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Watching Luke and Julie together was weird.
Alex wasn’t sure if it was because he’d just known Luke his whole life or what. All he knew was that little kid who used to eat sand on the playground was a far cry from the ghost who stood before him these days.
Maybe it was just because for the first couple of months the boys had known Julie, they hadn’t been able to touch her at all. Luke was never particularly shy about touching Alex or Reggie during their lives, but that touchiness had never really extended to anyone else–not even Bobby. So after they’d gotten the ability to make contact with Julie, Alex had been a little surprised at just how often Luke touched her.
Sure, Julie would hug Alex or Reggie or give them a comforting pat on the shoulder, but she didn’t seem like a particularly touchy person overall. However, she didn’t seem to mind at all that Luke had taken to tucking her under his arm or holding onto her hands, constantly orbiting around her instead of keeping a respectful distance like he used to do.
Or maybe it was so surprising because, for all of Luke’s positive qualities, he definitely was not an empath. Dealing with other people’s feelings and comfort was not something that had ever come naturally to him before. Sure, Luke tried his best with Alex’s panic attacks and tried to be patient with Reggie’s antics, but “emotional maturity” had never been a concept that Alex associated with Luke.
These days, it wasn’t uncommon for Alex to walk into a room and see Julie slumped over her homework in a trance with Luke behind her braiding her hair like she’d taught him or putting it in a ponytail to keep the errant curls out of her face while she worked. He’d even started wearing elastics and scrunchies on his wrist for such occasions.
Other times, Alex and Reggie would walk into the dark studio and see them sprawled out on the couch, a movie playing out of Julie’s laptop on the coffee table. She seemed to always fall asleep during whatever they watched, her head rested on Luke’s chest or lap or whatever part of him was closest to her. He’d usually be petting her hair or back and would make sure to shush the boys as soon as they entered the room.
So that was new.
The weirdest part, Alex supposed, wasn’t actually even their touching. He could kind of deal with the piano bench flirting and playing with each other’s hair and snuggling way too close together on the couch or even that time they’d both squeezed themselves together in one of the studio’s chairs.
No, the weirdest part was definitely the way-too-intimate contact he would sometimes accidentally bear witness to. When they’d all be hanging out together and Alex would catch their pinkies twined together and unsuccessfully hidden out of sight behind a pillow or someone else’s back, like they just needed the physical reassurance that the other person was there with them.
Or when they’d be practicing or jamming out in the studio and he’d catch Luke staring at Julie in a way that definitely seemed too private for Alex’s eyes, like she’d singlehandedly gifted Luke the world and music itself. And then he’d see Julie make eye contact with Luke and he’d immediately scrunch his nose at her because it always made her giggle quietly. Like they had their own language and could speak to each other silently no matter who else was around to see it. Like Luke just needed to hear Julie laugh because her happiness brought him happiness.
Alex had no idea how Rose Molina had known that these two were two halves of the same coin, but he’d thank her everyday for it. And he’d thank her that Alex and Reggie had somehow been allowed to join Luke on this adventure that had so clearly brought him straight to his soulmate, someone who hadn’t even been born until 10 years after they’d been wiped off the earth. Because they were so clearly meant to find each other.
So yeah, seeing Luke and Julie together was weird, but Alex guessed he didn’t really mind it.