped to her stomach.

Thursday morning, Veronica receives 10 Jack-O-Grams at once and she’s positively glowing as she tries to manage them all on her tiny school desk. Archie has written sweet compliments on each one and Betty couldn’t be happier for her best friend.

Couldn’t. Be. Happier. She thinks to herself as she stares down at her empty, gramless desk.

In fourth period, the grams are delivered again and Cheryl receives one that has her smiling more genuinely than Betty’s ever seen. She clutches the orange piece of paper to her chest and giggles happily in Betty’s direction.

“Toni Topaz is taking me to the Banshee Bash. Can you believe?” she whispers, channeling her inner Jonathan Van Ness, and Betty laughs because yes, she can definitely believe.

She’s heading to her locker to drop her books off before lunch when she sees him making his way down the hallway. He has his headphones on, lost in his own world, and she can’t help but admire the way the headphones rest against his worn crown beanie. As though they belong there.

His fingers brush hers as they pass each other.

Her heart slams against her chest and she turns her head, attempting to see if he’d noticed the touch as much as she had. If he’d felt that.  

His hands are now shoved in his jacket pockets.

On Friday, Betty has officially decided she will not be sending anyone a Jack-O-Gram. She’d rather bury her feelings for Jughead so deeply she can’t remember they exist and attend the Banshee Bash with her friends. Who all have dates. Wonderful.  

But as each class passes and as the last of the grams are handed out, she can’t pretend she isn’t a little disappointed. She knows, deep down, she had hoped he’d send her one. Even just as a friend.

Okay, maybe not as a friend.

During her last class, the gram deliverer arrives, a freshman student wearing cat ears and an excited smile. Betty sits forward, stealing a glance at Veronica who flashes her a hopeful smile.

“Reggie Mantle?”

“Another one?” he grins cockily, reaching out to accept his gram and immediately ripping open the Snickers bar.

“Ethel Muggs?”

Ethel accepts her gram, a shy smile on her face as she reads the note.

“And…” The freshman is now squinting her eyes to make out the name. “Oh...another one for Reggie.”

Reggie laughs, high fiving a few Bulldogs next to him before getting up once again to receive his gram. Betty sits back, tears pricking the corners of her eyes and she realizes she could not feel more pathetic. Veronica reaches over, squeezing her forearm in a supportive and affectionate gesture. Betty blinks rapidly before flashing her a bright, Betty Cooper smile, accepting that that was that.

She would not be receiving a Jack-O-Gram from anyone, but especially not from Jughead Jones.

Class ends and Betty couldn’t be more relieved. Forget the Banshee Bash. Forget Halloween. She’s going to head home, draw a hot bath, and binge watch Anne with an E. At least Gilbert and Anne will give her some kind of reassurance that romance isn’t completely dead.

She reassures Veronica a dozen times that she’s fine before Veronica finally leaves her to assist Cheryl with the packing up of the booth.

Opening her locker, she wipes the wetness from under her eyes and reaches into her backpack to tug out the books she won’t be needing this weekend.

It’s when she finally brings herself to look into her locker that her mouth falls open.

Inside lies a beautiful orange origami flower taped atop a dark green piece of paper. Betty’s fingers shake as she reaches inside to pull it out, her eyes wide as she looks at how intricately it was made.

“Like I said, Jack-O-Grams aren’t really my thing.”

She shakes her head, the smile on her face one of genuine happiness and awe. “It’s so beautiful, Jughead, you made this?”

He shrugs as if it’s no big deal, but she notices the way his fingers pinch one of the tips of his worn crown beanie and she can tell he’s nervous. Nervous to be around her. Betty Cooper.

“My little sister, Jellybean, helped me make it,” he says softly, watching her gaze at the flower as though she’s never received anything so beautiful in her entire life. “She said something about me needing to make a bigger gesture than the gram since I-”

He stops short and she finally tears her gaze away from the flower to find that his cheeks are now flushed and he’s still rolling a crown tip between his fingers.

“Since you what?”

He looks at her, searching her face the same way he had earlier that week, before his hand drops to his side and a small smile tugs at the corners of his lips.

“Since it’s always been you, Cooper. For me, it’s always been you.”

She doesn’t hesitate, standing on her tip-toes to throw her arms around his neck and press her lips against his. He’s surprised at first, but then she feels his hand cup her cheek as he deepens their kiss. She’s tasting the spearmint on his tongue for just a second before -

“Ah, but I didn’t send you anything, Jughead!” She immediately steps out of his arms, cursing herself for being so indecisive about the gram all week.

He chuckles, interweaving his fingers with hers before, much to her horror, he says, “Actually, I think your friend Cheryl sent me quite an explicit one on your behalf...”

____________

I hope you’ve all had a wonderful Halloween and have enjoyed this little holiday one shot! 

xx B

[thehelleniclunarwitch]

25 Days of Christmas: Day 06

Prompt: “If you throw that snowball you’re declaring war.”

Pairing: Sweet Pea x Reader

The first snowfall of the year had been dumped all over Riverdale throughout the night. School was called off the next day. Friends and couples gathered together quickly to make use of their extra day off. Jughead, Y/n’s older brother was already out the door yelling to your dad about hot cocoa and movies with Betty.

Y/n had sent a group text to the rest of her friends. Cheryl and Toni were planning on spending the day in front of the fireplace up at Thornhill. Fangs was off with Reggie and Kevin sledding. Archie was on his way to pick up Veronica so they could get a head start on their Christmas shopping.

Sweet Pea was the only that was free and up to do something with Y/n. FP watched his daughter excitedly get dressed in her coat and then slipped on her bright purple hat and matching gloves.

“Don’t freeze,” FP grinned.

“I won’t,” Y/n smiled as she dashed out of the trailer.

Sweet Pea was already making his way up the path to the Jones’ trailer. Y/n nudged him with her shoulder as she skipped past him.

“Where are you off to?” Sweet Pea asked her.

“Come on Pea, it’s the first snowfall. This is perfect for building a snowman,” Y/n grinned as she headed down to one of the empty lots.

“Building a snowman? Isn’t that kind of childish?” Sweet Pea asked he trailed lazily behind her.

“Snow days are meant to act childish,” Y/n said over her shoulder as she kicked her way through the snow.

Sweet Pea rolled his eyes as Y/n dropped down in the snow.

“Come on let’s go to Pops. I’ll buy you a milkshake. It’s too damn cold for this,” Sweet Pea growled.

Y/n looked over her shoulder. Sweet Pea was busy being distracted by a chunk of ice. He kicked it around like it was a soccer ball. Y/n grinned as she picked up a handful of snow and started to form a nice ball shape.

“Well then besides building a snowman I know the perfect idea,” Y/n grinned as she started to stand.

“Please say it’s Pop’s,” Sweet Pea said under his breath as he looked up.

Sweet Pea watched as a ball of snow went flying past his head missing him by inches. He swiveled around to look at Y/n. She was trying to hide her smile and giggles behind her hand.

“Really?” Sweet Pea growled.

“You seem to be frustrated. Maybe a little snowball fight will help with all of that pent-up anger,” Y/n teased.

“Y/n we’re not seven,” Sweet Pea snapped.

Leaning down, Y/n grabbed another handful of snow. She began packing the snow nice and tight. She cocked her arm back and gave Sweet Pea the largest smile she could possibly stretch her lips.

“Y/n,” Sweet Pea said in a warning tone.

“Yes?” Y/n said sweetly.

“If you throw that snowball you’re declaring war,” He said all too seriously.

Y/n glanced down at her hand, up to Sweet Pea and then back down at her hand again. She knew there would be hell to pay, but she figured it was worth it.

“Put it down and we’ll go to Pop’s,” Sweet Pea said.

Instead of doing what she was told, Y/n pulled back her arm once again and then let the snowball go. She watched in slow motion as it went soaring across the open arm. Before Sweet Pea could even defend himself or dive out of the way, the cold snow hit him directly in the face.

Sweet Pea began to splutter as he wiped his face clear of the snow. Y/n was doubled over in laughter. Her cheeks hurt from laughing so hard.

“Y/n,” Sweet Pea growled.

“Come on Pea, I thought the big bad Serpent had better reflexes,” Y/n giggled.

“I told you there were going to be consequences,” Sweet Pea said between clenched teeth.

“Give me your best shot,” Y/n laughed.

Y/n screamed as Sweet Pea bent down and started scooping up snow. The pair ran around the empty lot hiding behind piles of snow and throwing snow at each other.

“Hey! That had ice in it,” Sweet Pea snarled.

“Sorry!” Y/n shouted as she dove behind another pile of snow.

Her stomach began to rumble. They had to have been out here for a few hours. Y/n was surprised that her body parts had frozen off yet. She knew she had to get one last good shot before hurrying back inside to warm up.

Just as Y/n popped up over the pile to throw her last snowball at Sweet Pea she was met with a faceful of snow. She let out a small whimper as something sliced her cheek. She stumbled backward from the force. Sweet Pea was yelling her name as she dropped down on her ass.

“Y/n!” Sweet Pea exclaimed as he ran through the snow.

With shaky hands, Y/n struggled to pull off her gloves. She heard Sweet Pea curse as he dropped down next to her.

“I didn’t realize there was ice,” Sweet Pea began.

She felt the coldness of his leather jacket rub across her face. Y/n finally opened her eyes to see Sweet Pea using the sleeve of his jacket to wipe away the snow.

“Am I bleeding?” Y/n asked him.

“A little, it’s just a scratch, I promise,” Sweet Pea told her.

“Okay,” Y/n said as her hand went immediately up to her face.

“I’m really sorry,” Sweet Pea apologized.

“Hey, it’s okay, accidents happen,” Y/n said with a shrug.

Dropping her hand, Y/n finally realized just how close the two of them were. Y/n eyes widened as the thought of kissing Sweet Pea crossed her mind. She gulped and then pushed to slide herself away. Sweet Pea caught her by the front of her jacket. Her y/e/c eyes looked up at him.

Sweet Pea leaned in and captured her mouth with his. A small whimper escaped her as Sweet Pea pulled her closer in. The warmth was radiating off him. She sunk into his grip.

“Sweet Pea! Are you kissing my sister?”

The pair pulled back to see Jughead and Betty at the edge of the loft. Y/n laughed nervously.

“Yeah, and what are you going to do about it, Jones?” Sweet Pea asked.

Jughead was quite a moment. Betty was grinning from ear to ear. She sent Y/n a knowing look.

“It’s about time. You two tiptoeing around each other was getting annoying,” Jughead finally said.

Y/n let out a sigh of relief. Sweet Pea only smiled. He looked back down at Y/n.

“Are you ready for milkshakes now?” Sweet Pea asked.

“As long as we can share,” Y/n said teasingly.

Sweet Pea sighed and then laughed.

“Deal, but as long as we can keep kissing,” Sweet Pea teased.

Y/n giggled.

“It’s a deal,” She said as he pulled her up to her feet and Y/n had to claim that today was the best snow day ever.

[simone-garnett]

fanfic title: stay (josiepea)

reincarnation au.

It was Sweet Pea’s fault damn it, of course he had to piss off the witch walking down the down trodden path. Does it matter that he had a wife waiting at home, or that there was a storm brewing, or that the king’s men hunting him down for a crime he didn’t commit, or that he didn’t see her in front of him, too focussed on not being followed.

No, not really, the witch’s anger easily ignited and burns fervently. And maybe if he apologised more sincerely, if he seemed embarrassed for it, maybe he could have avoided this. But that isn’t how it goes down and she curses him, condemns him to live a life where he’s denied his love. Because if she’s so important that he doesn’t focus on the poor and lonely before him, than that’s exactly what she’ll take away.

He doesn’t pay attention to the curse, not really, barely remembering the words, the fact he would only ever have a day,, that true love’s kiss isn’t a saviour but a poison. He doesn’t know what she means until he gets home, a quick kiss pressed against Josie’s lips as he tells her the tale that happened on his way to her. She seems more worried, lips pursed and frown lines on her forehead.

It doesn’t make sense until, less than twenty four hours later the king’s guard finds him, not giving him the chance of a trial, sword through his stomach as he is left to die alone. (Josie finds out shortly after, whispers going through the town, of Sweet Pea’s head on a spike at the castle.)

(rest is under the cut bc this got looooong)

Sweet Pea shouldn’t be attracted to the speakeasy’s newest singer, especially when he knows the boss has designs on her, Reggie all but claiming the girl.

He can’t complain, she is smoking, dolled up in her glitter and short sequined dress. And she seems smitten just as much with Reggie. But then she catches his eye and it is as if everything changes and the world fades away. He had never understood Fangs’ romantic notions of finding a partner and falling madly in love - but with Josie, it makes perfect sense.

But she doesn’t seem interested, not in public. But when she catches his eye, there is a fire in them that he can only believe was burning for him. He falls in love with barely a sentence exchanged between them.

They do eventually talk, Josie walking to her hotel room, crossing a road. Being involved with the mob - even if it is only performing at one of their more… legitimate business ventures is sure to mean she makes enemies, though she isn’t expecting them to try and hit her with their car. But she is pulled away from the danger and into an alley, Josie catching her breath before going to thank her saviour. And it’s Alan “Sweet Pea” Mayberry. He’s just standing there, crowding her into the wall, chest heaving in exertion, eyes black. And god, she tried to fight this, she really did.

And they kiss, the experience not pleasant, not when a migraine strikes immediately, both doubling over. And they both get flashbacks of a past they lived. “Josie?” And it’s her name, but he is asking so much more in that question. She nods quickly, arms flung back around his neck as she throws herself at him, the pair losing themselves in their reunion. “I like this dress a lot more than some of the other outfits I’ve found you in,” his fingers high on her thighs, dipping underneath the material.

She rolls her eyes at him, hiding her proud grin against his neck, teeth dragged over what she knew was very sensitive skin. And they forget everyone else, forget who they are and who they worked for, a craving for the other almost overwhelming. He takes her to his room and she follows easily.

Sweet Pea doesn’t realise that they were seen, not until the next day, Josie still in his bathroom prepping for the next day. He’s still lying on his bed when Reggie waltzes in, gun focussed on Sweet Pea. He calls out Josie’s name confidently, the woman coming out shyly, Sweet Pea locking eyes with her just as Reggie pulls the trigger, the last thing Sweet Pea remembering seeing is Josie on her knees screaming.

He is a gladiator, a slave to his owner, forced to fight for entertainment, a mere tool of profit to the snake who claimed to own him. Herculaneum wasn’t the greatest place to battle, but he had to develop a reputation for being ruthless, for being brutal. And he couldn’t do that in Rome, where there were many gladiators fighting for their life. Here in the South he could cultivate a following that would, hopefully, follow him to the city.

Sweet Pea is trained to be ruthless, to not have a heart. All his training disappears when a slave-girl walks into his room, cloth and water in her hands. She is silent as she treats his wounds from his fight hours earlier. And she returns after the next fight, humming softly to herself. Her first word is an apology as he hisses in pain. The third time he takes her hand and asks for her name, she tells it to him. Josie. He repeats it, runs it over his tongue. He likes it. Over the weeks they exchange stories, her of her home land in a place even more south, Sweet Pea of a place further east. And it is easy to fall in love with her, Josie with her lovely voice and sweet smile.

It changes after one battle, particularly fierce, Sweet Pea returning with multiple wounds and a busted lip. It horrifies her, Josie almost dropping the basin as she gasps at the sight of him. He is silent this time, and she’s scared to ask why. And before she can leave he whispers her name, catches her chin in his hand. She moves easily as he guides her face to his, Sweet Pea kissing her, drinking her in.

And then it happens, the pain in his head, the memories of past lives coming back, of his wife. Of Josie.

There is recognition in her eyes, Josie pulling him into a hug, blood staining her clothing as she soaks in the moment, in his presence. It takes a long time for her to separate and when she does Sweet Pea misses her touch.

“But this doesn’t make sense, Ancient Rome was ages before the nineteenth century, how are we here now?” Sweet Pea just shakes his head, logic not important, not when he had his wife in his arms, warm and happy and remembering him.

“Doesn’t matter babe, all that matters is that we have each other, and that we’ll escape this damn place, we’ll escape and live a life together.” She nods, tells him that they will the moment he is recovered, tells him that she loves him.

They should have paid more dates, to the location. Maybe then they would have run more quickly, escaped the volcanic eruption that would wipe them all out that evening. It was foolish to think it was the same as all the earthquakes that had struck the region in the years previous.

The ash gets caught in their throat, thick and burning and it is an awful way to die. Trapped and alone, their last thought being of each other.

Josie had wanted to be a singer, but when the war started she needed to help people. Her mother is disappointed, but it is the right thing to do, travel overseas to serve as a nurse.

She meets and treats many soldiers, but none of them strike her as much as S. Pea. He is in a critical condition and she hears the whispers, unlikely to survive. But she can’t give up on him, not when the others have. So she treats him, and, when his heart stops she gives him mouth-to-mouth.

And while she wants to regret the decision, Pea groaning in pain, she can’t. Not now she knows he’s alive and not when she regains her memories of him, of them. And when her shift ends, she returns to him.

She stays by his side that night, fingers interlaced. “Seriously Sweet Pea, why do you think this is happening?” She turns a sharp look at him, “and why did you have to go and piss off that witch in the first place.”

“I dunno Jos, all I know is that whenever we kiss I remember everything and the next day one of us is dead.”

Her heart goes into her throat, “do you think that mouth-to-mouth is enough to trigger the death?” There is a tremble and his face softens, resignation settling.

“If it was enough to trigger our memories than yeah, probably.” It is enough to trigger tears, Josie kissing his knuckles, unwilling to fall asleep. But she does, too exhausted to fight it any longer. And when she awakes,

he’s gone.

They don’t think it’ll ever end, lifetime after lifetime of finding each other and then immediately losing each other, and all they ever really want to do is have one, just one where they can stay together. 

They grasp their opportunities with both hands, tumble into bed with each other even if means having an affair, if it means sleeping with the enemy. Because they know that first kiss signifies death, and if they are going to die they are going to drink in every moment that they have together, every last second.

They go through 100 different lives, 100 different times of falling in love, 100 different memories of dying.

The 101st is when Josie McCoy is introduced to Toni’s best friend Sweet Pea, another kid from the Southside, another Serpent. He’s cute and tall and she wants him, only for a summer fling, only as a temporary distraction. Others she hadn’t really contemplated but him… there is something different about him. And he can’t keep his eyes off of her.

So when she propositions him, he readily accepts, gaze already devouring her. She feels naked and exposed, which is ridiculous because she’s fully dressed, but his eyes are dark and her skin is burning and when he goes to kiss her she ducks out of the way. “Uh uh uh,” she tuts, not until summer starts.

He mostly succeeds, Sweet Pea finding her that Friday morning before class, and he spins her around, her breath hitching. But she sees it is him, sees the way he is looking at her and it is Josie which crosses the distance. The pain she gets used to, but the memories, the feeling of love that strikes her, their past, that she’ll never get used to.

“Josie,” he sighs, and they kiss properly, melting into the kiss. And he finds her earlobe. “Wife.” It is growled into her ear and she shivers at the sound, at the feeling of his lips brushing against her skin. He pulls away, proud at the effect he had.

“Damn it Sweet Pea,” and he whines, unsure why she punched him in the arm. “We have a day now.�� And the rest of their curse comes back to haunt him, his face falling.

“Well, let’s make the most of it.”

“Yeah,” she agrees. “After school.” He pouts and grumbles, but she stays firm in the decision, promising him that after 3 she was all his. And she keeps her word, Sweet Pea taking her to the trailer, his dad dead and mother working hard to support them, barely at home. He strips off her clothes and it is strange; he knows her so intimately already, knows her like he knows himself, but he feels like a teenage boy, feels like it is his first time all over again. And shaking hands trace her curves, an unholy mouth skims every inch of her skin. But he finds his confidence in her, in her moans of encouragement, in the way she tells him she loves him, always loved him, in every life time, every time she saw him, always him, only ever him. They spend hours together, Josie drinking in every piece of information she could, fingers and lips skimming his scars, Sweet Pea asking for just one more song. They don’t mention the fact they are going to die, that this is their last moments together. They just are. It is a struggle around 3AM to remain awake, the pair exchanging ‘I love you’ before sleep wins the war.

Josie wakes up the next morning, warm and comfortable and alive. She sits up at that, the clock reading 11AM. She wants to jump up in joy, wants to scream. Because she’s alive, their alive and it’s been over 24 hours since the first kiss. And they are alive.

She stills at that, Josie quickly turning to the boy next to her, the rise and fall of his chest confirming that yes, he is still alive. She wakes him with a kiss, peppers them over his face, grinning like a fool when he eventually awakens. And the realisation takes a little longer to dawn on him, Sweet Pea slowly waking up to the fact.

Josie shrieks as he moves, pinning her underneath him, and they smile at each other, Sweet Pea teasing her with gentle kisses, laughing against her mouth as she huffs and lifts her head up, a more firm kiss.

It is agonising to break the kiss, to pull away from his embrace and bed. But her insecurities and fears come rushing back, Josie McCoy the teenager, warring with all the Josie’s in her head.

“Wait,” and his hand is around her wrist, tugging her back into him. His smile is soft and his eyes are scared. “Stay.”

And she can,

she does.

[carolina-writings]

From the Writers’ Room Table

A/N: Here’s a piece I started a while ago, when H guest hosted The Late Late Show. I’ve been working on it little by little for a while. Contains smut. 

You hummed a quiet tune to yourself as you entered the CBS studio elevator, anxious to get to your desk to start writing. Being co-head writer on a late night talk show was everything you had ever dreamed of, although it was stressful. Especially in today’s crazy political climate, news stories were constantly breaking, sometimes changing the monologue minutes before air. 

This particular morning, you had a million thoughts and potential bits racing through your mind. So when you arrived to the studio to see that James was absent, you immediately retrieved your phone from the bottom of your bag. Two texts from: James Corden. 

Jules went into labor, gonna miss the show tonight 

Harry is on his way to guest host

You furrow your brows at the first message, but as soon as you read the second one a smile comes across your face. You had met Harry on several occasions, and you two had always gotten along. In fact, you had gotten along so well the last time you had seen him that it led to him fingering you in the bathroom at the Winston’s annual 4th of July party, your alcohol soaked lips colliding with fervor. 

A shiver ran down your spine at the memory, although your reminiscing was interrupted by a cough from across the room. You turn to see your other boss, the executive producer standing there with his laptop. 

“You talked to James, I presume?” he sat at the head of the writers table, opening the script that you had sent him. 

“Yeah,” you take a seat across from him, pulling out a notebook. “Gonna have to change the monologue a bit to suit Harry better.” 

“You’re good working with him, right?” Ben looks at you, not as your boss but as your friend. “After everything?” 

“Everything?” you dramatically scoff, popping a mint. “We hooked up once, several months ago. No biggie.” 

“If you say so.” 

By noon, the new script was finalized. It’s peppered with political commentary, pop culture references, and a great segment featuring dogs with sunglasses. It wasn’t until around 5 that Harry comes into your office, large iced coffee in one hand and the script in the other. 

“Hello,” he rocks back and forth on his feet for a moment before sitting. “‘Member me?” 

You let out a small, yet uncomfortable laugh. 

“Course,” you don’t look up from your computer, doing one final fact check before show time. “Ready to be a talk show host?” 

“‘M nervous,” he admits. “You’ll be around, righ’?” 

“Sidestage, yes,” you nod. “Don’t be nervous, you’ll do great.” 

He flashes you his signature smile and takes a large sip of coffee. Your eyes wander to his left hand wrapped around the cup. A pit forms in your stomach as you remember the way that very hand gripped your jaw, while the other one pumped in and out of you, gently teasing your clit with the cool metal rings. 

You aren’t really sure how long you spend staring at his hands. Probably 20 seconds or so. Harry is about to say something when Ben barges in, looking flustered. 

“Show starts in 30 minutes,” he yells into your office. “Harry go to wardrobe, Y/N go double check the cue cards.” 

“Let’s do this thing,” he smiles at you. “See ya out there.” 

Everyone is racing around as the showtime countdown clock reaches 3 minutes. You’re highlighting your copy of the script when Harry approaches you, hands in the pocket of his plaid suit. 

“There’s the man of the hour,” you say without even looking up. “Cue cards will be right next to the camera.” 

“I memorized the monologue,” he assures you. “Jus’ might need cues for the other bits.” 

“That’s what they’re there for.” 

There’s an awkward tension, once again broken by a frantic Ben Winston, shouting stage directions. Harry makes his way to his marker, smiling with anticipation as Reggie and the band introduce him. He gives you a wink before heading on stage. The roar of the audience is deafening, and you watch on the monitor as he soaks it all in. 

The monologue ends up going wonderfully. His joke delivery is on point, and the audience is eating it up. As the director signals a commercial break, you grab your binder and run onto the stage. 

“You did great!” you exclaim, earning a smile. The make up artist for the show is carefully applying powder to his forehead. 

“Dogs in sunglasses is next, righ’?” 

“Yes,” you nod, opening the script for him to see. “Made a few changes since dress rehearsal but the cue cards will be right there.” 

“Got it,” he nods. “Thanks.” 

“POSITIONS!” the director shouts, and you run to the producer’s podium to stand with Ben. Harry makes his way to the desk and takes a seat, but not before having a quick spin in the chair. 

“3,2,” the director holds up one finger and points to Harry, who introduces the segment. He’s genuinely funny, and you would never admit it, but you’re suddenly incredibly turned on. 

As soon as the show ends, you run to greet Harry at side stage and engulf him in a hug. He picks you up and spins you around, a huge smile on his face. 

“You did it!” you say excitedly. “The show went flawlessly!” 

“’m I hired?” he jokes. “You’re a really talented writer, kid.” 

“I’m the same age as you,” you remind him. “And thanks. It’s not just me, obviously, there’s an amazing team of writers.” 

“Well don’ tell James but you’re m’favorite,” he winks before nervously chewing on his lip. “Would y’want to get somethin’ t’eat after this? ‘m starving.” 

You can’t help but smile at how nervous he is. The international superstar Harry Styles is rocking back and forth, hands in his pocket and lips between his teeth, nervous about asking you out. 

“I would really like that,” you reassuringly pat his bicep, smiling sweetly at him. “If you want, we can just order takeout to your dressing room. Everyone is leaving soon and it’s quiet and we won’t get interrupted this way because it’s been so long since we’ve seen each other and we always have such good chats and-” 

He cuts off your rambling with a kiss, seemingly not caring about the Late Late Show crew bustling around the two of you. It was a quick kiss, meant to assure you that he feels the same way as you do. 

“Let’s go,” his large hands are cupping your face, his rings cool against your hot cheeks. “’ve got some catchin’ up t’do.” 

The second you shut the door to your office, he pushes you against it and feverishly kisses you once more, much filthier this time. 

“Thought you were hungry,” you tease as his lips attack your neck. 

“I am,” he smirks against your hot skin. “But wan’ you more.” 

Your stomach fills with butterflies at his admission, your hands running through his hair. 

“Can we eat after, though?” you inquire as he pulls back to take off his jacket. 

He nods and chuckles, unbuttoning his dress shirt and removing his pants, leaving him in black Calvins and a white tee. You inhale sharply, drinking in his beauty. 

“We should probably order it now, because it’s gonna take at least an hour,” you mentally kick yourself as soon as you say it. Harry fucking Styles was in front of you, about to fuck your brains out, and your main concern was dinner. 

“Good idea,” he laughs, heading over to the couch and reaching for his phone. “Y’know wha’ I like ‘bout you? You’re not afraid to be yourself. Almos’ every girl I meet puts on a persona of some sort fo’ me. But from th’ moment I met ya, you’ve been nothin’ but yourself.” 

“I don’t know how to be anything else,” you laugh. “But I like you, too.” 

He leans forward and gives you a quick peck on the lips before returning to his grubhub search. 

“What’re ya cravin’?” he asks as you lean your head on his shoulder, looking at his screen. 

“You,” you giggle. “And chinese. Specifically, dumplings and lo mein.” 

“A girl after my own heart,” Harry grins, placing the order. The app notifies him the food will arrive in 45 minutes. “Plenty o’time.” 

He tosses his phone onto the carpet on the floor, turning to face you. You make the first move this time, your lips crashing onto his. You straddle his lap, grinding your clothed center against his hardening crotch. Through the thin fabric of his boxers, you feel his cock twitch as your lips make their way to his favorite spot behind his ear. You had learned that trick in the Winston’s bathroom.

“Need ya,” he groans. “Needed ya since th’fourth o’July. Fuckin’ though’ ‘bout ya all th’ time.” 

“Thought about you too,” you hum, your hands snaking down to his waistband, dancing delicately on his skin. “Best orgasm I’ve ever had.” 

“Jus’ wait ‘til I give ya my cock,” he inhales sharply as you free him from his boxers, fully erect at this point. “Fuck, mind puttin’ it in y’mouth?” 

“That’s the plan,” you smirk, kissing his lips once more before lowering yourself, kneeling on the floor in front of him. “It’s big. I’m impressed.” 

“You’re too kind,” he lets out a laugh that turns into a whimper when you put his tip in your mouth, sucking like a lollipop. “Fuck, s’good. Can ye’ go deeper, love?” 

His voice is gruff, full of need. You happily oblige to his request, taking him further in your mouth, closing your throat around his throbbing cock. He hisses with pleasure, hands tugging on your hair and pushing your head down further. You look up at him and his eyes are closed, mouth slack, and you can’t help but moan around his cock. This elicits an animalistic groan from him. 

“S’fuckin good,” he praises. “Takin’ m’cock like a fuckin’ champ, ya are. Such a good girl, fuck.” 

Suddenly, he pulls you up by your ponytail, causing you to squeal. His lips are on yours as the two of you stand up. 

“Strip fo’ me,” he grins, and you rip off your sweater, your leggings and thong following suit. “Well aren’t ya eager for m’cock.” 

You give his bare chest a playful shove, “are you going to fuck me or not, Styles?” 

“‘Course I am,” he motions towards the couch, and you lay back on it. Harry is the one kneeling now, his lips attaching to your nipple, his finger pinching the other one. He moves his trail of kisses down your stomach, down your thighs, before his lips finally reach where you need him to be. He places a single kiss on your clit before licking up and down in broad stripes, his pointer finger teasing your soaking hole. 

“Jus’ as sweet as I remembered,” he murmurs against your cunt. “Feel good, darlin’?” 

You moan in response as he sucks your clit into his mouth. Your hands tug on his hair, silently begging him to fuck you. 

“Condoms are in my purse,” you point. He reaches for the bag, pulling out a Trojan and rolling it onto his cock. “Fucking fuck me.” 

He slowly pushes in, shuddering at the tightness. You open your mouth wide, and his tongue instantly finds its way inside, your mouths mashing together like two horny high schoolers. 

“S’fuckin tight n’wet fo’ me,” he groans. “M’gon speed up, ok?” 

You nod quickly, pulling at the hair at the nape of his neck. His thrusts pick up until he finds the right rhythm, the two of you letting out various curses and praises. 

“M’gon come,” he pants. “You close?” 

You nod, feeling your orgasm approach. His hand snakes down to your clit, circling it skillfully. You let go, clenching around him and releasing what could only be described as a sob. 

“M’comin’,” he whimpers, his eyes tightening shut and his thrusts slowing. Harry’s breathing is erratic as he comes down from his high, his forehead pressed against yours. He rolls over, pulling out of you and taking the condom off, disposing of it in your trash bin. 

“Well,” you break the silence as he slips his boxers back on, taking a seat on the couch next to you. “That was fucking great.” 

He laughs, his fingers tracing patterns on your thighs. 

“Still got t’least 30 minutes ‘til t’food comes,” he raises an eyebrow. “That’s an entire episode o’ house hunters.” 

You smile at the fact that he had remembered your love for HGTV. Although you have no idea what’s going to come of this, none of it matters right now. The only thing that matters is that your chinese food is on the way, and you’re next to a guy that you really, really like. 

[prongsno]

you’re smiling in love (and we’ll sigh so relieved)

(based off a prompt from an anon) James gives Lily a class on kissing, but feelings always get in the way.

(read on ao3, word count: 7038)

James Potter stands with his back leaning against the wall. Muddy feet in a tangle, leaving dirty footprints over the floor. He draws out a shaky breath.

“Are you sure?” he asks, his voice unsteady. He gives Lily Evans a worried glance and scratches his head. “I mean, don’t you girls have fantasies about first kisses and all?”

He looks like a dream with his windswept hair, rosy cheeks and soaked Quidditch robes clinging to his mud splattered skin. Her heart stops, but only for the briefest of moments.

She wants to say that he is her fantasy. That he is all she ever thinks about… but the words slip by and evaporate when their eyes meet. His gleaming hazel eyes shine, making her body shiver.

She should be screaming in hysterics, going crazy. Her crush, James Freaking Potter, is right here in front of her. And he's about to kiss her.

Yes, there’s the thunderous beat of her heart slapping against her chest when those damned eyes of his look at her; but she’s far too realistic to think that crushes ever end in ‘Happily Ever After’.

“I’m sure,” she says, the slick and smooth tone of her voice surprising her. She clears her throat, giving him what she hopes is a reassuring smile.

She’s doing this to get over him, once and for all.

“It’s just kissing, right?”

“Right,” he mirrors her smile, shadows her laughter. And then he leans in, she does too, and he plops the softest of kisses on her lips.

He pulls back in an instant, it’s a second long if that.

“There,” he says, suddenly interested in the cobbled stonework of the floor, “congratulations. You’ve had your first kiss.”

There are butterflies everywhere and she knows she’s playing with fire when their eyes meet again.

She feels the pull of a smirk. “That’s it?”

He only shakes his head, a small smile tangled between his sweet lips. Then he steps forward once more, brushes a hand against her cheek and pulls her softly towards him.

Her eyes flutter shut and when their lips meet for the second time it’s like she’s been consumed.

This time it’s louder than fireworks, more addictive than butterbeer, hotter than fire.

He wraps an arm around her waist and her hands are in his hair, grasping at the curls that she’s desperately been wanting to play with since she got this stupid crush.

He’s gentle and an earthquake all at once.

Mary blows a bubble in her chewing gum, letting it pop and set against her lips before she pulls the gum with her tongue. Then she blows it again, all the while staring hard at Lily.

“Let me get this straight,” the girl says, resting her hands against her unopened Witch Weekly. “Potter kissed you, for educational purposes?”

Lily sighs. “I was panicking about Chadwell and James, well, wanted to help.”

“By snogging you senseless?”

“I wanted to know what I was getting myself into.”

“That's very unlike you, Lily.” Mary frowns as she flicks open her magazine. “Especially Chadwell, he's an obnoxious mop-bucket.”

“I needed a Non-Potter Distraction. Being friends with him is,” she scowls and scratches her head, “tiring, to say the least.”

“Witch Weekly warns you to stay away from arses like Chadwell y’know.”

Mary taps the cover of her acclaimed magazine with her pinky, pointing at the floating section on the top left side that reads ‘HOW TO KNOW HE’S NOT THE RIGHT WIZARD FOR YOU’.

Lily stabs at a yorkshire pudding with her fork. “I'm only going on a date, not getting married.”

The conversation comes to an abrupt stop when Sirius Black slams his Advanced Potions Making textbook onto the table, looking like he’s still half asleep, and James sits next to her all bleary eyed.

She tries to ignore the way her heart does a somersault.

His hair is ridiculous, all up at the ends like he’s got an animal living in it. It looks soft though, so soft that all she wants to do is just reach out and grab it.

Just like she did then.

He catches her gaze, a red tinge colouring his cheeks and ears before he begins to pour pumpkin juice all over his plate of chicken and vegetables.

There’s a few seconds of silence between them all and James stares down in dismay at what he’s just done.

“Alright, Potter?” Mary asks with an innocent smirk. “Something on your mind?”

“Just worried about our next game, MacDonald. That’s all,” he says and with a lazy flick of his wand the pumpkin and chicken slush disappears.

He starts with his dinner preparation again, this time reaching for some quiche. The plate is right by Lily and he stretches out his arm, brushing against her. Seconds freeze like icicles and she hitches her breath; he doesn’t react.

He’s silent as she shivers and freezes up next to him, there’s not even a response when Mary accidentally spills tea over herself and pushes Lily accidentally into him.

Sirius Black, amidst the chaos of Lily apologising to James and Mary going “Oops, my hand slipped!”, reaches across the table and grabs at Mary’s magazine before she can stop him.

“My my, MacDonald!” he chastises with a cheeky wink, “I never took you for a ‘top ten ways to make wand movements easier’ kind of person.”

A cough from behind them stops Mary from shooting a bat bogey hex at Sirius.

Anthony Chadwell, clad in his Hufflepuff robes, runs a hand through his blonde hair. Suddenly there’s a hyacinth flower in Lily’s face and Chadwell gives them all a sleazy smirk.

Lily blushes, Mary actually chokes on her tea this time, Sirius raises an eyebrow and James is rigid next to her.

“Yo, babe. Are we still okay for Hogsmeade, yeah?” he winks.

“Um, yeah sure. What-”

“Sweet! Laters,” Chadwell grins, finger guns and swaggers off to join his friends at the Hufflepuff table. As soon as he’s out of view Lily throws the flower onto the table.

“I think I’m going to call you babe and Hyacinth from now on.” Mary grins. “Do you think the git even knows your name?”

“He did The Finger Guns,” Sirius shakes his head, laughing. “I wouldn’t count on it.”

She waits until breakfast is almost over, when the Quidditch teams have already left for the pitch, before she finally makes her way to the hall. She doesn’t have the energy to see him right now, that and she doesn’t trust herself not to lunge and kiss him.

“Slept through your alarm did you, Lily?” Peter asks with a sad, understanding smile. He’s already pouring her a glass of pumpkin juice. “James and Dorcas have just gone.”

“Oh, what a shame,” she says, ignoring the knowing looks from the remainder of the group. She plops down next to Mary. “So, did I miss anything important?”

Sirius shrugs, stretching his arms as he lets out a massive yawn. His hand brushes against Mary’s shoulder and they both jump a little.

“Err what did you miss?” he says, cheeks a fiery red as he taps his chin, words spurting out. “James had a mini breakdown, in front of the whole team. Dorcas looked like bloody murder.”

“I think he was hoping a certain someone might’ve been here to cheer him on.” Remus says nonchalantly, glancing up at her with a sly grin as he flicks through The Daily Prophet.

“He was rather jittery.” Mary hums in agreement. “But he's always like that before every match, and more times than not we win.”

There’s a ruckus at the Ravenclaw table when an unsuspecting sixth year gets a howler off their Grandma, the hall turns quiet as the words ‘I CAN’T FIND MY FALSE TEETH’ echo around the walls.

Sirius picks at his toast and gulps down the last of his drink. “He's Minnie’s prized Quidditch Captain after all, I bet she's been praying for a nutter like him since the fifties.”

She doesn’t want to see him in his Quidditch robes.

That scene still flutters throughout her head; the way the robes had clung to his skin, damp and sticky from the practice that Dorcas penned ‘Potter’s Torture Time’.

She’s counting every step that she takes, laughing absently at Sirius’s thirteenth joke of the day as they make their way up to the stands. Seats are filling up quickly and they find a place near the back of the Gryffindor stands, in front of a couple of first years that have ‘JP’ painted red on their flushed cheeks.

“I need the loo,” Lily says immediately. She feels dizzy and hot, the constant reminder of James everywhere is driving her mad and she needs to recollect herself.

Mary checks her watch. “The match starts in fifteen minutes.”

Sirius, who’s sat next to Mary, leans across her and rests his elbow on her shoulder. She seems to squirm a little, cheeks slightly red but Sirius doesn’t seem to notice.

“You don’t want to miss the beginning,” he winks, “or any of it.”

“I won’t be long,” Lily gives them all a wave and sets off down the stairs. The air is freezing, and she tightens the scarf around her neck as she rubs her hands together.

Someone, who sounds suspiciously like Remus Lupin, starts a ‘POTTER! POTTER!’ chant, and the rest of the Gryffindor stands shout it out in chaos.

The last person she’s expecting to see underneath the stands is James Potter, and yet there he is. Shivering in the November cold, he jiggles anxiously on the soles of his feet. He does a double take when he sees her, a hand automatically rising to his hair to mess with it.

“Lily!” he looks surprised, and a bit bashful as well. “What are you doing here?”

She can’t exactly say, ‘I needed to get away from all reminders of you up in stands,’ when he’s right there in front of her. Instead she just shrugs, claiming she needed a bit of air.

James nods, teeth chattering as he glances up at the red and gold stand. They’re still chanting ‘POTTER!’ and he seems to wince every time he hears it.

“Nervous?”

“Not at all,” he croaks. “This is just a work out.”

“It’s okay to be a little anxious,” Lily grins. “I can’t even imagine the pressure you must feel. But, honestly - James, you’re gonna nail it.”

He takes in a deep breath and nods his head. “Thanks.”

Reggie McLaren, a fourth year Ravenclaw commentator, booms his voice across the stadium, welcoming everyone to the first exciting match of the season.

“I guess I should go, you’ve got a game to win.”

She gives him a little wave, not really knowing what to do, before she turns around, ready to set off.

“Not going to wish me luck, Evans?”

She turns around, and that’s when it hits her; how deep the feelings for him have buried into her. It’s like he’s in her blood, she can’t get rid of this feeling and it’s a painful banging in her head.

Something (perhaps it’s the Gryffindor impulse or just sheer nerves of being around him again) ignites inside of her and she has no control anymore. She sweeps forward with this new-found courage and stands on her tiptoes.

“Good luck, James Potter.” she smiles, and kisses him softly on the cheek. “Break a leg, but not literally.”

They’re so close to each other, she can see the faint scar on his cheek that he got in second year. She gulps, and he looks completely mesmerised.

“Thanks, Lily.”

He’s everything - and she’s head over heels in love.

She doesn’t know who initiates it, only God knows, but somehow his hands goes around her waist and her hands wrap around his neck. She stares deep into his eyes and the screaming stadiums around them quieten in the moment.

It’s just the two of them, somewhere far away.

They kiss underneath the stands, a short and sweet embrace that leaves her desperately wanting more. But as soon as they part she feels sick.

After denying it for so long, it’s such a relief to finally accept it. All she wants, all she needs is James Potter.

“Alright Evans? You’ve been staring into that drink for the past ten minutes.”

His voice gives her goosebumps.

There’s an excited, jittery and sickly feeling that bubbles up in her gut, memories flashing through her mind as she swallows hard. Then she looks up at him.

He’s shining, still delighted and thriving off the Gryffindor win.

Of course they won. Fran Kirby caught the snitch only twenty minutes into the game, but in that time James and the others had managed to score an impressive amount of goals.

Basically, Gryffindor slaughtered Hufflepuff- and Chadwell seemed livid.

Lily drops her eyes back down into her drink. Her heart’s thumping, as it always does when James is near her.

He’s still wearing his quidditch robes and still looks exhilarated from the win, dazzling and windswept like he’s just emerged from one of Celestina Warbeck’s love songs.

She blinks. “Have I congratulated you yet?”

“On our amazing, fantastic win?” he laughs, folding his arms as he leans against the wall next to her. “I don’t think so, no.”

“Congratulations. You guys killed it out there. Like I said you would.”

He makes her nervous, like sweaty-hands nervous, and she uses her free hand to wipe her palm on her thigh, trying not to be too obvious.

James doesn’t notice at all; he gives her the biggest smile and grabs hold of a sugar quill. “We were pretty badass, but not as good as Manchester United I bet.”

“No team is as good as United, but you guys are a close second.”

She’s astounded that he remembers her favourite football team, a fuzzy and endearing feeling flutters in her gut and she wants to just fly.

James chuckles and rests his head back against the wall. His smile is soft, and his voice quietens. “I mean it though - I couldn’t have done it without you,”

It feels like she’s on cloud nine, and she just wants to grab hold of him and kiss him.

“Don’t be daft,” she says with a roll of her eyes and a grin, “of course you could have.” Her heart is beating a million times a second, but she tries to be as aloof as possible.

“I’m serious!” he says and, at that moment, as if he has super hearing, Sirius looks up from across the room. He’s playing exploding snap with Remus, Peter, Dorcas and Mary - but quickly goes back to the game when he realises he’s not being called.

James grins and puts a hand on her shoulder. His fingers are perfect, not sticky hot and not freezing - just right. He looks deep into her eyes and she’s afraid of falling into them.

“You’re a good friend, Lil.”

The word doesn’t sound right on his lips.

She jolts somewhat, and he looks a bit confused himself.

Only now does he pull his hand back from her, as if he’s just realised what he’s done. Something in the air has definitely changed, and Lily instantly hates it - whatever it is.

“Right,” she says and clears her throat. “Well, what are friends for, huh?”

“Exactly,” he smiles once more, but it’s not as wide as it was just moments before. He puffs out his cheeks, checks his watch and then looks back at her again.

She should say something. All it takes is a couple of words, a deep breath and a little bit of determination. Even if he doesn’t feel the same way, at least she wouldn’t have to live with the painful guilt she’s feeling.

She’s ready to say it - to just say he’s an absolute idiot and she’s in love with him (or something along those lines, whatever manages to come out of her mouth). She parts her lips, his name hanging onto her tongue when Remus calls to him.

The rest of the marauders have their winter cloaks on and Sirius has hold of James’s.

“Ready to see Hagrid?”

James nods and peels himself away from the wall.

“Yeah sure.”

Sirius throws him the cloak, which he catches with ease. He’s pulling the cloak around his shoulders when he turns back to her, uncertainty set deep in his eyes.

He bites his lip. “So, I guess I’ll - uh - see you around?”

She doesn’t get to answer him, Remus is already pulling him out of the common room.

Anthony Chadwell is three minutes and twenty seven seconds late.

Mary scowls as she checks her watch for the fourth time. “He said half past?” she asks with a click of her tongue.

Lily nods, straining her neck a little at the queue of students passing by.

“You go on ahead, he’ll be here soon. I can wait.”

Mary shakes her head, “I’m not leaving you alone, you wally. You’re not even wearing a coat.”

Lily lets out a small hum, rubbing her hands against her arms almost instinctively. It wasn’t this cold ten minutes ago.

“The boys are over there,” she points to the group of four, who are kicking around an empty bottle as they wait in the queue.

James is rubbish, which is funny considering how good he is at quidditch. Sirius kicks it like a proper midfielder and James, missing the bottle by an inch, watches as it tumbles towards where she and Mary stand. Lily sucks in a breath when he rakes his eyes, a little hesitantly, over her.

“You lovely ladies joining us?” Sirius jogs over to pick up the bottle and gives them both a goofy, cute grin.

“I’m going with Chadwell,” Lily tries to give him her brightest smile, knowing full well that James is standing only a few inches away. She has a twisted, funny feeling in her gut and she claims it on jittery nerves.

Sirius shrugs, eyes turning to Mary now. “MacDonald, are you going to grace us with your presence?”

Mary rolls her eyes, despite a little blush colouring her cheeks.

She threads her arm through Lily’s and lets out a small chuckle. “I’m meeting Dorcas in Gladrags. Probably won’t have time to run into you dorks.”

“Hogsmeade is a small place, you never know.” Sirius looks smug as he puts his hands in his pockets, noticing with a smirk how the blush on Mary’s cheeks deepens by the second.

She’s muttering “ass,” under her breath when Peter clears his throat.

“Are we going or what? I’m freezing my arse off here.”

Lily taps Mary’s shoulder. “Go with them, honestly. I’m sure he’ll be here in a sec.”

Mary looks a little reluctant, but when Sirius grabs hold of her arm and pulls her away gently she doesn’t fight against him.

“You sure?”

Lily only nods, stretching her mouth into the biggest smile she can manage, waving as they start to depart down the road.

James rakes a hand through his hair and glances back towards her. He looks guilty, staring at her like he’s got something he desperately wants to say, but he doesn’t stop.

She’s relieved and disappointed at the same time.

He nods his head slightly towards her and then the cute, light smile is back on his lips.

It’s like Anthony Chadwell and James Potter are polar opposites of each other.

James is boisterous and giddy. He can make her smile and gasp for air with his crazy jokes and remarks. Anthony is sweet, yes, but his smile doesn’t make her tingle and she doesn’t want to daydream about him for hours.

She tells herself it’s because she doesn't know him well. But, when he suggests they go to Zonkos without even asking if there’s a place she wants to visit first, it’s starting to slowly sink in that something’s not quite right.

The joke shop, as always, is filled to the brim with students and she follows slowly behind as her date stomps through the crowds. He stops by a shelf near the back of the cramped shop and Lily has to stop a few aisles away.

“Showed up then, did he?”

Just his voice alone brings a shiver up her spine and she turns around, trying not to smile. But damn, just seeing him there makes her want to break out into a song and dance.

“Yeah, he did.”

James smiles, fiddling with a box of sugar quills that’s under his left arm. “Were you waiting long for him?”

“No.” Yes.

It was another ten minutes before he finally came running towards her, panting and claiming he’d forgotten about the time they were supposed to meet (but she’s not about to reveal that to the guy who’s currently making her heart ache in a painful manner).

He’s standing right by the dungbombs, and that’s definitely not by coincidence.

“I hope you’re not planning on using those in Hogwarts,” she grins, pointing to the boxes that are stacked high. He gasps.

“Me? Use dungbombs? Never!” he says, giving her a wink as his hand reaches out to grab a box.

He’s just about to open his mouth when they hear Anthony laugh somewhere behind them. That causes the both of them to stir.

Chadwell is standing not ten feet away, arms resting, rather comfortably on the waist of a sixth year Ravenclaw girl who’s giggling at something he just said.

James scowls and raises his eyebrows in disbelief. “Aren’t you -”

She shrugs.

It’s stifling, the air is hot and sticky and it’s making her a little woozy. “We’re not exactly boyfriend and girlfriend.”

“But you’re his date.” James swears under his breath and shakes his head. “Merlin, Evans. I bet if the tables were turned he wouldn’t be happy with you flirting, so why the hell should he be getting away with it?”

“Maybe they’re just friends?” she’s whispering, even though James is stood so close to her that her shoulder brushes against his chest.

It’s rather ironic that James is getting more offended than she is. Should she be angry at Chadwell? She doesn’t feel anything for him, there’s no jealousy or bitterness - just the painful longing of the friend who’s by her side.

She can hear him swallow, she can count every deep breath he takes, even though the store is crowded and there’s an orchestra of sound in her ears.

“Like the way we're friends?”

All that matters in that moment is the way James looks at her.

And it’s almost as if they’re back at the common room, hidden away under the cover of night. He does the jaw thing (she doesn’t even know what ‘the jaw thing’ is, but she know it drives her crazy every single time) and Lily feels her fingers already itching to grab hold of him.

It’s like they’re back underneath the stands, just the two of them caught in the moment.

A student barges past them, hands full with two boxes of nose biting teacups, knocking Lily almost fully off her feet. Her legs stumble forward and she collides into James’ unsuspecting arms. His hand is instantly on her waist, holding her upright.

“Steady on,” he grins.

His stupid smile is contagious and utterly heart wrenching. She feels stupid for blushing under his intense gaze, she blinks and then the moment’s gone.

James stops their contact and he bites at his bottom lip, glowering as Chadwell lunges towards them.

“Babe,” he says and nods towards them, either not noticing or not caring to mention about the beetroot colour her cheeks are. “You ready?”

Lily clears her throat and quickly grabs onto the box of dungbombs James was admiring before. “Yes, just came here to get dungbombs. Very important.”

“Cool. Later, Plotter.”

She’s turning around, disliking the warm hand that Chadwell places on her shoulder when she hears James clear his throat.

“It's Potter,”

He doesn’t kiss like James.

There are no fireworks and she can’t see the stars in his eyes. He kisses like a limp fish more than anything, although there’s the faint hint of peppermint on his lips.

Anthony sighs as he presses a kiss against her lips once more, hands edging closer and closer to the small of her back. She instantly pulls them away, making sure he understands.

“Why don’t you just relax a little,” he murmurs in her ear.

All she can see is him. Him with his hurricane hair and cheesy smile, glasses wonky on his nose.

He’s far from perfect, but that’s what makes him so incomparable.

Sorry is almost out of her lips but she bites down on the word. What the hell is she sorry for? Nothing.

Anthony pulls away, his forehead creased.

“Listen, babe,” he itches his nose and pulls his hands into his coat pockets, “you’re really hot and all, but I just don’t think you and I… mesh well.”

He’s leaning against the wall, shoulders pulled into a careless shrug — like he didn’t just coax her into the empty cul de sac for a snog five minutes prior.

Lily blinks.

“If you ever want to have something... casual though, just send me an owl.” Chadwell gives her a wink.

There’s a few seconds of silence as Lily rolls around what’s just happened in her head.

“I’d rather french kiss a skunk, shave off my eyebrows and obliviate myself than be anywhere near the likes of you. You can expect an owl from me if I want to throw away my dignity and lose all of my self respect.”

She’s bubbling with anger and in the heat of the moment can’t help but slap his cheek whilst she’s at it.

He’s frozen in shock, his cheek a stinging red from her palm. He looks shocked.

“I’d probably be in St. Mungos too. I deserve to be treated far better than that.”

Sirius finds her in Scrivenshaft’s, hunched over the countless aisles of special quills.

“Evans!” he says happily. He doesn’t seem surprised, but, then again, Sirius always has that bright smile on his face. “Where’s your date?”

She picks up a quill, twirling it in her fingers before she has the energy to look up. “Um, he’s gone.”

“Gone? Like, to another shop?”

“Like, left. Gone. Told me that if I ever wanted a casual shag then I should owl him.”

She decides it’s better to leave out her sudden outburst.

“Yikes.” Sirius rubs the back of his neck, purses his lips and then glances over at her again. “Err, Mary’s in Tomes and Scrolls… do you want me to get her for you?”

“No. Yes. I mean, nah.” Lily shakes her head. She makes a grab for the nearest box of quills, not even glancing at the label. “I’m fine. Do you want a box of dungbombs?”

He looks at her dubiously and cocks his head slightly to the side. “Is that a trick question?”

She shakes her head, takes the box from her bag and thrusts it into his hands.

“Happy Christmas,”

“It’s April, Evans.”

“Then Happy Belated Birthday?”

He laughs, but takes the box from her anyways.

“My birthday’s in November,” he says with a grin. Nevertheless, Sirius stares at the box with wide, gleaming eyes.

“I know, there was that party in the common room, remember?”

It was slightly far fetched to call it such a thing - they had just played exploding snap and Mary had bribed the house elves to get a birthday cake topped with firewhiskey icing. They all sang happy birthday and Peter cried.

Lily clears her throat and takes out her purse.

“Anyways. I’m just gonna buy these and head back up to Hogwarts,” she says as she stumbles over a stool and scurries towards the till.

“You sure?”

She pays her galleon, grabs hold of her new box of quills and then gives him a smile. “Totally sure. Thanks Sirius.”

She’s a bad liar, but he doesn’t call her bluff.

He waits till she's out of view before he clucks his tongue and checks his watch. He takes a deep breath and taps his chin before he realises that he’s already made up his mind. He’s already marching over towards the bookshop.

Dorcas is giggling at a book in one of the shop corners and Sirius finds Mary surrounded by spell books, biting her lip and reading in full concentration as she practices a wand movement.

She looks up in surprise and he has to suck in a breath.

Mary is actually quite cute.

The heat of the Gryffindor common room is an immediate relief to her freezing bones and Lily sighs, feeling at ease for the first time that day.

She’s aching from the cold and inches towards the fire.

James looks up in an instant from his spot on the sofa and she stops dead in her tracks. He must notice her apprehension because he bites on his lip and bolts up from the seat.

“Lily!” his face is illuminated in the fire, flames dancing on his cheeks and burning in his eyes. The hearth crackles, soaking in the tense silence that falls between them before he’s swallowing heavily.

“Good date?”

She wants to laugh at the bitter irony. This is unbelievable and utterly ridiculous.

She’s still holding onto her box of quills, still not even looked to see which ones she grabbed in her blind state of panic.

“Alright, I guess.”

She doesn’t move an inch, not even when he takes an awkward step towards her. He’s wearing bright yellow quidditch socks, dozens of mini snitches flying around all over his feet.

“You guess? Not Prince Charming like you were hoping, huh?”

She allows herself to smile. “I never said Prince Charming, he’s actually far from it.”

James shrugs. “If I recall,” he says, taking another small step closer towards her, “you said he was fit and that you didn’t know what to do.”

“He is fit, but that doesn’t stop him from being a giant arsehole.”

He blinks. “Oh, bugger. Sorry - I didn’t realise that -”

“It’s okay.”

The portrait opens and a group of third years with fanged frisbees, chuckling and acting suspicious, make a beeline to the dormitories.

Lily plops her box onto the seat closest to her, resting on the armrest. James flexes a hand.

“Is it? You were really… excited. I mean,” he drops his voice down to a whisper, even though they’re alone now, “you wanted to… you know, practice.”

“You’re the one who offered,” she folds her arms against her chest and taps her foot against the sofa.

“Well, yeah,” he shrugs. “You said you didn’t want to mess it up with Chadwell.”

Lily jumps back up, sighing. “We’re just going round in circles now. I’m going up to my room.” She makes for a grab of her quills.

“Was it the kissing?”

Her fingers stop inches away and she curls them around her fist tight. Sliding a cool gaze over to him, he looks uncomfortable.

“Yes. And no,” she makes it sound like it’s obvious, throwing in a casual shrug whilst she’s at it. “Emmeline Vance was very insistent about your, ahh, consummate skills.”

James makes a noise that sounds like a strangled cat and a fog horn at the same time. He’s loosening his tie, messing up his hair as he clears his throat.

“Can I let you in on a little secret, Evans?” There’s a sheepish smile. Uh-oh, she thinks.

“Hit me,”

He takes a deep breath and scratches the back of his neck a little awkwardly. “I, err, that was a dare.”

“What was?”

“Kissing Vance. It was a stupid and dumb Seven Minutes in Heaven Dare by Frank Longbottom in fourth year. It wasn’t even seven minutes, more like a pathetic fifty seconds.”

“Oh.” Lily blinks.

James gives her a look, it’s rather odd; one that gives her goosebumps.

He cracks his fingers and shrugs. Words drip out of his mouth like melted ice cream on a summer’s day. “It wasn’t even heaven, it was in a bloody broom closet and was extremely uncomfortable.”

“I see.”

He looks like he’s in agony.

“So what I mean is, like, well - that I’ve only ever kissed her,” he sucks in a deep breath, staring intently at the wall. “And well, you.”

“And yet you thought you had the right qualifications to give me kissing lessons?”

“I didn’t exactly say I had relevant experience, I was just there at the right time and moment to lend a helping hand.”

“Vance wasn’t wrong though,”

James lifts his head. “Pardon?”

“About the kissing. You are bloody good at it.”

Anthony Chadwell is sent to the hospital wing the next morning, sprouting purple warts that explode into the words ‘I’m a Jerk’ whenever someone gets within four inches of him.

“I heard he was sobbing.” Peter snickers, almost choking on his orange juice as he recounts his story at the Gryffindor table.

“I had nothing to do with it,” James says, putting his hands up quickly in defense. “Although I wish on Merlin’s beard that I had.”

Remus clears his throat. “It’s nothing Madam Pomfrey won’t be able to handle. I’m sure Hufflepuff will play extra hard with Slytherin at the next match.”

Sirius sips at his tea and Mary grabs a piece of toast, stuffing it into her mouth. Lily decides it’s better if she doesn’t know, at least for now.

“What does your Witch Weekly say today, MacDonald?” Sirius quickly changes the subject, picking up his own slice of toast. “Any words of wisdom?”

Mary opens the magazine up to a random page. “Says The Bloody Banshees are the new HobGoblins.”

Sirius lets out a gasp, “That’s a right load of codswallop. The sheer nerve!”

True to Remus’ word, a few hours later when Gryffindor and Hufflepuff share Transfiguration together, Anthony Chadwell comes into class purple wart free.

Mary catches Lily’s gaze and winks as McGonagall directs him to his seat.

“I hope this will not affect the match tomorrow, Mr Chadwell.” The professor, chalk gripped in her hand, tries to smile as politely as she can at the Hufflepuff’s Keeper.

Chadwell scoffs, blasé and as smug as ever. “I’m ready to kick some Slytherin ass.”

The Gryffindor Head of House rolls her eyes, but turns back to the board and continues the class.

“Have you spoken to James yet?” Mary murmurs as the class scribble down the board notes.

“About what?”

“That you fancy the socks off him? That you want to snog him into next year?”

Lily rolls her eyes. “Have you and Sirius confessed?”

Mary freezes. “What?”

“About Chadwell? You guys were so obvious during breakfast.”

“Oh.” Mary coughs and messes with her hair. “It turns out he was a jerk to quite a lot of girls yesterday, so for all he knows it could have been any one of them,” she bites her lip, nudging her friend’s shoulder softly. “Sorry. I know you really wanted it to work out - ”

“Only so I wasn’t thinking about James,” Lily shrugs. “I guess I should've faced just faced him instead of running away.”

“You could just - I don't know - tell him?”

“I told him he was ‘bloody good’ at kissing.”

Mary has to slap a hand against her mouth to stop a shriek from escaping. She giggles and sneaks a quick glance at James and Sirius’s table, neither of them are paying attention to the lesson.

“You didn’t.”

Lily winces. “Unfortunately I did. Then I legged it before I could embarrass myself further.”

“But why? That could have been the moment where he confesses his undying love for you after he chases you down a moonlit garden!”

“Firstly, this isn’t Hollywood. And secondly he would have been chasing me up the girls stairs, then it would have turned into a slide and he would have fallen down on his arse-”

“Now that would have been hilarious.”

She manages to avoid him only for a few days, although Mary says ducking underneath a tapestry and hiding behind bookshelves doesn’t really count as ‘avoiding’ (neither does running into the library or stuffing one’s face with three eclairs apparently).

It’s the day before the Hufflepuff against Slytherin match when she runs into him.

He’s balancing four books in his hands and he’s got his wand balanced against his left ear.

As soon as he sees her his eyes widen and he pauses. He’s on the stairs and a student huffs as they barge past him, tutting at his immediate stop.

For some reason she can’t move, her feet are frozen (maybe because the castle’s so cold, it’s snowing outside and the corridors feel like ice caves - or maybe because part of her feels sorry for him).

“I’ve been, err, meaning to talk to you,” he says, grasping tight to his books as he meets her on the step. “I just wanted to say that I’m sorry.”

Her heart skips a beat. “What have you got to be sorry for?”

He’s still fiddling with his books, they’re giant, bulky Potions textbooks that look like they weigh a tonne. He shuffles a bit on his feet. “Look, I haven’t been completely honest with you.”

Of all the possible places to have this kind of discussion, it would be slap bang in the middle of the stairs whilst students are barging past them left, right and centre.

Lily squirms, dread filling her up. “Okay?”

“When I said you were a good friend, I lied.” His voice is croaky but determined, his eyes are stuck on hers and she’s too entranced to move at all. She feels dizzy.

“No, wait - that came out wrong.” James swears and closes his eyes briefly. “I mean, I love - I love having you as a friend. Lily you’re, well, amazing -  to be perfectly frank.”

She has no idea what to say, so thank you is all that trembles out of her mouth.

“That day,” he continues with a shaky breath, “when you said didn’t know how it would work out with Chadwell because you had never kissed anyone before…”

A group of first years run past, smacking into James’ side as they whizz down the stairs. His body jerks forwards and she instantly reaches towards him, slapping a hand on his chest to stop him from toppling over.

“Little buggers,” he glares as the group race around the corner.

“Maybe this isn’t the place to do this -” she squirms under his gaze, nervous and rather unsure about what he’s going to say. She drops her hand like he’s hot coal.

“No wait, please. I need to say this.” he clears his throat and taps his thumb against the side of the books. “I really like you. And I thought it would be okay to help you, like doing it as a favour to a mate or something. But, I realise now it was a stupid mistake because I - I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you,”

A moment of silence passes between them; Lily is stunned and James watches her closely, trying to read her expression. After a few more seconds he bends down and places the books down by his feet and pulls his hands together, wringing at his fingers nervously.

“You liked Chadwell and I didn’t want to jeopardise anything that was going on between you but,” he takes a small step closer to her, if that’s even possible. They’re balancing awkwardly on the step, facing each other nose to nose. He looks vulnerable, unsure and completely afraid as to what she’s going to say.

“But,” he says again and itches his nose. “I needed to come out and say it. I keep telling myself we’re friends and that I shouldn’t - can’t - say it but you’re the person I care most about in this world and -”

She doesn’t let him finish, she’s heard enough by now.

She stands on her tiptoes, and pulls at his shoulders before she silences him with a kiss.

It’s not like the others.

The kiss in the common room is a euphoric start, waves and waterfalls crashing down.

The kiss under the stands is an impulse, a nagging thought at the back of her head that wouldn’t let her rest until she had done its bidding.

But this one.

This one fills her up completely.

Lily feels alive and it’s James Potter who’s standing there in front of her, with his hands hugging her waist and lips kissing her again and again and again.

She can feel his heart racing, the flutter of his hands as he pulls her even closer.

There are students still barging past them, but they don’t care in the slightest.

He sighs against her lips, smiling softly. “You really had me a mumbling mess back there,”

Lily grins. “I wanted to make sure I wasn’t dreaming this up.”

“We’re both terrible at this, aren’t we?”

“The absolute worst. But at least we’re not Sirius and Mary.”

James grins and it’s infectious. They’re kissing again, smiling in love and grasping hold of each other tight. It feels like the moment is never going to end, that they’ll stay in that second completely free from everything else in the world.

Someone clears their throat and another person else lets out a laugh.

“Mr Potter, Miss Evans.” Professor McGonagall is standing there, trying to look stern as she attempts to conceal a smile.

Sirius and Mary are standing beside her, snorting with laughter. The two are holding hands and find the situation absolutely hilarious.

There’s a group of students around them, it seems that the two of them were taking up more space on the stairs than they anticipated.

“Detention in my office tomorrow night, for causing a disruption on the stair-well.” The professor calls out as she continues up the stairs, and then she turns around briefly in the last second and gives them both a wink. “Oh, and congratulations.”

James can’t help it, he swoops down and kisses Lily again. This time cheers and cat calls follow, and students move past them once again.

“You two are absolute morons,” Sirius grins. “Took you bloody long enough.”

[browneyedwolf]

Split Lip (Jughead x Betty)

Jughead winced and tried to turn his head away before it was jerked back sternly by a pair of delicate hands. “Juggie, don’t you move.” He pouted, immaturely as her hands fluttered around his face. “God, look at your poor lip.” Betty’s eyebrows were furrowed over her gorgeous eyes, her teeth biting at her bottom lip worriedly as she dabbed at his split lip with a piece of cloth. Jughead raised his hands to hold her wrists still, looking her straight in the eye. “Honestly, Bets, I’m fine. It’s just a split lip. It’s nothing.” His thumbs brushed back and forth across her slim wrists as he looked at her, trying to radiate calm. The look she threw him was completely disbelieving. “It is not nothing, Forsythe Jones. Why on earth would you go up against Reggie? He looks like he’s on all kinds of steroids and God knows what else. He’s twice your size. Do you have any sense?” Her words should have made him mad, or at least annoyed, if not for the way she said them. She was distraught with worry; she had feared he’d come away with a lot more than a busted up lip and the way her eyes filled with unshed tears as she ever-so-gently dabbed at his still bleeding lip, warmed his cold heart. He couldn’t help it, he chuckled before hurrying to explain why to the pretty teary blonde. “He is kind of like a Terminator, huh?” At her small smile, he pressed on. “I’ll be back. Reggie’s not one for words, but surely he’d be able to handle about 6 of them, right?” He had succeeded, he’d made her laugh, if only fractionally. He smiled at her, “I’m all good, Bets. I promise.” She sucked on her bottom lip for a second before asking quietly, “Why did you and Reggie fight, Jug? It’s not like you to get in a punch up.”

“Don’t laugh.” An eye-roll on her part. “He was talking shit.” A world-weary sigh that was about to turn into a lecture. “About you.” That stopped Miss Cooper in her tracks.

“He… what?” Her hand that was holding the cloth dropped from his lip to her side, and his hand slipped from her wrist to hold it in his gently.

“He was being completely disrespectful, Bets. He’s a womaniser, but I just couldn’t sit and hear that, you know? I couldn’t.” He held her hand tighter, waiting for any kind of response other than the blank stare she was currently sporting. After about a minute of silence she seemed to have snapped out of it.

“Are you telling me you got yourself punched in the face defending my honour?”

He grinned slightly, pulling at his swollen lip. “Yeah, I guess so.” If Jughead was expecting immediate praise, he was destined to be disappointed because the tiny powerhouse called Betty Cooper began to hit his shoulder firmly.

“You. Stupid. Stupid. Boy. Getting. Yourself. Hurt. Over. Me. Idiot.” Each word was punctuated with a slap to his shoulder. He raised his hands in a placating gesture and began to defend himself, “Bets, I…” before he was cut off completely. Betty had grabbed his jaw with both hands and placed a firm kiss on his sore lips, and Jughead barely noticed the pain. The kiss only lasted a few seconds, five, if he was being completely honest, but she didn’t move away entirely when she was done. Betty lingered next to his lips, smiling a very pleased-with-herself smile before breathing, “Thank you.” Jughead stared at her, his brain buzzing a million miles a minute, trying to find the perfect words to portray to Betty how happy he was to have defended her honour. What actually came out his mouth was, “I’m gonna need to get Reggie to punch me in the mouth everyday if that’s what happens after.”

She tossed her head back, ponytail swinging, and let out a laugh that had him grinning ear to ear. “Oh Juggie.” She pecked him on the lips again, being more gentle against his lip this time. “Please don’t. I’d like to kiss you without making you wince.” “Trust me, Bets. I really don’t mind.” He took her perfect face in his hands and kissed her like he’d never have another chance, because girls like Betty? You should never take that kind of girl for granted.

[the-edge-of-great]

part two of my @jatpdaily secret santa for @agentsofoakenshiield !! :) 

you can find part one here!

FRIDAY

ALEX

There are four hours until the party. Five until he and Julie sign a new treaty. Six until they confront their parents and his world changes. Oh, is it hot in here?

Alex slips through the greenhouse door quietly—the conversation doesn’t even lull—and follows a narrow dirt path further into the forest. Soft leaves brush past, tickling the tips of his fingers. Seneca is known for its forests—vast, plentiful, and always in bloom no matter the season.

“Alex!” Willie’s voice echoes like the world isn’t already buzzing with wildlife. A bee zips past his face, so there must be other noises, but he can’t hear anything. Blood rushes through his ears—badum, badum, badum—and his head throbs.

“Alex, hey—” Willie reaches for him, fingers curling under his forearms, pulling him close. “Hey, look at me. Look at me, baby. You’re okay.”

Weakly, Alex shoves at him.

“There’s no room for emotions in this castle,” Gladys’ voice reminds sternly in his head. “Emotion is vulnerability; a weakness. And you can’t be weak. Understand, Alexander?”

Willie doesn’t budge. Instead, he tugs Alex closer, taking his hands between his own.

“I’m scared,” Alex admits quietly.

“I know,” Willie whispers.

“This has to work. It has to. Julie deserves her choice. She deserves a happily ever after.”

“And so do you.” Despite the obvious—albeit weak—resistance, Willie pulls Alex into a tight hug. “Listen to me: You guys are making the right choice here. You are.”

“My parents are gonna—” Alex takes a breath. Really, he doesn’t know what his parents will do. He doesn’t want to know, either.

“Shh… Don’t worry about them. Focus on the now. You can do this, Alex.” Willie brushes a hand through Alex’s hair, smiling.

“Wish you could be there with me.”

Raising an eyebrow, Willie hums thoughtfully. “Yeah…”

“So, Julie and I are going to sneak away to the chapel during the dance,” Alex says, mostly as a reminder to himself, but Willie nods along anyway. “It has to be approved by both the Grand Priest of Seneca and the High Priest of Koray. After, we—Should we wait until after the party? Or during it?”

Willie chuckles. “Sounds like a question for the group discussion.”

Alex breathes a laugh, shaking his head. “Right. Right.”

“After everything, though, we all meet out here to celebrate,” Willie finishes.

“Or, um…” Alex’s teeth catch the corner of his lip. “They could meet out here. We could… find something to do elsewhere.”

Willie smirks. “Ah. I don’t suppose you’ve had a tour of the castle yet?”

“Nope.”

“Well lucky for you, I know all the best spots.”

Alex laughs. He dips his head, kissing him softly. “Can’t wait,” he whispers, lips hovering just far enough to speak. A beat passes between them, staring into each other’s eyes, before Willie pushes forward, pinning Alex to a tree trunk, lips on his. Alex’s hands are everywhere: his hair, his neck, his sides, fingers pressing into the curve of Willie’s spine, holding him as close as possible and even more so.

A branch snaps. Immediately, Willie pulls away. Alex’s fingers catch the collar of his shirt; he’s not ready to let go yet. A few more minutes with him, please.

Alex searches for whoever interrupted. Willie nods to the left, toward a girl who's facing away from them. It’s Flynn; she’s trying to hide behind a tree.

“Sorry,” she calls sheepish. “Was just gonna tell Willie his dad is calling for him.”

Willie licks his lips. “Thanks, Flynn.”

Her footsteps trail off as she returns to the greenhouse. Alex takes a breath, running a hand through his hair. Willie looks over.

“You’d better go,” Alex says. “Before anyone gets suspicious.”

“Right.”

Their interlocked hands swing between them. Alex gives him a small smile. “I love you.”

Willie smirks. He stands on his tiptoes and presses a soft, lingering kiss to Alex’s cheek. “Love you, too. I’ll see you after, okay?”

“Okay.”

Alex doesn’t let go until their hands are stretched as far as they can reach. Finally, they break away, and his arm falls to his side. He watches Willie disappear into the forest and hopes, with everything in him, that wasn’t their last moment together.

~**~**~**~

WILLIE

By the time nine o’clock rolls around and the party is in full swing, Willie has a plan. It’s not as important or high stakes as The Plan, but it requires Flynn and some convincing acting skills.

“Where are we going?” she demands as he guides her through the hectic maze of the kitchen. They duck under a tray full of sparkling dishes and maneuver around a pot of boiling hot vegetable soup. At the back of the chaos is a small closet stocked with spare uniforms for the staff. Willie tugs her inside and shuts the door behind them.

“So, Alex said earlier that he wishes I could be there when they confront their parents, and I got to thinking.” Willie pushes a rickety step stool in front of a cabinet and climbs on top. “We’re the only ones in the group who miss events like this.

“Well yeah, that’s because we befriended a bunch of noblemen for some reason,” Flynn says dryly.

“True, but we’ve been missing an important opportunity every time.” Willie grabs some hangers and steps down. He shows off the black pants and white button ups with a grin. “Being the son of the royal chef has its perks.”

“And one of them is… being able to pose as servants?” Flynn raises an eyebrow. “Have you seen how those people treat the working class? Hard pass, Willie.”

“Oh, come on. We’ll stick together and just try to stay near Julie and Alex.” Willie sighs. “Look, if this was any other night, you know I’d be upstairs with you watching movies like usual. But what they’re doing tonight could change everything. Even things like this!” He gestures between them. “Now more than ever, I want to be out there with them. Don’t you?”

Flynn groans. “Fine! But I’m leaving at the first royal to try throwing a drink at me.”

Willie laughs and tosses her a uniform.

~**~**~**~

JULIE

Turns out, writing a treaty isn’t the hard part. Having it witnessed and approved isn’t all that difficult, either—it helps when the Priests of each land are young and open minded to change. Also, Alex’s younger sister Lainey was apparently on board from the very beginning. Julie really likes her, too. She hopes that, when this is all over, she, Lainey, and Flynn can have a Girls’ Day.

Sneaking back into the castle is accompanied by almost no obstacles. They were counting on Luke and Reggie still being at the door when they returned, but one look from the back gate tells them the shifts changed. When they swept past the new Korayn guards, they ignored the oh-so-knowing glances the men gave each other. Julie wants to roll her eyes; she doesn’t want to imagine what they’ll tell their buddies later.

The hard part, she realizes quickly, is stepping back into the commotion with the weight of knowing you’ve just rebelled against your own country and its laws and created something that changes hundreds of years of tradition. The cherry on top is the three most powerful people in the building—her dad and Alex’s parents—congregating in a balcony overlooking the ballroom. Her breath catches in her throat.

“Alex?” she calls, looking over, searching for his hand blindly. She needs someone to hold onto, and knowing he’s just as anxious as she is makes her feel the tiniest bit better.

Alex nods, like he can see what she’s thinking. “There they are,” he mutters to her, pulling at his sleeves.

“There they are,” Julie repeats numbly.

He turns to her. “We can’t back out now, right? We’ve already done it… technically.”

“Right. You’re right. Now we just have to… to make it official. With them.”

Alex squeezes her hand. She squeezes back.

Two servers just happen to arrive at the same time when they reach the top of the stairs. Julie and Alex freeze.

“What are they doing?” Julie whispers.

“I don’t know, but…” Alex frowns. “Why are they kind of good at it?”

“They’re just walking around handing out food. Can’t be that hard.”

Just as she says that, someone bumps into Willie, who’s balancing six wine glasses on one hand. He stumbles, the drinks wobble, but just when Julie is holding her breath and preparing for the worst, Willie regains his balance and carries on like nothing happened.

“Okay,” she admits reluctantly, “that was kind of impressive.

“Oh!” Flynn stops in front of them. “Good evening, Your Majesties. Tiny sandwich?”

Alex snickers. “Servants don’t talk, Flynn.”

“What’re you guys doing here?” Julie asks, looking over as Willie nears. “You guys know my dad will recognize you.”

Willie shrugs. “My dad works in the kitchen. It’s not that weird.”

“It is ‘cause you’ve never done this before.”

“Yeah, I think that changes tonight.” Willie jabs a thumb over his shoulder. “Someone tipped me $200 earlier just for giving them an extra glass of wine.” He shakes his head. “Drunk rich people. Why didn’t I think of this before?”

“Have you guys seen Luke and Reggie?” Alex asks. “They weren’t at the gate when we came back.”

“Came back from… Oh!” Flynn’s eyes nearly pop out of her head. “Did you guys do it? The new treaty? Is it approved and everything?” Julie pats the purse on her hip. “It’s in here, Priest approved, royal family member witnessed. Now we just have to…” She nods toward their parents.

“Oh,” Willie realizes, looking between them. “Right. You guys got this, okay?”

Alex takes a long, deep breath. “We need to do this before I chicken out.”

Julie nods. “Let’s go.” Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Willie reach for Alex before his hand falls to his side. Looking back, Willie’s already moved on to the next guest. Alex’s hurries to her side, face unreadable. She reaches for his hand again.

“Mother, Father,” he greets stiffly.

“Dad,” Julie adds, smiling softly. “We need to talk to you guys.”

Dad raises an eyebrow. “Uh, can it wait? We’re having a party, mija!”

“Not this time, papa. It’s important.”

Alex adds, hesitantly, “It’s about the marriage agreement.”

His mother rolls her eyes. “This again, Alexander? We’ve told you—”

The king interrupts, “—nothing you say or do will change things. Arranged marriage is a tradition dating back centuries. You think you’re the first prince to dislike their bride?” He scoffs. “This isn't about your feelings. It’s about what’s good for your country.”

“I think there are other options that could be better for the country.”

“Besides,” Julie interrupts, sounding much braver than she feels, “it’s already done.”

Their group falls silent. Below, the party carries on. Dresses shimmer under the chandeliers as women dance across the ballroom with their partners leading the way. Glasses clink in toast somewhere. A group of women laugh near the grand piano. Julie can see Willie and Flynn, weaving around people like they’re racing to get back to the kitchen. Everyone on the ground is blissfully unaware, carefree and unbothered.

And the most powerful people in the room are silent, suffocating in stiffening air.

“What’s already done?” the King of Koray demands sharply.

Julie’s hands are shaking. She curses at herself as she digs the treaty out of her purse. The paper slips from her grasp and falls on the table. To hide her tremble, she slams a hand down on top.

“This is a new treaty created by Alex and I, approved and witnessed by both priests of our countries and, following Koray’s rules, a member of the royal family, Alex’s sister Lainey Mercer.” She stands upright; deep breath, straighten your shoulders! “In this, we agree to keep the peace while abolishing the arranged marriage law. I have full confidence in our ability to maintain a good relationship between our countries without restricting our freedoms and promising ourselves to each other when, really, that’s not something either of us want. Alex is family to me.” She shoots him a quick smile. “We’d work better running things on equal ground, from an understanding of brother and sister.”

Alex nods. “Arranged marriage is a thing of the past. It may have worked when you all were our age, but it won’t for us. We both want to lead our countries into a new era, and this is the first step.”

There’s more silence, but Julie feels she can breathe easier. At least, she thinks so—she’s suddenly aware of the death grip she’s had around Alex’s hand during the whole speech.

Dad rises from his chair, grinning. “Well, you two make a compelling argument.”

Julie beams. “Really?”

Alex’s dad bellows a laugh that would definitely swallow the aimless chatter downstairs if not for the music. There’s a menacing tone laced in that sends chills down Julie’s spine. Her smile falters. Chin up.

“You think you can just waltz in here,” he teases, walking around his chair, “show off your pathetic little stunt, and things would be different? Just like that? Ha! You have a lot to learn, kid.” He stops in front of her, inches away because that’s as far as Dad will allow. “First of all, I can spin this to make it seem like you got inside my son’s head and filled it with nonsense. For all we know, this is an act of war.”

“Funny you bring up war,” Dad says nonchalantly.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Well, you both know who would win that. And so do I.” Dad shrugs. “That’s why the peace treaty was created in the first place, wasn’t it?”

Julie knows little about Koray’s forces regarding the military. According to stories from Luke, they have plenty of manpower. But, her dad always told her great armies aren’t made up of only muscle.

Alex’s father is positively seething, if his reddening face is any indication. “I will not be made a fool,” he spits. Dark eyes shift to Alex. “Especially by my own son.”

Julie looks at Alex fearfully. He’s locked in a staring match with his father.

“Whether you like it or not,” he says with a shake in his words, “I’m going to take your place one day. And if this doesn’t work now, it’ll work later. You’re just postponing the inevitable.”

They relapse into another chilling silence. Julie doesn’t realize she’s been holding her breath until Alex’s father finally storms off. She hears the heavy thuds of his boots for two steps until he stops abruptly. Frowning, she turns to see what happened.

Their friends are there: Luke and Reggie standing at attention just inside the doorway with Willie and Flynn watching from behind. They’re trying their hardest not to smile, Julie can tell, which almost crumbles her resolve immediately.

“This won’t work, you know,” Alex’s father hisses, turning back to them. “You can’t build a kingdom on friendship.”

Alex and Julie share a look. Julie hums. Alex shrugs.

“Watch us,” he says simply.

Flynn smacks Willie’s arm eagerly.

Behind them, Dad clears his throat. “Well, I guess there’s just one thing left to do,” he says, reaching into his inner jacket pocket. He catches the queen’s eye across the room. “Madam?”

The queen sighs. She rounds the chair she was previously sitting in and takes the pen from Dad’s hand. “Although I’m not entirely sold on the idea,” she mutters, signing her name across the bottom of the treaty. She returns the pen and speaks to Julie and Alex. “I have high hopes for you, Alexander. You’re far more courageous than I originally thought. And you, young lady.” Julie raises her chin, smiling. His mother sighs, a hint of something warm and familiar playing on her lips. “I have a feeling you two are going to do something great together.”

“In other words,” Dad says as she leaves the room, “good job, you two.” He kisses Julie’s hair.

Julie smiles. “Thanks, Dad.”

Reggie throws an arm out to stop Flynn from lunging at Julie while Dad heads for the door. Her friends watch, waiting for their cue. Julie shares a look with Alex. Alex steps to the edge of the balcony and peers over the side. A moment later, he spins on his heel.

“We did it!” he cries.

Reggie and Luke step aside before Flynn can shove into them. She tosses her tray of sandwiches to the side and leaps for Julie and Alex, who are in the middle of an embrace. Seconds later, three other people join the huddle. When they pull away, everyone starts talking at once.

“I can’t believe you guys just did that.”

“That was fucking bad-ass, what the hell!”

“When he said ‘You can’t build a kingdom on friendship’ and you said ‘Watch us’, oh my gosh, dude!”

“I’m so proud of you guys!”

Flynn catches the first tear that slips down Julie’s cheek. Shaking her head, she reaches out to wipe it away. “No crying, girl! You just won your freedom, basically.”

“And it’s a good eyeliner night,” Julie jokes.

Flynn smiles, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. “Exactly, girl. You look too good to be crying.” She steps away as Luke approaches.

He hugs her close against his armored chest and presses a kiss to her forehead. She smiles, leaning into the embrace even if it’s not as comfortable as his normal hugs.

“Off topic, but um,” Alex says, eyebrows furrowing as he looks over Willie. “Why are you guys posing as servants?”

“It’s servers, Alex,” Flynn corrects.

“Yeah. Get woke,” Willie teases.

Alex chuckles. “I don’t—What?”

“Hey, let’s get out of here,” Julie suggests. “I know a greenhouse party would be way better.”

“I bet I can steal some ice cream from the kitchen,” Flynn offers. “I am an employee.”

Willie snickers. “Yeah, you guys go ahead. I promised His Highness a tour of the castle tonight.”

Julie shares a smirk with Luke. Humming, she tugs him toward the door. “Okay. We’ll catch up tomorrow then.”

Tomorrow, when she can wake up to Luke by her side without worrying about being caught. Tomorrow, when Alex can hold Willie’s hand in public and nobody can say anything because he’s the prince and no longer engaged.

Tomorrow, when they can actually feel like themselves somewhere other than the greenhouse.

Finally.