Title: Yesterdays and Tomorrows
Characters: Logan, Veronica, Lilly, Duncan, a smattering of others
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Pre and post-series fic (spoilers for The Wrath of Con). Logan Echolls gives Veronica Mars the beginning and ending they should have had.
Disclaimer: DAMN YOU ROB THOMAS! These characters are his. I don't own them, but if I did... let's just say things would look a little different on T.V. these days!
AN: For auchic who fangirled with me while the show was on and fangirled with me last night while I wrote this baby! :) And for finding that one error! You rock the casbah! (does ninja happy dance)
1.
He's twelve years old, but he knows what's up. He's a pretty smart kid, though Trina would probably say differently, but what the hell does she know. She's just some annoying older girl who uses the bathroom for too long and talks on the phone too much.
They've just moved to Neptune, which might as well be like Timbuktu for all it's worth. Aaron picked up the whole family and moved them out of Hollywood, but close enough so he can still do the odd film (which Logan knows means that after maybe a month of staying at home, he'll be back wherever filming another crap movie like "Desperate Thunder" or some other action movie with no real plot).
His mom hasn't worked at all since... well, he can't remember. She mainly stays home and does charity stuff. Never volunteers at his school (strangely enough). Logan doesn't think he'd want her to anyway.
It's pretty stupid.
But at least Duncan is nearby.
He remembers meeting Duncan at one of those stupid kid's camps his mom signed him up for. One of those ones for privileged kids (no have-nots allowed). The camp sucked, but Duncan was cool. So they stayed friends, Logan went to visit him every summer in Neptune (while his dad was away filming and his mom was in a drug induced stupor) and Duncan used to come out to the Hills for the weekend sometimes when he could. They always did traditional boy stuff, like climbing trees and talking about girls and hell, they're only twelve.
Duncan plays soccer, so does his older sister Lilly, and on the Tuesday after their official move his mom drives him over and they watch Lilly's team (The Neptune Tritons) play. Duncan keeps yelling at his sister from the side of the pitch, but Logan's eyes keep moving from the fully developed body of Lilly (damn her boobs are huge) to this little pipsqueak type girl with these pig tail braids and cute little knee socks.
She's kind of hot. She's not as curvy as Lilly, but there's something special about her with her stripped socks and her little soccer shorts. He can't stop watching her. It's really great when she gets the ball and passes it up to Lilly and Lilly almost scores, the girls do this little commiserating high five.
The Tritons lose the game.
Doesn't seem to matter to Lilly or the cute pigtail girl. They're both laughing and pushing each other even as their knees are scuffed with dirt and grass.
"Donut! You finally brought your friend out of hiding?" Lilly's voice happy, even if her words might have an edge to them.
"Who's your friend, Lil?" He speaks up, keeping his eyes on the knee socks (he never knew he had such a fetish for them).
"I'm Veronica, Veronica Mars."
"Logan." There's this awkward silence before Veronica's mom calls her back over and Veronica gives Lilly a quick hug and Duncan a quick wave before leaving. (Maybe he imagines that her eyes linger on him for a minute too.)
2.
It's not his first kiss, she's not his first girlfriend or his girlfriend at all (and the bruises are still yellow and sore on his back so he has to be careful). But she's beautiful and lonely. Lilly's dating some senior from Neptune high and he knows that Veronica feels a little left out.
Lilly's like the sun, she completely outshines any other star in the galaxy when she's around, but when she's not he remembers how he felt that first time he saw Veronica.
They're friends, at least he thinks they are. Maybe.
But Veronica, she doesn't seem to have eyes for anyone but Duncan and Duncan is completely oblivious.
So Logan decides to do something about that. It's after school on a Thursday and Veronica is at her locker grabbing her books when he comes up behind her. He waits patiently until she closes her locker and turns around, almost running into him (he did have an early growth spurt).
"Hey, V?" He puts on the performance of a lifetime (with so many bad actors in the family it's really a breeze). "Can I talk to you?"
She nods and he leads her into an empty classroom, smiling as she props her bag on a chair and sits on the desk, her tan legs swinging down from the desk.
He steps close to her, in between her legs and thoughts that he's entertained before make a re-appearance (thoughts that Veronica Mars is not ready to hear or enact in any way, shape or form).
She continues to look up at him but with a more curious expression.
"We're friends, right?" He whispers to her, moving even further into her personal space until their noses are almost touching and he can smell the cherry lip balm she wears.
"Yes," she breathes more than says.
"And friends help each other out, don't they?" He moves his mouth to her ear. Is this how you seduce someone? He thinks he's seen this in one of his dad's craptastic movies one time, which just makes this all a little dirty.
She nods and he lets his breath flutter over her jaw as he moves back to leave his nose an inch from hers. Her eyes are huge and green and he...
Her tongue darts across her lips, like it's an automatic response to his proximity.
"I've seen how you look at Duncan." Her eyes widen and she slides back on the desk adding some space between them. "I've seen how you look at him, and I want to help you."
"What do you mean?" He doesn't really remember what innocence is anymore (but he thinks he'd like to taste it for a while and maybe Veronica can help him with that).
"Have you ever..." His gaze flashes to her lips then back up to her eyes.
"I..." She almost looks angry at him. Angry and shocked (just like his mom is every time, every fucking time). But her eyes flutter down to his lips and he feels the smile stretch across his mouth.
"I was just thinking, you know, we could... practice. So that when you do want to kiss Donut, you'll know what to do." The smile is a full smirk now, one he's practiced in the mirror countless times before. "Just trying to be a friend." He steps away from her a whole step, moves like he's going to walk away but really he's just waiting.
"Wait." He turns around, plastering a serious expression on his face.
"Yes."
"What would I have to do?" She sounds so unsure.
"Well, I'll have to see what we're working with here, then I'll let you know what you need to do." He walks right up to her, places one hand on her cheek running his thumb under her eye and waiting for some of the tension to leave her. He's patient, his other hand resting on the desk beside her hip. Her eyes stay huge on his but at least they're on his (that's a win for him).
"Close your eyes, Veronica." And it's a thing of beauty when she does as he says. She's really got the longest eyelashes he's ever seen and her sun-bleached hair curls below her shoulders where it hangs. He's so tempted to run his hands through it. He leans in towards her, pausing so close to her, letting the heat from his mouth swim over her lips, watching as her mouth parts just slightly and her body shivers.
He closes his eyes and leans in, brushing lip over lip quickly. She releases her breath, and pulls in another one before he closes his mouth over hers in earnest. Her lips are insanely soft and he'd be lying if he said he didn't love cherries. He plays his lips over hers a few more times before pulling away.
"This time, kiss me back," his voice is harsh and gravelly, and his mouth comes down on hers harder this time, his hand moves up to her hair, fingers threading there, holding her head in place. She does it. Kisses him back, moves her hands up to his face (thank God she didn't try to touch his back), even goes so far as to push his lips wider and starts to sneak her tongue out, but the first time his tongue meets her she pulls back sharply.
He mashes his lips together. "Not bad. If you want we can practice at my house next week." He grabs her hand (her taste all cherry and Veronica still inside him deep) and pulls her out to the front of the school. Her mom is waiting for her.
He watches her lean against the passenger window her lips used, her eyes glazed, and he smiles again.
He just stole Veronica Mars' first kiss.
3.
He's always been a little bit in love with Veronica Mars. From the first time he saw her in her little knee socks to the day he left Neptune University with actual ambitions. From the first kiss he took (God, she was sweet) to the first time she slept with him. All the times she held him and believed in him. A little bit in love with her.
Veronica'd told him he'd said their romance was epic. At times he still feels that way (lives ruined, blood shed for sure).
He hasn't seen her in nearly four years. Things are different for him now. He has a job, which allows him money enough to purchase his own liquor. He's old enough to buy it without a fake ID now. He's old enough to know that they never got the ending they should have.
He's always believed in Fate: Fate made sure that his father was gunned down in a fucking elevator for what he'd done, Fate made sure that Cassidy Casablancas paid for his mistakes, Fate made sure that Duncan and baby Lilly were safe (he visited them in Perth just last year. Lilly was so big, and every bit as sparkly as her aunt, fully of personality even at nine years old).
Fate will find a way to bring Veronica Mars back into his life.
And it does.
4.
A rainy Sunday in L.A. looks like a sunny day anywhere else, people out in their finest, simply with the added accessory of a fancy looking umbrella.
He's just stopped in at the local Starbucks, because Dean and Deluca is for poser and pussies, when she walks in. Her blonde hair is cropped around her shoulders again but not as choppy as it was in high school, more elegant now. Her eyes still take up more than half her face, with inky black lashes that surround them.
And suddenly he's twelve again and his palms are sweating in the Neptune sun while he watches her kick at the ball with those damn socks he loves so much.
He picks up his coffee at the counter and waits until she's ordered her drink (some kind of non-fat, no foam concoction created to make women think they're making smart calorie choices while doing exactly the opposite).
"Veronica Mars," he says when she finally moves to where he's sitting at a table for two. She's just as beautiful as she ever was and all that shit about breaking up before there was an unbearable amount of pain comes rushing back to him because he knows if they start something this time (and he really hopes they do) he might not survive it (doesn't know that he wants to).
"Logan Echolls." She smiles up at him, presses a quick kiss to his cheek before asking without words if she can sit at his table.
"What brings you out to L.A., the land of hopes, dashed dreams, and a million plastic surgeons just waiting to give you the lift you've been waiting for?" Hey, he might be grown up but not everything has changed.
"Oh, there's that wit I've missed so much. Started any riots since you've been in town?"
They do end up having a bit of a serious conversation, sitting in the Starbuck drinking their overpriced beverages through sippy cup lids like children.
He thinks about their history a lot, what they might have been if things had been different. But they aren't. And the best thing he could have hoped for back in college was for her to agree to be his friend. And she was. But now... that might not be enough.
Her coffee is finished and their conversation draws to its natural conclusion. She stands up to walk away and he can't have that.
"V?"
"Yeah." She turns and looks at him (those soft Veronica eyes, she's a marshmallow, he remembers).
"Same time tomorrow?" He thinks for a minute she's not going to answer, or if she does it's going to be an answer he doesn't want to hear.
He's wrong.
"Sure." He smiles at the bell as it hits the door her body on the other side of the glass.