The night the five of them decide to put a stop to the photographer thing once and for all, Jimmy decides to become a ninja.

"AVENGED SEVENFOLD-ASSEMBLE!" he cries, despite the fact that everyone is already stood in Matt's hallway, waiting for night to officially fall so they can break into Larry's office to gather evidence. Lacey and Lizzy, who are house and baby-sitting for the night stand in the hallway, and both of them laugh as Jimmy cartwheels out of the living room, rolling across the floor until he's right beside his friends- looking like he's dodging the red wires in a spy movie.
"Jimmy, I think that deserves an Oscar. Come give your mini-me, and fellow Stallion Duck Chasing Ninja a hug" Lizzy says with a smile, and Jimmy bounds over to her, pulling her up off her feet in a bear hug.

The clock in the hallway chimes midnight, and Johnny, swinging the keys to his truck around his fingers walks out into the front yard to get the engine started up. Jimmy waves at Lacey and runs after his friend, somersaulting out of the door frame and landing on his ass in a pile of soil. Matt goes to say goodbye to his sister, and Brian does the same, pulling Lizzy into another bear hug.

If anything, he's doing this for her and Lisa. He doesn't want them to be ridiculed by the fans, or hated by them. They have their own lives, there shouldn't be private pictures of them floating around the internet- it's an invasion of their own privacy. He wants to protect them- to keep them safe. And if dressing up like an idiot and breaking into someone's office is the way to do it- then that's what he will do. He kisses her forehead, but she doesn't let go.
"Be safe out there, Bri. Try not to get arrested- and if you do, call me because I'm the only one who knows where your bail money is"

Brian rolls his eyes, but hugs his sister one last time and walks out with Matt.
The only person left is Zacky, and soon as everyone else has disappeared, the two of them almost attack each other, their lips crashing together passionately like Zacky's going off to war rather than breaking into someone's office. She doesn't want to let him go, ever, but she knows that now he's doing what is right.
"Same goes for you Zee. Be safe, and know I'm thinking of you. Always" Lizzy says softly and he kisses her again, with more need this time. The desire to be closer to her is stronger than ever.

"I will, baby. And after this, I'm never leaving you again" he whispers, before he lets her go and runs out of the door, almost dramatically slamming it behind him.
A silence descends on the hallway of the house, with just Lacey and Lizzy left behind. It's strange.

"So...help me break into my brother's wine cabinet?"

***

"Alright, we're in"

Jimmy, the master lock smith apparently, gets up from the ground and pushes the door open. No one's here- they know that their apparent PR manager is out of town tonight- at some fancy dinner or conference. The other four clap him on the back as they walk into the main room, the office they once considered quite homely and normal- now is just enemy camp.

Larry never needs to know. What he doesn't know won't hurt him- but they certainly will when they get their hands on the evidence.

"Since when did you learn to pick locks like that?" Johnny asks as they file into the room, raising an eyebrow suspiciously at his taller friend.
"Same way I learned how to pick up women. Found something to tease it with, and bam it opens right up" Jimmy smiles, leaning against the doorframe as his friend rolls his eyes, his torch shining in on the room.

Matt is the first one in, and he heads straight for the filing cabinet on one end of the room, shining his torch over the three drawers and trying to work out a way in. Brian and Zacky end up scoping out the free spaces, and Johnny and Jimmy keep watch, just in case someone comes.
When they protested why they couldn't actually look for stuff the others excuses had been Johnny was too short- and Jimmy was the most likely to set off the fucking alarms by doing some sort of Bond routine.

After what feels like an age of searching, they find nothing but old sheets of paper dating way back to when the band started to get big- receipts of money that he'd been paid to get them in magazines, get their videos shown on MTV- get them making some actual money.

Leaving Zacky to poke through another drawer, Brian falls down onto one of the chairs, running his hand through his hair. He feels like he's failed as a brother- to Lizzy and Lisa that is. He's meant to be making their lives better, not worse. He can't find any evidence other than that damn business card that Larry is the one behind all of this- and even that won't prove anything.

Something catches his eye as a torch light goes over it and he kneels down to look under Larry's desk.

Underneath the cold metal, is a thick brown file marked 'Private-Do Not Read'. Not that that had ever stopped Brian before. He sits back up in the leather seat and rips open the bindings that held it together, flicking through the first few pages.
There are photographs- hundreds of them, all of them taken of the boys and the people they are related too. Ones of his sisters, his parents, grandparents- even cousins and distant relatives he hasn't seen in years.

Flicking through more of the pages, he sees the tags with various people's names on them. They were there of course, and Lizzy, Lacey, Jimmy's new beau Jamie, Matt, Johnny and Zacky's siblings- all of them with their own pages. He flicks through to the page marked 'LIZZY HANER' and begins to read the scrawled notes on a separate sheet.

'4/7/06- Thirteen years old. No threat.

18/9/10-Seventeen years old. See Picture 1 w/ZV'

Brian flicks to 'Picture One' and sees a photograph of a seventeen year old Lizzy and Zacky walking down the street. It's a typical paparazzi shot, and he can guess from the skyscrapers surrounding them that they're in Hollywood. They both wear sunglasses, and he keeps her behind him, almost as if he's protecting her- just like Brian would do. He hadn't known they were dating then.

"Bri? What did you find?" Jimmy asks in a hushed voice and Brian is jerked out of his daydream, standing up to wave the files at the others.
"He's been keeping tabs on all of us, our families and our friends! He's got people watching us every second of every day!"

And suddenly- the alarm goes off.

Fuck.