Entry tags:

happiness is

Chapter Two - Nobody's Perfect

Plaything

Title: Nobody's Perfect (02/??)
Author: so_jayded
Rating: G
Word Count: 2,002
Genre: Hancest



Taylor

We met Mom and the kids at the cotton candy stand. She smiled at us distractedly when we walked up. "Hello, you two," she said as she handed over ten dollars for two bags of cotton candy.

I grinned at her and kissed her cheek. "'Lo, Mom. Zac won me a fish. And an alligator. But don't worry - the alligator's stuffed."

She laughed and gave me a quick hug before offering me some of the cotton candy. I waved it off and bent down to hug Zoe. "Hey, Zoe, do you wanna go on rides with me?"

She nodded against my shoulder. "Will you take me on the carousel, Tay? Mack won't go and Mom doesn't want to let Mack go off by himself."

I broke away from the hug and grinned at her - honestly, I probably looked a little crazy, but I just couldn't help it. I love carnivals. "Of course! And then we can go on the bumper cars and maybe the ferris wheel if you want."

She did this adorable little jump and twirl thing - followed up with a pump of her fist and a 'yessss!' - that made me forget all about getting sick earlier. I straightened out and turned around to Zac. "Will you hold my stuff?" I asked as I thrust the fish and the stuffed alligator at him.

He rolled his eyes. "Of course, Tay," he said and he might have sounded a little annoyed, but he took them from me and as soon as my hands were emptied Zoe pounced on one of them and started pulling me toward the carousel. "We have to meet Ike at 2:30 the latest, Tay!"

I waved at him with my free hand. "Like three rides, Zac, I won't be long."

***********

It was closer to four by the time Zoe and I found Zac, Mackie, and Mom again. That didn't bother me too much, though. Zoe was much better company than Isaac most of the time and it's not like we had paid for studio time or anything. I ran up to Zac and stole my fish back, making sure that Zac hadn't damaged him in any way. "Hi," I said, grinning at Zac. "You didn't hurt Charlie, did you?"

"You already named him?" Zac asked me. "And what is on your face?"

"I'm a tiger, can't you tell?" I growled and reached out with my free hand and clawed at Zac's shirt.

He raised an eyebrow at me and his cheeks turned a little pink. "You got your face painted? Seriously, Tay?"

"Well, duh, there's orange paint all over my face. But, look, Zoe's a clown." I hefted Zoe up - she was really too big to be held, but I was trying to point something out, here - and rested her on my hip. "You should take a picture." She latched her arms around my neck and that helped a little, but she got her fingers tangled in my hair.

Zac looked at me for a few seconds until he realized I was serious. He dug his phone out of his pocket and fiddled with the buttons for a bit before holding it up. "Smile!" he said to us and the camera flashed briefly. I put Zoe down as I was blinking white spots out of my eyes.

"I guess we have to go, huh?" I asked, almost sadly. Who wants to leave the carnival? I never do. I never have enough time to go on every ride six times and eat popcorn balls and drink five dollar bottles of soda.

"We're like. Two hours late, Tay."

I leaned down and gave Zoe a big hug. "Stay cool, dude," I said to her, planting a kiss on the top of her head. I gave Mom a big hug and a kiss on the cheek, smearing my whiskers a little and promising to call her before Sunday so she would know if we were going to go over for dinner or not. I waited patiently for Zac to finish saying goodbye to Mack and then Mom.

"Did Ike call yet?" I asked when Mom had waved a final goodbye and started back into the crowds with Zoe and Mackenzie in tow.

"Sixteen times. He wanted to know how I lost you at a carnival. I want to know how I lost you. It's not exactly big."

I shrugged. "We didn't like leave or anything, Zac. We just went on six rides and got our faces painted and I bought her fried dough and rock candy."

Zac grabbed my elbow and we started walking toward the parking lot. "Mom's gonna kill you for giving her that much sugar."

"It's the carnival. It only happens twice a year, dude," I said to him as we ducked behind a booth to avoid a girl in a Hanson shirt. He glanced around the corner and watched her wander by the front of the stand with a guy practically latched onto her neck. I looked away from them and my eyes caught on a bite mark on Zac's neck. A little smile crossed my face as I pushed his hair out of the way and inspected his neck. He really was gorgeous. And he indulged me a little too much sometimes. I mostly figured that I was the luckiest person in the world.

He turned away from the side of the booth and looked at me curiously. "What?" he asked.

"I marked you last night, I think," I said, laughing.

Zac put his hands over his neck and his cheeks turned red. "Taylor."

I pushed his hands off his neck and leaned forward, pecking a kiss against his lips. "Are you embarrassed by me?" His face morphed into surprise and I laughed. "I don't mean it, Zac. I'm kidding."

He shook his head and went to speak, but his phone started playing a tinny version of Nobody's Perfect. "Damnit, Ike!" He fumbled in his pocket for his phone and answered it. "What, dude?"

I could hear Isaac bitching through the little speaker. I leaned against the booth and watched Zac fight with Isaac for a few minutes before he tossed the phone at me. "You deal with him," he said before he crossed his arms and leaned against the wall next to me. I kicked his shoe and pressed the phone against my ear.

"Yo."

"Where the hell have you been?!"

I shrugged and hooked my pinkie finger in Zac's belt loop. "Hanging out with Zoe, mostly. At the carnival."

"We were supposed to meet at two, Taylor! It's almost four thirty."

"I guess I lost track of time," I said, making a face at Zac and he almost laughed. I probably looked ridiculous with the face paint on. "We're coming, we're coming... we're almost back to the car and we'll be on our way."

"You haven't even left yet?!"

I sighed. "No, Ike. We got sidetracked. Zac ran away from a fan."

"I swear to God, if you two stopped for a quckie or something on the way over...."

"Dude, I have orange paint all over my face. I really, really doubt Zac would sleep with me right now. We'll be there by five, but not if you don't let me hang up."

"You can't walk and talk?"

I pulled the phone away from my ear. "Goodbye, Isaac!" I said, and then I flipped it shut and stuffed it back in Zac's pocket. "Why does he have to be so annoying?!"

Zac looked up at me from under his bangs. "Maybe because we're, like, two and a half hours late?"

I pulled on his belt loop. "Well, let's go. We'll be able to go for drinks and I can play pinball and stuff if we hustle with whatever he wants us to do."

"Yeah, right," Zac mumbled. "We're gonna be in there until, like, three in the morning."

I wrinkled my nose up. "What does he want to do that's going to take ten hours?"'

"Does it matter?" Zac asked. "He'll, um, come up with a verse and you'll tell him it's dumb and he'll tell you that you're dumb. Then you guys will fight for six hours while I sit there with a guitar and pretend to be somewhere else until you bring me into the fight..." He sighed and pushed himself off the wall, grabbing my elbow again and starting the trek to the car again. "And then even if I want to take his side, he won't let me because as soon as I start talking it'll turn into the 'it's not fair, it's always two against one because you guys never disagree' blah blah blah. We're gonna be there until three. Just accept it."

"I've got a date with a pinball machine," I told him. "I'm not gonna fight."

"You say that now."

I pouted. "Don't you trust me? I can play nice tonight."

Zac unlocked the car as he shook his head. "I doubt it, Tay. Seriously."

*********

The ride back to the studio was mostly boring, and the paint was drying on my face and starting to chip off, so I spent most of the ride dusting paint flecks off of my shirt and onto Zac's upholstery. My face was getting itchy under the orange paint, but I wasn't going to scratch it off until Ike saw it. I mean, it's not every day I show up at the studio with tiger face paint on. I watched houses fly by as we sped down the road, probably going twenty over the limit, but that got boring after a few minutes so I turned around in my seat and watched Zac drive.

It was always fun to watch Zac when he was driving, especially like now, when he knew where he was going and the radio was turned all the way up on the classic rock station. He banged against the steering wheel with both hands, drumming out the beat with his fingers. He was mouthing the words but not singing, like he always did in the car, and sometimes he would trip over a line he didn't know and his face would get all confused and his mouth would just open and close for a few seconds until he figured out what he was supposed to be mouthing. I usually wanted to kiss him when he made that face, but it was only when he was driving and I wasn't about to kill us both over a kiss.

After all, I had every opportunity to kiss him, so I could wait until he'd stopped the car to try and make out with him. I smiled at that thought, that Zac was mine and I could kiss him whenever I wanted, nearly whenever I wanted to. He sort of drew the line at kissing on stage or in public, but if we were in the apartment or the studio or visiting Mom and Dad, I was free to push him against any available surface and do whatever I wanted to him. It was a nice feeling.

He did it then, forgot a line right smack in the middle of a Rolling Stones song, and I almost laughed out loud since I'd just been thinking about it. His brow knitted in confusion and he looked up at me then, caught me biting back a laugh and he frowned. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing," I said, smiling at him and slipping my Wayfarers onto my face. Hopefully the paint was dry enough not to ruin my glasses. "You're just adorable."

He glanced back at me for a second, confused, and then refocused on the road. "You're a total weirdo, Taylor, you know that, right?"

"I'm sure," I said.

He slowed down as we turned onto our road and I rested my head back against the seat as he punched in the code to open the gate. "I would so rather be in bed," I muttered as the gate clanged open and Zac drove up the driveway, toward the studio.



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