SWING LOW SWEET CHARIOT, chapter two by AliLamba
notes So you have probably guessed by now that this fic is a big take on Ain't No Magic Mountain High Enough. We were talking on tumblr about how awesome it would've been to see Logan turning his nuclear charm on Veronica in that episode, hence, all this. Fingers crossed it worked half as well as the plot bunny on crack in my mind.
It takes another few steps for Veronica to shake off the strange feelings of confusion she'd had back in front of her booth, and few more to reclaim feelings of righteous indignation.
"Why do I feel like I've just been bought and sold," she gripes, and Logan chuckles softly. It seems unlike him to sound so light-hearted, but when Veronica looks up at his face, the affection seems natural. Again she gets this unnerving feeling, but she comes to the conclusion that Logan is playing her, pretending to be all affable and loving, because he wants to win a bet. And she has to let him try.
Veronica pushes off of him so she can walk on her own, and pulls her shoulder bag more securely against her body.
"This is going to be a long three hours for you, buddy," she warns. They're passing some of the bigger booths, the kind that requires upright walls. She knows this because Logan suddenly pushes her in-between two of them, pulling them out of the direct stream of fair-goers so he can trap her body in an enclosed space.
He takes one soft look at her eyes, and Veronica's heart starts beating faster. He looks down at her lips, and Veronica feels warmth pool in her cheeks. He's going to kiss me again.
He waits only a second, and then Logan tips his head forward, eyes downcast, so there's no missed intentions.
"Logan—" Veronica says, and she is so proud of herself for being able to say it. "Stop," she adds, because she can. She turns her head away, and takes a deep mouthful of air.
"You're going to have to try a hell of a lot harder than that," she says, sounding more like herself and not like some breathy idiot swept up in a kiss. There isn't enough room in their small alley for a tuba player, let alone two people being inconsistently amorous.
Logan's voice is quiet, for her ears only. "Then let me."
She turns and glares at him. Her cheeks are still pink from their close contact. "No, I'm talking rohypnol harder." Veronica slides sideways, away from Logan's body, finding her way back to the crowds. Logan follows her. She talks over her shoulder, confident he's no more than a few feet behind. "From what I understand I am under no obligation to kiss you anymore. My only obligation for the next…" she checks her watch. "Two hours and fifty-one minutes is to be within the vicinity of you. And I'm pretty sure I even have a book in here," she says, patting her shoulder bag. "And I think it's a good one. You have your work cut out for you."
Logan ducks into her way, and starts walking backward so they can still converse face to face. "Ah, a challenge," he says. How he manages to act cocky and avoid walking into other people she'll never know, but it makes her nervous, so she stops walking to hear what he has to say. "I believe it's my obligation for the next two hours and fifty-one minutes to get you to want to kiss me, Miss Veronica Mars. And I do believe that there was a time you found me very persuasive."
Veronica rolls her eyes, and starts walking around him, so he can fall in at her elbow. "Yeah right. You had it easy back then."
Logan grins. "So I did. And maybe you never got to see me try. Most girls find me irresistible, I hate to say."
Veronica snorts. "Right. You just have to swat them away with a stick, don't you."
Logan steps in front of her again, making her stop short and look up at him. He's staring down his nose and into her eyes. His eyes are darker somehow, pleading with her to look and identify their color. And without better judgment, she does. They're a curious shade of warm brown, almost like molten milk chocolate, but with flecks of amber and green. Veronica notices the shape of his lips too, the tiny indent below his nose, and her breath stills in her throat.
"So," Veronica says, and her voice is raspy all of a sudden, as if she's legitimately almost breathless. "So this is you trying?"
Logan's gaze travels to her lips again, and Veronica feels a tiny rush sing through her veins.
It's true. Some people call her a marshmallow. But even marshmallows have strength before they melt in fire, and it is something akin to this strength that Veronica pulls on now.
"You'll have to try harder then."
She sidesteps Logan's imposing frame and continues to walk blindly through the crowd of attendants, trying to stamp down a flame that is licking at her cheeks.
"Oh, Veronica," Logan sighs, catching up to her. She doesn't look at him. They're silent for a moment, both lost with their own thoughts. Veronica's thoughts are something like You idiot you idiot you idiot you idiot.
"You know, actually…I believe I'm remembering a conversation we once had."
Her curiosity is piqued enough to raise an eyebrow in his direction.
"I believe it was once requested that I procure a teddy bear won, out of skill, at an event not dissimilar to this. In fact," Logan walks to the nearest booth, and points up at a fluffy stuffed animal the size of his head. "I do believe this is a teddy bear."
Veronica tries to frown at him. "That's a bunny."
"Is it?" Logan turns his head and finds the bunny's long ears. "Ah, alas, it is. Does this still count should I earn it with my macho manly skills against rigged carnival games?"
Veronica can't help it.
Really, she can't help the way her mouth grins in spite of him, in spite of herself and all her feelings of self-righteousness. Logan has triggered a good memory, from long ago, and if there's anything tonight she'll indulge him in, it's this.
The game involves some sort of floppy frog catapulted onto a rotating lily pad. Veronica looks at the girls standing around the inside of the booth, and notices from their tiny tight t-shirts that they're all from the school track team. They look it, all tall and willowy and…definitely pretty.
Despite the fact that this isn't a date, and that Logan is a man with an agenda, she checks to see if he's noticing them too. Call it a girl thing, but she wants to know how far he's willing to take this charade. Logan hands a few bucks to the nearest tall girl, offers her a wan smile, and then offers Veronica the nearest mallet.
She looks at him placidly. "I believe I said I wanted my bear won?"
Logan rolls his eyes quickly and smirks. "Right."
He examines his task, lifts the mallet and thunks it down on his catapult. The rubber froggy bounces into the space between the booth and the pond, missing entirely. Veronica rolls her eyes. "Someone clearly never paid any attention in physics class," she chides.
Logan frowns in a way that lets her know he's a little abashed. "Yeah well I have a tattoo of Newton's second law right over my heart."
Veronica purses her lips. "You know I know that's not true."
Logan's surprised and impressed raised eyebrows, combined with the track girls' giggles, let Veronica know she's revealed something inappropriately intimate. Her cheeks warm.
She ignores the mallet Logan is trying to offer her again, and picks up the next rubber frog instead. She folds it, and puts it on the catapult just so. Veronica glances at the track girls, and see them murmuring to themselves, glancing in Logan's direction. "Try again," she says, backing away. Logan raises an eyebrow at her, pursing his lips as he concentrates on the game, and again thunks his hammer down.
This time the frog flies directly into the pond, tapping the edge of a lily pad before rolling into the surrounding water.
"Ahh, that counts as a win in my book," one of the girls inside the booth says, drawing Logan and Veronica's attention. The willowy girl points to the stuffed toys above her head. "Frog or bunny?" she offers.
Veronica looks at Logan from the corner of her eye. Logan catches her looking. "I think we're into bears these days," he says, his eyes twinkling. The girl looks confused for a second, on the verge of repeating something like Oh we only have frogs and bunnies, before Logan gestures vaguely at a rabbit. The girl grabs the first one she sees and offers it to Logan, who takes it, and offers it to Veronica.
Veronica examines the bunny closely, slides her glance to Logan, and then starts walking away. Logan follows suit, standing a little closer than a friend would. Veronica notices.
"I'm not sure that counts as a win," she says, a clear challenge to her voice.
She hears Logan laugh softly again. "Uh, I think the bunny would have to disagree."
"The bunny had help," she points out.
Logan sighs, stops walking, and offers the stuffed rabbit to the first child who walks past him. It's a predictable gesture for a man on a date, but it still works. There's a reason guys still do it. Veronica stops walking to see the way the child's mother smiles approvingly at Logan, and Veronica scoffs under her breath.
"You hungry?" Logan asks, and for irrational reasons her belly tightens. It must be the way he says it in his low, non-mocking tone of voice, or in the way he's asking about her needs. He walks up to her, so their toes stick out at each other, not touching. "I could buy you dinner."
"Dinner?" Veronica echoes. "You realize we're at a school fair, right."
Logan grins, because a date would not have a retort of something snarky, and would let her be the one to snark. So he slips a hand to the small of her back, and guides her gently toward the cotton candy machine, and buys her a ball of pink candy floss as big as a balloon. And when Veronica pulls a piece off and puts it in her mouth, Logan watches her lips chew, knowing the sugar is dissolving on her tongue just so, clear thoughts about sweetness on his mind. She puts the cotton candy aside.
"Hey!" she snaps her fingers at him for emphasis with her free hand. "Cut it out!"
Logan looks purposefully at her lips again in a way that she notices. He leans in a shoulder as if accidentally bringing their bodies closer, and she hates that she instinctively prepares to be kissed. "Cut what out?"
"See that, that right there. Not okay Echolls. Stop it."
His gaze travels to her eyes, and Veronica lets out a breath of relief.
"Why would I want to stop?"
The panic jumps right back in as if she'd left the door open. Veronica's throat feels dry, and she knows she must look the very embodiment of prey in Logan's eyes.
This is going to be a very long night. Logan pulls a strand of candy floss off the side of the ball of fluff and sticks it in his mouth, watching her watch him chew. Veronica knows she has to change the tone of their conversation.
"So this is something you do then? You're well practiced in the art of getting reluctant girls to kiss you?"
Logan smirks. "Why, are you interested?"
A flush creeps through her cheeks. She turns her head away. "No."
Logan steals another piece of her cotton candy.
"Well, the first thing you gotta do," he says, and he starts walking again, inviting her to follow, "is get one away from the herd." He pauses to take a very subtle mock bow. "Which I believe I have achieved, magnificently."
Veronica rolls her eyes with gusto now. "Oh yes, magnificently. It only took one brawl, five hundred dollars, and a bet."
He tilts his head to look at her, and a small smile plays across his lips. "You're here now, aren't you?" he asks, and it shuts Veronica up. She's getting a bit confused now. Did he pull the stunt because of her, or because of Duncan? Five minutes ago she was sure the answer was Duncan, but now she's losing focus. Veronica shakes her head to clear it. No, Logan had made a clear bet right in front of her. This is about winning against Duncan, that's all. Nothing to do with her.
"Alright, you're still bear-less," Logan says, and again it's with that low tone of voice that makes her lean closer without realizing it. "Let's try the ring toss."
He leads them over to a different booth, and Veronica finishes her cotton candy while watching Logan win her a bear by tossing five inch rings over the neck of empty old-fashioned cola bottles. She thinks he must have chosen this task on purpose, because he's good at it, and because she has to watch him closely. She decides it could have been worse; he could have shown off on the high striker.
"Cheater," she accuses, softly, throwing away the paper cone that came with the cotton candy, sliding her fingers together because they're sticky.
"Excuse-moi?" he asks, offering her the bear.
"It's not fair if you choose something you're good at already."
Logan looks at the bear as if it will converse with him. "Veronica, a bear is a bear is a bear."
She pulls a finger into her mouth, trying to lick off the remnants of sticky sugar. Logan watches her, and Veronica rolls her eyes and looks away. She talks around her hand. "Sticky," she explains, redundantly. She's half looking for a bathroom when Logan picks up her remaining hand. And because she knows what he's going to do she instinctually tries to pull her hand back, but Logan holds her still, and suddenly he's got two of her fingers inside his own mouth.
The fingers in the pocket of her own cheek drop from her open jaw, and she stares unabashedly as Logan sucks her fingers clean.
He's being careful and meticulous, and it is doing really inappropriate things to her to let him.
Holy crap runs through her head like a mantra. About the fifth time she says it she's able to rip her hand away, cradling it to her chest as she forces herself to glare at him over the sounds of her beating heart.
Logan doesn't look up right away, wiping the corner of his mouth as if there's some amount of gritty sugar still lingering. When he meets her eyes, his are smoldering. "Sweet," he says, and Veronica's stomach flips over ungraciously.
"I need to wash my hands," she announces, and she turns abruptly to flee to the nearest restroom.
