Inside These Arms Of Yours

Once Zacky and I had gotten home he helped me get settled on the couch. By the sound of it, I wasn't going to be doing much around here for the next few days. Zacky had gotten me a few pillows and a blanket to wrap up in before he disappeared into the kitchen. He had yet to return. I had just closed my eyes when I heard a panting coming from my side. As I rolled over and looked down I saw Ichabod staring up at me. I picked him up and gently laid him next to me on the couch. He licked my face once which felt weird with the bruising but I let him anyway. He finally gave it a rest and turned in a circle before settling comfortably beside me. The couch was big enough, and he was small enough that we fit pretty well on it together. Of course, Zacky and I could fit pretty well on the couch as well but we'll save that story for another time. It was so relaxing just being able to lay there and pet Ichabod. Yesterday had been a terrible day and I hoped to never have to go through that again. Being home was such a relief.

Home. I hadn't thought of that word in a long time. Zacky's home had become mine. Without him, I would have no home. By now it felt normal, whereas if you had told me I'd be living with the same guy I was dating a few months ago I would have told you I wasn't living with a guy until I was married. It's funny what uncontrollable circumstances will do to you and your life. I had to admit, my parents were none too happy to hear I was moving in with a guy at first and they were even less happy when they found out I had started dating him but thankfully they trusted me and my decisions and got over it. Hell they had even threatened to send my younger sister out to stay with us since she was apparently quite the stinker in her freshman year of high school. But my brother was doing a good job of keeping her in line. Yep, I'm the oldest. Did I forget to mention that? Must have slipped my mind. My sister Kari is a freshman in high school and my brother Kyle is a senior. Lucky me for being the oldest huh?

I was brought out of my deep thoughts by the sound of the kitchen door swinging open. I opened my eyes to find Zacky standing between me and the tv with his arms crossed, a pout adorned his face as he saw how comfy me and his dog were.

"And what do we have here? I'm getting replaced am I?" His bottom lip pushed out making his snakebites look ever so inviting. I had to keep up the good act though.

"You sure are. Your dog just can't resist me I guess." I smirked up at him as Ichabod leaned his head up and licked my face once more. That dog has perfect timing. Zacky's jaw dropped and he quickly picked up Ichabod and walked into the other room.

"Hey! You bring my cuddle buddy back you jerk!" I laughed as they were out of my sight. Zacky re-appeared a few seconds later this time without Ichabod.

"I can't let my dog replace me. That's just not right." He said as he occupied Ichabod's now empty spot next to me. His arms gently went around my back so they were between me and the back of the couch and he leaned his forehead gently against mine.

"Even through the bruises you are the most beautiful woman I've ever seen." I felt the heat reach my cheeks and wondered if you could even see the redness through the black and blue.

"And I love it when you blush." He mumbled before giving me a soft kiss on the lips. I was starting to miss the makeout sessions that had been missing lately. We had been so caught up in our time working that we hadn't really had much alone time. It was either spent with the group or running around trying to get this record put together.

"Yo Zack and Kate!!! We're here!!!!" And this time was no exception…….

Zacky dropped his head onto my shoulder and groaned into the crook of my neck causing me to get goose bumps from his hot breath.

"Every time… it never fails with them." He didn't move from his position as Brian, Matt, Val and Jimmy all appeared.

"Damn we must have bad timing." Jimmy teased. "Looks like Zack may have finally gotten some."

"Shut up Rev. I was just checking on her and resuming my place as boyfriend since earlier Ichabod took my place." Zacky got back up from the couch and leaned my head up so he could sit under it.

"Checking on her huh? More like checking her out is what it looked like." Matt turned to wink at me and Zacky glared back when he did.

"Anyway" Brian cut in stopping Zacky from retorting to Matt, "We brought you guys some stuff."

"Stuff? Did you bring a 24 pack of beer? If not I'm going to have to ask you to leave." Zacky said in all seriousness. The guys all exchanged worried glances and Val just looked at me to find me trying to conceal a smile. She had been silent since they arrived.

"Umm well we didn’t bring a 24 pack but we brought a 12 pack since we figured you might be out. And we brought some other various food items so you wouldn’t have to make a store run, and a few other things that are out in the car still." Jimmy piped up. Halfway through Jimmy's mini-speech Val had started laughing, but she was doing a fine job at keeping it in. Once he finished though she and I both burst out in laughter. The guys, minus Zacky, looked at us like we were crazy… you know that look. The one a guy will give you that makes it look like you're not human? Yeah that one.

"Matt I can’t believe you of all people fell for that. You do know he was kidding right?" Val grabbed Matt's arm to keep herself upright.

"Ohhh, um yeah… we knew that."

"Hey who says I was joking? If they plan to crash my house then I expect some booze. Ow! That wasn't nice…" I had reached up and pinched Zacky's thigh before turning on my back to grin at him.

"Oh be nice. They came to help, not crash the house."

"Same difference." He mumbled as his hands found my hair. The guys and Val had disappeared out to the car to bring things in I guess. My eyes started closing at the soothing feeling that was his fingers running through my hair. I swear the simplest things could knock me out lately. I gently rolled over onto my side again and placed my left hand on Zacky's thigh like I would on my own pillow.

"What the fuck is that?! And where did you come from? You weren't here before." Zacky questioned as I opened my eyes. There stood Johnny in front of everyone else holding a giant sheet layer cake that was tilting down so I could read it. It said 'Welcome home and get well soon!' in giant blue letters with small deathbats surrounding it.

"What does it look like genius. It’s a fucking cake for this lovely girl right here." Matt said as if it was obvious and Zack was just plain stupid.

"And as for where I came from I thought you would have known that by now too man, you see one day my parents decided to have a lovely little child so they…"

"Johnny don't you even go there." Brian smacked him upside the head as everyone laughed.

"Wow thanks you guys! You really didn't have to though." I couldn’t keep the smile off of my face.

"I told you they were here to crash the house… they brought along a party." I lifted my head as Zacky went to stand up. I attempted to stand up as well what with this stupid stomach bandage and all. Brian reached over and helped pull me up so I was in a sitting position and could then stand up. We all wandered toward the kitchen, myself at a slower pace then everyone. Before I reached the door however I was pulled aside by Val.

She gently gave me a hug and we just stood there for a minute.

"Are you ok girl? And I mean seriously, are you ok?" She asked as she held me at arms length.

"Yes I'm alright. A little sore in some places but overall I'll be fine. I just don’t ever want to have to go through that again. The police said they would call us when they found anything out." I carefully glanced toward the kitchen to make sure none of the guys were going to walk out.

"I've never seen Zacky act so caring before. I don't want to say this in front of the guys cause then they'll give him a hard time about it, but he really is a sweetheart." I continued. Val smiled and shook her head in understanding.

"He's going to make sure you get healed up all right. And you'd be amazed at how sweet he can be. Not many people get to see that side of him so consider yourself lucky. Normally it's all the pervertedness that people see, especially the fans. And that goes for all of the guys. Just pray they never trick you into going to a strip club with them. That’s awful." She shuddered at the thought but we both immediately froze as a high pitched whirling sound came from the kitchen along with several guy-ish screams and some 'Oh shit!!'s.

We both turned to look at each other with fearful eyes before facing the kitchen door, afraid to go in.

"Do you think it's safe?" She questioned glancing back at the door and then back to me.

"Probably not but I say we go in to do some damage control."

We both took a few steps toward the door and gently pushed it open only sticking our heads inside. The sight we were greeted with sent us into hysterics.

"Way to go Rev…" Matt was saying. All five boys were covered from head to toe in what looked like strawberry margarita mix. Val and I stepped in fully and immediately busted laughing which caused the guys to turn and look at us.

Johnny and Matt's mohawks were now sagging to the side, Syn's hair had since flopped down as well while Zacky and Jimmy's were sticking to their faces. Those that were wearing eyeliner, Brian, Zack and Jimmy, now had it running down their faces and their clothes were completely drenched. On the counter lay a giant blender that was now void of its previous contents and there was no lid in sight. Bet you can figure out what happened.

"Oh yeah laugh it up ladies." Johnny whined as he rubbed his arms since they were probably cold from the slush that now covered them.

"Alright." Val snickered before we both grabbed onto each other and busted out in more laughter. This was too priceless. Especially when we turned to see that all five were now glaring at us. That glare soon turned into a five way smirk. Val and I were on our feet in no time flat and were running, well moving as fast as I could, up the stairs in search of a hiding spot.

"Quick in here." I said motioning for her to follow me into Zacky's room.

"Ew I'm not going in there." She wrinkled her nose up looking cautiously inside the room that was surprisingly for the most part, clean.

There were sounds of thunder as the guys stormed up the stairs toward us.

"Ok I changed my mind. In we go!" And with that she pulled me through the room and into Zacky's open closet where she proceeded to pull the door shut behind us.

"Do you think they'll find us in here?" Her breathing was broken as we panted from our quick escape.

"Well I'm hoping this is the last place they will look. Chances are they'll head to my room first. Oh that could be trouble…" We heard the door across the hall open and I knew they were going in there. My eyes went wide though when I realized that there were now five guys turned loose inside my bedroom.

"Damn Zack. Your girlfriend owns some sexy lingerie." We heard Brian say. I looked at Val with wide eyes.

"Yeah man I know. And she thinks I never go through her drawers…" Zacky laughed. That’s when my jaw dropped.

"Oh my gosh I can't believe him!!!" I whispered loudly to Val. She quickly clamped a hand over my mouth though.

"Shh. Something tells me they are doing that on purpose to try and get us to come out. Keep quiet." She said in what was barely a whisper. I nodded my head and she removed her hand. We quietly sat on the ground hoping we would hear them go back down stairs.

"Do you think they're gone?" Val asked after several minutes of silence from both parties involved in this game of hide and seek.

"I don’t know. You wanna check?"

"Sure why not." She crawled over to the door with me along side of her. Her head was on the bottom and mine was above hers. We slowly opened the door. There on Zacky's bed sat all five guys staring at the closet door. We quickly closed the door again, not so quiet this time as they obviously had known where we were. The guys all laughed as we heard them approach the closet. How did we not even hear them come in?

The door opened and there, once again stood the guys, still drenched in red liquid however it looked like it had dried slightly and was now sticky. Val and I both looked at each other before gulping and turned to face our doom.

"Umm hi guys." Val stuttered out.

"How's it going?" I followed.

"Oh you know… the usual. Very sticky and cold. It's just a wonderful day in paradise." Matt said through gritted teeth. "Would you ladies care to join us?"

"Not really no. You guys can enjoy paradise without us." Val smiled really big and batted her eyelashes.

"I don't think so." Zacky smiled what I would consider a sinister smile, no pun intended.

Before either of us could retort Matt had reached up and tossed Val over his shoulder. Zacky stared at me before picking me up bridal style.

"Didn't want to hurt your bruises babe." He mumbled before kissing my forehead with his sticky lips. Ew.

Val stared at me from over Matt's shoulder. "Hey how come I have to be tossed over the shoulder? You couldn’t have picked me up bridal style too huh Matt?" She complained as she slapped his back, which accomplished nothing seeing as it was mostly muscle. Matt just shook his head saying "Nope" as he led the way back out of Zacky's room with Zack and me following behind. The rest of the guys brought up the rear laughing at our expense. Val looked like a limp twig just hanging there. That changed though when she bolted straight and pointed an accusing finger at Zacky.

"Oy watch those feet woman!" Matt yelled as he ducked his head to the side to avoid being hit by Val's feet that had swung out.

"And you Vengeance! I think I have to have a word with you about going through your girlfriend's lingerie drawer!" The guys all busted out laughing at this and when I looked up at Zacky it was to find his face turning a slight pink tinge.

"Oh my gosh you actually did that?!" I asked horrified. "And you guys weren't doing that just to lure us out?" I looked over Zacky's shoulder as we reached the living room to see Brian had the biggest smirk on his face. They paused there to look at each other and to let Brian answer my question.

"Nope. That was all real and may I say Katie, you have some trashy lingerie that I never would have figured you would wear." His smirk seemed to grow by the second. I was literally speechless.

"I can't believe you went through my drawers Haner!" I yelled. "I mean first Zacky does when I was moving here, and now you too!"

"Alright you four, fess up. Syn's not the only one." Val glared at them all including Matt who had just placed her on the counter as we made our way into the kitchen.

"Damn Val you know us too well." Jimmy smiled before reaching behind him. Not only did he, but the other four did too and when they turned around Val and I almost made a run for the hills but it was too late. They each had a pitcher of margarita mix, which had all been sitting on the counter, that was quickly thrown at us. Screams emitted from deep within our throats as we sat there even more drenched than the guys had been to begin with. So not cool.

Our shock soon turned into laughter. So much for a relaxing first day home.