Save Some for Me

Zack’s standing outside of the bus enjoying the quietness of the cool air when he gets a text. It’s from his Mum, a picture of the usual chocolate treats she makes every Easter, all presented on her favourite dish ready to be eaten with a line underneath that reads: ‘I’ll keep you some for when you come home, have a safe Easter! X’

He writes back that he will and stares of the picture for a moment longer before closing his phone. Zack was used to missing out on holidays because of being on tour but for some reason Easter is normally the one he’s always home for. It feels weird though, being here instead of there.

When it became too cold to hang around outside he finally headed into the bus, getting hit by a flood of warmth as he opened the doors. It was quiet, well quiet as can be while music was being played. As he made it to the kitchen table where Alex and Jack were sitting he realised why.

“What are you guys doing?”

Flashing a bright grin, Jack held up an egg covered in a rainbow pattern. Paint was smudged over his fingers.

“We’re painting hatchlings!”

“Easter eggs.” Alex chirped, holding his up to.

There were actually painted really well considering they were doing it on a tour bus parked outside the venue they were playing in not two hours earlier.

“Huh.”

“I figured,” Jack started to explain around his grin. “Seeing as we’re not going home of Easter we should at least do something for it. Until we can go shopping for chocolate anyway.”

Zack nodded and picked up one of the finished eggs. It was painted to look like a little chick with eyes talking up almost its whole face. Kind of cute though.

Zack put it back on the table and frowned at the yellow paint that was left on his fingers. He wiped the paint off on Alex’s shirt that was heavily stained with glue, glitter and paint from previous random bus art projects.

“What are you going to do with them?” Zack asked as Alex swatted his hand away.

“Decorate the bus.” Jack shrugged. “Watch out, you might get one in your bunk.”

Zack smiled and headed to the back lounge.

“Put it on my pillow.”

~

“We should have a chocolate party after the show, all three bands and crew until bus call.” Rian suggested to Matt as Zack lifted his camera to take a shot. “We could get some type of chocolate liqueur from a liquor store somewhere. Make chocolate shots.”

“I’ll be in that.” Zack said.

Rian turned to face Zack and being used to having camera pointed at him, smiled just as Zack clicked the shutter. He turned around to get a shot of everyone else with the busses as a background when Alex walking past with a step ladder made him pause.

Alex set up the step ladder in between the two busses were everyone could see him and Jack quickly moved to his side, bouncing all excited on his toes.

“Hey, you bunch of fuckers!” Alex yelled gaining everyone’s attention.

Zack rolled his eyes, unimpressed and snapped a quick shot. Matt snorted.

“Me and Jack have an announcement to make,” Alex started only to get cut off with grammar remarks and people asking if the announcement was that they started dating.

Glaring, Alex placed his hand on his hips and lost balance on the steps for a second.

“Jack and I,” Alex grumbled. “Have organized an Easter egg hunt!”

Zack blinked and looked over at Rian, who looked back arching an eyebrow almost as if to say should’ve known. Zack wondered if he should have been surprised. Then again with the stuff Alex and Jack came up with, it was hard to be.

Across from them, Panic! At The Disco, murmured quietly among each other. Brendon perked up bouncing a little on his toes and grabbed Spencer’s arm like he was trying to hold his excitement back. Spencer hardly reacted.

“Sadly, Fall Out Boy can’t join us, being busy and stuff. But that means more eggs for us! The hunt will be in the venue.” Alex continued.

“In half an hour.” Jack added.

“Those that are joining need to be at the back door in half an hour to hear the rules. You may continue on with whatever you were doing. C’mon, Jack.”

Alex got off the step ladder, folded it up and walked off to the backdoor of the building with Jack following on his heals carrying a large cardboard box.

“Well this should be interesting.” Rian grinned.

Zack took a picture of the two as they disappeared into the building.

~

“Should we do the egg hunt?” Zack asked as he carefully packed his camera away.

Rian followed him to the bunks and leaned against the door unwrapping one of the tiny chocolate eggs that was sitting on the kitchen table.

“I don’t see why not. It’s not like we have much else to do, plus if we don’t they’ll complain about for the next month.” Rian said before popping the chocolate into his mouth.

“Point.”

Matt walked past with one of techs to the back lounge and Rian followed after them. Zack pulled his bunk curtain back to put his camera away. On his pillow was a painted egg of a rabbit that was half white, half black like one of his guitars.

Zack smiled.

~

Out of both bands and crews that were invited to join the egg hunt, almost everyone turned up. There were a few techs missing that Zack could tell but it was a pretty good turnout. Alex looked almost smug at the little crowd standing around his step ladder.

“Alright,” Alex called to get everyone’s attention. “The eggs are hidden in the band’s rooms, back stage and out in the arena. There is a fuckloads of eggs hidden, but don’t be a hog or else I’ll take them off you.”

Alex glared around the group like it would make his threat more serious.

“These are the rules; no fighting, bitching, squabbling or anything of the like. Don’t steal other peoples eggs, were grown men not five year old kids-” There was a loud voice somewhere commenting on how grown men are playing a five year old kid’s game but Alex continued ignoring them. “- You can search in partners or groups, whatever. Don’t go telling people where they are hidden, let them find them and no trashing the place.”

“Some aren’t hidden very well but there are a lot that will be extremely hard to find. Have fun!” Jack exclaimed opening the door.

Brendon and Dallon were the first people inside followed by an amused Spencer. Before Zack and Rian could follow the crowd, Jack pulled them back with a grin.

“Us four have personalized ones hidden in our dressing room. They won’t be easy to find so keep a good eye out.”

Zack nodded and let Jack grab his wrist and pull him into the building.

~

For the first twenty minutes or so Zack just stood back and watched. He was more interested in finding the harder ones like the one where Spencer had to almost remove all the fake ceiling panels in Panic’s dressing room to get a large egg that was heavily taped to a pipe.

Zack wasn’t sure why Spencer had to remove the panels but walking in on Spencer balancing on Dallon’s shoulders un-taping a chocolate Easter egg from a pipe was defiantly something to see. Almost as funny when Rian sat down on a chair in the hallway and squashed an egg that was hidden under the cushion.

Some of the chocolates were so easy to find they were hardly hidden and were snapped up in no time. Most of the lazy guys took them and left leaving the rest that were really getting involved. Alex was happily filming what he could.

“Hey, found one!” Rian cheered, standing on a chair checking on top of the cupboards in their dressing room.

It wasn’t one of the personalised ones but a good find. Zack smiled and slowly looked around the room, scanning it. It was hard to tell where to check though, because Zack hadn’t seen inside the room before Alex and Jack messed with it.

“What happens to the ones that no one finds during the hunt?” Zack asked.

“Someone will find them eventually.” Alex shrugged.

Zack looked around the room and the top of the curtains caught his eye. They were low enough he didn’t need a chair and slowly ran his hand along the curtain rods behind the fabric, collecting dust at first until his hand bumped into something that moved.

He pulled the object out and grinned having found an egg.

“Found one.”

Jack turned and beamed at him before scurrying off to find his personalized egg. Rian was now looking in the cupboards, practically in them checking every nook and cranny. Zack put his egg down on the coffee table in the middle of the room and kept searching.

It didn’t take any of them long to find a small stash off eggs for themselves and Alex and Jack to find their ‘personalized’ one which were hidden in pretty crappy places.

“Are you sure you actually hid them in here?” Zack asked when Alex snickering was starting to get on his nerves.

Alex turned the camera towards him and smirked.

“Yes, why? You give up?”

“No.”

“Then keep looking.”

Zack sighed and started moving the couch for about the fifth time. Rian stood watching for a minute; suddenly he walked across the room, opened the freeze section of the fridge and came face to face with his egg. Zack huffed and shoved the couch out of the way.

There was nothing underneath it so he put it back.

“I’ll give you a clue,” Jack offered. “You’re freezing right now.”

Arching an eyebrow, Zack moved a few steps across the other side of the room.

“Warmer, and that’s all I’m telling.”

Alex laughed and focused the camera on Zack, smirk still firmly placed on his face. He glared a little and started looking around.

Zack looked though everything on that side of the room, only to find nothing. Annoyed and a little frustrated, he groaned tilting his head back towards the ceiling.

That’s when he saw it.

It was only small little thing, but the fake ceiling panel just slightly out of place caught his eye. It could’ve been like that for a long time and done by anyone, it looked promising though. And well, the ceiling was about the only place Zack hasn’t looked yet. Without letting much on of what he was doing, he grabbed the closest chair and stood on it sliding the panel out of the way.

Before he got it across enough to fit his hand though to search, a pink egg fell out with a picture of his face on it, hit his shoulder and landed on the ground with a small crack. The chocolate hadn’t split the foil but it was defiantly in pieces.

“I told you to put it more to the left.” Jack scrolled hitting Alex’s arm lightly.

“It’s still eatable.” Alex shrugged.

Zack got off the chair and carefully picked up the egg in case the foil broke. He stood up just as Alex almost got hit with the door swinging open. He tumbled with the camera but managed to save it.

“I found the biggest egg!” Brendon cheered holding up an Easter egg almost long as his forearm.

~

“Well that worked out better than expected.” Matt grinned clutching his bunch of chocolate towards the bus. “Won’t have to buy any for myself now.”

“That’s why we brought so many.” Jack said around the rabbit ear he was sucking on.

“The Panic! guys look like they had fun.” Zack pointed out fondly.

Over by the busses Panic’s band and crew were all hanging out in a group, eating chocolate and laughing as Brendon and Dallon explained their ‘Easter hunt story’ which sounded more and more exaggerated by the minute, but funny. Alex smiled and wondered off to join the group.

“Today was fun.” Rian grinned. “Tonight show should be good too. Jack hyped up on sugar is going to be hilarious.”

Jack snorted and smacked Rian’s shoulder light before following Alex. Matt trailed off collecting the rest of the crew to join the growing group.

“It sucked we couldn’t have Easter at home but at least we still had a family to spend the day with.” Zack said gaining a large grin of agreement from Rian.

He wished he had his camera at the moment and had to settle for his phone camera. He snapped a few shots of the guys by the busses, Rian next to him and the venue building behind him. This was defiantly going into his tour photo album.

Really, Zack couldn’t have asked for a better day.

~

Zack smiled as he lifted his phone and snapped a picture of his chocolate hoard sitting in his bunk. He sent it to his mum with an attracted message.

‘Tell everyone Happy Easter. I’ll save you some too. x’