Limelight

Zeke and Izabelle: Jealous

(This one feels kind of inevitable. Zeke and Izabelle are just the exact kind of ship you get a good protective/jealous girlfriend from. And we're actually seeing quite a bit from some canon characters here...!

The Tattooed Mistakes sequel is just getting longer and longer...)

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Something told him things weren't going as well as he'd hoped they would. That 'something' mostly being the way Bucky seemed to be scowling at him the whole time. It was almost like he was picking on Zeke in particular, pushing him just a little bit harder than the couple of other zombies who were trying out, but he didn't know why. Meanwhile, his assistant captains were, for lack of a better word, captivated by Zeke's stunting.

Every time Zeke was starting to think he'd managed to impress the captain, Bucky would glance over at the Aceys, who were visibly distracted, and his smile would fall. His whole demeanour would change and he'd bark another command. When he finally approached the zombies, his hands clasped behind his back, Zeke was prepared for the worst.

But then Bucky was presenting him with a pair of pom-poms.

"Welcome to the Mighty Shrimp, Zeke."

His smile was a little forced but he was smiling while Zeke gaped.

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah," Bucky nodded, searching for words, "You're... great. I can barely see any faults of any kind in your cheering. So, congrats. You're the first zombie to join the squad."

As Zeke was celebrating, Bucky glanced over at the Aceys, who had quickly pulled Addison and Bree aside.

"So, Addison," Lacey started, "You know this Zeke guy? Like, are you friends?"

"I mean, I don't know him that well, but Bree and I have both talked to him before. He's pretty cool."

"Is he single?" Stacey asked, getting straight to the point.

"Uh..."

"And important follow-up question," Tracey interrupted, "Is he into guys?"

Addison looked awkwardly from Tracey, to Stacey, to Lacey, then to all three, "Well... He's definitely not single..." they all continued to stare at her, "He has a girlfriend but I don't know if he's actually straight. And anyway, even if I did know, why would I tell you? That's his business."

"Hm," Lacey tilted her head, thinking, and turned to her fellow Aceys, "Looks like we've got some work to do. We can worry about the girlfriend later, he'll totally ditch her anyway once we're through with him."

"Uh, that might not end well. Like, you-might-not-come-out-alive 'not end well'..." Bree winced, exchanging an uneasy look with Addison.

"And what makes you say that?" Tracey asked with a scoff.

"He's dating Bonzo's cousin."

All three of them rolled their eyes, laughing condescendingly.

Stacey cocked her head and folded her arms, "Is that supposed to make us back off?"

"Yeah," Lacey put her hands on her hips, "How scary can somebody be if they're related to Bonzo?"

Oh. They didn't know.

"Pretty scary, if it's Iz-" Bree went to explain but Addison placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Fine. Your funeral, I guess."

– LIMELIGHT –

Before he could leave, the Aceys stopped him.

"Hey, Zeke, hold on!" Lacey called out and he frowned but waited as the three of them came running over, all with entirely too friendly grins on their faces, "So, I know Bucky introduced us earlier but we thought it would be rude not to personally welcome our newest Shrimp! I'm Lacey, this is Stacey," she gestured to her right, "And Tracey," to her left, "And we're the Aceys!"