Title: Use Somebody
Word Count: 1,691
Pairings: Logan/ Hannah Griffith, Logan/Veronica
Rating: PG-13 for the language. May change in the future.
Warnings/Spoilers: Goes AU middle of season 2. Takes place just after 2.14 {Versatile Toppings}
Summary: Being alone at lunch is an oddity as of late.
Official Disclaimer: All Veronica Mars characters and plots belong to Rob Thomas and the CW. I do not hold stock either the man or the company. Veronica Mars, Logan Echolls, and any other character featured are NOT mine.
He turned the corner into a supposedly empty hallway and there she was, leaning up against the cool metal of his locker with one hand on the lock. The end of the school day bell rang ten minutes ago and they've got roughly twenty before both of them needed to be in the journalism room for the weekly layout meeting. Logan had been planning on spending that time out in the parking lot with Dick and Beaver, pretending to catch up on the latest school gossip. Or maybe convincing the boys to ride with him down to Cho's and grabbing a ready to order pie. As Veronica smiled at him he realizes that this is just as good.
"Veronica Mars." Her name slides from Logan's lips, and she shifts uncomfortably against the locker. He wants to attribute it to the fact that it always annoys her to be addressed by first and last name. It's more likely due to the fact that he's drawn out all five syllables as though they were separate words. Just like he used to, after Lilly…
It's Logan's turn to shift uncomfortably.
"To what do I owe the pleasure?" His head tilts to match the angle of hers, just as her smirk adjusts to mimic his. If she decides that now's the time to ask him for a favor, he's already figured out that he's a goner.
Thankfully that's not on her agenda.
"I had an interesting lunch buddy today."
Her voice is equal parts sarcasm and sweetness and he finds himself wondering how she manages it. "Oh really?" The locker pops open under her hand, not his and his smirk fades into an amused grin. He's not even going to ask her how she has the combination. "And I wasn't there to see it." His fingers snap together and his face contorts into a classic none too sympathetic face. "Shucks."
"Had you been, I doubt Hannah would have sat down."
His hand lets go of his Econ book and it thuds back down to the bottom of his locker.
There is no way that she could have said what he heard.
No way in Hell.
Peering at her from the side of his locker door, he forces his face back to neutral. "Hannah huh?" He's practiced mild disinterest in the mirror for such an occasion. Not that he ever thought that there would be an occasions in which his new saintly sweet girlfriend would ever need to speak to his ex. Her head nods. "Imagine that."
"Came as a shock to me too." Her head tilts upright again and she pulls her eyes away from his. "Remind me to thank my good buddy Dick for orchestrating it."
His eyebrow quirks and her unspoken message comes around loud and clear.
In many ways they were still the pair that they had always been.
And they had Lilly to thank for that.
The second that the word 'Dick' came out of her mouth he understands. Somehow for reasons that neither can fathom, Dick had nudged Logan's wholesomely pure girlfriend into the oncoming path of Veronica Mars. Well, since Veronica's standing in front of him at the moment, Logan's decided that it's fairly safe for him to assume that Hannah's still breathing somewhere. He's probably going to owe her a gift of some kind at the end of this.
Damn that luck.
"Any particular reason why Dick's being so helpful today?" The aforementioned best friend chose that particular moment to turn the corner, and then promptly back pedaled his way into the hall he had just come from when he sees Logan propped against his locker with Veronica. He was a smart one; for now at least.
Her face was as blank as his. "Apparently she asked him to." There was a beat and then off his look, Veronica frowned too. "Hannah's worried about you."
Confusion.
It was the one emotion that Logan was capable of at the moment.
He hasn't given Hannah any reason that he could think of to suspect something was wrong. Logan back tracked through the past few weeks worth of interactions with Hannah. And there was no logical explanation as to why she would express any concern she had to the nosey pixie in front of him. So why…?
The last part must have come out aloud because she's shaking her head at him. "You're too closed off, antisocial, and emotionally unavailable." Veronica offers, as if that was reason enough. Although for someone who didn't know him it just might be. "Not to mention the fact that she's a little disappointed that she hasn't been introduced to Little Logan yet."
"Her words or yours?"
Okay, so this conversation was not going anywhere near where he thought it would when he walked up to her.
"I'm paraphrasing." There's a twinge of annoyance in Veronica's voice that he honed in on instinctively. She was just as confused as to why Hannah chose to ask her about the changes in his life. Doesn't everyone remember that she was hi s ex? "I didn't have the heart to tell her that you're an inconsiderate commitment-phobe who's only using her to get to her lying drug dealer father, and that you're not taking her back to your love den because you've probably got Kendall handcuffed to the bed."
"And they say a person can't do bitter well." He made another try for the government book and practically shoved the offending object into his bag.
According to his watch he's got ten minutes.
"It's called honesty."
He can tell before he does it that his shrug gets to her. "Potato, potahto." He tells her flippantly. "So what, pray tell, did you say to my girlfriend?"
Her features soften, maybe just a little too much. "I told her that I'm only sure it's just another one of your moods and that everything's fine." There's sympathy in her voice and Logan has to take a second to wonder whether it was for Hannah, or himself. "Then she made me promise to talk to you."
The seconds over.
And now he was unsure if the glare he's sending her way was as menacing as he hoped it was. "She what?"
"Pretty much my response too." Veronica smiles then, and runs a hand through her hair. Logan's jaw twitched when he followed its path. He used to do that. She used to let him.
Then again he used to do a lot of things.
Logan's brain was still trying to get over the familiarity of the conversation. It was almost as if the last few months had never happened and the two of them were friends again. He wasn't sure if he liked this new arrangement.
Her lips are moving again, and he can't force himself to care about the fact that he wasn't paying attention. Nothing she's saying makes any sense to him until she says one word, and then she's watching him expectantly. She wants him to say something, but he can't figure out what that something is.
She's noticed that she's lost him somewhere, thankful that he seems a little too caught up in his own inner monologue to find it in himself to be angry with her. "Who's writing you?" She asks again, her eyes peering into his so she knows that he heard her. He takes a step backward and she slams his locker closed for him.
"I'm not talking to you about this." Logan turned and took a few steps toward the journalism room, noting that Veronica was hot on his heels. He could have sworn that Hannah had given up on the issue with his mail. It was only one letter, and she seemed to have forgotten before he dropped her off at home. Apparently not. "Just tell my girlfriend that you talked to me and I'll try to be better."
Her hand shoots out before she can stop herself, wrapping around his bicep and pulling him to a stop. If he wanted, he could break her grip and both of them knew it. "I'm not planning on telling Hannah anything." She said after a quick second, forcing herself to remain calm. "She's worried about you, and as much as I hate to tell you this right now, I'm worried about you too." When her eyes softened Logan pulled his arm out of her grasp. "You can talk to me Logan."
"I'm fine." He told her smoothly, running his middle and ring finger over his lips.
His entire body screams not fine loud and clear, but Veronica knows that she can't get anywhere with Logan that he doesn't want to take her. The most she can hope for it for him to know that she'll do her best to understand if he needs her help and then back off. Two things that she's been told by Wallace that she's getting better at.
"Of course you are." She almost taunts, forcing a civil tongue and a hand through her hair. "But in case you're not, I happen to know a good set of ears that knows a little something about not being fine." She rubs his arm and smiles when he doesn't flinch away from her touch.
He studies her face, more to find out if she's done probing and less to do with the fact that this has been the most open that he's seen her since Duncan fled town with his secret love-child. "I'm good." He says again, turning slightly to head to the journalism room and waiting for her to catch up. "Now what do I do with Dick?" He asked the hall off-handedly, more to himself then to anyone else.
"I could always taser him." Veronica added helpfully, gripping the strap to her messenger bag with both hands to keep from touching him again. She's always had the instinct to comfort him. Even when he's pretending that he's not hurting.
He smiles as he imagines it, and then opens the journalism door for her. "I'm not ruling it out." Allowing her to enter before him, he drops his book bag onto his desk.