VM Fic: Livening Up the Evening (Logan, Veronica, Duncan, Mac, Wallace, Dick, and Lilly Kane) PG
Title: Livening Up the Evening
Pairing/Character: Logan, Veronica, Duncan, Mac, Wallace, Dick, and Miss Lilly Kane
Word Count: ~2,800
Rating: PG. Fluff-o-rama.
Summary: Lilly Kane is bored...
Spoilers: Through mid-season 2, but this takes place four and a half years after the S3 finale.
Disclaimer: I am in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of Veronica Mars. No copyright infringement is intended.
Notes: Thanks to my eldest daughter, who was the model for one of the characters. :)
I’m bored. Boooorrred. I don’t like stupid California, I don’t like this stupid hotel suite where me and Daddy are going to live until we can get a house, and I don’t want to be at this stupid party.
What I wanted to do was stay with my Aunt Lizzie tonight, because she’s fun, but Daddy said I had to come to this stupid party and meet his friends. There aren’t any other kids here, and now I miss my friends that I left back in Australia. The snacks aren’t even any good-they’re all these weird vegetables and fish that I don’t recognize. I’m so bored. I need to find someone fun to talk to.
Daddy introduced me to each of the grownups when they first got here, but I don’t remember most of their names and I don’t care. Some of them laughed at my accent, which I didn’t think was funny, and some talked to me like I’m a baby, even though I’m a big kid. Plus, the grownups are more interested in talking to each other, so they’re not really paying attention to me.
There’s Daddy talking to his friend Logan. I met Logan a few days ago, when he picked us up at the airport. He didn’t treat me like a baby, and when he read me my stories at bedtime that night, he did funny voices for the characters. Hee hee. Logan’s funny. That’s who I’m going to go talk to.
“It’s been a year since she’s called me,” Logan is saying to Daddy. Since they’re talking, I wait, because Daddy always says it’s rude to interrupt. “I think that’s a pretty clear message that she doesn’t want to talk to me.”
Daddy gives Logan that same look I get when I ask the same question too many times. “You’re never going to know unless you try,” he says. “Come on, dude, this is the perfect opportunity. Just talk to Veronica and see what happens. What have you got to lose?”
“My pride?” Logan says. Daddy rolls his eyes. “Duncan, Veronica is…” Logan looks over his shoulder and then starts talking more quietly, so I have to step closer to hear what he’s saying. “She’s the love of my life, you know? When we were still on campus, I still got to see her once in a while, but we haven’t talked at all since graduation. If I make the first move and she shoots me down, I-I-I don’t know if I can take it.”
Now I’m worried, so I put my hand into Logan’s hand. “What’s wrong?” I say. “Are you upset?”
Logan is very tall, so he crouches down to talk to me. “Hey, Lilly. Yeah, I’m a little bit upset, but I’m OK. Your dad is trying to help-” he looks up at Daddy-“so you don’t have to worry about me.” He gives my hand a kiss.
“I don’t want you to be upset though,” I say, then I have an idea. “When I’m upset, sometimes my daddy gets me some cold apple juice to drink. Would some apple juice make you feel better?”
Logan smiles big. “You know what? I think it would.”
“I think so too! I’ll go get you some.” I run off to go get some of my special apple juice from the refrigerator.
The hotel suite seems way too big when it’s just me and Daddy here, but with all of these people, it feels way too small right now. When I’m trying to squeeze past some people by the couch, I hear someone say, “I heard that the Kanes paid off the Mannings so Duncan could come back.”
I turn around to see who is saying snotty things about my family. There’s a girl with a mean face, even though she has pretty clothes and pretty blonde hair, and she’s talking to a dark-haired boy who is even taller than Logan. He looks nice, and he seems like he doesn’t want to be talking to the mean girl.
“I haven’t heard that,” he says. I think he’s bored too.
“Don’t be naïve, Casey,” says the mean girl. “Kidnapping charges don’t just disappear on their own.”
The dark-haired boy looks up at me and then says, “Madison, don’t you think you should watch what you say?”
“Oh please-she barely speaks English,” the mean girl says. “And she’s practically a baby.”
“I am not a baby! I’m 6!” I yell at her. “And I speak English better than you!”
The mean girl gives me a mean look, but the dark-haired boy smiles, so I keep going. “You shouldn’t say mean things about my family. My daddy says that when someone says mean things, you should just walk away. So I am walking away from you.”
As I’m walking away, I hear the dark-haired boy say, “It looks like the second Lilly Kane doesn’t like you any more than the first.” I’m glad to hear that my Aunt Lilly didn’t like that mean girl either, and it makes me feel a little better.
Where was I going? I was going to get something, but the mean girl made me forget what it was. While I’m standing there trying to remember, a blond boy goes crashing past me and almost knocks me over. He claps another boy hard on the shoulder.
“Wallace, dude, Mac looks seriously hot tonight,” the blond boy says. “You gonna make your move?”
Wallace-I remember his name because he brought me a Hello Kitty coloring book-pushes the blond boy off of him. “Drop it, Dick. Mac and I are just friends.”
“But don’t you looooove her?” The blond boy is teasing Wallace. That’s not nice.
Wallace says, “Telling you that was a mistake. A huge, drunken mistake that I have regretted ever since. Just let it go, man. Mac doesn’t think of me that way, so just let it go.”
Mac. I know I met a Mac. Where is she? When I turn my head to look around, I feel my fancy new barrette from Grandma Celeste starting to slide out of my hair! I grab it before it falls out all the way and try to slide it back in, but I only make it worse.
“Gaaaah!” I yell, because now I’m mad.
The blond boy looks at me. “Hey, Lilly 2!”
“I told you not to call me that.” That boy is kind of annoying, I think. I like Wallace better. “Wallace, can you help me? My barrette is falling out and I can’t get it back in right.”
“Uh, I guess I’ll try,” Wallace says.
He tries to slide the barrette back in, but-“Ow! You’re pulling my hair!”
“I’m sorry, let me try again.” Wallace takes the barrette out completely and tries to clip it back in. It slips right out and lands on the floor. “I don’t think I’m very good at this,” he says. “It’s not really a guy thing.”
“My daddy’s a guy, and he knows how to make my hair all pretty!” I say as I pick up my fancy barrette.
“I bet he does,” the blond boy says. I think he’s making fun of Daddy, but I’m not sure how.
I look at the crowd of people in our hotel suite. “I can’t see my daddy. Who is going to fix my hair?”
Wallace leans down next to me and points to two girls. “You see those girls there? The one with the blond hair and the one with the black hair? They’re both good with girly stuff like that. I bet they’d be happy to help you.”
That’s the girl I was looking for! “The black-haired one is Mac!”
Wallace looks nervous and then says, “Yeah, and the blond one is Veronica.”
Veronica? That must be the girl Daddy and Logan were talking about. “OK, I’ll go ask them,” I say. But when I get near Mac and Veronica, they’re talking, so I stand behind Veronica and wait politely for them to finish.
“I don’t even know why I came here, Veronica. It’s not like I was really friends with Duncan,” Mac is saying.
“You came because I needed a wing-woman, in case a quick escape became necessary,” Veronica says. “You also came because it was an opportunity to wear a gorgeous dress and show Wallace the hotness that is you.”
“I’m not hot, I’m uncomfortable,” Mac complains. “And it didn’t even work, because Wallace has barely talked to me since we got here!”
“Why don’t you talk to him?” says Veronica.
“Pot, meet kettle,” Mac says. I have no idea what that means.
“What?” I guess Veronica doesn’t either.
“I don’t see you and Logan making with the chit-chat,” Mac says. “Why don’t you talk to him? You’ve spent the last year whining about the fact that you two weren’t talking, and now he’s in the same freaking room. Would it kill you to say hello?”
“Mac, we’ve been over this,” Veronica says, and she sounds sad. “I was so awful to him the last time we broke up. Why would he want to talk to me? I know I can do better, but I think I may have used up my last chance with him.”
Now I’m getting bored again, so I start playing with my barrette. But when I accidentally snap it open, it flies out of my hand and lands next to Veronica’s foot. Veronica picks it up for me.
“Oh-hi Lilly!” she says. I didn’t like hearing that she was mean to Logan, but she has a nice smile, and it sounds like she feels bad about being mean. “Whatcha doing?” she asks.
“My barrette fell out. Can you put it back in?” I say.
“Sure! Turn around,” Veronica says, so I do. Veronica runs her fingers through my hair to get out the tangles, and it feels nice. “Your hair is a lot like your mommy’s was,” she says.
“I know! My daddy says that too,” I tell her. “That’s good, because my mommy was very pretty.”
“Yes, she was,” Veronica says. “And she was one of the nicest girls at school. She was smart, too.”
She’s done fixing my barrette, so I turn around to look at her and say, “Thanks, Veronica.”
“You remembered my name! That’s pretty good. There are a lot of people here to remember,” Veronica says. “You must be smart like your mommy.”
“I am!” I say, because it’s true. I look at the other girl. “And I remember that your name is Mac. Your dress is very pretty.”
“Thanks. I just wish someone else would notice that,” Mac says, and she looks at Wallace, who is still being bothered by that blond boy. “So are you having any fun, Lilly?”
“Well…” I say.
“You’re probably pretty bored, huh? With all these grownups?” Veronica asks.
“Yeah, kinda,” I say. “There’s nothing to do.”
“Should we go get you a snack?” Veronica asks me. “Are you thirsty?”
Thirsty? “I forgot something!” I say. “I have to go.” I run off to the refrigerator to get the juice I promised to get for Logan.
The apple juice is especially for me, so I put it way in the back of the refrigerator, and it takes a minute to dig one out for Logan. When I look for him, I see him still talking to Daddy, but with Mac and Veronica too. Yay! Four people I like, all together. I hurry over to talk to them too, but then Daddy takes Mac away to go talk to another friend. That’s OK-Veronica and Logan are still fun.
But when I get to them, they’re talking. Again. Grownups are sooo boring! So again, I wait for them to stop so I don’t have to be rude.
They’re both acting nervous and weird, though, and they’re not really looking at each other when they talk.
“I’ve been OK. How about you?” Veronica asks him.
“Everything’s good, thanks,” Logan says while he pulls at his sleeves. “So, it’s been a while since we’ve talked, huh?”
“Yeah, it’s just, you know, it’s been really busy, with work, and…you know,” Veronica says.
“Yeah, I’ve been really busy too-” Logan starts to say.
But I interrupt. “That’s a lie!” I say.
Veronica and Logan look at me at the same time. “What?” Logan asks.
“My daddy says that you’re not supposed to tell lies, but you told a lie!” I say. I’m trying not to yell, but I think I might be getting too loud. “You did too!” I say to Veronica.
“Lill…” Daddy says, in that voice that means I might be in trouble.
“But Daddy, they’re not telling the truth!” I say. “They both just said that they haven’t talked to each other because they’re really busy, but I heard Logan tell you that he was afraid that if he talked to Veronica, she would shoot him!”
Veronica gives Logan a funny look, with her eyes all big. “Shoot me down,” Logan says. He’s still playing with his sleeves. If I did that, Daddy would tell me to stop fidgeting.
“And Veronica said that she didn’t talk to Logan because she wasn’t nice to him before!” I say. “She said she was awful!”
Veronica looks at her shoes and I look at her.
“When you’re not nice to someone, you don’t just stop talking to them,” I explain. “You get a time-out, and then you go tell them you’re sorry.”
Logan smiles a little bit, like he thinks I’m being funny even though I’m very serious. “A year is a pretty long time-out,” he says to Veronica.
“I’m sorry.” Veronica whispers, and she has tears in her eyes. Oh no, I don’t want Veronica to be sad! I know something that will make her happy, so I nudge Logan.
“When I say I’m sorry, then my daddy says he loves me. Say what you said before about how you love Veronica,” I tell him.
“I, uh,” Logan says. I nudge him again. “I might have said that you were the love of my life,” he says in a very quiet voice.
Veronica is smiling now, but she’s still crying at the same time. Grownups don’t make any sense.
“And then there are kisses and everyone feels better,” I tell them. They both look at me and laugh. “Kisses!” I say.
Logan and Veronica look back at each other, and he takes both of her hands in his hands. Then they move their faces closer and closer to each other…until finally, they’re kissing.
“Yay!” I yell. They jump away from each other like they forgot I was there. “Don’t you feel better now?”
Logan leans forward and touches Veronica’s forehead with his. “Actually, I do,” he says.
“Me too,” she says. “Let’s go somewhere and talk.”
Just as they walk out the door together, I remember that I still didn’t give Logan his juice. Oh well-he seemed to feel better without it, so I open it and start drinking it myself. Daddy comes up behind me and puts his hand on my shoulder.
“I’m sorry I interrupted and then yelled, Daddy,” I say, turning around.
Daddy crouches down. “It’s OK, Lill. Veronica and Logan weren’t listening to me, or Mac, or anyone else, so I’m glad you got them to listen to you.” He smiles and gives me a kiss on the head.
“I love you, Daddy,” I say, and I give him a hug, because it’s true.
“Yo, DK! You’re almost out of beer!” shouts the annoying blond boy. “Where’s the good stuff?”
“Lill, I have to go deal with Dick,” he says. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah,” I say, but I’m disappointed that the only interesting thing to happen at this party is over, and I’m going to be bored again. I see Wallace leaning against the wall by himself, so I go over to lean with him.
“So you were listening to what all the grownups were saying all night, huh?” he says. I’m looking at his feet so I can cross mine the same way.
“I was just waiting so I wouldn’t interrupt anyone,” I explain. “No one noticed I was there, so I just kept listening.” I get my feet right, so I look up to see if my lean is the same as his now. He’s watching Mac, who is sitting by herself since Veronica left. I have another idea. “And I just remembered,” I say. “When I was listening before, I heard that pretty black-haired girl say something interesting…”
~fin~