Logan had always liked James, though he frequently had trouble articulating just why that was. It was probably at least partially due to the fact that James had always been nice to him, even when he was obviously too cool to be hanging out with a geek like Logan.
Of course, they'd known each other when James was 'the fat kid', but they hadn't really become friends until after James had dropped the weight and joined the hockey team. Logan knows that sudden good looks and popularity might have turned most kids' heads, made them think they were better than everyone else, but then, James had never been most kids, either.
Logan had always admired that about James, even if he privately thought that James put far too much emphasis on looks. Then again, having been 'the fat kid' for so many years, it was understandable, so Logan just cut him some slack and happily joined in on teasing James about his vanity.
All of that made it just that much more unbelievable when James said he thought Logan would be the one kicked out of the band in favor of WayneWayne. Logan totally got the reasoning behind it – even he thought he'd be the one kicked out, seeing as he really wasn't doing nearly as well as the rest of them at picking up the whole singing and dancing thing – but it was never something he expected James to say to his face. It was bad enough that he had to hear it from Griffin and Gustavo, but that kind of thoughtless criticism was much harder to take from one of his best friends.
At the time, he put aside his hurt in favor of helping figure out a way to get rid of WayneWayne and get Kendall back in the band, but once the crisis was over, it was harder to ignore. He didn't want to be mad at James, but he couldn't really help it. With increasing frequency, he found himself ignoring James or making somewhat nastier remarks than James really deserved.
James eventually noticed, frowning every time Logan said something mean, and honest-to-God pouting if Logan ignored him. Logan tried to stop, but he just kept hearing James' words running through his head - my money's on Logan - and before he knew it, he was right back where he started.
Finally, after Logan made a particularly cutting remark about pretty boy prima donnas, James went all squinty-eyed and tight-lipped, and Logan got the feeling he was in for some payback.
An entire week went by, in which nothing out of the ordinary happened. Well, okay, plenty out-of-the-ordinary stuff happened, but nothing at all like the payback Logan was expecting, and it was starting to make him nervous. Normally, James wasn't much of a planner, preferring to ask Logan for help in coming up with something really good, so whatever he was planning this time was bound to be big and likely very unpleasant.
Logan tried even harder to do better, because he would really rather circumvent whatever James was planning than keep holding a grudge about one offhand remark. Instead of it fixing things, though, James got quiet around him, and all Logan could do was hope that payback would come soon and wouldn't be too horrible.
It turned out that he didn't have to wait too much longer after all, because two days later, he found a plate of freshly-made dinosaur chicken nuggets sitting on the counter just when he was ready to sit down for lunch. No one else was around, so it was hard to imagine they weren't meant for him. And who knew what James did to them - because it had to be James; Kendall and Carlos wouldn't bother when they weren't going to be around, and Mrs. Knight and Katie had been gone all morning. Had he dropped them on the floor, spit on them, hid some sort of laxative inside them? Maybe even poisoned them? Okay, that was probably taking things a bit too far, but there was no way those chicken nuggets hadn't been tainted in some manner.
It was a good thing James was so bad at planning stuff out, because that made it so much easier to see through anything he tried and avoid the trap. Logan dumped the chicken nuggets into the garbage disposal and made himself a grilled cheese sandwich. He didn't really want dinosaur chicken nuggets anyway, even if they were his favorite.
The next time, Logan knew for sure that James was up to something. They'd all decided to take a break from one another, and Logan was happy for the chance to go to a math lecture, something none of the others would have had any interest in. Only, when he found out it was at a girls-only school, he'd had a difficult decision to make. Did he want to go badly enough to pretend to be a girl?
Turned out he did, and a quick trip back to the Palmwoods assured him that he'd be able to find a way to pull it off. James was in the apartment when he got back, and Logan was glad he wouldn't be there longer than the time it took to make himself look like a girl. Only, his first attempt at it turned out to be a total disaster. Not only that, but James kept lurking, obviously trying not to laugh as he watched Logan fail.
"Oh, what, like you could do better?" Logan asked, not intending to get James involved in this, not least because James was bound to try to make him look even stupider than he already did. Yeah, that sounded like just the sort of masterful plan James would come up with as a form of payback.
Except that when he finished, Logan had to admit after looking in the mirror, that the effect was a lot better than his own pitiful attempt. For one thing, he actually looked like he could pass for a girl, and for another, he made a pretty hot girl. Not that he was willing to tell James that, because there was still the possibility that James had snuck itching powder into his dress or something.
Of course, when it turned out to be just fine, Logan was forced to rethink the idea that James was out for payback. After all, he wasn't really the type to hold grudges for so long. No, that couldn't be right; James was obviously very cunningly doing something nice to lure Logan into a false sense of security. Then he'd hatch his ultimate plan to...well, to do something nefarious, anyway. It'd be long and involved, something designed to...no, wait.
This was James. James, who always went to Logan for elaborate plans, was probably not being that devious; more likely, Logan was just being paranoid about the whole thing. But then that begged the question, what was James doing? Because yeah, they were friends, but not the type of friends who made food for each other or spent their alone time together, not even for a good crossdressing scheme.
The only thing for it would be for him to test James, see if he could figure out what was going on here. To that end, he mentioned one day how much he missed drinking hot cocoa with those little marshmallows (not that he couldn't have gotten some, of course, but he really missed it being a staple of cold winter nights in Minnesota).
Sure enough, there was a mug of cocoa sitting on the counter when he went to get a snack before bed, and though he hadn't seen James make it, he knew it couldn't have been anyone else. Interesting, but inconclusive.
A week later, when he said something about missing flowers in the kitchen like his mom always had at home, a vase full of lilies magically appeared mere hours later. Against all odds, it appeared that James was actually trying to be nice to him, and Logan wasn't sure what to do about it.
It seemed kind of weird to ask about it, question someone doing nice things for him, but well, he really wanted to know, especially since he'd been so sure James was mad at him.
The thing that finally pushed it all into the open was the very first Palmwoods dance, and his trying to find a date for it. James jumped on that almost immediately, spending hours helping him work out a way to ask Camille that would actually end with her saying yes. Though it ended up taking the whole day, he finally asked her and she agreed to be his date, and yes, they had a good time at the dance.
Only, once it was over, Logan found he couldn't keep his mouth shut any longer about all the nice things James had done over the past weeks. "What's up with all the nice stuff you've been doing lately? I thought you were mad at me."
"What? I'm not mad at you. I thought you were mad at me!"
"Why would you think I was mad at you?"
"Oh, I don't know, maybe because you started ignoring me or saying mean things after I said I thought you would've been the one kicked out of the band? Mean things, Logan! And you're like, the anti-bad boy, so it was kinda harsh."
Logan felt the familiar anger swell at the reminder, but this time it was much easier to shove away. "I guess I kind of forgot about that when I thought you were trying to kill me."
James stared at him for a moment. "You're really paranoid, you know that? I just wanted to make it up to you for being a shitty friend."
"Yeah, I kinda figured that out. It was nice of you. And uh, sorry I kept saying all those mean things to you, too."
"It's alright. I mean, I had fun trying to come up with things you'd like. You did like them, right?"
"Of course. Today was the most fun I've had in awhile."
James smiled. "Date with Camille."
And the funny thing was, that wasn't what Logan had meant at all. The dance had been fun, sure, but what he'd really enjoyed was spending the day running around with James. "Hanging out with one of my best friends."
"Oh, well I..."
And then before things could descend into an awkward silence, Logan found himself being kissed. He had no idea what he should do. Pull away? Find somewhere to put his hands? What?
Just as suddenly as it had begun, the dilemma was solved by James pulling away. It was about that same time that Logan realized pulling away was decidedly not what he would have chosen to do, but James was looking a little freaked out, and now was definitely not the time to be considering having a sexual identity crisis, not when James looked to be busy with one.
"Look, I didn't mean to, I just, I-"
Logan slapped a hand over James' mouth to stop the stream of babble that would undoubtedly have become weird very quickly. "It's okay, James. I'm not mad, and you're not gonna freak out, right?" James nodded slowly. "Good. I'll move my hand, and then you can tell me what brought that on."
As soon as Logan lowered his hand, words once again came pouring out of James' mouth. "I'm sorry I did that. Well, no, not sorry I did it, because I've been wanting to all day, and it was awesome, even if you would rather be kissing Camille."
"Actually, I wouldn't. Or, you know, I would have walked her to her door and kissed her good night instead of staying here to talk to you."
"Right." James looks skeptical and just a little bit vulnerable, which Logan can't stand, because James Diamond should be nothing but sure of himself.
That was most definitely what he blamed, anyway, when he pressed his lips to James' again, and yeah, it felt just as good as the first time. Maybe he hadn't been wanting to kiss James all day, but he sure wanted it now.
Eventually, they ran out of breath and had to separate. "So, I guess maybe you wouldn't rather be kissing Camille."
"Yeah, I guess not."
Then James grinned, and Logan grinned, and it all seemed funny enough that they busted up laughing. Eventually, their laughter settled into fond smiles, and Logan thought this thing between them might just turn out to be pretty awesome.
"You wanna make out?"
Logan nodded emphatically. Make that definitely awesome.