Why not?

Reggie wasn't one to say no to a spontaneous hug, especially from his bandmates. In fact, he actively sought them out most of the time. With Julie, a simple look or request was oftentimes enough. With Luke, all you had to do was stand close enough for more than three seconds.

With Alex however? Usually it took a solid minute of puppy dog eyes before he caved and even then he'd be half-heartedly complaining about being blackmailed most of it.

So when Alex poofed into the studio out of the blue while Reggie was playing around with his bass, plopped down on the couch next to him and promptly wrapped his arms around him? Surprising, to say the least.

"Oh hey, 'Lex," he said, resting the bass against the table (something very hard to do with your arms pinned to your sides). "What's, um, what's up?"

Alex scoffed, but made no move to let him go. "Does something have to be up? Can't a guy just hug someone because they feel like it?"

"No- I mean yes, the no was for the first question- I mean, please do. But, um, it feels a bit weird 'cause my arms are kinda stuck so I can't, y'know, hug you back."

"Sucks for you," Alex pulled him closer, his head coming to rest on Reggie's shoulder, "'cause I'm not moving."

"O… kay, then."

Reggie shrugged, leaning back and making himself comfortable. What else was he supposed to do? If he questioned it too much he knew Alex would just get up and leave, which meant the end of the hug... and, like Flynn would say, that would be a 'cancelling Christmas' level of a tragedy.

Honestly though, cancelling Halloween would probably be a bigger tragedy. Especially now that they actually were ghosts and could haunt people for real! Not in a too scary way, of course (that would be mean) but their poof-abilities still meant they could pull off some truly epic pranks.

He had to remember to ask Carlos and Willie later if they wanted to go on a prank quest around LA next Halloween - they should be down for that, right? Luke would be anyway, no doubt about that. And Flynn, definitely Flynn!

Julie and Alex… maybe? He snuck a glance at Alex, who had closed his eyes, looking as relaxed and content as Reggie felt himself. Honestly, it could go both ways with them. Best bet would probably be to enlist Flynn and Willie to help with the convincing. Or, worst case scenario, with the distracting - the two were basically experts at that. Especially Willie.

The corners of his lips quirked up as he thought back to that moment in the Orpheum office. The look on that promoter guy's face, the whole "buses don't drive themselves!", the 'professional' phone smashing… total classic.

The sound of voices broke through his thoughts.

"... instead, you do an octave there. E-flat's in your range, right?"

"Ooh, love that idea! And then you could come in with that riff you showed me…"

The studio doors opened to reveal Julie and Luke, eyes sparkling and hands waving in the way that meant their combined song-writing spirit was working overtime - and on the edge of something genius.

Or, you know… on the edge of great.

His quiet snort of laughter seemed to bring them out of their joint reverie, as both of them turned towards him and Alex… and stopped short.

Julie's lips curved up in that fond but confused smile pretty much reserved for the three of them and asked, "What are you guys doing?"

"Alex is hugging me."

"Uh-huh, we can see that. But why?"

Alex raised his head from Reggie's shoulder to let out the most dramatic of all dramatic sighs. "Okay, why does everyone want to know why? Why not, that's why."

That was something Luke definitely seemed to… what was the word again? That word Reggie's old history teacher (How old was he now? Like eighty?) had used all the time to try and seem cool that had for some reason become popular again… the teacher had told them it'd come from that old 60's song, right? The one with the weird UFO sound and cool harmonies...

Vibe! That's what it was!

Anyway, Luke seemed to really vibe with Alex's answer, as he grinned and said, "Yeah, why not?" before bounding over to Reggie's unoccupied side and practically collapsing on top of them both.

Shaking her head, Julie removed her paw slippers and came over too. "Alright, move over."

Some shuffling and protesting later (Alex still refused to let go), Julie managed to squeeze in behind Alex and Reggie, knees tucked against her chest and arms thrown across all three's shoulders.

"You sure you're comfy there, Jules?" Luke said, trying and failing to hold off a grin.

"Never been more comfy in my life," came the reply as she rested her forehead against Reggie's back.

"Ahh!" He pulled back slightly. "Julie, your hair tickles!"

"Sorry!"

"Does this help?" Alex leant forward, his head coming to rest half on top of Julie's, half on Reggie's shoulder, squashing the stray curls. Without thinking about it, Reggie rested his cheek against Alex's head in turn.

Man, his hair smelled so nice… how could it always smell so nice?

"Reg?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah, way better!"

"Julie?"

"All good here."

"Hey, I want in too!" They all rocked to the side as Luke careened around behind Reggie too, face first into the space where their heads all met.

"Ugh, Luke!" For the first time, Alex let go of Reggie with one of his arms to pull at Luke's own around his neck. "This is a hug, not a strangling contest!"

Luke's response was muffled to nothing more but a mumble, but it was no doubt something cheeky - that tone couldn't be mistaken for anything else. Still, he followed Alex's wishes and shifted, now the outer one in the hug instead of Julie.

All finally settled and comfortable, the four of them simply sat there, soaking up each other's closeness. This was definitely something he could get used to, Reggie thought as he pulled his legs up, curling further into the embrace.

… Well, it would be nice next time if his arms weren't pinned (now not just by Alex, but all three) and could hug them all back properly, but, you know, technicalities. This was definitely good too. Great, even.

Julie was the first to break the silence. "Maybe," she said reluctantly, "we should start rehearsing soon."

"Mmm."

"Yeah."

"Maybe."

Nobody moved.

"I mean, we do have that gig on Sunday."

Luke shifted his head slightly to the side. "Julie and I came up with some killer ideas we'd like to run by you guys."

"Cool."

"Love to hear that."

Still, no one moved a muscle. And, well… Reggie had absolutely no problem with that. Not one bit. It wasn't like their instruments would disappear or something if they didn't start playing right now, anyway. No, rehearsals could wait a minute.

… Or five.

Sometimes you don't have a reason. Sometimes you just... really feel like hugging someone, you know?

Or maybe I'm just channeling my love for surprise hugging my brother hahaha (who thankfully seems to enjoy it as he does it just as much in return). Either way, it felt like a good way to end this fic! :)

From the bottom of my heart, thank you everyone for all your support and encouragement and kind words you've given me on this story. You've truly made my first venture into this fandom such a wonderful experience and I'm beyond grateful for that.

Thank you so much for reading and take care! *hearts*