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When Julie came home to see Reggie curled up on the sofa in the dark, wrapped up in her yellow smiley sweatshirt, she feared the worst. He usually only did that when he wasn’t feeling well, or he’d had a particularly bad day. His eyes were glued to his phone screen, his ear buds in. Probably watching puppy videos, Julie figured. Which meant today was a very bad day indeed.
She slipped off her shoes and jacket before padding over to the couch, ready to offer him a hug. But when she came into his line of sight, he jumped so high he fell off the couch, shrieking. She yelled too, flicking on the lamp next to the couch, and when Reggie saw it was her, he yanked out his earbuds. “Julie!”
“Reggie!” she said, sinking to her knees next to him, pulling him into a hug. “You scared me half to death. Are you okay?”
“Whoof,” Reggie said, breathing out. Once he was over the shock, he gave Julie a blinding smile. “I’m okay. You just startled me.”
“Are you sure?” Julie asked, crawling in her omega’s lap. Reggie immediately wrapped his arms around her, nuzzling at her hair. “You’re wearing my sweater. You usually only do that on bad days.”
“Oh,” Reggie blinked. “I steal it because it smells like you and makes me feel safe.” Julie stroked his hair, waiting for him to continue.
“Carlos asked me to take a look at the latest video for his YouTube channel for any notes before he makes the final edits,” Reggie explained. “I knew it would scare the pants off me, but it’s not like I’m going to say no to the little dude.” He shrugged, and Julie melted. Her family loved Reggie so much that she was pretty sure if they didn’t get married and Bond eventually, her dad would start googling Adult Adoption. Reggie was pack.
“So you put my sweater on to feel safer?” she asked, touched. He nodded. “Did it help?”
“It did, until I saw you out of the corner of my eye after 15 minutes of ghost busting,” he laughed.
Julie laughed too, and together, they watched the end of the video, Julie holding Reggie’s phone for him and Reggie hiding his face against her shoulder whenever it got scary, breathing in her scent.
From then on, she made sure to wear the smiley sweater around the house a few days before Carlos’ videos went up, just to be sure.