Based on yet another prompt, Veronica & keith lie to me. The prompt brought me to the episode lie to me in season 2 of Buffy. Quotes in italics are from that episode.

Don't own Veronica Mars nor Buffy the Vampire slayer.

'Nothing's ever simple anymore. I'm constantly trying to work it out. Who to love or hate. Who to trust. It's just, like, the more I know, the more confused I get.'

'I believed that's called growing up'

'I'd like to stop then, okay?'

He remembers a time when it was easier, simple somehow.

Every parents lies to their children, at some point in their lives, mostly when they are young. But back then, somehow, it's still okay. It doesn't make much sense, but nothing in life does, and really it shouldn't make sense; somehow ( in his mind at least ) it makes sense, maybe it's just because they all do it. They're not exactly lies, more like an attempt to protect small children from the horrors of the real world. An attempt to keep them innocent and naive for as long as they possibly can. The lies they tell are eventually exposed, yet no child says anything about it, not really.

Because back then it's still somewhat okay.

Mostly it comes out in the form of stories, fairytales mostly, in which good always ( no matter what ) won over evil. Stories of princes that saved princesses, stories of magic. It was the time he sat next to his daughter, reading her one of those stories, that eventually always led to the same place. A happy ending. And she had looked at him then, with big innocent eyes ( like only little children could) and had asked him if fairytales came true. And he had told her then ( part of him believed it ) that they did come true, that someday she would find a prince that loved her and would save her from the dangers.

He had looked at her and told her she was his little princess.

The stories fade over time, the lies do as well.

All children eventually grow up, so does his little girl, despite the fact he doesn't want her to. No father wants to watch his little innocent princess to grow up and become a women. Especially not one that attracts the attention of guy's, though he knows this would happen. Still Duncan isn't really that bad, and he would never hurt his daughter, especially not after Keith half scared him to death. But he believed his daughter deserved somebody that loved her for who she was, and Duncan was ( at that time in his life) that person.

But live was not a fairytale, and some people simply don't get a happy ending.

It was truth, he knew, because in stories the prince and princess never turned out to be related, they always got their happily ever after. He found Veronica crying in her bed, unable to understand what had happened with Duncan. He couldn't bring himself to hate Duncan, though he does hate Jake and Leanne, at least in that moment. He holds his little girl as she cries, promising her everything will be okay, that this would pass.

He held her in his arms and he lied, and she still believed him at that point.

Maybe it was still easy at this point as well.

Then Lilly dies, and the world goes to hell.

Nothing is ever the same again after that, not that he ever expected it would be. He promised her he would find out who killed her best friend (lie), that everything would be alright (lie), that somehow he would fix things (lie). She hadn't called him on his lies, maybe because she didn't have the energy, but he suspected that a big part of Veronica wanted to believe everything he said. Sometimes she sits there looking at him (almost as if she's going to ask something) and he can see the pain in her eyes.

He swears in those moments he hears her scream to him, Lie to me, Lie to me, Lie to me.

And lie he does.

Time eventually does move on, as everyone knew it would.

Somewhere along the way the lies became a part of their live. Still he'll never be able to forget the die he found out his daughter lied to him. Lied to him about what was going on in school, and he wanted to scream at her. Tell her that lying was wrong, that she should have told him everything she was going trough; except that a small voice in his head kept calling him a hypocrite. So he doesn't say anything, doesn't even tell her he knows she lied. He simply let her lie to him, and he kept lying to her as well.

Somehow the lies became a part of them.

Then she cuts her hair, and never tells him the truth again. She doesn't look into his eyes, and he sees the symptoms, but he doesn't want to know. So he lies to himself and ignores the signs, and somehow he knows that's probably the worst thing he has ever done.

'Does it ever get easy?'

'You mean life?'

It seems like someone up their hates them, because live only becomes harder.

The lies begin to grow between them, and Keith thinks later (many years later) that he'll never truly know his daughter again. But then again, he thinks, which parent does know their children? He can see how much all of the gossip hurts his little girl, even though she hides it behind the hardened look. He knows because sometimes he hears her cry in her room, holding onto the stuff Lilly had once given her, sometimes she screams Lilly's name in her dreams (nightmares really).

He never goes into her room to comfort her.

Mainly because he knows she doesn't want him to, she doesn't want him to know. But also because he knows it's his fault, it's all his fault in the end. It's his fault she has to hide beneath the though Veronica, and cry out her sorrows alone in her room. His fault her friends turned away from her, his fault she lost it all. Because if he had never accused Jake Kane, Veronica would at least have had her other friends, she wouldn't be going trough her grieve on her own.

So he doesn't go to comfort her, he tells himself she doesn't need him.

Lies.

'Yeah. Does it ever get easy?'

'What do you want me to say?'

'Lie to me.

She leans on him, even though he doesn't think she should.

Despite everything she still loves him, still trusts him, and he wonders why she does. He would have never held it against her if she sided with the Kane's. After all Lilly was her best friend, and she had spend so much time in their house, she must have known Jake as well. But Keith knew things about Jake (and Leanne) that Veronica didn't, and he never wants her to know either. She doesn't need to know she gave it all up, for a man who might not even be her father.

Even after all of that, he can sometimes see it in her eyes.

She asks questions about Lilly, she asks questions about her mom. And Keith knows, he does, that she deserves to know all the answers to those questions. He knows she needs the answers, but he doesn't want her to find out. And yet sometimes he can see it in her eyes, when she asks him questions. There are things out there she doesn't want to know, things she doesn't want to hear. Sometimes she asks him questions, about things he should know something about.

But he swears he hears her scream, Lie to me, Lie to me, Lie to me.

So lie he does.

'Yes it's terribly simple. The good guys are always stalwart and true, the bad guys are easily distinguished by their pointy horns and black hats, and, uh, we always defeat them and save the day. No one ever dies, and everyone lives happily ever after.'

Sometimes he wishes he could go back in time.

Turn the clock around and go back to when she was still that innocent little girl. Back to the time when the fairytales where still important, when they were still real. That time when she still believed in magic, when the lies where not yet lies, back in the time when the lies where still the truth. Back in the days when she could still look at him with big innocent eyes, like only little girls can, and ask him questions about happy endings. Back then, when everything he said was still possible, back when it was still the truth.

To the time when he did not lie, not really, to the time she didn't ask him to.

Back to the time it was still easy.

'Liar.'