Final Gift for evie_oh
Title: Rubber and Glue (also entitled: The One Where House is Awesome)
Author: katadee
Pairing/Character: Lilly, Logan, Veronica, Duncan. (L/L, D/V, mentions of L/V and allusions to D/L) Oh, and Aaron, plus mentions of other people I can't be bothered to name.
Word Count: 3319
Rating: PG-13 (there's literally one swearword)
Summary: Lilly being contemplative is a rare occurrence, but she does it for a whole story. Look!
Spoilers: Lets say the first season to be safe. (No definite spoilers, but there is gross amounts of foreshadowing)
Warnings: Mentions of rape, incest, alcohol abuse, child abuse and underage sex and drinking. Also, pop culture references.
Disclaimer: I own neither Veronica Mars (or any of the characters, etc.) or any of the shows, movies, brands etc. mentioned in this fic. Please don't sue; I need that money for university.
A/N: Sorry for the delay.
A/N2: evie_oh asked for pre-series Lilly/Logan, Logan/Veronica, or core four - I may have done all three. Whoopsies.
Lilly Kane is not the glue, she decides as she reclines in the armchair, watching her brother, her boyfriend, and her best friend stare at the television screen with awe.
“Best.”
“Thing-”
“Ever!”
“Come on, guys, House isn't THAT good.” Lilly rolls her eyes, miffed that the TV doctor was apparently more interesting than she was. Her three best friends turn to stare at her in incredulity and she leans too far forward in an attempt to recapture at least Logan's attention.
It doesn't work.
“You take that back!” Laughter spills from her brother's mouth even as he stares at her, horrified.
“I mean, it's just another show about doctors and patients.” The Kane heiress shrugs. “It's nothing special.”
“Have you been watching the show?” Logan asks, half-serious. “House is like, a medical detective! And they break into their patient's houses.” Lilly raises an unimpressed eyebrow at him. “C'mon, that's pretty awesome.”
“I guess House is kind of hot...”
“Woah, woah, what?” Duncan sits up and glares at his sister. “I so did not need that mental picture.”
“House is a Catholic schoolgirl, right? I thought so.” Logan's eyes glaze over and he exaggeratedly stares off into the distance. Veronica giggles and hits him in the arm.
“Ew, perv.” she smiles, casting a glance at Lilly, who returns her look. Logan wiggles his eyebrows at Veronica.
“Don't worry, you're there too.”
Duncan shoves him playfully in the shoulder and Logan leaps off the bed. Both of them take up boxing stances and begin to bounce up and down on their toes.
“You want a piece of me, huh? You want a piece of me?” Duncan's voice is a few octaves lower than normal. The girls stifle a giggle.
“No, I want a piece of cake - which is what beating you will be!” Logan adopts a falsetto voice that makes Duncan crack up laughing. His best friend takes the opportunity to bounce over to him and flick him on the ear.
“The hell, dude?”
“'S your own fault. You left yourself open.”
“No I didn't! That's a foul!”
“This isn't soccer, moron.”
That may go on for a while. Now, where was she?
Oh, right. Glue and the essence of not being it.
Lilly Kane is not the glue. If she were to leave (which she will have to, eventually) the group would not fall apart. They would be devastated, they would drink a lot and cry a lot, but they would not fall apart.
Now that she thinks about it, the fact remains that no one is the glue. Their friendships are all so strong that if any of them left (or heaven forbid, died), the remaining three would stay friends. They are all different parts of the glue: Duncan is the liquid-ness, Logan is the addictive substance, Veronica is the stuff that makes it white, and Lilly...well, she needs to pay more attention in chemistry class. But it's pretty clear that she's not the glue.
She is rubber, however.
“Hey Lils, recant what you said about House or there'll be no sex for a week.” Logan swings around to face her again. Lilly smirks and is about to express her scepticism at that sentiment when Duncan groans.
“Man, that was something I did not need to know!” He puts his head in his hands and sways back and forth in absolute disgust.
“You didn't know that we're having sex?” Lilly snorts at her brother's ignorance and shakes her head. “What, did you think we were actually studying while you and Veronica played Grand Theft Auto?”
She bounces. Whatever happens, whether it's a grounding or a breakup with Logan, she gets right back up and bounces high, higher than anyone should really go.
Sometimes she reaches heights where it's impossible to breathe.
Logan is not a bouncer. He jumps, knowing that when he hits the ground it'll break his bones but doing it anyway, just for the fall. He'd jump off a bridge with no second thought if he felt no one was holding him back - Lilly's the same. She knows that one day her rubber coating is going to wear thin and she'll shatter into a million pieces, but she doesn't particularly mind.
It's the reason she's glad that she's not the glue, because she can't be responsible for her friends falling apart (which they will), or her group imploding (which it won't won't won't) and she knows that Veronica and Duncan will need to lean on Logan, because he knows how to deal with stuff like this. Or, at least, he'll learn faster than they will.
Not that she's anticipating them needing to lean on him, because that's not what good girlfriends (or, indeed, good people) do and she is a good girlfriend. Or she could be, if she wanted to.
But she doesn't want to. It scares her, sometimes.
“It was totally unprecedented!”
“Dude, we were boxing.”
“Exactly! Boxing, not flicking!”
“You're just mad because I'm having sex and you're not.”
“No, I'm mad because you're having sex with my sister!”
“Well, not right now I'm not-”
“Boys, boys. Time out!” Lilly rolls her eyes and stands up, blocking Duncan's view of Logan. “Honestly, Donut, it's none of your business who I screw.”
Duncan mutters something about missing the point and Logan rolls his eyes and opens his mouth. Lilly gives him a warning look and he closes it again.
“Logan, stop being sarcastic, it may be sexy but it's not helping. And Veronica...” Lilly turns to the other blonde, feeling that she should go around the entire group so it counts as an inspirational speech. She pauses in a rare moment of bewilderment. “...What are you doing?”
Veronica swings Logan's video camera towards her best friend and grins.
“Say cheese!”
“That's for photos, dumbass.” Lilly makes a grab for the camera but Veronica dances out of the way, laughing. She turns the lens towards the boys. Logan shakes his head and reaches out, but she jerks it away from his touch and sticks her tongue out at him.
“This is just too entertaining not to capture on tape!”
Logan stretches his hand out towards her and gives her a stern look.
“Ronnie, give me the camera.”
`”No! Just go back to what you were doing, that was good footage.”
“Give me the camera, Veronica.” Lilly tries to capture her best friend's eye and persuade her to give up the recording device. Veronica's eyes begin to twinkle and she grins.
“No.”
“Ronnie...” Logan takes a threatening step towards her.
“Guys, let her film if she wants-”
“Shut up, Donut!” Lilly turns around and glares at her brother, who wilts under her gaze. She flips her hair over her shoulder and turns back to Veronica, ready to unleash some pain, but Logan has already backed her into a corner. If he is grinning a little too much, and Veronica is giggling a little too hard, Lilly Kane doesn't notice. She has nothing nothing nothing to worry about.
Even if, when Logan pins her to the wall and begins to tickle her and Veronica shrieks with laughter but doesn't struggle as hard as she should, Lilly isn't worried. Logan and Veronica are Incompatible with a capital I. Like Lilly, Logan is far too damaged to be in a proper relationship - and that is what Veronica needs, a good, stable man/woman who will protect her to his/her last breath. Lilly tries not to remember that this is also what she needs in a best friend.
Veronica shouldn't be with a spoilt, broken brat, she needs someone more normal, someone similar to herself.
This is why Lilly is glad that Duncan has shown an interest in her best friend.
If her life had gone differently, if Veronica had never moved to Neptune, then the clever bets were on Lilly still being “besties” with Madison Sinclair. The thought of her little brother dating the Whore-Bitch from Hell makes Lilly want to puke, but Veronica is sweet and kind and all the things that endear Duncan to the female population of Neptune High, even if he is only a freshman. (Aside from the riches. Obviously, the riches are a large factor in the hero-worship.)
This pisses her off, because her little brother is pretty cool and deserves to be noticed for more than his wealthy parents and his sexy sister and his quippy best friend.
“Logan!”
Logan tenses and opens the door, leaving the still-giggling Veronica curled in a ball around the camera. Aaron is standing behind it with a stern expression on his face.
“Yes, Dad?” Logan smiles brightly. Aaron's frown deepens, and he claps his son on the shoulder.
“Logan, could you keep it down? I'm glad that you're having fun, but these producers are fickle creatures...”
“Of course, Dad. I'm sure it'll make a difference.” Logan's sarcastic comment comes off as rather ungrateful, but Aaron just narrows his eyes threateningly at the teen and smiles tightly.
“Great. Well, I'll be back later, hopefully with good news.” The movie star gives his son's shoulder one last squeeze and turns to the others. “Nice to see you all. Lilly, Veronica, Duncan.” He nods at each of them in turn and leaves, closing the pool-house door behind him. Logan's scowl significantly deepens the moment he turns his back.
“Prick.” he mutters, sitting down on the bed. Lilly bounces over to him and sighs.
“Don't be so childish, Logan. There's nothing to be pissy about.” It's nothing short of cruelty, but she says it with a smile and he laughs (it doesn't matter if it's cold and bitter, it's a laugh nonetheless).
Lilly hates Aaron. Hates hates hates him.
He thinks that just because he can get away with it, he can hurt her Logan. He thinks he's a deity just because he's in his mid-forties and still attractive, because he has a beautiful wife and servants that are paid to be blind and eleven bathrooms, and because every straight female over the age of ten looks up when he walks in a room.
She's going to have to do something about that, one day.
Now that she thinks about it, the parents in Neptune just generally suck. There's Aaron: Logan once described living with him as “tantamount to torture” (Granted, he was tipsy at the time. He gets wordy when he's tipsy.). There's Lynn and Lianne, who Lilly counts as basically the same person if you ignore their differences in wealth. There's Jake, who tries to connect with his children but never actually succeeds, and Celeste, who Lilly is pretty sure has a load of gravel in the cavity meant for her her heart. It would explain her pasty complexion.
And then there's Keith, who is possibly the only sane adult in the Southern Californian area.
Veronica rolls her eyes. “I will never understand you two.” She squeezes onto the bed between her best friend and her boyfriend, still clutching the camera tightly to her chest. Duncan smiles at her.
“Is that still filming?” he asks. Veronica puts a finger to his lips and shushes him, and Logan and Lilly sigh in unison.
“Seriously?”
“C'mon, give up the damn camera, Veronica, or I swear I'll clobber you over the head with it.”
“That makes no sense; how can you clobber her over the head with it if she won't give it to you?”
Lilly glares at her brother, then leans over to Veronica and whispers a few words in her ear. Veronica lets out a squeak of disgust and immediately drops the camera into her lap. Lilly picks it up, examines it for a moment, then hits her best friend on the head with it.
“That's how, Donut.”
Logan chuckles at Veronica's pout, and she glares at him.
“Alright, I'm getting drinks. Anyone want some?” Logan asks, hopping off the bed.
“We'll just have juice, thanks.” Duncan smiles at Logan, who nods and disappears into the other room. Lilly stands up and follows him.
“You're not actually just getting juice, right?” She sashays over to the mini-fridge as her boyfriend digs around under the couch cushion. He stands up with a screwdriver in his hands.
“No.” Logan grins, twirling the tool in his fingers and dragging a chair so it is underneath the air vent on the wall. He climbs onto the furniture, wobbles, then regains his balance and begins to unscrew the vent cover. “By the way, what did you tell Veronica to make her give up the camera? Here, catch.” Lilly catches the vent cover with the hand that doesn't have a bottle of juice in it and smiles.
“I told her there was a dirty video on it.”
Logan snorts with laughter and shakes his head. He pauses in consternation. “Is there?”
“Well, only a little one.”
“Lilly!”
“What? You should be flattered that I want to see your naked ass all the time!”
“If that thing gets anywhere near the tabloids, I swear-”
“Jeez, chill out! I'm already, like, a bazillionairess; why would I sell it to the gossip rags for a few thousand dollars when I already have everything I could possibly want?”
“Everything?”
There's a pregnant pause that echoes around the room. Lilly hopes he's in a good enough mood to let this one slide.
“So you won't mind if I don't get you anything for your birthday, then?” Logan's smirk is back, even as he picks up the camera from where Lilly dropped it and takes out the tape.
“Like hell you won't.”
“You're right. I wouldn't want to anger the Beast.” An unsuspecting Logan stashes the tape in the vent, and takes out the key to the liquor cabinet.
“Did you just call me fat?” Lilly takes a threatening step forward and Logan's eyes widen, zeroing in on the pulsing vein in her neck.
“Uh-oh. There it is.”
“I'm going to kill you...slowly.”
“I mean: you are the fairest in all the land, oh queen of queens, heart of hearts, and a heavier Lilly shall still taste as sweet. Shall I compare thee to a glass of scotch? Thou art more delicious and just as hardcore. All's fair in Lilly and Lilly, and words cannot describe thy beauty. God does not need to lend her boobs, the Lilly of Shalott. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways, do not go gentle into that good night. Iguanadon,-”
Lilly rolls her eyes, her exasperation dissipating fast. “Yeah yeah yeah. And?”
“And you are in no way fat.”
Lilly smiles seductively at him, then wraps her arms around his neck. Logan kisses her, his fingers resting on the exposed strip of skin above the waistband of her jeans. Lilly deepens the kiss, then breaks away and elicits a moan of frustration from Logan as she perkily returns to making the drinks.
“C'mon! We gotta get the virgins their non-virgin juice.”
Logan sighs and fetches four glasses, setting them on the table beside the liquor cabinet. Lilly peeks up at him through her eyelashes.
“...Or we could have sex.” she suggests, twirling a strand of hair around her finger.
Logan's mouth twists into a playful smile.
“I think they'll notice if we're gone that long.”
Lilly pouts at him as he pours juice into the glasses. He holds out the bottle of vodka to her, grinning.
“You do the honours.”
Lilly hesitates, then pours a generous amount of the liquor into each of the glasses. The two pick up the drinks and make their way into the other room.
“You've been served,” Lilly quips as she passes Duncan and Veronica their drinks, and takes hers from Logan.
Veronica's head is leant against Duncan and Lilly can't help the pang of jealousy that stabs at her, even as Logan wraps his arm around her shoulders. Veronica is hers, her best friend. She found her first and now Duncan takes up some of the time that she previously spent with Lilly.
And Duncan doesn't feel that way about her and Logan. He just thinks it's gross. Lilly's envious of the boys and their stupid lack of feelings; it's not fair the way they don't let stuff affect them.
Duncan takes a sip of his drink and it comes shooting out of his nostrils as he coughs and splutters.
“Shit, what did you guys put in these?” he exclaims, wiping his face. Lilly is too busy laughing to answer and Logan can barely contain the smile on his face. Veronica frowns and inspects the contents of her glass with unease. Duncan glares at his sister and best friend.
“Seriously, guys! This isn't funny!”
“Chill out, Donut! Are you afraid that Celeste might find out?”
“No!-”
“Oh, you so are! Don't be such a girl.”
“Lilly, this is illegal!”
“So is jaywalking, and you do that all the time.” Lilly points out, taking another sip from her drink. Logan rolls his eyes.
“As much as I hate to admit this, she's right. It's not like you're going to go crazy and, like, rape someone, dude.”
“You spiked my drink! That's a violation of trust.” At this Logan snorts with laughter.
“Now you sound like you're in a chick flick.”
“Oh, for god's sake, stop arguing!” Veronica reprimands at the bickering teens. “Look, here, it's not that bad.” she says, before tentatively downing a good third of her glass. She coughs, gags, and coughs again, her eyes beginning to water. “Gah. I feel violated.” She screws up her face in disgust and pours the rest of the beverage into Logan's cup.
“Cheers,” the surprised boy toasts her. Duncan sniffs his drink and wrinkles his nose.
“Here,” He leans over and adds the contents of his glass to Lilly's drink. She smiles brightly at him.
“Hey, speaking of chick flicks-”
“There was no speaking of chick flicks-”
“-Speaking of chick flicks...The Breakfast Club or Sixteen Candles?” Lilly hands her drink to Logan (who takes a gulp) and pulls the two DVDs out of her backpack, ignoring the groans from everyone else in the room.
“Lilly, we watched both of those yesterday!” Veronica points out, snuggling back under her boyfriends arm.
“So? These babies will never get old!”
“They're already old, sis.”
“Shut up, Donut!”
“Lilly, would watching Heathers satisfy your eighties fetish?” Veronica suggests, always the peace-maker. Or the attempted peace-maker, anyway.
“No. It's these or bust!”
“What do you think, Logan?”
Logan stares into both his drinks.
“I'm going to go with Lilly on this one.”
“What?!”
“Sorry, bro. Boobs before dudes and all that.”
Lilly cackles in delight and sticks her tongue out at her brother. He sighs.
“Fine, but it's still a tie. Two against two.”
They always seem to divide into twos, whichever way you split it. Best friends, couples, or Kanes and not-Kanes.
“Actually, I count as two because I'm so fabulous. Did I not mention that?”
“Oh, screw you.”
“It would be weird if you did. Sister, remember?”
“Argh. Shut up and put the damn movie in.”
“Because you argued, we're watching the one without boobs in.”
“I hate you.”
“You love me.”
“...Shut up.”
She does.