Chapter Text
Julie rests her head against her knees and closes her eyes, losing herself in the warm sun and the cool breeze and the sound of the waves and the absolute burning path Luke’s hands are making over her skin, even with the cool lotion between them.
And when his pinky finger hooks gently underneath the strap of her bikini top, her heart stutters itself into a new tempo and Julie’s absolutely positive that wearing this bathing suit was the right decision.
Because it’s not that Luke has never looked at her the way he did when she slid the cover up over her head.
It’s that he has. So many times. And it makes a wave of affection pass through her chest whenever he does it, when she sings, when they write together, when they’re on wash and dry duty after dinner, when he forgot to set his alarm and she’d slip into the studio to wake him up for school, sleep making his gaze way more honest than he probably thought.
It’s because he looks at her in a bikini the exact same way he does all the time.
Somehow in the middle of this very public beach, right in front of their friends they’ve created this tiny bubble where only they exist, his fingertips tracing the length of her spine, his breath ghosting gently over her skin.
It sounds a little ragged, like maybe he’s as affected by this as she is. Then his hand slides over her hip, pressing gently into her side and she flinches away, even though she really, really doesn’t want to.
“You ticklish?” he rasps.
“Little bit,” she admits softly and then...nothing. He doesn’t press further, doesn’t dig his fingers into her waist and a little bit of her is disappointed that he doesn’t because she knows how easy it would be to just twist around in his arms and allow him to win a tickle fight because she’s pretty sure she’d also be winning. But he doesn’t. Instead, he just hands her the bottle of sunscreen so she can finish up and very deliberately doesn’t look at her while she does, even though she wants him to look at her. Very much.
And then something clicks into place, two things actually, one in her head, the other in her heart.
She’s in love with him and, maybe, probably, she’s pretty sure, he’s in love with her, but he’s never, ever going to do anything about it unless he knows she wants him to.
Because that’s who Luke is.
And she loves him even more for it.
“There,” she says finally, and dumps the sunscreen back in her bag and digs around for her journal. “Now can we write?”
There are a few half finished poems and snippets of lyrics she’s wanted to show him for the last few weeks, but they've been so busy it’s been impossible to get any time alone for one of their writing sessions, the kind where the rest of the world slips away from them and they don’t realize any time has passed until her dad comes to the studio calling them in for dinner. And she’s feeling brave, like maybe she’ll show him that one about love stories and friends playing pretend.
“Actually, there’s, uh,” he says and then hesitates, his hand coming up to rub at the back of his head, “there’s something I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Oh,” she says, pursuing her lips, trying desperately not to smile because it’ll be too wide and too bright. Maybe he’s beating her to it, maybe she won’t need to confess in thinly disguised metaphors and a few other lyrics that aren’t disguised at all. Honestly, it’s not like she was trying that hard to hide anything when she wrote it.
“Can we, uh, can we take a walk?”
Her brow furrows at the question and she tries to tamp down the little voice inside of her that’s singing gleefully that this is it, he’s going to...well, she doesn’t know yet, but when he holds out his hand, she takes it, letting him help lift her to her feet and lead her away from the others (yes, she can hear them cackling, but she’s ignoring that) down the beach.
He doesn’t drop her hand and that’s new. They’ve never done this before and it feels deliberate and sweet and when she twines her fingers through his he squeezes back gently and a shiver runs through her from head to toe.
They wander down toward the water before he picks a direction and tugs her that way.
The beach still isn’t crowded, but there are some people wandering by, a few joggers passing them in both directions, some families with kids starting to set up their stuff, but most of it is drowned out by the soft churn of the waves and the breeze.
“You wanted to talk to me about something,” she says, leaning into his arm a little and his grip on her hand tightens when the warm skin of his bicep brushes against hers. She moves to shift away, but he doesn’t let her and for a second she thinks he’s going to slide his arm around her shoulders and then pull her to him. Instead, he just stops walking, but keeps her tucked in close.
“There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you for a while now,” he says, his gaze firmly down at where their hands are still joined. “I just don’t want you to feel like...like you have to say yes.”
She looks up at him, moving closer, just a little, just enough to be in his space, almost touching, but not quite. Kind of like everything else about this interesting little relationship they’ve built in the last ten months. So much almost.
And that Ariana song drifts through her mind. That duet she did with Nathan Sykes. She’s always thought she and Luke could slay that song even if it doesn’t really fit his sound.
Almost, almost is never enough. So close to being in love. If I would have known that you wanted me, the way I wanted you, then maybe we wouldn't be two worlds apart, but right here in each other's arms.
Except they’re not in each other’s arms. Not yet. They’re not worlds apart either though. They’re both right here, toes in the sand, wind in their hair, fingers still clutching each other’s.
“I can’t say anything at all if you don’t ask me.”
He grins at that. “Julie, I...I mean...the guys and I were talking and…” he hesitates and she furrows her brow. The guys? Why would he talk to the guys about this? “And we want you to join Sunset Curve.”
She blinks and feels her mouth drop open. That was not what she was expecting him to say.
“Oh.”
“Oh?” he squeaks, his eyes flying open wide. “Oh. That’s...what... oh ?”
“I mean,” she says, stalling, trying to find her footing again because he dropped her hand and suddenly she feels like she can’t make her mouth form words.
“Like I said,” Luke jumps in, rubbing at the back of his head and it feels like maybe he took a step back from her and she reaches for him, but his hand is still up near his head and she only finds air, “you don’t have to say yes. If you don’t want to join we get it. You...you’re this absolute wrecking ball and I...we just thought...we’ve been writing together so much and I think our sound could be...it could be really fucking incredible, your vocals and piano over the top of some old school rock. And we’ve always killed it when we perform together.”
That is a massive understatement.
They’ve only taken the stage together a handful of times, but she’s never felt more alive, more connected to music, more powerful and brave and like she can do literally anything than when she’s been on stage with them. She just never thought this was a possibility, never even considered that they’d want her to join up officially. The boys are Sunset Curve. They are such an absolute and finite unit and have been since the moment she met them and after what happened with Bobby, they never even hinted that they were looking for another member, let alone that they’d want it to be her.
“Julie,” Luke says, “listen, if I’m way off base here, it’s fine. We just...I just…”
“Yes,” she says, cutting him off because she doesn’t have to think about it. Not really. She loves the music they write together. She loves performing with them. She loves...shit...she loves him. Is that...does that make it weird? Should she have said no?
“Yes?” Luke asks, ducking his head down toward her, like he’s not sure he heard her right, “but...you just…”
“I thought...it doesn’t matter...I...yes,” she stumbles over her words and she wants to take a step back now that he’s this close again because she can’t think, can’t form words when she can see every ring of gray around the sea glass in his eyes and the dotted freckles on his face that the sun has brought out today.
“It matters, Jules,” he says, reaching for her hand again, like he knows it’s what she wants. Maybe he does, but if he knows that...why wouldn’t he… “what did you think?”
She tangles their fingers together again, shivering when his calluses stroke across the palm of her hand.
“I thought you...that you wanted to talk about this ,” she says, not really able to put it into words, but lifting their joined hand up toward her chest while his thumb strokes over her knuckles.
“Oh,” he says, keeping his eyes on their hands and not what she’s dangerously close to pressing them against and she wonders what he’d do if she did and it makes her stomach swoop as his tongue darts out to lick his bottom lip.
Wait, he said, oh . Not...not anything else.
“It’s…” she says, the words on her tongue tripping over themselves to get out now that she's started. “It’s okay if you...don’t...don’t want to talk about it or if you don’t...feel...you know...or if because I‘m going to be in the band that it would be too weird or I don’t know, unprofessional or whatever, because I know we’d have a real chance to make it, like you said our sound would be incredible and I wouldn’t want anything to mess that up, but I think… think that maybe it would make it better…”
She doesn’t even know what she’s saying, all she knows is that she means it and once she starts rambling there are very few things that can make her stop and she’s dangerously close to saying something that’s...way too much, way too soon when he finally interrupts her.
He’s one of the only things that can make her stop.
“Julie?” he asks, reaching up with his free hand and tracing the line of her jaw with his thumb, before gently lifting her chin so she’s looking up into his eyes.
“Yeah?” she asks back, watching as his gaze flicks back and forth between her eyes and her mouth, like he can’t choose which part of her he likes more and then he seems to make a decision. She knows it in the way his jaw twitches and the tips of his fingers flex against her neck. And it’s obvious, so she pushes up on her toes and meets him halfway just as his lips slot across hers.
Then he’s lifting their joined hands up to his shoulder where he releases hers. Her hand curls around his neck and sifts through his hair, while his finds the small of her back, pulling her into him.
It’s so easy, the way they fit together and it’s all warm skin and soft touches, and incredible contrast to his mouth and his tongue, slipping gently into her mouth and finding hers. Then it’s hot and fiery and her toes curl into the sand beneath them.
The swooping in her stomach is back and the waves of affection in her heart and across her skin, something new, something she only saw in his eyes before from across the stage or piano bench or sometimes out of nowhere, just catching him looking at her.
How did she ever doubt that he felt the same way she did?
Finally, he pulls away, resting his forehead against hers. “So, you’re gonna join the band?”
“Yeah,” she says, her lips brushing his, gently.
“And we’re gonna be…”
“...together,” she finishes for him.
“Yeah,” he agrees, his eyes opening and then closing again with a groan. “Fuck, Julie, you look...”
“So, you like it?” she asks, while his hands drift to her bare waist and squeeze gently, pulling a soft breath of laughter out of her.
“Like it?” he manages to choke out. Then he looks her up and down slowly, sending sparks over every part of her his gaze touches. “And it was like that old song, you know, it was an itsy, bitsy, teenie, weenie. Except you weren’t afraid, you’re just you and I almost swallowed my tongue.”
Julie laughs while he smiles down at her, adorable confusion playing over his face at her reaction. They were on the same page from the beginning, always have been and she never should have doubted it. She shakes her head, before lifting up on her toes again and drawing him down for another kiss. This one is short and sweet, almost casual and there’s nothing casual about the way they feel, but she loves it just as much because it’s what they’ll do now, just because they can. After finishing up a song, or when he gets to band rehearsal or when she leaves to go shopping with Flynn or...any other stupid, mundane moment of their lives, each and every one can have a kiss like that.
She can’t wait.
“Come on, let’s go tell the boys,” she says when she finally drops back down away from him and they start walking back in the direction they came from.
“Yeah,” he agrees. “They’re gonna be so hyped and then we can start working on names.”
“Names?” she says, stopping short.
“Sunset Curve is done,” he says, looking at her like it’s obvious. “We’re gonna need something new, something that tells people what they’re in for once you open your mouth. Figure it’ll have to be like, ‘Julie and the...something, Flynn’s pretty good at that kind of stuff. We can ask her.”
But Julie barely hears him, instead she just stares at him. He said it all so easily, like he’s thought about it a million times and has worked it all out beforehand which can only mean one thing. “How long have you been…”
Luke grins at her sheepishly. “The band thing or…”
“Either,” she says, “both.”
“It’s pretty much the same answer.” He steps toward her again and they’re back in their little bubble as his hands slide around her waist. “First time I heard you sing it was like...well, you know Bright right? You and I, we will fight to shine together ? Might be about you, might have gone straight home after hearing you sing Wake Up and wrote the whole damn song in one go. The way we perform it now is not how it’s supposed to sound. It was always supposed to be your song, it just took me a while to tell…”
She doesn’t let him finish and his last words are abandoned for a groan when their mouths meet again. They can tell the boys and Flynn and everyone else later, right now, she’s going to do this for a while, for as long as she can, and when his thumb grazes the base on her spine and his other hand cups the back of her head to deepen the kiss the only thing she wishes was that they weren’t out in public where anyone can see.
She pulls away gasping and he sways on his feet, like his grip on her is the only thing keeping him upright.
“We tell them and then...we do this more, okay?” he murmurs his nose tracing against hers.
“Yeah, lots more,” she agrees, leaning into him, her eyes flickering closed again when his lips ghost over her cheek to the line of her jaw and she tilts her head to give him better access when a wave of absolutely frigid water is dumped over their heads and she lets out a piercing shriek while a cackling Reggie and Alex take off down the beach, with Luke on their heels, Flynn and Willie standing just a couple of feet away, arms crossed over their chests, heads shaking in unison, but twin smiles.
“We tried to stop them,” Flynn says, handing her a towel, which she wraps around herself immediately. “Almost talked them out of it, but then you decided to maul each other again and well.” She raises her hands out to the side helplessly.
“To be fair, we didn’t try very hard,” Willie admits, his eyes twinkling with the mischief that’s so very good for Alex. “Sorry.”
She wipes the water out of her eyes and looks down the beach where Luke somehow has both of his bandmates in a headlock and is dragging them into the water.
“No, it’s better,” Julie admits. They were getting carried away out in the open where anyone could see. It’s better. Definitely better. She’s good with it. Really.
“So, I guess the bikini worked?” Flynn said, raising an eyebrow at her while Willie sends her a salute and wanders down the beach, probably to make sure no one actually drowns.
“It wasn’t the bikini.”
“Yeah, I know, but he did swallow his tongue, so like...I’m just saying.”
“You were right. You always are and in that spirit I’m gonna need your help with something.”
“What? You need me to tell Ray you’re sleeping over tonight?”
“Flynn!”
“What? I saw that last kiss, I mean I saw them all you guys were not that far away, but that last one was...fire.”
“It was, but that’s not…he asked me to join the band,” and Flynn rolls her eyes like that was obvious, so maybe she was being super oblivious about it all along, “and they want to rename it, with my name so I need you to come up with something awesome.”
“Girl, I got you. Now c’mon, let’s go get your band, before they drown in the Pacific and you have to play with their ghosts. Ohh, ghosts...ghouls...spirits...something like that could be cool.”
The boys are already wading back toward them, laughing with their arms around each other, so very alive and so very hers.
“Yeah, definitely, something like that.”