it's now or never [julie and the phantoms one-shots]

t-shirt~ juke fluff

(A/N: 1150 words
this oneshot was kinda inspired by a fic on ao3. i didn't copy it or anything and i forget the name of the author, but they had the same idea of julie wearing the sunset curve shirt and luke being very flustered.
special thanks to the commenter who asked for more juke in general. surprisingly i don't write them very much but i wanted to write something sweet and simple about them while i work on my other oneshots.)

the morning following julie and the phantoms' performance at the orpheum the band's lead singer, julie, woke up ready to tackle the day. maybe write a few songs with luke, plan with carlos how to introduce her ghosts to their dad, and talk to flynn about what had happened the night before in person. (the girls had stayed up until nearly 3am talking about the orpheum, but telling your best friend everything over text was not the same as telling them in person.)

but, of course, julie's plans were spoiled by her lack of clean clothes. she could've sworn she'd put all her clothes in the hamper to be taken downstairs. when julie checked, sure enough all of her clothes were sitting there still dirty. she'd forgotten to take the basket to the laundry room the night before, especially with all the excitement and anxiety of playing the orpheum.
julie would've just worn dirty clothes, she'd done it before and would do it again, but she knew there was no reason to wear her dirty clothes when she had her mom's clean clothes. julie sighed as she walked over to the trunk and lifted the lid, starting to search for a shirt and shorts she could wear. almost instantly she found a pair of bedazzled and slightly ripped jean shorts and after a few more moments she found a white shirt. she threw the clothes on and grabbed her phone, rushing down to the studio as fast as she could, texting flynn on her way down the stairs to the living room.

ray was in the kitchen making something, likely an omelette, but what surprised julie was that reggie wasn't in the kitchen "helping". julie figured the ghost band had been just as tired as she was the night prior and just slept in and kept going before her dad caught a glimpse of her.
julie's suspicions about the boys sleeping in was half proven true when she walked into the studio. she found reggie laying on his back on fold out couch, his eyes wide open but starring at the ceiling, and alex sitting on a beanbag chair focusing on the floor.

"ahem," julie let out a fake cough to let the two ghosts know she was in the room.

"julie!" they replied in unison, jumping up and bounding over to the girl quickly, wrapping her in a group hug.

julie grabbed them both tightly after whispering, "i don't know when i'll get used to this." both of the boys laughed at that and let julie go. the singer looked around the studio for a moment, "hey guys, where's luke?"

"right here." the guitarist poofed in behind her and julie jumped, "sorry." luke winced and reached out to the girl's shoulder, her back still facing him. when his band didn't pass through julie's shoulder he stopped breathing for a moment (apparently he wasn't used to the whole touching thing either) but he continued the motion of turning her to face him.

when the two were face to face again neither of them could really breathe, although for luke air wasn't exactly necessary. eventually julie could take a shallow breath and she looked the luke's hand, still on her shoulder, and smiled.
the guitarist sheepishly dropped his hand from julie's shoulder and grabbed her hand instead, and let his eyes drift from hers slowly and look at what the girl was wearing.

the three musician spirits knew julie and flynn both had great style, even if they didn't necessarily get it as kids from the 1990s, and when luke popped into the studio behind julie her outfit seemed almost too simple, which wasn't usually very julie. he knew the singer loved to accessorize, even when she was having a lazy day.

luke immediately noticed the bedazzling on julie's shirt and cringed (he hated those as a kid, considering how frequently reggie's little sister would cover luke's hoodies with the rhinestones) but then slowly recognized the logo. luke knew his jaw must've been completely on the ground and possibly all the way to the earth's core. the look of confusion the rest of the band gave him, both the dead and living members, made it very obvious he had an outward expression.

"ju- jules'- her... shirt," luke stammered as he blushed, which he wasn't sure was something a ghost could do.

julie looked down at her shirt quickly and then back at luke, her own eyes widening slightly, and then turned to her other bandmates. alex and reggie's jaws also went slack and they glanced between julie and then each other for a few moments before julie spoke.

"flynn found this shirt in my mom's trunk two nights ago. i'd never see it before then, no matter how many times i'd gone through that trunk."

"we only gave like... four people outside of the band those shirts," reggie stated.

"oh... cool. so you guys met my mom?" julie asked, turning between the ghosts.

"i guess so," alex laughed. julie and reggie laughed as well before alex excused himself, saying he should look for willie, and reggie said he was going to help ray with breakfast before giving luke a (not so) subtle wink and finger guns.

julie turned to luke again and smiled brightly. luke could barely return the smile without getting flustered and let out a fake cough to ease the tension he was feeling.

"jules-" the ghost's voice cracked slightly, but of them laughing it off a bit, "you uh... you look really nice in uh... your mom's sunset curve shirt."

"thanks luke," julie smiled, inching her way to him and placing her hand on his bicep. "speaking of shirts, why do you never wear sleeves? are you like, allergic to them or something?"

"oh... uh... no. it's easier to perform with less sleeve so uh... in the 90s i would cut the sleeves of most of my shirts off so i could play in them... then i just started wearing those shirts all the time. now it's just habit."

"i see," julie stepped in a bit closer and luke inched forward as well. julie had both of luke's biceps in her grasp and luke was holding her elbows. "well i think you look nice with and without sleeves."

the pair laughed and moved forward again, luke's arm now around julie's waist and julie's arms outstretched over luke's neck. "and i think you look good in sunset curve merch... maybe we should get flynn to make some julie and the phantoms t-shirts so i could wear one while you wear your sunset curve one."

"only if i can bedazzle it for you," julie stated and luke groaned, "you can cut off the sleeves if you want."

luke smiled and the two were soon laughing and holding each other, foreheads leaned together and they almost swayed to imaginary music.