First VM FF based on a prompt from the May VM Fanfiction Recommendations Tumblr page. All the usual disclaimers apply: No ownership claimed of anyone mentioned in this story, only love for everyone, except Madison Sinclair of course. Thanks to Irislim for her input.

Logan heaved a sigh and crossed his arms over his head. It was a pointless act. The water falling from the ceiling was as intense as a Spring rainstorm and he was already soaked through. The sudden downpour had put an end to the fight though and for that reason, he suspected tonight's raindancer was one Veronica Mars. He smirked a little at the chaos that had descended on Neptune's Class of 2006 reunion. He started it and Veronica finished it. Wasn't that how it was supposed to go?

He glanced around at his fellow combatants. Dick had ducked behind the abandoned bar and was chugging from a bottle of tequila. Wallace was dragging Piz (holy shit, why is Piz here?) towards the staircase out of the banquet room. Only Weevil still stood with him.

"Opie."

"Paco."

They actually grinned at each other.

"Thanks for jumping in."

"It wasn't cuz I like you."

"Eh. I don't like you either."

"We're cool then." Weevil turned and headed for the exit. Logan was surprised when he stopped and turned back, jerking his head towards a corner of the space that Logan couldn't see from where he stood. "You might want to get your girl." He smiled and shook his head before turning to stride to the staircase again.

Logan moved towards where Weevil had been standing. He could now see Veronica facing off with Madison Sinclair. He couldn't hear the exchange but Madison's body language was obvious. Angry and bitchy. Really, did she have any other language? He was moving towards the women when he saw Veronica swing on Madison. Madison spun and crumpled to the ground. Now he could hear Veronica's voice.

"Original enough for ya?" She then stepped deliberately over Madison's sprawled figure and stalked towards the stairs. She didn't look Logan's direction and missed his open-mouthed gaze of shock. She didn't even flinch when Madison's shriek echoed across the room.

"BITCH!"

Veronica flipped the bird back in Madison's general direction and as she swiveled back to the stairs, her eyes caught Logan's. The look on her face nearly stopped Logan's heart. Blazing, vengeful, triumphant, a combination of emotions he had seen so many times before but not once since her return. He was struck with a sharp feeling of deja vu and he flashed on their last encounter in the Hearst Food Court, after he had taken on the Russian mob for her. The way she had looked at him then, he had been sure it would only be a matter of time before they crashed together again. He absolutely had not anticipated it would be nine years. He steadied himself. No crashing was occurring. He had seen evidence of that being lead up the stairs by Wallace. This was just adrenaline. He took a deep breath and stepped to her side.

"You OK?" He reached for her hand to inspect her knuckles. Maybe a little red. Not much damage.

"Oh yeah. That was very rewarding."

He snickered. He continued to hold up her hand, figuring his guise of checking for damage could buy him another moment or two of contact.

Abruptly, the sprinklers snapped off and they both reflexively looked up at the ceiling. Their hands fell apart with the movement but then they looked at each other again. He was pretty sure he couldn't take the intensity for much longer.

"So, have you been training for this type of event in New York?" Logan attempted to re-direct.

Veronica laughed. "No, it's been a pretty quiet nine years. Back in town for what...2...3 days and look what's happening to me."

"Yeah, well, I'm sorry about that. Pretty sure this is my fault."

"Logan..."

"DUDE! That was awesome!" Dick was suddenly standing next to them. He hadn't seen Veronica until he was beside Logan and his eyebrows raised warily.

"Ronnie. Why do I suspect we have you to thank for the sudden storm?"

She smiled with no humor in her eyes until she spied what he was carrying. "Ah, thank you, Dick." She plucked a bag of ice from his hand, held it against her hand, and then noticed a second bag and took it too.

"I think you could use this."

She reached up to Logan's face and gently pressed the ice pack against his bruised cheek bone. Their eyes locked again and his hand came up to cover hers. Dick groaned and turned away. The moment interrupted, Veronica blinked rapidly and slid her hand out from beneath Logan's.

"I've got to assess the damage upstairs. It was probably a bad idea but thanks for swooping in to defend my honor again." She smiled at him again, this time seeming shy, and headed to the stairs. Logan watched as she climbed the stairs, holding her ice bag against her knuckles again, pausing briefly on the stairs to speak to Van Clemmons before she continued her trek away from the scene of the crime. Unable to watch her walking away from him again, he turned back to the bar where Dick was filling a third bag with ice.

"And I thought coming to the reunion was a bad idea."