Animosity In The Ranks
Chapter 84
“Did you forget how to read?” a voice asked from behind you as you stripped off sopping wet clothes and tossed them into a hamper.
The break down of the merch booths had gone smoothly considering it had been done via the light from cell phones and a few flashlights. Luckily, between every bands merch people everyone got packed up and shipped out in a decent amount of time with only a few damages to appendages. The walk back to the buses had been the worst as the gear trucks and trailers had parked closest so as to keep everything as dry as possible. Those who lived on the buses had to fend for themselves. Which meant by the time you got into the bus you soaked to the bone and were afraid you were going to need a new cell phone, your cigarettes were toast though. So here you were, feeling like a tadpole and trying to strip what little you had on off without calling for a second set of hands. Not only were your clothes soaked beyond reason they were bone chilling cold. And as a result so were you.
“No. I can still read. More languages than you if I remember correctly,” you replied in the same manner as the person behind you had spoken.
With an arm around your chest you grabbed for the dry flannel shirt that you had thrown on the bed in front of you at the back of the bus. Shirt on, now hanging over the top of your rolled dry sweatpants, you turned to face the person behind you.
“I didn’t call you Jimmy because I was trying to play 52 pick up in the dark with little to no light while you probably got escorted to the bus under the cover of an umbrella. Nice dry clothes,” you glared at him, but without any venom.
“Sexy huh?” Jimmy asked as he raised his arms and did a slow little turn in the hallway.
You couldn’t help but smile when he came back around and stopped in a pose to show off the dryness of his long gangly limbs.
“There's the smile I’d kill small countries to see,” Jimmy said with a smile of his own.
“Only small? Not large?” you asked with a pretend pout as you grabbed another towel and went after your hair. Thank god your hair color was permanent!
“How about we settle on a happy middle ground with medium sized countries?” Jimmy replied as he picked up your first towel that was sitting wet and forgotten on the floor and tossed it into the hamper.
“I can settle for that. So what’s the plan Stan?” you asked as you dropped the now wet second towel in the hamper on top of the first.
“Hotel my love, hotel. We were going to one tonight after the show anyway. And tomorrow was a down day as well, same hotel. We’re just going early. Words been sent that we’re all arriving much earlier than planned,” Jimmy said nonchalantly as he rested against the bunks, butt half in one.
“Sounds good to me. Do they have bathtubs the size of small countries?” you asked with sad puppy dog eyes. The living kind, not the zombie kind.
“Only small?” Jimmy asked with a wicked grin as he took you into a hug.
-xXx-
“Home sweet home! At least for the next two days,” you said with a happy sigh as you dropped your few bags on the carpeted floor of your hotel room.
A room all to yourself, a rare treat indeed. But the hotel had comp'ed better rooms to everyone because of the storm. Apparently they had several cancellations as no one was going to be arriving to take their rooms in this weather. That and the manager had a daughter who liked the guys but was an even bigger fan of yours. Hence your own separate rooms. Though there were rooms with connecting doors and everyone had multiple keys. Your room had to be the biggest you’d ever seen in a hotel without it being called a Presidential Suite or Penthouse Suite.
“I’d say that’s at least medium country sized,” you said with a grin as you looked in on your bathroom, arms holding the giant doors open.
The grin still on your face you turned on the water as hot it would go and plug the drain. Pawing through the labels of the bottles lined on the tiled shelf area around the ginormous tub you picked out every smell you liked and unscrewed the tops.
“Dime sized just won’t do this time around,” you said gleefully as you upended the bottles almost till their ends one after another into the steaming water.
You watched the tub fill for a bit just to make sure the bubbles started to take and then went to upend your bags into the drawers in the bureau. Or at least in one of them. You didn’t think you had enough with you to fill all six in the room, let alone everything you had on you on this tour. Putting everything away took you all of less than a minute to put away but apparently long enough for the water to reach maximum level. Smiling to yourself you shut off the water and stripped down to your still very chilled birthday suit. Still smiling you put on the XM radio and finally slipped into the very hot, overly perfumed bath. Sighing you stretched out your full length and laid your head against the cushion in the groove meant for a head. Sputtering you pushed the bubbles away so you could breathe without inhaling them.
“Okay, so maybe I over did the bubbles,” you spoke aloud to no one.
You couldn’t see anything but bubbles, just the way you liked it.
The break down of the merch booths had gone smoothly considering it had been done via the light from cell phones and a few flashlights. Luckily, between every bands merch people everyone got packed up and shipped out in a decent amount of time with only a few damages to appendages. The walk back to the buses had been the worst as the gear trucks and trailers had parked closest so as to keep everything as dry as possible. Those who lived on the buses had to fend for themselves. Which meant by the time you got into the bus you soaked to the bone and were afraid you were going to need a new cell phone, your cigarettes were toast though. So here you were, feeling like a tadpole and trying to strip what little you had on off without calling for a second set of hands. Not only were your clothes soaked beyond reason they were bone chilling cold. And as a result so were you.
“No. I can still read. More languages than you if I remember correctly,” you replied in the same manner as the person behind you had spoken.
With an arm around your chest you grabbed for the dry flannel shirt that you had thrown on the bed in front of you at the back of the bus. Shirt on, now hanging over the top of your rolled dry sweatpants, you turned to face the person behind you.
“I didn’t call you Jimmy because I was trying to play 52 pick up in the dark with little to no light while you probably got escorted to the bus under the cover of an umbrella. Nice dry clothes,” you glared at him, but without any venom.
“Sexy huh?” Jimmy asked as he raised his arms and did a slow little turn in the hallway.
You couldn’t help but smile when he came back around and stopped in a pose to show off the dryness of his long gangly limbs.
“There's the smile I’d kill small countries to see,” Jimmy said with a smile of his own.
“Only small? Not large?” you asked with a pretend pout as you grabbed another towel and went after your hair. Thank god your hair color was permanent!
“How about we settle on a happy middle ground with medium sized countries?” Jimmy replied as he picked up your first towel that was sitting wet and forgotten on the floor and tossed it into the hamper.
“I can settle for that. So what’s the plan Stan?” you asked as you dropped the now wet second towel in the hamper on top of the first.
“Hotel my love, hotel. We were going to one tonight after the show anyway. And tomorrow was a down day as well, same hotel. We’re just going early. Words been sent that we’re all arriving much earlier than planned,” Jimmy said nonchalantly as he rested against the bunks, butt half in one.
“Sounds good to me. Do they have bathtubs the size of small countries?” you asked with sad puppy dog eyes. The living kind, not the zombie kind.
“Only small?” Jimmy asked with a wicked grin as he took you into a hug.
-xXx-
“Home sweet home! At least for the next two days,” you said with a happy sigh as you dropped your few bags on the carpeted floor of your hotel room.
A room all to yourself, a rare treat indeed. But the hotel had comp'ed better rooms to everyone because of the storm. Apparently they had several cancellations as no one was going to be arriving to take their rooms in this weather. That and the manager had a daughter who liked the guys but was an even bigger fan of yours. Hence your own separate rooms. Though there were rooms with connecting doors and everyone had multiple keys. Your room had to be the biggest you’d ever seen in a hotel without it being called a Presidential Suite or Penthouse Suite.
“I’d say that’s at least medium country sized,” you said with a grin as you looked in on your bathroom, arms holding the giant doors open.
The grin still on your face you turned on the water as hot it would go and plug the drain. Pawing through the labels of the bottles lined on the tiled shelf area around the ginormous tub you picked out every smell you liked and unscrewed the tops.
“Dime sized just won’t do this time around,” you said gleefully as you upended the bottles almost till their ends one after another into the steaming water.
You watched the tub fill for a bit just to make sure the bubbles started to take and then went to upend your bags into the drawers in the bureau. Or at least in one of them. You didn’t think you had enough with you to fill all six in the room, let alone everything you had on you on this tour. Putting everything away took you all of less than a minute to put away but apparently long enough for the water to reach maximum level. Smiling to yourself you shut off the water and stripped down to your still very chilled birthday suit. Still smiling you put on the XM radio and finally slipped into the very hot, overly perfumed bath. Sighing you stretched out your full length and laid your head against the cushion in the groove meant for a head. Sputtering you pushed the bubbles away so you could breathe without inhaling them.
“Okay, so maybe I over did the bubbles,” you spoke aloud to no one.
You couldn’t see anything but bubbles, just the way you liked it.
Out of all the fanfics this is the one I've read through 3 times through all 108 chapters. This is one of the best Zacky fics I've read and I still hope it'll be continued one day ; v; a very good read for any Zacky fan.
5/3/18