Psychological warfare
Logan feels like a dick.
The biggest cockblock on the mountain...at least he thinks they'er on a mountain? It might just be a really impressive hill.
Something had obviously been happening between Dick and Mac until Veronica had dragged him back to camp.
He had tried to get her to take him anywhere else, but she had been immovable. He suggested the camp at the bottom of the hill where he had gotten the gas, but it had only made her move faster towards their own camp.
So he sat there, with them gathered around him, trying to think up a plan, a way to make this up to his best friend.
God, even the way they stood, with Veronica between them, was some sort of huge tell. The body language screamed out the attraction and maybe the guilt for it.
He watched Veronica wrap his ankle carefully; he reached out and pushed some of the blonde strands away so he could see her face. It was a left over intimacy, but she didn't stiffen or pull away this time.
Her eyes flicked up at him as she pulled the bandage tight and shook her head slightly. He had missed this girl, the nurturing, sunshine being that had been stolen from the world by so many things.
The world had this shit habit of falling on their heads, but there were glimpses of the old days all over the place if you knew where to look.
"I'm sorry." He tells them and the words mean so many different things he's surprised they don't feel heavier.
"For not being able to walk? Yeah you should work on that." Mac smirks and with a roll of her eyes wanders to the cooler to grab a beer.
She doesn't crack it, and she doesn't hand it to him. She hands it to Veronica instead who presses it softly against his swollen ankle.
He makes a hiss of swearing and takes the beer from Veronica.
"For swelling, not for drinking." She tells him sharply, shaking a finger at him as she gets up, dusting herself off.
"Oh come on!"
He looks to Dick for help, but Dick isn't looking at him. He's got his eyes on Mac. Logan tosses the beer can at him to pull his attention back to him before the girls notice how obsessive that stare was.
Dick grabs it easily and, with a grumble, helps Logan to the seats around the fire. To lounge around until someone decides to test their cooking skills.
Mac sits next to him throughout the rest of the night. Between him and Veronica, some sort of safe zone that everyone knows about but no one calls out.
He needed to create some sort of unsafe zone, just Dick and Mac and the majesty that was this 'maybe' mountain at night.
He had grown patient over the years, he figured it had a lot to do with trying to work things out with Veronica all those times, so he waited until it had gotten late enough that his insane plan may actually work.
He hobbled over to the car and made sure it was locked and that the only set of keys was securely in his pocket.
"Hey Bobcat, give me a hand with the sleeping bags?"
"You going to bed already?" Mac asked the slight hint of alarm rolling Dick's eyes behind her.
"The hike really took it out of me." He shrugs and starts across the camp hoping that Veronica is going to go along with the plan.
If she didn't he'd be leaving the wilderness tomorrow with more than the injuries he'd already acquired.
"Veronica?" He asks softly, hoping to get everything he wants across in the single word.
He doubts that he does because she looks like she's going to argue so he pulls out his best beaten puppy look which, let's face it, he is really good at, and she crumbles.
She says goodnight to Dick and Mac and they look startled.
"You're not coming back?" Dick asks like he can't believe she would do that for him.
She just shrugs and goes to the tent, helping Logan in. They make a fuss of sorting the sleeping bags out.
The mattress is practically airless. Sighing, he slides off of the mattress to blow until he's lightheaded.
He puts the plastic to his mouth and lets out all the breath he can spare. The mattress barely moves.
"How on earth did Dick do this?" He asks Veronica, honestly it seemed impossible.
She shrugs and goes through the duffle bag at the head of the 'bed'. She pulls something out of the bag and tosses it at him, "Dick is full of hot air."
It's an air pump.
They had let Dick almost pass out last night and they had an air pump the whole time! He would like to say he's surprised, but the two girls had been watching it like it was a sport. He wouldn't have put it past them to have put money on it.
He fits the pump and mattress together and lets it get to work.
He sits back, the nylon of the tent bowing out around him. He watches Veronica in the light of the electric lantern and takes a deep breath.
This is the worst plan he's ever had, ever, but this isn't for him. This is for Dick and Mac and he wanted them to be happy and together. He wanted them to be some sort of constant in his life, to make each other whole like Veronica did for him when she deigned to do so.
When she decided that she loved him back.
"Veronica..."
She looks up away from the lantern towards him, eyes bright, blond hair tinted a slight blue in the electric light.
"I think we should have sex."
If she had been holding something she would have dropped it.
"What?" She leans forward across the tent, her voice a harsh whisper, "I came on this trip as your friend Logan, not so we could get back together and fuck in the damn woods."
"I know, I know." He whispers back, the little motor on the mattress filling the tent with a low rumble of sound, "We don't have to actually have sex..." He points to where the fire has thrown the shadows of chairs and Mac and Dick across the nylon.
"You want to drive them out of camp together?" She whispers and he nods.
This could work. This could totally work. Dick had been making progress until he had fucked it up for him by tripping over that stupid rock. He would make it up to him.
He would.
He leaned up and pressed his mouth against hers, soft, scared that she wouldn't go along with this. Scared that she didn't like him at all like this anymore, but when he had kissed her earlier... He could have sworn it had still been there, that wonderful spark that only she had.
She kisses him back, God he loves camping.
She kisses him like it's the first time, deep, a little rough, and too short.
She pulls back and he's not exactly sure how to pull air into his lungs anymore.
"This is a terrible idea." She tells him, but her eyes don't, for a second, flick up from his mouth.
"Yeah, but it's a terrible idea that might work."
Veronica sits back on her heels and pulls his shirt off him. She's looking at him like she means to devour him and he would absolutely go willingly. He makes an attempt to pull her shirt off, but can only really manage one side.
His burnt appendage still hurts and is picking the worst time not to cooperate.
Her smile shifts into something soft and private and she takes his hand in her own and to help him pull her shirt the rest of the way off.
He makes a strangled noise in the back of his throat. She isn't wearing anything under the shirt, she is bare, she knew she would be, and she let this happen anyway.
She puts his hand to her mouth and kisses his wrist softly.
God, he has missed everything about her, about being with her... Okay mostly everything. He could go without the trust issues this time around, to be honest, but if she was a package deal than he would learn to trust enough for the both of them.
"I missed you." He tells her and her smile turns into this heartbroken little thing.
"I missed you, too."
"I never want to not be your friend again." He looks down at the small space between them, "That's not very eloquent is it."
"I never want to not be your friend either.' She returns and it's just as awkward and painful and true in her mouth as it is in his.
The air pump makes a weird click noise and she puts his hand down to deal with the machine.
He watches as she puts the thing away and sorts out the mattress and bedding, all while topless.
He thinks it might be in his top ten things he's ever seen.
All of them have something to do with her, one is Lilly and her kissing. That's one of his favorites.
She turns to him, "Well, get on the bed." He manhandles himself up onto the mattress and has his hands on his pant's zipper.
"You sure you want to... I mean for real... We can just... I don't know shake the tent and make some noise..."
She brushes his hands away and pulls his zipper down, "Yes I want to. For a lot of reasons, now stop questioning me before I come to my senses."
"I just want it to go in record that I checked fir-" her mouth crashes onto his and he thinks she might just want him to stop talking, but he's okay with that.