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---1---
Luke had many things planned for Alex’s 17th birthday, but falling in front of Reggie and hitting his head on the hard concrete floor was definitely not one of them. At least Alex wasn’t here to see it. Luke was pretty sure he would have imploded from panic if he saw him fall.
Plus, he would have definitely scolded him for standing on a rollie chair to put up pink and black streamers. Luke lived his life on the edge, and he couldn’t be scolded by his friend like he was his mom. It wasn’t his fault that he couldn’t account for the rollie chair betraying him. And it wasn't his fault that he didn't listen to Bobby warn him against using the chair before he left to pick up Alex. Bobby should have known that telling Luke not to do something would only fill the boy with spite.
So, here Luke was lying on the floor with a pain in the back of his head. He closed his eyes upon impact, but he could hear Reggie drop everything to come over to him.
When he saw Reggie standing over him with a concerned expression, he smiled and managed to say, “Whoops.”
“Luke, are you okay?! It looked like you hit your head really hard, dude!”
“I’m fine, man, don’t worry,” Luke tried lifting his head which only greeted him with pain, “Actually, the floor is comfortable. I will stay down here.”
“How do you tell if someone has a concussion?” Reggie asked, panicked, “What if you have a concussion, dude?!”
“I don’t have a concussion, Reg, don’t be a drama queen.”
“Well, well, uh, do you need anything?” The bassist asked, running his hand through his hair nervously.
Luke, still a little scrambled from hitting his head, thought about when his mom would kiss his scraped knees better when he was a kid.
What he was thinking of saying was ‘maybe you should kiss it better’, but what came out instead was, “Maybe if you kissed me I would feel better.”
“W-what?” Reggie asked, not sure he had heard Luke right.
Luke was never a person to take back his words, so he winked and said, “You heard me.”
Reggie looked down at his best friend for a few seconds before a smile grew on his face, "Very funny, man."
"I'm a comedian who needs a kiss, Reginald," Luke had no idea why he was continuing the bit, but it definitely made Reggie smile. Maybe that was why.
"Okay, can you sit up?" Reggie asked, looking at his friend with a soft look in his eyes.
"Hmm, I think I can," Luke experimentally lifted his head, and found only a small stinging sensation. So, he sat up, rubbing the back of his head gently.
"Good," Reggie crouched to his level and placed a kiss on the side of his head, "Did that make you feel better?"
Luke gave his friend a wide, goofy grin, "So much better, dude."
--- 2 ---
Luke groaned, putting his pencil down while laying his head on his algebra two textbook. He was starting to remember why he never did his homework for this class.. The first reason was that math sucked and the second reason was that math sucked. Other classes were tolerable, but algebra? Algebra was the worst. Though, he guessed it was slightly better than the shape filled mess that was geometry.
Reggie looked up from his assigned English reading of The Crucible, “Math homework not going so well, dude?”
Luke didn’t lift his head up from the textbook, “How is anyone supposed to understand any of this?”
Reggie hummed in agreement before he reached over, and picked the worksheet Luke was working on. He read it over before there was a hint of recognition on his face. He pulled his backpack over, and began to scour through it.
Luke looked at his friend, curiously, as Reggie pulled out a crumpled piece of paper, “Here it is, dude! I knew I recognized it. Me and Alex’s math class did it like a week ago.”
“Oh, dude, you actually did this stupid work sheet?”
“Me? No, but Alex did, and Alex doesn’t notice when I steal his homework to copy off it,” Reggie handed Luke the crumpled worksheet with a smile
"Ugh, I could give you a kiss right now, dude. You’re a lifesaver.”
“Oh yea? Kiss up then, Patterson,” Reggie said, wiggling his eyebrows.
“Alright, Peters,” Luke leaned over and placed a wet kiss on Reggie’s cheek. He smiled when he saw the look of disgust on his friend's face as he pulled away.
Reggie wiped his cheek, “Gross, dude, that was barely a kiss.”
“Don’t be ungrateful, bro.”
Rolling his eyes, Reggie placed a kiss on Luke’s cheek, “See, that’s a kiss.”
“Ungrateful, Reginald,” Luke shook his head, trying not to smile, “I offer my lips to you, dude, and this is what I get in return? I get mocked?”
Reggie laughed, shoving his friend in a playful way, “Get back to work, Lucas.”
--- 3 ---
After a particularly good rehearsal for their upcoming gig at the Orpheum, Luke went around to his different band mates to give them high fives. After giving Bobby his compliments, Luke was now on Alex, who was bashfully accepting all the compliments that Luke was throwing at him.
“No, seriously, I couldn’t have asked for a better drummer, dude,” Luke said, a happy look on his face. The guitarist always got like this after a really nice practice. He always felt energized and like he had to give a million praises to his bandmates.
Alex rolled his eyes with a smile, “And I couldn’t have asked for a better lead singer.”
“Aw, you’re too sweet, Alex.”
Their conversation was cut short when Reggie walked out of the bathroom and back into the studio. Luke's eyes trained onto Reggie like a hawk, and Alex could see the impulsive idea forming in his friend's brain.
“I’ll be right back,” Luke said as he turned slowly away from Alex.
“Oookay,” Alex was both curious to see what Luke was going to and a bit scared for Reggie.
Alex watched as Luke ran towards Reggie, yelled out his name and jumped up while attempting to wrap his legs around the boy's waist. This, however, didn’t work out since Reggie let out a startled yell and then promptly fell over.
“Luke, what the hell?” Reggie attempted to say in the tangle of limbs that was him and Luke.
“This worked out much better in my head.” Luke managed to say as he lifted himself off his friend. Now he was holding himself over Reggie, both of his hands on either side of Reggie's head.
Luke smirked, deciding it was a great idea to say, while he was practically straddling his friend, “Are we about to kiss right now?”
Still pretty disoriented from being tackled, Reggie started laughing like he had just said the funniest thing in the world. And, he kept laughing until Luke eventually joined in. Luke rolled off his friend, clutching his stomach as tears formed.
After a bit, their laughter subsided and Reggie sat up, trying to recover from his laughter. He looked over to Luke, who was still sprawled out on the floor, and smiled. He leaned over and pressed a kiss to Luke’s forehead.
“We were totally going to kiss,” Reggie said with a big, goofy grin on his face.
Alex and Bobby, after watching all this go down, shared an exasperated look before they both said, “Idiots.”
--- 4 ---
Even after they had died, Luke didn't seem to want to give up the bit. From testing it out, the joke, without fail, always made Reggie smile and, therefore, made it worth continuing into the afterlife.
When Alex had poofed out of the room to go to have his ghost crisis somewhere other than the studio, Reggie and Luke had sat there in a few seconds of heavier silence than either of them liked.
Luke, no longer wanting the mood to be so heavy, nudged Reggie before saying, "You know, now that he's gone, we can make out."
Reggie laughed at his friend, scrunching his nose, “Gonna have to try harder to get a make out session out of me, dude. I have standards, Lucas.”
The guitarist gasped and held his chest dramatically, “I'm offended that I don't reach your standards, Reg."
"You could if you tried harder," Reggie joked, smiling.
Before he knew it, Luke was kneeling in front of him in the most dramatic way possible. He then attempted an impression of how all those period drama men sounded in those movies his mom had watched all time, "My dear sweet Reginald, will you do me the honor of making out with me while Alex is gone?
Reggie snorted, but still leaned forward towards Luke, “Sir Lucas, I’m afraid I have to decline your affections. Take this small token of appreciation for your valiant efforts.”
The bassist then took one of Luke’s hands, pressed a small kiss to it before letting go and then pushed his friend away from him.
Luke started laughing, laying down on the floor, before saying, “You’re so fucking dorky, dude.”
Reggie smiled, laughing a little, “Says the one who went all Pride and Prejudice on me, man.”
“You liked it though and that’s what makes you the biggest dork here,” Luke replied, a teasing smile on his lips.
“Whatever you say, bro,” Reggie rolled his eyes, but there was still an obvious affection in his eyes.
--- 5 ---
There were unexpected benefits to being dead. One of them? Being able to grab pizza out of the oven with your bare hands without the fear of being burned. Even though Luke couldn’t eat the pizza, he had always wanted to see how the heat would feel without the consequences of severe burns.
So, when Julie was making a pizza for her and Flynn, Luke had enthusiastically offered to go get the pizza out of the oven and bring it out for them. Julie had given him a confused look, but still agreed to let him get the pizza after making him promise not to drop it.
Pulling the pizza out of the oven honestly felt just as cool as Luke expected it to. He could tell that there was intense heat on his hands, but his body didn’t have any pain response to it. This, all and all, was pretty fucking sick. Mundane, sure, but, hey, you had to find the subtle joys of being dead.
After he got the exciting part done, Luke sighed when he realized that he’d have to cut the pizza before he brought it out to Julie and Flynn. This arguably was the worst part of having boxed pizza.
He was doing fine, but then the crust refused to be cut, so now he was just angrily going back and forth over the stupid crust with no avail.
He heard a gentle poof behind him, and Reggie say behind him, “Pizza almost ready? Julie wanted me to check.”
Luke just grunted in response, not even bothering to look up from the pizza. Reggie walked up behind him, looking over Luke’s shoulder.
He smiled, stupidly, “You feeling okay, dude?”
"I would be more okay if you were kissing me," Luke said, not really thinking about it. That was meant for it to come off as light hearted joke, but he was too frustrated when he said it. So, instead he just sounded like he was angrily propositioning Reggie which was...great.
Luke tried to say that he didn’t mean for it to sound like that, but Reggie cut him off with a simple, "Okay."
Before Luke could process that response, a calloused hand gently turned his head. Luke froze. He was looking into his friends all too pretty eyes that were much closer then he was used to. Luke’s eyes flickered to his friends lips before Reggie leaned in to press a kiss to his nose. His nose. Holy shit. Luke had genuinely bamboozled himself with that thought process. He just really, really hoped Reggie didn’t notice him look at his lips.
Reggie pulled away from Luke, smiling and patting his friends cheek, “Better?”
There was a few seconds before Luke responded with a simple, “Um, yup.”
Luke awkwardly turned back to the pizza, and continued on his unsuccessful attempt to cut this damned pizza. Reggie sighed, grabbing the pizza cutter and taking the pizza from him.
“Let me do it,” Reggie said before he cut the pizza with a couple perfect swoops.
Luke crossed his arms and pouted, “I would have gotten it without your help.”
“Sure, dude,” Reggie retorted before he started to make his way out of the kitchen, “Julie and Flynn are hungry, so better hurry up with their plates.”
As Luke started grabbing plates, he tried not to think about how he had very seriously considered kissing Reggie right then and there. It's not like he’d never considered kissing his best friend before, but it was always a joke. Never a serious consideration.
But, now that he was standing in the kitchen wondering if Reggie’s lips were as soft as they looked, he began to question how much of it had actually been a joke.
--- +1 ---
Reggie should’ve known better then to agree to watch a dumb romance movie with Luke. The two of them had decided to have a movie night since Alex was on a date with Willie. Julie was supposed to join them, but later said that she couldn’t because of a math test she had to study for.
So, Luke and Reggie sat on the couch, watching the first movie recommended by Julie’s Netflix.
Reggie sunk his face into the pillow that he was clutching into his chest. He really didn’t want to watch the big finale kiss in this movie. He should have seen it coming, really. The entire movie was set up for the princess to get a true love's kiss at the end. It just hurt a little to see it, knowing that he couldn’t get a kiss like that since he was, you know, six feet under and incorporeal.
Luke poked his cheek, “Uh, dude, are you okay?”
Reggie simply groaned into the pillow instead of responding.
“So, I’m gonna take that as a no,” Luke paused the movie, and gently turned towards his friend, “What’s up? Did something happen?”
Finally, Reggie lifted his face from the pillow to say, “I-I just...I missed my chance to do so many things before I died, man.”
Nodding, Luke put a comforting hand on Reggie’s back, rubbing small circles, “Yea, I totally get that, but, um, what brought this on, Reg?”
Embarrassed, Reggie quickly motioned towards the screen that was now frozen on the two people kissing, and Luke looked at him confused.
“...the kiss?” there was an awkward few seconds of silence as the pieces slotted together in Luke’s head, “Wait, the kiss? But, didn’t you kiss that girl Megan in high school? The one with purple streaks in her hair?”
“Well,” Reggie refused to look at his friend, “See the thing about that is, um, I sort of...kind of...lied about doing that.”
Luke remembered the day after Reggie’s date with Megan. Reggie had refused to talk about it, so Luke had assumed the worst. They all had assumed the worst until Bobby had prodded Reggie until he revealed that he had kissed Megan. Suddenly, the fact that Reggie hadn’t proudly announced that he had gotten his first kiss, but, instead, nervously admitted it after enough teasing made sense to him.
It made sense overall, though, Reggie lying about kissing that girl. Despite his flirtatious nature, Reggie never stuck with one person long enough for them to kiss. It was usually one date and nothing more. He claimed that it was because he was waiting for the ‘best babe’ as he put it, and Luke couldn’t really argue with that.
Still Luke felt the need to question Reggie, “So, wait, wait, you didn’t kiss her after the date? Is that why you never went on another date?”
Reggie let out a laugh, shaking his head, “It sucked at the time, but the reason we never went on another date is because Megan told me she was a lesbian after the date. And when Bobby wouldn’t stop asking me about it, I panicked and said I kissed her.”
Luke winced, “Yikes, dude, I’m sorry.”
Reggie shrugged, a small frown on his lips, “Megan was cool, man. After she told me, she apologized and told me that I deserved to find the right person that wasn’t, you know, a lesbian.”
“She was right, dude, you deserve to find that person, or ghost, I guess. I mean, ghosts can still kiss, right?” Luke tried to cheer up his friend, but the frown still remained
“It doesn’t stop Alex and Willie,” Reggie replied, “Man, Alex totally lucked out. A hot ghost literally skateboarded into his life to give him kisses. Don’t get me wrong, I’m super happy for him, but I think I deserve a ghost babe too.”
“Blondey did luck out, didn’t he?” Luke looked at his friend, and couldn’t help but think that the pout was kind of cute, “But, you know nothing is stopping you from getting that first kiss.”
“What? It’s not like I could go out and smooch the first ghost I find.”
“Bro, come on. Who has two thumbs and is totally willing to kiss Reggie right now?” Luke pointed at himself with his thumbs, a dumb smile on his face, “This guy.”
“W-what?”
“It’s not like I haven’t done it before, Reg. I kissed plenty of girls in high school, and Alex when he got all freaked out about what kissing a guy felt like.”
“You and Alex kissed? Since when?!” Reggie asked, feeling both flustered and bewildered.
Luke put his hands up in a placating way, “Chill. We were like fourteen, but my point still stands. I have experience, you need experience. I like kissing people, you want to kiss someone. It works out, bro.”
“I...I mean, I guess that’s true,” Reggie said, hoping Luke couldn’t see the blush on his face.
Luke could totally see the blush on Reggie’s cheeks, and it made his need to be his best friend's first kiss greater. Who wouldn’t want to kiss such a pretty face?
“So,” Luke smirked, moving closer to his friend, “Do you want to kiss me?”
Reggie tried to find a sign that Luke was messing with him, but found nothing other than his stupid smirk and bright eyes, “Aren’t you the one kissing me?”
“Same thing, dude.”
“Okay, you can kiss me,” Reggie quickly said before he could overthink the decision.
Luke smiled brightly at this, a bit too excited to be kissing his friend platonically, before he leaned in closer. Reggie, despite truly wanting to be kissed, tensed when Luke moved closer. He doesn’t remember the last time he felt this nervous about anything. Luke’s eyes were like fire against his skin, and he wasn’t really sure how to handle it. Luke had never really looked at him like that. Julie, sure, but never him.
Luke looked him over, “Are you sure you want me to kiss you?”
“Y-yea, I do. I’m just...nervous, I don’t know. I shouldn’t be nervous.”
“That’s okay and normal, Reg,” Luke said, with a smile, before he gently grabbed Reggie’s chin.
Despite feeling slightly comforted by this, Reggie was immediately thrown off by Luke turning his head to the side instead of pulling him forward.
“What are y-oh,” The guitarist cut Reggie off by placing a soft kiss on his jaw.
“This okay?” Luke whispered as he followed the line of Reggie’s jaw with kisses. Reggie nodded quickly, face feeling hot. The bassist swore that this is what being on fire would feel like.
Luke stopped kissing his jaw to whisper, "Relax, babe."
Babe. That truly threw the bassist off. Sure, he could barely handle the jaw kisses, but the pet name that Luke reserved for girlfriends being used on him? And Reggie wasn't Luke’s girlfriend last time he checked.
He wasn't sure why, but this sent Reggie into a panic. What was he doing? Somehow the joke between them had turned into something serious. Suddenly, he realized that he didn't mind being one of Luke's 'babes', and, honestly, he had no clue when that happened.
This was his best friend doing him a favor by being his first kiss. This was his best friend.
"Uh." Reggie awkwardly placed a hand on Luke's chest, pushing him away, "I-I can't do this."
"Oh," Luke said, trying to ignore the intense pang of disappointment in his chest, "Yea, of course."
They sat in a heavy silence, both of them too close and too far from each other, before Reggie said, "Thanks for the offer though, bro."
"Um, you're welcome?" Luke replied, looking towards the ground.
Reggie awkwardly patted Luke's shoulder as he said, "I'm gonna go talk to Julie. Just remembered that I promised to help her out with her English homework. We can finish the movie later, right?"
Luke nodded, not really able to look at his best friend at the moment, which made Reggie feel a little guilty. It wasn't a complete lie on the bassists part. He was going to talk to Julie, just not about English homework.
Reggie spared a glance at Luke, who still wasn’t looking at him, before he poofed to Julie’s door.
“Knock, knock,” Reggie said as he put his hand through the door, knocking on the other side.
“Come in!” The girl looked up from her homework and at the boy who just entered her room, her eyebrows furrowing, “Why are you so flushed? Are you alright?”
“Uh, uh, yup. Everything's a-okay! Couldn’t be better, actually. Did you do something new to your room? It looks great in her-”
“Ooookay, no, something is definitely up,” Julie patted the bed next to her, “Come and spill, Reginald.”
Reggie sunk into himself, but sat next to Julie anyways. She looked at him expectedly, “So, um, how do I say this? Luke kind of sort of offered to be my first kiss and...and I might have realized that I liked him more than a friend right before he kissed me. And...now I’m here.”
Julie blinked several times as she processed what was just said to her, “Okay, that’s a lot.”
“I know, I know,” Reggie felt like he was scrambling, “and this might be awkward cause I know that you have a...thing with Luke, so I don’t know why I thought this was a good idea. I can leave, actually, that’s a better idea then th-”
Julie placed a hand on the boy’s arm in a comforting way, “Reggie, it’s okay. I promise. Luke and I don’t really like each other like that. At least not anymore. We talked it out, and we realized that it was more of a platonic soulmate relationship, you know? Anyways, it’s fine, Reg, really. We’re just friends.”
Reggie stopped, his panic subsiding some, “Really?”
“Yes, really, plus...I think Luke might have feelings for a certain someone.”
“Wait, who?”.
“Oh, I don’t know,” she nudged Reggie on the shoulder, playfully, “They wear leather jackets and have swooshie hair...”
“No, seriously, who?”
Julie looked at him incredulously for a few seconds before responding, “...you! I’m talking about you, Reggie!”
“Me?” Reggie looked at the girl with a confused expression.
“Yes, you! Who else wears a leather jacket and has swooshie hair?”
The boy shrugged, “Someone with style?”
She rolled her eyes, “Okay, sure, but my point remains.”
“Did...did he tell you he liked me?” Reggie asked, hesitantly.
“No, he didn’t bu-”
“Then how do you know he likes me?” Reggie questioned.
“Because he wanted to be your first kiss? That’s, I don’t know, a huge indicator that someone is into you!”
“Just because someone offers to kiss you doesn’t mean that they like you. Luke’s done it plenty of times before now,” Reggie protested.
“He’s what now?” Julie truly couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
“He’s just joking around when he asks me to kiss him! We’ve been doing it for years, Jules!”
“Years?! Reginald Peters, you mean to tell me that Luke has been asking you to kiss him for years and you never thought ‘huh I wonder if that means anything more’?!” Julie whisper yelled, hoping her family couldn’t hear her arguing with an idiot ghost.
“Well, I am now!” Reggie got up from the bed, crossing his arms, “Just because your best friend is calling you babe...while...kissing your jaw...doesn’t mean that they...okay.”
“Do you get it now?” Julie asked, hopefully.
Reggie laid on the bed, dramatically, groaning into his hands, “What do I do?”
“You should go talk to him. I know it’s scary, but it’ll be worth it,” Julie moved so that she could play with the boy's hair.
Reggie closed his eyes, sighing, “But...it’s Luke. We’ve been friends for years. Years, Jules. What if I ruin that because I misinterpreted the whole thing? I tend to do that, you know.”
Julie braided a small part of Reggie’s short hair, “You don’t ruin things, Reggie. Sure, sometimes you don’t get signals, but you’ve never ruined anything. Even if you did misinterpret things, which I doubt, Luke can’t hate you or stop being your friend.”
“I guess you're right,” a small smile laced Reggie’s lips.
She smiled brightly, gently undoing the braid, “I know I’m right. So, are you going to go talk to him?”
“Yea, I am,” he got up from the bed and turned towards Julie, “Thank, Julie, for being the best.”
She gave him two thumbs up, “No problem, Reg. Good luck! It’ll work out, promise.”
Reggie took a deep breath before transporting back to the garage. Luke was still there, thankfully. He was laying on the coach with his hands covering his face, the laptop still paused on the stupid romance movie they were watching.
“I’m such an idiot,” Luke groaned into his hands, not noticing that Reggie had poofed in.
“I wouldn’t say that,” Reggie quietly said.
Luke sat up quickly with wide eyes, “Reg! I didn’t hear you come in.”
“Yea...sorry that I kind of just ran out of the middle of movie night,” Reggie replied, still standing by the door.
“It’s okay, man. I’m sorry that I made things awkward,” Luke got up from the couch and walked over to where Reggie was, “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”
Reggie shook his head, “You didn’t make me uncomfortable. I just...got nervous.”
“Yea,” Luke scratched the back of his head, “I can be a lot sometimes, so, uh, sorry about that, dude.”
“No, really, it’s on me,” Reggie tried to light the mood the only way he knew how, “I, uh, just couldn’t handle how smokin’ you were.”
Luke’s eyebrows scrunched in confusion before he softened, letting out a laugh, “Reggie, are you trying to flirt with me?”
“Is it working?” Reggie asked, weirdly hopeful.
“Maybe,” Luke answered, a grin growing on his face.
“Then yes, I am flirting with you 'cause you’re a total babe who should totally be my first kiss,” Reggie said with growing confidence.
Luke snorted, but grabbed onto Reggie’s necklace to pull him closer, “I have to say, Reg, that was a pretty horrible pick up line.”
“But you’ll still kiss me?” Reggie asked as he looked at Luke’s lips, a happy gleam in his eyes.
“Of fucking course I will,” Luke then yanked the necklace once more, crashing his lips onto Reggie’s.
It was messy and a little awkward (Reggie had zero clue what he was doing), but Luke decided that this was the best kiss he’s ever gotten. Even if it took Reggie a second to figure out where to put his hands, nothing compared to the way that Reggie melted into him, or the feeling of swooshie hair under his fingertips.
When Luke pulled away, they looked at each other with happiness radiating off them.
“That was one hell of a first kiss, dude,” Reggie commented, laughing a little.
Luke stayed silent for a second, looking over the other boys face, with what looked like a billion thoughts going through his head.
“Uh, Luke?” Reggie asked, unsure of what was happening in the other boys head.
“Yea, I just decided that I’m gonna make out with you,” Luke replied, casually, “You’re very hot.”
There was a moment of silence as Reggie took in Luke’s words before he started laughing. This only made Luke want to kiss him even more. So, he did. Over and over again. Luke never wanted to stop kissing Reggie, in all honesty.
And if Alex poofed back into the garage after his date only to witness his two best friends making out on the couch? Well, Luke would say that it was worth it. He had to make up for lost time, and Alex would just have to deal with it.