A/N: One of the comments on the story with last chapter left me curious. Someone said that 'Nothing Even Matters' is "Logan's song". How exactly do you people determine who the song "belongs to" for BTR? Is it who sings the forefront in the chorus, or who sings the first line, or whose voice you can distinguish most easily? Seriously, I'm really curious. Can someone supply me with a list or spreadsheet or something?
Meanwhile, I realized why I post these late at night. It's always nice to wake up in the morning to reviews. Thank you to TydusGT, Algophobia, TakenLiterally, duckduck4, sleepless nights x, Ercassiel-x, x-shmanda-x, JessamineLovelace, Koga Sukarama, rumbleroar846, huyandhieu, squoctobird, Lewkis, hahippy, and last (but not least) Sum1cooler (thanks for reviewing every chapter of every story so far) for your reviews, favorites, and alerts. They mean a lot.
Now, on with the show!
Chapter III
Kendall sighed as he watched Logan drift back and forth from one end of the hotel's luxurious pool, seeing his bright yellow-green swim trunks clearly in the low light. "How could you possibly have enough energy to swim but not enough to practice your routines?" It was such a managerial thing to say, and Logan rolled his eyes at the idea.
"Well, you see, swimming is easy," the gymnast responded with a smirk.
"Gymnastics is pretty easy for you too." The smirk faded, and Logan turned his head away with a 'hmpf' noise, closing his eyes to quickly dunk under the water.
Logan absolutely loved swimming. It was probably the most relaxing thing that he could do other than sleeping, which he was tired of doing. The water was just the right temperature, and he shuddered as the smell of chlorine burned in his airway. But the burning was a somewhat welcome feeling compared to the freezing cold air of his hotel room. "Kendall, come on in, the water is great!" he exclaimed and waved excitedly at the calm blond who was just sitting in a chair beside the pool watching his friend. Kendall's eyes followed the waving hand in a daze for a second before he snapped back to reality.
"Logan, I don't really feel like it."
"Oh come now, it's not bad at all. Don't you see how much fun I'm having?" the compact brunette inquired with a laugh, diving downward right afterwards and performing a front flip under the surface. Kendall sighed once more before grabbing the hem of his shirt and tugging it off, dropping the piece of fabric in his chair. Strolling over to the edge, the blond took a deep breath and plunged into the still-ish water.
Logan had lied. The pool was freezing in Kendall's opinion. As soon as he surfaced his teeth began chattering and he swam over toward the edge again. He heard small splashes and felt something rush between his legs when suddenly Logan popped up in front of him with a frown.
"You can't get out yet, you just now got in!" Logan whined at him, placing his hands on his tall friend's shoulders.
"I c-can and I w-will," Kendall stuttered between violent shivers. Man was that pool cold. He would do anything to get out at the time.
Logan gave his signature lopsided half-smile. "Well if you want out then you have to get past me," he chuckled. "Since you aren't exactly the smartest guy ever, you aren't going to outwit me. And since you're not the one with guns of steel, I don't think that you're going to win a wrestling match. Therefore, I don't think that you're getting out until I let you."
Kendall groaned. He knew that the gymnast was right, but he didn't want to admit it. At least, not out loud. He slowly swam off to the right, only to be blocked again by the shorter boy. Next he tried going left, but with the same results. There was only one thing left to do. His hands grabbed onto the brunette's shoulders and pushed him out of the way, but just as he reached the edge he felt two huge arms wrap around his upper chest.
'Dammit…'
Logan's legs kicked into action and pushed the gymnast and his struggling blond friend right back to the center of the pool, spinning the taller boy around to face him at the end. "You just don't give up do you Kenny?" the brunette teased with a playful poke on the nose.
"No, I don't. I only lost because I just can't compete with a muscle monster," his friend replied with an identical poke to Logan's left bicep. On a normal person, the poke would've met only a little resistance and the skin would press down a little. The skin on Logan's arm didn't budge even a nanometer, and his muscles weren't even flexed. His friend blushed at that statement.
"I'm not a monster," he replied in a little kid voice, pushing out his lower lip in an adorable pout. Kendall laughed at his friend, pushing the boy back a bit and starting to swim toward the edge.
"Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to get out. I need to get some papers ready for tomorrow, you have an interview that is going to be broadcast live back to the US, so you need to figure out the answers to the questions I left on the desk back in your room. I don't want anything stupid coming out of that usually smart brain on live TV." The blond stepped from the water, shaking his head vigorously to remove all the wet from his hair and ears. "Great, now I smell like chlorine. But anyways, I'll see you at dinner, okay?"
"Fine," Logan whined, gaining a roll of the eyes from the blond who was now turning to leave the pool area. Kendall was supposed to be a friend here, not clones of his mom and dad smashed into one person. Kendall was doing so much paperwork and taking care of everything that the gymnast needed, and Logan hated that. He didn't want his friend to have to work on what was supposed to be a vacation, but that was what a manager did.
When the door to the pool area squeaked again to signal it opening, Logan turned around in the water to see a medium height blonde girl in a red bikini. She acknowledged his presence with a smile. "Oh hi there Logan, how are you?"
"Hey Jo, pretty good, how about yourself? Having a good day so far?"
"My day has been lovely, thank you." Jo was another one of the American athletes that came to compete, but she was a runner, not a gymnast. In fact, she was supposed to be at an entirely different hotel. The group captains wanted each type of athlete to be isolated with their teammates, but Jo insisted on being in the same hotel as her two good friends Kendall and Logan. She had enough influence in the team that she always got what she wanted out of them, so she was the only non-gymnast staying at what was deemed the "Gymnast's Hotel". "Where's Kendall, I was hoping to talk to him," she asked, easing herself into the hot tub only a few feet away.
Logan scoffed at the name, still a little annoyed that the blond had essentially ditched him. "He went back to his room to do paperwork. He's such a buzz kill sometimes." The blond girl giggled as she watched the muscular gymnast hoist himself out of the pool and gingerly step into the relaxingly warm water. Sitting down, he noticed her eyeing him, smirking as he shook his head.
"Jo, you know that this is off limits," he laughed, motioning to his body.
"I know, I know. Window-shopping isn't illegal, is it? And since that's basically equivalent to what I'm doing, I'm gonna keep doing it." She joked right back at him. Both of them laughed, falling silent for a little bit shortly afterwards.
The two conversed for about ten more minutes before Logan decided to leave the pool. He bid Jo goodbye, toweling himself dry, grabbing his possessions, and pushing the door open. The elevator slowly made its way up to the third floor, and Logan slipped his card key into the reader on his door upon arriving. He was greeted by the sight of another small stack of presents and envelopes. Picking up the phone, he immediately called the same number that he had every day since he had won his first gold medal. In only a few minutes the presents would be removed by the same people that had every other day.
The gymnast reached for the stack of envelopes and sifted through them, running a hand through his still damp hair. 'Fan mail, fan mail, fan mail, mom, fan mail, dad, grandpa, fan mail, gift mail, fan mail,' he thought as he dropped some cards into a huge pile of unread fan mail, others into family member mail, and a select few with the other presents. Only two envelopes caught his attention.
The first was a beautiful purple envelope, paper seemingly embroidered with intricate patterns. What really stood out was that his name was written in crayon on the front, letters messy and tipping all over the place. It was from a kid, and a pretty small one at that. Logan loved little kids, and getting mail from them always brightened up his day. He carefully opened the seal, making sure not to damage the purple paper in any way. Pulling out the white piece of paper inside, the brunette smiled as he (attempted to) read the sloppy crayon words, smiling widely when he noticed that misspelled words and lack of capitalization that would usually bug him.
'deer mister logan,
my name is lily and i think you are a grate jimnest. daddy says that you won lotsa gold medals and i think that is good so i wanted to send you more luck so that you will win a lot more and make evereewun else even more hapee! i hope you win more! i am going to jimnastiks camp next week so i can lern to be just like you! good luck!
from lily.'
Logan's smile got wider as he finished the letter. The girl was probably only about four or five judging from the number of spelling errors she had made, and he felt even happier knowing that he was inspiring such a small girl. A knock on the door snapped him back from his thoughts, causing him to place the letter alongside three others in a small cranny in his desk.
"Come on in Colin, it's unlocked," the gymnast yelled to the door as he grabbed his shirt and slipped it back on, the tight material almost suffocating him. He needed to get some new clothes sometime soon, and while he was tempted to open his presents occasionally and check for a couple of looser shirts, he knew that he would probably find some random gift that he didn't want or need. Logan watched as a blond man about his height walked in, dragging a cart behind him. Colin was only three years older than him and had the same sort of build: short and muscular.
"Nice to see you again, Mr. Mitchell," the man said courteously with a tip of his dark green hat. Logan sighed at the name.
"I've told you this already, you can call me Logan, it's not like my name is cursed or I'm Voldemort or anything."
The compact blond shook his head and started to load some boxes onto the cart. "Sorry Logan, you're just an international celebrity at the moment and I was taught by my pa to respect people of higher status, so that's why-"
"Colin," Logan interrupted, "listen to me. I'm just a normal person with a single amazing talent. I'm not of any sort of higher status than you are. I'm just a regular twenty year old with an amazing talent that is on the Olympic Team, and as soon as we head back to the US I'm going back to being normal for as long as possible." The brunette stared into the blond's deep blue eyes, looking for any form of understanding, but not really seeing anything but confusion. Why was he confiding in Colin of all people? The moving man was definitely not a genius by any standard. In fact, he was dumb as a brick and just as stubborn and tough.
Shaking his head, Logan motioned for Colin to continue his business as he looked at the second letter. A plain white envelope with nothing but the name 'Carlos Garcia' written in neat cursive on the front. Logan was used to receiving neat letters from girls and somewhat unkempt ones from guys, but this was the first one that was both neat and from a guy. In fact, the writing was absolutely impeccable, which Logan found very attractive for some reason. He could tell that this Carlos guy really cared about this letter, especially obvious from the extra four dollars in stamps attached to the envelope and the words "Handle with Extreme Care" written underneath in permanent ink. If there had been a single error then the card would just be in the pile with all the other fan mail, but Logan couldn't find a single thing wrong with it.
Just like with the previous one, the brunette carefully pulled up the flap on the envelope, removing the simple piece of paper from inside. The paper was very formal looking, being monogrammed with a very familiar college symbol, but Logan couldn't figure out where he knew it from.
'Dear Logan Mitchell:
You'll probably never read this, since from what I hear you don't exactly love fan mail, but just in case you do, I want to tell you some things. First off, OH MY GOD YOU'RE SO AMAZING-' Logan frowned at that, almost ready to dump the paper in the pile, but he worked around his annoyance to continue reading. '-and all that jazz, and I'm sure you don't like that much, but I just had to say that. It's true you know. You're seriously inspiring to anyone with a little talent.
Second, I'm just proud to know that you live in LA too. Representing California pretty well dude, keep it up!-' That was where Logan recognized the monogram from. It was the symbol and mascot for UCLA. He mentally slapped himself for not remembering immediately. '-I'm really happy to go to a school in the same city as such a great athlete that I may eventually meet, even if only for a couple seconds.
Third, I want to mention how hot-' The gymnast immediately skipped the following part of the letter, jumping ahead to the next paragraph. He was hoping that the letter wouldn't have too much gushing, but there wasn't any escaping it.
Last but not least, I really hope that if we actually DO meet sometime that I could actually talk to you. According to some sources (mainly the news), you're actually a very smart person under all that muscle, and I feel like you'd appreciate a talk with another knowledgeable guy (since I'm assuming not many of the other athletes know much about computers or doctoring). I put a picture in the envelope if you end up trying to find me, but I won't be offended if you don't try; you are a professional athlete after all.
Anyways, if you really read all of this crap, then I salute you, and I wish you great luck on whatever event you have next. Pommel horse I think it is? Man, with arms like yours there's no way you're going to do anything wrong on that. Just know that you have a really dedicated fan watching. Have a good one sir.
Sincerely, Carlos Garcia.'
Logan reread the last few lines again. Carlos seemed like a genuinely nice guy, and Logan decided to reach back into the envelope to grab the picture. It was rather small, but Logan could make out all of the boy's major features. A short boy with naturally bronzed skin, jet-black hair, and piercing brown eyes smiled up at him from the page. 'Not bad looking… hell, he's a cutie,' Logan grinned, grabbing out his wallet and stuffing the picture into an easy to see slot.
Colin had just loaded the last of his unwanted gifts onto the cart, and was starting to wheel them away. "Anything else I can do for you Mr. Mi- er, Logan?"
"Not at the moment Colin. You have a good day."
"Yes sir." The blond shut the door behind him, and Logan went to lie down on his bed, grabbing a stack of papers with questions for his interview and a pen before flopping onto his bed.
The first question was "When did you figure out that you had a knack for gymnastics?" Logan flipped through the pages, counting. There were 9 pages.
'It's gonna be a long night…'
A/N: Long letter is long. Oh well. I haven't had to write for Jo yet, so I hope I'm not doing anything stupid by including her and I hope that I don't make her do anything that is out of character. So yeah.
I'm stuck in Maine (which I still hate, no offense to Maine-ers), and have two parents and a homophobic best friend breathing down my neck. I had to trick my friend into thinking that I'm writing a digital diary to keep him from looking over my shoulder when I write, and although I hate lying… wait, I love lying! Disregard the end of that statement.
Now, I'm going to return to getting pissed at the bugs flying around my bedroom. It's so hard to sleep when I think I'm gonna accidentally eat one. Have a better night than I am, everyone (shouldn't be too hard), developments for Carlos' side and a new Dreamscape update coming soon (or eventually. It's not going so well…)! Have a good whatever!