Harder Than You Know

"I don't know him very well." Aria said to Val, furrowing her eyebrows.

"So what? He loooves you!" Val exclaimed, taking a piece of cake that had been brought in during their short absence earlier.

"How do you know that?"

Val stared at her with an 'are-you-serious' look. "It's kind of obvious, Ari. When he first met Gena, he wasn't, you know, into her until the relationship got serious. She's a whoreface by the way. Don't worry about her, although I do think you're going to have to meet her some other time since she's an avid party goer even though it's her dad that does all the business. But I guess she hooks up with random guys, goes to their house, then--"

"I get it, Val." Ari laughed, interrupting her ramble.

"Oh," Val said, giggling. "Sorry about that. But anyway, she's gonna be real mean to you when she sees you so that's just a heads up. Anyway, I'm sure Zacky will always come to the rescue and so will I! And all the other girls! And the guys!"

"I'm glad to hear that." Ari said just as Zacky and Matt walked in. Matt took Val's hand as she stood up.

"I'm here to take Val back, Ari." Matt told her, getting a laugh and nod in response. "See you two later."

When they left, Zacky turned to Ari and said, "We can dance now if you want. Not that many people are dancing anymore so it'll be less crowded."

Ari shyly smiled and replied, "I'd like to dance.."

Zacky grinned and led her back outside, holding her hand. "Let's go then."

As they exited the room, Ari caught sight of Ryan and froze momentarily before Zacky urged her on with a gentle squeeze of her hand. "Don't mind him. He can't do anything."

A few yards away, Michelle watched as Ari and Zacky started to dance. "Look, Bri! They look so adorable together."

Leanna joined Michelle from nowhere and said, "I know, right? And look over there. Gena's about to explode!"

Sure enough, if you looked to where Leanna was pointing to, you could see a red faced blonde glaring at Zacky and Ari in anger. There were actually a couple of other ladies eying Ari dangerously as the two of them had their fun. It was quite comical to see.

"I don't get why this whole scenario is so interesting." Brian shrugged, taking a sip of his drink.

"Yeah, what's with you girls and.. the things you talk about?" Jimmy added, scratching his head. He looked at Brian who gave him a 'Don't-look-at-me' look.

"Men." Michelle muttered, rolling her eyes.

"You love us."

"And I always wonder why."

"....I resent that."

"Shush, I'm watching Ari and Zacky." Michelle said, ignoring Brian's previous statement.

"That so didn't sound stalker-ish."

"Shush I said!"

Zacky chuckled to himself as he saw Michelle and Brian interact from the corner of his eyes.

"What's funny?" Ari asked softly, mid twirl.

"Oh nothing. We just have some silly friends." he replied. "And I do hope you're enjoying yourself."

Ari smiled and said, "I am, thank you."

The next hour was spent dancing with some talking here and there. When Aria got tired, Zacky led her back to their private room where they relaxed for a while.

"You're very good at dancing." he commented, causing her to blush lightly. He looked closely at the mark on her neck and frowned as he saw it wasn't as noticeable as before, due to the lack of his own touch.

"Hold on.." he murmured, getting closer to her.

"I'm not going to bite you again, I just need to make sure other people can see this." he continued, moving her hair to one side and leaning in.

When Aria felt Zacky's lips against her neck, she let out a small gasp but then found herself leaning against his touch. She bit her lip to keep herself from making any noise when he continued to kiss her and started to use his tongue lightly, too. It was odd.. But in a good way.. Sort of.

A few heated minutes later, he pulled away, smiling when he saw how red Ari had become.

"Does it hurt?" he asked.

"N-no.. B-but it feels more.. Y'know.. Intense.. It k-kind of burns.. But it-it doesn't hurt." she stammered, feeling flustered.

"That's good.. I heard it would hurt for other people. I'm glad you're okay. All I did was make it a bit more darker so other people could see it. It fades when it's left alone but it won't ever go away completely. It just gets harder to see unless I touch it."

Just then, Val and Matt came in, having had their share of fun. Val took notice of Ari's blushing face and Zacky licking his lips subconsciously and smirked. "And what have the two of you been up to?"

"I darkened her mark, Val." Zacky said shortly.

"Well you're no fun." Val pouted, pushing Matt down on one of the couches to sit on him. Ari wondered how Val was so dominant with someone like Matt.

"And you're very aggressive." Zacky countered. "That's not very lady-like."

"It's no fun being lady-like anyway."

----------------------------------------------

"Zacky I hope you know how cute you--"

"Leanna, please. You're going to wake her up. She's had a tiring night."

"Aww, you care for her."

"He was 'darkening Ari's mark' earlier, but I could totally tell he had other things in mind."

A snicker. "I wonder what kinds of things."

"You probably don't wanna know."

Zacky gritted his teeth and chose to ignore the others. Aria had fallen asleep on the drive home and he was carrying her back up to their room. He decided to change and wash up first and then wake Ari up.

"Ari," he said quietly, gently shaking her. "Wake up and change, darling. You can sleep in as long as you want tomorrow."

"Huh? Oh.. Okay.." she mumbled. Sighing as she realized she had makeup to remove, too.

She slowly gathered her clothes and went into the bathroom and washed up as quickly as she could and was out in fifteen minutes.

As she climbed onto the bed, Zacky pulled the covers over her and removed pieces of stray hair from her face. He placed a kiss on her forehead. "Good night, Aria."

He didn't get a response as she was already asleep.