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bbreaddog · 1 month

Note

It’s the morning after a wild New Year’s Eve party and there are quite a few regrets. . . .writer's choice for characters! ^_^

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Thanks for your one-and-a-bit-years’ long patience on this 😩 I’m so excited to finally, FINALLY share this with you!!

(Prompt from this post. Thanks @noworneverphantom and @1mnobodywhoareyou for beta-ing)

AND NOW, THE FIC (M rating, 2.1k words):

Anyone who thinks having your ears assaulted with the incessant blaring of a dawn break alarm is a great way to start the day is a damn liar.

He slaps his hand over the bedside table blindly until he finally hits the offending object. The noise stops. He flops over onto his stomach.

It’s 7am, January 1st. Fantastic information for someone who actually cares. Not him, though.

His body, however, does. Five hours is not nearly enough to… Well, five hours is not enough. Celebratory drinks on New Year’s Eve can be fun! He just forgets about the part where he has to wake up with the consequences.

He yawns, jaw aching with the stretch, and ribs protesting with the expansion of his breath. Something twitches under his palm. It kinda tickles. He sniffs.

A moment passes. There’s another twitch, then a quiet squeak.

Oh, Reggie thinks. He should probably move in case it’s a rat or something. But lifting his arm suddenly feels like lifting a boulder that’s been superglued to the ground. He sighs. It would be so easy to give up right now.

So he does.

It’s not a big deal. He could probably handle having a little rat friend. Besides, rats are cute. And if his parents didn’t let him have a hamster back in high school—well, now he can have–

An annoyed grumble. Reggie screws up his face. That’s a loud fucking rat, probably one that won’t be much fun to take care of, actually.

So Reggie, still half-asleep and hungover to all hell, makes a decision that any other responsible adult in his situation would make:

He’s going to grab the little guy.

Reggie’s fingers slowly draw in. His eyebrows furrow. It’s something smooth, and a little more triangular than the rat-shape he was expecting. Not that he’s one to body shame.

Experimentally, he squishes it.

There’s a splutter, then–

“Ow!” Reggie whines when his hand gets slapped away.

“Dude, what the hell?”

Reggie’s eyes snap open, sunlight stinging before he can smack a hand over them. “What the hell?” he parrots.

“Lemme breathe.”

“Okay,” Reggie croaks, a little hysterically. “Yeah, sure. W-what are you doing in my bed, though?”

From the other side, Luke snorts. “S’my bed, dude.”

No, it’s not, Reggie wants to say. Because that would be stupid. Being in Luke’s bed would be stupid. Reggie knows that, and Luke has to know that. They’re in a band together! A band where they’d all agreed to never shoot their shot within the group.

More specifically, Reggie had promised both Julie and Alex separately that he won’t get caught up in his long-standing crush on Luke, and that he definitely won’t end up in Luke’s bed. It’s too risky.

So this can’t be Luke’s bed, Reggie thinks, because then we would be in big trouble.

There’s some shuffling beside him, followed by a deep sigh. Reggie peeks through the gap between his fingers. Luke’s eyes are closed, the crease of his brow just smoothing out. Reggie watches Luke’s mouth soften, lips parting slightly, his breaths returning to slow waves. He looks so peaceful.

Just as the thought occurs, Reggie huffs out a small laugh. “Thought you were a rat,” he murmurs.

Luke doesn’t reply. Reggie shuts his eyes again.

So maybe he’s thought about this before, waking up next to Luke all soft and rumpled. Maybe it’s a daydream he likes to revisit regularly. So what? Sue him. It’s not like he’d say no given the chance.

Besides, he seems to recall only saying that he won’t end up in Luke’s bed, so… yeah. He just has to verify that he’s in his own bed, and they’ll be fine. Probably.

Reggie rolls over gingerly, cracking open an eyelid to squint through the bright morning haze. It’s hard to tell whose room it is at a glance when the layouts are so similar:

There’s a wooden desk shoved into a corner at the other end of the room, the chair pulled out to accommodate the mountain of clothes dumped on it; an acoustic guitar sits beside the tallboy, occupying the only section of the floor that’s ever seen the light of day. Speaking of light, why is it so fucking bright?

Reggie props himself up with one elbow, then braves a look at the source of light.

Of course, he groans. The blue curtains hanging over the window are, for some godforsaken reason, open—pushed to the sides, allowing the morning sun to flood the room.

Sure! Reggie thinks. That’s not even the worst part about it, so why not? The only thing that could possibly be worse than this is if Julie and Alex were here pointing at the curtains themselves; because the curtains in Reggie's room are red.

“Fuck,” Reggie moans, letting his eyes fall shut.

If there’s one thing Luke’s good at, it’s persuading Reggie to do things. Stupid things that will get them into stupid trouble.

Maybe they could say it was just a sleepover? Nothing had to have happened between them. Just a couple of bros sharing a bed. It’s winter, it’s cold. Saving on heating bills. Something like that. That sounds reasonable enough, yeah?

He looks back at Luke, and yeah, okay. That’s great, actually—Luke’s not wearing a shirt. That’s… fine. Luke’s fine. Like, really fine.

Getting off track. It’s fine! They’ve all seen Luke waltzing around without a shirt before. Hell, even if he was wearing one, half the material would be gone along with the sleeves. So the story could still pass. This is nothing new.

What is new, to Reggie’s horror, is the massive purple bruise blooming on the side of Luke’s neck. Reggie does not squeak. How did he miss that? It’s huge!

Don’t panic, Reggie tells himself, panicking. There could be any number of reasons why there’s a hickey the size of a golf ball on Luke’s neck. Probably just as many as for why they’ve woken up in the same bed.

Reggie can think of exactly one.

Alex is gonna be so mad. Julie is gonna be so mad.

He swallows. It’s fine, he tells himself, like it’ll be real if he keeps saying it. Maybe this could be salvageable somehow. If they’re sticking with the sleepover thing (which he’ll talk to Luke about… probably), then he should check that they’re wearing clothes. That would make it more plausible. Hopefully.

The back of his neck prickles with sweat, and he suddenly wishes the thought never occurred to him. Now he can’t stop thinking about Luke laying beside him, naked. He can’t stop thinking about Luke seeing him naked. Reggie bites his lip. This is a bad idea. Maybe he can just roll over and go back to sleep and he’ll wake up from this dream.

Except, Reggie has never been one to deny his curiosity, even if it does trap the rat, or however the saying goes. He inhales sharply.

Careful not to disturb Luke, Reggie slowly lifts up the edge of the covers. He takes in a quiet breath and, before he can psyche himself out, leans down to take a peek.

He slaps a hand over his mouth.

We’re gonna die, Reggie thinks, heart pounding in his chest. Alex and Julie are gonna kill us, and we’re gonna die.

“Luke,” Reggie says, nudging him with the back of his hand. “Luke. Luke.”

“What?”

Reggie bites his lip. He has to be smart about this. Although he doesn’t know how smart he can be with this headache swooping back in. “Do you, uh, usually sleep naked?”

Luke snorts. Reggie’s face heats up. “Yeah,” Luke says.

Reggie’s pulse quickens. “So this is normal?”

“Yeah,” Luke says again, slower this time, an unreadable look on his face.

“In– in the middle of winter?”

“What are you, my mom?”

Reggie squeaks. “I-I just mean, like– what if– what if someone else is in your bed?”

Luke blinks. His lips curl up into a smirk.

“Well,” he drawls, propping himself up on an elbow. “Seems like you already know the answer to that.”

“I-I mean–” Reggie stammers, cheeks growing hot. “You could’ve at least– put some pants on, or, or… um…” he trails off, watching Luke’s eyes rake down his chest and slowly drag them back up again. When their eyes meet, Luke slips his tongue out to wet his lips. Reggie’s skin prickles.

“Now, why would I want to do that if the clothes are just gonna come right off again?”

Reggie has never claimed to have a strong resolve. They don’t make it out of bed for a while.

———

“What the hell is that?” Alex demands.

Act casual. Be natural.

”Yeah, Reg,” Luke smirks. Reggie’s blood runs cold. “What the hell did you do to me?”

Alex rounds on him. “You did this?”

“Did what?” comes Julie’s voice, and Reggie instinctively scans the studio for cover. Julie stops in the doorway, staring at Luke. “What the hell is that?” she asks, tone measured.

“That’s what I said,” mutters Alex.

Reggie glances at Luke, who’s still proudly parading the massive hickey on his neck like it won’t get them murdered. Reggie resists the urge to put his face in his hands and scream.

Julie looks between Luke’s smug expression and Reggie’s guilty-puppy eyes, and Reggie can pinpoint the exact moment it clicks.

“Oh my god, what did we say about hooking up within the band?!”

“Felt fucking good, though,” Luke says with a sly smile. “Reggie’s mouth–”

“Absolutely not,” Julie cuts in, holding up a hand. “I never, in a billion years, want to hear about what happened between you and Reggie’s mouth. Gross.”

“Yeah,” Alex says, raising a pocketed hand. “Me too.”

Reggie’s face grows hot. Hell could open up a trap door to a thousand spikes underneath him right now and it would suck less.

“I’m gonna need a moment,” Julie announces. “You two–” she points between Luke and Reggie “–behave. I’ll be back.”

Reggie hangs his head, shame creeping up the back of his neck. He hates disappointing people, least of all Julie Molina. Now the fate of his spot in the band, and probably his friendship with Julie, is doomed.

He hazards a glimpse at Luke. He actually looks sorry now that Julie’s out of sight.

Alex sighs and turns to them, lips pressed into a thin line.

“Alright, Alex, go ahead,” Luke grumbles. “We know you’ve got something to say.”

Alex watches them carefully for a beat before opening his mouth. “Okay, I don’t wanna say I told you so–”

“Yes, you do,” Reggie mumbles.

“Yes, I do,” Alex concedes, shutting his eyes for a second. “But I won’t, because I know you know you messed up. Okay, we all agreed this wouldn’t happen. I’ve kept up my end of the deal. Julie’s kept hers…” He trails off, shrugging. He doesn’t need to say it, but Reggie can practically hear it. Why was it so hard for you to do the same?

Reggie looks at Luke, then back to Alex before dropping his gaze. He’s just about to open his mouth to apologise when the door creaks open.

“Okay,” Julie breathes, carefully closing the door behind her and stepping into the space. “Now that I’m over the initial shock of…” She gestures vaguely at Luke and clears her throat. “I’ve given it some thought, and I’ve decided…” She looks between Luke and Reggie, biting her lip nervously. “We can make an exception here,” she says finally.

“Wait, seriously?” Luke and Alex say in unison. They grimace at each other.

Julie stares. “Okay… anyway,” she says. “Yes, I am serious. Just as long as the two of you—Luke and Reggie—can keep it professional when we’re together as a band.”

“Yeah,” Alex agrees. “We don’t want personal stuff to get in the way of how we work, right?”

Reggie could almost cry with relief, wrapping his arms around Julie in a tight hug with an earnest “Thank you!” before releasing her so Luke can do the same.

With the air cleared, they disperse to set up for the day. Luke bumps his hip against Reggie and throws him a wink. Reggie blushes despite himself.

“Oh, and one more thing,” Julie pipes up. “In case it wasn’t clear enough: no hooking up on band time. Got it?”

Reggie straightens up and salutes her. “Yes, ma’am!”

He hears Luke laugh next to him. “You got it, boss,” he says.

Julie rolls her eyes fondly, and returns to setting up her keyboard stand.

Reggie feels a tap on his shoulder. He turns around, and Luke presses a quick kiss to his lips. It happens so swiftly that Reggie is left stunned; he stares wide-eyed after Luke, who’s already making his way toward his mic.

Somewhere behind him, Reggie hears Alex mutter, “Why do I have to be here?”

#jatp #jatp fic #luke patterson #reggie peters #peterpatter #ruke #ask #jmrothwell #new year prompts #writing prompts #i write things #mine #FUCK. the relief is so great. you’ve no idea #I’m so happy i finally get to share this AHHHH #i hope i made it worth the wait

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astorytotellyourfriends · 1 year

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Hi there! Fanfic ask game M?

M: Got any premises on the back burner that you’d care to share?

ONLY ABOUT A THOUSAND!!! god honestly i have so many ideas for hellcheer and new ones just keep popping up every goddamn day, i can't keep up with them. but here's what i've got on my list (which may or may not even be all of them tbh):

bartender au

beachfront au

bodyguard au

daisy jones & the six au

escort au

grosse point blank au

hadestown au

the holiday au

housewife au

kidfic au

old hollywood au

pool boy au

prof/student pt4

regency au

summer camp slasher au

vecna violence au

what dreams may come au

what's your number au

SOMEONE STOP ME PLEASE I CANNOT KEEP UP WITH ALL OF THESE IDEAS

#hellcheer #answered #jmrothwell

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jatp-spinsb · 2 years

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Hey there! For the friends to lovers prompts, number 8 for the Reggie ship of your choice?

8. Helping your friend move to another place, coming across the teddy bear you gave them ages ago

“How about this?” Reggie asked, holding up what looked to be some sort of macaroni art that Julie must have made when she was in kindergarten. The whole box was filled with such projects.

“Trash,” Julie said without hesitation. “Honestly? You can probably toss that whole box.”

“Really? You don’t think you’ll ever want to look back someday and look at the projects you made when you were little?”

“Do you?” Julie shot back at him. “Because I can honestly tell you that I have never thought about anything in that box since I made it. The only reason I still have it is because Dad is nostalgic about that sort of thing. But he doesn’t want to store it anymore, and I definitely don’t want to store it, so I’m making the executive decision to throw it away.”

“That’s fair,” Reggie conceded. He put the box aside in the pile of things that Julie was getting rid of, which was much larger than the stuff she was keeping. Reggie didn’t blame her. The less she kept, the easier it would be to move out of her dad’s house and into her first apartment.

He moved on to a box filled with child-sized t-shirts. “How about these? They look like they’re from summer camps you went to when you were younger.”

“Trash.”

“Damn, Julie, you are cold blooded. Not even the commemorative t-shirts make the cut?”

“They don’t fit me anymore. If I really want to keep them as mementos, I can take a picture of the ones that mean the most to me and get rid of the physical shirts that take up space.”

“Okay. Well, why don’t we donate them instead of putting them in the trash? Most of them look like they’re in pretty good shape.”

“Fair enough.”

While Reggie looked around the disaster that was Julie’s room for the next box to look through (his eye caught a box of stuffed animals that was already in the donate pile), the music they were listening to changed to an upbeat pop song.

Julie’s face lit up. “Oh! I love this song!” She stood up. “Reggie, dance with me!”

Reggie couldn’t help but smile at her in return. “What happened to ‘I want to get through as much of my room as possible today?’”

“We can afford to take a dance break. C’mon! It’s good for you!”

Reggie shook his head, still smiling. As if he could ever say no to Julie when she was enthusiastic about something. He got to his feet and started bouncing to the beat.

And as he bounced, he just watched Julie dance.

She was mesmerizing, with her natural curls cascading over her shoulders, and her deep brown eyes filled with mirth, and her smile that showed the adorable gap between her teeth.

Reggie had been a goner for years. But by the time he had realized his crush on her, she was head over heels for his friend Luke. The two of them dated for a while, and Reggie had dutifully stayed out of the way because he wanted both of them to be happy. Even after they broke up—deciding they were better off as friends—the timing had never seemed right for Reggie to make a move. It hurt sometimes, keeping his feelings hidden, but he was happy just to be her friend, just to bask in the light that Julie brought to every room. She made him happy just by existing. What more could he ask for?

When the song drew to a close, both of them were a little out of breath, but they were smiling at each other in a way that made Reggie question if Julie knew about his feelings for her and if she might have some of her own in return.

The moment didn’t last, thought, and Julie plopped back down onto the ground to resume sorting through one of the boxes and deciding what to keep. “Alright, back to business.”

“Back to business,” Reggie parroted. He looked around for the next box to help Julie sort through.

---

Julie handed Reggie a box. “Okay, I think most of this stuff is going on those shelves. Can you start unpacking it?”

“You don’t want to do that yourself?” Reggie asked.

Julie smiled warmly at him. “I trust you.”

Reggie was sure she could see his blush. “Okay.” He took the box and headed toward the shelves Julie had pointed out.

“Oh, and Reggie?”

Reggie turned back to her. “Yeah?”

“Thanks again for helping me move.”

The sincerity with which Julie said it caused Reggie’s face to feel even warmer for some reason. “It’s no problem. I’m just sorry everyone else bailed before we could finish unloading the truck.”

Julie shrugged. “We got all the big stuff. It’s just some boxes at this point.”

“You sure you don’t want me to help you get another load from the truck?” He checked.

“You helped Luke with a lot of the furniture. You seem like you could use a break from lifting things. And getting started unpacking will actually help this place start to feel like home, you know?”

Reggie sighed with relief. He didn’t realize just how tired he really was until Julie pointed it out. How was it that she sometimes knew him better than he knew himself? “Thanks, Jules.”

Julie gave him a smile before leaving to get another load of boxes.

Reggie set the box down in front of the bookshelf and opened it. A quick scan of the contents revealed that it was filled with the few knick-knacks Julie had decided to keep along with some framed photos that had been carefully wrapped. Reggie couldn’t help but smile as he unpacked the pictures, getting a peak at these representations of Julie’s most treasured memories. Of course, they featured her family and friends, and Reggie would expect nothing different from her. He knew that the people in her life meant everything to her. Along with the pictures, there were some figurines that Reggie knew were from her mom. He remembered Julie telling him about them and how much they meant to her. Despite how Reggie had accused Julie of being cold blooded about getting rid of things, it was obvious that she had her own type of sentimentality when it came to what she decided to keep. Like how she would never part with anything given to her by her mom.

But when he saw what was at the bottom of the box, his breath caught in his chest.

It was a small stuffed bear, a deep shade of purple that he knew Julie loved.

And, of course, the reason that he knew that was because he was the one who had given it to her.

He pulled the bear out of the box carefully, reverently. He hadn’t thought about this bear in years. He recalled the box of stuffed animals from Julie’s childhood that she had donated. It hadn’t even occurred to him that this bear would be in that box, but now that he thought about it, that was exactly where he would’ve guessed it would’ve ended up.

But instead, it was here, among Julie’s most treasured memories.

Why would Julie keep it? Julie, who didn’t feel the need to hang on to anything from her childhood or adolescence unless it was from her mom?

“Do you remember when you gave that to me?”

Reggie startled at the sound of Julie’s voice. He hadn’t realized she’d returned.

She set down the stack of boxes she’d brought from the truck and came over to crouch next to where Reggie was sitting on the ground, still holding the bear.

Reggie recovered quickly. “Of course. Of course I remember. But, Julie,” he said, “why do you still have it? You got rid of so much. Why didn’t you get rid of this, too?”

Julie set a hand on Reggie’s knee. “Don’t you know? It’s the best gift anyone’s ever given me.”

Reggie was sure confusion was written all over his face. “What are you talking about? It’s just some stupid little bear I got from the grocery store. We barely even knew each other when I gave it to you.”

“Exactly.”

Reggie stared at her, begging with his eyes for her to elaborate, so she did.

“My senior year of high school was awful until I met you guys. Meeting you helped me in ways you don’t even know. I didn’t expect anything from you guys for my birthday that year because we had just met. How would you even know what I’d like? But you somehow knew exactly what to get me. Something small, something comforting, in my favorite color. I was touched just from that. But then Luke told me about how you bought it with your own money, how you busked at the pier for hours to be able to buy it for me.” Her eyes were shining with unshed tears.

Reggie noticed, and he felt his face heat up again. “He told you that?”

Julie nodded. “Reggie, no one had ever done anything like that for me before. It was so thoughtful, and you put so much effort into it, even though you didn’t have to. Of course it’s my favorite gift. Of course I would keep it.” Her hand tightened on his knee. “And you know what makes it even more special?”

“What?”

She peered into his eyes, a soft smile on her face. “It’s from you.”

Reggie shook his head. “Why would that make it more special?”

Julie chuckled awkwardly. “Oh, you know, only because I had a massive crush on you.”

At first, Reggie wasn’t sure he’d heard her right. He replayed her words over and over in his head, just to make sure she’s actually said them and that he hadn’t made it up. “On me?”

Julie nodded. “And you know what else?”

“What else?” Reggie barely dared to ask.

“I still do,” Julie whispered.

Reggie was floored. He had no idea, and it contradicted everything he thought he knew about his dynamic with Julie, about their friendship and the dynamic of their friend group. “But—you and Luke—?”

“Well, you didn’t seem to be interested, and Luke clearly was. And I thought I liked him the same way he liked me. But it turns out we were both wrong. We really are better off as friends.” She moved her hand from his knee to his hand where he was still holding the bear. “And, Reggie, I love our friendship. Really, I do. But I’ve been getting these signals lately that maybe you like me too? And if I’m reading them wrong, that’s totally okay. That’s on me. But I had to try.” Julie nodded resolutely. “I knew I would regret it if I didn’t try.”

“No, you’re definitely right. About the signals, I mean. I like you to! And I have for a while. Years, even.” Reggie could feel a smile growing. “But, you’re not worried that you’re making the same mistake twice? Dating someone when you’re better off as friends?”

“I know how I feel about you,” Julie said confidently, “and I’ve felt that way for a long time. This is different than what happened with Luke, I’m sure of it.”

Reggie couldn’t help the smile on his face. “Me, too.”

“Then, will you finally be my boyfriend?”

Reggie nodded enthusiastically. “Yes!”

Julie surged forward and captured him in a hug, and Reggie caught her.

That was how Julie’s favorite gift she had ever received became the Reggie’s favorite gift he had ever given.

#julie and the phantoms #jatp #jatp fic #juliexreggie #rulie #julie molina #reggie peters #my post #my writing #fanfic prompts #writing prompts #jmrothwell

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blackandblue13 · 1 year

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Heya!! For the fanfic ask game, K, L , and M?

K: What’s the angstiest idea you’ve ever come up with?

perhaps whatever the shit is going on with reggie in the spidey-reg au. a good portion of that is just him being Anxious, but i think ch13 is a real specific shift in the angst bc the entirety of the previous chapters focus on reggie and how he's doing, but then ch13 focuses on his partners and homies and there's just. none of them know what's truly going on, and the reader doesn't know exactly what's going on either but they know enough to be like "oh honey he's not at home and it doesn't sound like he's coming back" and it's just. they're all Going Through It and they're about to Go Through It even more.

L: How many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting?

it really depends on how long a section of the fic/chapter has existed. like if i write it and then jump to another part or do something not-writing and eventually come back to it, and i might end up rereading it like a million times bc it exists and i'm trying to find inspiration to write more or i'm just too lazy to write more lol. and so anything that connects scenes or ends a section, those are probably proofread/revised once or twice bc i'm like "i need something to end this and i can't think about it properly bc i've been trying to end it for a while, so we're just gonna go with it and not be upset if it kinda sucks in comparison to the rest of stuff"

M: Got any premises on the back burner that you’d care to share?

boggie mafia+arranged marriage au. the henry hoover and roomba nonsense from the rarepair server. carrie/flynn/julie softness. continuing the sunset curve-as-btr au and the road trip au bc i accidentally made an entire universe for that thank you rarepair fic fest.

#pls ignore the fact that i completely forgot about these asks for like a week oops #ask stuff #jmrothwell #writing timez with baneet

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arolou · 2 years

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Chaos prompt 29+Rulie?

thank you so much for the prompt! i hope you like it...it sure is chaotic lmao

29. Sorry isn’t going to bring back the last slice of cheesecake.

(from these chaotic prompts. anyone feel free to send some in!)

tw: swearing & minor injuries

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

“Don’t come crying to me when you guys burn yourselves,” Julie tosses back over her shoulder as she shoves all the leavings from dinner back into the picnic basket. “Because I’m just gonna say I told you so.”

“That’s not being a team player,” Luke says distractedly, punctuating it with a whoop of excitement when his stick finally catches aflame, a quick burst of light that illuminates the manic smile spread across his face. “Everyone has to pitch in, Jules. It’s a band rule.”

Julie rolls her eyes, as much at the comment as the reckless way Luke yanks his makeshift torch out of the campfire and starts waving it around. “Where was that band rule when you guys left me to clean up by myself?” Then, her eyes widening in panic, “Wait, watch out for—!”

But luckily Reggie spins out of the way at the last second, his flaming stick knocking against Luke’s with a muffled crack and a spray of orange sparks. He laughs out loud in delight, lunging toward Luke to do it again. “Did you see that, Julie? They’re like lightsabers!”

Sighing to herself, Julie sinks down onto the bench of the picnic table with the cheesecake pan in her lap, because if she’s going to be expected to clean up their campsite and babysit a bunch of former ghosts while they play with literal fire, then she deserves the last remaining piece, thank you very much.

And maybe a raise. Yeah, definitely a raise, too.

Still, she has to begrudgingly admit that their excitement is endearing, their prancing shadows falling on the trees as they twirl and duck and dodge around each other. It wasn’t too long ago that they were lying on her garage floor, faces streaked with tears and bodies flickering closer and closer to translucent, so to hear their happy giggles float away with the smoke is definitely an improvement.

So she shakes her head in amusement, calling back, “Yeah, I saw it. Just don’t cut any hands off.”

“Don’t encourage him,” Alex says even as he pulls his own weapon from the fire. There are still a few dried leaves clinging to the branch that crackle and rain to the ground as smoldering ashes. He stomps them out immediately, but it does nothing for Julie’s blood pressure. God, she’s never going to be able to relax.

And that’s how she spends the next ten minutes, refereeing the world’s stupidest Star Wars LARP while her hard-won dessert melts in her lap.

It probably would’ve been even longer than ten minutes if Luke didn’t dodge one of Alex’s attacks by running straight into Reggie, the glowing red embers of his stick colliding with Reggie’s palm when he throws his hands up to protect his face. The resulting sizzle of burning skin might be a figment of Julie’s imagination, but Reggie’s howl of pain is very much real, sending a few sluggish birds exploding from the trees and into the night.

“Luke!” Alex cries, finally giving up the game and tossing his stick back into the fire. “Did you just fucking burn him?”

“I didn’t mean to!” Luke practically screeches even as Reggie clutches his injured hand to his chest and rushes toward Julie, whimpering.

“I told you not to—” is as far as Julie gets before Reggie flings his arm forward and smushes his palm down right onto Julie’s cheesecake. She gapes down at the pan for a few seconds, absolutely dumbstruck. That is, until she remembers how to yell.

“Seriously, Reg? The cooler is right there and it’s full of ice!” She gestures not even three feet to her right where the drinks have been all night. “See? I told you this was gonna happen, but you guys didn’t listen!”

“I’m sorry, I—I panicked and it was the closest cold thing I could find,” Reggie whines, audaciously taking the pan with him as he scrambles to throw open the cooler. His body goes limp with relief when his arm is submerged in the frigid water at last, little bits of cake – Julie’s cake – floating to the top. Reggie grimaces. “I really am sorry, Jules.”

“Sorry isn’t going to bring back the last slice of cheesecake,” Julie grumbles, crossing her arms over her chest.

“And I told you so isn’t going to make my hand stop hurting,” Reggie points out, looking up at her with big, pleading eyes like the adorable asshole he is. Despite herself, Julie can’t help but soften. Knowing she’s being played doesn’t make it any easier not to lose.

“You’re an idiot,” she tells him, fondly ruffling his hair into his eyes, anything to make him stop looking at her like that. He preens beneath her touch, triumphant. “Next time you guys wanna play lightsabers, let’s get you those plastic ones from the toy store, okay?”

“Okay!”

“Hey, uh, Reg?” Alex says, suddenly appearing next to them and peering down into the cooler. “Your hand is purple.”

“Oh fuck!” Reggie yelps, yanking his arm from the ice water like he’d forgotten it was in there and frantically shaking his hand out. “It’s—I can’t feel it!”

“I don’t know anything about frostbite,” Luke says seriously, “but you should probably warm that up.” Then he breaks into a grin, like a lightbulb went off in his brain. “Try the fire!”

Reggie takes off like a rocket and Julie groans, dropping her face into her hands. “We’re never going camping ever again, you hear me?” she says to anyone that might be listening. Which is no one, of course, so Julie sighs and races after her bandmates with a desperate shout of “Don’t touch it, you guys!”

Yeah, she’s definitely putting in for that raise. And maybe an entire cheesecake with her name on it.

#jmrothwell #jatp #jatp fic #julie and the phantoms #julie molina #reggie peters #luke patterson #alex mercer #rulie #juliexreggie #chaotic prompts #firefall fic #this kinda ended up being more just JATP band but the core interaction and usage of the prompt quote is rulie #so i hope that's okay #what can i say...chaos is best indulged in with all three of those himbos lbr

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bananakarenina · 1 year

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For the fanfic ask!

our hearts can speak our selves unseen + 3,4,5, and 6

oooooooohhhhhh thank you for asking about this one!!! i'm excited to talk about it bc it's my first collab with @where-you-go and it was unbelievable amounts of fun to write. all of these answers are from my POV obviously; if jay has something to say i'm sure she'll say it XD

our hearts can speak ourselves unseen

3: What’s your favorite line of narration?

okay this was hard! it's always hard for me, i love the things i write (and the things that jay writes, lol) so much that it's difficult to choose. but i will try.

from chapter 3--i love this one because of "candle-flame green" honestly, it's so romantic and intense

Luke looked up at him, hoping Reg would approve of his first attempt at directness—and the breath caught in his chest. Reggie was staring right at him with the most serious look Luke had ever seen, eyes candle-flame green and just as heated.

from chapter 5 and i'm pretty sure this one was all jay because the inner monologue is hilarious, she's so good at that. i reread "damn, alex, good for you" just now and still laughed

Alex was standing in the middle of his living room glaring right back at Luke, which would have been more effective if he hadn’t looked so thoroughly ravished. His hair was sticking up at odd angles, his t-shirt was crumpled and askew, and he’d clearly only buttoned his jeans and forgotten the zipper—not that Luke was looking at that particular part of his friend’s anatomy no matter how, um, prominent it was right now.

Luke quickly averted his eyes only to find Alex’s—date? hookup? friend?—hot guy lounging on the couch, watching Luke with playful eyes and an amused smirk. Clearly, he was in less of a rush than Alex, because he hadn’t bothered to do more than tug his jeans up over his hips, and was still lying there shirtless, which—

Damn, Alex, good for you.

also from chapter 5 (these are all from luke chapters which is interesting but also this part has him drawing from reggie's advice and reggie's everything, which i love):

For a second, his mind grasped wildly for the right turn of phrase that he could use to tell Julie just how he was feeling about her, about Reggie—like every puzzle piece in his life had just fallen perfectly into place, all the circuits closing and sending a shower of sparks running through his every nerve ending, lighting up his heart like a million fireworks all going off at once.

And then, cutting through the noise of all his thoughts about imagery and poetry and songs he could write, he heard Reggie’s voice: not everything needs to be a metaphor, Luke.

He could see Reggie’s green eyes, bright and burning in the fading light of evening as he said I want to kiss you.

He wanted to kiss her so badly his chest ached with it.

Sometimes it’s that simple.

4: What’s your favorite line of dialogue?

this was incredibly difficult; it's always difficult for me to pick favorite dialogue mostly because that's what i'm trained in so i tend to love what i write, and also the dialogue in this whole fic is fire, like seriously, it's all so good. plus the texting!

i reread the whole damn thing and i still do love the entirety of chapter 2 for its dialogue--the back and forth between reggie & luke was something i had written before we officially started the collab, and the part involving reggie jackson was so silly but made me laugh so it stayed hahaha

also from chapter 2. i specifically love this because it says so much with so little. reggie is trying so hard to be Okay with luke having a crush who's not him, and luke turns it right around on him so casually. you're not allowed to meet her because she'll fall for you so fast, reg, and reg is so poleaxed by that! and it turns out luke was right hahahahahaha

“Bye! Say hi to your friend from work,” Reggie said, and threw Luke a wink.

“No way, man. You’re not allowed to meet her; I wouldn’t stand a chance.”

this is from chapter 5 and it is another jay special, i'm pretty sure. luke is so earnest about 'game respects game' and of course alex is like 'are you kidding'

Luke also had to laugh at that—it was pretty funny, after all, even if he’d never said it. “That sounds like something Reggie would say, that dork. He loves Dolly Parton, which I mean, she’s a pretty rad musician, even if it’s not really my personal style. Game respects game, you know.”

“Oh my god, Luke, your game is nowhere near Dolly Parton’s level of game, you moron,” Alex groaned, but Luke ignored him.

and i would be remiss if i didn't include a text portion; jay and i went back and forth about the formatting so many times to make sure it was readable (which is not going to translate directly here) and then trying to make text sound like texting and not like spoken dialogue--it's a similar thing to write but also completely different, you know? and people have different styles of texting. julie uses capital letters and decent enough grammar, while reggie uses emojis and lowercase all the time and interrupts himself more often with line breaks.

one of my favorite text chains is when luke (and alex and willie) are discovering the backlogged texts. i would copy/paste the entire thing here but this is already so long LMAO. but i love this section because again i love the layers here.

i remember going off of the thought that the recordings we have of the julie & the phantoms soundtrack are just Not It when it comes to bringing out the bassline which i feel is a huge oversight (stand tall especially stands out, like dude wtf who mixed that shit okay i'm turning into my husband help) and so i asked my audio engineer husband about the challenges of recording/mixing a bassline, hahaha. so i love this section because of the character layers and also author layers LOL

AND THEN the last part with the asterisk. that asterisk is extremely very purposeful. "i think i might be" is reggie almost confessing that he's in love at that moment and he swerves at the very last second because holy shit what is he doing he's known her for like a week

he covers but it's very very close lol

....okay clearly this section might be my real favorite, i just wrote a 5-paragraph essay about it:

/@ julie_woken_up: And you not being able to write it

@ julie_woken_up: It’s not that you’re a bad writer at all

@ julie_woken_up: Hm

@ julie_woken_up: It’s like—recording a bass line, right?

go on :eyes emoji:

@ julie_woken_up: lol how did I know you’d respond to a music metaphor

@ julie_woken_up: Okay

@ julie_woken_up: So recording a bass line is hard, right

@ julie_woken_up: Or...mixing one, I guess

@ julie_woken_up: Because the melody takes center stage

@ julie_woken_up: And the drums pierce through

@ julie_woken_up: But like

@ julie_woken_up: With the bassline

@ julie_woken_up: Lower pitches

@ julie_woken_up: You have to make sure you’re hearing it correctly

@ julie_woken_up: Some engineers and producers get lazy

@ julie_woken_up: They don’t pay attention

@ julie_woken_up: They’re too focused on the flashy stuff

@ julie_woken_up: But with bass

@ julie_woken_up: If the bass is off the whole song is off

@ julie_woken_up: So you have to get the mix just right

@ julie_woken_up: I think you’re the kind of person who is trying to get the mix just right

I think I might be*

you might be

too perfect to be real

5: What part was hardest to write?

hilariously enough, i think it was writing the resolution--like we knew julie and luke and reggie would end up together as a triad but we were like "wait, oh shit, of course julie would want an explanation, how do we make what reggie did worth forgiving?"

we touched on it a little bit with willie getting riled up about it in the previous chapter (your friend catfished my friend!) but luke (and alex, more importantly) were like no, that's not reggie, we think we know what happened but there has to be some explanation

and then we were like oh fuck we have to write that explanation

congratulationsyouplayedyourself.gif

in the end reggie explained and said there was no excuse and that he was sorry--the most direct route, which is what he was preaching the entire time hahaha

6: What makes this fic special or different from all your other fics?

well, it was my first true collaboration, with another writer having Opinions and entire Scenes planned out, so learning both each other's writing styles/editing tendencies/comfort zones/favored phrases was part of writing as much as the actual writing was. like i did not have total control over this fic, you know? that's definitely a learning experience. a great one, because jay is amazing, but certainly something to get used to.

for example, just planning the fic itself, starting the fic was the first decision we had to make. the fic was the two of us discovering we had some overlap in terms of AU ideas--ie a cyrano retelling, though mine was canon-compliant or at least canon adjacent with ghosts still in play, and jay's was the alive!20s!AU you see in the finished fic. hers was way more fleshed out than mine so we started there and retooled my scenes to fit the universe, haha

WHEW okay that....was a lot drink some water kids

ask me things!

#jesus i didn't even go into the songs #i love the songs especially the country one we wrote for reggie #i was like holy shit this slaps #thank you for letting me go on and on about this #i had such a great time writing it and it was fun to look back #myfic #our hearts can speak ourselves unseen #ourfic #ask games #jmrothwell

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joyful-soul-collector · 1 year

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🍄💡?

🍄how do you get yourself in the mood to write?

I think "I should write" and then I spend somewhere between half an hour and several days repeating that in my head until eventually I'm able to get myself to do it. Executive Dysfunction sucks

💡what inspires your fic ideas?

Any number of things tbh! Trauma is a big one tbh, I go "man this thing that happened to me really sucked. Imma go inflict it on Every Fictional Character I've Ever Seen". My own general life experiences too of course, not just the bad ones. Sometimes other fics or ideas people post about on tumblr inspire me too. Usually something just Happens to me one day and either I go "what if that happened to my blorbos", or it makes me thing of another thing which makes me thing of another thing which makes me thing of another thing which makes me thing of another thing and we just follow that thought trail awhile until I suddenly come across a thought that could apply to my blorbos.

TLDR: it's mostly random and could be anything at all

#marko answers #jmrothwell #ask game

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the-cass-meow · 2 years

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caramel macchiato

caramel macchiato— do you sleep with stuffed animals? if so, do you have a favorite?

oh you know it! lol I can't have too many in bed since I share with my husband (and my cat lmao) but I usually have squishmallows with me. Right now I have my Wendy the frog spring squishmallow:

Thank you so much for the ask, Josie! 💖

Send me Cafe Asks!

#ask games #cafe asks #answered #jmrothwell #my lovely mutuals #squishmallow #wendy the frog #wendy squishmallow #frog squishmallow

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innytoes · 2 years

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WIP Challenge Ask Game

Tagged by @jmrothwell!

Rules: “Post the names of all the files in your WIP folder regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them and then post a little snippet of it or tell them something about it! And then tag as many people as you have wips. I have deemed that this isn’t just for writing either. Sketch titles? Comics? DND campaigns? If you have an unfinished project, it counts!!”

I don’t actually have that many WIPs going because dear god I can’t finish the ones I have, so...

1) Foster Care AU 2) Darkest Timeline envelope day 3) outsider pov the ot3 is super married

There’s also the universes I play around in that I’m not actually ever going to write a full fic for aka:

4) The Reggie Is The One Who Survived AU 5) The Caleb/Ray/Reggie ABO AU 6) Quiet AU aka the post apocalypse monster au

tagging: @astorytotellyourfriends, @daintyduck99, @hawkguyhasstarbucks, @jatp-spinsb, @bostonbakeddeans and @darkfinch

#ask game #thanks for the tag jmrothwell #I am also tagging anyone who sees this and wants to do it #there's also a bunch of unanswered prompt fics in my inbox don't ask about those I will cry #I will get back to them but it's been a shit few weeks #yes for those who know that is still what protege is titled i rarely change a word doc title once I start #as well as my current sketchbook but there's nothing to say about that except 'wow that's a lot of badly drawn pictures of reggie #and also long furbies'#ask meme #I am writing a thing

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ginervacade · 3 months

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RULES: Post the last sentence you wrote (fanfic / original / anything) and tag as many people as there are words in the sentence.

Tagged by: @jmrothwell (Thanks babe)

Tim opted to ignore Conner and capture her lips instead, earning a collective grumble from the rest of the table and an obnoxious laugh from Superboy.

Yeah, I can’t tag as many people as the words in that sentence but I will tag ( no pressure of course my loves) :

@kels-n @phantomwriter95 @thebusytypewriter

#tag game #thanks for the tag!#writer games #writing stuff #fanfic writers #Tim Drake #conner kent #( and an oc that Kelsey knows but the rest of y’all never will)

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1mnobodywhoareyou · 2 months

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the misadventures of peony

aka the fic that shouldn't exist (tm) it's done! this cracky "little" "should have been hammered out in one night" fic is done! thank you to @narcissusbrokenmirror for the idea and granting me coparenting rights. i hope I did peony right by you! tagging @legolasghosty @innytoes and @jmrothwell with NO pressure whatsoever to read! Y'all were my ask box cheerleaders (thank you) so if you were waiting to see this, here ya go!

on ao3 (2584 words), Rated G. CW for pet snakes and all that entails!

“No, you guys. We don’t have enough room. We don’t have enough time. We can’t get a dog!” Luke looks between all four of his friends and roommates, each sporting their best puppy dog faces, and he sighs before waving them off and turning away, “And put those away. It’s not fair.”

“But Luke! We’ll take care of it! We promise!” Reggie pleads, clasping his hands in front of him to really sell his point.

“Dude, you forget that I TRIED THAT! For years. And literally never once actually followed through on it. We aren’t home enough.”

Alex decides it’s his turn to try, “But you were a kid! We’re all adults!”

He’s met with a chorus of “yeah”s from the group and Luke rolls his eyes.

“No.”

Everyone huffs in frustration as they resign themselves to his veto vote. They’d agreed that decisions like this needed to be unanimous but they don’t have to be happy about the results.

“But what if... what if it wasn't a dog?” Willie asked.

“What do you mean?”

"What about... a bunny?"

Luke rolls his eyes, "You know just because it lives in a cage doesn't mean it's less work than a dog, right? No.”

"So that's a no on a hamster too?" Reggie chimes in

“Yes Reg, that's a no on the hamster too.”

“Damn.”

“What about... a bird? They’re chill,” Willie tries again.

“We're not getting a fucking bird, Willie.”

“A lizard? Oh! One of those bearded dragons! Those are cool.”

Luke glares at them, “No dragons.”

Willie's face falls into a mock pout. "It doesn't even breathe fire!" they exclaim pitifully.

This time, Alex joins Luke in glaring at Willie. “Really?” he chastises them.

Willie offers an unabashed shrug in response.

"What's the lowest maintenance pet we can think of?" Reggie asks in an exaggerated whisper.

Julie huffs, "A goldfish."

“No water!” Luke cries.

“Why not?” Julie counters harshly, hands on her hips. They’re all a little bit frustrated with how stubborn Luke is being and it’s unfortunately starting to break through.

“We have way too many electronics for water to be a good idea. We do NOT need another Reggie fixing his amp in the rain situation.”

“Dude, it's contained in a TANK,” Willie explains.

“You are seriously no fun,” Reggie quips as he fiddles with his sleeves.

Willie's eyes widen as he comes up with a new idea.

Luke sighs before Willie even opens his mouth. "No."

WIllie's face falls into another pout. "You don't even know what I was going to say!"

“I don't need to. No.”

“You only need to feed snakes like once a week. And there's no water,” he pauses to consider his words before continuing. “Well, almost no water. And they're PRETTY!”

Luke’s face pinches in confusion, "What?!"

"A ssssssnake. We should get a snake."

"A snake? Seriously?"

"Yeah, people have them as pets all the time. And they're super chill and low maintenance. Look!" Willie pulls out their phone and starts typing. He stops and turns his phone around for Luke. “See?”

Julie crowds in behind Luke and coos over the picture on the top of the screen.

After giving Luke a moment to read, she plucks Willie's phone out of his hand. Julie walks around to Alex and Reggie showing it to them.

Reggie's jaw drops and a contemplative look crosses Alex's face.

"Willie has a point, you know," Alex says after a moment.

"How do you mean?"

"We could have a super cool, super fun pet. It's low maintenance enough that we could ask Carlos to feed it like once a week when we're away. We don't need to take it out for walks. Just... clean the tank every once in a while."

Luke groans, "Are you serious? Can we at least sleep on the idea of it before we start talking about it?"

Reggie grins, "So you're saying we can talk about it?"

Luke offers a resigned sigh, “Tomorrow.”

That earns Luke whooping cheers from everyone else. He can't help the small quirk of his lips at their excitement but quickly returns his face to its solemn expression before they can notice.

“Can we get back to rehearsal now?” he asks once the others have started to calm down.

“Sir! Yes, sir!” Reggie salutes. He’s met with an eye roll from Luke and laughter from the others but they quickly find their positions, picking back up where they’d left off before being derailed by the pet talk.

—

They’d agreed, some with more resistance than others, that this was for the best. Reggie and Julie didn’t need to know EVERYTHING and it was fine.

Except that when Willie got home with that week’s meal for Peony, he was surprised to find both Reggie and Julie hanging out with her.

Reggie notices Willie’s entrance and lights up. He eyes the package in Willie’s hands and nudges Julie. She turns and directs a smile Willie’s way.

“Whatchu got there?” she asks, pointing at the box.

“Uh, nothing?” They reply awkwardly as he tries to shield it from them.

“Uh huh, convincing,” Reggie says with a grin. He takes a few steps toward Willie, who moves backwards each time Reggie gets closer.

Julie looks between the guys and lets a mischievous grin take over her own face. “Is it something we can’t see?” she asks carefully.

“No?” Willie answers, cursing himself for apparently completely losing the ability to lie at some point in the last five minutes. He puts the box behind his back for good measure.

Julie joins Reggie’s mission to solve the mystery of the box. She swoops behind Willie to grab it from their hands.

Willie sighs in resignation as he watches her peel back the lid.

Julie squeals in excitement as she holds the box out to Reggie. “Look at it! It’s so cuuuute!”

Reggie joins her and lets out a squeal of his own.

They fawn over the mouse for a moment before turning to look up at Willie.

“How’d you convince Luke?” Julie asks.

“Uhhhhh, I didn’t?” he tries and Julie narrows her eyes at him but otherwise accepts their answer. Apparently she has better things to do than interrogate them. She returns her attention to the mouse.

Willie runs a hand down his face as he muffles a sigh. They know this is going to end poorly. He lets Reggie and Julie take their time cooing over the small animal while he tries to figure out how to get them back out of the house so he can feed Peony.

They send a quick text off to Alex and Luke who promptly respond with a plan. A few moments later, Reggie’s phone rings and he’s ushering Julie out of the house on whatever errand Luke had sent them on.

—

They somehow manage to make it a few more weeks without any questions from Reggie and Julie. The half-lie that Luke didn’t let the mice stay seemed to do most of the heavy lifting for them and casual deflection worked for the rest. Until it didn’t.

—

Julie and Reggie burst through the door with a very resistant Carlos in tow.

“I told you I don’t want to!” he exclaims as he struggles against them.

“Just come meet her!” Julie insists as she gives another tug of his wrist.

“She’s a sweetheart,” Reggie adds, “you’ll love her.”

“Just give her a chance!” Julie pleads. She turns her most powerful puppy dog eyes on Carlos. He rolls his eyes back at her. She sighs. Right, sibling immunity. She nudges Reggie who immediately takes the hint.

He widens his eyes with his most pathetic expression and it’s Carlos’ turn to sigh, “You can show her to me. But I’m staying back here.”

“Yes!” Julie cheers. She turns toward the room, confused by the sight she’s met with. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing,” Willie says from their position in front of Peony’s enclosure. They’re flanked on either side by Alex and Luke, blocking the others from being able to see their pet snake.

Reggie gasps as panic overtakes him, “Is she… Is she okay?!”

“She’s fine,” Alex sighs.

“You weren’t supposed to be home yet,” Luke adds, directing a quick look over his shoulder.

“What’s… why are you blocking her?” Reggie asks. He walks toward them and the trio tighten up their formation.

Julie makes her way around Reggie and stands in front of the others. “Move, please,” she says, less of a question than it probably could be.

“No, I don’t think I will,” Alex replies casually, crossing his arms over his chest for good measure.

“I assure you, you do not want to see what’s behind us,” Willie adds, silently pleading with his eyes for her to drop it.

Luke directs his own puppy dog look her way and she rolls her eyes. “That doesn’t work on me, remember?”

Julie’s about to just push through them when Carlos speaks up from his spot by the door, “They don’t know how you feed it yet, do they?”

Everyone’s eyes widen at once and Carlos would laugh at the sight if he wasn’t halfway terrified. Julie and Reggie both round on him. Then look back at the guys. And then back at Carlos.

“Show me,” Julie insists, pushing between Luke and Willie. Her hand immediately covers her mouth in horror. Reggie’s at her side in an instant and his own jaw drops.

“You… I…” Reggie stammers. His eyes turn glassy.

Reggie turns to Julie and the tears in his eyes seemingly grant hers permission to fall.

“Oh, that poor little guy,” she cries feebly.

Alex, Luke, and Willie exchange concerned looks. Alex wraps Julie up into his arms while Luke does the same for Reggie. They hold the pair as they let out their cries of distress.

“I told you this would happen,” Willie huffs at them, though any annoyance in their voice is belied by the fond look on their face. They can’t really fault Alex and Luke for wanting to delay this moment for as long as possible.

Carlos coughs out a bitter laugh, “Why do you think I didn’t want to do this?”

Julie’s lip wobbles as she turns to him. She doesn’t leave Alex’s arms but he loosens them slightly so that she can move. “I… I just thought maybe you were just weirded out by snakes.”

Carlos rolls his eyes. “I told you I was never coming here again after you got it-”

“Her!” Reggie corrects forcefully through his own residual tears. He pushes himself away from Luke, wiping at his face.

Julie offers him her hand and he grabs it immediately.

Carlos corrects himself with another eyeroll, “Her. You thought I’d refuse to be here if I was just ‘weirded out’ by snakes?” Carlos accentuates the words with finger quotes.

“She’s harmless!” Julie cries.

“Well, mostly,” Reggie murmurs woefully. “If you’re not small and adorable.”

“I’m small and adorable!” Julie pouts.

Reggie squeezes her hand in silent comfort. “And squeaky,” he adds. “You’re not squeaky.”

Julie grins at that. “Not most of the time, anyway.”

“Anyway,” Carlos interjects from his position by the door. “I came, I saw, I’m leaving. You can find someone else to help with your weird pet. It won’t be me.”

The five of them watch him leave in stunned silence before Willie realizes that he’d probably not driven himself there. They run after him, stopping to grab the keys and slip on their shoes on the way.

Willie just manages to get his second shoe on when Carlos pops his head back in the door.

“Yes, I’ll drive you home,” Willie tells him preemptively.

“Thanks.” Carlos waves back at the others, “Bye! Good luck with…” he gestures toward Julie and Reggie, “that.”

He disappears out the door again and Willie follows him. “Try not to inflict any more trauma on them!” they call out as they shut the door.

“Is it… is she… done?” Julie asks with a small voice.

Luke hazards a look into Peony’s enclosure. “Well, as done as she can be for now,” he tells her.

“Do they have to be,” Reggie shudders and Luke wraps an arm around his shoulders, “alive?”

“We tried,” Alex explains slowly, “but unfortunately she’s a bit picky. We didn’t want you to have to see it.”

“So when Willie had that…” Julie trails off.

Luke turns to her with a sad look in his eyes, “Yeah, Peony snack.”

Julie takes a deep breath and leans her head back, holding back a fresh set of tears. She crawls into Alex’s sweater as best she can. He groans but doesn’t otherwise fight her. He even tries to give her some extra space. It’s an emergency situation and if anyone’s going to be granted the right to stretch it out, it’s Julie. He almost goes as far as offering to take it off for her but stops when she glares at him.

After another deep breath, Julie speaks up again, “Okay, Peony snack. I guess now we know.”

“And you can tell us when it’s time to feed her and we’ll just make sure we’re somewhere else,” Reggie adds. He shudders, “Anywhere else.”

“But now we have to figure out what to do if we can’t rely on Carlos,” Luke says. “She won’t last our full tour without food.”

“I’m sure there’s somebody who can help. And if not, I guess we’ll just have to hire someone,” Alex responds with a sigh. They don’t yet make enough money to spend on too much frivolity and none of them will be very excited to lose what little they do have to a pet sitter. Even if it’s only once a week.

“We have time,” Julie assures them. They still have a few months until their next tour kicks off.

“Guess Luke had a point,” Reggie pouts. He quickly raises a finger and sticks it in Luke’s face. “Not a word!”

Luke mimes zipping his mouth closed but can’t mask the beaming look on his face. It intensifies with Julie’s giggle.

“Who knew Carlos was scared of snakes?” she wonders aloud. Julie grins as she shakes her head in amusement, “You think you know a person.”

—

Luke sighs as he takes in their wall of tanks and enclosures, each housing a different pet that he’d somehow been talked into. “You say no to one dog,” he mutters under his breath. “How did this even happen?” he wonders aloud, slightly louder than before and Julie manages to hear him and laughs as she walks over to stand beside him.

“Peony loves her friends. And now she’s not lonely when we’re gone,” she tells him with a grin.

“She’s a freaking snake,” Luke mumbles. “How lonely can she get?”

Julie chuckles and pats him on the shoulder before handing him his guitar, “Well, think of it this way: now you have a built-in audience for rehearsals.”

Luke groans as he slips the guitar strap over his head, “Fine.”

“Could have just said yes to the dog!” Alex chimes in from his spot behind his drumkit and Luke glares at him. “But I do love Crush and Squirt, so thanks for that,” he grins at Luke and is met with another harsh glare.

“No more!” Luke insists as he settles in behind his microphone and nods his head toward Julie and Reggie to get themselves situated which they quickly do.

“Yes, Dad!” Reggie giggles as he nods toward Alex who counts them in.

#jatp #julie and the phantoms #luke patterson #reggie peters #julie molina #alex mercer #willie nolastname #carlos molina #cw snakes #fanfic #nobodys fics

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bbreaddog · 3 months

Note

Also POV because that one is always fun!

Okay so this is an Alex POV from a Bobby POV wip I have yet to share… 👀

I think it’ll be more fun to let you guess what’s happening 😌 Enjoy!

“Hey.”

“Jesus, Alex!”

“Sorry,” he says, helping Bobby up from where he was hunched over his bag. “Didn’t mean to scare you like that.”

“Then why’d you sneak up on me?”

Alex opens his mouth, only to come up blank. “I… don’t have an answer to that. Uh, anyway,” he chuckles, and quickly files through his thoughts on how he should best approach this.

Bobby had been quiet today. Well, Bobby is quiet usually, but something is off. Alex is pretty sure he’s not the only one who noticed Bobby’s thousand-yard stares and chewed off fingernails, if the way Reggie shot him an encouraging double thumbs up across the room before is anything to go by.

Honestly, he’s a little surprised that Luke didn’t even notice; Bobby has fumbled more times today than in all their rehearsals this past year combined.

Bobby’s looking at him expectantly now, and there’s a hint of something like frustration, which—while probably warranted given the amount of times Bobby has caught him staring today—is not exactly helpful.

Alex is probably taking too long of a pause right now.

He should just say something, anything.

“I just wanted to say hi?”

Seriously?

Bobby stares. “Okay…” he says slowly. He shrugs. “Hi, then.”

“Uh, hi,” Alex replies dumbly. “That’s not actually what I wanted.”

“Go figure,” Bobby mumbles.

Was that an eye roll? Wait, is Bobby glancing at the door? Is he thinking about making an escape from Alex? Yeah, ha, this is not going well. He just wanted to check in on his friend, who probably thinks he’s being annoying right now.

Bobby sighs and panic catches just above Alex’s larynx.

“I just noticed–” he starts. “Well, like– you seem– I-I mean, like–”

He’s supposed to be cool, calm, and collected, or whatever. This is very much not that. He shuts his eyes and exhales sharply. Maybe he should just straight up ask.

“You okay, man?”

“Uh,” Bobby pauses. “Y-yeah,” he says, clearly lying.

Okay, so maybe straight up asking wasn’t the right way to go, but Alex is trying to be the less anxious one of the two of them right now.

Alex could take his word for it and leave it there if he was a worse friend. But he knows he won’t stop thinking about it until he knows Bobby is actually fine.

“You sure?”

Bobby stays silent. That doesn’t make Alex feel any better.

“It’s just…” Alex hesitates. How should he say this in a way that won’t spook Bobby? Like he’s a cat, his brain helpfully supplies. Alex tries very hard not to snort. Pull it together, he tells himself. Bobby needs a friend right now.

“You’re a lot quieter than usual today,” is what Alex cautiously lands on.

Something flickers behind Bobby’s eyes and, before Alex can parse it, clears his throat.

“It’s nothing,” he says, not meeting Alex’s eye. “I mean, I’m not even sure if I– or, if it’s anything worth, like, sharing at the moment…” he trails off, looking somewhere behind Alex.

Okay. So that’s something. Bobby has something on his mind that’s he’s… afraid?—or, at least, not ready—to share it, whatever it is.

Alex watches him carefully; wants to tell him that whatever he has to say is always worth sharing, but Bobby’s still looking over Alex’s shoulder and his eyebrows are starting to pinch together, and Alex has to sigh.

“They’re doing something stupid,” he says flatly, “aren’t they?”

Bobby gives him a look, and that’s all he needs before he’s turning around to stop Luke and Reggie from putting each other in hospital.

Bobby will just have to wait.

Bonus:

“B-b-but we were doing it in slo-mo! It wouldn’t hurt the stands–!”

“It’s expensive equipment, Reg! And you guys could seriously hurt yourselves–”

“Aw, c’mon, Alex. It’s not like we were smashing them at full force–”

“Luke, I swear–”

No excuses writing ask meme

#jatp #julie and the phantoms #jatp fic #alex mercer #bobby shaw #luke patterson #reggie peters #ask #jmrothwell #mine #i write things #No excuses writing ask meme #ask meme #ygstl fic

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