Notes:
This is the first time I've done something like this and I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. I apologize for any errors, I know nothing about English grammar and it's unbetad. Title from Alfred Hitchcock. Obviously I own none of the VM universe.
Story originally written for the VM Fic Recs March challenge using the prompt Option 4: Dialogue Generator - e.
"What are you doing here?"
"What does it look like I'm doing?"
Her incredulous expression forces a laugh from him. "Fine, it looks like you're cheating my friends out of all their hard earned cash."
"Taking their pocket change, guilty as charged. Hard earned money, I doubt very much. Cheating, never," is the blonde's reply.
In all honesty, this isn't her normal style. She prefers to hide behind the facade of Amber or Stacy or whoever she is on a given day but tonight she was short on time and couldn't come up with a better plan other than to just buy her way into the highly illegal gambling event going down at the rich boys' frat house.
The Echolls kid is still looking curiously at her so she pulls out the empty chair to her right. "Well Rubber Ducky, why don't you join the party and we'll find out if I can make off with your wallet too!"
Logan chuckles but accepts the proffered seat. She's actually still a little sad that he finally quit reacting openly to her jabs about his obnoxiously yellow beast of a car. However, she consoles herself with the thought that simply because he's learned not to show any visible signs of exasperation it doesn't mean that the boy isn't annoyed.
As Logan settles in beside her and is dealt into the next game, she surreptitiously scans the room and the other players spread out around the different tables.
It's everything one could expect from the frat house of upper-class white wannabe surfers and jocks. In fact, the place fits so many clichés and stereotypes that under different circumstances she would probably be laughing about the whole thing with Wallace and Eli but tonight it makes her skin crawl.
Startled from her inspection by a nudge, she lifts an inquiring eyebrow at her neighbour.
"Are you gonna play or have you changed your mind and are looking for a table with more gullible fools?"
Tilting her head slightly, she grins unabashedly, "Nope, just scoping out my next victims."
If she wasn't watching him so intently she'd have missed it, but Logan pauses for a fraction of a second before recovering and scratching at the back of his neck as he offers her his own devious look. "Game on Annoying One."
Four hours later she can't quite believe how low she's had to stoop to avoid entirely cleaning out the majority of these dumbasses. It's overly cliché but she wonders if little bits of her brain will soon dribble from her ears if she spends much more time in the present company.
By this point, she's had ample time to do the rounds of all the tables, however, much to her frustration, hasn't seen anything being exchanged other than bad jokes and the night is looking decidedly like another bust. The one saving grace (somewhat to her dismay) is that Echolls has more often than not occupied the role of her quasi companion at the different tables and while his game can't quite match hers, he's displayed a degree of wit that has, on more than one occasion, saved the necks of a number of poor (rich) douches from being throttled by an enraged blonde.
It is during a lull in the game, the occupants of the present table are having a particularly difficult time mastering the more obvious concepts of poker, that Logan turns to her. "You've been holding out on me, I had no idea there was a card shark hiding behind your sweet and shiny veneer."
"I'm sorry to bust your bubble kiddo, but you don't in fact have a monopoly on the whole mysterious and dark thing. And what's this about me being sweet?"
"I'd much rather hear more about how you find me dark and mysterious," Logan responds with unrestrained glee.
Barely avoiding an eye roll, she'd realised that line was a mistake as soon as it was out of her mouth, "Down puppy. That expression only applies to you because you have the temperament of a hormonal teenager, so you know, moody and unpredictable."
Shrugging off her flippant response, Logan turns back to wait for the table to finish squabbling but after a beat he swivels towards her again, "Don't worry Annoyingest One, you're not really sweet."
"I do believe that's the nicest thing you've ever said to me."
When whiny white boy number three complains for the umpteenth time that his hand should have won, Logan's suggestion to take a break comes as a genuine relief and they both wander over to the makeshift bar.
"Wanna bet how much that guy's parents shelled out to get him into Uni?" Logan wagers once safely hidden behind a beer cup as he points to the reason for their recent flight.
"Oh baby boy, you don't even know the half of it."
At Logan's questioning expression she chuckles, "You sure you really want to lower yourself to hear word on the street? It's dirty down here."
"I'm just studying how the natives communicate, call it academic curiosity."
"Whatever Echolls, you're totally a big gossip," she accuses but capitulates to his puppy dog look. "The kid's parents forked over a small fortune this past fall towards building the new wing for the medical school and to get their son in but the guy's already dropped out, his parents just don't know yet."
"How do you always manage to ferret out info like that?"
"I have my ways."
"So much for that building project," Logan smirks.
"I think it's a bit late to be taking the funds back, besides they'll go towards something that might help a lot of people."
"As if we'd ever let our hard earned money get into the hands of the masses, they'd simply waste it."
"This wouldn't happen to be the same hard earned cash I lifted off your friends tonight?"
Logan's only reply is to take another swig of his beer but the glint in his eyes betrays the fact that he's amused.
Not for the first time, she wonders why Echolls chooses to hang around with this crowd. Since their dubious first meeting a little over four months ago, she's developed an odd sort of competitive camaraderie with the infamous boy and while he still pisses her off a good half the time he's also the first person she's met who can truly match her wit for wit other than her father. Intelligence and brains are not in fact qualities that Logan Echolls lacks. While no one is safe from the sharpness of his tongue, the underhand insults he seems to delight in slugging at his uber-rich peers, make his choice in companions all the more baffling.
"So what's a girl like you doing in a place like this?"
Laughing so hard she almost chokes on her water, "Seriously? You're going with that line?"
Logan's expression turns serious, "well, yes actually. What ARE you doing here?"
"A working girl's got to make a living somehow. Am I not up to the standards of this fine establishment?"
He makes what can best be described as a strangled sound hovering somewhere between amusement and exasperation. "That is not actually what I was referring to. Do you know what these guys are like? "
"Yes, in fact I do."
"Well then what made you think it was a bright idea to climb into the den of the beast on your own?"
At his tone, she bristles, "If they're so bad then what are you doing here?"
Arms crossed over his chest, Logan looks back at her stubbornly, "Uhuh, don't throw the question back at me, that's just immature, I asked first."
She refrains from pointing out that he's the one sounding juvenile, "Look." But Logan seems to have sensed that she was preparing to blow him off because he steamrolls over her. "I don't think you understanding what a fucking bad idea it is to come in here alone, especially looking the way you do."
"Wow, are you serious? Listen," she grits out but the boy's on a roll and cuts her off once more.
Losing patience, she finally grabs his chin with her hand, "Seriously shut up Echolls," before making off to the back of the room.
By the time Logan catches up, she's got a beefy prep kid cornered on the deserted back porch.
"Where did you get it from?"
"I donno?"
"Who gave you the drugs?" She'd seen the exchange of goods going down over Logan's shoulder in the main room.
"Drugs? I had no idea there were drugs in here. I'm telling you - the guy was a complete stranger, just walked up and gave me the bag."
Slipping her Taser out she presses it close to the kid's chest, successfully wiping off the cocky look he'd still been sporting. "What do you take me for, a munchkin? Spill. Now."
"I DON'T KNOW! Just some dude, ok? A friend knew I was looking to score."
"Score? Like unconscious girls?" She presses.
It's only a twitch on the guy's face but it's all the answer she needs.
"Jesus," Logan swears somewhere behind her.
"No ok, no!" the kid almost wails. "It's not what you think. I just got it for some fun, like go to a rave fun."
Controlling her breath she takes a slight step back. This isn't the guy she's after, he's too sloppy, but at some point his mind went to the same dark place as the sick fuck she is looking for. The kid before her may not have gotten around to doing anything other than imagining but damn it, he still went there. Willing her hands not to shake she gets the ass to hand over his wallet and takes down his ID. There isn't much more she can actually do without getting in a shitload of trouble. At least the kid is freaked out enough that he doesn't make a fuss.
Once she wrings out a detailed description of the guy who sold the drugs, unfortunately neither the kid nor his friend who had set up the deal apparently know the name of the supplier, she can't do anything more than let him run off.
As the adrenaline begins to fade she makes a beeline for the porch steps before her legs start to show any signs of the after effects. Other than the one expletive, Logan had been uncharacteristically silent but she hears the porch door close behind him as he makes his way back into the house. She finds that she lacks the energy to deal with that particular problem at the moment.
Taking stock of the situation, it's dawning on her that maybe (yet again) she didn't quite plan this one through as fully as she could have, and here she'd been thinking she was kicking ass in the whole 'personal growth' department. Dr. James would probably have a field day if she were around right now.
Distracted by the fuckery of everything, she doesn't hear Logan coming back so it's the feel of a cold beer against her shoulder that startles her from her thoughts and signals his return.
"I don't," she begins but Logan throws her a bottle opener as he settles down on the top step.
"It's not open," he says, looking fixedly out at the lawn.
"Thanks," she thinks to add as she pops the cap.
"So you're just full of surprises tonight."
"Aren't we all," she replies contemplating the beer in her hands.
"I'm not sure if I should be impressed or yell at you for so recklessly going after a guy four times your size."
She snorts, "That'd be a bit rich coming from you. Besides, isn't everyone bigger than I am?"
"Yeah, I'm not a complete idiot, notice that I'm not actually shouting."
"So what would you call that earlier display?"
It is an odd sight to see a chagrined Logan. He stops and starts twice before settling, "I just witnessed some pretty scary interrogation tactics and am having flashbacks to my misspent youth." Waving an arm in her direction he continues, "Give me a second to catch up, maybe re-evaluate the situation."
"And when was this misspent youth of yours, yesterday?"
Logan does a descent job of glossing over it but she still catches the pained expression that flits across his face. Maybe there was a bit of left over aggression bottled up in that attempt at humour.
"Sorry, that was uncalled for. Chalk it up to the adrenaline."
A wisp of a bitter laugh escapes his lips, "Not entirely undeserved though."
It must be some long lost instinct (because god knows it's not her brain thinking here) that causes her to reach out and squeeze his arm.
From what she's been able to dig up, which is probably too big a term for finding out about someone's past when it's already been minutely documented and picked apart by the press, Logan was a pretty big train wreck throughout his adolescents.
While he can still do a decent job of shrouding himself in spoiled, superficial jackass from time to time, god he's a pain in the ass, she's come to find that the role fits Logan as well as a sweater accidently put in the drier. Whatever evolution the boy is going through, it's not unlike watching the somewhat uncomfortable process of a snake shedding an old skin.
The sound of Echolls voice draws the blonde back to the porch. "So I'm guessing you're not going to tell me what you were actually doing tonight."
Lips pressed together, she shakes her head slightly.
Logan's features go through a complex array of emotions before settling as his eyes come to rest on the hand she belatedly realises she hasn't removed from his arm. "Well then, I think I need to come up with a better name for you. 'Annoying One' just isn't going to cut it."
Quirking an eyebrow at the change of topic, Logan ignores her and pushes on with his train of thought. "Well, let me see . . . hummmm. . . How about 'M'?"
"I don't get to be Bond?" She plays along.
"Nope, M's the one with the real power."
A comfortable silence hovers around the two as Logan finishes his beer and she swirls the remains of hers in figure eights. After a beat she glances over at her neighbour. "You know, I do believe this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship."
"So we weren't friends before?"
As Logan grins back at her she laughs, "Well I guess we are now."