lodessa | Catching Up

Title: Happy
Fandom: Veronica Mars
Characters: Mac, Wallace, Veronica, Logan, Keith, Alicia
Word Count: 525
Rating: PG
Summary: Veronica's Birthday Party
Written late for

fandom_arcana's 10 of Cups Challenge.

Wallace sat down on the rim of the pool, next to Mac. She was still wearing all her clothes, although she had rolled her pant legs up to dangle her feet in the water.

“Do you not swim or something?” He enquired, “Not that it’s something to be ashamed of or anything.”

“I burn, “Mac replied. Noting Wallace’s puzzled expression, she added, “Pasty whiteness is not so conducive to exposure to the sunlight. If I even think about wearing a bathing suit, it ends with me looking like a tomato.”

“You do know how to swim though?”

“Yeah. As a child I endured many a sunburned summer thanks to my parents’ notion that water sports were a necessary pastime. I just try not to relive the experience if possible.”

“It’s cool,” Wallace grinned.

Mac looked down at her feet, that smile really was a little bit inside melting.

“You two aren’t talking about my pony are you?” Veronica called to her friends, from across the pool. She extricated herself from Logan’s arms and swam towards them, “Because, I want a white one if you were having doubts about your color choice.”

Everyone laughed. Keith walked out of the apartment, shielding his eyes from the bright sunlight.

“Food’s ready kids.” He announced, and the four of them scrambled out of the pool and towards the promise of something more sustaining than potato chips.

“You know,” Wallace said to Mac, as they headed inside, “I bet if you went swimming at night, you wouldn’t get sunburned…”

“Wallace Fennel, you are trying to get my in a bathing suit aren’t you?”

Wallace shrugged, “What if I am?”

Mac pushed Wallace’s shoulder playfully.

Ahead of them, Logan picked Veronica up and was carrying her, despite her giggling protests.

Keith and Alicia were serving up plates of food in the kitchen, and Veronica smiled at how happy her dad seemed to be back together with Wallace’s mom. Everyone was so happy. Her friends and boyfriend were getting along, and not just because it was her birthday and so they were on good behavior.

Logan leaned over and kissed her, right beneath her ear. Psychotic jackass or not, he was a good boyfriend. She’d had to talk him out of actually getting her a pony earlier this week.

Mac struggled to keep from spitting out her lemonade in response to some suggestion Wallace had made, and Veronica thought about how nice it was to see Mac smiling again.

Keith and Alicia were talking about the possibility of taking a trip over the winter holidays. Mac leaned over to Wallace and asked, “So are you sure that you and Veronica didn’t set this up, just so they’d be distracted and not on your case all the time.”

“I can’t vouch for Veronica; because, I’m sure she could pull it off,” Wallace replied, “But if she did, I wasn’t at all included.”

“I thought she told you everything.”

“You’ve got to be kidding. Veronica Mars, she keeps secrets like other people keep stamp collections or something.”

Veronica looked around the table. Things were perfect, so why did she feel like something was missing?