~Author's Note~

Thanks for the reviews, guys, as always! I loved seeing them! Only a week left until the movie, who's ready?

Prompt:
A new promo video was found/released today, and flashes of (spoilers!) Zed as a full zombie were seen in two different scenes of the movie. The second one was Prawn, and then I made a post on Tumblr about "what if Zed goes full zombie at Prawn, and the someday reprise that's listed on the soundtrack comes in because that's how Addison gets him to turn back?" and, of course, I then had to write it!
Notes:
None.

Genre: Romance (and just a little, tiny bit of Angst)
Rating: PG

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18
someday (we could be something extraordinary)

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The wind is chilly and sends a shiver down her spine as she dodges trees and oversteps jagged roots, the bottom of her dress sticking to the ground and turning from a beautiful blue to an ugly brown.

"Zed!"

She swears she's been shouting for hours, even when it's only been for a few minutes, and behind her she can hear the trample of her friends helping her with her search, fallen branches breaking and snapping under their feet.

"Zed!"

Again her voice echoes off the hollow trees, bouncing through the forest, and when no answer reaches her Addison stops and spins around in a full circle, scanning the lines of trees around her.

Eliza, Bonzo, Bree and Wyatt come to a stop a few steps away from her, looking around themselves, spotting absolutely nothing in the dark of the night. Music from Prawn can be heard from the school, though it's muffled and warped from the distance.

The moon is full and bright and threatening as it shines down on the five on them, offering no help.

Addison feels the same worry from earlier grow worse, grow more panicked, because Zed is nowhere to be found. After his confrontation with the pack, she didn't trust that they wouldn't do something, and Wyatt shared her thoughts, if his continuous worried glances towards her told her anything.

"He can't be gone," she whispers, more to herself than anybody else, but they hear anyway, her quiet voice no longer quiet in a place so barren.

Everything around them is silent. Still. Another gust of wind brushes past, causing Addison to shiver again.

Then they hear it.

The soft snap of a twig, off to Addison's left.

"Zed?" She calls out, turning in the direction of the noise and waiting. There's another snap, this one louder than the last, and her heart lifts, just a little. Did they find him?

"Zed!"

Without another thought she takes off towards the noise, leaving her friends behind.

"Addison!" Wyatt shouts, but she ignores him and continues towards the noise.

She ducks under a low hanging branch, shoves through some prickly brush, and accidentally stumbles over a rotted-through log, but when she catches her balance and looks up, she sees him.

His fitted tuxedo is marred by smudges of dirt.

There's a few leaves stuck to him in odd places.

His hair is sticking up, most likely from him taking off once he had realized what was happening back at Prawn.

He's holding tightly onto the arm that holds his Z-Band, fighting against the urge to go back and-and devour, because his friends are there, and Addison's there and he can't hurt -

"Zed," Addison says, her voice steady and sounding relieved.

He looks up from his arm, groaning, and almost looking like he shakes his head before stumbling a few steps backward.

She takes a step towards him, raising her hands in an attempt to calm him. "Zed, Zed, no, no it's alright, it's okay, it's just me, okay? It's just Addy."

She takes another step forward and he groans louder, the deep rumble sounding more like a growl.

He's watching her, watching her every move, following her with his eyes, and she makes sure he can see every little thing she's doing as she moves even closer.

"Shh, it's okay. You're okay, you're okay," she soothes as she continues moving, closing the distance between them so that there's only a foot or two between them.

He's still holding his arm and from what veins she can see on his neck, he's still full-zombie, his eyes sunken in and clouded over with hunger that's not fully his.

She's so focused on Zed that she doesn't hear the frantic footfalls of her friends as they look for her, and instead takes the leap.

She moves one last time, and there's no more space between them.

The trim of her dress, now dirty beyond recognition, brushes across the front of his suit, and she exhales shakily upon being so close, suddenly nervous.

Zombies might be scary up close, but Zed isn't.

He never could be, she reminds herself as she looks into his eyes, seeing past the zombie on the outside.

"Come back to me, Zed," she murmurs, attempting to reach out, her fingers grazing his open hand -

"Addison!" Bree yells, her eyes wide with fear as they appear behind her, Eliza and Bonzo taking steps forward.

Zed, now snapped out of his retrieve, closes his hand around hers, hard.

"Addison get back," Eliza warns, her eyes flicking between her friend and her best friend, "he's seriously unstable right now!"

Wyatt too takes a step forward, his eyes glowing in warning, but Zed barely takes notice.

Addison turns her head, not moving her body, Zed's hand still painfully clutching hers.

"Stay back," she whispers, loud enough for them to hear, "he's not going to hurt me." She looks back to Zed as she says it but his grip doesn't loosen.

She pushes on, determined. "I know you ran away because you didn't want to hurt anybody." She says, nodding towards the hand holding onto hers, her eyes glancing at the black veins crawling up his neck.

"Because you didn't want to hurt me."

She exhales, lifting her other hand and gently resting it on top of his. "I know you don't want to hurt anybody, Zed, so come back to me. Come back to us."

She squeezes his hand, enough for him to feel the pressure, for him to know she's right there with him.

"Come back to me," she repeats, softer this time, "please come back."

There's silence, the only sound everyone's exhausted breathing, and for a second Addison thinks she's broken through.

But then he growls, a deep, guttural sound, and the grip he has on her hand turns bone-crushing.

She cries out softly, trying to hide it, but immediately her friends call out, Eliza and Wyatt standing at the ready, Bonzo muttering something in zombie-tongue to Bree, who just shakes her head in response.

Addison looks into Zed's eyes, her eyes pricking with tears when she doesn't see his eyes staring back.

"Zed please," she says again, "please come back to me."

Another growl; his grip grows tighter.

She doesn't struggle, doesn't move, just stands there, her beautiful dress no longer beautiful, her heart losing the same hope she hung onto so desperately, her fingers going numb in the cold of the evening.

One tear slips down her cheek, then another.

Then her makeup is running, the makeup Bree had worked so hard on, which makes more tears come and more makeup run.

Why won't he come back to her?

Wasn't their love enough?

Wasn't she...enough?

"Zed," she whispers a final time, her last try, because she's only a girl and he's just a -

A sudden thought comes to mind, a last-ditch attempt that she hopes will work. She closes her eyes, breathes and then...

"I know it might be crazy," she starts, her voice a gentle harmony, "but did you hear the story?"

She feels another tear fall, slipping slowly down her cheek, "I think I heard it vaguely, a girl and a zombie," she lowers her voice, and for some reason Zed's not breathing as heavily as he once was.

She doesn't care to open her eyes, not wanting it to be too good to be true.

"Oh, tell me more boy. Sounds like a fantasy," she sniffles, and swears his grip feels almost nonexistent now, but maybe that's too good to be true too.

"Oh," she whispers, her voice breaking, "what could go so wrong...with a girl and a zombie?"

"You're from the perfect paradise and I'm living on the darker side," his voice is low, shaking yet still gentle, and music to her ears. "Oh I've got a feeling, if you get to know me."

She opens her eyes as Zed reaches for her cheek, wiping away her trail of tears with his thumb. He looks ashamed, and ducks his head when she tries to meet his eyes.

"Zed," she murmurs, reaching for his chin and turning his face back toward hers and the next thing he knows, her lips are on his, kissing him gently.

He kisses back, cupping her cheek, and then they pull apart, pressing their foreheads together.

"I'm sorry," he mumbles and Addison simply shakes her head.

"There's nothing to be sorry for. You didn't want to hurt anyone."

His eyes glance towards the hand he had been holding, clear of any bruising or mark.

"I hurt you." He says, sounding heartbroken.

"You could never hurt me," and she leans in and kisses him again. When they part he smiles sadly, looking down at her dress.

"I'm sorry your dress is ruined," he says, and Addison readjusts, her head coming to rest against his chest, her hand intertwining with his as he slowly sways back and forth to distant music.

Their friends smile at the sight, a weight lifting off their shoulders at seeing their friend okay, especially Eliza who crosses her arms and watches for a moment more before ushering everyone back towards the school, leaving the two alone.

"I don't care about my dress," she whispers. "I care about you."

He squeezes her hand, a gentle reassurance.

"Gar-garziga," he says, and she smiles, tucking herself closer.

"Gar-garziga," she answers and together a girl and a zombie dance under the moonlight, something more than extraordinary.