Chapter 2: Pencil you in

"I knew it," chuckled Logan.

"You knew what?" came Rory's voice a second later over the phone.

"That you went to campus hours ahead of your first class," Logan answered smiling.

A slight pause. "Who says I'm on campus?"

Logan snorted. "Please, Ace. It's the first day of your last year at college. Most likely even the first day of your very last school year at all. Of course you're already at campus. Besides, it halls, Ace, so don't try to deny it."

Silence.

He grinned, but decided to let it be at that. "So tell me: in which room have you settled down for your 'new school year ritual'?"

She sighed, defeated. "Auburn Hall. I've got English Literature as my first course."

"Ah, lucky you," he reminisced. "The best and most beautiful hall on the entire campus for the start of your last year. How'd you managed that?"

"By buying off Mrs. Jolter with coffee and muffins from Luke's when she made the schedule," Rory answered back with smile in her voice.

Logan did a double take, unsure if she was telling the truth or pulling his leg. The first thought was ridiculous, but so was the last one. "Serious?"

"Wouldn't you want to know?" she teased, definitely grinning, he was sure of that.

"Come on, Ace!" he pleaded.

But instead, she changed topic. "How's business life?"

He grimaced. "It's ok. Boring. But not so bad as I've feared. I'd just wished this job wasn't thousands miles away from home."

She sighed. "That makes two of us." She was silent for a moment, then she chuckled. "This hall bears quite some memories. Somehow, you're starring in most of them."

Logan raised an eyebrow and leaned back in his chair to enjoy the memories of the good old days. He grinned dirtily. "I better be. I bet you never had better classroom sex than that time when we broke into Auburn Hall and had a little fun on Bell's beloved Victorian desk."

"You mean the time you broke into the classroom," Rory corrected him. "I still don't know how you ever convinced me to go along with your crazy plan. If they'd have caught us..."

"But they didn't, did they?" Logan pointed out.

"Just dumb luck," muttered Rory.

"Not exactly," grinned Logan.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked, most definitely frowning.

His grin widened. "Wouldn't you want to know?"

"Hey! That's not fair!" she protested.

"Sorry, Ace. I love you, but it's still quid pro quo in this world, Babe," Logan replied smugly.

He imagined her eyes slightly narrowing. "You can be glad that you're in London right now, mister. Or you would so pay for that comment," she told him dryly.

His smile deepened. "Why? For me saying that I love you or for me being so generous to let you benefit from my great wisdom and teaching you yet another lesson of life?"

"I wish I could still deny you sex," she growled and he laughed out loud.

God, he missed her, missed to simply be with her.

"You know what? I wished you could still do that too," he sighed ruefully. He sure did. Two and a half months since he had last seen her. Two and a half long months since the last time he had made love to her. Oh yeah, he wished he was still back home and able to have sex with her on a regular basis.

"I miss you," she said quietly.

He nodded. "I miss you too," he said as quietly.

Across the ocean, Rory breathed deeply, and then continued more cheerfully. "Well, you know, talking about memories? Remember that time when you jerk busted my class with that ridiculous prank, you and the stooges staged here."

"Please, Ace, that was anything but ridiculous. It was marvelous!" Logan corrected her, offended.

"Oh, so Colin bursting in here pleading that I take him back, and then you following him declaring you and I belong together and you starting a fight with Colin, and then, Finn, wearing a ridiculous costume, joining you idiots to supposedly breakup the fight is marvelous? Hmm, I should check up that word in the dictionary. I must have gotten it all wrong my whole life," she replied sarcastically.

"Yeah, you should do that. Clearly you got it all wrong," Logan agreed with a grin.

"Come on. Even you've got to admit that that one hadn't been one of your brightest ideas!" The tone she used told him that she must have rolled her eyes.

"Au contraire, Ace, it's been definitely my best idea ever," Logan contradicted her.

She snorted. "Yeah, right."

"Oh yeah, it was," he once again contradicted her, nodding. "After all, that way I made sure that all the other guys on campus knew to keep their hands off you because you were mine. And I told the truth back then. We do belong together, don't we?"

Again, there was a brief moment of silence. Logan hoped that was because he had rendered her speechless rather than that she counted to ten before she gave him hell for his macho routine. But it was the truth.

"I'll let you pass the macho bullshit this time," she finally answered dryly. "And yeah, I like to think that we actually do," she added more seriously, making Logan's heart beat faster. "Though, I have no idea how that ever happened."

"Yeah, who would imagine me and a bookworm who is an honest, hardworking girl? Finn and Colin are still laughing their heads off," Logan smiled.

"Or me and an arrogant, obnoxious, spoiled, rich, privileged, irresponsible guy who believes he owns the world and everything has to go his way and who lives to party," she answered back, but she smiled as well.

"And yet we are a good match, we complete each other," he pointed out.

"Apparently so. Guess, differences really attract each other," she agreed.

"Or we just have the right mixture between being alike and being different to mesmerize and fascinate each other," Logan mused. "After all, we both love literature, are intelligent, interested in the news world, are both exceptionally good looking, we both love sarcasm and most importantly, we've got fantastic sex going on for us."

"Of course the sex is the most important thing," she replied sarcastically.

"You bet it is," he nodded vehemently. "Well, it's good that we can talk as well," he relented after a moment.

Probably, their verbal interaction, their banter was even more important. He had had great sex before meeting his Ace. But he never had met a girl who didn't bore him within a few weeks maximum and that had definitely more to do with her wit and intelligence than with her beauty. And that was probably why sex with her was so mind blowing. Not that he was ever going to admit that out loud. No, he would never admit that, not in front of guys, especially not in front of Finn or Colin. He had been teased enough already about how whipped he was by his Ace. Not that he minded it much. He loved being with Rory. And his friends had yet to have a relationship that lasted longer than a couple of weeks with someone. If they ever did, they would see the reason why he was so relaxed being in a serious relationship that was heading fast forward to 'forever until death do us apart'. Still, he was a guy after all.

"Glad to hear," she said, then hesitated. "Speaking of that, don't you have a meeting to attend or something?"

He raised an eyebrow, thrown off by that comment. "Do I bore you?"

"No, not at all, of course not, it's just..." she hastily denied.

"It's just what, Rory?" he asked, frowning.

But she just ignored it. "Nothing, really."

His frown deepened. "Rory, do we really always have to have this conversation? That's just a waste of time. Now tell me."

She sighed deeply. "Well, it's just that usually you don't have much time to talk unless you call from your apartment, just a quick call between meetings here or there. It's too early for you to already be home and you're calling from your office, I can see that. I'm just surprised you haven't had to rush somewhere yet."

It was Logan's turn to be quiet for a moment, his frown deepening even further, trying to remember his calls with his Ace. He guessed she was right. His day usually was very packed, he had seen to that. The more work he had to do, the less he missed his Ace, almost forgetting that he couldn't go home to Rory because she was an ocean away. Also he figured that the better he showed that he could work and be responsible when he wanted to, the bigger were his chances that his father would see that and let him come back home, home to Rory. Plus, that way he didn't have to think all the time about not being able to have sex at the moment. He really liked having sex. Especially, when it was actually making love to his Ace. And he had to admit that while it had been okay so far, it really got hard lately to be abstinent. He hadn't gone that long without sex since... well, since he had had his first time not quite ten years ago. It wasn't easy to suddenly go dry in that aspect.

He sighed. "Sorry, Ace. I guess I really don't have that much time, usually."

"You don't have to be sorry, Logan. You've got work to do, I understand," she replied though. "Besides, now that school started again, I won't have that much time either."

He grimaced. Yeah, knowing his Ace, that was definite. And seeing as he was five hours ahead, by the time he could leave the office to go home and have time to speak with her, she would probably be right in the thick of things. Perhaps he needed to calculate time to call her first thing in the morning from now on, though that again was a little bit late for his Ace. Still the best solution though.

God, he hated this distance between them.

Again, he sighed. "I will really try to call you as often as I can, but I do have a lot to do. It's better to bury myself in work than to have too much time to miss you and dwell on the fact that I can't be with you," he admitted, honestly. But she needed to know this.

"I know that feeling," answered Rory, sighing deeply.

"The only reason why I can talk this long now is because I penciled you in my calendar," he explained finally and had to chuckle at that. "I knew you would go to campus ahead of time, being all alone in some room or lecture hall with a lot of spare time to talk."

She chuckled as well. "Really? You penciled me in?"

"You bet I did," he nodded.

"Hmm, that's an idea. Perhaps, I should pencil you in my schedule as well," she replied.

"That would be awfully nice of you, Ace," he nodded, rolling his eyes.

He could hear the rustling of paper, and then she spoke again. "Okay, so how about this? I'll call you around one pm everyday, you should be finished by that time, right? And I usually have lunch break then, except for Mondays, when we have staff meetings before publication at the Yale Daily News."

"You're serious," he realized, his eyes widening. He hadn't meant it quite like that.

"Of course I am. You know me. I need my lists and schedules. So, back to our plan… are you usually up at five am?" she wanted to know.

"Yeah," he answered shortly. Lately that was more or less the time he got up for an early start in the office.

"Good, then why don't you call me around then? It would be midnight, a bit late, but then, I seldom go to bed earlier than that anyway, so I'm sure we can make some time for our call then as well," she suggested. When Logan didn't answer immediately, she spoke again, a bit unsure. "Logan?"

"I don't know, Ace, don't you think that's a bit too much?" he finally voiced his concerns.

But she didn't catch on. "What do you mean?"

He sighed. "This scheduling for our calls… I can't help but think that planning when to have our phone conversations will be a bit boring in time."

"Oh..." She was silent, probably thinking. "Perhaps, but Logan, we're both busy, plus we have those five-hour time difference. I've seen it with Mom in my first year at college. We didn't plan at all and we ended up in missing each other's phone calls, leaving tons of voice messages, and not see each other for weeks. There's no way we can see each other until Christmas and I don't want to risk missing our calls as well," she reasoned. "I know you don't like too strict schedules, and I didn't say we can't phone each other outside the appointed time, but at least this way we'll have two times a day when we know we can have at least some contact with each other."

Turning his eyes to his window, he thought over what Rory had said. Hearing it that way…

"I need those calls, Logan," Rory continued, her voice soft. "They're the only thing making this whole mess bearable."

The longing in her voice got to Logan more than her gentle pleading. Suddenly, he had to fight the urge to damn it all to hell and just jump into the next plane home to her. Shit. This really sucked.

"I know, Rory. It's not as if I want to or can go without our calls either," he replied quietly. "And I guess you're right, we should make sure we'll have time for them every day, so let's try it with that schedule."

"Thanks, Logan," she said, obviously relieved.

Thinking, he sat up and turned towards his computer, opened up his calendar and started to click and tap. "And in that case, I'd like you to send me your schedule for this semester, Ace, so I can see when I have a chance to reach you for a quick chat, okay?" He tapped a little more, and then saved the adjustment he had just made. "As for you, I've just given you access to my calendar, so you can see my schedule as well. I always keep it up to date. This way, we can make sure that we have included each other in our schedules under the circumstances, don't you think so as well?"

She laughed. "Yeah, pretty much. Good idea by the way. I'll email you my schedule as soon as I can."

"You do that," he nodded. "Oh, and Ace?"

"Hmm?"

"You do know that you can reach me any time, don't you?" he asked, seriously. "No matter I'm doing, even if I'M in a meeting, I always have my private cell phone with me, the number of which is only known to you, Honor, Finn and Colin. And my staff knows that your calls have to be put through immediately."

"I know, but I don't want to interrupt anything important," she replied. "And, really? You've got a private phone just for us?"

Logan shrugged. "I had to get a new one for business, now that I'm here in UK. But I kept the old one and told everyone else the new number, so this way, I have my own personal red phone now."

"Smooth," she commented dryly. "What about your parents? They only know the new one as well?"

"Please..." he answered, offended.

"Right, sorry. Gotta say, Huntzberger, I like the thought of having my very own private number to reach you," she told him with a definite smile in her voice.

"Yeah, it's a bit Bond like, don't you think?" he smirked.

"Absolutely. Now all that's missing is a watch that got GPS on me," she agreed.

His eyes lit up. "Hmm, now that you mention it..."

"Don't you dare, Logan!" she threatened.

"But you'd get one with GPS on me as well, promise!" he reasoned with her, his smirk widening.

"Logan..."

"Just kidding, Ace," he finally gave up, grinning. "Though it's not that bad an idea."

"Bye, Logan," she said briskly.

"Hey! No need to hang up on me now!" he protested.

"Well, I can see that you're lost in your typical wet dream about gadgets and it will take a while for you to come out of that. Besides, I'm no longer alone. Two other students have just arrived to settle themselves down a bit earlier," she simply answered.

"I'm not lost in gadgets dream," he denied. "Let alone wet ones. My wet ones are solely reserved for you, Ace."

"Uh, yeah, right," she replied in a hushed voice and he just knew she was blushing. He grinned. Several thousand miles away and he could still make her blush. Good. "I really should hang up now. Bye, Logan. I'll call you later. And thanks. I love you."

He wasn't quite ready to let her go yet, but he knew better than to protest. Besides, the warm feeling in his heart would last for a while. "I love you too. Bye, Ace. Show them, baby."

Laughing, she ended the call. With a sigh he put down his phone, couldn't help but smile happily though. They may be separated by distance, but he was sure that together they would struggle and fight against whatever that will separate them in other ways.

After all, they belonged together.

TBC!

(Author's Note: So, as you can see, it's once again solely Logan's POV. And big part of the story will be their phone calls. But don't worry. There will be a chapter here and there where there's more than phone calls. Hope you like it, so far. Chapter 3 follows soon.)