"Because I wanted to. This place seemed interesting. I mean, how often does a teenage girl solve the murder of her best friend, said murder committed by the father of her boyfriend, her own secret lover, and uselessly untalented actor, those last three all pertain to one singular jackass by the way. This place is fascinating, and besides, there might be some useful contacts I might make here." 

Even though she's nearing 150 years on this earth, today is one of those days that she acts like the teen she was before she got married. Before her true life began. Which is probably what clues in her perceptive friend on the thoughts rollicking through her head.

"This is about the letter from the boys isn't it? Or the most recent letter from Zach?"

"It isn't... Okay, so maybe it's a little combo of both. You've seen that sweet little girl, Juliet, she's adorable, and between that and Damon begging me to follow him around America and Stefan's yearly begging for me to even speak to him, I'm just a little tired of being pulled in all of the directions but the one I want to be going in. So I found a direction I wasn't being pulled in, and I bought us a great big fancy house for us to play family in there. Can't you just, I don't know, be happy to be somewhere new?"

Toni skips around her oldest living friend's large room childishly, using the infantile abandon she hadn't had a chance to use in her actual childhood.

"Usually, yes, but this place has a seedier underbelly than a bad noir film. Goddess, it reminds me of our time in the 40's, and that didn't end well either, if you remember? But fine, you adorable little thing, I'll pretend to be your older, legal guardian so you can play rich teen amongst these pathetic plebeian masses. Now come on, I desperately need coffee, and apparently best place for that is some horrifically named place called 'Java The Hut' so let's go."

Ari lights a cigarette as she leads the way to the car, a powder blue 1951 Chevrolet Truck, beautifully redone.

Toni follows behind, pulling out her wallet and handing all the major cards to the adult, for all human intents and purposes, following the motions quickly with producing and lighting her own cigarette.

"You know, it's not that bad a name, punny, light, this place clearly is not that bad."

"Put that out, you're meant to be 17 little miss. Try blending in for once."

"I'm meant to be a spoilt rich kid, so the smoking in public and complete disregard for the law is pretty much par for the course around here apparently." Their witty back and forth repartee between the two continues through the drive from their new 09er mansion all the way to the coffee house, whereupon, they get greeted by your go to Hostess there, Veronica Mars herself.

The short blonde greets the tall leggy blonde, and the equally short dark brunette at the front, leading them to an empty booth near the back, letting them know a waitress would be with them shortly. Apparently even the great hinky radar of Veronica Mars can't detect a vampire and a witch sitting in a booth at her work. Then again, she's immediately distracted by another waitress letting her know her boyfriend is there, which leads to the blonde tackle hugging a brunette male.

"I thought she was dating the son of that actor guy? Y'know, the one who got accused for murder." Ari watches Veronica kiss her apparent boyfriend, which is definitely not the tall blonde Logan guy that she'd seen in the news.

"Yeah, after everything that happened this summer, I guess they just didn't last. Something about her dad throwing him out. Anyway, that's her new slash ex boyfriend, Duncan Kane, son of the Jake Kane. The CEO and creator of Kane Software, King of Neptune." Their waitress, Emilia according to her nametag, answers the question that clearly wasn't for her, but she has a comprehensive answer nonetheless.

"What do you mean 'everything that happened this summer'?"

"Yeah, and define 'new slash ex boyfriend."

"Well the same night that Veronica and her dad finally figured out Aaron killed Lilly, Logan got in to a whole bunch of hullabaloo on the same bridge his mother jumped off of. All anyone really knows is he got jumped by the PCH'ers, the local biker gang, and they're all saying he stabbed and killed this kid from the 02 zip code. Since then, the dead kids friends have been harassing him, and all I know, from back when he was still with Veronica, apparently Logan's not the type to take it lying down. So now there's a whole class war, the rich versus the poor, 09ers versus 02ers, and Veronica had enough. And with the other thing, well, Duncan and Veronica were together before Lilly died, broke up before, and whatever kept them apart back then clearly isn't now, so, like, he's new, but he's also her ex."

Emilia pops her gum and her hip as she catches the two up on everything going on in Neptune, inside, she's wondering if they've just been out of town for a while, or if they're new, which, given the nosy waitress life that she lives, means that that very question slips from her lips.

"So are y'all back from a summer getaway or new here? I'm guessing new, 'cause the Lilly Kane incident meant Veronica was pretty much the talk of Neptune for a while there, and if you don't know every public detail, then you're probably new."

Toni takes this moment to switch on her happy face, the one that makes humans more comfortable around her.

"Yeah, I'm Toni Salvatore, this is my guardian, Ari. We just moved here. We kinda know some stuff because of all the media coverage, and we just moved back from Sicily so, this seemed like the place to be."

Ari, being the emotion having bitch that she is, feels no need for such human niceties.

"Ariadne, not Ari. And we'll have two Caesar salad's, seafood, not chicken, a diet coke, and a cup of coffee. Wait no, scratch that, Americans make terrible coffee. I'll have a tea, bring the pot, and a side of cold milk."

"Right, uh, coming right up." Emilia has a smidgen of emotional whiplash between the sweet teen and the rude brush off she got from her guardian, so she backs away to give the kitchen their order.

"You didn't have to be so rude to the poor girl."

"You're right, I didn't. I guess I just wanted to."

Toni rolls her eyes at her oldest friend, and smiles politely each time the waitress comes back, both to drop off their drinks, and to drop off their salads. They sit there in amiable silence, which, given the many years they've spent side by side, is very soothing for them. It is especially so for Toni, who, when with her soul bond, doesn't ever have to turn on her human personality, the emotion having teen she's perfected since long before she died. Their long perfected art of silence is distracted by their attention being dragged to the entrance of a young man.

Logan Freaking Echolls himself. He looks forlorn, awkward, and a fair bit like he doesn't want to be there, which would be odd, considering its a public place and he could have chosen not to be there, but the next young man to walk in is explanation enough to the hostess standing there.

"Veronica Mars! You're still here? Would have thought this place 'let you go' long ago for your prickly personality, but whatever. Table for three." Dick Casablancas Jr, a thoroughly rude imbecile greets the short blonde the same way he had before her relationship with his best friend, with contempt. Inside, he wants to verbally eviscerate her for the permanent look of heartbreak that Logan sports. But, given Logan has mostly called off any sort of cruelty towards his ex, the best he can do is thinly veiled insults to her customer service.

"Hi Veronica." Dick's meek younger brother waves politely from behind the two larger and older boys that he spends all his time with.

"Hey Cass. Dick." She spits out the boys name like a curse. "Logan. I'm afraid you'll have to find some other place to go, we're all full up."

A factual statement, they don't have any room for the group of three as it is, and Veronica knows they could find a way to fit them, but she's feeling petty. Her veiled revenge doesn't last, because the two girls watching this interaction have intervened.

"Hostess! They can sit here with us if they're okay with that? Two people to a whole booth is a bit illogical."

Dick just now looks at the two sitting in the booth, and judging by their clothes, they're the ones moving in to the old Kane mansion, which means hot rich 09ers and definitely people that are cool enough for him to sit with.

"See Ron, some people are actually nice, some even nice enough to do your job for you."

Dick leads his friend and his brother to the booth, sitting down directly beside the grumpy yet obscenely hot blonde.

Cassidy follows, sitting beside his brother, giving both ladies their space.

Which leaves the seat beside the nice short brunette for Logan, who is still a little awkward.

"Uh, hi, thanks for that. I'm Cassidy. This is my brother Dick, and his friend Logan."

"Come on Beavs, what have I taught you about introducing yourself to beautiful women. Confidence! My name is Dick Casablancas, yes, my father is 'The' Dick Casablancas. This is my baby bro Beaver. And my best friend in the whole world, Logan Freaking Echolls. And who might you lovely ladies be?" Dick is laying it on thick, and he's clearly more interested in the leather jacket clad blonde than the brunette with her.

"I'm Ariadne, yes like the Cretan princess from the Greek myth about Theseus and the Labyrinth, no I'm not her mother or her sister, just her legal guardian, and before you even try, no, I won't go out with you. I'm 22, and way out of your league." She takes a drink from her cup of tea, clearly having dismissed Dick's flirtation early in the game, and herself from the conversation.

Toni rolls her eyes at the antics of her younger friend.

"Ignore her, she's not pleased that I wanted to move from Sicily to here, she's just been reminded of the sub par coffee standards. I'm Antonietta Salvatore, but you can call me Toni. Do you guys go to Neptune High?" 

She's turned her surly yet approachable rich kid personality on now, she's already angling to use the boys as her introduction to the social scene at the high school.

"Woah. Sicily, that's in, like, Italy right? You were living there? That's like, super cool. Yeah, we're starting our senior year next week. You?" Dick hasn't even been hurt by the brush off by the hot blonde, Ariadne she said her name was, already homing in on the equally hot Toni.

She smiles in what appears to be a genuinely happy way, so Ari is probably the only one at the table who notices the calculated gleam in her eyes.

"Yeah, it's going to be weird learning in English again. My Dad died a few years ago and my brothers aren't really the responsible type so Ari is my legal guardian instead. I felt like I needed some useful family, so I decided to look up some more distant relatives back where my Dad was from."

"Oh... Sorry about your Dad." He genuinely feels sorry for the poor girl, dead parent and useless sibling, he definitely feels that. Wait, what about her mother? "Wait, what about your Mom?"

"Why? I'm not. And, um, she's also dead, when I was really young she got sick, so I never really met her. Just Dad. And now just me and Ari." She regrets the short slip, but what little she can feel tends to bubble up around the subject of Giuseppe Salvatore. That emotion being pure hatred.

Logan, who has been a passive player in this conversation perks a little at the father hate, feeling an immediate sense of kinship with this chick. "I feel that. It's, uh, just me these days."

Toni actually has a moment where she pities the guy, then she remembers how much better her last 140 something years have been without her Dad. "Life is better when you don't have to care about anyone but the people you choose as your family. Bloody of the covenant and all that."

'And Logan already has the girl, just from his gloomy orphan shtick.' Dick thinks, but the chick seems cool, so he guesses friends will do. His thought process is halted by her last sentence.

"Don't you mean that, like, really common saying where 'blood is thicker than water'? And doesn't that mean, like, the complete opposite."

"People get that wrong all the time. It actually got shortened to that from 'blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb' which basically means that the family you choose matters more than the family you were born to." The boys all look at her with varying levels of awe, and possibly being creeped out by her obscure knowledge. "I like English."

"Right, well, since you've got these boys captivated by your beauty and brains kid, hopefully you can convince one of them to drive you home, because me? I'm outta here." With that, Ari saunters her way out, leaving Toni to her devices.

Being who she is as a person, Toni has the good graces to be embarrassed by Ari's antics. "Sorry, she's not really a people person."

"Ah, well, understandable. People are the worst."

A sentiment Toni generally agrees with, so she giggles at the amusing hot guy.

Cassidy notices that Logan and Toni are already vibing quite well, so he nudges his brother for his attention.

"Come on, let's leave these two to it. Maybe she'll get him over Mars." After saying that quietly to his brother to get him on board, he turns to the two who have yet to actually look at Dick and himself since making eye contact. "We should be going, Dad wants us home, apparently we're not making Kendall, our new stepmother, feel at home enough."

As if he's just now catching on, he makes an imbecilic vowel sound and waves a two fingered salute as he follows his brother out the door.

"Well then, it appears we've both been ditched."

"Evidently." Logan pauses for a moment, clearly holding back a question, something he doesn't manage for long. "So, uh, don't answer if you don't want to, but if you have older brothers, why aren't they your guardians? I mean, 'not the responsible type' isn't a real reason."

"I was wondering if anyone would question that excuse. Well, I've got two brothers, Damon, who is... 8 years older than me, and Stefan, who is a year older than me, so it obviously wouldn't be him. Besides that, Damon wasn't really ready to be a real adult at 23, especially not the only person in charge of his 15 year old baby sister. Ariadne was my friend at the time, we met at this obscure little shop and found we had a lot in common. Her being my guardian is mostly just on paper, I'm my own boss, and besides that, I'm the one with the money. She was found by a roadside as a baby, whereas my Dad, jackass that he was, made a lot of money cutting down trees and selling them."

She hopes that she's making the right choice by trusting Logan with the real truth of her abusive father. Obviously, she has to fudge the rest, given she hates Stefan, and has no energy for Damon's childish antics.

"Oh. That... That makes sense. Sorry for asking, I guess. It was just kind of weird. Are your brothers here with you? At least Stefan would be right?"

"Damon is a career military guy, so he's working, I guess is the right way to put it. And Stefan. Well, year older, me in my senior year, one plus one means that he's in College. He's in his first year at Harvard. He's pre-med, and besides that, we haven't gotten along in a... long time." Yet again, a sliver of the truth finds its way in to the conversation, and even though Toni knows she should be worried that this guy is making her verbally vulnerable the first time she's ever met him, mostly she's distracted by the sadness in his eyes. Still, remembering that she hates her brother makes her remember why she hates him, the sadness clearly showing on her face.

Logan is captivated by this girl. She's just as broken and shattered as him, and she didn't even flinch at his name when he was introduced, which, given his fame adjacent nature, means she probably knows and doesn't care. Part of him is really hoping she knows and doesn't care, because he so desperately wants to move past everything that had happened this summer.

"Why? If you don't mind me asking."

"He and my... boyfriend at the time, Jebediah, were close friends, and they were out one night together, got mugged, and because Stefan resisted giving up something he had of our mothers, Jed got shot. And he died. Between the fact that looking at him still hurts me, and some of the stuff he said to me, as if he could come up with a good reason not to say sorry for his part in the death of yet another person I loved, we haven't spoken in what feels like 10 years." 

Even though most of the story is a well woven lie, the hints of it rooted in truth hurt her. As emotionless as she may be, it's not complete, and when things hurt enough, it aches in her chest. Thinking of Stefan's betrayal, of the brother she lost when he murdered both her and her husband. When she thinks of the last moments with the very first man she ever had in her life, with the last time she saw her twins as babies as she left them on Honoria's doorstep, when she had to compel her daughter Stefanie to leave and never return. Her last words to her son as she did as he and his daughters asked, and they were still lost, so Toni left alone. All of it, hurts her so much that it shows so clearly on her face, the knowledge of complete and total loss.

"Jebediah? What a name. That's, uh, that's horrible. I can relate. I just found out my Dad slept with my girlfriend and then murdered her. And my sister is still on the 'Dad is innocent' roll and it isn't like we got along before that so it's not some great loss." Logan sympathizes mostly, but part of him is a little numb to the terrible nature of life, so he's sad, but he visually seems to be over the whole debacle.

"Hence me calling him Jed usually. And besides the fact that Antonietta isn't any less of a weird name, it was a family name, passed down through many generations. Jebediah Fell the 5th. But yeah, I heard about the whole Aaron Echolls - Lilly Kane thing. Tragic. Truth be told, our waitress kind of caught us up on some of the finer details of the gossip surrounding you. So, if you never wanna talk about it, you don't have to, but I do have to say, you seem pretty well held together considering everything you've been through."

Toni is intentionally blunt here, because if her brash personality is going to run the boy off, early in their friendship would keep her from getting attached at all.

It does surprise him, given most people tiptoe around the subject of the woes of his life, but he actually finds he appreciates her factual nature. He doesn't have to pretend he's fine, and normal, and not horribly emotionally scarred. In fact, its more than a little comforting.

"Truth be told, after Lilly's death, and the video of her crime scene being leaked, I don't think I have any more really left in me. Or at least I thought I didn't. Then I dared to date again, our very own snippy hostess in fact, and after the summer from hell, here I am, single again, accused of murder, and at this point, I don't think I can be bothered to feel awful."

"A feeling I can understand. After the dead Dad, who sucked at parenting by the way, and the dead boyfriend, a bunch of my cousins died in Italy, and the last person I tried to date in any sort of serious capacity disappeared off the face of the earth when I went to visit my brother for a family emergency. Neptune is supposed to be my new beginning. A town with no ghosts roaming the streets with their ever pervasive memories, a place I can be Toni, Shakespeare enthusiast, not Toni, the girl made of grief."

Part of her wants to tell him the truth, that the cousins who died were more her grandchildren, great grandchildren, and more, that the emergency was another of Damon's idiotic murderous rampages, that she didn't so much date as spend a lot of her time alone in a mansion with Katherine. Something about Logan makes her want to tell him the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help her God, but she knows better, knows that she can't.

"Trust me, my Dad probably sucked worse."

What Logan doesn't know, is that she feels exactly the same as he does, wanting to spill her guts to him the same way he wants to tell her absolutely everything.

She snorts, the same unladylike way she used to when joking with Jed, and for a moment, she almost feels like she's back in 1863, or 64, or 65, in the golden years of her courtship, or her marriage. But now she's still amused, but in the present time.

"Doubt it. But, uh, this isn't really the right place for a conversation about whose Dad was more abusive."

That does make Logan look up and take note of his surroundings, for the first time since the boys left, he realizes they're in public, and mostly surrounded by semi-strangers, all of whom are, as per usual, staring at him like he's in a fishbowl, including his ex-girlfriend. 

"Point. Wanna take this somewhere where everyone isn't staring. With a dead Mom, my sister off doing Oprah to campaign for Dad's innocence in the court of public opinion, and Dad himself in prison, I have a whole house to myself."

"Sure, but only if you promise to keep your hands to yourself. I just met you and I'm a respectable young lady don't you know?" The flirtatious smile on her lips and the mischievous glint in her eye make it obvious that it's a joke, which definitely leaves it open for Logan to flirt back.

He picks up on the flirtation, and smiles lightly, he likes this girl, she's got a side to her that isn't all doom and gloom, so with that in mind, he flirts right back.

"I'm afraid it can't be done young miss, because I'm known round these parts as a real bad boy, can't lose my reputation now can I?"

He proffers an elbow to her after he stands, letting her choose if she wants to take it as they walk

Toni loves the little hint of old school gentlemanly behavior, the elbow reminding her again of Jed, so she takes it and lets him lead her to a big ugly yellow car, clearly expensive, but also, in her opinion, in very poor taste. Once sitting in the front passenger seat, she turns to him as he turns the car on.

"I have to ask, what's with the paint job? Did you ask for blinding yellow or was it a trend that year?"

"Part of my whole 'thing'. Dad can't be threatened by his son if his son wears baggy neon surfer dude clothes and drives a hideous neon yellow car. Then, I don't know, somewhere along the way, I fell in love with her. Couldn't imagine life without her now." He pats the dash lovingly as he drives them back to the Echolls mansion, remembering with a little bitter wistfulness the make outs with his dead ex, and his living ex, in the back seat behind them.

"Threatened?"

"He was an aging action star, and it always made my day worse when they called him old, and me handsome. So I dress badly enough on the day to day and they stopped calling me that, and he stopped getting upset by it."

"Fair enough. I played mousy sweet little girl, always happy to do anything her father asked of her. Overachiever to the nth degree. I can play two instruments, plus I'm trained in modern, classical, and opera singing, I know four languages beside English, and I'm an excellent cook. I was his prized jewel, he liked to show me off, and I had to make sure I was worth doing so."

"That does sound kind of worse, at least I never had to try at anything. And woah, so you know five language, and you're musically talented, and you genuinely like English. You're a little scarily perfect."

They've now made it in the automatically closing gates of his estate, and after he exits the car, he has time to saunter around to her side before she can get down.

The latter fact is mostly due to the fact that getting down from his four-wheeler is not an easy job when you're short, which Toni is, so she takes his offered hand of help to get down, and follows him inside when he leads the way.

"Your place is nice. I like the decor."

"Thanks. My mother's interior designer picked it out." He flops down on to the couch, his words emphasized by one of his signature hand movements that are all flair, and gestures for her to join him. "So, I believe I lured you here with the promise of a quid pro quo on stories about abusive fathers. Do you want to spill first or should I? Be warned, my stories ruin the perfect image of the hunky and much beloved Aaron Echolls; Movie Star."

"Don't worry, your stories won't disillusion a young fan. I prefer actors with real talent... Or any at all."

That makes him laugh out loud. "I wish he was here, just so he could here you say that. That is priceless. Just for that gift, I'll happily go first."

He settles down in to the couch, seemingly readying himself for the conversation he is having with this veritable stranger, but apparently she has some magic power that makes him want to bare his entire past, so it's only a small part that feels anxious revealing this to her.

"My Dad's big thing was belts. He made me choose them, and if I chose one that obviously wouldn't hurt, then he'd go and pick the worst one, the thinnest one, the one that left scars, that made me bleed. It was always only when I'd done something he'd deemed punishment worthy. Admittedly, that included honest mistake, like dropping something, or accidentally changing the channel. The belt wasn't the only thing. He liked putting his cigarettes out on me, for no other reason than the fact that his father had done it to him and he thought it would strengthen me up, make me more like him. And if he didn't have a belt on him when he wanted to punish me, he'd just do something simple, like slam my head in to a flat surface, or trip me down some stairs and call it my bad balance. Whatever was within reach really."

Toni breathes deeply, because there's a part of her that wants to break in to the prison and murder the son of a bitch just because of Logan's story, but instead, she breathes, and tells him her story.

"Look, uh, my story might freak you out so, pinky swear you won't react fully until it's done?" She holds out her pinky to him from her seat on the couch.

He takes her pinky in his own with a questioning look, remaining silent even as he promises exactly what she asked.

"Well, my Dad hit me since... before I can remember I guess. He was strictly a fists and feet kind of guy. But it was never about anything really, he said it was, that it was punishment for one thing or another, but the truth was, he was just angry all the time, and so sometimes he just made up and excuse to hit us. One day, he hadn't seen me for about a month because I was 7 and by that time had figured out how to avoid him mostly, so I'd been eating at irregular times of the day, and spent most of my time in our library, where he refused to step foot in because it was our mothers domain. I guess it made him sad maybe. Anyway, it was the first time he'd seen me in about a month, and I guess I'd avoided him too long, a mistake I never made again, because he was furious with me. That time, he hit me so brutally for hours... The one hit I knew changed my life forever came so suddenly, so out of the blue. It was barely anything in the grander scheme of things. A way he'd hit me before. A place he'd hit me before. It was nothing new. But I guess it was one inch to the left, or the right, of the usual, it was just a little harder than usual, and it knocked me out the minute it struck me. Took our family doctor, a friend of my Dad's, two weeks to figure out what was wrong with me." 

Her face doesn't speak to any emotion, it's just purely blank, and for the first time this entire conversation, she's put down the mask.

"I... Jeez. So, what was the doctor's verdict."

"TBI. Traumatic Brain Injury. Resulting in a lack of emotional empathy, and a condition called Alexithymia. Basically, I can't empathize with people and I have difficulty even feeling my own emotions. It's like the part of my brain that does the whole feeling thing installed a dimmer switch and now it's one notch above completely emotionless. What I'm feeling has to be severely extreme for it to really register as an emotion to me."

"So your Dad beat the emotion right out of you? Fuck. You're right, you win, your Dad was worse."

"There is no winning in trauma, no one has it worse than anyone else when it comes to life sucking ass. Or at least so says my psychologist." There's a part of her that is thrown by his lack of discomfort at her. Usually people throw the word 'sociopath' in to the mix right away. "I'm surprised you're not more freaked. Most people call me a robot and a sociopath when they find out."

"Well, yeah. I've known you, maybe an hour, maximum, and you have plenty of emotion. You probably just don't bother with the useless ones." His inner darkness takes a peek from around the corner at this moment, and if she were the perceptive type, she'd notice. And if she were the smart type, this would be her signal to run.

Toni is plenty perceptive, and plenty smart, but she's not one for running, especially when this guy seems like the first person since her dearly departed husband who has a chance in hell of understanding and accepting her as she is. Considering he's the first in nearly 150 years, then clearly, men who understand and accept her can't be thrown away just like that. So she looks at him, really looks, and for just a moment, she lets loose, leans over, and kisses him.

On instinct, his hands reach for and grip her waist before his brain even comprehends the fact that he is being kissed, but once it does, he's more than happy to enthusiastically kiss her right back.

Between the hands on her waist and his response, she takes that as permission to move forward, while still moving slow so as to give him the chance to push her away at any time, and she still has to concentrate to use only her human strength. So she pushes farther forward, moving her right leg to straddle his waist as they make out like teenagers on his couch.

The hands on her waist happily slide down to grip her ass once she is situated, and soon her actually notices they're making out on his couch, a fact he'd missed given he was focusing on her lips more than their surroundings. Still, when their lips part to catch their breath, he notices.

"If you want, we could move this to my room. There's a lot more space on my bed than on this couch. Has a whole expansive horizontal option too."

"Hmm... Horizontal does sound good, so does more space to... play with. But I just like where I am so much that I'm not sure I could ever move." She punctuates the end of her sentence with two distinct and dirty grinds of her hips in to his crotch, which sends tingles up her spine even as she does them.

The two grinds distract him very well, his entire body feeling like it's on fire for those two seconds, but it's not long before his brain can think in full, non monosyllabic sentences again.

"True, and yet, I know the perfect way for you to stay exactly where we both want you to be, but for the both of us to find a much better place to be doing this."

The picture of innocence, despite her place on his lap, she responds.

"How's that?"

He retains his grip on her ass, and with rippling muscles hidden beneath his baggy, unfashionable clothes, he stands from the couch without her moving from his waist. For a moment, he's a little surprised, he knew it wouldn't be hard, but she's so light, it's actually easy. But with a snarky "Like this," he resumes kisses the living fuck out of her as he carries her through his house to his bedroom.

She is enthralled by the thorough way he kisses her, a bit like he's devouring her breath, her soul, anything he can get. His intent takes her breath away, as does his clear intent to take her breath away, and she loves the way he makes her feel so small just by carrying her around with so much ease. Within the very fun kissing, she lets herself take this moment to feel safe in his arms, even though she'd only met him today.

Once he does make it to his bedroom, and subsequently his bed, he leans forward to deposit her upper body on to the bed, leaning back to whip his shirt off and look back down at her.

From her reclined position on his bed, she can properly appreciate the muscles she had felt, but not truly registered, given his baggy shirt's propensity for hiding. So she takes this moment to look him up and down, licking her lips as she takes him all in.

"Like what you see?" He raises an eyebrow in humorous questioning.

"Yeah, I like it. I like it a lot." She reaches up to drag him back down for another hot and steamy kiss, using her legs that are still wrapped around his waist from him carrying her to grind herself on him from below.

He lets her pull him down, and the grind of her hips almost distracts him from his next target, removing her shirt, but it doesn't succeed, so his hands start to slide up under her soft shirt and...

A considerable amount of time later, he's laying on his bed with her head on his chest, his arm around her as his sheets rest comfortably obscuring them both from view of any possible intruders, though there is unlikely to be any this late on a Sunday night.

She looks up at him from her perch on his chest, thoroughly satisfied.

"Well that was one way to make a first impression."

"You've got that right. I must admit, I usually date girls like you first."

"Girls like me?"

"The interesting ones."

His complement actually makes her blush. There's a part of her questioning what's happening, how he's already got so much of her wrapped around his fingers, but most of her just wants to revel in him.

Seeing her so awkward and blushing makes him smile, so he leans down, takes her chin in his hand delicately, tilts it up, and softly kisses her lips.

"Promise you'll let me make up for it?"

"As in take me out on a date? I, uh, sure." It still feels weird, agreeing to go on a date, given she's technically a widow.

Logan instead takes the oddly reserved response from his naked bed partner more from a surprised perspective than the one she apparently has. 

"Yeah, a date. Maybe you can start school on my arm, rather than as a regular new kid." He kisses her soundly once more, pulling her more firmly in to his chest before falling asleep easily for the first time since that disastrous fight with Veronica. As he falls asleep, he has a short thought.

'Maybe I'm finally moving on. Maybe it'll finally end up okay.'

Toni is a little surprised how quickly Logan fell asleep, and part of her is still confused by him. Most teens who sleep with a girl the first day they meet them, don't ask her out on a date right after, in fact, they usually tell them to leave pretty soon after the fact. And here this guy is, so sincere and sweet that he sleeps easily with her snuggled up to him. It's so... normal. So normal, in fact, that she feels safe enough to fall right asleep where she is. 

The next morning, she wakes up at her usual 6:30 am thanks to her perfectly tuned body clock, and when she looks up, she realizes Logan is still asleep. She carefully untangles her limbs from his, putting on her panties and a shirt of his before padding down to his kitchen. She thankfully finds the ingredients for a pretty good breakfast and starts making it, letting memories of Miss Celia carry her through this quiet time.

"Hey Logan, buddy, get up, surf's great, we gotta catch the-" Dick's surprising entrance is lost in his surprise by the almost naked girl in his best friend's kitchen, a girl who is apparently cooking. "Well then. I knew Logan could score, but I didn't really think I'd see you here. Toni right?"

Toni turns towards him, unabashed in her near nudity, just finishing off the cooking as she responds. "Hey Dick. Yup, that's me. Logan might still be asleep. You're welcome to go jump on him, or you can stay here and get some breakfast."

"You're all domestic? Don't tell me you're secretly poor. Logan doesn't need to associate with any more 02 chicks who play convincing 09ers."

"Not secretly poor, very very rich still, as I always have been. Thing is, my only female influence in life was our maid-cook combo, Miss Celia. Nice lady, taught me to cook to keep me busy. So, food, yay or nay?"

"Sure, Dick is always down for some grub. What do we got?"

Toni, to her credit, doesn't even raise her eyebrows in surprise at the young man talking about himself in the third person. "The basics. Pancakes, bacon, french toast, fried and scrambled eggs. Fill your plate with what you'd like, just leave enough for Logan, or you'll be in serious trouble." 

During their brief conversation, she's managed to set out all of the breakfast options and make a plate for herself, so now she sits on a seat at the kitchen island and begins to eat.

"Yes ma'am." At that, Dick dug in, making a relatively large serving for himself, leaving plenty for the man of the house, who, judging by his lack of attendance, is still asleep. After sitting down and chowing down on his food for a total of thirty silent seconds, he begins talking again. "So you and Logan huh?"

Her natural sarcastic sneer presents itself at the obvious question. "No, I always like to make a weird impression with new people by showing up in their house half naked and cooking them breakfast. Yes, obviously me and Logan."

"Be nice, if you leave things to the poor guys imagination, he'll draw the wrong conclusion." Logan sneaks up on the two, sliding his arms around Toni's waist to delicately kiss her neck. "Mm, breakfast and a hot chick in my clothes. Only thing that would make this better is a distinct lack of Dick. What are you doing here buddy?"

"Dude, what is with you and snippy short chicks. Can't a nice polite young lady get it up for you? I'm here because the surf is awesome this morning, and you so owe me. I had dinner with my Dad and Kendall last night so you could pick up this chick. Sorry Toni, I'm afraid I'll have to cut in to your morning sex time."

"Gee, I know when I'm not wanted." Toni, having already finished eating, slides out of her seat and Logan's arms, making her way back to his bedroom to get dressed.

Before she can leave, he grabs her hand to stop her. "Hold up hot stuff." Logan pulls her in to his chest for some semblance of a private conversation even though they're still standing right in front of Dick. "That date, I'll pick you up for it tomorrow night. 6 o'clock sharp. I know where you live."

He gives her a final sound kiss, spins her round, and sends her on her way with a swift smack to the rump. He then turns and walks with his friend out the door. 

Her eyes widen at the manhandling from the teenage boy, standing in shock and awe as he leaves her. Automatically she walks to the room to find her clothes, redressing herself as she ponders when this simple distraction became some sort of genuine thing she might get lost in. Dazed as she is from the casual affection she hasn't properly felt since the time when her cold dead heart still beat and her husband held her close, she doesn't even notice what she's doing until she arrives back at the home she had purchased for Ariadne and herself. She walks through the doors, hoping to make it to her room before her underling noticed her arrival.

"And the slut rolls in at... 9.32 am on a Saturday morning, still in yesterday's clothes!"

No such luck. Ariadne is lurking in a doorway, leaning picturesquely as she mocks her boss and friend.

"Shut up you hag. I agreed to go on a date with him, help me find my good dress."

She starts delicately walking up the staircase to her room, a large thing with a walk in robe.

Ariadne startles in surprise at the statement before following Toni up the stairs and in to the darkly decorated room.

"Woah, what? Since when did you see those guys more than once? Seriously, Tones, I get that you're stressed, but you're acting way out of character here? The new place, wanting to go to high school, I could ignore, but dating some teenaged human ignoramus for what? Fun? What is going on with you?"

"I just... He makes me feel like Jebediah did... I told him I can't feel and he didn't even think I was weird. He makes me want to... Tell him everything. There's something about him that just pulls me in, and I don't think I can fully control myself around him. It's almost. For 150 years I've felt so lonely. Even between us, we don't even really like each other, you basically work for me and I pay you in immortality and obscene wealth and adventure. He makes me feel like losing my babies, and my husband, like maybe it wasn't the worst thing. I feel happy again."

Toni blurts this all out, collapsing on her four poster bed, tears actually leaking out of her eyes.

The physically older woman pities Toni, her essentially permanent child-like state having stunted her emotional growth and trapped her in this point. She sits calmly next to the crying vampire, wrapping an arm around her in a hug.

"You do know that only one of us can't feel anything. And I think you are my friend, you've been there for me since I was 15, helped raise me, support me, love me, you saved me from a horrible life I could have lived. So don't ever worry that you don't matter to me, you're not my boss, you don't pay me, we're friends, we share, and that's that young lady," she watches as the tears begin to dry and Toni relaxes into the hug Ari offers. "And if this boy makes you happy, even just for right now, that's not bad. I was just joking, and if you never want to deal with this drama with your brothers, then I am more than happy to support that. You know me, I hate the both of them."

A pitiful tear-filled laugh escapes Toni at that. "As if, I'm the only responsible one in my family, if left to their own devices, those two might actually manage to end the world with their squabbling. So, it's my job to mediate between assholes A and B for... eternity."

Ariadne snickers lightly in agreement before standing again and heading to Toni's closet. "Now, no time for self-pity, I'd say it doesn't look good on you, but I'd be lying, everything looks good on you. More importantly, what kind of mood are we going for here? Seductress? Saucy rebel teen?"

Ari pulls out options for these two style ideas, showing them off to her friend.

"Mm, actually, sweet sincere but hot teen. Something just demure enough, but still shows off enough skin to get his heart racing, his blood pumping, all the good stuff."

"Ooh, you're really gunning for his heart this time huh? Okay, and do you know where you're going? Are we working with fancy or low key?"

Toni thinks and realises she isn't sure if he ever mentioned where they would be going, and she doesn't actually know him well enough to guess his style when it comes to... Well anything, but in this instance, dating. "Lay out an option for each, I'll call him later and ask, I'm sure he's surfing at the moment."

"A surfer? God I hate Cali."

Toni stands to walk gracefully out of the room, pausing at the doorway to look back at her... friend. "I think I'm starting to like it," a girlish smile not seen on her face since her courtship with Jebediah rests calmly on her face.

Now alone, she speaks to the universe. "This place spells something bad, I just know it."

The day passes with not much hubbub, the brief call between the teens confirms he's taking her to a beautiful French restaurant, somewhere exclusive and expensive, so she puts away the more casual outfit, pulls together the finishing touches of the other and hangs it from her full length mirror.

The next day for both of them is spent preening and preparing for a date that feels oddly important, though neither can figure out why. It's almost as if the entire universe holds it's breath as they dress, as Toni bedecks herself in jewels and finery, as Logan drives to her place, as she walks to the front door, about to answer after the doorbell rings and...

There is stands, holding a bouquet of paper folded flowers, his heart dropping at the sight of her to his stomach. "I know flowers on a first date are outdated, but I figured you might something a little more old school, plus, these can't die."

He holds the bouquet out to her, hoping she doesn't notice his hands shake.