SUMMARY: Veronica figures out a way to avoid accidental cold showers. SPOILERS for late season one.

THANKS: To Em Meredith for the beta.

"Ah-ha!"  Veronica nearly sent her empty plate tumbling to the floor as she pushed herself up from the kitchen island.

Her dad looked over at her, his spaghetti-wrapped fork inches from his mouth.  "Ah-ha what?"

"I've got it," she announced, her tone undeniably smug.  How had she not thought of it before?  Embarrassing lack of focus on the problem at hand.   Or more precisely, embarrassing lack of focus on anything but a certain hot guy.

Veronica shook her head, still a little freaked out to be thinking of Logan -- Logan! -- as a hot guy instead of a smug, intolerable jackass.  Kind of a open-barn-door thing, considering the arrogant-yet-hot jackass in question had just spent a good fifteen minutes parked in front of her apartment building doing his best to persuade her to skip out on dinner with her dad.  He'd nearly succeeded, but she'd summoned the willpower to come inside.  Reluctantly.

Logan was hot.  How had she never noticed?

"Got what?" her dad prompted, then stuffed his mouth full of spaghetti and watched her with such a harmless expression that Veronica wondered if she were blushing.  Any second now he would say something like, I expect Logan Echolls to come in here and apologize the next time he parks across the street with you for twenty-three minutes.  And then she would find out if you really could die of humiliation.

So she just had to keep the conversation on a safe, innocuous topic.  "No lazy, untalented super is going to keep me down," she declared wryly.  "No more cold showers for me."  Though it occurred to her that she might need a cold shower or two if she and Logan were going to keep sneaking around.  For someone who spent what little free time she had uncovering other people's secrets, Veronica had never understood the appeal of the clandestine relationship.

It was starting to make a little more sense.

God, she hoped she wasn't blushing.  Veronica pointed in the direction of the bathroom.  "Bubblebath," she explained, speaking fast now in the hopes that it would take her mind off of the way Logan's fingers had grazed the skin of her back-- "That way I can monitor the temperature of the water as I fill the tub, thus making sure that it's warm -- and," she added with a grin, "sufficiently bubbly -- before I get in.  It'll be glorious -- no shocking bursts of cold water."

She shivered a little, unsure if it was from remembering the blistering cold of some of her recent showers, or the blistering heat of Logan's hands on her skin.

Damn.  Definitely blushing this time.

"So," Veronica continued, quickly clearing her plate and turning to the sink, "guess I'll go test my theory.  

"Don't flood the place," her dad warned, his words muffled as he wiped his mouth.  Casting one last mournful look at his plate, he stood and scraped the remnants of his dinner into the trash.  "I'll probably be late," he told her, glancing at his watch, "so do your homework and all that jazz."

Veronica smiled and gave him a quick hug.  "Yes, sir."

Her dad grabbed the last of his stuff off the side table and paused to give her a particularly penetrating look.  "And please keep in mind that Logan's windows aren't as tinted as you think they are."  With a half-smirk, he turned on his heel, leaving Veronica staring, mouth agape, cheeks flushed pink.

She briefly revived her cold shower idea, but dismissed it by the time she made it to her small bathroom.  Normal people could just turn the taps on, toss in some bubblebath, and come back in a few minutes, but she perched on the lip of the tub and tested the water temperature about every five seconds as the water ran.  The scent of strawberry rose in the moist air, and even that was enough to begin to relax her muscles.

Once she was satisfied with the volume and temperature of the water -- and the sizable layer of bubbles on top -- Veronica twisted the taps off and headed for her room.  She grabbed pajamas, her bathrobe, and a OkGo CD, which she fed to the tiny sound system perched atop the counter.  "Oh, why not," she muttered, taking another moment to light a couple scented candles and place them along the edge of the counter top.  She flipped the overhead light off and stripped, stepping into the bathtub with a happy sigh.

Mmm, warm water.  What an idea.  She sank into the heated bliss until she was submerged to her chin, closing her eyes and letting her mind drift.

Inevitably, her traitorous teenaged mind drifted pretty quickly to Logan Echolls and his immensely talented--

When her Sidekick rang, Veronica sat upright in the tub, her wet skin immediately breaking into goosebumps.  Dammit, she thought, glaring at her phone, just out of reach on the counter top.  She considered letting it ring, but she'd always been the curious type.

Kneeling up on the unforgiving porcelain, she leaned as far out of the tub as she could without toppling, and just barely got her finger tips on her phone, coaxing it forward until she could snag it.  Carefully, she settled back down in the tub, retreating into the deliciously warm water before checking the number.

"Huh," Veronica said, determined to ignore the way her pulse jumped.  They were calling each other now?  That was definitely a new development.  Not that the feverish makeout sessions weren't new and interesting, but phone calls?  That might possibly imply something more than, well, feverish makeout sessions.

Of course, considering he'd dropped her off less than an hour ago, he was probably calling for something completely unrelated to -- whatever the hell they were doing.  Calm down, Veronica, she admonished herself.  He can probably bear to be without you for a whole hour.

She brought the phone to her ear, "If it isn't the man with the not-very-tinted windows."

"Excuse me?" Logan asked by way of a greeting.

"My dad," Veronica explained.  "He kindly reminded me that your windows aren't tinted."

"Ah," Logan said, and she could *hear* the smirk on his face.  "Daddy issues."

"Logan!"  She laughed, settling a little more comfortably, her elbow propped on the edge of the tub to ensure the phone stayed well away from the water.  That would be a difficult expense to explain to her dad.  Well, dad, I was talking to Logan while bathing...

"He didn't lock you up in a tower or anything?" Logan asked.  "No chastity belts?"

"Chastity belt?"  Veronica snorted, eyeing the bubbles.  Imagine a rusty chastity belt -- that would suck.  "No, not yet."

"Excellent."  There was a brief moment of silence that was on its way to growing awkward when Logan said, "So I have a mystery for you, Veronica Mars, private dick."

"Private," Veronica scoffed, "is more than I can say for you."

Logan sounded delighted when he said, "If I'm not mistaken, my sparkling reputation was just maliciously slandered."

"Your reputation is a lot of things, Logan, but sparkling ain't one of 'em." Veronica pressed her toes against the tub and sat up a bit more.  "Of course, this might just be a case of the pot calling the kettle a whore."

She spoke without thinking, her tone breezy.  After all, she'd had a year to steal herself against the insinuations.  But Logan had, of course, been a primary participant in the Veronica-for-town-slut campaign, one of many issues that complicated this -- whatever -- they were doing.

This silence? Definitely awkward.  And Veronica had no idea what to say to get them past this.

"I'm sorry."

Veronica blinked, unable to reconcile the soft apology with the brash Logan Echolls.  She swallowed her automatic "What?" response, scrabbling for something appropriate to say.  "For what?" she finally managed, her tone equally uncertain.

"I would say I'm sorry for being an asshole, but that's not nearly specific enough," he answered, sounding a little bit bitter.  "I'm sorry for not pounding the snot out of Dick when he started calling you--"  He broke off abruptly.

The warm water wasn't doing much for Veronica at the moment, but that probably had more to do with the subject matter.  She brought her legs up to her chest and wrapped her free arm around her shins, leaning her chin on her exposed knees.  "Let's not do this," she decided.

"What?" Logan asked.   "Veronica--"

"Seriously," she interrupted, her skin prickling with the sudden chill.  "I don't want to--"

"But I need to apologize," he insisted.  "I was horrible to you."

She considered brushing him off or making a joke, but he was actually being that sincere, sweet Logan she hadn't seen in a year.  In all the Lily trauma and Duncan drama, she hadn't really realized how much she missed Logan.  "I know."

"I am sorry," he repeated.

She shivered again.  "Apology accepted."  It wasn't that easy, and she figured he knew that, too, but belaboring the point probably wouldn't help either one of them, especially considering the nebulous state of their current relationship.  "Can you hang on a second?" she asked, leaning forward and reaching for the taps.

"Sure," Logan answered, still sounding chastened.  Weird.

"Thanks," she said, then dangled the Sidekick over the edge of the tub, trying to keep it from any possible water droplets as she pulled the drain.  She cranked on the hot water to warm up her bath and re-plugged the drain.  Holding her fingers under the water until she hissed with the heat, she let the water run for a few seconds more.  As she twisted off the taps, she brought the phone back to her ear.  "Sorry.  I'm back."

"Are you doing dishes?" Logan asked, sounding half-awed, half-disapproving.

"It's really not difficult, Logan," she answered, amused.  He'd never done a dish in his life, but it was hardly a difficult task.  "Water, a sponge, some detergent."

"Sounds boring."

"It is."

"And yet you'd rather do dishes than talk to me," he answered, playing at being offended.  This was the kind of conversation she was comfortable having with him.

"While doing dishes might actually be more interesting than talking to you," she answered, "I'm actually--"  She stopped abruptly, realizing how it would sound if she said--

"Wait -- that was--?" Logan asked, sounding odd.  "Are you taking a bath?"

"Yes," she answered, blushing already.  Stupid, stupid, stupid -- did she really think Logan Echolls would let her current situation go unremarked?

"So what are you doing right now?" he asked in that strange, strained voice.

Veronica's face felt very, very hot, and she wondered why she'd felt the need to freshen up the water, considering her rising body temperature.  "Sitting?" she offered.

"Sitting where?" Logan demanded, and there was an edge to his voice that she recognized from their makeout sessions in his Xterra.  

With a sigh, she capitulated.  "I'm taking a bubblebath, okay?"

He groaned.  "Veronica, believe me when I tell you that taking a bubblebath while talking to me is more than okay.  Now if you could just describe--"

"Perv."  She fought the smile tugging at her lips.

"I can't believe you're naked right now."  If she didn't know better, she'd think he sounded more awed than pervy.

"Logan!" she yelped, sinking a little lower in the tub despite the fact that he obviously couldn't see her.  Still, speaking to Logan about her nudity was probably more intimate than anything she and Duncan had ever done.  It was exhilarating and scary at the same time.

"Unless you usually take bubblebaths wearing a wetsuit," he teased.

Veronica knew a challenge when she heard one.  "Nope," she answered.  "No wetsuit.  Just me."  He groaned again, and Veronica smirked.  Maybe more exhilarating than scary.  "This water is so warm," she purred.

"God, Veronica," Logan muttered, "please tell me you need me to rush over there and scrub your back."

"Is that what the kids are calling it these days," she shot back.  "But, no," she continued before he could answer, "me and my bath puff have it covered."

"Bath puff?"  He sounded like someone was strangling him.  He really did.

"You know, those puffy things that chicks use to rub the bath gel all over--"

"Seriously, please don't say rub to me right now."

"Gonna rub something yourself, huh, Logan?" Veronica asked in her best innocent voice.

"You have no idea," he confessed.  "I can't believe you're talking to me while you're all wet and naked."

She flushed brighter.  "And bubbly.  Don't forget the bubbles."

"Believe me, the bubbles are featured prominently in the mental image I'm working on right now," Logan told her.  "Is your hair up?"

God, he really *was* trying to picture her.  She was torn between hiding under her bed and continuing this strange, exhilarating conversation.  "In a ponytail," she answered, her voice a bit unsteady now too.  "Logan--"

"You are so hot," he interrupted.  "You have no idea what you're doing to me."

"Oh, I have some idea," she admitted ruefully.  Because this particular kind of overheated had nothing to do with the temperature of her bathwater, and everything to do with the timbre of his voice.

"You, naked in a bathtub, talking to me with that -- Dammit," he groaned.  "Can you hang on a second?"

"Uh... sure," Veronica answered, feeling very uncertain.  He wasn't... you know... was he?"

"Sorry," Logan said, sounding very irritated.  "Doorbell.  Dick and Beaver."

"Ah," Veronica answered, feeling disappointed and unsatisfied.

"Yeah, piss poor timing," Logan agreed with a heartfelt sigh.  "I was just going to ask you to do a little something for me."

Veronica's cheeks flushed and she sucked in a breath.  "I probably would've refused," she answered, but her attempt at breezy and unaffected probably failed miserably, considering she was a bit breathless.

She heard a muffled, "In a minute," from his end, then rustling as he uncovered the phone.  "Sorry.  I guess I have to go."

"You have to go play with Dick and Beaver," Veronica agreed, letting her voice go all low and seductive.  "While you leave me here all alone in my bubblebath, with no one but myself to play with."

"Oh, my God," he groaned.  "You're killing me."

"It's just a little death," she answered, grinning, even though her body still hummed with the electricity of their heated conversation.

"Veronica," he muttered.

"Go play with Dick," she answered cheerfully.  "Me and my loofah sponge will make do on our own."  The wordless noise of lust and disappointment nearly set her off laughing, but Veronica managed to hold it in long enough to say, "Have fun, Logan.  I know I will."

She hung up before he could reply, her laughter echoing off the tile walls as she settled back into the warm water.  She still wasn't sure what exactly was going on with Logan, but she had no doubts that, if nothing else, he wanted to get in her pants.  Which worked out rather nicely, since when she let herself consider her strange new relationship with him, she realized she wanted to get in his pants, too.

Ahhh, teenage courtship.  So romantic, she thought acerbically.

Of course, she never had been one for roses and heart-shaped candy.  Whatever she and Logan ended up being to each other, she would deal.

END

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