Chase goes back to England during college. He stays for a semester, writing about the persistence of the rain and the chill of the wind, and then he spends the following month following the cobblestone roads in Denmark; cycling around Amsterdam; admiring the ancient architecture in Italy; and watches the sunset from the Eiffel tower with a thousand other people.
He returns to LA, the same but perhaps a little more beautiful, and Lola and Michael have only just pounced on him and demanded he tell them everything when he smiles and announces he has a surprise, his gaze resting for just a moment on Logan. He gestures to the doorway and it takes Logan a moment to understand what he's seeing, even if the intelligent brown eyes and caramel curls are the same.
"Bonjour," says Dana, unenthused and daring.
She's introduced to Lola and an attempt to catch her up on what she "missed" in the intervening years is made and dismissed by Dana's apathy, followed by a reluctant explanation that Chase already caught her up (though only after he gives her a slight nudge). No one really knows what to make of her, this person that was in their lives for a mere year before disappearing, but Logan is cocky enough to think he does; to think he can turn it into something.
"Good to see you, Cruz," he says.
"Wish I could say the same thing, Reese," says Dana, and they allow themselves a small smile. It's easy, Logan thinks.
"Look at that. Just like old times," says Chase, and his tone is less reverent than Logan would have expected.
.
To everyone's surprise, including her own, Dana doesn't disappear. Logan assumed she'd just be passing through, perhaps staying just long enough for them to make good on that sexual tension that hung over them like a promise all those years ago ("dude, learn the difference between bodily harm and flirting," says Michael). But she too seems to have found herself suddenly aimless, no longer finding comfort in either the history of Europe or the expanse of the United States.
So Logan gets used to seeing her again somewhat regularly, though she remains quiet and guarded. It's not fair to say that's she's unchanged. Quite the opposite: she throws considerably less barbs than she did in high school and generally seems less defensive, though she clearly still likes to get a rise out of all of them when the opportunity presents itself. He's surprised by the lack of comments about their reduced numbers; the way she regards Chase with something like affection, or at least how she seems at ease with him; her wry observations. And even while Dana seems intrigued by Logan's (former) relationship with Quinn she clearly regards it as off-limits, only asking how long they were together before dropping the subject completely.
It is, in Logan's opinion, all rather boring.
.
He pushes it, like he always does.
Of course, he likes Dana because he can play rough with her. He'll say something about how she's come crawling back to them - to him - and she'll get that glint in her eye and respond with something about how she'd be the only woman that ever has, Logan's mother included, which is a low blow but he'd expect nothing less from Dana Cruz.
"Cool it you two," says Chase, sounding for all the world like a parent of two toddlers.
"Aw I'm swowwy, is someone too morally superior to be in our presence?" mocks Logan.
"No, some of us just don't feel the need to be involved in your humiliation fetish," Chase replies, because damn it if he doesn't know how to throw punches when he wants to. Even Dana looks impressed.
"It's only fun if one person bullies me at a time," Logan mutters.
"Then you picked the wrong group of friends," says Chase.
.
"You honestly think Dana's going to sleep with you?" asks Chase, watching Logan stare at himself in the mirror, his fingertips coated with hair gel.
"Why wouldn't she?" Logan scoffs, and Chase rolls his eyes.
"Maybe because some people have moved on since high school?" Chase asks, and Logan bristles, surprised to find Chase has struck a nerve.
"Because you'd know all about that," Logan snaps. He sees something flicker on Chase's face, something simmering just below the surface.
"You don't think I'll ever want something new?" he asks.
"Like what?" Logan asks after a pause. Chase doesn't reply, leaving Logan with the disquiet thought that he's somehow underestimated him.
.
"It's a shame we never got together," Logan states, bold and flirty as he slides next to Dana. They're at a bar with their friends because they're in their twenties and that's what you're supposed to do, but Dana and Logan seem to continuously find themselves just ever so slightly off to the side, away from the others and inevitably drawn to each other.
(Logan can't admit to himself that for all his bravado he only ever talks to her when there are others around, not sure of what they would do if they were alone and not sure he even wants to find out.)
Dana rolls her eyes and swirls her drink, something harder and darker than what he's got in his hand that he immediately regards as a competition. "Well at least there's one reason why people call you cocky," she says, and Logan takes it as a sign of maturity that he doesn't take the bait. "Do you honestly think we would have gotten together if I'd stayed?"
"Everyone was expecting us to," he answers.
"Well, sometimes what people expect isn't always what you want," says Dana, her eyes flickering to where Chase sits, grinning with Michael. "You should know that better than most."
"Yeah," says Logan, and his mind goes to janitorial closets and prom night confessions. "I do."
.
He is, apparently, petty enough to call Quinn.
"Dana's back," he tells her, and it's only after the words have left his mouth that he realises he should have asked why she picked up instead.
"Grow up, Logan," Quinn says eventually.
"I missed you too," he says, and waits to hear her hang up.
.
They're at a restaurant to celebrate Michael's birthday and they have, naturally, ordered dessert. Dana orders some kind of monstrosity served with ice cream and strawberries that she dips in melted chocolate, her eyes fluttering in Logan's direction from across the table every time she takes a bite, her lips stained red, sensual.
It's too deliberate to be fully effective, so Logan continues chatting away to Chase about…something, possibly sport related, trying to look as unaffected as he physically can.
"How's your dessert?" Chase asks suddenly, turning to Dana. She arches her eyebrow slightly, like she's surprised Chase would acknowledge, let alone intrude, on this little game she's been playing for weeks now with Logan. (Or at least that's what Logan thinks. Then again, Chase and Dana had been the ones that sat down next to each other.)
"It's good," she answers. She swirls the tip of her finger in the pool of melted ice cream and brings it up to her mouth, licking it off. "You should try some."
She does the action again, this time picking up more melted ice cream and chocolate fondue so that it begins to slide down her two fingers. She begins to bring her fingers back to her mouth when Chase's hand circles around her wrist and pull her towards him instead. In an instant, Chase has swallowed her fingers down to the knuckle, his cheeks hollowing slightly as he sucks them, before pulling off only to immediately drag his tongue over the webbing between Dana's two fingers, licking up the sides.
Chase leans back in his seat and wipes his thumb across some chocolate that caught on the edge of his mouth.
"It's good. Rich," says Chase, quite normally, like he didn't just enact what Logan can only describe as one of the most boastfully bisexual manoeuvres he has ever witnessed in his life.
Logan glances down the table but it seems like the rest of the group are oblivious to the obscenity that just occurred, let alone to the slight flush on Dana's face or Logan's inability to stand up politely and decently for a good ten minutes.
.
Admittedly, Logan probably should have gotten the hint before that.
.
It's not like Logan regards Chase as any real competition. He can't even picture Chase and Dana together: he's nice and kind-hearted where Dana is icy and mean and, most importantly, brunette instead of blonde. He simply assumes this is some kind of delayed rebound thing because Chase doesn't know the meaning of the phrase hook up unless it comes with four years of baggage attached. And Dana is either oblivious to Chase's intentions or is entertaining it solely for the purpose of watching Chase flail around, which is pretty amusing after all.
So the simplest solution is to appeal to Chase's common sense and this thing Logan has heard of called common decency.
"Dude, you're violating the code," says Logan one day when they're alone. Chase does a double take to check if there's anyone else around he could be talking to. Logan rolls his eyes and clarifies: "I called dibs first."
"...Is this about lunch?"
"No! Dana, dude. Dana," says Logan. "I liked her first."
"...Did you?" asks Chase, looking perplexed, and Logan lets out an exasperated sigh. "I'm just saying. That was almost a decade ago and even then, you mentioned her, like, three times."
"Right, because if I went after the person you had a crush on in eighth grade you'd be cool with it?" snaps Logan.
"You honestly think that's the same?" says Chase, a hard edge to his voice, and Logan knows it's not but he nods anyway. Chase shakes his head in disbelief, mutters to himself, "Because God forbid you don't get what you want for once."
"So you'll stay away?" Logan tries.
"Wait and see," says Chase.
.
For all the comments he's gotten over the years about his lack of self-discipline and commitment, Logan can be persistent when he wants to be. So begins his weekly, sometimes daily, phone call to Chase. Mostly he'll just ask about Dana, but sometimes he'll try to get Chase to talk about a movie or a video game or why his printer isn't working to lull him into a false sense of security, and then he'll ask, "Now will you stop pursuing Dana?"
Chase usually responds by hanging up.
It's for this reason that Logan calls him at eight o'clock on a Saturday night, listening to a new record that Chase recommended that he barely likes but feels obligated to finish anyway. To others it may look like he has nothing to do, or that he maybe he sort of likes talking to Chase, but they would be wrong. Logan is on a mission.
So Logan calls Chase and says hello once the phone has stopped ringing because he does have some manners. Only the voice that picks up this night doesn't sound like Chase, sounding much more feminine, and then there's the part where it says, "I'm sorry, Chase can't talk right now on account of where I'm sitting."
The voice sounds a lot like Dana.
It takes Logan longer than he would care to admit to fully process the meaning of that statement, but it's enough time for him to hear a crackling scuffle on the other end of the line that results in Chase's voice delivering profuse apologies and reassurances that what Dana just said is a joke. He can hear Dana's chiming laugh in the background.
"What the fuck," is all Logan says.
"Oh, it's you," says Chase, dropping all civility. "I regret telling you it was a joke now."
Logan hangs up first this time.
.
It turns out that Logan actually can picture Chase and Dana together.
More vividly than he would like to, in fact.
.
They're in the backseat of Michael's old stick-shift, Michael and Chase having left them alone in the McDonald's carpark to pick up their late night feast, courtesy of weed and Logan's credit card. For once he's managed to stay quiet, instead watching the city lights illuminate Chase and Dana through the windows as they drove over, how the red and blue lights dance on their cheekbones and accentuate the shadows of their eyelashes and the way it lights up their mouths, capturing their grins as they fade away.
"How long have you liked him for?" Logan asks, Dana turning to look at him with a confused frown. "Chase."
She stiffens, then sighs and answers: "I had a very, very short-lived crush on him in high school. That's it. Not everyone's love transcends oceans," she adds.
"If you know that then you should know then that he's never going to do anything," he says. "Even if he wants to. He's the biggest coward I've ever met."
Silence lapses between them, giving Logan time to gnaw over his own words and wonder what they're concealing; if he's pleading for Dana to choose him or if there's another kind of truth hiding behind them.
"I'm not convinced Chase is a coward," Dana says eventually, eyeing Logan with that intense, all-seeing gaze that terrifies and annoys and thrills him in equal measures.
"Forgotten high school already, have you?" Logan snorts. Dana smirks.
"I think he's something much more dangerous," she says, leaning closer towards him, which is not a word Logan would ever have thought of when describing Chase. He looks at her dubiously and Dana smirks in reply, then leans forward to whisper in his ear: "He's patient."
"But you're not," he responds after a pause. "Are you?"
Dana rolls her eyes and leans back in her seat, suddenly bored.
"You don't know what I am," she says.
.
Logan's not (completely) stupid. He knows what defeat looks like.
Doesn't mean he's not going to complain about it, though.
.
"This is absurd," he groans, lying on the floor of Lola's flat despite the fact that she specifically told him an ad nauseum number of times that she does not care about him. Which he knew already, actually. "What, is Nicole going to come back and say she was in love with him too?"
Lola, for her part, seems to find the whole thing greatly amusing.
"What's the score again? Oh that's right, three for Chase and one for you," she taunts. "And we all know Quinn has terrible taste in men," which reminds Logan that he has made a horrible mistake because God only knows what story Lola is going to spin when she calls Quinn tonight.
"I'm better than Del Figgalo," sneers Logan.
"I'll give you that," Lola concedes.
.
"You can fuck Dana," says Logan. It's shockingly casual, if not overly so, because it's ten o'clock in the morning on a Tuesday and Logan's cup of coffee is still hot in his hand. He immediately regrets not choosing somewhere sexier, or at least more dramatic to make his announcement. "If you want to."
"Big of you to give up the bro code," says Chase, eyeing him suspiciously. "Also extremely crude. What's the catch?"
"It was a year of a sort of crush in high school," Logan shrugs. He wants to add that not everyone was borderline stalking the love of their life but it seems obsolete now, a fact that makes him feel oddly sad and scared and grown up.
"Thank you," says Chase after studying him for a moment. "But I'm not buying it," he tilts his head to the side and drops his voice, speaking with the hint of a smirk. "Is this you asking to watch?"
Logan balks and nearly sends coffee shooting through his nose, Chase's hiccuping laugh reverberating through the air. Logan wipes his mouth and gasps, "Dude, what the hell?!"
"Just a joke," grins Chase, and lightly knocks him on the shoulder. "I thought you would have learned by now. I play dirty." Logan glowers at him and Chase gives him a wink, only worsening Logan's sulk.
.
Chase and Dana don't get together immediately, or at least Logan doesn't think they do. They seem to skirt around each other, edging tantalising close then darting away. He's pretty sure it's purely to torment him, but after expressing this notion to Lola he's informed that he's a "self-centered prat incapable of thinking of anything but his own dick" so the jury might be out on that one.
Or perhaps Logan just isn't done with them. It still feels like there's an unfinished game they're playing, only he doesn't know if it's between him and Dana or him and Chase and he certainly doesn't know who's winning. But he'd like to think he's still in there with a chance.
They're at Lola's place this time, decorated with twinkling, shining lights to mimic the glitz and glam of Hollywood. And probably the attendees did look glamorous a few hours ago, but they're bedraggled and tired now and in various states of consciousness. In the half-light he can see Lola's roommate and her boyfriend, both apparently lacking any sense of modesty and decorum, and he wonders if this is what Chase and Dana will be like; if he'll see them pressed against each other, open-mouthed and consumed.
"Pervert," says a voice behind him, and he looks up to see Dana. She flops down next to him and immediately rests her legs on his thighs, using him as a living footrest.
He's feeling too sorry for himself to make small talk.
"What does Chase have that I don't?" he asks. Dana looks surprised and confused, before deciding that the only course of action is to truly appreciate and relish the opportunity she's been gifted.
"Well, at a guess," she starts. "A working knowledge of the female anatomy," Logan rolls his eyes, "stamina -"
"Good one."
"Dignity."
"Piss off."
"And, of course, a huge d -" Chase clasps a hand over her mouth, settling onto the arm of the couch.
"I don't actually know what this conversation is about, but I felt compelled to put a stop to it," he explains. "Aaannd you just licked my hand," he says, promptly uncovering Dana's mouth.
"You know, it would be nice to have one night where both of you behave yourselves," Chase continues.
"Oh, quit chaperoning us," bites Logan, though it doesn't have much heat to it.
Chase shrugs and goes back to nursing his drink. All three of them lapse into a post-party languor, listening to the soft warble of the now turned-down stereo accompanied by the snores of those surrounding them. They're getting too old for this, Logan thinks. Out of the corner of his eye he sees Dana rest her head against Chase's thigh and suddenly becomes aware of the weight of her legs on his, the warmth of her skin bleeding through both pairs of jeans. He shoves her legs off, ignoring Dana's scowl.
Later, after Chase has disappeared and Logan doesn't quite know whether he's asleep or awake, Dana will crawl over and straddle him, pressing him into the corner of the couch until he's pinned, trapped. He doesn't make a sound.
"You think we should be together because we're the same, right?" she whispers, her mouth almost brushing against his, the hot pant of her breath against his face. He swallows hard.
"Are we not?" he asks. "The same?"
Dana shakes her head, curls falling like a curtain over him, tickling his skin.
"Not even close," she says. Her lips touch his temple as she talks. "But I think we want the same thing."
.
Logan finally puts the summer house to good use and throws a party. It's a mellow affair simmering in the evening heat, mostly filled with Lola's Hollywood friends, Michael's improv group and some acquaintances Logan picked up throughout college that are less interested in him than they are his credit cards. Yet they're the ones he's sitting with, watching as they pillage his father's alcohol cabinet without a word (the vodka had already been primarily water anyway).
His eyes drift towards the pool table, where Lola's actor friends and Michael's improv troupe have embarked on the most obnoxious game of, "Yes, And" humanity has ever witnessed. But mostly he's looking at Dana and Chase. He has to assume that they're together by now, based on the way their physicality has morphed into something like intimacy, like desire. Chase leans down to whisper something amidst the thudding bass and chatter and his lips brush the top of her ear; their arms brush as they talk, their hips pressed close as they lean against the table. He looks away, feeling intrusive (feeling voyeuristic).
As the night proceeds Logan begins to orbit around them without meaning to, enough to hear one of Chase's wry comments and Dana's corresponding snarks. People start to trail away and the haze lessens. Logan should check that no one's fucking in his bed or the basement or his father's editing room but he doesn't. He should kick people out to ensure the night ends without injury or staining bodily fluids or just so he can sleep, but he doesn't. The room at once feels like it's too big and too close, wrapped around him, hot.
Eventually, once the party has almost completely dwindled, he orders pizza. It's a feeble attempt to get people to stay, but Logan doesn't recognise it for the excuse it is until Michael asks if Dana and Chase are leaving with the rest of the group. They shake their heads.
"I'm not one to miss out on free food," Dana states.
And then it's just the three of them.
The pizza arrives and goes untouched. Logan notices that their drinks lie unfilled too; can feel himself sobering up, head clear enough to think but tipsy enough that temptation thrums through him, deep and steady.
"So. Are you two together or what?" he finally asks. They've been talking here and there but not about anything. Logan wants to be powerful, in control, done with the charade. He wonders if he sounds petulant instead. Chase and Dana glance at each other.
"I heard you gave us your blessing," Dana replies. They're sitting in a sort of triangle, spread out and not touching, but Logan is tense where the other two are unwound, liquid-like where they lounge on the floor.
"You're not going to tell anyone then?" Logan asks.
"What do you think there is to tell?" Chase replies, one eyebrow raised. It's said as an inquiry but Logan takes it as a dare, the tightness in his body moving to settle in his jaw. He swallows hard.
"Show me then," he says.
For a moment no one moves, and then Chase and Dana begin to lean in so only their lips touch in a soft, chaste kiss, and Logan feels robbed. He wants to triple dog dare them to do it properly; spin the bottle, time them for seven minutes in heaven - something his teenage self would have done but ultimately never did do, too cliche and inopportune. Something his teenage self never even considered, let alone wanted enough to try.
"Satisfied?" asks Dana, breaking the kiss.
"Hardly," he replies.
"Me either," smirks Dana, and this time she kisses Chase without pretense. Their mouths open against each other and soon she's clambered into his lap, her fingers curling in his hair. There's a rhythm to the two of them that's almost mesmerising, and Logan can't help but stare at how they looked wrapped up in each other, the contrast of their skin and the slight gleam that's beginning to form as they move against each other.
"Bet I'm the better kisser," Logan says, sounding sure and stoic. Chase and Dana break apart, Chase pulling at Dana's bottom lip as he does so where Logan can see, so Logan can see. They both turn to look at him, wearing the same sly smile.
"Only one way to find out," says Chase, though they all know Dana doesn't need the permission.
Dana gets up and wastes no time in straddling Logan, pausing only to ask if he's having fun yet before kissing him. He can hear the blood rushing in his ears, focusing on how warm her hands are as she cups his face and smelling the sweet scent of her shampoo mixed with the smokey room. She deepens the kiss and he wants to groan, unsure of what he can taste of her and what he can taste of Chase but he wants to suck on her tongue until he finds out, wants to drown in it. She nips at his bottom lip, the slight pain pooling low in his stomach.
"Chase is better," Dana grins against his mouth, then kisses him again, Logan chasing her lips when she pulls away again.
"You have to say that," he says, a little breathless. "We all know it's not true."
Dana has already fallen back into Chase's lap, her back against his chest, and she murmurs something about Logan begging for an encore against his jawline. Chase looks at Logan and beckons him with a finger, like Logan's far gone enough that he's going to crawl across the floor on his hands and knees to them.
(He is.)
He reaches them and Dana immediately grips his chin in her hand and Chase's in the other, bringing Chase's mouth to hers before swapping to Logan's, then back again. It is messy and dirty and hot, made hotter by the fact that he knows what's coming.
Dana's mouth has just left his when she whispers, "Chase is still better," and then he's met with a harder jawline, a hint of stubble against his and he groans. Chase wastes little time and swipes his tongue across Logan's bottom lip and Logan thinks yes, yes, and tries to press himself closer to Chase, feeling Dana between them instead. She begins pressing kisses to Chase's jawline and the column of Logan's neck, making him gasp, his breath hot and humid and seemingly airless. He doesn't think he's ever been so concerned about the structural integrity of his jean's zipper in his life.
Which Dana seems to know instinctually as she begins trailing her hand up his thigh, ghosting over his fly but disappearing when he bucks to meet her, desperately seeking friction. He feels Chase's hand then, holding down down his knee in a bruising grip to keep him in place, before Chase breaks the kiss and hooks his chin in the junction between Dana's neck and shoulder, allowing Dana to run her hands through Logan's hair, over his arms and down his chest, feather-light and tortuous until she finally reaches the waistband of his jeans. It feels like an eternity for her to undo the top button and at some point Logan closed his eyes, consumed by the anticipation, but he can feel her hand slip in now, her skin against his and she's close so close close and warm and then
Nothing.
The warmth of her leaves him and it feels like he's waking up from a dream, clutching at figments. He's slow to open his eyes but when he does he's greeted to the sight of Chase and Dana once again tangled up in each other, her shirt now abandoned on the floor. Chase grazes his teeth over Dana's collarbone and she scrapes her nails down his back and Logan feels the phantom sensations on his own skin.
Logan can't tell if they've forgotten about him or if this is a display of possessiveness for his benefit but he finds he doesn't mind either way. He's just slipped his hand into his jeans when Dana wrenches away from Chase to glare in Logan's direction and growl, "Don't," at him before she resumes rutting against Chase's thigh. Logan removes his hand, mute as he stares at them, watching Chase's fingers as they work at Dana's shorts. He can see it clearly now, the way Chase and Dana pass power back and forth between each other, like the tide crashing against the rocks over and over again. He feels like how he does when he's been pulled underwater, the same exhilaration, completely at their mercy.
He doesn't know what to beg for, whether he just wants to watch Chase's fingers curl inside Dana and the crash of their hips or if he wants to join in, taste the wetness of her cunt or swallow down Chase's cock. Except that he does, because he's always wanted anything and everything he can get his hands on. And he always gets what he wants.
.
The rest of the night is a blur - heat and sweat and groans and Dana whispering dirty talk in his ear and the way Chase's name sounded in his mouth and Dana grasping at his hair and the taste of Chase's fingers as he sucked on them and how Logan only stopped when he had to, aching and so close to being sated.
But what he remembers most clearly is the tantalising promise of more.
A/N: Originally written for the prompt fic under "temptation" but I ended up liking it enough to post it separately. Face-sitting line was stolen from Wonderfalls.