I Found You, Something Told Me To Stay - (Jason Berry/Zacky Vengeance)

Chapter Seventy-One.

I also grinned, laughing again. “You actually own cheesy Christmas movies? Who’d have thought?”

“Believe it or not, Matt has the most.” He joined in with the laughter, dusting some flour off of his shirt. “His favourite is The Muppet Christmas Carol. He probably knows it word-for-word by now.”

A chuckle left my lips for the third time, and I picked up the plate of cookies, carrying them through to the living room to find it already set up with blankets, the menu of a DVD playing on the TV screen and the fire crackling opposite the sofa.

As soon as I’d placed the cookies on the coffee table, I felt Zacky’s arms gently snake around my waist, and he pulled me backwards, causing me to fall next to him on the sofa. Smiling, he pulled me even closer into his chest and wrapped a blanket around the two of us, kissing my head as the movie started.

“This is one of my favourites.” He whispered into my ear, using one hand to play with a strand of my hair while the other one stroked my waist.

I smiled at that, and cuddled into him, resting my head on his chest while we stared at the screen. I managed to get about halfway through the movie when the warmth from the fire and the overall hard work from the day began to take its toll on me. The voices coming from the TV became a mere murmur in the background, and my eyes began to quickly close. The way Zacky was completely still made me assume that he, too, had fallen asleep, but the way he quickly shook me proved that that wasn’t the case.

“Hey, you. Are you falling asleep?” He chuckled, returning to stroking my hair. “It’s just getting to the best bit.”

I gave a simple murmur in response, probably not making the slightest bit of sense, but I was far too tired to try to correct it.

“You can’t go to sleep yet.” Zacky continued to speak, now prodding my side repeatedly. “There’s something I need to do first.”

I groaned tiredly. “What is it?”

“I need to give you something.”

My eyes opened at that, and I turned my head to look at him, a frown on my face. He simply smiled back at me, leaning forward to kiss my forehead, whereas I just continued to stare questioningly.

“It’s not Christmas Day until tomorrow.” I stated obviously, prodding his leg. “Presents are opened then.”

“Ah, but this present is a little different.” He chuckled attractively, now draping both arms around my waist. “You remember when I went out this morning, I told you it was because I wanted to get Jimmy another present?”

I silently nodded.

“Well that wasn’t the real reason.” He smiled. “I actually went to buy your engagement ring.”

The immediate excitement at that had me waking up properly, and I sat up, a grin growing on my face.

“Can I see?” I questioned, excitedly yanking on his arm.

“You sure can.” He grinned back at me. “It’s your ring after all. And it’s the perfect size and everything, considering I remembered what it had to be when we went to get your finger measured last week. I think you’ll love it.”

I watched with a smile as he stood up, quickly running up the stairs and coming back down only a moment later. He sat back down in front of me, a little, blue, velvet box clutched tightly in his palm, and he took hold of my left hand, his happy demeanour suddenly shifting to nervous and shaky.

“You’re shaking.” I whispered, watching as he slowly opened the box.

“I want this to be perfect.” He simply replied, also in a hushed tone. “What do you think?”

As I stared down at the ring in the box—an elegant silver ring with a ruby stone in the middle—as cliché as it sounded, everything felt like it truly fell into place at that moment. It was so perfect that I was actually speechless, almost like I’d had all of the breath knocked out of me, and I could feel Zacky watching me nervously.

“I...” He exhaled shakily, shifting in front of me. “I got it right, didn’t I? Ruby is your birthstone?”

“It is.” I nodded, still staring at the ring. A smile was quickly tugging at the corners of my lips. “You got it perfect.”

Immediately, he relaxed, and his grin returned to his face. That was all it took for him to carefully ease the ring out of the box and take my hand again, slowly pushing it onto my finger and not once losing his smile. It was the happiest I’d ever seen him.

“This feels so right.” He commented, staring from my hand to my face. “I am so excited to marry you, Midge.”

I leant forward with another grinning, pecking his lips gently. “And I can’t wait to marry you.

I went to pull away, but he quickly cupped my face in his hands and pecked me back, deepening the kiss soon after. I instantly kissed back, smiling into it, and it wasn’t long before he was moving his lips to my jaw, trailing kisses all the way down to my neck.

As I breathed in sharply, I felt him smirk against my skin, but before I could protest, he moved his lips back to mine again. Ever so slightly flustered, I quickly began to unbutton his shirt, though he then abruptly pulled away.

“Dammit, Zacky!” I immediately exclaimed. “Don’t tease me like that!”

“Sorry...sorry.” He groaned, tipping his head back. “I wasn’t planning on pulling away. I just remembered I’m all out of condoms. I meant to get some more this morning but I forgot.”

A groan also left my lips to match his, and I mirrored the way he’d tipped his head back, running a hand through my hair. It hardly ever happened like this, as we were usually pretty prepared and Zacky always kept quite a large supply of condoms, but since we’d gotten back together, the make up sex stage had been rather ongoing and neither of us had expected to run out so quickly.

He simply watched me as I continued to run a hand through my hair and groan, extremely frustrated. I didn’t hate much more than getting into a heated moment and not being able to continue with it.

And the way he was sat in front of me, looking pretty flustered and his top three buttons of his shirt undone, only made me even more tempted.

“I...” I chewed on my lip thoughtfully, shifting. “Don’t worry about it. It’ll be fine.”

He blinked. “Are you sure? You’re usually so adamant on us using protection.”

“I know.” I shrugged simply. “But whatever. We just got properly engaged and it’s Christmas. I’ll take the morning after pill on Boxing Day. Those things work up to like...seventy-two hours or something.”

“Well...if you’re sure...” He nodded, kissing me again.

And I was.

Which was all it took for Zacky to lift me up into his arms and carry me up the stairs.