Chapter Text
It was the day after they played the Orpheum. When Julie had to finally go to bed the night before, the boys had stayed in the garage. They were exhausted from their performance, and were drained from trying to stay alive, so they all curled up together and went to sleep.
Luke was the first to wake up. Alex and Reggie were still leaning on him, and it made Luke smile. On Luke’s left, Alex gently stirred.
“Hey,” said Luke.
“Hey,” said Alex back, squinting at the morning sunlight seeping in through the windows. Reggie was still asleep, but just barely.
“Should we wake him?” asked Alex softly.
“Yeah, I’ll get him up,” said Luke. “Reggie…” said Luke, gently shaking his shoulder.
Reggie stirred and slowly opened his eyes. “Morning,” he mumbled as he yawned. A few locks of his raven hair fell across his face, and Luke couldn’t resist pushing it away. But when his hand brushed Reggie’s forehead, he paused.
“Reg, you’re a little warm, you feeling okay?”
Reggie sleepily swatted Luke’s hand away. “I’m fine, we were just all snuggled up, and you’re warm and toasty. That’s probably why I’m warm. Plus, ghosts can’t get sick, can then?”
Luke shrugged, not having an answer to that question. His mind was already on other things, working a mile a minute. “Come on, let’s go wake Julie,” he suggested.
They all knew they were supposed to knock on Julie’s door before entering, and they were supposed to respect her boundaries, but lately Julie had been a little more relaxed about it. Hopefully it wouldn’t change now that they were corporeal.
They poofed into Julie’s room, and found her still asleep. The three of them tried to stifle their giggles at the sight of Julie. She was on her side, hugging a pillow. There was hair in her mouth, and a little bit of drool on her blanket.
Luke bent down to Julie’s eye level, and called out to her in a singsong voice. “Julieeeee…”
Reggie and Alex tried to contain their laughs as best they could.
Julie smiled in her sleep and hugged her pillow tighter. “Luke, I love you…” she mumbled, still deep in a dream.
Alex and Reggie doubled over, cackling at the sight of Luke’s shocked face that was quickly turning bright red. It was no secret that Julie and Luke were pining for each other, and the fact that Luke was mortified made it even better.
Julie began to stir from her sleep at the sound of bright laughter filling her room, but she shot up and almost knocked heads with Luke when she saw him staring at her.
“What are you guys doing in here?” she asked. She made a disgusted face, then proceeded to pull the hair out of her mouth. Then she focussed her attention back on the boys, awaiting an answer.
Alex was the first to regain his composure, Reggie was still laughing softly, and Luke was looking away from all of them, his face still bright red like a tomato.
“We just came to wake you up because I’m assuming he,” said Alex, pointing at Luke, “wants to work on some new music at seven in the morning.”
“When you’re inspired, you’re inspired!” argued Luke.
“You know you’re supposed to knock, and we need to set a new ground rule about sleeping. Unless it’s an absolute emergency, don’t wake me up or be in my room while I’m asleep, okay? We can make acceptances when those times come around.”
The three of them nodded, knowing it was pointless to argue with her. Once Julie Molina made her mind up about her boundaries, there was nothing they could do about it. Not even Reggie’s puppy eyes worked, and they had tried many times.
“Okay one more thing,” said Julie. “Why is his face bright red?” she said, gesturing at Luke in question.
Alex smirked and Reggie giggled again. “You said you loved Luke while you were asleep,” teased Alex.
Now Julie and Luke were a matching pair of red faces. “I said that?” squeaked out Julie, looking at Luke for help.
Luke rubbed the back of his neck and nodded at her. “Yeah… you totally said it and we all heard it....”
There was an awkward silence before Alex clapped his hands to break the silence. “Okay, we’re gonna let you get ready, meet us down in the studio in a few minutes?”
Julie nodded, eager to move on from the awkwardness. The boys poofed down to the studio, and once again, Luke’s mind was racing, his mind on music.
“Alright boys, let’s get warmed up,” he said, slinging his guitar around his neck. Alex made his way over to his drums, and sat down behind them, twirling his drumsticks as he waited for them to get started.
Reggie slowly made his way over to his bass, but reached out and leaned heavily on the stand holding his bass.
Luke frowned and made his way over to Reggie. “Reg? You okay?” He crossed in front of Reggie, and took in how he looked in shock. Reggie’s face was very pale, with two splotches of red on his cheeks, and his forehead was glistening with sweat. His hands were shaking at his sides, and his face was screwed up in a pained yet tired expression.
“Reggie?” asked Luke again, his voice laced with concern. He took off his guitar and set it down gently, reaching out to put an arm around Reggie’s shoulder to steady him, but didn’t reach him in time.
“Luke, I don’t feel so hot…” murmured Reggie shakily before his eyes fluttered shut and his knees buckled.
Luke shot out in alarm, catching Reggie in his arms. “Reggie?” Luke had raised his voice, scared for his best friend. He had never seen anything like this happen to him, except the night they had died. It was scary then, and it was scary now.
“Alex, go get Julie,” he said, trying to keep his voice from trembling in fear of what this could be. Alex poofed out without another word, leaving Luke to care for Reggie.
“Hold on Reg…” said Luke, carrying Reggie over to the couch and laying him down.