A/N: I don't know how many people still read VMars fic and I certainly have no idea if anyone still reads WeeVer. I'm a LoVe girl first and foremost, but the movie gave me that happy ending and I don't feel the need to rewrite it anymore. A rewatch of the whole VMars series just recently gave me a jolt of inspiration for a different pairing, and so, here we are. If you like it, please let me know in a review, but honestly, I'm expecting to just write this for myself! lol

Disclaimer: All recognisable characters and dialogue from Veronica Mars belong to Rob Thomas and other folks who aren't me.

Chapter 1 - Show Me How

Veronica was pretty sure there were few things less pathetic than hanging alone in the cafeteria, too late in the evening, just because she had nowhere better to go. Unfortunately, that was just the way it was tonight. She wasn't sure she wanted company even if she could have some, but with her friends all busy with studying or socialising or whatever else, her dad tied up with work, and her boyfriend no longer wanting to hold the title, that just left Veronica, all alone, again. Well, not quite alone. She glanced up to see Piz in the radio booth. He smiled and raised a hand in an awkward wave and Veronica did the same. She had half an idea of asking if he wanted to come sit with her when his set was done, but her heart wasn't really in it. She would just be using the poor guy and that wasn't cool.

"Hey, V."

She was startled to hear a voice and it must've showed given the way Weevil was smirking at her when she turned to look.

"Wow, you're really havin' an off day, Mars," he said, gesturing towards a table at which they both sat down. "I ain't ever seen you jump like that before."

"Off day. Off week," she considered, shrugging her shoulders. "I guess I am a little out of it lately."

"Somethin' to do with the rocky romantic life?"

Veronica frowned at that remark then noted how Weevil was no longer looking at her. He knew something he wasn't necessarily supposed to, at least something that she hadn't specifically told him herself.

"I was over at your girl Mac's room before for a maintenance thing," he explained without ever being asked. "She mentioned something about you and a break-up."

"Huh. You must've been celebrating that one," she said, rolling her eyes, not even caring when Weevil tried to give her that 'what do you take me for?' look. "C'mon, Weevil, you and I both know that you were never okay with me dating Logan."

"I just know you can do better, that's all," he said seriously, meeting her eyes across the table. "I know you think I just got something against all rich, white 'dudes' and I ain't denying that's true, but Echolls is just... he did wrong by Lily and he did wrong by you, V. He screwed up one too many times. I want better for you than that."

"I know," she said, smiling at the sentiment. "I know that you and my dad and Wallace all make very valid points about Logan, but this time it wasn't all his fault. You know, he broke up with me?" she pointed out, stabbing her fork pointlessly into salad leaves she was never going to eat. "Sometimes I think I do it on purpose. Not consciously but... well, me and guys, tends to be a train wreck, doesn't it?"

"I'm still here." Weevil shrugged, continuing with his food like he just said nothing of any real importance.

Veronica knew different. He had a point. He was still there. He was always there, had her back no matter what. It was strange when she thought about all the people in her life, the guys most specifically. Boyfriends came and went, but certain men remained the same. Her father was always there to fall back on, no matter what. Wallace was also stalwart and true as the old saying went, her brother in every sense but blood. Then there was Weevil.

Veronica wasn't the type to put people into boxes as a rule, but if she were she knew she would struggle with him. She couldn't put him down as a brother, they flirted way too much for that and there had been more than one improper dream that she really wasn't comfortable thinking about right now. Yes, he was a friend, but it was more than that too. It was undefinable, what they had, but Veronica knew for sure that she would never want to be without whatever it was she and Weevil shared.

"Did I grow another head that I don't know about?"

She was startled from deep thought by the sound of his voice. Twice in as many minutes. It was already becoming a bad habit.

"What?"

"You're staring at me like I'm one of your cases that needs solvin'," said Weevil, looking a little bemused and then he smiled that familiar self-assured smile. "Not that I blame you for admiring the view, I'm just wondering why today? Is this a rebound thing?"

Veronica was pretty sure he was joking, trying to make her laugh when she seemed down, trying to be flirty and amusing, that was all. At the same time, she had to wonder, as she had more than once before, if he were serious, what he would do if she pushed the point all the way home instead of dismissing it all as a joke.

It was so stupid, at least that was what she told herself, looking back down at her food and literally shaking her head free of a dumb train of thought. She didn't look at Weevil that way, not usually. Well, not often. Sometimes, maybe, but now wasn't the time for that. Like he said, it would just be a rebound thing, and that never turned out well. Still, after all this time of knowing each other, would that really be all it was?

"Not going down that road," she muttered to herself, pretending he hadn't heard her even when she knew he must've done.

"So, Echolls is an even bigger idiot than I thought, huh? I mean, he broke up with you? What, he thought he could do better?"

"No, that wasn't it."

Veronica shook her head, meaning to tell Weevil she really didn't want to talk about it, but the truth was, a part of her kind of did. For everybody else, she put on a brave face, even let Mac and Parker convince her that getting her flirt on with other guys would be good for her, but behind closed doors, Veronica cried. What she didn't do was talk, because she had no-one she felt she could really be truly honest and open with, not about Logan and their relationship anyway. As much as Weevil hated her ex, for reasons too numerous to mention, he would listen and he would be cool about it. He always had been before.

"It wasn't all his fault," she said eventually, throwing her plastic fork into the salad box, knowing she was done with it anyway. "Logan is... well, he loves me and he wants to protect me. Trouble is I'm not really wired to be protected. I can't walk away from trouble, Weevil, it's not me. I have to dive in, I can't help it."

"And Logan's not wired to live with that," he said, deliberately borrowing her words. "Takes a lot for any guy to step back and let a woman be that way, I guess. The temptation to step in..." he said, shaking his head.

"I get it. It's not that I don't, it's just... I guess I'm not prepared to change. Not even for him."

"You shouldn't, for anybody," said Weevil definitely. "Ain't none of us perfect, V. You and me, we know that better than most," he told her, smirking some but genuine none the less. "Still, we gotta be who we are, whoever and whatever that is. There ain't nothin' wrong you, girl. There never was."

It was one of the nicest things he ever said to her, Veronica was sure on that, and she loved him for being so kind. The truth was that she knew it wasn't just that. He was being honest too. Weevil was never really anything else with her, at least, not when it truly mattered. She kind of loved that about him too.

"Are you hoping I'll be so flattered that I'll buy you dessert or something?" she asked him, smiling, hoping to laugh her way out of almost crying from how nice he was being to her.

Usually he would let her do it. Today, Weevil wasn't quite so willing.

"You always do that," he told her. "I never could figure if you're just really bad at taking a compliment or if it was just because it was me sayin' it."

"Why would you complimenting me make me uncomfortable?" she asked, even as she reached for her water bottle and shifted in her seat, proving the truth of it.

"You tell me, V," he said, shrugging his shoulders, then leaned into her personal space some and dropped his tone low. "After all these years, do I still make you nervous?"

"Please!" Veronica rolled her eyes. "The day I'm afraid of you-"

"I didn't mean nervous afraid," he told her with a look that was unmistakable.

It was so weird but Veronica was actually fairly certain she could feel a blush rising in her cheeks in that moment. Nobody else could ever do that to her, not these days, just him. It had to mean something, she supposed, though she usually refused to think on it too much. Now, it really felt like she had no choice in the matter.

"You ever think about it?" she asked, feeling safer in turning the tables than making any confessions of her own.

"Think about what?" he asked, screwing up the wrapper from his burger and looking everywhere but at her.

"You and me, what might've been," she said, making her expression deliberately unaffected by the time he glanced at her again.

It wasn't a joke, not right now, but Veronica hoped she could pass it off as one if he laughed, no matter how much it hurt. All the banter and the flirting all these years could've been just harmless fun, except for the times when it almost wasn't. Besides, that wasn't all they had. They were friends, confidantes, compadres.

"Another world, another time," said Weevil, smiling but shaking his head at the same time. "I think about all kinds of things. If Lily wasn't gone. If my parents had been around. If your dad was still sheriff. There's a hundred ifs and maybes, V, but what's the point, right?"

"Answering a question with another question is now I operate, Eli, not you," she told him smartly.

He laughed at that, he couldn't help it.

"Yeah, well, I didn't know when we sat down here that I was gonna land up on the end of a Mars patented interrogation," he said with a look.

"No interrogation, just one question. You ever think about it?"

He seemed to consider his answer a long time before he gave it. Veronica couldn't figure out if he was trying to decide which version of the truth to tell her, or just what the real truth actually was.

"Sometimes," he said eventually. "You?"

"Sometimes," she agreed, nodding her head and finding a real genuine smile came to her lips the very next second. "The weirdest part is, I almost think Lily would be proud of me, choosing guys from her exes. Crazy, huh?"

"Nah, Lil was special. You and her, you're not the same, not by a long shot, but you're both special, Mars. Don't you dare forget that."

"Wouldn't dream of it," she promised him, wondering where the wobble in her voice was coming from, that and the tears in her eyes. "You're a real nice guy, Eli Navarro, you know that?"

"Sure, but don't go tellin' everybody about it," he said, mock seriously.

"Don't sweat it, Zuko," she said, putting on the best cool guy voice that she could, "I know you got a rep to protect."

"Hey, you gonna make me any of those prissy white boys from a musical, then I'll be Kenickie."

"Leader of the gang," said Veronica knowingly.

"Yeah," he agreed, getting up from his seat and picking up his tray to leave. "That and Zuko had the girl who had to act cool to keep him. Me? I'd pick the woman with an edge from the start."

He tipped her a wink as he turned and walked away then, leaving Veronica to marvel at the real meaning behind his words. She watched Weevil head for the door and realised almost too late that she was a fool if she just watched him go. Leaping up from her seat, she moved all of two paces forward before Piz got in her path.

"Hey," he greeted her, grinning wide.

"Sorry, Piz. Can't talk right now," she said patting him on the shoulder as she hurried for the exit. "Hey, Weevil!" she called behind him, hoisting her bag higher on her shoulder and trying not to look too flustered when he turned back to look her way.

"What's up, V?"

"Nothing," she assured him. "I just wanted to say... thanks," she settled on eventually.

"Anytime," he promised, turning to go again.

She let him this time, because honestly, Veronica knew she had nothing else she could possibly say right now even if she begged him to stay. Still, he had given her a lot to think about, whether he knew it or not, and for the first time in several days, her mind was not stuck on Logan anymore.

To Be Continued...