Stop Being Cool (Nick Jonas/Logan Lerman, 2/2)
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He arranges a day at the beach with Nick and Selena, eventually, for a weekend they all have off. Nick's busy with wrapping up the second season of his show and preparing their world tour, Selena's still performing more and more shows with her band, and Logan is really busy with organizing his house on The Sims lately. It's hard work, and he feels like beaching it is necessary, but Selena has to bail out at the last minute.
"You and me then, Jonas," Logan says when Nick shows up with the news.
"A whole afternoon of making you look bad in the water," Nick says, looking more excited about it than Logan sees him get about most things.
"It's really creepy how you get off on being better than me at things," Logan says.
Nick's jaw drops a little, indignant. "No, I don't."
Logan laughs and grabs his surfboard, running off and shouting, "Last one buys dinner!"
He makes it to the water first, but then Nick really does proceed to embarrass Logan when it comes to surfing. They're both kind of bad at it, but at least Nick pretends pretty well. Logan gets really good at falling, and then just takes to sabotaging Nick as much as possible for fun.
He's exhausted and starving after a few hours, washing up on the shore and complaining about how he aches all over and feels like he hasn't eaten in a decade.
"Yeah, yeah," Nick says, but he holds out his hand for Logan and helps him out. "I'll feed you."
"I do love a man that takes control," Logan says, draping an arm around Nick's shoulders.
Nick says, "What do you want?"
"You're buying. You pick," Logan says. Nick always picks good restaurants anyway.
They eat dinner, and Logan ends up going out to Burbank for lunch a few times in the following week. He sees Nick a lot, plays ball with him and his brothers, and finds himself around the Jonas family so often that Kevin says he's afraid they're training his replacement.
"I really couldn't replace you if I wanted to," Logan says, because if Nick is so courteous it's sickening sometimes, Kevin is three times worse. He might literally be the nicest person on the entire planet. Logan would probably bet money it.
"No, we're just grooming him so we can adopt him," Joe says. "Don't worry, Kev. We talked about it, and we're going to let you stay around."
"Well, thanks, Joe. That's comforting."
"We're a kind people," Joe says, touching his hand to his heart, and Logan laughs.
They're a goofy bunch of guys, especially when they all get together, but Logan's in touch with that most days. They're good company. He goes out with them a few times, but more often it's just Logan and Nick wasting time. He and Nick even write a song together, something upbeat and fun, and Logan keeps defaulting to Nick for how to best impress his agents with his wardrobe. Nick is still too good at everything for someone their age, but Logan doesn't hate him anymore. He even thinks Nick's kind of alright.
;;
It's Logan's dad who brings something important to Logan's attention when he comes in from work and says, "Did you break up with your girlfriend? She's not coming over anymore, so you don't clean up anymore?"
"What?" Logan asks.
"You've been wearing the same shirt for three days."
"It's not because I'm depressed, Dad," Logan says, looking down at his shirt and then raising his arm to sniff himself. Whatever, he doesn't even really smell bad.
Larry says, "You're perfectly happy?"
He feels great, yes. Logan shrugs and says, "Yeah, I'm awesome."
"Then wash some dishes," Larry says. "Spread the joy in the kitchen's direction. Get your brother and sister to help."
"Seriously?" Logan says. That's not fair. He didn't even mess up most of those dishes.
He announces this loudly, even as he heads into the other room and unloads the clean dishes to load dirty plates into the dishwasher. It's while he's looking at a plate and trying to figure out if it's got ketchup dried on it or something worse that he thinks about his dad asking about a girl, trying to remember if his dad ever even met Selena, that he realizes it's been a while since he's heard from her.
He stops to send her a message, typing, yooooo. long time, no coffee and danish.
The dishwasher is almost full by the time she texts back, who eats danishes anymore?
He writes: danish people? where you been?
work work work, Selena shoots back, and Logan completely understands that. That is, he could if he was working right now, so actually he can't relate at all.
let's hang out. you, nick & me, he sends, and he finishes cleaning up the kitchen. She's only sent back a smiley face when Logan checks it again, which he figures is a yes, so he starts thinking about another beach day and falls asleep imagining himself owning the ocean like he's half fish.
;;
They don't ever actually make it out to the beach, though. Two weeks go by, and Logan hangs out with Nick, but Selena's sort of Missing In Action.
They're standing in line for concession before they start and independent movie marathon. Logan likes to go to those as much as possible, keep tabs on the smaller pictures and possible upcoming directors, and Nick likes not being harassed by the paparazzi, so sitting in dark theaters is right up his alley. Logan orders a large popcorn, two large fountain drinks, a box of Whoppers, and then he almost gets a package of Red Vine, but he stops, because Selena is the one who likes to drink her soda through those.
"Dude, I feel like I haven't seen Selena in years," Logan says, when the clerk walks off to collect their snacks.
Nick says, "Oh, yeah," and takes a breath. "Me neither."
"How is she busier than you? You have about twelve projects going on at once."
"She's got the album, too. She has a lot on her plate," Nick says, fiddling the headband he's got on his hair.
Logan says, "I was trying to think of when we could hang out again. We should go to Six Flags. Call her."
"We're actually," Nick starts and tilts his head to the side, stretching his neck. "We haven't been spending a lot of time together, for a little while."
"Wait." Logan scratches his fingers over the glass casing with all the display candy. "Did you break up?"
Nick makes a noncommittal noise, and then says, "We were just trying something out. It's not like --"
"You broke up!" Logan says, interrupting him. "You didn't even tell me!"
"We've both got busy summers coming up," Nick says, like he's rehashing part of the conversation he never even told Logan they had right there, live and in-person. "We have the Jonas Brothers world tour. She's got stuff with her own music and a new movie."
Logan says, "You're supposed to tell your good friends when you're hurting."
"It's not really that dire a situation."
"I'm really great at commiserating. My friend Dean -- have you met him yet? You should meet him -- he has this whole thing about burning pictures of his exes as a cleanse."
Screwing up his mouth, Nick makes a wary sort of noise. He says, "I don't really know."
"No, the burning crap is just dramatic, but I get to make the mix CDs. I'm really good at that part," Logan says, paying for their junk and handing Nick his soda and the Whoppers. "You can have your own volume of Songs To Be A Dumped Bastard To."
Nick's chuckle seems accidental. He says, "What's the tone of something like that?"
"A little of everything," Logan says, nodding seriously. "It'll take you smoothly through the five stages of grief, leave you with a little optimism."
"Do you make mix CDs or self-help audiobooks?"
"Jonas has jokes, wow," Logan says, elbowing Nick lightly as they walk toward the theater and settle in. Once they're in their seats, Logan holds the popcorn out for Nick to grab some. "You never know, it could inspire you to write a song."
Nick says, "Other people's songs could inspire me to write songs."
"No, my mix cd could inspire you," Logan clarifies. "I've been told I'm an inspiring person. I made this one kid want to be president one day --"
"Yeah, yeah," Nick says, talking over Logan, and Logan just talks louder until a couple a few rows ahead tells them to shut it. Nick, of course, apologizes.
;;
"You're giving him one of my mixes?" Dean asks.
Logan rolls his eyes. "I'm going to make him a new one. He can have one of his own."
"I think you're wrong about how great this Jonas brother guy is. He seems like a homewrecker to me," Dean says, lying on Logan's bed and looking at him from upside down. "You used to love me."
"I thought I told you to stop watching soap operas when you're home during the daytime," Logan says, scrolling through his iPod to figure out what to start with for Nick's disc.
Dean says, "They suck you in, dude," and topples off the bed, sitting on the floor with Logan. "Speaking of homewrecking, did they break up over you? Have you and Selena -- you know? That's going to suck when he finds out."
"He's my friend," Logan says. "Dean, man. I'm not an asshole."
"You were going to be," Dean says.
"Well." Logan shrugs and thinks, yes, The Cure. There has to be some Robert Smith. "I'm not."
;;
It was different when Logan didn't really know anything about Nick other than his accomplishments and his personal agenda to save the world. Nick isn't necessarily more laid back than his resume implies, but he's still approachable. He's still actually a teenager who sometimes likes to see How To Train Your Dragon in 3D twice, the second time without even having the buffer of his younger brother there to make it seem like a favor.
That had been kind of a great afternoon, because then they spent an hour at Yogurtland, trying to think of all the combinations they could put together for maximum satisfaction. Logan had suffered a lot of brain freeze that day, but it had still been a good time.
Nick makes him go hiking, of all things, which strikes Logan as the exact opposite kind of behavior appropriate for break-up moping. He really would rather walk around in an undershirt at home and snap into a Slim Jim. He bought an economy-sized tin from Costco last week.
"That sounds disgusting," Nick says as Logan tells him about it.
"No!" Logan says. "No, not disgusting. Glorious. Also, dude, I made you a CD, and there's no boombox out here."
"We'll chill out after."
Logan feels like he's going to die from all the exercise Nick makes him get, but it's kind of cool when they get to the top. Nick pulls out burritos and bottles of water from his satchel, and they eat on a mountaintop in the middle of the day.
"What is this, your thinking space?" Logan asks.
Nick hums for a second, then says, "I don't know yet. I've never actually been up here."
"It's a good spot," Logan says. They should have brought a guitar or something. "I vote yes on it, though it's way too much effort to get to the top."
"We walked for maybe half an hour."
"I was born here, dude. I don't know how to walk for longer than five minutes without seeing my life start to flash before my eyes." Logan shakes his hands in front of his face to demonstrate. "And we walked for twenty-five whole extra minutes? My life is surprisingly short. I've watched a lot of cartoons during it, I realize."
Nick laughs, tossing the wrapper for his burrito at Logan's head. He says, "Shut up. Where's my cathartic experience? I thought you were a motivational speaker or something."
"Oh, right," Logan says, swallowing a mouthful of tortilla and rice and beans. "You're a majestic snowflake. Your curls spring eternal."
"What?" Nick asks, doubling over. Logan can't help but crack a smirk too.
He says, "They're power statements! Dude, I don't know. It's not the same without a soundtrack."
"That was terrible," Nick says, shaking his head in disbelief.
"It's the thought that counts. Come on, we need music."
They do eventually head back to civilization. Nick even lets Logan drive his big, stupid truck, which Logan would laugh at him for more often if it wasn't also the coolest ride Logan's ever had. He feels like a beast in Nick's Super Duty, capable of mowing down old ladies and bears alike, and then swooping into gas stations to load up on diesel fuel like some tall, intimidating, badass, grown man.
"Yesss," Logan says when Nick tosses him the keys. Getting behind the wheel, he curls his hands around the steering wheel and squeezes. "Don't you love the get-up in this thing?"
"It's a nice car," Nick says, closing his eyes as he leans back in the passenger seat. "Gets me where I need to go."
Logan's tempted to shout "What is the point of you?" because only Nick would buy a dudebro car, and then not want to have college frat boy conversations about it. Logan just starts the engine and heads to his house.
Nick hangs around for the afternoon. Logan's cleaned his room, but the rest of the house is still kind of a mess, and Nick one-ups him as a son by doing the dishes while Logan straightens up the living room. He puts his mix CD in the stereo and plays it loudly, singing along with all the tracks. He keeps getting distracted from his tasks because of it, shuffling into the kitchen and picking up a ladle to use as a microphone.
"Is this Cat Stevens?" Nick asks.
"Better statement: thank God, it's Cat Stevens," Logan says, and then drops the ladle into the sink. He tugs at the wash cloth in Nick's hand, and says, "Dude, stop helping. You're my guest."
"I'm useful."
"You're annoying, and you're making me look bad," Logan says, clenching his fingers together when Nick tries to take the cloth away. "No way. Go kick your feet up and have some jerky."
"I refuse," Nick says, but he seems amused.
"Forget it, then. I didn't want you to have any of my snacks anyway." He nudges Nick's shoulder, sort of stumbling them back. Logan's side grazes the counter, and he looks down at Nick. He touches Nick's arm to regain his balance, catching his eyes, and then edging back. "I'll finish this."
He does finally get Nick to just hang out with some added insistence, and Logan finishes cleaning up just in time for the pizzas his mom brings home. He grabs one box for him and Nick, and after Nick thanks her too many times, Logan drags him away to watch TV in his room and play video games. They get caught trying to beat Halo 2 from the beginning randomly, and when Nick yawns around midnight, Logan says, "Hey, you can crash here, you know. Did you talk to your parents? Stick around."
"I should get home," Nick says, holding the back of his hand up to his mouth as he yawns again.
"It's up to you," Logan says, and Nick makes more noises about leaving, then dozes off while Logan's in the middle of killing a bunch of aliens.
He doesn't even really notice until he's ready to turn the game off. As he switches the television back to cable, he hears Nick mumbling things. "What was that?" Logan asks, looking around, but Nick's talking in his sleep like a creepy weirdo, and Logan touches his calf and shakes him some. "Hey. Nicholas, stop that."
"Hm," Nick says, opening his eyes with a start. "What time is it?"
"Get in the bed, man. It's huge. Your back will like you more," Logan says.
Nick gets up and mumbles, "I gotta get back home."
"Sleep," Logan insists, pushing at Nick's knees and making him collapse on the bed. "Take your shoes off and crash."
Nick does so after a moment of pause, getting his bearings. He toes off his shoes and then falls to the side, taking off his watch, dogtags, and ring and setting them on Logan's nightstand. He's out again less than a couple minutes later, and Logan laughs about it to himself. He's tempted to take a picture so he can Photoshop drool in later or something, just in case that kind of thing comes in handy, but the light isn't bright enough, and he quickly realizes how stupid he must look trying to take a picture of Nick with his camera phone.
He gets ready for bed too, instead, turning out the light and climbing over Nick to get into the other spot.
"I should have made you sleep by the wall," he says, purposely kicking Nick, but Nick hardly even stirs.
;;
Logan isn't used to sleeping with other people in his bed very often, let alone getting smacked in the face early in the morning. It doesn't help that reflexes have him throw his own arm out, but the wrong way, and so Logan knocks his knuckles hard against the wall, jarring him awake more.
"Fuck," Logan hisses. "What the fuck."
"Shh," Nick mumbles. "Language."
"Ow," Logan says, opening his eyes to try to glare at Nick. "Are you trying to beat me up in my sleep?"
Nick's eyes pop open, and he pushes up on his elbows. "Wait," he says. "Where am I?"
"My house, dude," Logan says, shaking out his hand, and then rubbing his face. "I treat you right, and you take advantage of me in my home."
"Oh, no," Nick says, dropping his face into the pillow. "No, I didn't call my parents. They're gonna kill me."
"I can't even picture them getting mad at you," Logan says, yawning. "Chill out."
"I gotta go," Nick says, rolling over some, and Logan grabs his arm.
"Dude, the sun is barely out. It can wait," Logan says. Shifting around more, Nick mumbles something else about getting his shoes. Logan grabs onto his again, tugging at the back of Nick's shirt. "Quit. Seriously."
His fingers bump against Nick's back, and when Nick rolls back, Logan's hand gets trapped underneath him. He pulls away, moving to Nick's side instead, and then around to Nick's stomach as Nick faces him again.
"You can't let me sleep past seven," Nick says. "Really."
"Alright," Logan says, and he wonders if moving his hand will make it weird, because he didn't intend for his fingers to stop that low. Nick hasn't noticed yet, but the second Logan moves at all, he does, eyes darting down, and Logan feels like he's been caught in the middle of something.
"Okay," Nick says tentatively. His stomach goes a little concave, like he's trying to figure out what to do about this too.
Logan finally says, "Cool," and just does it one feel swoop, lifting his arm to pat Nick's shoulder. "Now, no talking in your sleep this time."
"Was I doing that?" Nick asks. "Sorry."
"It was cute," Logan says, intending for playful, but it just comes out soft and sleepy this early, troublingly genuine. "And weird. Crazy weird."
But the addendum doesn't make it better, and Logan wonders why he hasn't just gone to sleep to spare himself any more damage. Nick blinks, silent but unmoving. His eyes are equally heavy, still tired, caught up in the quiet of a morning and sleepy house. Logan brings his hand higher, because it's the kind of thing that seems appropriate in this setting, touching Nick's head, and then his face, and Logan thinks about pinching his cheek as payback, but he tilts his chin up and kisses Nick instead.
Nick isn't coaxed into it so much as it takes him a moment to catch on, it feels like, and then his own fingers are hovering around Logan's jaw, fluttering down by his shoulder. Logan lifts his head some to make it all fit better, and Nick finally tangles his hand in Logan's shirt, holding on tightly.
Logan kisses him until Nick's grip loosens, like a cue for breath, and then the ceiling becomes really interesting. Nick hides his face in his pillow, and Logan closes his eyes to keep from doing anything else reckless, even though Nick's fingers are still right there against his ribs.
He moves his own hand up, touching Nick's. There's a small battle, fingers tripping over fingers. Despite his most noble efforts, Logan opens his eyes again and sees Nick looking at him. His breaths are quiet even though Logan's still close enough to rock into him without moving too much, lips grazing Nick's cheekbone, conspiring against the morning with affection and letting the weight of it settle their limbs and send them drifting off again.
;;
When Logan wakes up a few hours later, Nick's shoes, jewelry, and everything are gone. The clock tells him it's after nine in the morning, but it still, surprisingly, kind of sucks. Logan makes a mental note about Nick Jonas being a deserter, and then scraps the whole list, because it doesn't actually make him feel any better.
He goes downstairs and drinks milk from the carton until Lucas comes down and says, "What the hell? Get a cup."
Logan pours himself a bowl of cereal, eats half, and then dumps the rest to go shower and brush his teeth. He's distracted the whole time, so much so that he gets caught up staring at his bed when he gets out. He gnaws on his lip as he thinks about Nick lying there, the weight of his body on Logan's hand, wondering if he's supposed to call him or not.
His phone rings, shocking him out of his daze, and Logan sees Dean's name on the screen as he answers. "Hey."
"It's supposed to only be in the seventies today. Ride?" Dean asks.
"Yeah, give me a minute. I'll meet you," Logan says, hanging up. He puts on clothes, makes sure he has his cell and house keys, then grabs his bike from the garage and rides down to Dean's house.
On nice days, they like to ride out of Beverly Hills and capture a bunch of random footage around Los Angeles to create montages and practice more editing effects on Logan's desktop. Their last video was called "Hobos in Space," and really just featured this guy they saw dancing on Beverly near Miracle Mile blended with a bunch of footage from Armageddon.
Today Dean keeps trying to get shots of kids as they run around or are out shopping with their parents, riding closer and closer the hills leading to the beach, and Logan zones out as he films some girl skipping around a car as her mother packs the groceries into the trunk, wondering how close they are to the sushi place Nick introduced to him.
"Alright, creepy," Dean says, jabbing Logan hard in the arm. "Don't get carried away. There's a fine line between this and pedophile."
Coming out of his daze -- another ridiculous moment where he thinks about something to do with Nick Jonas, Logan says, "You would know," with less bite than he likes, and then moves to pick up his bike. "Hey, let's eat somewhere."
"That's the best idea you've had all day," Dean says.
They stop at a burger spot instead of going out of their way to find anything special. Logan thinks it's probably a smarter call than fish anyway, and he picks at the chips they put on the table between him and Dean, checking his phone every couple minutes.
"You're antsy today, dude," Dean says. "Waiting for somebody. Ooh, did you talk to Selena?"
"I think I made out with Nick this morning?" Logan says, voice definitely pitching up at the end like a question. He winces. "I mean."
"Wait," Dean says, furrowing his brow. "You did what? You didn't just say Nick."
"It was early!" Logan says. He leans in more, glancing around at a couple of the other booths. "He spent the night at my house."
"I told you. Homewrecker!" Dean says, leaning in too.
Logan says, "What does that even mean?"
"He's not replacing me," Dean says. "I'm your best friend first."
"Could you make this less about you? We're not dating," Logan says, wondering why he ever picked a friend that's such a drama fiend.
Dean says, "But you said never again! And now this guy."
"Okay, that was different, number one. Two, quit whisper yelling at me," Logan says, shaking his head. Dean still sort of has some weird delusions about him and Logan being hetero-life partners with a soul bond, because they jerked off to the same internet porn at the same time once. And while it was sufficiently bizarre for a day after, they kept hanging out anyway, but Logan doesn't think that means they're bonded over anything other than maybe being a little bit queer sometimes, with your best bro, as long as you're watching a straight couple get down in thirty second free site clips at fourteen. "Can we discuss the fact I kissed the wrong half of that couple?"
"Did you want to?" Dean asks, and then rears his head back and gasps. "Do you want to do it again?"
"He won't call me," Logan says and slaps his hands against his face, over his eyes. "Why do I give a shit?"
"That's really gay," Dean says, nodding, expression thoughtful. "Actual gay."
"Thanks," Logan says, burying his head in his arms.
Popping more chips into his mouth, Dean says, "You should have told me if you wanted to experiment."
"Please stop talking."
"I'm saying," Dean says. "I would've supported you. I like the ladies. I've got a little reputation by now, but still. I would've helped you out."
"I appreciate that, but shut up."
"Just letting you know I'm here," Dean says, crunching away loudly still. He taps Logan's arm and waits for Logan to peek. "Hey, so does this mean Selena's still on the market?"
;;
Leave it to him to start out with one goal and completely turn it on its head. Logan can't even trace how things got shifted out of whack. He definitely keeps willing his phone to signal a new message from Nick or something, so he should probably just accept that his whole initial plan for everything involving a couple of Disney stars is fucked. The saying might be 'keep friends close and enemies closer,' but Logan sort of doubts that was supposed to mean to keep your enemy so close they become a friend he makes out with at five in the morning. He's pretty certain that part he made up.
Instead of going home with Dean, Logan keeps on riding back to his house. As he's putting his bike away, he pulls out his phone for the millionth time and thinks, fuck it. He'll just do it. He can be an adult about this and make the call himself.
He isn't surprised when he gets Nick's voicemail, but he does realizes he hasn't actually planned what he wants to say. He tries, "Uh," and swallows. "Hey. It's me. I wanted to make sure that you, uh. Made it home okay, I guess. You could've woken me up this morning. I know I probably had morning breath or something, but you didn't have to run out, or." He chuckles lamely and feels lame and wants to hang up. "Anyway, yeah. I just wanted to, you know. Yeah. I'll talk to you later hopefully."
Ending the call, Logan stares down at his phone and says, "What the fuck was that? That was awful."
He's officially the most pathetic person he knows. It's kind of disgusting, truth be told, so he goes in the house and eats an entire bag of Cheetos Puffs to try to feel like himself again.
His phone rings an hour later. Logan drops it on the carpet when he first sees Nick's name, and then scrambles across the floor to grab it and answer. "Hello? Hello, hi, hey."
"Are you okay?" Nick asks.
Logan takes a breath and tries not to be complete loser. It's kind of rough. He says, "Yeah, I just -- whatever, yeah. What's up?"
"We should probably talk," Nick says, even and direct.
"Right," Logan says, agreeing. "Now, or do you want me to meet you somewhere?"
"We were filming on location today. I'm kind of beat, but we could get breakfast or something, tomorrow."
"Sure. For sure," Logan says, turning around his room a few times as if that requires him to actually do anything at all right now. He's so disoriented. "Um. Should I come your way?"
"I can pick you up at like nine, if that's cool."
"Yeah," Logan says. "Let's do it. I mean, let's, uh, eat tomorrow."
"Okay. Cool. I'll see you in the morning then."
"Yeah! Definitely. I'll, uh. I'll be here," Logan says, and they don't draw out the goodbyes too much longer. He hangs and presses his mouth against the edge of his phone, letting it all sink in. They have to talk. "Oh, fuck me."
;;
In the morning, Logan wakes up at seven without being cued by an alarm clock for the first time in his life. He can't get back to sleep either, so he hops in the shower, and then stands around the kitchen, tempted to eat something and reminding himself it's a bad idea. Nick will show up in a little over an hour, and then they'll have breakfast and talk about the day before, and Logan realizes that the rumbling he feels isn't hunger but unwanted nerves.
He watches broadcast cable cartoons he's never heard of for an hour, then ends up sitting on the porch and listening to his iPod while he waits. Nick pulls up in his big, black truck ten minutes before nine, and Logan pushes his headphones down to his neck and stands.
"Hey," he says as Nick comes around to the gate. Logan waves and then uses his hand to shield his eyes as he steps out from under the trees and lets Nick onto the property.
"Morning," Nick says, pushing his sunglasses up.
Logan says, "So, where to?"
"Actually, can we take a minute? Before we go."
"Oh, yeah," Logan says, nodding. He looks over his shoulder. "Uh. Let's go in the back, though. I'll get you a soda. Come on."
They cut through the house, Logan stopping to grab a can of Diet Coke for Nick and passing it back to him. Once they get out to the backyard, Logan shrugs a few times and turns around to face Nick.
Nick says, "Thanks for this," holding up the soda.
"Of course," Logan says, and then clears his throat. "So. That was unexpected."
"Yeah," Nick says, dragging out the word and letting it fade. "Yesterday -- I didn't mean to just take off."
"Look, I want to say that that wasn't what I was going for," Logan says, cutting in on the tail end of Nick's sentence. "It wasn't me, like, inviting you over so I could move in on you or something."
"I didn't think that," Nick says, scratching his head idly. He's got another headband on, and he tugs at it, then lets his arm drop back to his side.
Logan says, "Good, because I don't usually do that. My parents wouldn't let me just have someone over like that to, you know. That was out of the ordinary for me."
"It's the same for me. We both live with our parents still, obviously," Nick says. "I usually ask people out. I'm -- I'm pretty straightforward."
"That's true," Logan says, holding eye contact so that Nick knows he's listening. He sees Nick tug at the strap on his bag and touch his hair again, idly. He still looks a little tired, probably a hazard of the hour, but Logan doesn't want to think to much about sleep, because then he thinks about them being in the same bed again.
"Yeah," Nick says, a sort of anticlimactic ending.
Logan shoves his hands in his jacket pockets and says, "Well, alright," even though they haven't solved anything. He shrugs and thinks about where they could go for breakfast. He starts with, "Well, we could head east again, back through West Hollywood," and doesn't get that part of the conversation off the ground as Nick comes forward, brushing their mouths together.
Logan really, really hopes everyone in his house is still sleeping, because he's not ready to have to explain this first thing in the morning. He's still preoccupied with playing catch-up himself, tilting his head and bringing one of his hands up to touch Nick's shoulder, opening his mouth wider. Nick's fingers graze the side of Logan's face, move back to touch Logan's hairline and then slip down against his neck. He touches Logan's side, and this close Logan can smell the strawberries again, a little embarrassed that he's been around Nick enough to know familiar scents, but under the circumstances, it might not be something he has to get bent out of shape about.
Nick's kissing Logan, and Logan kisses him back, apparently the kind of person who catalogues Nick's smells and has a secret list of times he's made Nick smile, and he's so pathetic, but they still got together at nine in the morning to talk about their relationship anyway. Nick makes a short humming noise against Logan's mouth and sighs, and when he breaks the kiss, they keep their foreheads pressed together.
Licking his lips, Logan says, "Hey, uh. That felt kind of intentional."
Nick huffs out a breath, barely a laugh. He says, "A little bit, I think."
"Just checking," Logan says. He straightens up to see Nick better, staring at his mouth and then widening his scope. He sort of wants to lean in again already, and that's pretty weird.
"I want to take to you breakfast," Nick says seriously.
Logan chuckles, failing to temper the smirk that cuts across his mouth. He says, "You don't have to through a lot of trouble, dude. I think Toaster Strudels count as a balanced breakfast."
"No, I want to," Nick says. "I said, this is my thing. Let me do it."
"Okay, okay," Logan says, recoiling when Nick bumps a loose fist against his middle, grabbing his hand. He curls his own fingers around Nick's loosely, and he feels like a big, goofy kid, standing around at Junior prom again, but he's kind of excited about it for some reason too. "You definitely have a crush on Bobby McCallister."
Shaking his head, Nick says, "Stop. I'll take everything back and you can eat your Poptarts."
"No, let me have this! You were so into me when I was thirteen. That's bad-ass," Logan says. "Superman learned everything he knows from Batman after all."
"What are you talking about?"
"Nothing. I was telling someone about how you're -- you're like this Superman, it's -- forget it. It's dumb." Logan makes quick motions at his neck, killing the line of thought. He uses the moment of dead space that follows to crane his head in again. "Hey, so. So I can kiss you now, right? Is it messed up that I want to do that?"
Nick shrugs, which is about as good an answer as Logan was expecting, so he just goes for it. There's more confidence in it this time, and that's number three. Three kisses in the bag, and Logan's already thinking about how to get number four before the day is done. Logan did hours of research on Nick Jonas proving himself to be a great boyfriend, and now Logan's the one making out with him. Complete one-eighty.
He says that to Nick when he steps away again. "Want to know the weird thing? When I met you, I was trying to flirt with your girlfriend."
"Don't tell me that," Nick says, groaning, but a grudging smile flashes across his face for a second. "Dude."
"It's just funny how stuff happens," Logan says.
Nick waffles for a moment, and then says, "Yeah, we. We had to cool it for a reason, me and her. I was kind of, uh. She said I was distracted."
"Oh, yeah?" Logan says, frowning sympathetically, and the way Nick looks at him makes Logan roll the words through his mind again and again, until he realizes. "Oh! Yeah?"
"Something like that, I guess," Nick says. He rubs a hand across the back of his neck. "I don't know. I don't know, but clearly it's like -- " He gestures between them, and Logan doesn't make him continue.
"I get it, yeah. So, Yeah," he says, feeling foolish, and he reaches up and touches one of Nick's curls, pulls a little and lets it bounce back, because he's been kind of -- wondering. He's been wondering about doing that, which is as gay as the rest of it, so he might as well do what he wants now.
Nick shakes his head and says, "Let's eat. Are you hungry? I know where I want to take you."
"Sounds good to me," Logan says, because he's had enough of heart-to-hearts, but he also reaches for Nick's hand as they move back through the house and out of the front door.
He gets into the passenger seat, and Nick says, "Buckle up."
"Can I drive back after?" Logan asks.
"Yeah," Nick says, checking his rearview mirror and starting the car.
"Sweet," Logan says, pulling his phone out of his pocket and seeing a message from Dean about how all the clips of kids makes him feel like he has child pornography on his computer.
Logan writes, pervert :D
it's for a project i swear! Dean writes back a minute later. food?
In response, Logan types, going out with Nick, actually.
gross, Dean sends, and then a second text follows it a few moments later, tell him i said hi
Logan glances at Nick but doesn't say anything. Instead he watches him hum along with the radio, and it makes Logan want to smile, which really is sick, so Dean's not wrong about his assessment. When he texts him again, Logan forgoes telling him that in favor of, nick says he thinks you're perverted too
Two minutes after, Logan gets a picture message with the text, Hey tell Nick I got you guys something... that makes Logan choke on a laugh, so, really, nothing has drifted too far from how things usually are.