#reggiexeveryone is the best pairing

[innytoes]

From the subconscious that brought you the Quiet AU, it's time for Inny's Brain Comes Up With Another 100k fic she's never going to write while she's dreaming.

Okay so it's the Post Apocalypse. The apocalypse happened a few years ago, there was a horrible plague that makes you bleed from your eyes and maybe some other things, a lot of humanity was wiped out, chaos, destruction, blabla.

We start with Our Heroes travelling on foot. Luke is telling them this area seems familiar, and Alex and Reggie realise they're near where Bobby's family had a cabin. They decide to veer off because Alex remembers where Bobby hid the emergency key. Not that they haven't done their fare share of breaking and entering, but it would be nice to, you know, not have to.

Also maybe they want to see if Bobby is there. Because even though they split with a lot of bad blood between them over some stolen songs, the apocalypse makes you miss old friends.

Julie and Willie are like: um excuse me that is not a cabin that is a Log Mansion. It's three fucking stories. (It also had the exact layout as my grandmother's old house, because this is my brain, which is funny because my grandmother's house was very much not a log cabin).

And then SHOCK AND GASP Bobby comes out. He has the Trevor Wilson Beard and Man Bun and is just... staring like he's seen three ghosts... and two random people he doesn't know, I guess.

There is a big sappy reunion and a big talk and apology and blabla of course they can stay. There's more cabins around the place and they've made themselves a little farming community. They trade with the other little the towns in the area, but they haven't heard much from the bigger city in the while.

"Um yeah, maybe... maybe don't go to the city," Luke says. Reggie is very pale. Willie mutters about how there was plenty of stuff that could still be looted (as long as you don't mind all the dead bodies is left unsaid).

They settle in at Bobby's house and become part of the community, finding jobs. Willie does indeed go with some of the more brave individuals to the city to search for supplies. The whole community has like one working truck because gas is hard to find these days.

Some traveling trader comes by and he's basically on a giant sled on wheels pulled by huskies and predictably Reggie loses his mind and gets to play with the doggies.

There comes a night when Reggie can't sleep, so he's the only one awake to hear the car. Two cars. A group of four with two cars is bound to mean trouble, so he wakes everyone up because there's a high chance there's raiders.

The people are breaking in and Reggie goes downstairs to greet/distract them, playing the clueless guy, welcoming them and being like 'oh hey are you lost do you need help? We're looking for a bartender if you need a job' and basically being in the way and these four people are just so confused because they broke into his house and he's so cheerful about it.

One of them was injured and Reggie more seriously offers the first aid kit and just when they were about to be like 'fuck it let's just murder him and raid the place', where comes Julie and Luke with the shot guns. Meanwhile Alex, Willie, and Bobby were checking out their cars and alerting the neighbours about trouble and OH SHIT ONE OF THEM IS BLEEDING FROM THE EYES HE'S INFECTED.

Cue fuzzy chaotic time jump because I woke up with a dry mouth lol.

For some reason Bobby disappeared from the dream after this so maybe poor Bobbers got shot in the show down with the raiders. Or got hit by the car of the other three fleeing, leaving behind their infected friend.

The gang stays in Bobby's house, though, and slowly, Juke and Willex drift together. When they were travelling, they usually all slept together, but now...

Reggie, who is still grieving Bobby, and maybe blaming himself because he wasn't good enough at distracting the raiders, sees the other two couples drift together and decides to stay out of their way. He can't sleep anyway, since he was the only one awake to catch the raiders in the first place.

So he starts sleeping less, and less, spending less time with his friends because he wanted them to have time together... Pining because he's secretly a little in love with all of them, but they clearly don't want him.

Until he was suuuper stoked because he found a puppy. It was so cute, and he wants to show his friends, and they're so freaked out because Reggie, there is no puppy...

Turns out Reggie was hallucinating from lack of sleep, and he's so confused because he's CLEARLY HOLDING A PUPPY WHAT DO YOU MEAN and then the whole thing kind of comes out and not only is Reggie heartbroken when the hallucination shatters and vanishes, but he also confesses how he's in love them with but they clearly chose their partners and not him.

And both Juke and Willex are like: we've missed you, doofus, we love you, we didn't want to make you chose between us, we were scared you were mad at us for both flirting with you.

And they all live as happily ever after as you can in the post-apocalypse.

#julie and the phantoms #okay I woke up after the puppy part but I wrote myself a happy ending #it was so surreal because the dream pov kept switching between BEING Reggie and holding the puppy and feeling it #and 'outside shots' of him clearly not holding anything in his hands #and it only shattered when Luke said 'are you sure it's not a beagle' and the puppy was suddenly a beagle #and then Reggie's brain caught up with him #I wrote a thing #or my brain wrote a dream I guess #AUs are awesome #what do I even name this one #the post apocalypse plague au #there was probably more but this is all I could remember after a full day of work and such #my brain: ah yes I see you're too tired to write do you want a giant new au? it has reggie and puppies #reggiexeveryone is the best pairing #willex #juliexluke

[innytoes]

AU headcanon thingy: Reggie, the king of playground weddings for Reggie/Everyone

-His first playground wedding wasn't even on a playground, but on the docks of the lake at Camp Palmyrawolf, a co-ed summer camp his parents send him to. The pretty girl has sparkling eyes and a loud laugh and he thinks she's the coolest thing since Star Wars. He gives her a ring-pop and she gives him a ring made out of braided dandelions.

-By the time he gets back from camp his parents are divorced and his mom tells him she's taking him to LA. All his stuff is already packed.

-Luckily, he's not the only new kid to start school that year. He and Luke become fast friends, and they get married by the slide. Their other best friend, Alex, is the priest, since he's the only one who's ever been to a real wedding before.

-Only Luke's already married to Bobby and Alex says you're not allowed to be married to two people and his parents say divorce is a sin. And Luke sees the way that makes Reggie's lip wobble so he says that Alex' parents are stupid and he kind of pauses and thinks about it and says: Yeah probably.

-Luke and Bobby get a playground divorce by the big tree. It's much nicer than Reggie's parents' divorce, and they have a divorce party instead. Except now Bobby is a little sad, so Reggie says he'll marry him and not divorce Luke. It's okay, he's seen it on TV. It's called sister wives.

-Alex points out that none of them are wives and Luke says he can be a wife if he wants to be and Bobby falls over giggling and chokes out BROTHERHUSBANDS and they all laugh so hard they have to wait until next recess to marry Bobby and Reggie, since Alex keeps choking up laughing before he can pronounce them brotherhusbands.

-Reggie marries Alex two weeks later. He had to wait until he could make an appropriate ring, because Alex thinks doing things Properly is important. It's made out of paper and it took forever to make gold with the old gel pen he found.

-They meet Julie in music class a few years later. Julie is like the best person ever ("for a girl" Bobby says and Luke punches his arm). They're all allowed over to her house for a play date, which turns into a music date, because Julie's mom has a big piano and all sorts of instruments. She teaches Luke some chords on the guitar while he and Julie play a duet on the piano, and Alex and Bobby waltz.

-That year, Luke gets a guitar for his birthday, and Alex gets a drum set for Christmas , and Reggie gives all his saved up pocket money and birthday money and Christmas money from MeeMaw and Pops to his Mom and asks if that's enough for the shiny red bass guitar he's seen at the thrift store. (It's not, but she gives him an advance on his allowance and haggles with the guy behind the counter until he can buy it anyway.)

-They hang out at the Molina house a lot after that, pretending to be a band, and then deciding they are a band, because they say so. Reggie gets to stay over for dinner when his mom works late, and it's just the best thing ever.

-One day he sighs and says he wishes he could be a Molina too. He loves his mom and all, but she's almost never around and when she is, she's tired and often cranky.

-Bobby is the one who rolls his eyes and is like: why don't you just marry her then? Bobby's always been the jealous one.

-They're too old for playground wedding at twelve, really, but the way Bobby says it, he turns up his nose and says: "Okay, I will". And he grabs an empty doritos bag and cuts and folds until he has a shiny ring, and dramatically proposes to Julie, who laughs and says yes just to annoy Bobby.

-Carlos is their priest of course.

-"Finally," Luke sighs. "We have a sister wife."

Julie is very confused and then very amused when they explain. She presses a kiss to Reggie's cheek and says she's okay with sharing him, as long as he does his spousal duties.

-He's not sure what spousal duties are, so he asks Alex, whispering a little too loud.

"I think she means taking out the trash," Alex whispers back. "That's what my dad does."

"And do the dishes," Julie said curtly. "My papi always does the dishes. And you have to say 'Honey I'm home!' when you get home."

"I can do that," Reggie agrees.

-Things are great, and their band gets better the better they actually get at playing music, and playing together. They still don't have a name, but there's no rush. Julie and her mom write a song for them, and Luke is so fascinated by it he asks if he can try. They kind of lose Luke and Julie for like two weeks that summer because they're so busy writing together, until Reggie tearfully reminds them that spousal duties also means sharing, and he misses them.

-Nobody is really surprised when he and Luke and Julie start dating for real. Nobody who matters has a problem with it, except Bobby, but that is quickly rectified when Reggie kisses Bobby on the lips and says a Brotherhusband is a brotherhusband.

-Three weeks later Alex shyly asks if that includes him too, and that's how he comes out. It's a little messy after that, because Alex does not want to date Julie, and Julie decides that's okay, and Luke and Alex try but they really really hate it, and Bobby's only ever been interested in dating Reggie even though he and Luke practice making out a LOT for two people who refuse to admit they're dating.

Everything gets really complicated until Julie's best friend Flynn makes a little chart with colour-coded lines. Reggie kind of wants to kiss her. So he asks. And she adds her name to the chart and draws a line between them in the colour for Dating.

-Flynn is like: I don't get playgroundmarried until at least the seventh date.

-Their seventh date is very romantic and then after dinner they take a walk and SURPRISE THERE'S ALL THEIR FRIENDS AT A LOCAL PLAYGROUND and Reggie gets down on one knee with a sour gummy worm ring like WILL YOU PLAYGROUND MARRY ME and they do.

-They're all happy together, and then Flynn brings over her new friend from the GSA club. And Willie is really cool but something about him is so familiar.

-And then one day Bobby says something dry and sarcastic and he laughs so loud and something in Reggie's head goes ping.

-He's smooth about it though and waits until he can talk to Willie one-on-one. And carefully asks him if he ever went to Camp Palmyrawolf.

-And Willie goes very still and it looks very wrong for someone who is usually so wriggly and Reggie is like: it's cool, I just... I think I gave you a ringpop once?

-And Willie asks him to please not tell anyone, and Reggie asks all hurt: "About our marriage?"

-And Willie just stares at him for a good long while until Reggie goes "OOOOOH wait no I won't tell anyone about that, you come out on your own time, but... it's you right? You taught me how to do a cartwheel and draw that weird S thing."

-And Willie nods and smiles and Reggie grabs his hand and pulls him back to the group and proudly announces he found his first, long-lost husband.

-And Willie is a little confused when everyone starts chanting 'brotherhusband' but also it's like really gender-confirming so he'll go with it.

-Reggie also whispers to Flynn that the way Alex and Willie keep looking at each other, she's gonna have to update the chart soon.

-Alex and Willie's playground wedding is at the same time as his and Willie's playground vow renewal (and promise to try this dating thing) and he couldn't be happier.

#julie and the phantoms #reggiexeveryone is the best pairing of all #the greater polyphantoms polycule #not!fic #I wrote a thing #yes I was chortling to myself the entire time at the 'spousal duties means you do the dishes' #just picture it's like 11 at night the playground is deserted except for this group of teenagers #and Alex is standing on top of the play structure like WE ARE GATHERED HERE... #trans willie my beloved #oblivious reggie my beloved

[innytoes]

I got a little carried away for the charity toy drive and you’re the very overwhelmed but happy volunteer for Sunset Skater, please?

The day had been bad so far. Hell, the week had been bad so far. It was getting harder and harder to keep a cheerful smile on his face. They'd pulled out all the stops earlier in the day (and by that he meant some sick-ass yoyo tricks and juggling), but a lot of people had walked away once they got a better look at his table. One lady had told them he should be ashamed of himself.

He was thinking maybe he should just give up. He could get the money some other way. Maybe even crawl back to Caleb and admit they did need their trust fund after all. Not for him, but he couldn't bare the thought of any of the kids not getting presents this year.

Then, he heard it.

"Hang on guys, Alex is being drawn to a rainbow flag like a gay moth to a fabulous flame!" a guy in a leather jacket called over his shoulder, following a cute boy in a hoodie and a fanny pack.

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear you say that," the guy complained, even though he was heading right Willie's way.

"Hi!" he said in their most perky volunteer voice. "I'm here on behalf of the Ortega Home for LGBTQ Youths, for our charity toy drive!"

"Oh my god it's one of those wish trees!" the guy in the leather jacket said, bouncing up to the tree next to the table. "I've always wanted to do one of these! And now we have like, money!" He looked so excited, it was adorable. At the last second though, he pulled his hand back. Oh no. Not again.

But the guy just turned to them and said, shyly: "Can I?"

"Yeah, totally!" Willie said. "We have wishes from kids of various ages in the tree."

"There's so many of them," Fanny Pack said. "Are the ones that have already been filled still up there?"

The perky volunteer voice slipped. "I'm afraid not. A lot of people see the flag, or read the cards, and suddenly the giving spirit leaves them." Perhaps this was the wrong mall to set up in, or something. But it was the only one he'd been able to get a permit for. The blonde guy looked sad, then squared his shoulders.

"We'll take five," he said, before turning and whistling. Out of nowhere, three other people popped up. "Each."

"To start," Leather Jacket said happily, already plucking cards out of the tree. "Oooh, this one is mine." He held up a card decorated in little trans and heart stickers. "B, age seven, wants a puppy and sparkly nail polish. Same!"

"What are we doing?" A guy with very impressive biceps said. "I thought we were going to the music store?"

"Wish tree," Fanny Pack said. "Queer wish tree."

With a tiny pout, Biceps muttered how he guessed the music store could wait.

"This one is for Alex," Leather Jacket declared. "Because it's written in sparkly pink gel pen." He passed it over. Fanny Pack, or Alex, read the card.

"No, this one is for Luke," he said. "K, 17, wants a guitar, a record player, and Julie and the Phantom's new LP." Biceps pretty much vibrated out of his skin, snatching up the card and practically running over to where the music store was. Willie didn't even have a chance to explain they didn't need to purchase everything on the card.

"Aaaand we've lost Luke to the music store," the exceptionally pretty person in red suspenders said. They were wearing a pleated leather skirt and torn leggings and amazing eyeliner and Willie kind of wanted to steal their entire look.

"If we find any more music related cards, I'll take them over to him later," the girl said, joining Leather Jacket at the tree. "This one's for you, Bobby. E, 15, nonbinary, wants a pretty, flowy skirt size 8, some dark lipstick, and a cool necklace."

"Bobby knows what's cool," Leather Jacket agreed.

They picked over the tree, more and more cards being handed out among the friend group. They all introduced themselves, asking Willie about the charity. He told them about Ortega House, about the support groups they had, the art therapy program he volunteered at, and the kids who lived there permanently after being kicked out for being, well, not-cis, not-straight.

Julie grabbed her phone and started texting someone named Flynn for a 'consult on the best make-up for dark skin tones' for J, 16. She had two neat stacks of cards on the table, a few with make-up and clothing requests, and a few music related ones for Luke.

Bobby ('he, they, she, please' she said when she noticed Willie’s he/they name sticker) got all the 'cool and edgy teen' cards, according to the others, and Alex grabbed a few that requested books and art supplies. Reggie ended up picking every single card for kids under ten, before running off to the toy store and shouting at them he'd 'be right back!'

"It's because he's never grown up," Alex said fondly.

"It's because he finally has an excuse to sneak in that new Star Wars Lego Set while we're not watching," Bobby grumbled.

One by one, the people left, and he ended up sitting next to the nearly empty tree, texting Kenny, Dante, and Fuego about what had just happened.There were a lot of emojis and exclamation points.

Alex was the first to arrive back. He had several bags filled with books, along with two rolls of... sparkly unicorn wrapping paper. He looked embarrassed. "You don't have to use it," he said. "I just saw it and thought it would be nice. I still need to hit up the art store for the rest, but..."

"This is amazing," Willie said. "You guys are... I mean... I thought we wouldn't be able to do it, that I'd failed, and you and your friends totally saved the day. Thank you."

Alex flushed rather prettily, and gave a sweet smile. "I wish I'd had a place like Ortega House when I came out," he told Willie. "I think we all do, probably." He made an exasperated face. "And Luke will take any excuse to spend more time in the music store."

"Your boyfriend?" Willie asked, because he was stupid, because they couldn't not, because he'd rather know now than before he made a fool out of themselves in front of this cute guy by slipping him their number and never getting called.

"One of them," Alex said, before looking flustered and hurrying off to the art store.

Oh. Well, maybe that meant he still had a shot.

Julie was back next, along with another girl, the infamous Flynn. She started grilling him about the Ortega House social media presence almost immediately, satisfied when he gave her a little pamphlet with all their information on the back. She disappeared off to the food court, declaring she would be back later with donuts.

"I'm going to go bring Luke his other cards now, before he buys out the entire store to give to K, 17," Julie said, amused, and left.

Reggie was the next person to arrive back, carrying so many bags he was waddling slightly.

"I may have gone a little overboard," he admitted. "But there was so much cool stuff, and really, who doesn't want a colour-changing dinosaur, huh?" He showed Willie the box. "Also, can I hide this Lego set under your table so the others don’t see it?"

Willie grinned, lifting up the table cloth and miming zipping his lips when Reggie slid the Star Wars Lego set under it. Reggie happily flopped down in the chair next to him and started helping him sort out the gifts, arranging them on the table behind him by the little cards. They chatted, and Reggie told him all about the others, about how they lived together, how they were in a band.

Willie subtly tried to figure out who was dating who, and if he maybe had a shot with Alex (or honestly, any of them). Reggie just happily rattled off a bunch of names. “Sometimes Alex says we need some kind of flow chart,” he said, gently placing the floppy stuffed dog on top of a pile. “But I don’t think it’s too hard to remember.”

“That’s because you’re literally dating everyone, Reginald,” Bobby said as they came back to the table, dropping her bags on the table. Reggie beamed, leaning over to bat his eyes at her. “These are all sorted by card, the card’s in the bag with the items. Now where’s the box?”

“I have no idea what you mean,” Reggie said, trying and failing to look not look guilty.

“The Lego Star Wars Set,” Bobby said, leaning over and giving Reggie a Look. He didn’t even flinch when Reggie leaned over to kiss his forehead. “I know you have it.”

“I can neither confirm nor deny,” Reggie said. “Oh look there’s Luke and Julie!” He pointed excitedly, and when Bobby looked away, nudged the box a little further under the table.

Luke, and Julie, who were not just carrying bags, but had stolen two shopping carts from a nearby store. There was a hot pink electric guitar (he was guessing for Katie), an amp, thee acoustic guitars, a keyboard with stand, a flute, a whole stack of ‘for beginners’ books, two record players, a radio slash CD player, and more CDs and records than Willie knew what to do with.

“Oh my god,” Bobby whispered. “I knew we should have sent Alex with him to keep him in check.”

“I dunno, I think this is exactly what these kids deserve,” Alex said happily, grinning when Bobby jumped and then punched him in the shoulder. He deposited the three large bags of art supplies on the table (sketchbooks and paints and brushes and the Good coloured pencils and oh god those were so expensive, these people were insane or angels or both.)

“I got some extra stuff,” Luke said. “You know, just some music I thought the kids would like, based on what they were asking for.” Next to him, Julie rolled her eyes.

“This is amazing,” Willie whispered. He wasn’t sure if anyone heard him, though, because Luke started to accost Alex, who pushed him away and fished a bunch of markers out of his fanny back with a ‘you could just ask!’

Then, he spread out a bunch of records on the table and started... defacing each one? No, not defacing. Signing them with a blue marker. Alex handed out the other markers (red for Reggie, white for Bobby, purple for Julie, and he kept a pink one for himself) and followed suit. Willie squinted at the records.

“Oh,” he managed. “You’re Julie and the Phantoms.”

“Tell your friends!” Reggie chirped, throwing him a wink.

“If Luke got too many and not all the kids are interested, a fully signed record can net your charity about 500 bucks on eBay, last I checked,” Bobby said. “Just space them out a little.”

“Also,” Julie said, checking her phone. “Flynn posted the links to your online donation drive on our socials, and she’ll be back with donuts and to take some pictures of us all, it’ll be good publicity for you.”

Oh my god Katie was going to flip. Kenny was going to flip.

“Oooh, I want sprinkles,” Reggie said. “Tell her I want sprinkles!”

“She knows, baby.”

“I just...” Willie said. How was any of this happening? He knows he should be like, channeling his inner Caleb, glad-handing and maybe securing a yearly donation, or a charity concert, or a freaking meet-and-greet with the kids. But they were just a lowly art therapist and honestly they were about to start crying and...

“Hey, we’re sorry,” Alex said. “We should have asked first.”

“No it’s... this is perfect.” They wiped at their eyes with a sleeve furiously. “This is all so perfect, the kids are going to be so happy.”

“You know,” Reggie said. “If you give Alex your number, we could maybe keep in touch. Hear what the kids thought.”

“Maybe set up a charity concert or something!” Luke piped up.

“And a date,” Bobby said, smirking when Alex went as pink as his hoodie.

“Really?” Willie whispered, awed.

At the end of the day, he sent out several texts. One in the Volunteer group chat, of him and the piles and piles of donations, and a request to please come help him get this all back to Ortega House. One to Kenny about the whole ‘so I met a famous band and they posted the charity to their socials, you’re welcome and also call this nice lady called Flynn to discuss a charity concert’ and one to Dante and Fuego in all caps that just said I’M GOING ON A DATE WITH THREE OR MAYBE FOUR PEOPLE and seventeen different emojis.

#julie and the phantoms #I wrote a thing #fanfic #the greater polyphantoms polycule #and that's how willie was added to the polycule as part of Sunset Skater #what's the point of being a famous band if you can't buy out an entire wish tree #yes they keep going until the entire tree is empty #while also maybe having a pre-date at the food court #willie is so overwhelmed and confused and delighted he's just Going With It #reggiexeveryone is the best pairing of all #Reggie basically lays out like: okay so we all like you please check the boxes on who you want to date no hard feelings #(maybe a little hard feelings if you don't pick me but I'll get over it) #he has a streak to uphold okay #also Willie is very pretty and nice and cool #Bobby grumbles about it being 'do you like me yes/no' but also is like: well at least it's efficient #why is this so long oh god

[innytoes]

Another! 63, Reggie ship(s) of your choice

Why are all my friends so pretty?

Look, it was kind of Flynn's fault Reggie was in this mess, so it was only fair that she stay and babysit his loopy ass while the rest of their friends went clubbing. She should have known better than to ask the walking disaster to help her get down the shoes she'd accidentally tossed out her window and into a tree trying to scare off the horny pigeons in her window sill. She should have waited for like, Julie. Or Bobby. Or Alex. Even Luke would have probably been better, honestly.

Instead, Reggie had climbed the tree, rescued her shoes, and promptly fallen out and broken his leg. The hospital had given him some pretty strong painkillers that he'd immediately handed over to Alex, afraid of taking to many. Now, Flynn was In Charge Of The Drugs, with a very strict schedule posted on the fridge. He’d taken his pill just before she got here, so he wasn’t due another one for four hours.

"Are you sure you're okay with this?" Alex asked, tugging at the crop top Willie insisted he wear. His cheekbones had been highlighted to hell and back by Carrie. She had opted to stay in with Flynn and Reggie for the night, but had thrown herself into playing hair and makeup for the people going out, which was the best part anyway, according to her. Alex looked radiant.

"Of course," she said reassuringly. "Me and Reggie have a whole evening of watching shows about cute dogs planned, isn't that right, Reg?" Reggie blinked at his name, startled out of where he was staring at Alex, and gave a thumbs up.

"Okay," Alex said, before letting himself be distracted by Willie, who pulled him into a kiss. Man, whatever lipstick Carrie had used on Willie was good. Not a smudge out of place. The dreamy look on Reggie's face was back. Oh, interesting. She was one hundred per cent going to bring this up to Carrie later.

Speaking of, she came out of one of the bedrooms, brandishing a lip gloss at her cousin, who slapped at her to keep her away. “I’m not wearing lip gloss, Carrie,”  he snapped. “Or that mesh top.” He was wearing his usual black-shirt-red-suspenders outfit, with some nice stompy boots, and his hair artfully mussed. But Flynn had to admit, the mesh top would probably look hot.

“Who’s going to want to kiss your gross chapped lips, then?” Carrie shot back. “Reggie, tell him he’s not getting any if he doesn’t listen to me.”

Reggie blinked, looking Bobby up and down. The guy scowled, crossing his arms defensively. “You look really pretty, Bobby,” Reggie said instead, the traitor. An uncharacteristic smile broke out over Bobby’s face, and he leaned over the couch to ruffle Reggie’s hair.

“Thanks, buddy,” he said, before going to the kitchen to pre-game some shots.

“That doesn’t count, he’s stoned off his gourd,” Carrie muttered mutinously. Still, she settled down when Julie let her do her make-up. She and Luke were also dressed to the nines, and Flynn was kind of regretting volunteering for Reggie-sitting duty now, except for how it was totally her responsibility. They pressed a kiss to Reggie’s forehead and cheek, before the gang all headed out the door in a flurry of chaos.

Reggie watched them go, waving and smiling, before flopping down on the couch, his head landing in Flynn’s lap, propping his cast up on the squishy arm of the sofa. “Why are all my friends so pretty?” he whined, pressing his hands to his face.

“You mean Alex?” Flynn asked. She gave Carrie a Look, and her girlfriend settled in on the chair near the sofa, crossing her legs and looking intrigued.

“And Willie,” Reggie moaned. “And Bobby.” He paused, peeking through his fingers up at her. “You and Carrie are also pretty but I respect your opinion that boys are gross and have cooties.”

“The word is... you know what, you’re right,” Carrie said. “Boys are gross and have cooties. Especially Bobby. I’m disappointed in you, Reginald.”

“I knoooow,” Reggie whined, only dropping his hands when Flynn started petting his hair. “Alex and Willie are totally happy together, and I’m already dating Luke and Julie. It’s so selfish of me to want more.”

Flynn blinked, sharing a look with Carrie. Apparently stoned Reggie was a very, very honest Reggie, and this was more than they’d bargained for with a bit of light teasing. Shockingly, it was Carrie who stepped up, even though she hated ‘mushy feeling stuff’ most of the time.

“Do you think Julie’s selfish? She’s dating you and Luke and Flynn.”

“What? No!” Reggie said quickly, offended. He tried to glare at Carrie from his place with his head in Flynn’s lap, but mostly just managed to squint and pout. “Julie’s special, she has a big heart.”

“So do you, sunshine,” Flynn said, booping Reggie’s nose. He tried to boop hers in return, but he missed her face by a mile, dropping his hand back on his chest and pouting until she started stroking his hair again. “Julie and Luke won’t be upset if you want to date someone else.” He seemed to mull it over. Or maybe he just saw an interesting spot on the ceiling. Apparently Julie had gone grocery shopping earlier this week and had found him an hour later, exactly where she left him, stroking one of her fluffy pillows.

“Besides, Bobby’s had a crush on you since he was fifteen,” Carrie said casually, inspecting her fingernails.

Reggie shot up. “Really?”

“That explains so much,” Flynn said. Like how Reggie was the only one who could get piggyback rides from Bobby. He just dropped everyone else. And how Bobby always made sure to sneak in Reggie’s favourite snacks when they went to the movies. And how Reggie was the only one who was able to coax out a smile out of him when he was in one of his Grumpy Cat moods.

“Where’s my phone, I need to text Bobby,” Reggie said, flailing around the couch cushions until Flynn desperately pulled him back to lay down before he fell off the couch and re-broke his leg.

“No texting while stoned,” Carrie said sternly. Reggie pouted, but stopped flailing.

“Besides, maybe talk to Luke and Julie first,” Flynn suggested. He still had another two days on these meds, which would give him plenty of time to bumble through a Serious Conversation. Maybe she’d give Jules a heads up, though, just in case the high dosage of painkillers seriously addled what Reggie was trying to say. She didn’t have time for any sitcom levels of misunderstanding here. She and Carrie may live for The Drama, but only other people’s drama. Not their people’s.

“Myeah,” Reggie said, already flagging after his bout of energy. Flynn smiled, stroking his hair out of his eyes, and he settled back down, melting into her. It didn’t even take half an episode of Puppy Palace for him to fall asleep. And if she and Carrie spent the next hour gossiping and taking bets on how many people Reggie ended up dating, well, that was one of the joys of being in a polycule like theirs, wasn’t it?

#the greater polyphantoms polycule #julie and the phantoms #I wrote a thing #fanfic #flynnxcarrie #juliexlukexreggie #juliexflynn #willex #you said the reggie ship of your choice so of course I went for ALL OF THEM #reggiexeveryone is the best pairing of all #even though this is more pre-reggie/everyone #GIVE ALEX A CROPTOP

[innytoes]

Reggie/Everyone + Juke vs Willex (and maybe Flarrie or just Flynn) Competing To Confess To Reggie First AU?

"Hey," Julie said one afternoon while they were hanging out in the studio, waiting for the others to show up. Alex and Willie were on a date that morning, something about screaming in a museum? And Reggie had his regular volunteer shift at the animal shelter. "Have you noticed all our new songs are about Reggie?"

"Wh-what?" Luke asked, nervous. "I- I have no idea what you're talking about."

“Your freckles are a galaxy, want to count them as I go to sleep,” she crooned at him as she played the piano, and okay, maybe that one was a little bit about Reggie. She changed to another melody. “Black leather, any weather...” And another. “Don’t you know you’re my family, always there for me, we got each other, baby...”

“Okay but that last one is about you and Alex as well,” Luke said, even though that meant he was admitting she was right about the other two. He sank down on the couch, crossing his arms defensively. So what? Julie was the one who’d helped him with those songs, so it wasn’t like she was any better. She got up from the piano and plopped in his lap, and he wrapped his arms around her and buried his face in her hair.

“I’m not upset,” Julie said, scritching his scalp. “I just think we need to talk about it.”

“Talk about what?” Alex said, wandering in with Willie’s hand in one hand, and a box that looked suspiciously like cookies from that place Reggie had made them stop to stare in the window for five minutes last week.

“How Luke and I are totally in love with Reggie,” Julie said, with zero embarrassment. He pulled back to look at her, shocked, and found Willie laughing at them.

“Dude, same!” he said, and Alex spluttered. “Come on, Hotdog, you just spent a ridiculous amount of your gig money on cookies because you wanted to ‘cheer up Reggie since he always gets a little sad he can’t adopt all the dogs at the shelter’. You totally have a crush on him.” He pressed a kiss to Alex’ cheek. “It’s okay, so do I.”

Alex blushed. “I got you a cookie too,” he said, before realising that only strengthened Willie’s argument.

“He’s just so sweet!” Luke blurted out. Julie nodded.

“And he’s funny.”

“He’s always down to clown.”

“And the way he’s so sincere about country music and his work at the animal shelter and being a good role model for kids when we get famous.”

“And when he wears eyeliner to gigs it’s just like... guh.” They all held a moment of silence for the hotness that was Reggie in eyeliner.

“So...” Luke said. “We gotta... we gotta tell him, right?” He looked at Julie, hoping she’d know what to do. Julie always seemed to know what to do.

“Tell me what?” Reggie asked as he came inside and dumped his bag in the corner. He wasn’t wearing his leather jacket today, and his flannel was tied around his waist, showing off his arms in the black tank top he was wearing.

“That we love you,” Willie said, because Willie was the brave one, apparently.

“Aw, I love you guys too,” Reggie said, grinning. “But seriously, what’s up? Am I late? It’s just that they needed help with the cat cages, and you guys are never gonna believe how cool this cat that I met is. He looks like a pirate. His name is Bartleby.”

“No, Reg,” Luke said, grabbing Reggie’s face before he could grab his phone and show them a million pictures of Bartleby the Cat. “We love you. I love you.”

“I love you too, buddy,” Reggie said, beaming that sunshine smile of his and patting him on top of his beanie.

Okay, clearly this wasn’t working. He shot a look at Julie, at Alex, in the hopes they would try, but Julie just shrugged. Alex offered Reggie the fancy cookie he’d gotten special for him, and that just distracted Reggie even more, instead of being a clear sign Alex like-liked him.

In the end, they gave up and started practice. They could brainstorm how to tell Reggie later.

It became almost a competition. Luke and Julie wrote him a song, an actual ‘we’re in love with you’ song, with lots of heavy eye contact. In the end, Reggie was thoroughly flustered, squeaked something about how that was definitely a good one for their demo, and went on to discuss the bass-line for the song. 

Alex and Willie took him on their date, holding his hands the entire time while they snuck into the closed-for-renovations museum, screamed their heads off, and then ran before the security guard could catch them. Reggie told them he’d had a great time and that he’d leave them to go on their date now.

It had gotten so bad that other people were starting to notice. Julie’s tía had been giving unsubtle advice about how cooking for a boy was always a great way to show you liked him. (Julie tried, Reggie complimented her until she was blushing, and then insisted they share the dish with the rest of the band.) Flynn had taken to suggesting she do Reggie’s make-up before every gig, cackling when Luke nearly fell over his own amp at soundcheck when he saw Reggie in a smokey eye. Even Willie’s weirdo magician foster dad had said Willie was more than welcome to bring his second boyfriend to the club as well, no need to pretend, he was in showbizz, you know. 

Finally when even her dad and little brother got in on it, Julie had enough. So when Reggie was the first to arrive for band practice one day, she sat him down, promised him he wasn’t in trouble, and just spit it out. “I’m in love with you.”

Reggie’s face did something complicated, flitting through a dozen emotions at once and settling on... sad? “Oh, Jules,” he said, and that wasn’t the tone of voice you used for a love declaration. That was the tone of voice you used when someone’s tamagotchi died, or they flunked a test. “Does Luke know?”

“Of course,” Julie said, but before she could tell him that Luke was in love with him too, Reggie continued. 

“Is that why he’s been acting so weird?” he asked. “Do I... do I need to give you guys some space? I can totally do that.” He fidgeted his fingers miserably. “I mean, you dad just invited me for dinner but I can... I can go tell him something came up and- and leave.”

“Reggie, no,” Julie grabbed his hands. He flinched.

“I don’t want to get between you and Luke,” he said. “Even if I lo... I mean... it doesn’t matter.” And that just couldn’t stand. Julie ran her thumb over the back of Reggie’s hand. His bottom lip started trembling, which just made the whole thing worse. Usually, she’d let Luke confess his feelings himself, but that clearly hadn’t worked, so Julie took matters into her own hands.

“Luke is in love with you too,” she said gently. “We’ve talked about it. We’d like to date you, both of us, if you want.” 

Reggie looked up at her with hopeful, wet eyes. “Really?” he almost squeaked out, like he couldn’t believe this was happening. 

“Really,” she said. “I mean, we wrote you a love song and everything. Didn’t you notice?”

Reggie gave a self-deprecating laugh. “I just thought it was wishful thinking that you wrote it for me,” he admitted, running his free hand through his hair. “I... Julie, I’ve been in love with the two of you for ages. Are you... are you really sure?”

She leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to the side of his mouth. “Positive.” He turned his head, catching her lips with his, and she sighed into the kiss, relief and joy and love filling her. He liked them back. 

They traded kisses and smiles until Luke came in. Reggie jerked back at his gleeful shout, flushing red and trying to untangle his fingers from Julie’s hair. “You finally got through to him?” Luke said, bouncing over and wrapping Reggie in a hug from behind. He looked startled, and a little flustered.

“Yes,” Julie said. “I also told him you loved him and we wanted to date him, just to keep the momentum.” Luke beamed, letting go of Reggie so he could turn around.

“You’re really sure?” Reggie asked again, like this had to be a dream. Luke leaned in, hesitating for a moment before pressing the softest, gentlest kiss on Reggie’s shocked, parted lips. When he pulled back, Reggie chased after him, deepening the kiss. They were very, very pretty together, Julie thought. There was definitely a song in there somewhere.

“We’re very, very sure,” Luke said when Reggie pulled back. “We love you, Reggie, and we want to be with you.”

“Oh,” Reggie said.  Again, in a ‘socks for Christmas’ way, not a ‘the people you’re in love with are in love with you too’ way. He moved until he wasn’t facing either of them, fidgeting his hands together nervously. Julie threw Luke a worried glance, and they sat next to him, shoulder to shoulder, a supportive presence. “I... I need to tell you something. Before we... I mean...”

“Anything, Reggie,” Luke said encouragingly. Reggie chewed his lip, and Julie had to fight not to lean over and kiss it better, or run her hands through his hair.

“I’m in love with Alex and Willie too,” Reggie blurted out after a while. “I know it’s weird, and stupid, and I promise I don’t just fall in love with anyone who’s ever been nice to me, but... I love them. And I love you too. So if that’s a deal breaker, I understand.” He hunched his shoulders, miserable, and Julie couldn’t help but wonder who had ingrained in him that his big, beautiful heart was anything other than a blessing. 

Luckily, or perhaps unluckily, before she managed to figure out how to best respond, Luke beat her to it. “That’s great!” he exclaimed. “Alex and Willie have a massive crush on you too!”

“Wait, what?” Reggie said, disbelieving.

“They do,” Julie said, because there was no going back now. “They love you. They took you on their last three dates. Alex keeps bringing you special treats. Willie made you that mural of the dog with pizza.” She could see Reggie’s face slowly fill with recognition.

“And you’re okay with that?” he asked. It was mostly aimed at Luke, because they all knew, Luke could get a little possessive at times. Especially when it came to the band. But Luke just shrugged.

“It’s Alex,” he said, like that explained it. “And Willie.” He carefully took Reggie’s hand. “So what do you say, Reg? You wanna be our boyfriend?”

Reggie smiled, taking Julie’s hand with his free one. “Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, I want to be your boyfriend.”

“Promise us one thing, though?” Julie asked, leaning into him. Reggie looked at her, expectantly, nervously. “Ask Alex and Willie out in front of us? I wanna see their faces when they realise all their plans didn’t work and you beat them to it.”

Reggie laughed, beautiful and bright and oh, that was another song right there. “Deal.”

#julie and the phantoms #fanfic #reggiexeveryone is the best pairing of all #the greater polyphantoms polycule #reggie deserves nice things #reggie peters #luke patterson #julie molina #alex mercer #willie throckmorton #flynn is a troll but also probably she did reggie's make-up and went: oh no he's hot

[innytoes]

Reggie/Everyone + Road Trip AU?

Being on a roadtrip with all Reggie's favourite people was pretty awesome. Even if it wasn't exactly the cool tour bus they'd dreamed of, but actually Ray's minivan, and they weren't (yet! Luke insisted) touring the country with the band, but mostly just driving Flynn to her grandparents' house in Chicago with some fun stops on the way.

There were sing-alongs, and junkfood, and stops at the Grand Canyon and any stupid roadside attraction they could find along the way. Which, with Flynn and Alex' combined researching skills were a lot. Luke and Julie had both made epic playlists for along the way, and Reggie had gone through boxes and boxes of old magazines, joke books, brain teasers and riddles to curate the perfect 'I'm bored this entire state is nothing but flat nothingness' remedies.

Willie seemed to know the local cryptids and scary ghost stories for every state they drove through, and he always let Reggie huddle between him and Alex if he got scared. Alex told him him that he was pretty sure Willie was doing it on purpose. Not that Alex minded, he confessed, because it just meant more cuddle time with his two favourite people.

So yeah. Road trips with his best friends were the best. And he got to kiss them all. He was the luckiest dude on the freaking planet.

On the way there, the sleeping arrangements were easy. If they were at a campsite, it was usually just a free for all in the giant tent, a big cuddle pile with a mishmash of sleeping bags, blankets, and pillows. He usually shared a room with Flynn, unless Flynn declared it a girl's night, in which case he slept with Luke. And when Flynn and Willie declared it a they's night, he slept with Alex. And sometimes Luke needed to be separated from all of his bandmates or he wouldn't sleep, trying to write another song, in which case Flynn forced him to a room on the opposite side of the motel and he slept with Julie.

After they dropped Flynn off at her grandparents, though, things were different. On the first night, Reggie had been sent in to get the best Gas Station Snacks, and when he’d come back the conversation had abruptly cut off. The night after had been fine, when they stopped at a campsite. Reggie didn’t get too much sleep, though, after Willie’s rather chilling tale about the Palmyra Wolves. He’d spent most of the night straining his ears for sounds outside their tent, clutching Alex’ arm and hiding his face in Willie’s chest. So if he took a nap in the back seat, well, who could blame him?

He awoke to the sounds of bickering. And not the good-natured ‘Julie why did you put this on the playlist you’re going to have Alex chair-dance for a solid four minutes’ kind.

“It’s not fair, Willie’s the reason he didn’t get a good night’s sleep in the first place, you guys should-”

“We all agreed to take turns, Luke,” Alex snapped back.

“Guys, stop,” Julie said, frustrated. She hated driving while being distracted. “We still have weeks left, we need to figure this out. I’m not cutting this trip short because you guys can’t stop arguing over where Reggie’s sleeping tonight. We need to figure this out before we get to the motel.”

Oh. They were arguing about him. About whose room Reggie would sleep in tonight, since he was now the odd man out. Hashtag Willex and Jukebox, as their fan-pages said. (Reggie wasn’t insecure. He wasn’t. And he kind of liked the small but devoted group that had decided Reggie was only dating Flynn and supported Hashtag Flyggie.)

“It’s okay,” he heard himself say. “I can just sleep in the minivan.”

Three heads turned towards him, Julie’s eyes flitting up into the rear view mirror and then back to the road.

“W-whaaat? What are you talking about?” Luke said in the most unconvincing voice ever. He was almost as bad of a liar as Julie.

“If you guys don’t want me in your rooms, I can just sleep in the car. You don’t have to fight over who has to take me.” He hadn’t realised he’d been getting on their nerves so much. Maybe the jokes he’d copied down were a little childish. And he thought it would be funny to bring along some of the quizzes from the stack of ancient Cosmos Tía Victoria had found in her garage. Apparently not everyone was as fascinated to know if they were enough of a Bad Girl or which Sex and the City girl they were.

Julie took a breath, checked all her mirrors, and then carefully pulled over on the empty stretch of high way. Oh no. If Julie was stopping the car, this was serious. “Reggie...” she started.

“I’m sorry, it’s cool, I‘ll stop with the quizzes and give you guys some privacy when we stop somewhere, okay?” He could go to the gift shop and find something funny to send Flynn. Flynn loved weirdo tourist trap junk.

“Reggie,” Willie cut him off before he could say anymore. “We weren’t fighting about who had to take you for the night.”

“Yeah, we were fighting about who got to take you,” Alex filled in. What? “Luke was being a butt about it.”

“Willie’s the reason he didn’t sleep last night!” Luke said again. “And he spent the entire night between you two. How is it fair he gets to sleep in your motel room tonight?”

“Because we agreed to switch whose motel room he slept in, and you got him last motel,” Alex argued back.

Willie nudged his shoulder against Reggie’s. “I say, we leave those two in a motel room to fight it out, and you, me, and Julie get the other one.”

“I think that’s a great idea,” Julie said, turning around and high-fiving Willie, laughing when Luke and Alex both started spluttering. “Nope, sorry boys, the decision has been made. You two can kiss and make-up, or wrestle-mania it out, or whatever, but we’re having a nice quiet night in doing Cosmo quizzes. Right Reggie?”

And Reggie couldn’t help but smile, swallowing away the thick, teary feeling in the back of his throat. “Yeah,” he said, laughing when the spluttering rose an octave or two. “Sorry, boys.”

(And if they actually just booked a double room and pushed the two double beds together, well, that worked too.)

#julie and the phantoms #reggiexeveryone is the best pairing of all #HE JUST HAS A LOT OF LOVE TO GIVE OKAY #fanfic #polyphantoms #AUs are awesome #I wrote a thing #these people would be the road trip dream team #look up mr ballen's palmyra wolves and you too can spend a sleepless night just like Reggie