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Reggie leaned forward onto the counter of his coffee shop, scrolling through his phone. He needed to figure this out.. He needed this to be juuust right. But.. What was he going to do?
Google searches for inspiration, checking tumblr, checking Pinterest, checking etsy… Why was this so hard?
Screw it. He flipped over to his contacts and tapped one, throwing his hair over his shoulder to get it out of the way so he could put the phone to his ear.
“Oh god, what?” Came the voice on the other end.
“Virge, I’ve told you, you can just call me Reggie.” The smirk on his face very apparent in his tone.
“You know I hate the phone, you dick. I assumed you were dying. Why else would you call me?”
“….that is fair. Uh, sorry. I just wanted some… What’s some of that edgy nerdy weird shit you like?” He asked, already started to wander around the store while he talked.
“…Why?” Virgil’s voice was immediately suspicious.
Reggie did his best to seem inconspicuous. “Can’t I just ask my best friend a question?”
A huff of breath. “No. Obviously.”
“Ugh, fiiiiiiine. ….It’s almost Julia’s birthday and I don’t know what to do.” He finally gave in, groaning.
There was a short silence followed by a laugh. “Oh my god, seriously? Dude, how should I know?”
“Because you both like all the edgy stuff!” Reggie groaned, this had been a terrible idea.
“Just because I know what I like doesn’t mean I know everything Julia does.” Virgil said, still amused.
“I’m just trying to gather some ideas, you ass.”
Virgil paused, Reggie able to hear some murmuring in the background.
“What’s going over there? Who’s there?”
“Ro, Lo, and Pat. Hold on, hold on.” Virgil went back to listening to them. “Yeah, her birthday. Uh-huh…” Reggie tried to make out the words in the background until Virgil spoke to him again. “…Ok, so.. Roman says she loves theater. And Patton says cats.. and… Logan what the hell are you talking about?” Another pause. “…Why do you know anything about Kingdom Hearts?”
Reggie laughed. “Put me on speaker.”
“Uh, ok.” Virgil pulled the phone away from his ear again. “Ok, there.”
“Ok, I know she likes theater, and cats, and Kingdom Hearts. ….How Logan knows that I am vastly curious about, but that is not a topic for right now. I need specifics here.”
“Take her to a play!”
“Oh! Or a cat café!”
“…Game night in?”
“I mean, I’d say a concert.”
“….Ok that’s 4 things, I don’t think it’s all going to happen in one day.” Reggie sighed.
There was a slight pause as the four on the other end of the phone thought for another moment.
“Uh… Cats the musical?” Roman offered.
“Play games at a cat café?” Came Patton’s voice.
“Listen to music while you play video games?” Logan added.
“Emo the Musical? Virgil suggested.
“….I’ll be sure to write all that down. Just, uh.. Thanks. I’ll talk to you guys later.”
As outlandish as trying to do some combination of all those things was… The four of them hadn’t recommended anything he hadn’t at least considered already. So now that his ideas all had some level of reinforcement… He started googling again.
—
Step one was dressing the part. Julia had taken him a while back to get a few additions to his wardrobe in her style ‘just in case the need ever came up.’ He had a tight fitting, black V neck shirt, which had been an easy enough compromise. The leather jacket he slipped on over the top was something he thought worked well on him, it fit well to his waist and chest and was definitely flattering, which was crucial when it came to dressing himself.
Next were the pants, a bit tighter and much darker than he would generally go for, he may or may not have sent a forlorn look in the direction of his favorite white jeans, but he couldn’t deny they also looked pretty good. Virgil had been the one who seemed the most disappointed he hadn’t gotten ones that were ripped, but that really wasn’t Reggie’s style. This was already a good bit from his comfort zone. Finally, the boots. He’d nearly dodged getting them, trying to use the excuse that it would be far too difficult to find a good pair in his size. All Julia had to do was raise an eyebrow and remind him who his best friend was.
So that attempt had gone right out the window, seeing as his shoe size of 12 had nothing on Virgil’s size 15. And once Virgil had found out, it was no time at all that the pair was ordered and shipped right to him. So he pulled on his boots, lacing them up and then doing up the arbitrary buckles on the straps that went around them.
He’d put a lot of research and effort into a day that, when the dust finally settled and the plan was made concrete… Was honestly extremely simple. He’d wanted to make her breakfast, maybe even breakfast in bed, but she had had to get up early and head into work. It sucked that it was on her birthday of all days, at least it was only for a couple hours, but it had blown the breakfast plan right out of the water.
He’d used the free time to get his clothes on and correctly situated, as well as going out and getting flowers to surprise her with when she got back. She was definitely pleasantly surprised when she did arrive home, seeing him in his dark edgy clothes, a stark contrast from his usual style which he oh so modestly referred to as “a modern playboy, the street is my runway and all eyes are glued to me.” And, of course, the flowers were a welcome addition.
Next up was lunch, which he had tried to orchestrate at the actual cat café, but he’d already mentioned her birthday to their friends and now they wanted to spend a meal with her as well. And seeing as the main draw of a cat café was the cats… They couldn’t exactly go there because of Patton’s allergies. Lunch would instead be happening at a restaurant he knew Julia loved, where she could have her friends around to spend time with her and celebrate her.
It had gone over quite well, Julia laughing that there had apparently been an accidental dress code, all of them doing their best to style themselves more to her and Virgil’s tastes. The one who had done the “best” at this was Patton, as he had apparently managed to find a black t-shirt in his size that read “Edgy as Heck.” So, lunch was definitely a complete success, ending with Patton insisting they get a picture and this time no one objected.
Once they had all departed, Reggie took Julia to a game shop, encouraging her to pick out a few things for him to buy for her and then they could head home and she could absolutely demolish him at whatever games she’d chosen. He’d had loved to say that he let her win… And he actually did say it, but in reality his best efforts were simply no match for her’s.
After games he made them both dinner and dessert, perhaps there was a recipe in his pocket from Patton but then again, perhaps there wasn’t, and it had come out very well. They had a nice meal together, as well as dessert - him raucously making his way through ‘singing’ Happy Birthday to her - before the two of them ended up on the couch with a show or two before bed.
After several minutes of comfortable silence, Reggie let out a content sigh.
“…Sorry, I know today wasn’t all that exciting.” He said somewhat quietly, it wasn’t in his nature to find fault in his actions.
Julia turned and looked up to him, smiling. “I had a great day. It wasn’t crazy, but it was a lot of fun. Thank you for everything.”
Reggie turned to look back at her, almost double checking her expression for sincerity before finally cracking a smile. “…Then I’m glad that worked out as well as it did. I was worried I’d have to rely a little too heavily on plan B.” He said with a laugh.
Julia raised an eyebrow. “…And what was plan B?”
Reggie reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out an envelope, dropping it into her lap. As she opened it, he said the words at the same time she realized what she was holding. “Two tickets to a Panic! At the Disco concert.”
Her mouth fell open, looking back and forth between the tickets in her hand and her boyfriend. Before she could respond he sighed again and shook his head, letting himself fall dramatically back against the couch.
“…You’re taking Virgil.”