F A N F I C T I O N > V . M A R S
In the Tabloids by Amberina
Duncan sometimes wonders if they'll ever be over. Sometimes he wonders if they ever even started, if maybe everything was all in his head. Every time he kisses him, he thinks that maybe he is imagining it, and then Logan responds to the kiss, and Duncan knows that no, he's not as crazy as he (was) thinks he is.
He stops having doubts about the reality of their relationship when it hits the tabloids that famed actor and murderer Aaron Echolls' son is dating billionaire software executive Jake Kane's son. The big news is Duncan and Logan (though, in the article they don't have names, and instead are purely Sons Of Important People) kissing in the parking lot of the Sac and Pac. There's a little blurb to the side involving Lilly Kane's murder, and it's all so surreal.
Logan explains that Trina had tried to use the information to blackmail him into giving up some money, as he strips off his clothing. "I told her to fuck off," he concludes, and then he's naked, and he's on Duncan and this is good but the Enquirer headline is very bad.
Duncan's not even sure why he cares. Maybe because it makes the relationship seem sordid in the way he knows it is and hopes it isn't. Maybe because.... no, that's probably it.
Luckily Trina, and the tabloids, only have half of the story. Or two-thirds of the story, as it so happens. There's still Veronica, Veronica who is not Duncan's sister and never was. She's pretty and delicate and she breaks, just a tiny bit, every time Duncan touches her. It's kind of funny, really. If someone didn't know her, really know her, all they'd see is the cynical tough girl. The smart one, the snarky one. They wouldn't know about the way her bottom lip shakes, slightly but enough for him to notice, when he kisses her.
He wonders, sometimes, if she breaks when Logan kisses her, but he can never tell. Somehow he doubts it. Even when it's all three of them, fucking in the Kanes' kitchen because they can, he notices how Logan and Veronica become involved in each other when they kiss, when they fuck. The whole world (Duncan) fades away, and he can see it.
It doesn't bother him as much as it should, he thinks. Or maybe it bothers him more than it should. Either way, he's entirely sure that he's not bothered the right amount by it.
Veronica likes to be on top when she's with Duncan. He knows why, but he doesn't think about it much. If he did, well, he's sure he'd be bothered a hell of a lot by it. When she's with Logan, she's on the bottom. Every single time. He's not sure why that bothers him.
He thinks he's bothered by being bothered more than he was by the original thing that bothered him, and he can't figure out a way to make that sentence less confusing, because it is confusing,. Like when Logan fucks him (and Logan always fucks him, always, it is never the other way around) and Duncan wonders when he became everyone's bitch.
Of course, they could just fuck each other and leave him out of it, and then he'd be alone. So Duncan figures he's better off this way, and maybe, just maybe, he's putting too much thought into insignificant details.
The tabloids only have two-thirds of the story, maybe, but the other third was what made the story what it was, and without it? Well, it just isn't anything like they say. Kane Son and Echolls Son making out in a parking lot is barely the tip of the iceberg, and Duncan wonders why he ever let Logan convince him they needed Pepsi and Cheetos in the first place.
He loves them both, he realizes randomly while watching a South Park marathon on Comedy Central. He has since the first time he kissed Veronica (her bottom lip had been shaking). Since Logan knocked on his backdoor at four am, broken and bruised and twelve and Duncan let him sleep in his room with him. The problem is, now they love each other, and Duncan is nothing more than a footnote, much like Lilly in the tabloids.
But it's okay, he's decided. At least, even as a footnote, he's not alone. At the end of the day, when Logan and Veronica are stretched out beside him, he knows that they must include him for some reason, even if all the little details (everything) say the opposite.
And when Veronica reaches over Logan's body, and rubs Duncan's arm, and she smiles? The whole world (anything, everything) fades away, and you know, it really is okay.