EPILOGUE
“It’s more fun to be in the crowd in London, I promise.” Cane ushered Luka out the stagehand door, a hand on his back while Luka fought back a snarl. He wanted to be backstage. He’d not seen Reno for two months. It wasn’t fair.
“Caaaaaane," Luka said, in a way that sounded eerily like Reno, “You’re torturing me. I haven’t seen my boyfriend in forever, and I’m going to die. It’s his birthday, let me in.”
Cane gave him a look that was so tired but so loving, Luka found himself dropping his attitude, marginally.
Over the two months Voltage had been on tour in the South and Central Americas, Cane had graciously stayed with Luka.
He’d diligently kept an eye on him, much to Luka’s annoyance and gratitude, and every morning after their run, they FaceTimed Reno together to check in and eat breakfast. It was cute. So cute it made Luka queasy.
“You can see him after the show all you want. He needs to focus on the performance.”
“Untrue, I can not see him all I want—he is leaving again in one week. He can focus just fine after I’ve kissed him, I promise.”
“Go with him on tour, then. Kiss him all you want another time.” Cane rolled his eyes and started pushing on Luka’s back again. Luka groaned and thought about giving up.
“You’re so mean to me. And, I am going with him for the second half of the tour. I wanna see France.”
“Spoiled.”
“You get to come too!” Luka finally let Cane push him out the door and into the concert hall, where a small crowd was starting to file in. “Okay, you win! But I’m going right to the merch stand, and getting the only signed Zana photo card in there as payback.”
Cane closed the door, leaving Luka to stand there feeling foolish while a few people looked at him with wide eyes.
He pushed his hair away from his face, wishing he’d at least trimmed his bangs and maybe worn a cooler outfit if he was going to be in the crowd.
He decided to steal a shirt from the merch booth, too.
He spun on his heel and headed right to it, ignoring the pointed whispers around him from the early-access fans.
“Oh shit, what are you doing here?” Luka asked as he slipped between people to join Conner behind the table. “Hand me the photo card box. Please.”
“Had the night off from the pub, so I thought I’d help the band out with merch. Reno trusts me with money, which means Kandi does too. Plus, the fans…” He let out a low whistle. “Hot.”
“Uh huh.” Luka reached over him and took the photo card box and started shuffling through them. “Be careful, it’s an all-ages show.”
“If I think someone’s hot, I cross my fingers they use a credit card so I can ask for their ID to see if the card ‘matches’. Easy age check.”
“Okay, creep. Oh score!” Luka pulled the photo card out with a cheer. “Zana’s gonna be so pissed I snagged this.” He slipped the signed card into his wallet. “Give me a shirt too, I didn’t know Cane was gonna force me out into public view.”
“Sure, what size?” Conner pulled a box of shirts out for Luka to dig through.
“Medium is fine.” His phone buzzed in his pocket and he smiled at the text that popped up.
Rosé
Will u get me one of my queen’s shirts please i will owe u big time wish i could have gone w u!
Anything for u. I'll be free again next sun to help w ur booth
I'm so so lucky ur a morning person. Farmers markets KILL me
But the ladies love ur crochet stuff so much :)
everyone needs a friend like u
as in, someone who can socialize with old ladies before 10 am. God bless. They love you almost as much as i do <3
“Set aside a size large of Reno’s design, too, for me. Would you?” He watched Conner dig one out before saying, “I wonder when my boyfriend will let me design a shirt for them.”
“Aren’t you, like, ridiculously busy already?”
“Yeah, but I could knock out a stellar shirt in a night if I wanted. Besides, my publisher can wait an extra day if I slack off.”
“My boyfriend, my publisher," Conner said, sounding dazed. “Your life is crazy. Rockstar boyfriend and a published novelist.”
“Graphic novelist.” Luka pulled his shirt off and yanked on a new one, feeling much more confident sporting Reno’s new design in pink and yellow on black. “And I’m not published yet, I’m—”
“Hey, sorry.” Someone interrupted him, and Luka turned to find a group of girls looking at him. “Are you Luka?”
“Oh.” Luka flushed; he’d just been shirtless in front of these girls and didn’t notice. Fuck. “Yeah? Oh, I forgot VIP is already coming in.”
“Yeah! Oh my god. We didn’t know you’d be working merch. I’m so glad I’m here so early.”
“I’m not really working merch, I’m just stealing some shirts and saying hi to my friend.” Luka used his thumb to indicate Conner, who waved shyly and two out of the three girls blushed. “What’s up? You wanna draw photo cards, buy a shirt?”
“Yeah, but, um. We were really hoping to find you, actually.”
Luka paused his opening of the photo card box for them and raised an eyebrow. When he didn’t respond, the leader of the girl-pack held out a gray gift bag. “Will you give this to your boyfriend? It’s his birthday show so we pooled our money to get him a gift.”
Luka’s heart melted. He took the bag and peeked inside. “Do I get to know what it is?” he asked, making them giggle.
“It’s a Vivienne Westwood scarf. We found a vintage pink one.”
“That’s extremely sweet. He’ll love that,” Luka said, “Shit, y’all are gonna make me look bad…
.I didn’t get him anything expensive like that.
But seriously, thank you. Here.” He opened his wallet and pulled out the signed photo card.
“I was gonna taunt Zana with this, but I think you should have it.”
He watched their eyes go wide and they burst out into high-pitched excitement, making Luka plug his ears until they finished. They thanked him repeatedly, looking like they might cry.
“No problem, no problem. Conner can help you with the rest. I’ll make sure Reno gets your gift.
If you know of any other fans who have stuff for him, I’ll be at the barricade all night.
Or you can leave stuff with Conner and he’ll get it to me.
He’s extremely handsome and nice and will treat all of you really well.
” He winked then waved bye to them, mouthing to Conner, “You’re welcome," before heading to the barricade.
There was already a small crowd gathered there, and Luka asked if he could join them, not wanting to get in anyone’s way. They parted for him, giving him a spot that would land him right between Arnaud and Reno, and he waved to the security guard already stationed at the end of the barricade.
“Hey, sorry this is awkward. I’m Reno’s boyfriend, and I might be accumulating gifts for him through the night. Is it okay if I pass them on to you to set by the stage so they don’t get stepped on?”
The security guard shrugged. “Sure. Just set stuff on the ground on the other side, and I’ll move it.”
“Hey, you’re really Reno’s boyfriend?” The person next to him asked as Luka handed the gray gift bag to the guard. “Will you tell him happy birthday from us?”
Luka nodded. “Of course.”
“Hey!” Someone else ran up to the small group up front. “Will you all sign this card?” They opened it up and it was already littered with well-wishes and notes for Reno. “Holy shit, hey Luka! I love your videos.”
“Hi?” He was not used to people knowing who he was without having met him before. “Want me to get this to him?”
Before Luka could answer, another gift bag, several sealed letters, flowers, and a fox plushie with a pink bow around its neck were handed to him.
“Wow. I’m never going to have to buy him a present, am I?
” Several people around him laughed and Luka wondered if that was actually funny or if people were sucking up to him.
General admission started rolling in and the PA system turned the music on, playing some pop songs.
Luka handed everything but the birthday card—as it was still being passed around—to the security guard, who looked just as amused as Luka felt.
Word got out that he was at the front and until the lights signaled that it was almost show time, people passed gifts forward, yelling out greetings and thanks to Luka for taking care of it.
By the time the lights finally dimmed, the ground in front of the stage looked like a shrine, and when Reno appeared on stage, he looked like a god.
Luka was the luckiest man alive.
He’d been in London a little over a year now, but it still felt like a marvel to get to be in such a vibrant city with the man of his dreams at his side.
After he moved in officially, Reno and the rest of the band took a hiatus for three months, letting themselves rest and recover from the nightmare they’d all just gone through.
Reno and Luka used the time not just to lounge naked together in their flat, but to map out a serious plan for handling Reno’s different career pressures as a team.
It helped that by that point, Sterling was putty in their hands, bowing to any of their demands, including letting Luka be part of their daily ongoings.
The fans ate it up. They loved getting to see Luka’s video clips of the band being ridiculous, getting into mischief, curled up together on the couch, and practicing hard once they were off hiatus. Luka’s accounts blew up even more with each video, and he learned to embrace the chaos of it all.
He made bad cooking and skating videos, both of which he’d never done before, and everyone loved watching him make a mess of himself.
Sometimes, he made videos about language learning, and he found it really fun to try to talk to people across the world, even if most of the time he made a mess of himself with that too, stumbling over his words.