Chapter Text
Julie finishes talking, glancing at the time instead. 11:11.
Make a wish, she thinks to herself, because maybe she’s too old to believe in wishes coming true, but that doesn’t stop her from making them anyway.
(She wishes, pointlessly and stupidly, that the boys were here. It’s a dumb thought, because they’re on their way, but… they’re her family. She wants them here.)
“Alright,” she says around another yawn. “I really do have to go. I’ll catch up with you tomorrow, okay?”
The boys all say goodnight in a rough chorus, sounding oddly gleeful. It isn’t, however, the weirdest thing Julie has experienced from them, so she just shakes her head with a sigh. When she hangs up on the call, it’s with a heavy heart but the knowledge that it won’t be long until she sees the boys.
Until she finally meets them.
Less than a minute later sees Julie getting in the bed under the covers, and she’s closed her eyes, trying to sleep, when someone honks outside. Cursing the traffic, Julie burrows further under the covers, secure in the knowledge that the car will move on shortly.
There’s another honk.
Julie, carefully, doesn’t scream, but she does get out of bed and pad over to the window, lifting the curtain to look outside and-
“Is that?”
-it’s Alex’s van.
It’s Alex’s van!
Suddenly, Julie is running, barefoot, and flinging the door open and running into the freezing night air. She doesn’t think how impossible it is, how dumb it is to be doing this. Instead, she just flings herself at the boys, who are almost falling out of the van in their haste to get to her.
She’s laughing or maybe she’s crying, and someone’s shouting something and someone’s laughing, and they’re hugging. They’re hugging and they’re all here and they’re home.
They’re home.
Julie pulls back slightly, going just far enough to see the faces of her bandmates and- and this is the first time they’re meeting. The first time they’re meeting in person. It’s such a silly thought, but it’s one that can’t be escaped because- because they look different to her.
They look real. The streetlight shadows features and probably washes them out, but now Julie can tell exactly how tall they are compared to her and how Reggie crinkles his nose when he smiles and Alex’s smile is actually somewhat lopsided and Luke’s laugh lines deepen when he smiles.
“Hey,” Julie says, unable to stop herself from grinning. “Welcome home.”
She’s not the only one with tears in her eyes, and she still can’t quite believe they’re here. It feels a bit like a fever dream and yet—it makes sense.
(She knows that they were always going to end up here—the four of them meeting up in person. However, there had been a part of her that also never really thought it possible. Four musicians from different states, all meeting together at last after a road trip to connect them all. It sounds like something out of a story, and it is—it’s their story.)
The van’s parked and the engine is off, so Julie steps further back. “C’mon,” she says, “we can go inside and be warm.”
Turning, she spies her father standing at the door, smiling. “I don’t know if there’s enough space in your room, mija. I’m thinking you can all squish into the studio in relative comfort, however?”
“Ah, probably.” Julie rubs her eyes. She hadn’t really thought about the logistics, and is glad that someone is.
Ray presses a kiss against her forehead, and hands her a few blankets. “Welcome home, mijos. I’ll make sure to prepare breakfast for all of you in the morning. You can meet Carlos, then. He’s looking forward to meeting all of you.”
(Julie knows that the boys don’t have good families necessary, and she loves that Ray has welcome them easily into his home, that he cares. She has a great father, and she wants the boys to know that this is something they could have, too, if they wished it.)
“Thanks,” Julie says, and Ray smiles at her, smiles at all of them, before shutting the door. Turning back to the boys, Julie foists some of the blankets onto them, before taking one for herself to drape around her shoulders like a cape. “Entry to the studio is this way. There’s a blow-up mattress, technically, but the couch is a fold-out bed and I figured we can probably just squish.”
“We’ve gotten used to close quarters on this trip,” Reggie says grinning, though his energy is lower than what Julie has come to expect. Then again, it is late. “We can do squished.”
“I still can’t really believe that we’re here,” Luke says, the words barely more than a whisper. Julie, where she’s closing the studio doors, hides a smile of own here. “Like, we’re here here!”
“As opposed to not-here here?” Alex replies, voice full of judgement. His voice softens, however, as he continues, “But you’re right. It’s hard to believe.”
The boys have managed to get the fold-out bed pulled out and have sorted the blankets between themselves. Julie points in the direction off the added bathroom. “Toilet and shower through there if you want,” she says. Then, because it needs to be said, she says, “I can’t believe you’re really here.”
“You wouldn’t believe what it took for us to get here,” Reggie says, voice half-laughter.
Julie grins, even as she tucks herself onto the fold-out bed, the boys shifting to make space. “You’ll have to tell me all about it.” She yawns. “But tomorrow, I think. If you tell me anything tonight, I’m liable to forget it.”
“Mm, well, I’ll tell you something you won’t forget,” Luke says, rolling over, words partially muffled by Julie’s hair.
Maybe it should feel weird. It feels normal, though. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. I love you.” She senses, more than feels, him press a kiss against her head.
Smiling, Julie reaches back, and pets his face, because it’s the easiest thing to reach. “I love you as well,” she says. “And you, Reg, an’ you Alex.” She reaches for them in turn too, squeezing their hands.
As if it’s inevitable, they squeeze back. “Love you all,” Reggie sleepily murmurs. “Forever and ever.”
“Forever and ever,” Alex agrees, “now shut the fuck up and go to sleep.”
And Julie does fall asleep, laughter ringing in her ears and a smile on her face.
Her boys are home.
