Dolph has an afternoon full of media events for WWE, leaving Zack behind to go to the gym, catch up on things on Twitter, and listen to music that Dolph generally can't stand as loud as he dares, sometimes singing along if he thinks that noise complaints won't be sent to the front desk. He's in the middle of cardio when his phone starts lighting up. Curious, he turns the speed down before lifting his phone and staring as more and more tweet alerts are sent. Thumbing through them, he's not that surprised to find that Dolph had gotten bored between interviews, starting a Q&A. "Of course, blow up my phone while I'm trying to train, bro," he grouses, grinning a little as he looks through some of the answers, walking slowly in time with the machine.
Until, that is, he sees the dreaded "bunny" word and stops short, glaring at the text. "He couldn't even spell my name right?!" he demands, incredulous as he peers at one of his biggest pet peeves- Zach. He's so distracted, he skids and stumbles back when he's deposited off of the slow moving treadmill, almost hitting his face on the arm grips. "Dammit, bro, that's the last straw." Pocketing his phone and grabbing his other things, he heads for the exit, eyes ablaze.
It's late when Dolph returns to the hotel, exhausted and looking forward to watching Comedy Central and teasing Zack with junk food before passing out in bed. The thought has put a smile on his weary face until he unlocks their door and enters, wiping his eyes. "Hey, kid-" He stops short, smile immediately fading away as he takes in the dark, quiet room. There's no sign that Zack's even been in the room for hours, his gym bag gone. Frozen with the thought that maybe something happened to him, he tugs his phone out of his pocket and dials Zack's number with numb fingers, listening as it rings again and again, finally cycling through to his voicemail.
Dolph sits down heavily on the bottom of the bed, staring blankly at his phone. Zack never doesn't answer... "Shit," he hisses. Begins calling anyone he can think of, determined to find him, figure out what's going on. He's about to call local hospitals, just in case, worse case scenarios beginning to run through his mind, when Miz, the last person on the list of their colleagues he thinks to call, stops all of that.
"Oh, yeah, I saw him outside of the gym earlier," he says absently. "What'd you do to piss him off this time?"
"What do you mean?"
"He was so angry he didn't even see me entering when he was leaving. I thought he was going to break the glass doors, and he was muttering about bunnies and his name. I figured you tweeted something stupid again."
It immediately clicks and Dolph barely mutters a bye before hanging up, the phone slipping out of his fingers. "Son of a bitch." He sits blankly for a few minutes before finding his phone and accessing his tweets once more. The offending tweet, glaring back up at him with its bunny comment and the misspelling of Zack's name, had been made a good six hours ago and a shudder of unease tickles up Dolph's spine as he swallows hard. He'd noticed as soon as he'd tweeted it that he'd accidentally said "Zach", which had always angered Zack, but he hadn't been interested in fixing it, too busy answering tweets before his next interview to really think about how it would go over with the broski.
He stares at himself in the full length mirror before releasing a breath. "You are an idiot," he tells his reflection, scraping a hand through his hair before getting up to find Zack.
Considering neither of them know the area that well, it's hard to guess where the broski might've gone. Dolph grimaces and decides to drive around, looking for anything that looks like somewhere Zack may go. Bars are a bust, the beach is dead, even the karaoke joint he drives by is deserted of all things broski. He sighs and drives on, finally opting to stop at a park and walk around, try to clear his head for awhile. He's walking through shadowy trees, listening to the wind blowing through the leaves, when he hears a soft murmur. Curious, he approaches it, lips parting when the sound becomes more audible, the voice so very familiar that it almost hurts. He stops short and stares as Zack sprawls on the pavement by a small lagoon, feeding ducks breadcrumbs.
They quack and the more brazen ones peck at the food instead of waiting for him to throw it, but it must be more gentle than it looks because Zack laughs, their beaks tickling his palm. Dolph watches, holding his breath, until Zack runs out of bread and dusts his hands off, seeming content to sit there, surrounded by the birds as they scrounge around his prone body for more. "You bros are great," he tells the ducks quietly, careful not to scare them off. "If you could type, you'd never misspell my name, would ya?"
So he knows I'm here. Dolph winces and slowly walks over, unsurprised when most of the ducks fly off, sounding as scandalized by his appearance as Zack looks. He sits tensely, arms crossed over his knees, and doesn't bother to look over when Dolph sits next to him. They sit quietly for awhile, listening to the wind teasing through the tree, across the water. Slowly, some of the ducks return and even begin to peck around Dolph, still expecting more bread, but he doesn't move. Until, that is, he turns to look at Zack. "I'm sorry."
Zack doesn't say anything for awhile before releasing a breathy sigh. "You know I hate when people misspell my name, bro. And the bunny thing."
Dolph sighs, nodding. "Two strikes in one tweet... must be some kind of a record, considering you can only do so much in 140 characters."
Zack's grin is undeniable, even in the dark. "If anyone could manage it easily, it'd be you, bro."
Dolph inches closer, ignoring the ducks that skitter around them. "Alright, look, the bunny thing is... it's stupid, alright? I promise not to do it again if you come back to the hotel with me. How's that?"
"And you'll do it twice as much if I don't?" He doesn't sound serious, which helps Dolph to relax a little.
"Well, do you really want to stay here with ducks all night?" he wonders, looking around at the various birds still scattered around. "No offense."
"Well, they are quieter than-" He doesn't finish the sentence as Dolph pushes him over and pins him to the pavement, laughing. "Fine fine," he gives in breathlessly. "If you promise never to say I'm the bunny again, and make sure to spell my name right, I'll come back."
"You drive a hard bargain," Dolph tells him, not bothering to move off of Zack's midsection while he thinks it over. "But it's a deal. Now come on, these ducks look like they want to murder me." He stands and grips Zack's hand, pulling him up to his feet. He smirks and kisses him before drawing him away from the lagoon, leaving the ducks behind. "There's no way those birds are quieter than I am," he grouses. "Right? Zack?" But Zack's already halfway to the car, pointedly not responding. "ZACK!"