you can't fight gravity on a planet that insists that love is like falling

[neptune_sleuth]

So she'd spent the weekend as a hyperactive child, as Little Mary Sunshine, as Suzie Homemaker. So she'd told Logan she wanted babies, and implied that they ought to be his. That didn't mean she had to wallow. Veronica Mars had been there and done that, and she had every intention of moving on

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[callmeweevil]

It's the foot stickin' down from the tree that catches my eye, and I look up with a smile. Most of my face still feels like a giant bruise, but it's lookin' better than it did yesterday, and I can at least walk for more than ten minutes without wheezing. Lucky I heal quick, huh? "How's the view from up there, V?" I call, cupping a hand around my mouth.

[neptune_sleuth]

Veronica sat down to look to the ground. "It just got worse," she teased. It was, as ever, difficult to know where she stood with Weevil - on one hand, the gaping uncertainty of how much to trust Logan; on the other, his weekend heroics. That he had taken care of her instead of just mocking, as she would have done, meant something.

[callmeweevil]

"Yeah, well, you know. Not as pretty as I used to be." The fact that she doesn't ask me about my bruises tells me she's heard about the fight already, which puts me a little bit on my guard. God only knows what Echolls told her-- probably spun it like I started the whole thing. "You wanna come down, or you wanna just shout at each other for a while?"

[neptune_sleuth]

Veronica hesitated a moment, then lowered herself to the ground. "What, and hurt my pretty voice?" she asked on arrival. "I'd rather not. Nice bruises." The fair thing to do was let him have his say; he was too smart not to figure she'd already heard.

[callmeweevil]

I shrug, lookin' off to the side. "Yeah well, I asked for 'em." My eyes cut back to hers and I say pointedly, "But your boy Echolls asked for his, too. Just so we're clear and you don't think I went and picked a fight with him for no reason. I don't know what he told you, but it probably didn't paint too flattering a picture of my involvement in this."

[neptune_sleuth]

"He's not my boy," Veronica said evenly, and felt stupid for feeling the need to have said it at all. "And since when is any picture he paints flattering? He's not even any good at self-portraits these days."

[callmeweevil]

"Come on, V," I say reasonably. "You know what I'm sayin'. I didn't just decide it was a good idea to rearrange his face on a whim. There were words, and then there were fists." I don't wanna tell her that the words that started my fists doin' what they do best were about her.

[neptune_sleuth]

"So how is it exactly that I ended up in the conversation anyway?" Veronica wasn't exactly sure what game Logan was playing by telling these things, but the fact remained that the information was in her hands, and a lot could be figured out from someone's expression at unexpected news.

[callmeweevil]

My eyebrows go way up, and my gaze drops from her face to my feet. "Guess he just needed new ammo since Lilly doesn't get under my skin so much anymore," I mutter with a shrug. I hate admitting I let that get to me, and I don't wanna know what she's gonna infer from this.

[neptune_sleuth]

"And I do?" The words were out before she could grasp the full weight of them. With the earlier conversation with Logan on her mind, it was hard to focus on the here and now; there were things, Veronica was realizing, she had to tell Weevil about who they all were. It wasn't a conversation she wanted to have.

[callmeweevil]

I shove my hands deep in my pockets-- I can't believe I'm havin' this conversation, I don't wanna be havin' this conversation, but I'm not gonna turn and walk away from her, 'cus if I do not only will I have no respect for myself, but she'll probably not be speaking to me anymore.

I shrug. It could mean anything; it doesn't mean shit. "I guess," I say finally. "When he says the things he said. Yeah."

[neptune_sleuth]

"So when he implies you -" Veronica broke off, head ducking as she smiled wryly, then looked back up to him. "This? Not a conversation we need to be having."

Pretend it hadn't happened. Let it go away, fading with the bruises. She didn't need to know. "And my type? That doesn't concern you or Logan right now."

[callmeweevil]

"Your type doesn't concern me," I say, so quick it's almost a snap. "I didn't need Echolls to tell me I'm not it. I'm not as thick as I look, Veronica." I'm thinkin' maybe she's right and we don't need to talk about this-- I've done a damn good job keepin' it to myself for a long time, to the point I don't even think about it 'less it gets thrown in my face like this.

I look away, letting the silence stretch, but when I hear her take a breath I know I gotta say something else. My eyes lock back on hers and I say, "But if you think any of the men in your life-- Duncan, Logan, me, whoever-- don't think about what they gotta do to hang onto your attention, then you're the one bein' thick."

[neptune_sleuth]

Veronica's face fell into her hands as she groaned and leaned back against the tree. As far as I knew, Weevil wasn't even on that list until now. Daunting might be the word for it. After the way he's taken care of me, both here and before, it's hard to think he's one more person I'm letting down.

"I have trouble enough figuring that out for myself," she snapped, hands sliding down, arms folding, "when all of you have it. I don't need help making this harder."

[callmeweevil]

"I'm not askin' you to do anything different," I say, just as exasperated as her. "I'm just askin' you not to be dense. If you wanna ignore--" I stop with a sharp exhale and a vague flick of my hand, then continue, "Look, just don't think you know what's goin' on in my head, okay. 'Cus I wouldn't do it to you-- though it'd be stupid for me to, 'cus even after all this time I don't really know you worth a damn." My eyes are back on my feet, my mouth pressed tight. I hope she doesn't think I'm pissed, 'cus I'm not; only wishin' I'd never started this in the first place.

[neptune_sleuth]

"I don't," Veronica insisted. "I haven't got a clue what's in your head. I'm busy enough trying to figure out what's in mine." She'd been vulnerable around Weevil for better or worse, time and again, but these weren't things she wanted to be saying, reference to other people, other problems, that had nothing to do with him at all.

Her hands dropped to her sides, useless, curled in as she looked up at him. I'm not sure I know myself as well as I thought either. And I definitely don't know what to tell him now. In situations like this, sorry doesn't really cut it.