Disclaimer: I don't own nor am I in any way affiliated with Veronica Mars, although seriously, I would love to be.
Anger, hated, all-consuming love. These are the emotions he's used to feeling around Veronica Mars; but not pity. Never pity. She doesn't accept it-doesn't want it from him or anyone, and even when he'd wanted to hate her, his grudging respect had stemmed from it. But now…now everything's different. Everything had changed the moment he found out Duncan's secret.
"You haven't said a word in 15.8 miles, Echolls. Should I be worried that you're planning a coup?" The grin that she throws him is open and wide, and for a moment the breath is knocked out of him. It startles him sometimes, how much he'd loved her. Loves her still. He looks down at his hands and bites his lip to avoid sighing out loud with what he knows could tear this fragile peace they have to pieces. "Feigning sleep? And when I already saw you with your eyes open? Aww, you're slipping." She chuckles to herself and faces the road again, but he tenses.
"You figured me out, Mars. Who could sleep with all your yammering?" His tone is icy, and for a moment he's worried that he's pushed too far. He begins to berate himself for it, and then berates himself for caring. He can't let her in again. It would be chaos, a disaster, a catastrophe…but he can't help himself. He sneaks another glance at her, and his heart constricts. He loves her. It's that simple.
"Yammering? Well, that is a new one." She glances at him and smiles again, and he tries not to smile back too enthusiastically. "So I shouldn't be worried that you're trying to commandeer this operation? Because really, my way is the best way." She winks, and he can't help smiling back. God, he loves her.
"Don't worry, Mars. My virility is at your service." He pretends not to notice the blush that has graces her cheeks.
"I wouldn't have asked you," She continues, obviously ignoring his latest statement, and he can't say that he blames her. He's a jackass, and he knows it fully, but it's the only way for him to survive. "But Duncan-" She looks so sad and crestfallen for a moment, that his throat tightens. If only she knew…
"But Duncan has League Meets." The lie trips easily off of his tongue, and he wonders fleetingly why it isn't this easy with the truth. "You can take the boy out of the Boy Scout but I'm not too sure you can take the Boy Scout out of the boy." She smiles at that, a small and private smile, and he feels sick to his stomach.
"We haven't been spending much time together lately," She starts, biting her lip, and glancing over at him to see if he's Okay; if this is Okay to talk about. He doesn't have to heart to stop her, fully content to be her knight in shining armor, even if he doesn't get to hold her at the end of the day. Now when did that happen? He finds he really can't tell, but at some unidentified point, his life became more than cheap thrills and stupid pranks. She had tried to show him that, but by the time he'd gotten it through his thick skull, it was too late. "…Y'know?" She asks, glancing at him quickly. He nods, biting his lip, a guilty knot tying itself in his stomach, because he hadn't been listening. He'd been thinking of what she would do if he just leaned over and kissed her. "And I just wanted this trip to be…I don't know, what pulled us back together." He closes his eyes in agony, rubbing his temples in anticipation for the headache to come.
"Please tell me there isn't a frilly honeymoon suite in my future, Mars, because that would just be too much." He replies flippantly, surprised to see the flush creeping up her cheeks again. I'm going to kill you, Duncan, he thinks, but settles for smiling tightly at her and focusing his attention out the window. He does less damage that way.