Fic: Jett Stetson's One Hundred Percent Foolproof Heartbreak Cure (Patent Pending) [5/5]
Title: Jett Stetson's One Hundred Percent Foolproof Heartbreak Cure (Patent Pending)
Fandom: Big Time Rush
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Logan knows that a relationship with an irresponsible (and closeted) narcissist like Dak Zevon is a bad idea. So why can't he walk away?
Notes: The end! Now to start on Carlos's story. Maybe. Thanks, as always, to queenitsy for the beta.
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Logan was losing his mind.
Dak was everywhere he turned: on TV, on billboards, on magazine covers at newsstands, and all over the internet. Even when Logan was in his apartment with the TV and computer off, Dak still plagued him: Thoughts of Dak with other guys. Memories of how Dak had always made him want to laugh, even when he was being his most annoying. Dak’s voice as he told the world that there was no one special in his life.
He’d known he was lying when he told the guys he didn’t care, but he hadn’t realized how big a lie it was.
It wasn’t like Dak was Logan’s perfect guy even now that he was out. He was still self-involved and irresponsible and obsessed with Hollywood image making. And he still didn’t know a thing about hockey.
But he was smart and funny and really, really good in bed. He remembered little things that Logan mentioned in passing, like his favorite book or how he liked his toast. And though it should have done the exact opposite, Dak’s easygoing, confident approach to life made Logan’s shoulders come down from around his ears when they were together.
Not that they’d ever really been together, of course.
The only good thing about being this upset about Dak was that it helped to distract him from worrying about the email he’d gotten that morning from his neurobiology professor asking Logan to stop by during office hours. He actually passed Professor Cortex’s office before realizing his mistake and turning around.
The door was already open, so Logan knocked on the doorframe. “You wanted to see me, Professor?”
Professor Cortex looked up from his computer and smiled. Logan winced. That wasn’t a happy smile. It was an “about to break some bad news” smile. “Hi, Logan. Yes, why don’t you come in? Could you close the door, please?”
Logan did as he was told and took the chair across from Professor Cortex’s desk. “So…what’s up?”
Professor Cortex leafed through a file and pulled out a stapled bunch of papers. Logan recognized his own handwriting on them. His final.
Somehow Logan didn’t think Professor Cortex had called him in here to tell him he’d gotten a perfect score.
“I was grading your final this morning, and I noticed something odd,” Professor Cortex said. “Now, I know you’re very bright and very hardworking, so you can imagine my surprise when I realized that you got every single answer wrong.”
Logan made a high-pitched, dismayed noise.
“Not only that,” Professor Cortex continued, “but you put the same wrong answer for every single question.”
Logan’s cheeks flamed as the professor showed him the first page of his final. Sure enough, he’d answered the same thing for every question: “Dak Zevon.”
“That’s actually pretty impressive, considering that this was a multiple choice test,” Professor Cortex said.
Die of embarrassment later, Logan told himself. “I’m really sorry, Professor Cortex,” he said. “It’s just been a really rough couple of weeks. Please let me retake the test. I’ll…I’ll do extra credit! Water your garden! Mow your lawn! Do you have anyone you need whacked?”
“Calm down, Logan,” Professor Cortex said, holding his hands up. “It’s fine. I’ll let you retake the final. I know this isn’t your usual behavior.”
Logan let out a tremendous sigh of relief.
“But I’m concerned about you,” Professor Cortex said. “I know LA can be overwhelming, but this kind of fixation on a celebrity isn’t healthy. Have you been to the counseling center?”
“Oh. Oh.” Logan shook his head. “Yeah, no, see, I actually know Dak. We, uh.” He blushed again. “We kind of had a thing.”
Professor Cortex raised an eyebrow.
“No, we did!” Logan protested. “I’ve known him since I was sixteen. See, I was in Big Time Rush.”
Professor Cortex raised the other eyebrow.
“Really! Remember ‘Boyfriend’? Your boy boy b-b-boy b-b-boyfriend? That was me! I mean, us!”
Professor Cortex wrote something down on a business card. “Here’s the number for the counseling center. You should really call them, Logan.”
“I was! I was in a boy band!”
“Logan.”
Logan sighed and accepted the card. “Yeah, all right.”
*
“Remind me again why we’re doing this?” Logan asked.
“Because this jerk is making you so upset that you’re failing out of college, and you need to go tell him what’s what,” Kendall said firmly.
“Then why can’t I just call him?” Logan asked. “I mean, do we really need to do the whole treehat thing again?”
The four of them were crouched in the bushes outside of Dak’s gleaming, gated estate. All of them were wearing treehats, and Kendall had eyeblack under his eyes.
“If someone was calling you to yell at you, would you listen?” Kendall asked. “No, you need to strike unawares.”
Logan gave him a skeptical look. “Are you sure you’re not just really bored?”
“Positive. Okay, now here’s the plan,” Kendall said. “First, we need to get over that wall.”
“I know the security code for the gate…”
“Where the cameras are?” Kendall asked, raising an eyebrow. “Be reasonable, Logan.”
Logan frowned. “I think ‘entering through the front door’ is pretty reasonable.”
Kendall ignored him. “James! Gimme a boost?”
“You got it.” James braced himself and linked his fingers, palms up. Kendall stepped into James’ linked hands and, with a push from James, scrambled up and over the wall, gangly limbs flailing. A minute later, he popped back over the wall, reaching his arms down to help the next person over.
“Me next!” Carlos called, and let James boost him up towards Kendall’s waiting arms. He dropped out of sight behind the wall.
Kendall looked at Logan. “You coming?”
Logan sighed. “I gotta get new friends,” he said, and stepped into James’ hands.
Once Logan was over, he and Kendall helped James, and soon they were all on Dak’s sprawling, perfectly-manicured lawn. The house itself sat some hundred yards off, all cool white stucco and terra cotta roofs, the front door hidden behind a long entrance way surmounted by a wrought iron gate, which was thankfully open. A moat formed a sparkling ring around the mansion.
The driveway from the front gate looped around to the garage in back of the house, while a paved footpath broke off and meandered towards the front door. Kendall led them in a wide arc away from the path, though, presumably to avoid any security measures.
“We’ll cut over to the front of the house once we’re opposite the drawbridge to the moat,” he explained as they crept across the lawn.
Carlos pointed at a small, moving figure coming around from the back of the house. “What’s that?”
Logan shaded his eyes and peered. “Oh, that’s just Dak’s dog Snowball. Don’t worry about him, he’s like a hundred years old.”
“Yeah, but if he barks he’ll alert Dak,” Kendall pointed out.
They watched warily as Snowball approached them with his stiff-legged, arthritic trot. He cocked his head, appraising them. Kendall pushed Logan forward.
“Uh…hey, boy,” Logan said, offering his hand to sniff. “Remember me?”
Snowball backed up and let out a single warning bark.
“Aw, hockey pucks!” Kendall muttered.
James pushed his way to the front. “Stand aside, boys. I’ve got this.” He grinned at them. “Music does have the power to soothe the savage beast, after all.”
“That’s ‘breast,’” Logan corrected. Carlos giggled.
James leaned in close to Snowball. “People say I’m the life of the party because/ I tell a joke or two…” he warbled.
Snowball laid his ears back flat and growled.
James straightened up. “What, you don’t like Smokey Robinson? I can sing something else. How do you feel about dance pop?”
Snowball charged at James. With a yelp, James took off across the lawn, Snowball hot on his heels.
Kendall watched them go, then turned back to Carlos and Logan, rubbing his hands together briskly. “Well! That takes care of the dog. Shall we?”
They continued across the lawn, ducking and rolling whenever Kendall thought he saw a camera, occasionally calling encouragement to James as he looped by, Snowball panting after him. As they went, Logan tried to figure out what he was going to say to Dak when they got there. That he was sorry? That he wasn’t sorry? That he was sorry he wasn’t sorry?
Once they hit the moat, they cut across to the footpath, which went over an old-fashioned rope-and-wood-plank bridge. Kendall led the way across it, with Logan right behind him and Carlos bringing up the rear. Once all three of them were on the bridge, though, it started to dip and creak ominously.
“Why is it making that noise?” Logan asked, alarmed.
“The rope’s fraying!” Carlos said, pointing to one of the support ropes that held the planks together. He grabbed the rope on either side of the fray. “Go!”
“But how will you get across?” Logan asked.
“Don’t worry about me, just go!” Carlos shouted.
“Come on!” Kendall grabbed Logan and hauled him off the bridge. Just as they set foot on solid ground, the rope Carlos was holding snapped completely, sending Carlos tumbling into the moat.
“Carlos!” Logan called.
Carlos splashed his way to the surface, kicking and spluttering. “Go on without me!” he called.
Kendall saluted him. “We’ll never forget your sacrifice, Carlos,” he said. “Come on, Logan!”
They raced for the gate at the long front entryway. As they approached it, something above them started to rumble. Kendall looked up. “The portcullis!” he shouted. “Hurry!”
They flung themselves through the open gate. Kendall’s treehat went flying. He landed hard in the entryway. Turning, he snatched his hat back just before the portcullis came crashing down.
“How about that?” he said, dusting the hat off and putting it back on his head as Logan climbed creakily to his feet. “You’ve got to be faster than that to get the better of Kendall Donald Kn-”
A trapdoor opened beneath his feet and he dropped out of sight.
“Gah!” Logan yelped, scrambling towards the trapdoor. “Kendall?
He thought he heard Kendall respond, but just then the floor started shaking. “Oh no.”
He looked up. At first he thought it was an earthquake, which nearly six years of living in California hadn’t acclimatized him to, but then he realized that the ground wasn’t moving. The walls were.
Towards him.
With the portcullis closed, there was only one escape. Logan shrieked and ran down the entryway towards the front door. With every step the walls loomed closer, until they were brushing his elbows as he ran.
He tripped and collided with the door, reaching up to grope for the doorbell. Now the walls were pressing on either side of him and showed no sign of stopping. He rang the doorbell over and over, banging on the door with his free hand. “Dak! Dak, please!”
There was the click of the door being unlocked. The walls stopped, leaving Logan pinned between them, on his knees against the door.
The door opened. Logan half-fell into the house. He looked up.
“Hey, it’s Big Time Whatshisface,” Jett said.
*
Dak was hung over. He’d been hung over every morning since he’d come out on TV, but this was a particularly bad one. When the doorbell started ringing like crazy, he groaned and pulled a pillow over his head.
Mercifully, the ringing stopped a minute later. But Dak had no sooner relaxed under his pillow when he heard Jett knock on the door and call, “Hey, Dak? Dak, wake up!”
Dak sighed and pushed the pillow away, then sat up. The motion set his head pounding, and he groaned and took a deep breath before standing up and staggering over to open the door.
“What,” he said.
Jett grinned broadly at him. It wasn’t fair. Jett had been too drunk to drive home last night, so he’d stayed in one of Dak’s many spare bedrooms, but no matter how much he drank, he never seemed to feel the ill effects in the morning. “Someone here to seeeeee you,” he singsonged.
Dak yawned. “If it’s Laura, tell her I’m dead.” He started to close the door.
Jett stopped him. “It’s not Laura.”
Dak would much rather have crawled back into bed, but he knew Jett wasn’t going to let it go until Dak came and saw who was at the door. Without bothering to put anything on over his boxer briefs, he followed Jett into the living room.
And there, sitting on his couch, was Big Time Rush: Kendall streaked with dirt and dust; James covered in scratches, his clothes torn and grass-stained; Carlos soaking wet and dripping on the leather.
And standing in front of them, Logan, looking flushed and scared but otherwise normal.
Okay, now Dak kind of wished he’d put on clothes.
“What happened to you guys?” he asked, pointing to the three on the couch.
Kendall jerked a thumb at James. “Snowball attacked him.”
James flinched. “That dog is an animal!”
Kendall blinked and apparently decided to let that one go. “Carlos fell in the moat. And I fell through the trapdoor.”
Dak frowned. “Well, as glad as I am to know my security system works…why?”
“Logan needed to talk to you,” Kendall said.
Dak schooled his face into what he hoped was a neutral expression and turned to Logan. “You could have just called.”
Logan moved his mouth a few times before any sound came out. “I wasn’t sure you’d answer.”
“So you broke into my house?” Dak asked.
“Hey, you broke his heart!” Kendall retorted.
“Kendall, I got this,” Logan said.
“Yeah, Kendall,” Jett said. “I like the dirt. Good look on you. It obscures so much of your face.”
“Shut up, Stetson,” Kendall snapped.
“Yeah? You wanna make me?”
Logan glared. “Could you two please - ”
“Wait. I broke your heart?” Dak repeated, looking hard at Logan. Suddenly his head didn’t hurt as badly.
“I…” Logan looked around at the others, who were all eagerly leaning forward to hear his response. “Can we not do this here?”
Fair enough. “How about the patio?” Dak suggested, pointing to the glass French doors that led off of the living room. It wasn’t exactly total privacy, the doors being glass and all, but it was better than having this conversation punctuated by Kendall and Jett’s arguing.
They went out onto the patio and Dak shut the doors behind them. “Well?”
Maybe the patio hadn’t been a good idea, because it wasn’t fenced in, and Logan looked like he was ready to bolt. “Well, what?”
“Kendall said you wanted to talk to me. So talk.” Dak folded his arms and waited.
“Uh.” Logan rubbed the back of his neck and looked away. “So you came out.”
“So I did.”
“Well…congratulations,” Logan said. “I mean, I didn’t exactly mean for you to turn into a walking West Hollywood stereotype, but baby steps, right?”
His tone was light, but Dak still bristled. “Look, if you broke into my house to yell at me for doing what you told me to do, but not doing it in the official Logan Mitchell-approved way or whatever, don’t bother.”
“I’m not trying - ”
Dak cut him off, warming to his subject. “Because you know what? You were right. Okay? I’ll admit it. You were right. So if you’re here to say ‘I told you so,’ thanks, but it’s unnecessary.”
“That’s not - ”
“I know coming out has been good for me, okay? My movie’s a hit, I’m in all the tabloids - hell, I’m the new Hatman! So thanks for the advice, but - ”
“I didn’t come here to argue with you about your stupid career, Dak!” Logan snapped.
“Yeah? Well, why did you come? Because like thirty seconds after, as mentioned, you broke into my house, you start criticizing my lifestyle choices, and I don’t have to take - ”
“You said there was no one special!”
Logan’s yell was so loud it brought Dak’s rant to a screeching halt. “What?” Dak asked.
Logan went bright red. He looked absolutely mortified. “On TV. When you came out. You said…there was no one special in your life.”
Oh. Oh. Something very much like hope uncurled in Dak’s chest.
“Well, maybe the one person I wanted to be with told me he didn’t even like me,” he said.
Logan glanced at Dak, then looked away again. “That guy sounds like a jerk.”
Dak’s lips quirked. “He kinda is, yeah.”
“Well…you should forget about him,” Logan said. “Yeah. You should definitely forget about him.” He took a deep breath. “And go out with me instead.”
“You know I was talking about you, right?”
“I know! I was kind of going for a whole…thing, there.”
“Oh, no, I got it. It was cute, it worked.” Dak quirked an eyebrow at Logan. “So…public hand-holding, then? That’s what you’re asking for?”
Logan set his chin and nodded. “Yeah. Public hand-holding. I mean, I don’t need to be your red carpet arm candy, but…if I’m going to date you, I want to date all of you. Not just in private.”
Dak considered. Public hand-holding sounded pretty good to him. “I can do that.”
Logan smiled. Dak smiled back at him.
“PUT YOUR FACES TOGETHER!”
They both jumped. Carlos, James, Kendall, and Jett were all watching them, faces pressed to the glass doors, Kendall and Jett elbowing each other as they jockeyed for better positions. Carlos was the one who had yelled, and now he was grinning and pointing at them through the glass, smearing it with fingerprints.
“Go away!” Logan yelled back, making a shooing motion. “I don’t want to make out with everyone watching.”
Dak shrugged. “Hey. That’s the price of dating the biggest star in Hollywood, Mitchell.”
Logan rolled his eyes. “Oh, don’t you start with me. There’s a difference between public dating and voyeurism, and I don’t - ”
Dak kissed him. Logan started to melt into the kiss, then pulled back. “You know, you can’t just kiss me every time you want me to stop arguing with you,” he said.
Dak smiled. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”
“Good.” Logan pulled Dak down into another kiss, a proper one this time. Dak let his arms slip around Logan’s waist and drew him in close, which reminded him that he was still only wearing his underwear. Maybe they could...
“Does this mean we’re gonna be in-laws now?” he heard Jett ask. “Because frankly, I require a higher caliber of looks from my family members. James, you’re okay.”
“You’re not related to Dak!” Kendall protested. “And my face is fine!”
“That’s not what Jo said when - ”
“LOGAN!” James called. “Do you guys want to double date with me and Camille? The paparazzi will love it!”
“Wait, Jett’s not related to Dak?” Carlos asked. “That movie said they were brothers in arms!”
Logan let out a noise somewhere between a laugh and a sigh. “This is only going to get more ridiculous, you know.”
Dak pulled back just far enough to grin at him. “We can handle it. I’m a superhero, remember?”
“Or a reasonable Hollywood approximation,” Logan said, grinning back. “But I like you anyway.”
That was good enough for Dak.
Fandom: Big Time Rush
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Logan knows that a relationship with an irresponsible (and closeted) narcissist like Dak Zevon is a bad idea. So why can't he walk away?
Notes: The end! Now to start on Carlos's story. Maybe. Thanks, as always, to queenitsy for the beta.
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Logan was losing his mind.
Dak was everywhere he turned: on TV, on billboards, on magazine covers at newsstands, and all over the internet. Even when Logan was in his apartment with the TV and computer off, Dak still plagued him: Thoughts of Dak with other guys. Memories of how Dak had always made him want to laugh, even when he was being his most annoying. Dak’s voice as he told the world that there was no one special in his life.
He’d known he was lying when he told the guys he didn’t care, but he hadn’t realized how big a lie it was.
It wasn’t like Dak was Logan’s perfect guy even now that he was out. He was still self-involved and irresponsible and obsessed with Hollywood image making. And he still didn’t know a thing about hockey.
But he was smart and funny and really, really good in bed. He remembered little things that Logan mentioned in passing, like his favorite book or how he liked his toast. And though it should have done the exact opposite, Dak’s easygoing, confident approach to life made Logan’s shoulders come down from around his ears when they were together.
Not that they’d ever really been together, of course.
The only good thing about being this upset about Dak was that it helped to distract him from worrying about the email he’d gotten that morning from his neurobiology professor asking Logan to stop by during office hours. He actually passed Professor Cortex’s office before realizing his mistake and turning around.
The door was already open, so Logan knocked on the doorframe. “You wanted to see me, Professor?”
Professor Cortex looked up from his computer and smiled. Logan winced. That wasn’t a happy smile. It was an “about to break some bad news” smile. “Hi, Logan. Yes, why don’t you come in? Could you close the door, please?”
Logan did as he was told and took the chair across from Professor Cortex’s desk. “So…what’s up?”
Professor Cortex leafed through a file and pulled out a stapled bunch of papers. Logan recognized his own handwriting on them. His final.
Somehow Logan didn’t think Professor Cortex had called him in here to tell him he’d gotten a perfect score.
“I was grading your final this morning, and I noticed something odd,” Professor Cortex said. “Now, I know you’re very bright and very hardworking, so you can imagine my surprise when I realized that you got every single answer wrong.”
Logan made a high-pitched, dismayed noise.
“Not only that,” Professor Cortex continued, “but you put the same wrong answer for every single question.”
Logan’s cheeks flamed as the professor showed him the first page of his final. Sure enough, he’d answered the same thing for every question: “Dak Zevon.”
“That’s actually pretty impressive, considering that this was a multiple choice test,” Professor Cortex said.
Die of embarrassment later, Logan told himself. “I’m really sorry, Professor Cortex,” he said. “It’s just been a really rough couple of weeks. Please let me retake the test. I’ll…I’ll do extra credit! Water your garden! Mow your lawn! Do you have anyone you need whacked?”
“Calm down, Logan,” Professor Cortex said, holding his hands up. “It’s fine. I’ll let you retake the final. I know this isn’t your usual behavior.”
Logan let out a tremendous sigh of relief.
“But I’m concerned about you,” Professor Cortex said. “I know LA can be overwhelming, but this kind of fixation on a celebrity isn’t healthy. Have you been to the counseling center?”
“Oh. Oh.” Logan shook his head. “Yeah, no, see, I actually know Dak. We, uh.” He blushed again. “We kind of had a thing.”
Professor Cortex raised an eyebrow.
“No, we did!” Logan protested. “I’ve known him since I was sixteen. See, I was in Big Time Rush.”
Professor Cortex raised the other eyebrow.
“Really! Remember ‘Boyfriend’? Your boy boy b-b-boy b-b-boyfriend? That was me! I mean, us!”
Professor Cortex wrote something down on a business card. “Here’s the number for the counseling center. You should really call them, Logan.”
“I was! I was in a boy band!”
“Logan.”
Logan sighed and accepted the card. “Yeah, all right.”
*
“Remind me again why we’re doing this?” Logan asked.
“Because this jerk is making you so upset that you’re failing out of college, and you need to go tell him what’s what,” Kendall said firmly.
“Then why can’t I just call him?” Logan asked. “I mean, do we really need to do the whole treehat thing again?”
The four of them were crouched in the bushes outside of Dak’s gleaming, gated estate. All of them were wearing treehats, and Kendall had eyeblack under his eyes.
“If someone was calling you to yell at you, would you listen?” Kendall asked. “No, you need to strike unawares.”
Logan gave him a skeptical look. “Are you sure you’re not just really bored?”
“Positive. Okay, now here’s the plan,” Kendall said. “First, we need to get over that wall.”
“I know the security code for the gate…”
“Where the cameras are?” Kendall asked, raising an eyebrow. “Be reasonable, Logan.”
Logan frowned. “I think ‘entering through the front door’ is pretty reasonable.”
Kendall ignored him. “James! Gimme a boost?”
“You got it.” James braced himself and linked his fingers, palms up. Kendall stepped into James’ linked hands and, with a push from James, scrambled up and over the wall, gangly limbs flailing. A minute later, he popped back over the wall, reaching his arms down to help the next person over.
“Me next!” Carlos called, and let James boost him up towards Kendall’s waiting arms. He dropped out of sight behind the wall.
Kendall looked at Logan. “You coming?”
Logan sighed. “I gotta get new friends,” he said, and stepped into James’ hands.
Once Logan was over, he and Kendall helped James, and soon they were all on Dak’s sprawling, perfectly-manicured lawn. The house itself sat some hundred yards off, all cool white stucco and terra cotta roofs, the front door hidden behind a long entrance way surmounted by a wrought iron gate, which was thankfully open. A moat formed a sparkling ring around the mansion.
The driveway from the front gate looped around to the garage in back of the house, while a paved footpath broke off and meandered towards the front door. Kendall led them in a wide arc away from the path, though, presumably to avoid any security measures.
“We’ll cut over to the front of the house once we’re opposite the drawbridge to the moat,” he explained as they crept across the lawn.
Carlos pointed at a small, moving figure coming around from the back of the house. “What’s that?”
Logan shaded his eyes and peered. “Oh, that’s just Dak’s dog Snowball. Don’t worry about him, he’s like a hundred years old.”
“Yeah, but if he barks he’ll alert Dak,” Kendall pointed out.
They watched warily as Snowball approached them with his stiff-legged, arthritic trot. He cocked his head, appraising them. Kendall pushed Logan forward.
“Uh…hey, boy,” Logan said, offering his hand to sniff. “Remember me?”
Snowball backed up and let out a single warning bark.
“Aw, hockey pucks!” Kendall muttered.
James pushed his way to the front. “Stand aside, boys. I’ve got this.” He grinned at them. “Music does have the power to soothe the savage beast, after all.”
“That’s ‘breast,’” Logan corrected. Carlos giggled.
James leaned in close to Snowball. “People say I’m the life of the party because/ I tell a joke or two…” he warbled.
Snowball laid his ears back flat and growled.
James straightened up. “What, you don’t like Smokey Robinson? I can sing something else. How do you feel about dance pop?”
Snowball charged at James. With a yelp, James took off across the lawn, Snowball hot on his heels.
Kendall watched them go, then turned back to Carlos and Logan, rubbing his hands together briskly. “Well! That takes care of the dog. Shall we?”
They continued across the lawn, ducking and rolling whenever Kendall thought he saw a camera, occasionally calling encouragement to James as he looped by, Snowball panting after him. As they went, Logan tried to figure out what he was going to say to Dak when they got there. That he was sorry? That he wasn’t sorry? That he was sorry he wasn’t sorry?
Once they hit the moat, they cut across to the footpath, which went over an old-fashioned rope-and-wood-plank bridge. Kendall led the way across it, with Logan right behind him and Carlos bringing up the rear. Once all three of them were on the bridge, though, it started to dip and creak ominously.
“Why is it making that noise?” Logan asked, alarmed.
“The rope’s fraying!” Carlos said, pointing to one of the support ropes that held the planks together. He grabbed the rope on either side of the fray. “Go!”
“But how will you get across?” Logan asked.
“Don’t worry about me, just go!” Carlos shouted.
“Come on!” Kendall grabbed Logan and hauled him off the bridge. Just as they set foot on solid ground, the rope Carlos was holding snapped completely, sending Carlos tumbling into the moat.
“Carlos!” Logan called.
Carlos splashed his way to the surface, kicking and spluttering. “Go on without me!” he called.
Kendall saluted him. “We’ll never forget your sacrifice, Carlos,” he said. “Come on, Logan!”
They raced for the gate at the long front entryway. As they approached it, something above them started to rumble. Kendall looked up. “The portcullis!” he shouted. “Hurry!”
They flung themselves through the open gate. Kendall’s treehat went flying. He landed hard in the entryway. Turning, he snatched his hat back just before the portcullis came crashing down.
“How about that?” he said, dusting the hat off and putting it back on his head as Logan climbed creakily to his feet. “You’ve got to be faster than that to get the better of Kendall Donald Kn-”
A trapdoor opened beneath his feet and he dropped out of sight.
“Gah!” Logan yelped, scrambling towards the trapdoor. “Kendall?
He thought he heard Kendall respond, but just then the floor started shaking. “Oh no.”
He looked up. At first he thought it was an earthquake, which nearly six years of living in California hadn’t acclimatized him to, but then he realized that the ground wasn’t moving. The walls were.
Towards him.
With the portcullis closed, there was only one escape. Logan shrieked and ran down the entryway towards the front door. With every step the walls loomed closer, until they were brushing his elbows as he ran.
He tripped and collided with the door, reaching up to grope for the doorbell. Now the walls were pressing on either side of him and showed no sign of stopping. He rang the doorbell over and over, banging on the door with his free hand. “Dak! Dak, please!”
There was the click of the door being unlocked. The walls stopped, leaving Logan pinned between them, on his knees against the door.
The door opened. Logan half-fell into the house. He looked up.
“Hey, it’s Big Time Whatshisface,” Jett said.
*
Dak was hung over. He’d been hung over every morning since he’d come out on TV, but this was a particularly bad one. When the doorbell started ringing like crazy, he groaned and pulled a pillow over his head.
Mercifully, the ringing stopped a minute later. But Dak had no sooner relaxed under his pillow when he heard Jett knock on the door and call, “Hey, Dak? Dak, wake up!”
Dak sighed and pushed the pillow away, then sat up. The motion set his head pounding, and he groaned and took a deep breath before standing up and staggering over to open the door.
“What,” he said.
Jett grinned broadly at him. It wasn’t fair. Jett had been too drunk to drive home last night, so he’d stayed in one of Dak’s many spare bedrooms, but no matter how much he drank, he never seemed to feel the ill effects in the morning. “Someone here to seeeeee you,” he singsonged.
Dak yawned. “If it’s Laura, tell her I’m dead.” He started to close the door.
Jett stopped him. “It’s not Laura.”
Dak would much rather have crawled back into bed, but he knew Jett wasn’t going to let it go until Dak came and saw who was at the door. Without bothering to put anything on over his boxer briefs, he followed Jett into the living room.
And there, sitting on his couch, was Big Time Rush: Kendall streaked with dirt and dust; James covered in scratches, his clothes torn and grass-stained; Carlos soaking wet and dripping on the leather.
And standing in front of them, Logan, looking flushed and scared but otherwise normal.
Okay, now Dak kind of wished he’d put on clothes.
“What happened to you guys?” he asked, pointing to the three on the couch.
Kendall jerked a thumb at James. “Snowball attacked him.”
James flinched. “That dog is an animal!”
Kendall blinked and apparently decided to let that one go. “Carlos fell in the moat. And I fell through the trapdoor.”
Dak frowned. “Well, as glad as I am to know my security system works…why?”
“Logan needed to talk to you,” Kendall said.
Dak schooled his face into what he hoped was a neutral expression and turned to Logan. “You could have just called.”
Logan moved his mouth a few times before any sound came out. “I wasn’t sure you’d answer.”
“So you broke into my house?” Dak asked.
“Hey, you broke his heart!” Kendall retorted.
“Kendall, I got this,” Logan said.
“Yeah, Kendall,” Jett said. “I like the dirt. Good look on you. It obscures so much of your face.”
“Shut up, Stetson,” Kendall snapped.
“Yeah? You wanna make me?”
Logan glared. “Could you two please - ”
“Wait. I broke your heart?” Dak repeated, looking hard at Logan. Suddenly his head didn’t hurt as badly.
“I…” Logan looked around at the others, who were all eagerly leaning forward to hear his response. “Can we not do this here?”
Fair enough. “How about the patio?” Dak suggested, pointing to the glass French doors that led off of the living room. It wasn’t exactly total privacy, the doors being glass and all, but it was better than having this conversation punctuated by Kendall and Jett’s arguing.
They went out onto the patio and Dak shut the doors behind them. “Well?”
Maybe the patio hadn’t been a good idea, because it wasn’t fenced in, and Logan looked like he was ready to bolt. “Well, what?”
“Kendall said you wanted to talk to me. So talk.” Dak folded his arms and waited.
“Uh.” Logan rubbed the back of his neck and looked away. “So you came out.”
“So I did.”
“Well…congratulations,” Logan said. “I mean, I didn’t exactly mean for you to turn into a walking West Hollywood stereotype, but baby steps, right?”
His tone was light, but Dak still bristled. “Look, if you broke into my house to yell at me for doing what you told me to do, but not doing it in the official Logan Mitchell-approved way or whatever, don’t bother.”
“I’m not trying - ”
Dak cut him off, warming to his subject. “Because you know what? You were right. Okay? I’ll admit it. You were right. So if you’re here to say ‘I told you so,’ thanks, but it’s unnecessary.”
“That’s not - ”
“I know coming out has been good for me, okay? My movie’s a hit, I’m in all the tabloids - hell, I’m the new Hatman! So thanks for the advice, but - ”
“I didn’t come here to argue with you about your stupid career, Dak!” Logan snapped.
“Yeah? Well, why did you come? Because like thirty seconds after, as mentioned, you broke into my house, you start criticizing my lifestyle choices, and I don’t have to take - ”
“You said there was no one special!”
Logan’s yell was so loud it brought Dak’s rant to a screeching halt. “What?” Dak asked.
Logan went bright red. He looked absolutely mortified. “On TV. When you came out. You said…there was no one special in your life.”
Oh. Oh. Something very much like hope uncurled in Dak’s chest.
“Well, maybe the one person I wanted to be with told me he didn’t even like me,” he said.
Logan glanced at Dak, then looked away again. “That guy sounds like a jerk.”
Dak’s lips quirked. “He kinda is, yeah.”
“Well…you should forget about him,” Logan said. “Yeah. You should definitely forget about him.” He took a deep breath. “And go out with me instead.”
“You know I was talking about you, right?”
“I know! I was kind of going for a whole…thing, there.”
“Oh, no, I got it. It was cute, it worked.” Dak quirked an eyebrow at Logan. “So…public hand-holding, then? That’s what you’re asking for?”
Logan set his chin and nodded. “Yeah. Public hand-holding. I mean, I don’t need to be your red carpet arm candy, but…if I’m going to date you, I want to date all of you. Not just in private.”
Dak considered. Public hand-holding sounded pretty good to him. “I can do that.”
Logan smiled. Dak smiled back at him.
“PUT YOUR FACES TOGETHER!”
They both jumped. Carlos, James, Kendall, and Jett were all watching them, faces pressed to the glass doors, Kendall and Jett elbowing each other as they jockeyed for better positions. Carlos was the one who had yelled, and now he was grinning and pointing at them through the glass, smearing it with fingerprints.
“Go away!” Logan yelled back, making a shooing motion. “I don’t want to make out with everyone watching.”
Dak shrugged. “Hey. That’s the price of dating the biggest star in Hollywood, Mitchell.”
Logan rolled his eyes. “Oh, don’t you start with me. There’s a difference between public dating and voyeurism, and I don’t - ”
Dak kissed him. Logan started to melt into the kiss, then pulled back. “You know, you can’t just kiss me every time you want me to stop arguing with you,” he said.
Dak smiled. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”
“Good.” Logan pulled Dak down into another kiss, a proper one this time. Dak let his arms slip around Logan’s waist and drew him in close, which reminded him that he was still only wearing his underwear. Maybe they could...
“Does this mean we’re gonna be in-laws now?” he heard Jett ask. “Because frankly, I require a higher caliber of looks from my family members. James, you’re okay.”
“You’re not related to Dak!” Kendall protested. “And my face is fine!”
“That’s not what Jo said when - ”
“LOGAN!” James called. “Do you guys want to double date with me and Camille? The paparazzi will love it!”
“Wait, Jett’s not related to Dak?” Carlos asked. “That movie said they were brothers in arms!”
Logan let out a noise somewhere between a laugh and a sigh. “This is only going to get more ridiculous, you know.”
Dak pulled back just far enough to grin at him. “We can handle it. I’m a superhero, remember?”
“Or a reasonable Hollywood approximation,” Logan said, grinning back. “But I like you anyway.”
That was good enough for Dak.