Disclaimer - I don't own ZOMBIES or any of the characters involved. Copyright to Walt Disney Studios. Names of BG zombies are mine, characters themselves aren't.

Well, that first chapter was wild, huh? Don't worry, that's all the gore there's gonna be. Go to krut09's YouTube channel, Kreatable23, to see a trailer for Tattooed Mistakes (and Limelight and Another Way) and get a glimpse at what's to come ;)

More BtB and Limelights are coming~ A couple of those Limelights will include a bit of context and maybe one or two new BGZ I haven't written about much before who are set to appear in this fic so keep an eye out there for the extra info!

Chapter 2

They made it back to the house around 11 o'clock and Zephyr opened the front door with Alonzo, shaking and uneasy, clinging to his arm. When they were inside and the door was closed, Zephyr called out.

"Rizzo!"

Alonzo's eyes bulged and he pulled Zephyr back to hiss at him, "What are you doing?"

"Hey, hey, it's OK, she'll help. You know she wouldn't let you get into any trouble."

"Zeph..."

He trailed off as Rizzo descended the stairs, looking more irritated than anything, "What? You just came through the front door and you're alre-" she stopped short when she saw Alonzo's face, traces of blood still smeared across his lips and down his chin. He seemed to shrink back from her, cowering behind his boyfriend despite being taller than him.

Zephyr quickly turned to him and placed a comforting hand on his arm then held the other up to Rizzo, "Please don't freak out, Riz, before you say anything. This looks bad and... and it is bad, but we need your help."

She shook her head slowly, dazed and still staring. She moved towards them like she was in a trance.

"Al..." it took a few tries for her to continue, "Wh-what happened? Zephyr. Don't... Don't tell me he...!"

Alonzo met her eyes. He stood there, opening and closing his mouth but unable to speak without a strangled sob breaking up his words, "I... Riz, I-I... M-my band-"

Zephyr's arms were around him in an instant and Alonzo hid his face in the crook of his neck, leaving Zephyr to explain. He nodded reluctantly at Rizzo.

"Yeah. He..." Another sob racked Alonzo's body at the mere memory and Zephyr held a hand to his face. He shushed him softly before taking a deep breath, swallowing the lump in his throat, and turning back to Rizzo, "He killed somebody."

"Oh, sweet Z," Rizzo brought her hands to her mouth then up through her hair. She carefully pulled Alonzo out of her brother's grasp and looked at him, "A-and you...?"

Her fingers brushed his bloodstained face. She didn't want to say those words out loud. He dropped his head in shame and that confirmed her fears.

"Rizzo," Zephyr stepped forward, "He did it for me. This guy, this human, he was planning on, like, trying to eradicate the zombies and he saw us out and he grabbed me..."

Rizzo pulled him to her chest and held him close, "Did he hurt you? Either of you?" She looked from him to Alonzo and back again. Zephyr hesitated and it didn't go unnoticed.

"Zephyr."

He said nothing.

"Zephyr, what did he do?"

"He threw him against a wall..." Alonzo said, his voice still thick with tears.

Rizzo gasped. Zephyr, knowing where this was going, sighed and let her inspect his bruises. Zombies didn't bruise easily, what with their near non-existent circulation, so even a couple of small ones on his neck, shoulder and arms were enough to worry her. But that could wait; the zombie mutation meant he'd heal faster than a human and the pain probably wouldn't last as long. There were more pressing matters.

"Alright... Alonzo," she started and turned his head to look down at her, "What happened to your Z-band?"

His breath hitched and he floundered momentarily until Zephyr began rubbing soothing circles on his back, "I-I... I took it off. Zephyr was in danger and I don't know what happened, I couldn't move, I couldn't talk, it was all I could think of and... I'm such an idiot, I took off my Z-band and I killed someone and I ruined everything...!"

"Hey, hey, hey, listen...!" Rizzo hugged him, locking eyes with Zephyr behind him, "You saved my little brother, Al, that's what you did. That's what you need to be thinking of here, OK?" she pulled away, placing her hands on his face again, "You know what? I think I'd have done the same thing if it had been me."

"Don't say that."

"I would," she said it so sincerely, "If there was nothing else I could do, I'd take that risk."

She stepped back and straightened up with Zephyr and Alonzo watching.

"What do we do, Riz?"

"Well, first off, I think it's a given that we can't breath a word of this to anybody. And that means Roz and Zach, and Lindzey. I won't even tell Zane. And definitely not any of our parents, for now, at least. Alright?" the boys nodded, "Alright. Second order of business: the body."

Alonzo went stiff, eyes down and filled with fear, "We just left it there..."

"Al..." Zephyr reached out to him but his head jerked up and he looked right past Zephyr.

"The patrol's gonna be in town in less than an hour. They'll find it." He stared at the front door, like he expected them to burst in right then and there, but Rizzo shook her head.

"They'd still have to examine it before they can trace it back to you. Don't go scaring yourself just yet."

There was a knock at the door and an authoritative-sounding voice calling out "Zombie patrol! We have a few questions to ask you."

Alonzo's eyebrows shot up and he turned to Rizzo, gesturing wildly towards the door, "See?" he hissed. A quick glance at the clock told them it was barely even 11:30; they certainly weren't here for the usual rounds at curfew.

"They can't have pinned this on you yet, Al," Zephyr said, "If they had, they'd be at your place first."

That made enough sense to make Alonzo relax, but he wasn't entirely convinced. Rizzo didn't give him a chance to argue, though.

"You two, upstairs, now," she pushed them both away, "Get that blood off your face before they see you. I'll take care of this."

He nodded and headed up the stairs with Zephyr to the bathroom. The moment he saw his own face in the mirror, Al took a step back.

"Oh, Z..."

His chin and one side of his mouth were stained with red. He went to touch it and noticed for the first time the blood under his nails. He stared at them for a moment before Zephyr took his hand and turned him around.

"Come here."

While Al had been distracted, Zephyr had already taken out and dampened a washcloth and Alonzo let him carefully wipe away the blood. They were both quiet and the muffled conversation could be heard from the floor beneath them.

"Are your parents home?"

"No, sir, they've got work until right before midnight."

"You have a brother, correct? What about him?"

"My brother's home, and his boyfriend."

There was a brief pause.

"You have someone outside of your own family here this close to curfew?" a different voice to the first. There were two officers. Safety in numbers.

"He'll be spending the night."

"Alright," the first voice said, then turned serious, "Now, not to alarm you, but there has been a rather serious incident. The dead body of a human was found not far from here with its brain half-eaten. We are questioning every zombie in the area, which means we'll be needing to speak all three of you."

Alonzo shot Zephyr a look of panic as soon as Rizzo mentioned them but he pretended not to see. Instead, his eyes fell on Al's Z-band. It still looked fine from where he was standing but when he squinted, he could see a clear split between the panels. He lifted Alonzo's hand up and snapped the panels back into place just as Rizzo called from downstairs.

"Zephyr! Al! Come down, the patrol's here!"

Zephyr was holding the band together, like he had after slipping it back onto Alonzo's wrist, "We're coming!"

He let go and once he was satisfied that the band would stay, he took Al's hand and led him to the door.

"Zeph, they're gonna check our bands," Al said, "Even if that holds up, they'll see the records..."

"It'll be fine."

"You know how serious this is, right?"

"I know," Zephyr stopped and looked him in the eye, "Just trust me. We gotta go now before they get suspicious."

They couldn't say anymore after that as they were coming into earshot of the officers. Rizzo looked slightly shaken but the boys both knew her well enough to know she was faking it. Zephyr felt his nerves rising as he was told what he already knew, all too well, but could manage to look shocked at least. Alonzo, however, was visibly afraid. As luck would have it, though, the officers misunderstood why.

"Don't worry, son, everybody on this side of town is going through the same thing. It's all just standard procedure."

Al nodded silently and Zephyr glanced at him. When the officer finished speaking, he took a breath, "We saw a human in town on the way home."

Alonzo held his breath and Rizzo watched her brother closely. The officers' attention was on him.

"At about what time?"

He pretended to think, "Uh, we left band practice around 9 and we saw him when we were maybe halfway home? He looked drunk or something so-"

"We didn't wanna start any trouble..." Al said quietly. He kept his head down and Zephyr noticed him gulp. He wanted so badly to hug him and but he might end up giving something away. Besides the officer had already made a note and moved on, now asking them for a physical description of the human. After all, it was nearly impossible to identify him as it was. More questions came, Zephyr taking the brunt of the load and Rizzo chipping in where she could to save Al the trouble but then one of the officers uttered the words he had been dreading.

"Alright, as a precaution, we're going to have to make some checks on each of your Z-bands. Let's take a look."

Of course, Rizzo's showed nothing out of the ordinary. Zephyr's didn't either – it had registered a slight heartbeat but not enough to trigger a warning – but Alonzo was prepared for the worst when he held out his wrist.

"Hm," the officer frowned and all three of them waited for an explanation, "You were transmitting a warning almost an hour ago. Nothing suggesting the band went offline, of course, but was there some other problem?"

"I..." Al didn't know what to say. He had expected taking off his Z-band would automatically classify as being offline. Zephyr spoke for him, his voice level but caring.

"He was scared. When we saw the human, he was scared that he'd do something. You don't see drunk humans just hanging around Zombie Town on their own and not freak out a little. He's been worrying about it since then."

Alonzo shot him a grateful look. His answer seemed to satisfy them but a light knock on the open front door made all five of them turn around. Another officer stood there, her eyes on the zombies. More specifically, on Al.

"Are you Alonzo Morgan?" Next to the twins, he was obviously the odd one out.

Al froze. He'd made it this far, this couldn't be it. The twins exchanged a wary glance as he nodded. The officer stepped inside.

"I'm just confirming your whereabouts. I've come straight from questioning your mother and was told you would be here. And you're staying here for tonight?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Alright," she turned to her colleagues, "Everything check out OK?"

"All clear. These boys apparently had a near run-in with the victim some time before the attack," Alonzo had to force himself not to flinch at the word, "And both showed some minor band activity but nothing of any concern."

Alonzo barely registered anything else they said. His head was reeling and Zephyr came closer, his hands coming up to Al's arms and his face mere inches away, while Rizzo was still talking to the patrol officers.

"You good?"

"Yeah... Yeah, I think so."

Zephyr briefly pecked his lips then he turned to the last officer who had stopped in the doorway.

"There may still be time before curfew officially begins but you are all expected to stay indoors until morning. The patrol will be investigating the area for the rest of the night. When your parents come through, we'll inform them of what happened."

The second they were gone, Alonzo let out a long breath and started back upstairs, "What the hell?" he looked down at his band and began frantically swiping through screens for Z-knows-what, "Why didn't it say I was offline?"

Zephyr wasn't far behind him, while Rizzo stayed put. She suspected they'd need some time to talk about things. Zephyr caught up to Al and touched his arm lightly, "You weren't offline."

"You've got to be kidding me," Al stared at him blankly, "And I thought I was the dumb one. You saw everything, I was gone."

"No, no, no, the band never went offline. You just weren't wearing it," Zephyr explained as he came to stand in front of him, "I picked it up and it was still online."

"... Oh..." He suddenly looked uneasy again.

"Hey, are you OK?"

"Y-yeah..."

"You sure? You practically puked up your guts," he turned aside, "Or more like someone else's br-" He stopped himself when he saw Al cover his mouth like he was going to be sick again. He immediately regretted saying anything, "Oh, Z, Al, I'm sorry...! This is not the time f-"

Alonzo didn't even register what Zephyr was saying, he just ran to the bathroom to throw up. Honestly, he was surprised he'd managed to hold it in for this long with that taste still lingering in his mouth. Zephyr followed behind him to hold back his hair and murmur words of comfort in his ear.

"We'll be fine. They didn't find out. You're safe."

Al turned around and sat up, "Yeah, for now..."

"So maybe we've just bought ourselves some time," Zephyr stood to get a fresh washcloth and run it under warm water. He crouched beside Al, wringing it out as he spoke, "But we'll figure it out. We're gonna be fine."

He avoided looking Al in the eye and started to clean his face for him, until Al snatched the cloth from him to do it himself, "You think I can just go back to normal knowing what I did?"

"We-"

Al threw the cloth to the floor, "You keep saying 'we' like you had any part in it."

"I'm the reason you did it. I saw you do it. But I'm not gonna give you up. You protected me, I'm gonna protect you."

Alonzo had no more arguments. He let Zephyr help him to his feet and took the glass of water he offered him without a word. Soon enough, Zephyr was leading Al to his bedroom and going through the regular night-time routine. It somehow felt wrong to Alonzo to be acting so natural at a time like this but he didn't have the energy to stop Zephyr as he helped Al undress and dragged him into the bed beside him. Zephyr sat up against the headboard and pulled Alonzo to his chest, holding him tightly, and Alonzo couldn't resist the urge to cuddle up to him, his head on Zephyr's shoulder and his nose pressed against his neck.

"We can figure this out in the morning," Zephyr told him, "You need to sleep."

Alonzo's arm came to wrap around his waist, "Zeph, I'm scared..."

"I know... I am, too..."

"I really thought they were gonna take me away."

"Don't worry," he felt Zephyr's lips against his forehead, "I'm not gonna let that happen to you," he promised.

But everyone makes promises they can't keep.

– TATTOOED MISTAKES –

By midnight, Zephyr had fallen asleep but Al was wide awake. Their positions had swapped as Zephyr now lay nestled into Alonzo. He heard the front door open and close, and the murmurs of Rizzo greeting her mom and dad, and their conversation about the incident. His own name came up as Rizzo explained how he and Zephyr had seen the human, but nothing more.

He absentmindedly played with Zephyr's hair, lost in thought, until he was disturbed by footsteps coming up the stairs. The twins' parents appeared in the doorway and Alonzo stopped, looking down at Zephyr's peacefully sleeping form then back up at them with the same anxious expression he had been wearing all night but they just smiled sympathetically at him. Zephyr's dad held up a hand in a small wave and his mom mouthed "goodnight" before they both turned towards their own bedroom. Rizzo was right behind them. They locked eyes for a moment and she glanced back to make sure her parents were out of sight before quietly walking up the bed. She leaned over to hug Alonzo, careful not to wake Zephyr up and whispered into his ear.

"It'll be OK."