Brain-Dead
He's not sure exactly how Logan convinced Veronica to go on a hike but he has a pretty good feeling that he owes him one.
"Oh great." Mac grumbles sitting down heavily in one of the folding chairs across from him.
He grabs a beer from the cooler and holds it out for her.
She looks at him out of the corner of her eyes but takes the beer from him, he's never seen anyone that meticulous about not touching him. It's like she's afraid that something will happen if she touches him. And honestly he's not so sure that it wouldn't. It's some weird body chemistry thing. He just feels something when she touches him.
He sits down beside her.
She moves to the other side of the fire. Keeping the pit of smoldering ash between them. Like he wouldn't walk through fire for her.
He stands and moves to sit next to her again.
If Logan and Ronnie were here she wouldn't be able to avoid him so obviously and its kinda funny and cute.
Hurtful too.
She moves to get out of her chair but he grabs her arm and pulls her back into the chair.
"Next time you move I'm sitting in your lap." There's a lot less humour in his voice than he had intended. It makes the words oddly stern.
He didn't know he could even sound stern.
Apparently neither did she because she's surprised enough to sit back down and actually look at him. He memorizes the feel of her skin slipping from his fingers. Something he's more familiar with than he'd like.
Her eyes deep, scared, blue.
What the hell is she so afraid of?
She can't possibly think he'd force anything. If he was going to he would have by now.
She pulls her eyes away from him and he watches them drag down across his body and he just wants to touch her.
They drink their beers in that weird not silence of the outdoors. She starts the fire back up. He doesn't really get the joy of camping. He wasn't really about forests.
Water.
He understood the appeal of water, oceans and seas the churning deep mystery of it. The loss of control, the beautiful chaos of it.
This he didn't get. Logan seemed to get it and Mac got it.
God he'd never seen her quite like this. So comfortable in her skin. So at one with everything.
Calm.
She sighs heavily and drains her beer before she stands up. She stretches out arms above her head, chest out.
He can barely see the curve of her body under the sweater but her shorts are thankfully short and he's amazed at the amount of leg that such a short girl can accomplish.
He reaches out to touch her, to graze his fingers across her leg.
Before he can make contact she steps away and he could swear that she waited just long enough for him to think something might happen.
Tease.
Mac? Since when? She was one of the most straight forward girls he'd ever met. He could remember the nervous honesty in her voice, overheard walking by his brother's room.
Maybe they just had shit timing.
He watches her move across the camp towards the tent and he's sure she's going to hide from him.
He wouldn't suggest hiding from him there. The zipper didn't exactly lock...at least he didn't think it did and he was totally cool with spending the rest of the afternoon just laying with her talking about nothing.
They didn't even have to make out... although bonus.
She got down on all fours and he was sure his heart stopped.
God bless the creator of short shorts.
She's rummaging around in a bag just inside of the tent.
"What are you doing?" He asks and she looks over her shoulder at him, "besides trying to kill me."
"Kill you?" She asks like she honestly doesn't know what he's talking about.
"If you stay that way any longer I'm going to go brain-dead."
She gets up on her knees and twists to look at him her mouth is twisting around some sort of insult.
"All the blood in my body is going to be in my dick." He points down at his lap.
Her mouth drops open in what is probably disgust but she doesn't manage her insult so he'll call it a win.
"That's gross Dick." She grumbles grabbing whatever it was she was looking for and standing up.
"If you don't want me to get hard stop bending over or stretching." Or breathing really cause practically everything she does does something to him.
She rolls her eyes. She doesn't believe him. But when she sits down in the seat next to him he can see her eyes drop to his lap.
"I'd be happy to show you." He smirks but she looks back at the fire.
"I don't want to you to show me anything Dick." She grumbles into the fire.
"I don't know you seemed pretty interested in what I had to show you last night." He grumbles in return sinking further into his chair.
She doesn't even look at him and he hates it. How he just desperately wants to taste her skin again and she's throwing every possible obstacle in his way. He needed to do something. That weird quiet of the forest and her icy silence is crawling into him.
Maybe if he just kissed her again...
Maybe she'd just tumble into it, just jump right into it with him. He'll even wait until she calls that stupid dork to break up with him before he even does anything interesting. He knew she felt it like he did. He just fucking knows it.
He takes a deep breath and puts his hand on the arm of her chair.
The sun is below the tree line now, tossing long shadows across the camp and he's pretty sure it's beautiful but all he can really see is her, she's biting her lip.
She moves forward towards the fire and tosses something in.
It flashes blue and he's temporarily distracted from his mission by it.
"How'd you do that?"
"I brought some chemicals with me." She tells him simply like she doesn't think he'll understand.
"That copper crap?" He asks staring into the blue and green and orange of the fire. Contrary to popular belief he actually paid a certain amount of attention when people he liked spoke. Sure the list of people he actually liked was small but it was filled with the smartest people he knew.
Logan.
Mac.
His brother.
This particular piece of knowledge came from Cassidy, he'd always been fascinated with fire, he'd watched him set a god damn pool on fire before for christ sakes.
"Uh yeah. How did you know what?" She asks and she's finally looking at him.
"I pay attention when people talk," She lifts an eyebrow at him obviously not believing it for a second, "Okay I pay attention when people I like talk."
"Girls with big racks?" She makes the international sign for large breasts over her own modestly sized ones and he goes to a very happy very visual place in which she's sitting in his lap slowly undoing the buttons of her shirt, "Dick?"
He forces himself to look up at her face, "If you really want me to pay attention you shouldn't do that..."
"Do what?"
"Call attention to you know you're lady parts and junk." He leans across the small space between them and creates the same gesture over her body just close enough to feel the heat of her and not have her instantly punch him in the face. She's holding her breath he can see it and he leans his head down slowly his mouth achingly close to hers, her breath on his lips.
He wants nothing more than for her to move the tiny distance between them and kiss him. To validate this whole mess with her. He sets a hand on the far side of the chair and the other moves to her neck but doesn't touch her, he doesn't slide his fingers across her neck and into her hair like he is itching to do. He doesn't want to break the spell, doesn't want her to snap out of whatever spaced out place she is and suddenly be on the other side of the camp fucking locked in the stupid car until her buffers come back.
"I always pay attention when you talk." he tells her in a whisper that sounds deep and rough even to him.
She leans up into him and her mouth makes contact with his and he can tell by the wide frightened look in her eyes that she hadn't meant to do that, not consciously anyway.
He'll take what he can get of her. He's out of his seat, kneeling in the dirt in front of her, one hand in her hair, the other pushing her knees apart so he can get closer to her, the heat of the campfire burning into his back.
She allows for the push of her legs, her body leaning down into him, her hands pushing his shirt away trying to get at skin and god he'd give her all of it if she wanted.
She bites into him and he opens his mouth for her, if she wants to go slow they'll go slow but he thanks god that that doesn't seem to be the case because she's also pushing him further into her body with her legs. His hands make their way under her sweater and press her into him hard. His fingers gripping at the bra clasp. Normally he'd have it open in a second but she is driving him to distraction and for the first time in his entire life he can't get a god damn bra open.
She pulls back from him panting a little for breath and he's still got his hands on her clasp.
"Hey..." he smiles at her and leans back up to kiss her.
She quickly moves out of his range, "I have a boyfriend."
"I should be you're boyfriend." He tells her firmly his hands sliding down her sides he pushes himself up from the ground.
"Do you really mean tha-"
"How can you be so bad at hiking!" Veronica's voice blasts across the evening and it pulls his attention away from Mac.
"It's not like there's a how to hike class I could have taken Veronica."
Logan and Veronica come into view and of course, Logan is limping, most of his weight on Veronica as she complains.
He moves to the table and searches for a bag so that Logan can ice whatever the hell he fucked up this time.
Veronica sets Logan down on the bench seat of the table and Dick starts shoving ice into the bag from the beer cooler.
Handing Logan the bag of ice he sits down next to him.
"I'm sorry we came back so early man."
"It's okay," He notices the Logan is looking at him funny, "what?"
"You're mouth is swollen. Did you guys get together?" he asks excitedly in as hushed tones as he can find.
"Not really..."
"I'm sorry man. Maybe we can make your obstacle go away once we get back."
"Yeah maybe..." It's just he's worried that the obstacle is a little bigger than just a boyfriend.
