a/n: okay so this idea just wouldn't leave me alone. I know I've written like three VeronicaLogan one-shots in the past week, but I love these two idiots so much I'm seriously addicted. Especially because Logan Echolls is now one of my favorite fictional characters of all time. He's perfect (In a fucked-up sort of way)

So this little ficlet is very AU. It's set in a universe where Veronica never meets Logan until college, when he goes to her for help in figuring out who really killed Lily Kane. So yeahJ

Veronica Mars doesn't know exactly what she's expecting when she decides to go to Hearst College. Granted, she knows the reputation the college has put forth, including the several highly publicized rapes, and the overall seediness of the town the college was placed in, didn't really make it seem like a viable 'safe choice'. She doesn't really know what's influenced her to go down this route instead of a much more respectable path (i.e. Stanford) but something in her gut is telling her that Hearst is where she wants to be. She plays it off as merely wanting to go where her best friend Piz is going, but she can feel it's something else. Something that's pulling her there.

"I don't see why we couldn't just have taken an apartment together," Piz grumbles as he stops the car outside of student housing. Veronica rolls her eyes at him; they've been over this conversation at least thirty times in the three-hour drive from their hometown to here.

"Because I'm a girl and you're a guy," Veronica supplies helpfully, but the real reason is because if she were staying with Piz, it would practically be writing Not Available on her forehead in permanent marker. Not that Veronica was particularly interested in hooking up with anyone, but she liked to keep her options open. Rooming with Piz would be doing practically the opposite.

"And I also can't believe you took so little stuff," Piz adds, as she lifts up the back door to his van.

"I didn't need it until my dad brought the rest down."

"Of course you didn't."

Piz has seemed more frustrated with her lately and Veronica can't really put her finger on why he's acting odd. Piz has been her only friend since her sophomore year of high school, and he was a good friend. He was loyal, kind; never let a smile drop from her face, everything you could really want in a friend. Needless to say, his new brash attitude was starting to annoy her.

She takes her box of things into her arms. It's true that she hasn't taken a ton of things with her, but it's only because her Dad is bringing down the rest of the stuff she has packed a week later since it wouldn't all fit in Piz's van, and Veronica wasn't inclined to hear another lecture on rejecting Stanford by taking her Dad's car.

"I'm going to go find my room," she tells Piz, who merely shrugs and takes some of his stuff into his arms. Whatever.

Veronica starts heading towards the girl's section of student housing, holding her box more tightly to her chest as if she can keep off any prying eyes. She'd be lying if she said the rapes didn't scare her, it's not exactly something that can really make you feel totally safe in your new environment.

Of course, lying at the top of her box is her ever-helpful Taser, so she figures that if anyone tries to pull anything she can always give them a couple hundred watts of electricity.

Once inside the building, it only takes her a couple minutes to find her room. Veronica's always been good with directions, and it definitely takes her less time than your average Joe to find the small black door.

"Hello?" Veronica knocks on the door, setting her box by her feet. The door opens, and standing in the doorway is a girl around her height, with long brown hair.

"Are you my roommate?"

"I think so," Veronica replies, bending to pick up her box. "Cindy, right?"

"I go by Mac," the girl answers, stepping aside so Veronica can enter her room. "I assume you're Veronica?"

"You assumed right," Veronica smiles. Mac has claimed one side of the room already, so Veronica sets her box of spare clothes onto the other bed.

"Do you have other stuff?" Mac asks, resuming her unpacking on the other side of the room. Veronica shakes her head.

"Not for another week."

"Macster!" a voice from the doorway booms, and a tall blonde guy dressed as the stereotypical 'surfer dude' swung into the room. Mac winces as he throws an arm around her.

"I asked you not to call me that," she protests feebly, but the guy pays no attention as his gaze fixes on Veronica.

"Is that your roommate?" he asks.

"Veronica."

"Nice to meet ya," Dick says, giving her a wink. "Nice to know the Macster has a hot roommate!"

Veronica is trying to come up with a suitable comment to go with this new development, and Mac looks like she's going to die of embarrassment, when Piz appears in the doorway.

"Veronica, I just got my stuff stolen out of my van!" he says, stepping into the room with someone she assumes is his new roommate.

Here we go again. Veronica's father is the local PI in their small town, and Veronica has picked up a couple things from watching him work. What had started out as her just helping find someone's missing dog has turned into a quick way to make cash, and usually it was just something silly like finding out who stole her best friends stuff. She hadn't exactly been planning on picking up any new cases…especially after her disastrous last one…but it really couldn't hurt, could it?

Veronica smiles, finally feeling in her element again. "Let me see what I can do," she tells him.

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It's month two of being at Hearst, and Veronica has already gained quite the reputation at helping people fix their problems. It seems that Neptune is quite the place for making money as a PI, and Veronica almost contemplates telling her Father about all the potential money opportunities he has here. Then, she remembers that he wouldn't be very happy that she was investigating at all—so she throws that idea out. It's not like she should really be doing this in the first place.

She and Mac have a steady friendship, but not one that generally transcends the limits of their dorm room. She knows that the blonde man, despite his forward nature, is actually Mac's boyfriend, that she loves computers and hacking, and has a single friend named Logan. Dick apparently has it firmly rooted in his brain that Veronica and Logan should go out, and brings it up to her at every available opportunity. Of course, Veronica has never even met this Logan person before, so she always politely declines Dick's attempts to get them to go on a double date. That isn't how she works.

She's set up her 'office' or the place where people can track her down to get favors (which is what she liked to call them even if she was charging them) on a park bench on the south side of campus. She sat there during lunch, occasionally between classes, and a variety of other times when she wasn't working on a case.

She's reading a rather boring manuscript for one of her classes when someone slides next to her.

"Are you the famous Veronica Mars everyone keeps talking about?" a male voice asks her, one that rings sarcasm with every syllable.

"That would be me," she nods, placing her papers on her lap and turning to look at her newest 'client'.

She's expecting it to be a boy, she's not stupid and can normally tell a male voice from a female voice, but what she's not expecting is the attractiveness of the boy sitting next to her. She can tell he's ripped through the maroon long sleeved shirt he's wearing; his brown hair is gelled into careful spikes, and his brown eyes can only be described as luminous.

"I need your help with something," he says quickly, "But it's kind of delicate and I would rather not discuss it in the open."

"Okay," Veronica agrees easily, a lot of the people who want her help don't want other people eavesdropping, and she understands why of course. She's assuming he's trying to figure out if his girlfriend's cheating on him, that's usually what it is anyways. "Where do you want to meet?"

"I don't know…where do you generally meet for stuff like this?" his knee bounces up and down, but he's not the first nervous person to be asking her for help.

"Dog beach."

"Okay, then tonight at five?" he asks her and she nods. He stands up to leave, and she gets up too.

"First though, what's your name?" Veronica asks, handing him her phone. He looks down at the device almost like he's never seen it before. "Enter in your number in case I need to cancel last minute."

"Admit it," he smirks, "You just want my number."

"You got me."

He quickly punches in a name and number, and hands her back the phone. Staring at the name, she gives a start of recognition. When her eyes flicker up to meet his, he looks wary, like he's expecting for her to melt all over him or something.

"You wouldn't happen to be Dick's friend?" she asks curiously, and he frowns.

"That's not usually the name I'm associated with, but yes I suppose I am 'Dick's friend', although god forbid I ever have to go by that name again."

"Tonight at five?"

The boy she now knows as Logan Echolls nods, smiling. "See you then," he says walking away.

Veronica isn't a fool, she knows who Aaron Echolls' is, and she assumes that Logan is his son judging by his reaction. Still, it wasn't like she was one of his Fangirls, she wasn't about to start freaking the boy out by jumping up and down. She wasn't some morbid fan girl, and she knew how it felt to get labeled by who your parents were. It was part of the reason she had gotten away from her hometown as fast as possible.

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Veronica had chosen Dog Beach because it was generally a place where people left other people alone—unless you had a dog. Veronica longingly thought of her dog Backup, knowing that he would've have loved the beach here. Sadly, the student housing had a strict 'no pets' policy, and her beloved pit-bull was still at home.

She spots Logan at once, but it's only because he's leaning against his car—a bright yellow Xterra that sticks out like a sore thumb. She walks up to him, smiling.

"Let's take a walk," she jabs behind her with her thumb, and he warily follows her out onto the beach.

"Just so you are aware, this is not a date," he says from behind her, and her smile turns into a scowl.

"That full of ourselves, are we?"

"Well my beauty has been known to make ladies lose their minds before. "

"Charming."

"I assume you're wondering why I'm hiring you?" his brown eyes are staring out at the ocean, and Veronica fidgets nervously with the edge of her sweater. It is true that she's wondering, but if she's learned anything, it's that people won't talk until they want to.

"You assume correct."

"Have you heard of the Lily Kane murder?" he asks abruptly, and she stops in her tracks. She isn't expecting the conversation to take such a turn, and for a moment it throws her. She quickly composes herself and turns to look at him.

"Yeah, I think the whole world heard about that."

"I want you to find out who killed her," he says it in a rush, like he's going to get arrested for simply coming up with the idea. Veronica's mouth falls open and she simply stares at him for a second.

"I thought her murder was already solved," she says, resuming their walk. He continues with her, now that he's said why he wants her help he seems more relaxed. "Didn't someone die for it?"

"Yeah," Logan says, "But it doesn't make sense. There's just something—something wrong."

She frowns to herself. Her Dad had always said that solving the Kane murder case was to easy, and she doesn't really see why Logan would lie about this. But solving a murder? That was on an entirely different level than finding someone's dog.

"Why?" she asks.

"Why what?"

"Why do you want me to figure this out?"

"Because Lily Kane was my girlfriend," Logan says, and his brown eyes are fixed on the ocean. "The man who was charged, it doesn't make sense. I just can't wrap my head around it. There's something wrong, and I need you to figure out what."

"Okay," she agrees, surprising herself. Maybe it's the look in Logan's eyes as he tells her he was Lily's boyfriend, or maybe it's the thrill of a new case, but she accepts. "Then why me?"

"Because you didn't grow up here. And you seem good at what you do."

"How much?"

"Free of charge," Veronica says, and when he starts to protest she lifts up a hand. "All I'm asking is that when I need muscle, you're my muscle." She doesn't know if she can figure this out in the first place, and she doesn't want to run him dry of his money for nothing.

"So I'm basically your underpaid bodyguard?" he asks, and there's a glint of amusement back in his eyes.

"That's exactly what you are."