Work Text:
Do You Hear That Love?
A week. It had been only one week since Julie and The Phantoms made their Orpheum debut. Just a mere five days and compared to last week, it was a little dull. Their days no longer consisted of trying to rid themselves of Caleb’s stamp. Instead, they were filled with band rehearsal (both with and without Julie) and each of the three ghosts trying to hug the girl to make sure that they still could. (Were the three boys a little touch starved? More than likely, but the drummer could only internalize one thing at a time. And the former members of Sunset Curve being touched starved wasn’t the focus right now.) But yeah, Alex would take dull over a dangerous ghost trying to jolt him and his bandmates out of existence any day. Even though they had gotten rid of Caleb’s stamps, two questions still lingered in his mind.
Why hadn’t Caleb tried anything yet? By now he must know that the boys hadn’t crossed over and weren’t under his control anymore. (He did know and he was planning something, but none of his bandmates or Alex had figured that out yet.) And was Willie okay? By now Caleb must’ve realized they had help pulling off the Orpheum show. (News of the other opening band’s tour bus driving itself to the middle of the dessert had gone viral per Julie...Whatever that meant.) Did the magician know it was the skater ghost with long hair? Okay so maybe it was more than two questions. But it started as two questions. Alex just wished he had a sign that Willie was okay. He had only his worst-case scenarios to keep him company. (And Luke, Reggie, and Julie too. Plus Carlos, Flynn, and Ray. Even if the older man didn’t know it.) The point was his thoughts were too loud sometimes and today was one of those times.
The band noticed. Of course, they noticed. He was messing up the beat every few seconds.
“Hey Alex, you alright?” Luke asked, after exchanging a glance with both Reggie and Julie. They both were looking at him with various looks of concern too...and to think he thought he was hiding it so well.
“Yeah. yeah. I’m just...I’m just thinking. It’s one of those days where my brain is so loud, that even the drums can’t help me tune out my thoughts.” He decided to go with the truth, simply because Luke and Reggie would call him out on it if he tried to lie.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Offered Julie and the blond drummer shrugged his shoulders, “I’m just thinking about Willie. He risked a lot by helping us and what if Caleb found out he helped us? What if we got him into trouble? Caleb owns his soul.”
“We could go looking for him?” Julie suggested, which was immediately ruled out by the three ghosts shaking their heads vigorously.
“No. Nuh-uh. No way,” surprisingly it was the bassist who said these words. Reggie, who was usually always down for adventures. Everyone turned to look at him, “Look, I get that Alex is worried about Willie. But chances are he’s probably still at the club and we already beat Caleb once, I don’t want to chance that and risk losing you guys again.”
“Sorry Alex,” Reggie turned his head to look at Alex, an apology in his eyes. But the drummer shook his head, waving his friend’s apology away because he got it. Truly he did. It was the thought alone that stopped him from going to look for the skater ghost himself. Multiple times. Reggie was just the person who said it out loud. That and the fact that he had only known Willie for what ten days? And he was willing to risk everything for some boy? (A boy that made him feel alive in ways that Alex hadn’t felt even when he was among the living. With soft brown eyes that made the drummer melt when they were trained on him. Or a smile that brightened up the world, even though the skater was dead.) The point was he couldn’t. If it was just Alex maybe. But Alex, Reggie, Luke, and now Julie were a package deal. Though there was a voice in his head that questioned why Julie was such an anchored part of his life when he had only known her for a few days longer than he had known Willie. He chose not to pull on that thread in fear of working himself into a frenzy because he didn’t have any rhyme or reason to his question. (Julie was a part of his family though, just like Reggie and Luke…) And here went the thought frenzy…
~~~
Alex’s troubled thoughts didn’t have to last much longer, because just like last time: the skater boy sought him out first. It was a few days later, during another band rehearsal, and it was Julie, who saw him first. (Ironically, they had been wanting to see if she could see other ghosts besides the three of them. But now that they knew she could, raised more than a few questions in the blond’s mind.)
Her piano playing had slowed way down, her gaze drifting to the doors of the studio as something caught her eye before the piano faded out completely.
“Guys? I think we have a visitor. And it’s not Carlos this time.” She said as she waved her hand for them to stop. Then she pointed to where Willie stood, helmet atop of his head, the strap hanging loosely under his chin as he peered in on them. When he realized he had been caught, instead of immediately running away like last time, he shot Alex a small smile and raised his fingers in an awkward kind of wave.
“Is that him? Is that Willie?” Julie looked back at Alex, then her eyes moved to Reggie, (Her gaze was moving so fast that it reminded the drummer of the pinball game he and the others had played back in at their old arcade. That of course was torn down too in the last twenty-five years.) before they finally settled on Luke. Both the latter and the former nodded, a silent answer to her question.
Alex jerked his head back and Willie didn’t wait for another invitation as he materialized into the building. If the drummer’s heart could still beat he was sure the others would’ve been able to hear it. He was here. Willie was here. He was here.
“You guys didn’t cross over…” Willie muttered, his voice was soft and quiet. As if he was afraid that if he spoke too loud, the guys would vanish before his eyes.
“No, but we’ll let Alex explain that to you. It’s a rad story!” Could Reggie be any less subtle? Alex snorted to cover up the fact that if he still had any blood in his veins, it’d probably be in his cheeks by now. Reggie turned to look at Julie and Luke, “And I think I’m going to go hang out with Ray since practice is over right guys?”
He could be less subtle . Alex decided as the bassist poofed out. Luke nodded, setting his guitar down, before he walked over to the piano where Julie sat frozen, staring at Willie with the same wide-eyed look she had when worn when she had met them for the first time. At least, she wasn’t screaming at him like she had when she met the former members of Sunset Curve.
Willie’s gaze broke from Alex to glance around the garage before they found Julie staring at him. He blinked. His own brown eyes widened with shock.
“Can she-” he started the question to the two best friends before he looked back at the teenage girl, “Can you see me?”
Julie nodded her head mutely.
“Woah, awesome!” Willie grinned and the piano player smiled back at him as Luke’s hand’s settled on her shoulders. Despite his nervousness, Alex couldn’t contain his snort of amusement. Luke had always been a touchy-feely kind of guy and becoming ghosts, it had only been amplified with Alex and Reggie because they were the only ghosts he saw really. But since the Orpheum performance and they learned that Julie wouldn’t go right through them, Luke’s affectionate nature had also extended to her. (Turns out Reggie wasn’t the only one who couldn’t be subtle.)
“This is Julie and now we know that she can see other ghosts, but now we’re gonna go work on songs from her dream box and leave you two to talk. You comin’ Jules?” When Julie nodded, Luke poofed out.
“It was nice to meet you Willie and did we meet before you were a ghost? Because you look extremely familiar to me.” The skater shook his head with a shrug, “I don’t think so.”
“Maybe it’ll come to me later but I’m going to go...wait.” She paused to look at Alex, a look of pure horror taking over her face.
“Did Luke just say he was going to go through my dream box for song lyrics?” Alex nodded, a sigh escaping from his lips.
“There are songs in there I’m not ready for him to see yet!” Julie exclaimed before she turned and darted out of the studio, all the while shouting Luke’s name and the word ‘boundaries’ over and over. (She could yell at the ghost because Carlos was at baseball practice and Ray was at work.) Then it was just Alex and Willie…
~~~
For what felt like forever, the two boys just stared at each other. Until Willie cleared his throat.
“So you didn’t crossover? The Orpheum wasn’t your unfinished business?” Alex shook his head while he tried to find his voice to talk.
“No. I guess w-e got it wrong.” The blond winced. Because did his voice just crack like he was thirteen and going through puberty all over again? He didn’t have time to wonder for long. Willie’s voice brought him out of his self-conscious thoughts, “And the jolts?”
“We don’t have them anymore. We think his stamps are gone completely. It happened the night of the Orpheum performance. We’re not clear on a lot of the details...all of the details...We’re not clear on all of the details. But Reggie and Luke and I think it has something to do with Julie. She’s the reason why our stamps are gone.”
“Her? The girl who just left here, yelling at Luke?” Willie jerked his thumb over his shoulder before he glanced back as if could see the girl through the shut door.
“Yeah,”
“And is Luke the only one who can make physical contact with her or…?”
“No, we all can. That happened that night too. One second we’re on the brink of being jolted out of existence and the next, Julie is throwing herself into Luke’s arms and they hug before they realize they are actually hugging. He starts to glow and feel stronger than before. Reg and I do the same and suddenly we’re glowing and feeling stronger and we watch our stamps float up and disappear.”
“Holy shit. That’s a...that’s a lot,” Willie said finally, an awed look on his face. Alex nodded because it was a lot and it was also a gift. To be able to still be here with Julie, Reggie, and Luke making music. They stood there soaking in, how big everything seemed to be. How everything seemed to be changing.
“Bro, but it’s a good change,” Luke’s voice appeared in his head.
Something lingered in the air then. It was the same prickly feeling that had the drummer’s hair standing on end as he watched Willie skate away from him when he stood in front of the Orpheum with his best friends. Alex cleared his throat, prompting Willie to look up at him.
“I should’ve done more than just hug you outside of the Orpheum. I wanted to do more.” Alex couldn’t help but blurt out. Willie raised an eyebrow as the blond took a step closer to him before he took it back. God, that was too forward. Too forward! He thought, now he looked down at the ground. Here was the first guy he had liked liked since ‘95 and he was rushing it.
But Willie gave a soft laugh and ate the space that stood between them until Alex could almost feel his breath against his lips. (You know if ghosts still used oxygen.)
“So hotdog, what did you want to do besides hug me?” The skater’s question was teasing, yet Alex could hear the genuine question in his voice.
“I should’ve done more. But if I had crossed over, I didn’t want to hurt you or me more by kissing you like I wanted to.” Alex explained, a hush falling over his voice. When he looked back up at Willie, the skater’s eyes were soft and gentle. The blond didn’t realize his hands were shaking until Willie grabbed them.
“Alex, have you ever kissed anyone?”
“Um, a girl back in the eighth grade during a game of spin the bottle before I knew . It’s actually what made everything clear for me. But after that no, I was too busy and stressed. If it wasn’t the band, it was my parents and then it was the whole becoming ghosts...which hasn’t left much time for this kind of thing.” Alex babbled, looking everywhere but the other boy. His eyes weren’t allowed to wander long, because one of the skater's hands were under his chin, lifting it. Ocean blue eyes met soft brown ones.
“Can I kiss you?” Alex’s eyes widened in anticipation, but he found himself nodding as his teeth sunk into his lip. Willie’s thumb came up to pull his lower lip free with a slight chuckle, “Kind of hard to kiss you if your lip is trapped now isn’t it?”
Then the boy was leaning in slowly while he pulled Alex’s face down to meet his. Then their lips met.
~~~
Alex had expected to feel sparks or something like that. That’s what happened in all those ‘rom-com’ movies Julie had the band watch the other night during movie night. But Alex didn’t feel any of those things. Instead, he felt warm all over and Willie’s lips moving against his own; nothing had ever felt more right to Alex. He stepped even closer to the skater, wrapping his arms around the other ghost. Willie returned the gesture and soon there was no space between them. All too soon, it was over and Willie was the first to pull back. He was grinning.
“So I feel like I should take you out on an actual date.” His words were a little breathless. But at least he could find his voice, Alex hadn’t even got that far yet. He nodded.
“I’m glad you ran over me that day,” he finally managed to get out. The skater laughed. Now the drummer could really feel it against his skin as the other boy rested his head against his hoodie-clad shoulder.
“I’m glad your friends practically ran away from us..”
“Me too.” Alex couldn’t help but agree with a laugh, knowing that no doubt they would be waiting for Alex to tell them all about it, “Me too.”