They sat in Bucky's car for at least ten minutes, eating pizza and just cuddling each other. There were still Zombies out, making their way home from practice. Bucky was tired and so was Zach and they were both fine with just holding each other in the car and eating pizza until Zach actually had to go inside.

Zach was in his own seat and Bucky had moved into his lap, leaning back against him and eating his dinner.

"What did Tracey say about our room arrangement?" Zach asked.

"I made up this excuse to get him to be fine with it."

Bucky shrugged. "And I told him I'd share the bed so he could have one to himself. A favor to him, of course. Who wants to share with you, gross."

Zach laughed lightly. "I wonder who would want to share with me?"

"I'm kind of sick of your voice," Bucky said.

Zach just hummed and wrapped his arms around Bucky. "I wanna fall asleep on your arms," Bucky murmured as he turned into Zach's chest. "You should just come to my house and stay there with me. It's empty and we can be alone and it's closer to school."

"Wouldn't that be something." Zach said, then pushed on Bucky's legs. "I have to go inside now, Bucky."

Bucky whined in protest. "Do you have to? I like this."

"Yes I do," Zach said a bit regretfully. "And you have to go home. You need to pack your bags."

Bucky groaned and pushed the door open, climbing out of the car. Zach followed him, grabbing his bag from the back and walking with Bucky up the steps. "This is where I leave you," Zach said. "I'll see you tomorrow."

He leaned down and gave Bucky a quick kiss which left the latter unsatisfied. Bucky made his way back his car, leaning against the door as he watched Zach go inside.

"Bump this," Bucky muttered to himself. He was in Zombietown, dropping off his Zombie boyfriend. He was going to do whatever the help he pleased, including convincing his Zombie boyfriend's parents to let Zach stay at his house.

It hadn't even been a minute since Zach went inside when Bucky knocked on the door. And middle-aged Zombie woman opened it with a slightly older looking man behind her.

Bucky put on his best smile—the one he knew made adults fall in love with him. "Hi, I'm Bartholomew, though most people refer to me as Bucky. I'm captain of the cheer team, I just dropped Zach off. You must be his parents."

"Oh, yes, I'm Mrs. Fairmourn. This is my husband."

"It's nice to meet you both," Bucky said. "I'm sure you both know that my team is going to Manchester tomorrow and staying for the weekend for the State Cheer Championship. We're leaving tomorrow and I wanted to know if it was fine with you if Zach stayed at my house tonight. I let a few cheerleaders stay at my place and we all carpool to school. It ensures that more people are on time."

"Oh," Mrs. Fairmourn said.

"I know you're concerned about where Zach will be this weekend but I can assure you he'll be safe. The hotel will have top notch security, there's Zombie Patrol there. And for tonight, my house has cameras."

"Well, okay—" Mrs. Fairmourn said.

"That's awesome, could you let him know I'm waiting?"

"I'll go honey," Mr. Fairmourn said, turning and going further into the house.

Bucky spent the next ten minutes conversing with Zach's mom. She was nice and Bucky knew all the tricks and tips to get moms to love him. The key was to get her to talk about Zach. Parents—especially moms—loved bragging about their kids. They'd tell stories and from those stories Bucky could figure out what the particular parent valued in life (like sports versus academics). Then he could ask about those things in her life.

Zach came down with his backpack and a duffle bag and his dad behind him. "Okay I guess I'm leaving now."

"Okay, stay safe honey," Mrs. Fairmourn said. She turned to Bucky and asked, "What time will you be back from Manchester?"

"Monday," Bucky lied easily. Zach looked at him in surprise. "We come back around ten on Monday and we have lunch and go to our afternoon classes and then home."

"Okay," Mrs. Fairmourn said, nodding. "I'll see you on Monday, Zach."

"Bye."

Once they were in the car, Zach started laughing. "You're a dirty liar," he said through laughs. "You just lied to my parents! So believable."

Bucky just laughed and started his car. "Would you believe I had none of that prepared?"

"It's a little scary how quickly you think of lies."

"I'm a cheerleader, it's my job to lie and be dramatic. It's for the good of the people."

Zach chuckled and said, "You're so cute."

"I am, aren't I?"

Bucky say in the car with Zach for a few minutes. "Okay, put your hands in your pockets. Pull your coat down over your Z-Band. My parents will get an alert that there's motion and will fly in to kick my ass for bringing a Zombie into their house."

"Oh geez."

"Don't worry, the cameras are just outside," Bucky said. "Now let's go. It'll be suspicious if we stay in the car for too long."

Bucky and Zach got their backpacks from the backseat and made their way to the front door. They went inside and Bucky disabled the alarm.

"Holy shit," Zach gasped. "This is insane! You live here?"

Bucky smiled, closed the door, and took Zach's hand to lead him to the staircase. "I need to pack my suitcase but you can sit on my bed and eat pizza. Just be clean."

"Okay."

Once they were up the stairs, the landline rang. Bucky grabbed it from its base and pressed answer. Before he could say anything, his mother asked, "Why aren't you answering your phone?"

Bucky's took a deep breath. "Good evening mother," he greeted.

"Answer my question."

"My phone broke this morning," Bucky explained. "During school. I've been at practice all afternoon but I was planning on informing you once I returned home."

"Who's that with you? Why do you have guests over when it's nearly eleven? Aren't you leaving for competition tomorrow?"

"Yes ma'am," Bucky answered. "He lives far from school and is on the cheer team so I offered him the spare bedroom and a ride so we decrease the chances of being late in the morning."

"Was that pizza I saw? You have competition this weekend and you know better than anyone you can't afford to gain anymore weight."

"Aunt Missy and Uncle Dale gave me pizza for dinner but I didn't eat any. They wouldn't let me leave unless I took some but I promise I won't have any."

"Why are you getting home so late? You know Seabrook isn't safe especially with the Zombie curfew being lifted last year."

"We practiced until ten tonight, and I took Addison home. Aunt Missy wants me to make sure she gets home safe."

"I'll talk with your father about getting you a new phone. And I will call you at exactly six thirty tomorrow morning to make sure you are up and ready for competition. Go to bed now to get seven and a half hours of sleep."

"Okay," Bucky said with a sigh. "Bye Mom."

She didn't say anything as she hung up. Bucky squeezed his eyes shut and groaned. It was a short conversation but it was still hurtful and he felt like crying.

Zach wrapped his arms around Bucky and pulled him in for a comforting hug. "I may have only heard one side of that conversation, but it didn't sound very good," Zach said comfortingly. "I'm sorry."

Bucky sighed and leaned into Zach's arms. It was nice to have someone caring to fall back on after talking to one of his parents. Someone who actually cared about him and didn't just keep him around to maintain an image.

"Stop being so caring," Bucky muttered. "How are you so nice?"

"You're nice too."

Bucky scoffed. "Yeah right."

"I don't fall for jerks."

Bucky looked up at him and said, "You fall for everyone."

"False information," Zach said. "You're so fucking cute and caring and you're so different than what everyone says about you. You're a nice person and I have never felt this way before. I used to flirt with people and just get rejected but you're so…different. You're the type of person I've been looking for, I just didn't know it."

Bucky rolled his eyes. "I hate you. You make me feel…feelings. It's the worst."

Zach laughed and pulled away from Bucky. "Okay where's your room? We have a suitcase to pack."

He dragged Bucky by the arm down the hallway into the room Bucky told Zach was his. The door was decorated with craft letters and little art projects done by his cousin when she was eight.

"Addison is so adorable," Zach said. "You guys are so awesome together. Like a brother-sister pair. It's so cute. Seeing you protecting her like an older brother."

"She's great but I do not wanna talk about Addison when you can be sitting naked on my bed right now. My only motivation to pack is that I can make out with you right after."

Zach looked at him in surprise. "You're so blunt."

"You love it." Bucky opened his room door and Zach went to sit on the bed. Bucky opened his closet and pulled out his suitcase, swinging it on his bed.

"How much clothing do you need for the weekend? Goddamn."

"You shouldn't be talking, you need to take off your shirt. And your pants and maybe your underwear and everything."

"When you finish packing. Only when you finish packing will you get me naked."

Bucky rolled his eyes but smiled. "Will you at least help me?"

"Nope," Zach said cheekily, making sure to pop the 'p' on the end. He laid back on Bucky's bed. "You need motivation to pack so I will sit here and eat more pizza. If you ever finish, maybe there'll be some left for you."

"Fine," Bucky whined.

He went around his room, pulling clothes and other items from drawers and countertops and putting them on his bed. He took a quick detour to the basement to get his uniform from the washing machine then went back up to see Zach folding his clothes and putting them into piles based off of what they were.

"You didn't have to do that," Bucky told him.

Zach shrugged. "The faster you finish the faster we can make out."

Bucky giggled and sat on the bed beside Zach. They folded Bucky's clothes and put them into piles. Bucky put the piles into his suitcase then went and grabbed towels and toiletries and put them in the bag.

After they finished—including putting the bags by the door, taking the pizza box into the kitchen, and brushing their teeth and Bucky changing into his pajamas—they laid down in Bucky's bed and cuddled together.

"Okay I know I said we were gonna make out, but it's really late and I'm kinda exhausted," Bucky said tiredly. "Can we rain check until later?"

Zach smiled and nodded. "I'm cuddling my secret boyfriend, who's awesome and convinced my parents to let me stay here tonight and tricked them into letting me stay on Sunday. We've got the whole weekend to ourselves. I'm happy doing whatever."

Bucky rolled his eyes and moved into Zach's chest. He didn't say anything and soon his breathing evened out and he had fallen asleep.