Work Text:
BEEP BEEP BEEP
Alex had been trapped in yet another nightmare about missing a gig only to find out that Reggie covered for him on drums when he was jarred awake by piercing beeping sound. His heart leapt out of his chest as he shot up, gasping for breath as the sound seemed to get louder and louder. At first he thought he was still dreaming, but no, he was awake in bed. Beside him, his French bulldog puppy, Chewy, was fast asleep, her head still on the pillow beside him, snoozing right through the horrible sound.
“How are you still asleep?” Alex whined to the dog. He poked her belly, but puppy didn’t even budge. “Okay.”
BEEP BEEP BEEP
Groaning, Alex gave into the fact that he was going to have to investigate the sound or else risk losing his hearing. And as a twenty-one year old drummer, his hearing was already at enough risk, thank you very much.
“It’s like a fucking raptor is escaping or something,” Alex muttered to himself as he pried his bedroom door open, carefully taking a peek out into the dark hall. He was pretty sure he’d only ever heard this intense of alarm beepings in the movies.
Aside from the freaky beeping, his apartment was eerily empty and quiet without Reggie in it, and he had to admit, it was more than a little terrifying to be confronting a mysterious beeping sound at 3AM without him. He was happy for his friend that he had finally admitted his feelings for Luke and Julie, he really was. He was happy everyone was so fucking happy. For real. But somehow it seemed more than a bit unfair that his whole band had not only got to together, but left him alone with his spare bedroom and rent than had somehow doubled while he was on tour. Then there was the dog. When Reggie talked about adopting sibling puppies for the four of them to raise, Alex thought he was kidding. Reggie was not. And now Alex was the proud owner of one eighth month old, perpetually grumpy and sleepy, French bulldog, who Reggie had named after a Star Wars character. Without asking.
While Chewy slept soundly (somehow) in Alex’s own nice warm bed, he crept out into the freezing hallway. To be safe, he carefully slid open the hall closet to sneak out one of the many lightsabers Reggie had left behind when he moved out (“they’re a gift!”) and armed himself with it as he dared to enter the living room. Just in case this was some kind of security alarm he didn’t know he had and he was walking right into a robbery.
Good thing his phone was back in his room, by his bed.
BEEP BEEP BEEP! BEEP BEEP BEEP!
The noise was definitely coming from the living room. Heart pounding, Alex swiftly turned the corner, letting out a warning battle cry as he swung the lightsaber around to find…it wasn’t the security alarm at all.
It was the fucking fire alarm.
"So that's what you sound like," Alex announced to no one. He wasn't there for the infamous 'Reggie started an oven fire making a frozen pizza' incident and had somehow managed to have never heard the ancient-looking alarm go off before.
Of course, the alarm was at the highest place on the ceiling possible, in the little walkway between the kitchen and living room. And he didn’t own a ladder. He was tall, but he wasn’t reaching a fire alarm on a 12 foot ceiling with no ladder tall.
Still drowsy from his Benadryl-induced sleep, Alex’s heavy eyes dashed around, trying to think quick so he could fix this and go back to dreamland. Even his gig anxiety dreams were better than this.
BEEP BEEP BEEP! BEEP BEEP BEEP!
If he wasn’t going to lose his hearing over this, he was at least going to lose his fucking mind. Of course, he didn’t own a kitchen table or chairs since he let Reggie take theirs (“it was my first ever kitchen table! I never had one as a kid! It’s special! Please Lex can I keep it? Please?!”) What the fuck was he going to do with a kitchen table, anyway? Eat at it?
“Stupid fucking table,” he mumbled, regretting his sentimentality toward Reggie as he dragged over the next best thing: the coffee table.
There Alex was, at 3AM, standing on his coffee table with the lightsaber, trying to get it to reach the red button on the blaring alarm. He wasn't exactly sure the button did anything, but there wouldn't be a red button there if you weren't supposed to push it, right? But even the lightsaber was barely tall enough or strong enough. Instead, all the lightsaber did was contract back into its handle as soon as he put it against any kind of pressure.
“Of fucking course.”
Next, he tried standing on the table, on his tippy toes, hitting the alarm with a broomstick handle as he tried to reach the reset button again…and it worked!
And for a solid, glorious ten seconds, the apartment was silent again.
“Oh thank fucking god,” he breathed.
BEEP BEEP BEEP! BEEP BEEP BEEP!
“Why?!!!!!!!” Alex cried. Literally, he was about to cry.
Even with the table, he was still just a hair too short to twist the alarm off the ceiling. Ever so carefully, he grabbed the small side table from the couch, balanced it on top of the coffee table, and stepped up on it.
“Ha!” He grinned, seeing that he could reach the blaring alarm perfectly. “You are not going to fucking win you fucking asshole-!”
And he lost his balance.
And he was on the ground.
And now Chewy was awake, barking her head off as she ran up to him. She was yipping like crazy as Alex groaned, clutching his shoulder. The puppy had the audacity to look annoyed because of him waking her up.
“I’m okay, thanks for asking,” Alex mumbled to the barking dog, “and apparently, I talk to fire alarms and dogs now.”
Living alone was going great.
Then the worst possible thing that could have happened, happened: there was a knock at the door. At 3AM. While his fire alarm was blaring and Alex was flat on his back on the floor, wearing just his boxer shorts. And of all boxer shorts, they were the ones with the rainbow on them that said ‘yes, I woke up this gay’ that Reggie got him for Christmas. He made a mental note to text Reggie to let him know he was single-handledly ruining his night without even being there.
“Hey!” A voice called from the hall. “Yo, you okay in there?”
Chewy barked back in response, rushing up to the door and jumping at it like she was trying to escape and get the fuck out of dodge herself.
“Yeah!” Alex managed to call. “I’m…I’m fine.”
Somehow, the alarm seemed to get even louder(or maybe he really was going crazy), Chewy was scratching like crazy at the door, and the voice called:
“Yeah, okay, I’m coming in.”
“What?!”
His front door magically opened, and Alex looked back from where he lay on the floor…and his whole world stopped. There, standing in the entrance to his apartment was the most gorgeous guy Alex had ever seen in his whole life. Looking about his age, the guy stood wearing yellow sweatpants that were rolled up above his ankles, with a nonbinary flag sewed into the left thigh- and no shirt, showing off a full chest and arm of tattoos. Long, flowy black hair tumbled past their shoulders.
And Chewy was trying to chew the gorgeous guy’s ankles off.
“W-who?” Alex stammered. “How?”
"Yeah, your lock was embarassingly easy to pick. I didn't even have to use these." He twirled a set of keys in his hands.
With a groan, Alex managed to peel himself off the floor to figure out what was going on, and the guy raced over to help.
“Woah, bro, take it slow!” The guy called over the blaring alarm. Then he noticed the tipped over side table and coffee table contraption and frowned down at the hardwoods. There was the tiniest scratch where the table scraped against the floor. “Dude, you dinged my floor!”
“Your floor?!"
Alex scrambled to his feet, totally in shock by the turn of events. Chewy was still barking her head off, the alarm was still going, and Alex was standing in his boxer shorts just inches from the most beautiful person he’d ever seen in his life. Self-consciously, he awkwardly crossed one arm over his chest and tried to hide the fact that he was wearing possibly the most embarrassing boxers ever with his other arm.
“Yeah,” the guy replied, holding up a set of keys. “I’m Willie Covington. My dad kinda owns the building."
“Ohhhhhhh.” Blushing he looked around at his mess of an apartment and quickly bent down to pull his crazy dog off the guy’s foot. “I’m Alex. I um…own this dog.”
“Cute dog,” Willie grinned, wiggling their eyebrows. “And um…nice boxers.”
Oh god.
Alex’s blush deepened as he reached for a blanket to wrap around himself, and Chewy wiggled out of his arms, jumping down to run back to bed.
“Traitor!” Alex called after the puppy. He plastered on the most awkward smile ever as he turned back to the beaming super’s son. “So um…do you know anything about fire alarms?”
Five minutes later, Willie was at the top of his dad’s ladder, taking the alarm off the ceiling. Alex stood dutifully at the bottom of the ladder, “spotting” Willie. The apartment was dark now after Willie turned off the breaker so that he could unscrew the alarm and disconnect the wire. As soon as it was off, the blaring stopped, and Alex let out a sigh of relief…only for the blaring to start again a moment later. Willie snatched out the battery and threw it onto the couch.
Silence.
“Now that’s a beautiful sound,” Alex sighed as Willie climbed down the ladder. Only, as soon as they jumped down, the alarm started to chirp. Throwing himself back against the sofa, Alex let out a sigh of defeat. “This thing hates me! It can go fucking die in a hole.”
First, Willie tried to clean the dust out of the alarm a bit, but that didn’t help. Then they reached for the new battery and got to work replacing it. At last, when the new battery was in, it was quiet once again. Without the alarm sounding, it was intensely quiet and dark with just the two of them and Alex’s flashlight.
“How did you learn to do all this?” Alex asked as he watched them work.
“Mostly my dad,” Willie replied. “He used to do handyman jobs part-time to support his magician gig-" Alex’s jaw dropped, and Willie groaned: “Please don’t ask.”
“Dude, you can’t give me my dad’s a magician and ask me to not ask!"
“My dad was a magician,” Willie corrected. “He kinda got into this real bad accident on stage that ended his career. Then his dad died a couple months ago, and he had owned some properties that he left to us. I ended up helping out a lot after I kinda got hit by this car, and I couldn’t skate or surf or anything. My dad had fully taken over the building by then and successfully scared away the full time super, and-“ Willie threw up jazz hands, “now you have me!”
Alex blinked. So he'd missed a lot during their summre tour.
(And jeez, he thought he and his bandmates had a crazy life story.)
“…okay...wait, you got hit by a car?!”
“Yup,” Willie chirped, with a suspicious amount of pride. They brushed a hand through their long hair, tugging it back so that Alex could see the jagged scar right underneath his hairline. “Some say my family is cursed, but I mostly just think skating in traffic was probably a bad idea.”
Snorting, Alex’s jaw dropped as he examined the dark scar…and took a moment to admire all of Willie’s tattoos.
“…yeah…it probably was,” Alex teased. “If it makes you feel any better, I almost died from a bad hotdog…that I bought out of the back of someone’s car.”
A gorgeous laugh burst out of Willie and they threw their head back; shivers shot up Alex’s spine.
“No way! I didn’t think it got any worse than ‘my dad almost drowned himself in a box on live TV’ but you know what, that might take the cake.”
“Yeah…wait. Is your dad Caleb Covington?!”
Willie grimaced.
“Yup. The one and only.”
“I heard about that trick!” Alex remembered. He could still remember Reggie bouncing around the apartment, freaked out over the America’s Got Talent act gone very, very wrong. “My friend Reggie wouldn’t stop talking about it for like, days. He loved your dad’s auditions! He was pissed at Simon Cowell for weeks for not giving him a second chance."
“Thanks, I think?” Willie sighed. They waved their hand around the apartment. “Well, now we do this because my dad’s mostly been too embarrassed to show his face in public again. It’s not half bad though, he pays me well and it gives me a chance to focus on stuff I love, you know? I’m not just working some 9-5 for some corporation. I think Dad's going a little stir crazy though, he’s talking about opening up some jazz club as the quote 'next phase in his career'. Pretty sure this is some kind of mid-life crisis type thing.”
They both giggled at that. Willie went back to work, changing out the battery while Alex held the flashlight on him, hanging onto their every move, every gentle breath. He shined the light to guide Willie up the ladder again. The super snapped the alarm back into place, and Willie hit the reset button, silencing the alarm.
“Oh thank god,” Alex practically sobbed.
“Okay, hit the lights!” Willie called.
Alex raced over to the utility closet, where the breaker was and flipped the switch.
And the alarm started blaring again.
“That thing is fucking haunted!” Alex yelped.
“Fire alarms are a bitch,” Willie shook their head. “Lemme try the reset button again.”
They tried the button once. Then twice. Then a third time, holding it down for even longer. And finally…there was complete silence. The silence remained as Willie slowly retreated down the ladder. Together, they dared to back away from the ladder and big sighs of relief this time. They both collapsed onto the sofa, exhausted. It was…intimate. A little too intimate for two shirtless people who had just met less than an hour ago. Alex leapt up, practically shaking with nerves.
“Thanks," Alex offered sincerely. "Truth is, this is my first time being on my own, and I'm a bit nervous about it. It means a lot, having someone who can help."
"You can ask me for help anytime, Hotdog," Willie grinned. Alex's mouth fell open in shock at the nickname. His heart fluttered with flattery. He didn't even have the guts to argue with it, it was just...everything that this super sweet, cute guy he just met would even nickname him. "And I get it. You spend your whole life waiting to grow up and then being an adult is just ten times crazier than being a kid."
"Right?!" He casually ran a hand through his hair...maybe not caring this time when he noticed Willie checking out his arms. Something about being around Willie was so comforting, and Alex was relieved to know they'd probably run into each other again. Maybe he wasn't so alone in this building after all. But for now, he could tell how tired Willie was and truthfully, he was exhausted too. He also figured should probably go to bed before he said anything else stupid. "Well, thanks again. You um…you probably want to get back to sleep."
“Yeah, and you need your beauty sleep…beauty,” Willie replied coolly.
Alex stammered, bluescreening completely as he stood there like an idiot in his boxers. A blush rose on his cheeks, his chest felt tight and warm, and he almost wished the fire alarm would sound again, just to get him out of this.
“I um…uh…yeah…you too!” Was all he could manage.
“Yeah,” Willie laughed. “Well, I’m upstairs in 4D, if you ever need me. See you around, Hotdog."
Then Willie actually winked as they collected their ladder and waltzed back out the door, disappearing into the dark hallway. He waited until the door was safely snapped shut and locked again (from the outside). Alex stared up at the fire alarm and cried incredously:
“What the actual fuck just happened?!”
The next day, the rest of the band came over for a debriefing. Also, pancakes.
“I missed your chocolate chip pancakes so much!” Reggie gushed as he stuffed a fifth one into his mouth. “Luke only makes stupid waffles. It’s not the same.”
“Hey!” Luke pouted at his boyfriend. “I thought you loved my waffles.”
Reggie looked Luke up and down smugly.
“Oh, I love your waffles.”
Luke squawked and Julie groaned, banging her head against the kitchen counter. She looked up to Alex and muttered:
“Tell me again why I let these dorks move in with me?"
Alex snorted.
“Because they’re the loves of your lives?”
The two guitarists blushed as Julie patted both of their cheeks and quipped:
“Oh. Yeah!"
“Pancakes beat actual waffles any day though,” Reggie chirpped, reaching for the syrup. “They’re like cake for breakfast!”
Turning back to the stove, Alex pretended to not be totally sickened by the lovefest happening right before his eyes. He couldn’t stop thinking about Willie, his soft smile or how could they smelled. It was nervewrecking, imagining them being right up above him. Were they thinking about him too? Were they still asleep, curled up under a blanket? He smiled at the very thought of a sleepy Willie bundled up in blankets.
“Okay, walk me through again exactly what the super said,” Julie told him.
On the kitchen floor, Chewy and her puppy brother, Wookiee, were fighting over a whole pancake that had fallen on the floor and Alex glared up at Reggie, who looked away innocently.
“It accidentally fell, I swear!”
“Dude, stop giving the dog people food!” Luke complained. "You're gonna turn him into a person!"
Reggie's eyes blew wide. "Wait...can that really happen?"
Julie just banged her head against the counter again. "Oh my fucking god. What have I done with my life?"
"You know you love us, babe," Luke leaned down to kiss the top of her head.
“Wait, did you just give my dog chocolate?” Alex asked, swirling around in a panic.
Thankfully, Chewy looked totally fine, albeit completely jealous that her brother got more of the pancake than she did.
“No!” Reggie shot. “It was a non-chocolatey piece.” All three of the others’ stared him down as the bassist caved, knowing he was totally guilty of the food giving. “Okay, back to cute handyman guy! You said he lived in 4B, right?”
Alex scrunched his nose up. His tired brain couldn’t remember if Willie said 4B (as in boy) or 4D (as in dog).
“I think?” Alex replied. “God I’m so fucking useless.”
“Hey!” Luke suddenly appeared beside him, from out of nowhere. Alex blinked. “You’re not useless. You’re Alex. And you are a catch.”
He pressed his finger against Alex’s chest with each word, for emphasis. The drummer wasn’t sure that meant a lot coming from the boy who dated him for three weeks in high school only to stand him up on two dates because ‘I was busy writing music and forgot’ and ultimately decide they were better off as friends. (the make out sessions were hot, though)
“He’s right,” Julie assured him with a grin, “and a handyman meetcute is like top tier meetcuteness. This is total destiny in the making.”
That…actually felt pretty good to hear. Julie was right, this was the kind of cute story one told their grandkids one day. He looked down at Chewy again. Or granddogs.
“…okay,” Alex let out a sigh of defeat. “So what do I do? I’m not good at this.”
“You’ve gotta own your awesomeness!” Reggie declared through a mouthful of pancakes.
Suddenly there was a crash…and a familiar loud beeping sound blarred again in the apartment. Alex swirled around to find Luke standing on the coffee table and holding broomstick in one hand, a very broken fire alarm in the other, and wearing a shiteating grin as he sing-songed:
“Whoopsies!”
And so there Alex was, standing in front of apartment 4B, with one broken fire alarm in his hands. His friends came with him for moral support (and to check out the hot handyman themselves) (and to make sure Alex didn’t just run away).
“You’ve got this!” Luke hissed, massaging his shoulders.
Taking a deep breath, Alex knocked on the door of apartment 4B, hoping he had remembered the number Willie said correctly.
The door opened right away, but not to Willie…instead, it was Caleb Covington himself. The magician was dressed in a royal purple house robe with his own initials embroidered in gold on the pocket. Peering around him, Alex could see an apartment full of what looked like posters of the man himself and various magic props.
“Yes?” Caleb asked them curiously. His eyes narrowed in on the broken, beeping, fire alarm in Alex’s hand.
“I…I…um…” Alex panicked.
“You…you’re…” Reggie panicked too, blushing nearly as red as his flannel as he finally squeaked out: “You’re him!” He jumeped up and down excitedly. “You’re him, you’re him! The him! I’m a big, big fan, Mr. Covington Sir!”
The bassist stuck out his hand, awkwardly forcing the magician to shake it.
“This is the dude that owns your building?” Luke asked Alex.
Alex just shrugged. He didn’t even know much about Caleb aside from what Willie had said, but he felt a little star struck himself. Also, completely embarrassed because not only did he have the apartment number wrong, but he had gotten Willie’s dad instead.
“Well, it’s always nice to meet a fan,” Caleb greeted with a charming smile. “Would you kids like to come in? I have a few tricks up my sleeves I can show you.”
The magician made a quarter appear behind Reggie's ear, making him squeal with delight. Luke just scoffed, while Julie nudged at him for being rude. Seeing they weren't impressed, Caleb reached out, poking at the broken alarm. “Or…is this just emergency business?”
“No, Dad!” A muffled voice cried. The apartment across the hall opened and Willie came flying out of it. Alex bluescreened again, taking in the rainbow crop top and ripped jeans Willie now wore. God he was hot. Reggie, Luke and Julie were all staring, the boys especially looking a bit faint. Willie threw a painfully awkward smile at his dad as he stepped up beside Alex. “He’s here for me.”
The magician’s eyes narrowed with interest, but he didn’t ask as he simply replied:
“Oh, well then-“
But Reggie slammed his hand against the door before Caleb could close it.
“I’d love to see more tricks!”
“Oh boy,” Julie sighed, following Reggie reluctantly into the apartment as he went after the magician.
Luke rolled his eyes, smirking as he told Alex:
“We better go with him. You know, make sure he doesn’t turn Reggie into a bat or something.”
Alex snorted and teased:
“Would that really be the worst thing ever?”
“Hey! That’s my boyfriend you’re talking about.” Luke whined. Then he melted a bit, thinking about it. “Reggie would make a cute bat though.”
“Oh gross,” Alex groaned, making Willie laugh.
"Don't worry," Willie whispered, "pretty sure my dad's only turned like one of his assistants into bats." He stopped to think on it. "Okay, maybe two."
Luke let out whimper at the very thought, and he wasted no time dashing into the apartment after his lovers. He and Willie both giggled as they hi-fived each other; his heart skipped beats at the touch.
“This wasn’t exactly how I wanted you to meet my friends,” Alex told him, immediately feeling stupid for saying it.
“So,” Willie wiggled their eyebrows. “You had hoped to meet me again?”
“Maybeeeeeee.”
The super poked at the broken, beeping, alarm.
“Funny how this thing just fell down all on its own, after I snapped it back in so securely,” Willie teased.
“Yeah,” Alex blushed even harder. “Funny.”
Their eyes met, and his heart practically melted into a big ole puddle of goo right then and there. Being around Willie felt just as warm and comforting as it did during the night, and as anxious as he was to put himself out there, he found himself wanting to take the leap if it meant spending more time with Willie even more.
“I could fix it for you again,” Willie offered slyly, “but it might cost ya.”
Alex’s jaw fell open.
“Okay…name your price.”
“Dinner, with me. Tonight.”
Grinning like an idiot, Willie clearly knew they won him over, and it was all Alex could do to not burst into a happy dance right then and there.
“Deal.”
Their hands brushed against each other’s as they skipped back down the hall. As they got further away from the magician's apartment, Alex pretended he didn’t hear Luke exclaim:
“Okay, for real though. Where did Reggie go?!”