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innytoes · 1 year

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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

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