Work Text:
Luke loves days like this. It’s a lazy Sunday afternoon, and he’s laying with Julie in a pool of sunlight on the floor of the studio. She works on her homework while he listens to the radio and hums along with his eyes closed. Julie always lets him pick the station, so he has it set to 90s on 9, letting the familiar sounds of Billie Joe Armstrong and Kurt Cobain wash over him.
At the end of “Coming Clean” by Green Day, the DJ’s voice comes on. “And now here’s an early Trevor Wilson hit, ‘My Name is Luke.’”
Luke shoots upright. “Turn it off,” he says, as Julie’s closer to the radio.
“What?” Julie asks. “Your song’s on the radio and you don’t want to listen to it?”
“Julie, please.”
“I thought you and Trevor were cool now.”
“Yeah, well not about this song,” Luke snaps. He immediately softens. “I’m sorry, I’m not mad at you. Please, just turn it off.”
Julie nods and flips off the radio. She sits up so she can look at Luke properly. “Do you wanna talk about why you’re acting so weird?”
Luke sighs and starts fidgeting with his rings. “I wrote it the night I chose my name.”
Julie softens. “Oh.”
“It was my way of finally accepting myself. It wasn’t just a song; it was a... a declaration.”
“Your anthem,” Julie supplies.
Luke nods. “Yeah. And then, when I was ready, I played it for the band. It’s how I came out to them.” He tries to bite back the tears stinging his eyes. “Everything about that night was terrifying, but I think Bobby was the one whose reaction I was most scared of. Even before I knew Alex and Reggie were trans, I could always kind of tell that they got me. But Bobby was this straight cis guy and I had no idea how he’d take it.”
“That must have been so hard,” Julie says, leaning her head on Luke’s shoulder. He takes her hand.
“He honestly surprised us, with how he cool he was with all of us. He called us his brothers. I trusted him.” The tears start to flow freely now, and Julie squeezes his hand. “And then the moment I died, he took this huge part of me that I shared with him, and he used it for his own gain.”
“I thought he did it to honor you guys,” Julie said, and Luke shakes his head.
“Not that one. He knew I wouldn’t have let him have that one. We talked about it when we were alive. We had a plan. We weren’t going to record it until we had our first major award. Until it was safe to come out without ruining our career.”
“You know I’m happy to listen as much as you need,” Julie says, “but it sounds like the person you should be talking to is Trevor.”
Luke wipes at his eyes and smirks at her. “You just want me gone so you can finish your homework.”
“Not true!” Julie cries. “I’m trying to be a supportive girlfriend.” She pauses, and ducks her head sheepishly. “I do have to get this essay done for tomorrow, though.”
“I knew it.” He sighs. “I guess I’m going to talk to Trevor.”
Julie kisses him on the cheek. “Good luck.”
Luke gives her a small smile and poofs out of the garage.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
They never actually talked about the song when they reconnected. Luke had gone in with Alex and Reggie, ready to give Trevor Wilson a piece of his mind for stealing his songs, but as soon as they locked eyes, Luke’s anger flooded out of him. This was Bobby, his brother, and Luke missed him so much.
After the initial group-hug-slash-sob-fest (which may or may not have lasted several hours), the first thing Trevor did was apologize for taking their songs. He explained that he wanted to honor his friends and make sure their music was heard, but he ended up signing a bad contract that prohibited him from crediting them. He had asked Luke’s parents for permission, and Alex’s sister, so at least they knew the true people behind the songs.
“I couldn’t have known you’d be around to use those songs again some day,” Trevor had said. “I just wanted to make sure your music didn’t die with you.”
The day had gone so well that Luke didn’t dare bring up “My Name Is Luke.” He just wanted to spend one day together as brothers again.
Now, though, he’s ready to talk about it. Luke poofs into Trevor’s kitchen, where he finds Trevor poking around in the fridge.
“Why did you record ‘My Name Is Luke’?” Luke demands.
Trevor screams.
Luke rolls his eyes and waits for him to finish. “Are you done?” he asks, once Trevor’s caught his breath.
“We need to set boundaries,” Trevor says, “you can’t just poof in here.”
“Okay, boundaries would have been not recording one of the most personal songs I’ve ever written.”
Trevor sighs and sits down at the counter. “I’m sorry, Luke. Recording that song is honestly my biggest regret.”
“So why’d you do it?”
“I swear I thought my intentions were good at the time. I recorded it for a fundraiser pushing for hate crime legislation protecting trans people.”
Luke sits down next to him. He’s still mad, but he does want to hear Trevor’s reasoning.
“I told people I wrote it about a childhood friend who was trans,” Trevor continued. “Your parents gave me permission, because at that point no one was connecting me to Sunset Curve, so no one would suspect it was about you. I wouldn’t have done it if there was any chance of outing you, or Alex or Reggie, to the world. I know that wasn’t your plan. Although, technically, it was after my first major award.”
Luke smirks at that, but it’s halfhearted at best. “It wasn’t your story to tell, though.”
“I know,” Trevor says. “The moment I finished recording I felt sick about it. But I’d already committed to the fundraiser. That isn’t an excuse. I know what I did was wrong. I just want you to understand that at the time I thought I was doing the right thing. And I’m sorry.”
Luke sighs and starts pacing. “I don’t think I can forgive you.” He sees Trevor hang his head in the corner of his eye, but he pushes on. “Playing that song for you was one of the most terrifying moments of my life. It took so much trust for me to come out to you, and you broke it.”
“Luke—“
“I know you had good intentions, and I can forgive you for the other songs, because you’re Bobby—Trevor, sorry—and I love you, but I can’t get over this.”
Trevor sighs. “Please sit down, your pacing is worse than Alex’s.”
Luke scoffs, but he sits. He looks at Trevor and suddenly becomes aware of how much Trevor has grown, of all the maturing he’s done that Luke and the others might not ever get to do.
“I don’t expect you to forgive me,” Trevor says. “I’ll never forgive myself either. But I don’t want it to come between us, because somehow I was lucky enough to get my three best friends back and I don’t want to lose you again.”
“I don’t want to lose you either,” Luke says. “I just want you to understand how much it hurts.”
“I do,” Trevor says. “Well, I can’t ever fully understand what you feel, but I understand that I hurt you. I never want to do it again. And I’ll do whatever I can to make it hurt less.”
“I don’t really know what that would be,” Luke admits.
“How about I start by making you lunch?” Trevor suggests.
“Are you still vegetarian?” Luke asks.
“Maybe I’ll order a pizza.”
“That sounds better.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It ends up being Reggie who comes up with the plan for Trevor’s atonement.
Luke poofs back to the garage after his lunch with Trevor and finds the rest of the band lounging around the studio watching a movie. Willie’s there too, laying with his head in Alex’s lap.
“How’d it go?” Julie asks.
Luke plops down next to her, sending Reggie and Alex a look to soothe the worry they’re wearing on their faces. “Okay. He meant well, but I still don’t really forgive him for it. He wants to do something to at least start making up for it, but I don’t know what he could do.”
“How much money do you think he made off the song?” Reggie asks.
Julie hums and does a quick Google search. “It says he’s sold about 4 million copies.”
“So what if he used that money to establish a center for trans kids?” Reggie suggests.
Everyone turns to look at him, surprised.
“Reg, you’re a genius,” Luke says. “He could help kids with stuff like name changes and hormones.”
“Maybe provide shelter for kids with bad home lives,” Alex proposes, and Willie reaches up to place a gentle hand on his cheek, which Alex leans into.
“He could do it anonymously,” Julie adds. “Without media attention, so he doesn’t get anymore credit for the song.”
“And any money he makes off our music from now on goes to the center,” Luke finishes.
“What would we call it though?” Reggie asks. “He can’t name it after you or people will make the connection.”
“Who was that one jazz singer you were telling me about?” Willie asks Alex. “The trans one Luke almost named himself after?”
“Billy Tipton,” Luke supplies. “I don’t know if we could clear that with his family, though.”
“So maybe just the Billy Center,” Julie suggests.
“It’s perfect,” Luke grins. “Thank you guys.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A year later, The Billy Center quietly opens for business. It gets some media attention, but no one knows who the mysterious donor behind it is. The band and Willie attend the opening ceremony alongside Trevor, who does his best to blend in with the civilian crowd.
After speeches from the new head of the center, a couple employees, and some young trans activists, there’s a party in the main hall. Luke finds Trevor at the snack bar.
“Hey,” Luke says, sliding up next to him with a grin. “Thank you for this. It’s incredible.”
Trevor pulls Luke into a hug. “Anything for you. I just wish you guys had something like this.”
Luke shrugs. “Well, it would have been nice, but we also had a pretty great best friend who let us live in his garage.” Luke looks around at the crowd of trans teens around him. “You’ve been doing this kind of work for longer than you realize.”
A few hours later, Julie and the Phantoms take the stage, or rather, the small platform set up at the front of the reception. Luke steps to the mic to get everyone’s attention.
“Hey everyone, we’re Julie and the Phantoms,” Luke says, and he grins at the cheer that results from the crowd. They’re gaining traction. “Oh, so you guys know us. Well, what you might not know is that me and these two guys—“ Reggie and Alex wave. “—are trans, just like you all.”
The crowd erupts in cheers. The boys beam at each other as Julie joins in with the crowd’s applause. This is their first public coming out, and they can’t imagine a better time to do it.
“We’re gonna start with an oldie some of you might know, and it’s a song that means the world to me. This is ‘My Name is Luke.’”
Alex counts them in and Luke starts to sing, reclaiming his anthem. As he performs, he thinks that maybe someday, he can forgive Trevor. This is certainly a start.