SETTING: Early S1, sometime after Heat and before Blah Blah, Woof Woof.
DISCLAIMER: Neither Max nor Logan, nor the universe they live in, is mine. In the interest of honesty, I should also admit that I took the goofy saying and the kiss from real life. This is what late nights do to a person.
CAPE HAVEN CHALLENGE: Write an S1-based story in which Logan wears a funny hat and which contains a kiss between two unexpected characters.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: I had fun with this one. Thanks to Alaidh for betaing at short notice!
Max entered Logan's apartment in a good mood. She'd had an uneventful morning, free of seizures and long package runs, and one of her runs had been to a luxury property that looked promising for her return later that night. Dressed in cropped pants and a blue long-sleeved T-shirt, she approached the computer room, humming a tune she'd heard earlier that day.
She swung into the entrance to the room and smiled. "Hey. Whatcha up to?"
Logan kept his eyes on his computer screen for a moment before moving them up to Max's. "Just gathering some intelligence on the Sea World facility outside of town."
"Sounds like something's fishy at Sea World," Max joked, winning a smile from Logan. "Who knew?"
"I got some tips that there's shady stuff going on over there." He nodded once at his computer screen to indicate the messages on it.
"Is there any place in Seattle that doesn't have shady stuff going on?"
Logan ignored her while he rattled off a list of offenses. Max, for her part, appeared to ignore his list as she left the room and searched for food.
"New owners took over the place a few years ago. I got word that they're using it as a front for a laundering operation and funding it with the pay of the illegals they hired. Sector cops are overlooking it...for a fee, of course."
"Wow, where'd you find raspberries?" Max asked, returning to the computer room and dropping berries one at a time into her mouth from over her head. She held several in her other hand like a treasure. "They're extra juicy."
"I have my sources," Logan replied mysteriously, deciding to smile rather than bug her about not paying attention. He suspected that she had heard everything he'd said, and while it was disorienting, her feigned inattention was kind of endearing.
She drew up a chair and sat down. "So let me guess. Sometime in the near future you'll be making a hack that exposes the evildoers at the Sea World facility."
"It'll probably shut the place down," Logan acknowledged. "I hate to put the workers out of a job, but this kind of thing can't continue."
"You know what, I've never even been there," Max mused. "I'd kinda like to see what they've got. Manticore didn't exactly have a marine exhibit."
"You didn't do much in the way of exploration when you got to Seattle, did you?" asked Logan, surprised again by Max's lack of experience.
She shrugged. "Girl on the run's got more important things to worry about than fish—unless they're on a plate."
Logan looked at her for a minute, then nodded slowly.
"What say you put off your hack for a day and show me around the place tomorrow?" Max asked slyly, a mischievous smile spreading across her face.
"Max..." Logan protested in his slightly impatient, slightly exasperated tone of voice. "The longer I wait, the more—"
"Logan, you can't shut it down before I even get a chance to see it! Just put off your hack for one day. Call this surveillance, if you want." Max pouted a bit to emphasize the point and bit down slowly on the raspberry she placed between her front teeth.
It worked. Logan, fascinated by the lips around the berry to which his eyes had been involuntarily drawn, reconsidered. "Well..."
"Great," Max said, cutting him off. She sucked the raspberry halves into her mouth and chewed on them quickly as she stood up.
"You know," Logan said suddenly, regaining his train of thought after a moment, "I think I have some pictures of the place in my closet. My parents took me there when I was little."
"Ooh, let's see." Max's eyes lit up.
"They're probably buried in a box somewhere, covered in dust," Logan warned her, releasing his brakes and backing up from the desk. "And spider webs."
Max mostly succeeded in not laughing at the small shiver that coursed through Logan's body at that thought.
She followed him into the walk-in closet off his bedroom and watched while he swung open a door and pondered the shelves before him.
"Hmmm," he muttered, glancing here and there. "I think they might be..." He checked a box. "No...maybe up there..."
Three minutes and several moved boxes later, Logan warily lifted the lid of a dark blue shoebox. "Ah! Here they are."
"Took you long enough. You always put stuff in your closet and forget about it?" Max asked interestedly, indicating what she meant by kicking one of the boxes she had moved to the floor.
"Yeah...that's what happens after a while," Logan murmured as he thumbed through the box.
"Guess it's just not in my blood to keep around stuff I don't use," Max said, dismissing the topic and stepping to Logan's side to peer over his shoulder at the contents of the box. Her eyes lit up. "Hey, what's this?"
Logan's head followed her up as she extracted a dirty old bucket hat. It was adorned with fishing flies, hooks, and a pin that said, "Jesus said 'Go fishing' – He didn't say anything about cleaning the garage!"
"My dad's fishing hat," Logan told her with a small smile forming on his face. "He'd take off in the motorboat every so often when he got the chance. Couple times he took me with him."
Max was dying of curiosity as to how old Logan was at the time and why the fishing trips stopped, but she chose not to ruin Logan's nostalgic mood. "Stephen Cale, corporate bigwig, wore this thing every weekend?" She turned it over in her hands and noted the inner lining, discolored from sweat.
"Can't be a fisherman without a good hat," Logan grinned. "Doesn't matter how much money you have. He wasn't into the snob thing."
"Good thing," Max said, plopping the hat onto Logan's head. "You'd look awfully silly sitting there with a skipper's hat on."
Logan instinctively touched the top of the hat, securing it in place. "It actually fits now. I tried it on once when I was a kid and it fell over my eyes."
Max checked her watch. "I gotta get back to work. Promise me you'll wear that tomorrow."
"Don't hold your breath," Logan said, removing the hat.
"I can wait a long time," Max reminded him. They smiled at each other and Logan shook his head as Max left the room. He looked down at the hat and smiled again. Then he placed it back on his head and wheeled over to the mirror.
"How'd this place survive the Pulse?" Max asked in amazement as she and Logan toured the grounds of the Seattle Sea World.
"It didn't, actually," he replied, looking around. "Used to be an aquarium. It sat dormant and untended for years. It's only been in the last few that they've fixed it up and revamped it...with illegal funding, come to find out."
"Shame it's gonna go to waste," she commented. She pointed to a pearl-diving demonstration and they stopped to watch for a moment. "You ever do that? Looks like they let spectators in there."
"Nah. My parents wouldn't let me. Didn't want me to walk around in wet clothes all day, I guess. You can try it, if you want." He grinned at her. "Bet you'd swim rings around them."
"I don't think they'd appreciate coming up missing a few pearls," Max said, grinning back. "Maybe tomorrow night."
They continued down the strip, looking at displays and admiring the sea life swimming and feeding in large pools. Eventually they arrived at a small amphitheater, with a large pool where a stage would be. A young man in a black and purple wetsuit embroidered with the name Gary was narrating as he put some dolphins through their paces. The crowd applauded appreciatively as the dolphins jumped through hoops and spun on their tails in unison.
"Let's check this out," Max said to Logan, sitting down on a nearby bench in the front row. He pulled up next to her and checked his watch before turning his attention to the show in front of them.
"Ladies and gentlemen, let's hear it for the flying dolphins!" Gary cheered, leading the crowd in a round of applause. At his signal, the dolphins took one last jump and swam offstage into a holding tank. "And now, say hello to Louise, the friendliest walrus this side of the Bering Sea!"
The crowd applauded again as a very large walrus lumbered onto the faux-ice platform on the far side of the pool. She slid into the water and did a few graceful laps, turning this way and that as the crowd watched through the glass.
When the walrus raised her head out of the water, Gary led her out of the pool and down a set of steps. "Louise is so friendly, she'll get up close and personal with anyone in the audience. Do we have a volunteer?"
The kids in the crowd, and a few adults, cheered and clapped, waving their arms in the air. Gary pretended to look around, as if trying to choose. Louise, for her part, selected her target and lumbered across the ground.
"Well, folks, it looks as if someone has caught Louise's eye," Gary said enthusiastically. "Who's it gonna be?"
To his dismay, Logan realized the walrus was headed straight for him.
"Oh, no," he gasped, hands instinctively going to his brakes.
"What's the matter?" Max asked him, humor in her voice. "You got a fear of walruses too?"
He didn't have time to answer, as Louise proved speedier than one would have guessed. Frozen by Max's teasing as well as the eyeful of approaching wet sea creature, Logan could only watch as the large animal planted her front flippers in his lap and gave him a big, wet kiss on the lips. The crowd roared in laughter.
Max herself could no longer hold it in. The first sound Logan heard after the walrus withdrew was that of Max bursting out laughing.
He drew an arm across his face to wipe off the slobber. "I'm glad you find it so funny."
"I find it hilarious!" Max gasped, practically squealing. "You should have seen the look on your face!"
Logan, face reddening at being laughed at by an entire crowd, nearly left right then and there. The smile on Max's face, however, and the sight of Louise heading for another target changed his mind. He decided to stay and allow himself to be amused, finally letting out a small laugh.
"Bad breath," he commented.
"I'm kinda thinkin' breath mints aren't in her diet," Max joked, standing up. "Come on. Let's go see if you have any more fans around here."
"First time I've ever been kissed by one," Logan said, referring to the walrus, as he followed her.
"There's a first time for everything," Max answered, at first referring to the walrus but realizing a moment later what it sounded like. She glanced at Logan, a bit embarrassed, and returned the grin he gave her.
They continued comfortably through the park, both thinking what neither dared to say aloud:
The second time is usually better.