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Chapter Text

“I’m just…not comfortable with swords, really.” Lucy flexed her hands on the grip of the repaired relic. It was a pretty thing, she’d thought that when she’d grabbed the broken blade in the cave where she’d first fought Logan so long ago now. Repaired to something nearer its original glory, the sweeping black blade now had a glowing blue-white edge, making it more than just a museum piece.

She was glad she’d taken it to Qi rather than Catori.

“Yes, yes,” the Director said, pushing his glasses up and shifting in his seat on the boulder, “You are quite gifted with your large pointy stick, which makes you ideal for this test.”

Lucy stared at him for a moment, wondering for a moment if that was meant to mock her or was a statement of facts according to his brand of logic.  Qi just looked at her, his gaze the only steady thing about him. “How much tea did you have before we rode out?” she asked.

“A sufficient amount.”

“It’s just what he does when you take him into the wild,” Logan said from where he was seated on the back of their borrowed cart. His casual lounging would have been a serious distraction if experience hadn’t taught Lucy to keep her focus on a twitchy Qi. “You get used to it.”

“I am fine,” Qi said, almost snapping. Logan shook his head, smiling a little. He’d just wrapped up his community service and was, he’d told her over drinks at the Blue Moon, slipping back into his place at Sandrock. Part of which seemed to be helping Qi with his more hairbrained schemes out of town, where everyone preferred them.

Lucy looked back at the blade. There was an energy to the bright part, but it didn’t hum or hiss. It was stable and steady and looked sharp. Impossibly sharp. “Why do you want me to do this? I’ve seen you at High Noon with a great sword.” He wasn’t really good, but he wasn’t totally out of his depth, either.

“I am hardly an expert at combat,” Qi said, “Also, fair is fair- you found the sword in a cave and won the chip in your battle against Mechatilda.” Logan huffed quietly, turning his head away with a grin. The ridiculous name had originated with Qi and steadily been more and more adopted by the Sandrockers, becoming another part of town legend like the Running of the Yakmel. “I merely repaired it.”

“Oh.” Lucy turned the sword this way and that carefully. “Well, thank you, then.”

“You’re quite welcome.” He readied his notebook. “Let’s get to testing, shall we?”

Lucy nodded and looked to Logan. He stood, his easy manner draining away to be replaced by a graceful hunter’s tension and began dragging a big crate out of the cart. The box’s contents started gibbering and hissing as it was jostled awake. “It doesn’t have its great honking pliers,” he said, “That don’t make a plierimp any less dangerous, mind, just less effective. And more…irritable.”

“There is likely some deranged attachment to the object,” Qi said, pushing up his glasses as Logan dropped the angry box onto the sand and shoved it forward, “Though I am hardly qualified to theorize properly on mutant psychology, as I’m not one for the soft sciences.”

“Need help?” Lucy asked Logan.

He had shoved the box where he wanted it right in front of Lucy and stepped back, eying the area critically as he kicked a few rocks over to help keep the crate from sliding in the sand. There wasn’t anything but sand and vast ancient bones all around. If the imp took off, it wouldn’t get far before some of the Eufala’s native predators took care of it.  That was why they were here. “Nah, I’m fine. Pain in the ass to get you a monster for these things, Director, always is.”

“Well, a plierimp was, I certainly imagine. You could have lured in a pensky for my purposes.”

Logan frowned at Qi, but it wasn’t harsh. “Not for mine, Director. Penskies, rocket roosters, boxing jacks, all that…they’re animals. We hunt ‘em cause they’re dangerous to people, or we need materials from their bodies, but they’ve got their place.” He touched the box. “These don’t, them and their masked buddies. You can sense it when ya look at ‘em. Something went wrong in a way you don’t see with your usual mutant.” He rapped on the box, prompting a muttering groan that almost sounded like words. “Pain in the ass to capture or not, Director, it’s good to remove one of these things from the world. A mercy, too, maybe.”

Lucy cocked her head, regarding Logan as he eyed the box and the abomination inside.  He seemed to sense her stare and looked up to meet her gaze, eyes blue as the desert sky. She shook her head wonderingly. “You’re something else, yakboy.”

He chuckled and ducked his head as he walked back to the cart. “That a compliment or a condemnation?” he asked as he grabbed a crowbar.

“Compliment.”

“Ah, well, then.” He jumped up on top of the crate, tipping his hat in her direction as he readied himself to open it. “Thank you kindly, ma’am.”

“Have you concluded with this bit of your mating ritual?” Qi demanded, “Can we begin the test now?”

Lucy’s cheeks heated. If Logan had any reaction, the shadow of his hat hid it. She cleared her throat and nodded, readying the Altair sword. It worked, at least, there were a few sliced up boulders nearby to prove that. But Qi wanted to see how it worked on a living target.

“Good,” the Director said, clicking his pen and readying his notebook, “Begin.”

Logan pried loose the front of the crate. He didn’t need to get much more than a small gap before the plierimp’s long, lean goblin hands did the rest of the job.

It emerged from the crate like a demon, too-human eyes even more crazed than an imp’s usually were, and dallied anxiously for a moment before it spotted Lucy and lunged.

She whipped the sword across her body in a flashing arc, sending out a wide sweep of cutting light right through the imp. It made what could only be described as a cutting noise as it swept through the air.

There was no sound of burning, no noise as it sliced cleanly through the imp.

There was a loud crash, though, as the crate Logan had been standing on collapsed beneath him, cloven in two by that same arc of energy. He yelped as he went down, flailing before landing hard in a mess of broken wood.

“Logan!” Lucy shouted, bounding over the remains of the imp towards him.

He waved an arm from where he lay as she neared, sighing. “’m fine. I deserved that. Not thinkin’. Again.”

She reached a hand down and he took it so she could haul him to his feet. “Neither was I. Of course the crate would get hit, we saw how far it goes. I’m just glad you were on top of it.”

He looked around on the ground and grabbed his hat from where it had fallen, beating it against his leg to shake some of the sand off. They both turned toward what was left of the monster.

Qi was standing over it, scribbling in his notebook and muttering. “A clean bisection. Cauterized, but no smell of burning…incredible…”

“Sure is going to be handy in a fight,” Logan told her. He reached out and tapped the sword where she’d sheathed it at her side without realizing it.

“As long as no one I like is standing in front of it.”

He shrugged. “True of a gun, too. A weapon is a responsibility, spear or dagger or gun or fancy light sword.”

“I know, but most of them aren’t…” She gestured helplessly at Qi and the dead imp.

“Designed by a mad scientist? No real way of knowing that…anyway, it’ll keep you safe, that’s what matters.”

“What we need to test it against is an Old World robot,” Qi said, his tone that of a man having a eureka moment.

“I’m not wrestlin’ some old bot into a crate.” Logan stuck his hat back on his head. “What we will do is report how it does to you because Light knows Lucy’s goin’ to go on some dive full of angry robots for some doohickey for some commission at some point in the next few days.”

Lucy blinked. He wasn’t wrong.

Wait. We?

“Undoubtedly she will,” Qi said, crossing his arms and glaring at Logan, “But that report will be unscientific. Lucy is a gifted engineering mind, not an observational scientist.” Lucy decided to be mildly flattered.

“I’ll be with her, and being experienced in assessing the effects of weapons on hazards, I’ll give you a thorough report.”

Qi blinked owlishly at him for a second. “Howlett used to do that sort of thing. Yes. That is adequate.” Qi made his way over to the cart. “Please do not allow your mating rituals to interfere with this important scientific work.”

Logan coughed into a hand, and this time Lucy did catch his blush. “It’s a long journey back to town and that’s Cooper’s slowest cart yakmel. Let’s get going so we don’t run into a sandstorm or nightfall.” He whistled for Rambo, who’d gone to forage a little ways off, then helped Lucy get the cart yakmel from where they’d tied it to a dead tree a little ways upwind of the testing site.

“Thanks for doing this,” Lucy said as she led the yakmel back. He had Rambo’s reins. The presence of the confident goat seemed to soothe the other animal; it wasn’t reacting at all to the lingering smell of imp or death.  “He was being pushy and…well, I did want the sword.” She touched the hilt at her side. It really was a lovely thing. She felt more comfortable with it already now she saw what it could do to a threat.

Logan chuckled. “Never get in the way of a woman and her deep desire for fine weaponry. Qi’s right. You earned that thing. It is something else, too. I’m a little excited to see it up against them Old World heavy bots.”

“You sure you want to do those dives?”

“I said I would, so I will. How about, hmm, week after next? Tripon are going to be in a mating cycle, like to go outside their typical range, I get a little busy. An’ Cooper wants another cull of rocket roosters near the ranch- they’re getting into his hens again. Man needs to hire real ranch hands, not that I’m saying no to the money.”

“When his newest chicks start tossing rockets at his yakmels, maybe he will, but not before.”

“Else used to do a good job of runnin’ ‘em off, but now she’s…apprenticin’, I guess you could say…to me.” They hitched yakmel to the cart. Qi was absorbed in writing in his notebook, already seated in the back, and didn’t move a muscle. Logan sighed as Lucy took her seat on the cart, sitting carefully with her new sword, and handed her the reins. “I cause too much trouble just by bein’ around sometimes.”

“She did most of this on her own, Logan, with you not anywhere in sight. All you’re doing is teaching her how to do it well and as safe as it can be. She is an adult.” He mounted up and Lucy snapped the reins, goading the yakmel into an amble, which was as quick as it got. Cooper’s slowest cart yakmel indeed. His steadiest, least nervous one, too. “How’s that all going?”

Logan kept pace with her, thought Rambo seemed irritated by going so…very…slowly. “She listens most of the time. She knows the stakes. We needed her pal Daisy in the end, but Mabel did get hurt and it was Elsie’s fault, she admits it. But she’s got a gentle heart and sometimes it shows at the wrong time.” He shook his head. “Pa made peace with the Geeglers by scarin’ ‘em first. Some monsters are twisted like imps and have no place in the world. Sometimes it’s life and death and you just need to make a call.”

“She’ll learn, Logan. She really wants this. All the energy she used to put into pranks is going into being a monster hunter now. It’s a real thing.”

“I know, but between her and Andy, if my hair weren’t already white, it’d be goin’ grey.”

Lucy laughed loudly. Qi muttered something unappreciative behind her. The yakmel thankfully kept plodding along through the sand. “I owe you for helping out with this. Use the gols to take the kid out to lay whack-a-mole or something, just have fun.”

“Don’t worry ‘bout it. Director Qi paid in advance.”

“Not for having the crate you were standing on disintegrate.”

He shrugged. “Like I said. I deserved that.”

“Logan.”

“It was obvious, anyone with half a thought in their skull could tell what would happen.”

“Logan. Then it’s on me, too. I was right there.”

He grunted and they continued towards Sandrock in silence for a few moments. “I won’t take your gols,” he said, “But I’ll tell ya what. After we do that dive, you buy a meal at Blue Moon. I, at least, will have worked up quite the appetite, always do.”

“This is a useful proposition,” Qi said from the back of the cart, “Postpone the mating ritual until after you have made your observations. Thank you.”

Lucy kept her eyes fixed on the yakmel’s backside for a quiet minute.

Logan cleared his throat. “Anyway. A good meal at the Blue Moon after we try out that sword of yours on some robots, that’s payment enough.”

“It’s a da…er, deal.” Lucy felt herself shrivel up inside in horror at her own mouth, but kept a steady hand on the reins. She thought hurriedly of any other topic of conversation. “How bad is the tripon mating cycle? I didn’t notice them causing trouble last year.”

“That’s likely because they’re a staple of the Geegler diet,” Logan said, sounding relieved at the change of subject, “Otherwise they’d have swarmed into town even angrier than usual, looking for a fight or a mate...sort of the same thing with them…”

The logistics was a bit dizzying to think about. “I know you’re good, but you’re going to do the job of an army of Geeglers?”

“It’s a week of riding the same stretch of sand shooting anything that scuttles and setting and resetting  traps. Not the most exciting week of the year, but it needs to be done.”

“I know the feeling. This was probably the most excitement I’ve had in a month.”

“What they got you doing now?”

Lucy took a surprising amount of heart in how offended he sounded on her behalf, but he was being a bit unfair, really. “Infrastructure. Here and for the outlying villages…the Portia road is changing things for them, too. New water tanks, updated machinery, that sort of thing.”

“Helpin’ them make more of a go of it out here. Can’t get on ya for that, just don’t run yourself so ragged all the time.” He grinned at her. “Sandrock needs ya.”

“Less and less all the time,” she said, mostly to herself, and contentedly, “It’s going to be what it was someday, you’ll see. Those old empty houses will fill up. Who knows, maybe I’ll get next door neighbors and it won’t just be me and the salvage yard on the wrong side of the tracks.”

“I’d call it the right side of ‘em myself.” She looked at him and he looked away. “And it’s not the senior builder Sandrock really needs, it’s Lucy. So don’t run yourself ragged.”

She laughed. “I appreciate that, thank you.” No one else said it, though she knew they felt it. For all Logan said he was bad with words, he at least said them. “It’s been better with Wei than Yan. And being set up properly. And resupply routes wide open. And the moisture farm’s experiments working out. And no one’s trying to break the town from within. And friends.”

“And no pesky bandit to give you more work to do.”

“Nope, just a monster hunter to help with crazy experiments and have dinner with. So It’s better.”

“Does a man good to hear that,” he said quietly. They crested a dune and there was the Shonash Bridge.  “Alright, Luce, Director, here’s where I break off. I’m going to do a bit of patrol ’fore nightfall.”

“Thank you for your assistance,” Qi said, adjusting his glasses as he looked up from his notebook, “I know my requests can be difficult.”

“You’re a Sandrocker, Director, if you weren’t difficult you’d have turned tail years ago.” Qi cocked his head, brows furrowing. “Luce, Andy’s staying with Vivi ‘til I get back, if you could check on him. I know he’s fine, but…”

She shifted the reins to one hand and reached out to squeeze his shoulder. “I’ll make sure he hasn’t burned down their house, don’t worry.”

He grinned at her, blue eyes shining with gratitude, and tipped his hat to her. “Thank you kindly, ma’am. Looking forward to that dive with your new toy.”

She returned his grin. “And dinner.”

“And dinner.” He nudged Rambo back into the desert. Lucy watched him as he cut a proud, determined figure across the endless dunes.

“Ahem.” She blinked, turning to see Qi watching her. “I would like to be back in time for my weekly dinner debate with Heidi about the use of robotic construction workers and this is a very slow yakmel.”

“Ah. Right.” She took the reins in both hands again and sent them toward the bridge at a slightly brisker amble. The yakmel probably had dinner on the brain, too, at this hour. It apparently did have more than one speed when provided the right motivation.

Week after next…she was going to have to mark that one on her calendar. She would absolutely not draw a heart around it- maybe an angry robot, to retain some sense of her own dignity.

Chapter Text

Logan should have gotten up here to help Mort out more. Not just during his stint at community service, but before.

Funny how real the dead became when your nearest and dearest were among them.

He sat the broom back in Mort’s shed and shut the door carefully. The latch required some fiddling; he thought about bothering Lucy for it but he might be able to manage. He’d seen villages where graveyards were ramshackle things, the caretaker a cantankerous and forgotten soul, but that wasn’t Sandrock’s way.

“You had best get going to the game, young man,” Mort said from his chair in front of his house, “Thank you for your help.”

“Just have a few words to say to Pa ‘fore I go.”

The old man smiled through his great beard. “He’ll be happy to hear them.” His smile faded away. “I’m sorry, Logan, that I…”

Logan shook his head and lay a hand gently on Mort’s shoulder. “There was nothing any of us could do to help him by the time we knew he needed it.” The thought of it all, the fact that Pen hadn’t just murdered his pa but murdered him slow and horrible before delivering the final blow, then left Logan to stew in mistaken guilt, made vengeful fire burn briefly in his chest again, but it burned itself out quickly. “It’s all…longer ago all the time.”

Justice had been done and now…now he had a future in spite of everything.

Logan made his way to Howlett’s grave. He hadn’t been here for the funeral. No one had told him what it had been like. Given what was going on and who had been running the show, he wondered if it had been much of one. But it was easy to find the newest gravestone.

Logan knelt next to it and rubbed a hand across its face, removing the thin layer of dust that had already accumulated since he’d cleaned it half an hour ago. Likely there was a sandstorm on the way here soon. “Hey, Pa,” he said quietly, “Sorry I didn’t get up here earlier.” He stared at the name carved into stone. “Bit busy with this an’ that…rebuilt the old southern outpost, so doing patrols out there, and bounties, of course. Helping out the Civil Corps- you weren’t wrong about the state of things there, though damn if Justice doesn’t try and I certainly didn’t help.” He frowned at that. “I won’t say it was the right thing to do, all that, but it was the best option I had. Could have probably thought parts through better. I haven’t quite learned your knack for planning, though like you used to say, nothing like walking through a sandstorm to teach you how to do it.”

He sat back on his heels, thinking. He could almost see Howlett looking back at him, dark eyes more gentle than anyone else thought they could be, back during those rare times when Logan had bared his soul to his father.

“Pen’s in jail. Maybe I should have killed him, but I think it’s better for Sandrock that the whole world got to see him carted off. I, uh, I got a kid. Andy is his name.” He swiped a hand over his face, grinning sheepishly. “You’d laugh at that, me playin’ pa myself. Found him a little like you did Haru, younger though, lost in a sandstorm, alone. He’s a right hellion, worse than I ever was, I don’t care what you say. Smarter, too. I’m trying to do right by him. Think it’s working out, though it ain’t easy.” He huffed and shook his head. “You’d spoil him if you were here, I know you would. Things I deserved the tanning I got for doing, you’d just laugh at if he did ‘em. Make my life a damn sight harder, it would…don’t know how you did it on your own. I’ve had help.”

He paused, unsure of how to explain this part of his life to a man who didn’t talk about his own affairs of the heart. “For once, me actin’ before thinkin’ has worked out, I want you to know. Got myself a girl, Lucy. She’s clever and brave and can hold her own against any man or beast out in the wild. She’s a Builder, and not a city Builder, a real Sandrock Builder. She cares about this place. Cares about me, too, for some reason. Cares about Andy. You’d like her. We’ve got…we’ve got a future together, I think. Still working on the details.”

He stared at the gravestone for a long minute, then reached out and touched Howlett’s name. “Thank you, Pa. I miss you.”

Logan stood, dusting off his knees, and nodded to Mort, whose old eyes were on the horizon and the setting sun, looking for something, maybe finding it.

Logan patted Rambo as he untied him. The goat bleated amiably and wasn’t even fidgety as Logan mounted. That made one of them.

He hadn’t participated in ghost hunting for years now, between patrolling for monsters before Pa’s death and rank banditry after.  It wasn’t that actually doing it intimidated him- he’d been the best ghost hunter around as a kid, though less than the best at being a ghost- it was being a part of things again. The townsfolk had fallen over themselves to welcome him back for the most part, but it didn’t erase the past.

He and Rambo ambled up to Martle Square just as the rest were gathering. Trudy was up front, fussing with Jasmine’s outfit. On the edge of the crowd he could see his Lucy. He dismounted, sending Rambo back home with a gesture, and stepped to her side.

She looked up and smiled softly at him, green eyes bright, and he grinned down. He was tempted to take her hand, but if rumors of their relationship had started flying, he hadn’t heard them yet, and frankly he wanted Sandrock’s collective nose out of his business for a little longer.

This got to be for him and her. Not Sandrock, or Pa, or Andy, or Haru, or the Free Cities, or the Commerce Guild, or anyone else. Just the two of them. The town would find out, he knew, and might have already. But he’d like them to build this shelter around their hearts a little stronger before the storm came in force.

Trudy finished fussing with Jasmine, who pulled the little cact-o-lantern hat she had on her head askew as soon as her mother turned her back. Logan saw Andy give her a thumbs up from the front of the crowd. The mayor cleared her throat and beamed down at all of them from the top of the steps. “The Day of Memories is a very dear holiday to me and, I think, to all of us here in Sandrock. We have so very many to remember, so very many people who have helped us build everything we have here.” She paused, glancing down briefly. “It’s been a very interesting year since the last Day of Memories. Perhaps…perhaps not all we have to be remembering is joyful. But much is, including our fortitude in the face of our troubles. We lost friends, yes, terribly lost them, but we also gained new ones and regained others.” Eyes turned to Logan, who stiffened a little under the attention, but also to Andy and Wei, who both grinned. Trudy waited a moment until everyone looked back at her. She drew herself to her full miniscule height. “Our future is built on the past, on the gifts of those who came before us. Tonight we celebrate them…thank them. And have a little bit of fun, too, I hope.”

Burgess stepped forward next to her. “Please, if you would all bow your heads in a moment of silence for all of those who have gone before.”

Logan bowed his head, resting one hand on his heart. As a kid, he’d never given this much thought, not having anyone he knew of personally to think of, but now…

Thank you, Pa.

He glanced over to see the last rays of the sun gild Lucy’s ponytail as she clutched her hands to her chest, a gentle smile on her features. Remembering who, he wondered. He’d like to find out. He’d like to find out everything about her.

The sun set and the first stars began to come out.

Trudy clapped. “Now, let the games begin! Dan-bi, if you would hand out the team assignments.”

The very pregnant Dan-bi made her way though the crowd with more speed than you’d expect, handing out slips of paper from a basket and basking in well-wishes. Logan took his with a tip of his hat to the woman and smirked as he saw he’d been assigned to team two and would be a ghost hunter first.

Lucy scoffed at his side. She held out her paper for him to show him she was team one. “Did you arrange to hunt first?” she asked, a small frown on her face. He got the feeling she wanted to be on the same team as him, which was all sorts of flattering.

An idea came sliding into his mind like a hopper looking for warmth in winter. He never did much care about winning tokens, anyway. “Just luck of the draw. I am happy with it, though. I was always the best at ghost hunting when I was a kid.”

She raised an eyebrow. “I won last year. By a lot. And was not caught even once.”

“Really now?” He tucked the paper in a pocket. The others on team two were drifting to the tents, many discussing strategy. “Well, that was just because I wasn’t around, Builder.”

She smirked. “Yeah, yeah. Catch me if you can, hunter.”

He gave her a quick predatory grin and tipped his hat to her before heading off to one of the tents. It was a moment before he heard her move to the ghost starting area.

He settled on a stool in the tent, occupying himself with thinking about his quarry, the way you always did when on your way to a hunt. To win you needed tokens, so she’d be sprinting for those after Trudy and Dan-bi put them in place. Doing it smart, too, planning her route through the scattered tokens like she planned her collection routes for materials.

“Damn it.” Logan came back to the present as Justice spoke up. He’d ended up in the same tent as him and Owen- an old gang back together. “Looks like Coop’s on our team this year.”

Own shrugged from where he sat on his own stool. “He’ll just talk the ear off everyone else in his tent so they don’t hear the bell, which means more tokens for us.”

“You’re making assumptions. Sometimes that doesn’t happen. Sometimes, he comes out and starts talking to you.”

“Just keep walking,” Logan said, “He might follow but who cares?”

“See, you’ve been gone, so your technique is outdated,” Owen said, “Cooper has learned new tricks in his old age. Now he maintains eye contact. You can’t just walk away.”

Justice was digging through his pockets. “I got cat treats. I know Captain is on patrol, maybe I can enlist his aid to a fellow Corpsman in distress. That feral cat Banjo had Coop’s number and Captain is ten times smarter.”

“Justice, if you’ve figured out how to get a cat to do what you want when you want it, you need to start selling that. All Sandrock’s economic problems would be solved.”

“You’re a real help.”

“My life philosophy at this point,” Owen said, “is not to borrow trouble.” He shrugged. “So don’t. Have fun.” He pointed to Logan. “We got Logan, that’ll make up the difference.”

Logan tried to look reassuring.

Justice nodded. “You think you still got it, man?”

“I’ll find my quarry.” Grace would be proud, that was a pretty good almost-lie if he said so himself.

“Well, that’s intense.”

Logan blinked, then shrugged. “Force of habit.”

“No, no, embrace it” Owen said, standing, “I have to admit, I hate being on the losing team for this.”

The bell rang gently and all three men stepped out of the tent.

Owen and Justice headed toward City Hall. Logan watched them go for a moment, then moved toward the Oasis.

His girl was a clever one. She wasn’t going to try to hide in the decorations that they’d all been walking past for the last week or any of the other places people laid eyes on day in and day out.

No, she was going to go to ground in a place where people didn’t spend much time looking around. Logan headed past a giggling cact-o-lantern- Andy was hiding inside from the sound of it- and a gleaming purple token lodged under the corner of Arvio’s roof. He dodged around Amirah as she rushed to find her next target.

Once he reached Water World, he paused. There were fewer decorations here, since most of the space was taken up by water barrels, either empty or full, and containers left open to collect dew. Burgess was not about to allow frivolity to encroach much on his precious work of conserving water.

Logan nudged a taller cact-o-lantern with his boot, then scanned the mess in front of the water tower carefully, making a show of it. Seasonal music echoed on a loop from city hall and shouts could be heard from further off. Logan ignored it all and listened for something closer.

The softest rustle sounded behind him. He grinned to himself and lingered for just a moment more, then turned as if he’d given up. The clock was ticking after all.

Just as he passed Lucy’s hiding place, he turned on heel and launched himself at her.

He caught sight of her widening eyes and then they went tumbling ass over teakettle past the game’s border balloons and under one of decks that overlooked the Oasis.

He grinned down at her when they landed. He only got the outline of her glare- the only lights tonight were the full moon and the soft lights of the town decorations. “Guess you get all my tokens,” she muttered.

“Hmm. Guess I do.” He reached into the bag she wore at her hip to pull the coin-like tokens out, then tossed them up towards to the street without looking.

Lucy cocked her head. “What are you playing at, yakboy?”

He kissed her, hoping that got the point across. She froze for a split second, then wound her arms around him as she opened her mouth to his, knocking his hat from his head so she could sink a hand into his hair.

***

Logan and Lucy’s legs dangled above the calm waters of the oasis as if they were drunk. The ghost hunt was over, Logan was sure, and he wondered for a moment if anyone was curious about where they’d got off to.

Then Lucy rested her head against his shoulder to look up to the stars and he decided it didn’t matter much. “Almost time for lanterns, to go by the stars,” he told her.

“Guess we should reappear,” she said, not moving.

They could, for sure. They looked a mess, both of them, not that they’d been particularly scandalous and he doubted very originally scandalous either. Seemed a bit of an obvious take on the game, though maybe that was a symptom of his profession. “This’ll be a good place to watch the lanterns, though.” He yawned, the long day of patrol, his visit to his pa, and the thrill of this hunt catching up with him. “’Sides, I’m bushed.”

Lucy snorted. “The thrill of the chase too much for the big bad monster hunter tonight?”

He pulled her closer, not that she could be much closer. “I earned it here, darlin’. You should have seen your face…”

She elbowed him gently. “Those aren’t the rules.”

“I know, we disqualified ourselves, damn shame.” He kissed her lightly on the neck.

“I’m never going to hear the end of it after I beat everyone into the ground last year, Logan.”

He chuckled into her shoulder. “In a small town like this, Luce, they need the variety. It was a kindness. They’ll just have to wonder where you went over some Yakmel Milks.”

She hummed and touched his chin. He lifted his head and she kissed him deeply. He grinned when they finally broke apart. “Remind me to find my hat ‘fore we leave…ah, there’s the lanterns.”

She turned to look as the first set of lanterns rose up into the sky. They couldn’t see any of the other Sandrockers from here, just the lanterns drifting out into the west, rising higher and higher like an ascending river of stars.

“Do you want to go send some up?” Lucy asked him quietly.

He rested his chin on her head, watching the lanterns continue their journey, up and out over the canyon. “Here is good.” The trickle of lanterns became a steady stream, weeks of work on the delicate paper going up above the desert in serene glory. “You know, I have never once seen one crashed out in the desert somewhere. Not crumpled on a cliff, not tangled up in a cactus, not being chewed on by a wild yakmel. Pa, neither, or so he said. It’s like they really do drift all the way to the Above.”

“Do you think…maybe they could?”

“Wouldn’t make no sense, but then life doesn’t much do that.” Here he was, surviving where old Howlett- smarter, wiser, quicker- didn’t. Here he was, having thrown everything away in a kind of mad dream of hope…with his future in his arms in a way it never was before.

“Last year,” Lucy said quietly, “on my first Day of Memories here, I…I saw a ghost.”

“A few, considering you won the hunt.”

“No, a real one. From Owen’s stories. Out by the ruins past my workshop. She said…she said she was glad life was returning here. Said not to throw it away like…like her people did. Maybe she guides the lanterns Above.” Lucy cleared her throat. “Sorry, I never told anyone about that before. It’s kind of embarrassing, and I’ve got a very low bar for that around here.”

“Don’t seem so crazy to me. Whole lot of strangeness out in the desert beyond even the mutants.” He tangled his hands with her smaller ones. “She picked the right person to tell. Someone who would deliver the message to every fool who ever set foot in the Eufala, dusty farmer and bandit king alike.”

“I never thought I’d fall for yakboy poetry, but here I am.” She leaned even harder against him and he half-grunted, half-laughed as he took her eight. “What message do I send, Logan?

“Live. Stop drowning in death and greed and pain and live, like flowers bloom in the desert. Let love drive you like water to carve its way through sand and stone, and then…” He trailed off, watching the lanterns.

“And the desert turns green.” She laughed quietly. “Anyone who runs down yakboy poetry is really missing out.”

He smiled into her hair. This was good. He had forgotten…no, he had never known the world could be like this. Now he knew, he needed it like the trees needed water…as luck would have it, he’d stumbled on a wellspring, too, an oasis all his own.

He squeezed Lucy once as the lanterns continued to drift up into the sky.

Chapter Text

It was courtesy that was getting Owen out of the Blue Moon at this late hour, that was all.

It helped that Jane had left town so long ago that she had no familiarity with his cooking to complain about repetitiveness and hadn’t almost set fire to his bar as part of a misguided prank. He’d brought a basket of food to Catori, too, back in the day- and had gotten talked out of a month of profits for his trouble. Amirah was an elusive mystery, Mi-an was so busy and harried, Grace had worked for him, and the tough Builder Lucy…well, saloon owners struggled to catch the eye of lady adventurers the world over, well he knew. So it wasn’t with serious courting expectations he was taking food to Jane, it was common courtesy.

Someone should be playing at going a-courting around here, anyway. He had taken her out on a date when they were kids ages ago, maybe that flicker of a spark might still be there…

As he made his way up the stairs past the saloon, he thought he heard voices down the street. Curiosity and paranoia drew him off his path a few steps to investigate. The past two years had been wild and there were no signs of anything slowing down, so Owen reserved the right to look into weird occurrences.

 The gleam of moonlight on white hair made him stop in the shadows in shock.

Logan was kissing Lucy against the wall of old Howlett’s house.

Boy, he had really missed something here. He was going to have to up this game, he usually knew all about these things even before the involved parties did!

Logan! Rat princesses and train station passersby might swoon over the bandit yakboy, but to Owen he was Logan, the lanky kid with no verbal filter and about as many social graces as a sick yakmel.

“Owen?”

Owen jumped at his name and turned to see Justice. The sheriff looked tired and any curiosity in his expression was only there because of professional obligation. “Justice,” he said, “Uh.”

He realized just how creepy he looked here and had nothing.

“Making a delivery?”

Owen looked at his basket and nodded. “Um, yes. To Jane.”

Justice nodded. “She probably doesn’t have much food of her own yet, good idea.” They were both speaking quietly, though Owen wasn’t sure the couple necking down the road would have noticed if they were louder.

Owen glanced back in the direction of Logan and Lucy. “Uh.” He jerked a thumb toward them. “That’s new.”

Justice leaned around him, noticing the pair for the first time. “I saw that coming,” he said after a moment, “when they rode together on that giant duck.”

“You did?” Owen’s professional outrage as a community pillar and top-tier gossipmonger made his voice raise a little.

“One of the perks of getting shot at by Duvos soldiers and ancient robots and getting your ribs kicked in by a psychopath or two is knowing these things first.”

Owen stared at him. Justice crossed his arms and stared back.

“The duck,” Owen said for lack of anything better, “is named Daisy.”

There was a gasp behind him and a murmured exchange, then a giggle. The two men peered around to see Logan bending down to kiss gently along Lucy’s neck. One of her hands was tangled in his hair. Both men turned away instantly, refusing to look at each other or anything in particular.

“Guess Howlett did teach him how to court after all,” Justice muttered.

Owen had his doubts. He remembered Howlett’s wedding very vaguely as a happy time involving a lot of sugar, but the rumors around the marriage’s collapse had been gossip around Sandrock for years after it happened and the pain it had caused Howlett had made the old monster hunter even more unrelenting in his duties. He didn’t think the birds and bees, outside of the most basic and monster-related context, had been something Howlett had spent much time talking over with his son.

As with most things after the old man’s death, Logan was probably just winging it. Successfully from the look of it, too.

Well. He wondered how long it would take the Tea Society to pick up on this one. He usually managed to stay ahead of them, but not always, and not long. Pablo and Amirah were very good.

“I’ve got to get this to Jane before it goes cold,” he said, lifting the basket.

“And I need to patrol. Maybe take a little different route tonight, though.” Justice’s gaze flicked briefly in the couple’s direction. “Always something going on in this town, let me tell ya.”

They both moved back to the stairway up to the temple. “Good somethings lately.” He nodded back to the road they’d just left. “New life coming to broken places…change for the better is in the air.”

“Right, sure. We’ll need to remember the ‘ride to certain doom on the back of a giant duck’ method of flirtation. You should try it with Jane.”

“I’ll stick to carefully crafted meals and old-fashioned charm, thanks. Fewer kicked in ribs that way.”

“Lucky you I took tonight’s patrol. Unsuur would have just walked over and asked them if they knew you were watching them and then where would the illusion of your dignity be?”

Somewhere at the bottom of the canyon. “So this never happened?”

Justice nodded. “We never speak of it again. I’ve got a list of those and this is on it for sure.”

Chapter Text

The Sandrock Civil Corps jail wasn’t as much prison as it was a heavily reinforced drunk tank, which meant Logan was sharing a cell with Haru, a shut-down robot mirror, and two traitors, one of them a man who’d tried to kill him a few days ago.

He supposed that was a rather large group of people right now.

Miguel stayed in the farthest corner possible from the cots that Unsuur had set up for Logan and Haru, avoiding eye contact. Sometimes, Haru would glare at him, but the man never responded except to shrink back further. Logan just kept an eye on him.

Miguel was broken. He knew the look. You’d find it in people who’d survived monster attacks on caravans and villages sometimes. The foundation of their world had been torn out from under them and, all too often, they found themselves alone in the world. Howlett had tried to be a comfort to those people, and Logan tried to do the same, but he’d never met a man who’d been trying to feed everyone else to the monster before. He didn’t know what to do about that.

Logan had questions for the man, plenty of ‘em, more than he could even put to words, but somehow it felt like that time had passed. Maybe Miguel had known that Pen had done to his pa, maybe he didn’t. It didn’t matter. It didn’t change anything.

He let out a breath and looked away from Miguel’s little corner. There weren’t a lot of other places to look, so his gaze slid to the other traitor.

Yan wasn’t cringing in a corner. The former commerce commissioner had been trying to wear a hole into the floor with his pacing, twitching like an agitated hopper, his eyes constantly darting all over. This was a man who didn’t think himself defeated, despite being in a jail cell with any hope for rescue from his allies a heap of junk at the bottom of the Starship Ruins.

Next to Logan, Haru huffed. He turned to the younger man with a raised eyebrow. Haru gave him a thin smile over the puzzle cube relic Justice had lent him to kill time. “There’s a kind of resilience to pond scum,” he said.

Ah, so Haru was keeping an eye on him, trying to make sure Logan didn’t throw himself over a cliff chasing revenge. Logan chuckled and tugged his hat down over his eyes. He’d be able to think better if he didn’t look at these two, and he needed to get to thinking. “Until the pond dries up, sure.”

The door downstairs flew open violently, making Logan jump to his feet, Haru standing a beat after him. His hand dropped to his hip for a gun that was locked up downstairs.

Right, he was doing time, so no gun, no dagger.

No emergency either, because Justice was being loudly self-satisfied and marching up the stairs. “Sorry, pal,” he said over his shoulder as he pulled the cell key off his belt. “No one escapes the long arm of…” He stopped with the key held out toward the lock, staring at Yan. “…justice?”

Lucy, behind him, also stopped and stared at her former boss, green eyes going wide.

Unsuur got to the top of the stairs, hand on the arm of a lean, well-dressed, handcuffed…Yan. A clean-shaven Yan. “I think I’m seeing double,” Unsuur said after a beat.

Logan looked between the two Yans. They were definitely different men, the familiar Yan with his mustache and hat and the same suit he’d been arrested in days ago, the new one without hair on his face and wearing fresh blue suit. But he had never seen two men who looked so alike in his entire life.

The handcuffed man’s open face grew hard as he stepped toward the cell to look his double in the eye.  “Yan,” he said, “My twin brother. This makes sense now.”

Yan crossed his arms and lifted his head, trying to appear intimidating. Logan raised an eyebrow, very unimpressed by the attempt, and Yan flinched a little when his eyes flicked in his direction. He cleared his throat and looked at his brother. “That's right, he's an imposter! This man is Wei, my evil twin!” Yan declared, “Contrary to popular belief, it's actually the one without the mustache! He did all the water stuff! Yeah, really! Put him in the slammer! I'm innocent!”

Wei sighed. “I see you haven’t changed.”

Yan bristled. “You’re supposed to be dead!” He gripped the cell bars. “Why are you not dead? I specifically requested it!”

“Yes, I should be dead. From when you had me abandoned in the Peripheries!”

Logan’s attention snapped to the man. The snazzy suit and beanpole build were misleading, then. This fella had to be made of different stuff than his brother to survive in the Peripheries.

Justice sighed and rubbed his temples. “Go ahead and throw that on the pile,” he told Unsuur.

The younger man nodded. “Solicitation of murder for hire. Got it, sir.”

“I am very much alive, as you can see,” Wei said, his focus on his brother, “I'm here to resume my position as the commissioner of a Commerce Guild here.”

Yan knuckles tightened on the bars. “Steal my job as revenge for me trying to kill you, eh? Petty, Wei. Very petty!”

The good twin blinked. “What the—you impersonated me, Yan!”

In fairness, it wouldn’t have been hard.

Yan seemed to be slowly deflating. The pond drying up beneath the pond scum. “Debatable…”

“Furthermore, this position just happened to be open just after I clawed my way back across a thousand leagues of rugged terrain, teeming with abominations, danger lurking around every turn!” Wei said, proud and outraged. Logan was going to have to talk to him about all that over some yakmel milk when he was out of here.

“Sheesh. Would you listen to this drama queen?” Yan looked around at everyone as if anyone present would back him up. “How bad could it have been? You're here and you've even still got all your limbs!”

“Alright, alright,” Justice said, stepping between the brothers, “I think we get the picture here.” He moved behind Wei to uncuff him. “Deepest apologies, Mr., uh, Wei, was it? Sorry for the foul treatment earlier, it's just... every other time anyone's tried the "evil twin" defense, they were never telling the truth.”

“Guess we were due,” Unsuur said.

Logan exchanged a glance with Haru. Only in Sandrock. He glanced over to see Lucy hiding a smile and she met his eye in shared amusement.

Wei gave Justice an agreeable nod, rubbing his wrists as he stepped right up to the cell bars. “I can hardly believe it myself,” he said to Yan, shaking his head, “to see you like this... after all these years...”

“Yeah, well...” Yan’s crazed energy seemed finally drained. “And since we're all here, I do want to point out that I got put in jail for other stuff, so technically... technically I got away with making your disappearance look like an accident.”

“I don't think I can stand to see your face for another second,” Wei said and turned away.

“Yeah, that tends to be a pretty common theme in the Yan department,” Justice said, “Everybody back to your posts.” Unsuur tossed off a salute and led Wei downstairs, answering some of the new commissioner’s questions about Sandrock as they left. Justice pinched the bridge of his nose. “Sorry to bother you about this, Lucy. Thought we had a situation on our hands.”

“It’s been almost nonstop situations for the past week, Justice. It was no trouble, I was just delivering morning commissions.”

Yan stared at them for a little while. Justice dropped his hand from his face and leveled a proper B3 level glare at the slime and he shrunk away to his cot next to Miguel. He looked at Logan, expression softening. “You doing okay, man?”

Logan shrugged, dropping back onto his cot. “Here for a reason, Justice, don’t treat me different than any other prisoner. It ain’t right.”

The sheriff shook his head. “Of all the difficult people in this town, you sure are difficult in your own special way, you know that?” He turned to leave. “Think of it as a matter of law enforcement ethics. Four more days, Logan, then this whole thing is done and over with as far as I care.”

Lucy lingered. “I was wondering why he and Trudy delayed the trial until Pen was out of here for sure. I guess they knew what you’d do.”

Haru scoffed from where he was working on his puzzle cube. He’d solved it more times than Logan could count today, but it kept his hands busy. “You’re predictable, Logan.”

“I’ve just got principles.”

“If we’d realized that earlier, we might have caught you,” Lucy said, “Good thing for us all we didn’t, I guess.”

He shrugged. It was too hard to untangle what was and what could have been. “It’s done now.”

She smirked. “In four days.” She rapped on one of the bars. “It will be good to see you around in Sandrock, yakboy, as more than a wanted poster. I better go catch up with my new boss.”

He watched her leave with a confident sway to her hips.

Something hit him lightly on the shoulder. He turned to see it was Haru’s puzzle cube and looked up to see his brother looking at him with a small smile on his face. “Sorry, I slipped.”

***

As a courtesy- Logan suspected just for him and Haru- Justice had turned most of the lights out after dinner so the prisoners could get some real sleep. Logan lay on his cot, hand on his chest, not sleeping.

Two more days. What was he going to do with himself after that?

There was that fine to pay off…and Haru to get through college. Haru had hemmed and hawed when they discussed it, his mind not quite made up, but Logan could see he not only wanted to go but should.  

There was Andy to take care of, too. The boy had been by twice under the watchful eye of first Justice and then Lucy, outraged at seeing Logan and Haru behind bars despite Logan’s many explanations of why it was the right thing. Behind the loud talk and promises to break them out, Logan could see the fear in Andy’s eyes.

They were a family. Andy needed him…and to be honest, Logan needed Andy, too. It had been darker in the hideout after Logan had left the kid in Sandrock, too much silence allowing him to stew in bad bitter memories.

But that meant he had to be there. He couldn’t get himself killed on the hunt or be gone for months like he and his pa used to. Logan had started his training as a monster hunter at ten, famously at that point unable to sit still at a desk, but Andy was taking to schooling like a fish to quicksand. The kid had mentioned Heidi walking him through her calculations for the Portia tunnel supports and he clearly was fascinated for all he dismissed the numbers as ‘gobbledygook’.  

All Logan had ever had really was Howlett and Howlett’s example. That wasn’t going to work here. Howlett was gone and…well, Logan wasn’t his pa and Andy wasn’t Logan.

“Logan.”

He jolted at the sound of his name. “Miguel.” The man hadn’t spoken to him once since they got here.

“You’ll be free in a day.”

“Two.”

“It is past midnight. A day, roughly.” Still the same man Logan had known back before it all went wrong. That didn’t make it better. “Have you heard of Doss?”

Of course he had. Logan just stared at Miguel’s dark corner from where he lay.

“I was born there. I was training in Meidi when it…fell.”

Despite himself, Logan felt bad then for Miguel. Doss’ fall was only thirty years ago, a few years before Logan had been born, but it was already a dark legend among monster hunters, the thing they dedicated themselves to preventing.

Not that there was a lot known on how it had happened. A whole city as good as wiped from the map by a huge terrible monster, turned- near as anyone knew- into its lair, a little bit of Peripheries extending into the Free Cities.

Logan swallowed. “I’m sorry,” he said.

He thought he saw a shadow within a shadow nod stiffly. “I want to prevent that fate- my fate- from befalling any others. To prevent a second Calamity.”

Logan bit back a dozen responses. He had to be out of his mind to think Duvos cared about that. Pen had been using one serious relic weapon and Matilda had shown no hesitation with that battle robot. Even if those were exceptions to the rule, Duvos could barely feed its own people; mass starvation was a calamity all its own, even if it didn’t come with monsters and earthquakes and whatnot. He’d seen villages dying that way in some of his patrols with his pa years ago.

“You were doing all that by strangling Sandrock?” Logan finally asked.

“It was a necessary step.”

Logan clenched a fist around one of the scratchy prison blankets, then released it. He let out a breath. “Worryin’ about the mistakes of the past so much they keep you from moving forward means you can’t keep them from being made again. You just get stuck or worse. That’s all I have to say to you, Miguel. I’ve got a lot of questions and we both know I won’t much care for the answers, so I won’t ask ‘em.”

“Yes.” Miguel went silent and Logan hoped he had decided to try to sleep. “I tell you only because you are a monster hunter. You understand the stakes better than all the rest here. I am…it is done for me. I do not have a way forward. It seems you do.”

Logan snorted and turned so his back was to Miguel. As if the man cared about this place, these people. If he did and had still done all these things, then he was sick in the mind, and Logan wasn’t one who could help.

What he could do was take his own advice, though, and finally he let sleep take him.

***

“Light’s sake, Logan, just eat it. It’s getting cold.”

Logan held the box through the bars, back toward Owen.  “I told you when you came in before, I’m fine with prison food when I’m in prison.”

Owen grabbed the box so it didn’t fall on the floor. “Fine, fine. You realize you’re getting out tomorrow morning? How are you going to indulge your principled guilt next?”

He was sure Owen and Justice were speaking for a whole lot of people. Sandrock loved its own and, after three great big betrayals, was happy to have him and Haru back in the fold. He was pretty sure Elsie was mad at him for choosing this, so fortunately she hadn’t come by to throw in her opinion. He hoped Lucy had kept her and Andy apart or he might need to expect an unwanted jailbreak tonight. “You know the sentence. We’ve got community service and a fine.”

“Oh, yeah, Logan helping Vivi sweep her porch or repairing the ranch fence, that’s totally not something you would do normally if someone asked.”

Haru was eyeing the box Owen now held. “We’ll come by for breakfast after they let us out, we promise.”

“On the house.”

“No need,” Logan said.

“Think of it as a coming home present to an old friend. I owe you both. I assumed the worst, like everyone else, but I should have known better.” Owen shook his head. “Yours has never been that kind of story, Logan. Or yours, Haru. I’m sorry. And since those are only words, I’ll back it up with food and drink and then it will mean something.”

Logan wanted to protest but the box of food did smell real good. “Thanks. We’re looking forward to it.”

“Prison gruel will do that to you.”

“Hey, if they won’t take that food, I will,” Yan said, looking up from an old newspaper.

“Not a chance,” Owen snapped. Logan chuckled. There was something of an adventurer in the barkeep yet, woe to whoever forgot. “Okay, so you won’t eat my food right now. Do you have a place to stay after you get out?” he asked Logan and Haru.

They looked at each other. “We’ve got the house,” Haru said.

“Yeah.” Logan ran a hand through his hair. “Yeah, we do.”

“It’s been sitting empty for two years. Might be a bit messy.”

It had always been messy, more though neglect than anything. Howlett had been a neat man, and Logan was the same when he could be, but they’d be gone for weeks and even months at a time, sometimes without a lot of warning. “We’ve been living in caves, our standard ain’t exactly high.”

“Hmm. I’ll let Lucy know, she’ll make sure you’ve got running water at least.”

Another thing to add to the list of stuff she’d done for them…if he let Owen tell her. “She’s got enough going on, I’m sure, what with fixing up after the fight. We can manage without running water until I can figure out a commission.” More gols he didn’t have to spend but you did what you had to do.

“Well,” Owen said, “I can’t say she hasn’t been over already to fix it up, so.” He shrugged.

Logan shut his eyes briefly. “Sounds about right.”

“Let people care about you, Logan.” He shifted the box of food to his other hand, giving himself time to think about what to say. Logan often spoke and acted without thinking; Owen always thought before he said or did anything. “Howlett was bad at that. It wasn’t good for him…or you. Ask Vivi or Hugo or Trudy or Mabel, or even Cooper if you’ve got time.”

Logan crossed his arms and looked away. “Yeah, maybe.”

“I mean, I was kidding about the Cooper part, no one has that kind of time.”

“Maybe we’ll see if that can be that part of the community service,” Haru said, “Removing Cooper from general circulation for a few hours every evening.”

“Trudy should half the requirement then, because it will feel like twice as long.”

Logan shook his head, smiling. “Thanks, Owen.”

“I’d better get going before Grace ruins all my stocks and I can’t give you that great breakfast.”

“She’s that bad in a real kitchen, then?” Haru asked.

“Worse. At least I understand why now- secret agents don’t need to know how to cook. I told her she didn’t have to keep working while she’s still here but she insisted.” He sighed. “And then I kept telling and she kept insisting and at least I am pretty sure there won’t be another kitchen fire.”

Logan laughed. “Sounds like there’s a story worth hearing there, pardner.”

“It wasn’t great. Good thing a Builder saved the day, or the Blue Moon might have had some trouble.”

“Lucy?” Logan asked with a grin, “Saving the day seems to be her hobby.”

Owen raised an eyebrow at Logan. “To you, I’m sure. No, Mi-an. Sandrock’s changed, there’s two hotshot Builders here now.” He looked at the clock. “Time to go save some omelets. Tomorrow, as soon as you get out, grab that kid of yours and come get breakfast on the house.” He tucked the food box more securely under his arm and headed down the stairs.

Haru was genuinely grinning. “It’s good to be home again.”

Logan laughed, just as eager as his brother for fresh food from the Blue Moon again. It seemed like a distant memory, but the smell of what Owen had been bringing by conjured it up as if it were yesterday. “Yeah, it is.”

Chapter Text

Nia had never been in a battlefield before. Well, a recovering one.

She peered out her room’s window as she tucked her sandgear away in her hip pouch just in case. There weren’t any obvious signs that there had been a battle here- it had been months at this point, almost a whole year even, but she thought she could see little dents and marks from the fighting.

Or maybe she was being dramatic. It was possible. In her defense, Sandrock these days was a very dramatic place!

Especially for botany. With that thought, she looked at the room’s desk clock and jumped up to rush out the door to the Blue Moon Saloon’s dining room.

Her eyes swept over the nearly-empty room with a sense of increasing despair. There was no sign of Professor Luo. A couple tourists were finishing off a massive breakfast, that Ataran reporter was scribbling away in a corner, and the Blue Moon’s owner, Owen, was standing behind the bar.

And also one other guy who was talking to Owen, a real yakboy, tall and white haired and…and looking an awful lot like those wanted posters that had been all over when she’d last visited Lucy. Looking like that Logan guy, though unmasked (and a lot prettier than she’d think a yakboy, especially a bandit yakboy, would be).

She needed to find the Professor, she really did, but she couldn’t help but stare.

“You can ask for more,” Owen was saying to him. Between them was a jar full of some kind of red powder, strange characters on its beaten label. “It’s called negotiation. Or haggling. Make me try to talk the price down.”

Logan gestured at the jar. “What, lie and say I could sell it somewhere else?” he asked in a heavy twang, his voice like something out of a trashy novel, “Ten gols, Owen. You know and I know no one else ‘round here has a use for this kind o’ Seesai pepper powder.”

“Never underestimate Mabel’s skill at getting Elsie and Coop to try new food.” Owen sighed, looking at the jar, and pulled it to himself. He took some gols from behind the bar and slapped them on top of it. “With anyone else, here’s where I’d ask if there was anything else in that old wagon, but you’re not anyone else.”

Logan shook his head, scratching under his hat tiredly. He was a very dusty man, as if he’d been on the road for hours, and it was not even seven thirty in the morning. “Shattered glass, broken crates, a yakmel femur, and an angry tripon scavengin’. Thing must’ve been uncovered by the last storm, been buried years.”

Owen held the jar up, peering at it. “High quality stuff…poor souls. Hopefully they got away and the wagon and the yakmel were the only loss. No way of knowing.” He caught sight of Nia then. “Ah, Miss Nia. Your boss had a yakmel milk and left to go ‘sample the local flora.’ He said not to feel bad if you missed him, he’s used to late night trains. He’ll be back by noon.”

Well, she had a huge pile of notes and field equipment to get organized anyway. “Thanks, I guess I’ll get breakfast then before I get to work.” She gave in then and looked at the yakboy. If he was here bantering with the local saloon owner, he couldn’t be what all the stories had made him out to be. “Hi, I’m Nia! I’m here to help Professor Luo on the Little Woods project.”

He tipped his hat to her and she suppressed a giggle. “Miss Nia. I’m Logan, Sandrock’s monster hunter these days.” His very blue eyes flicked to her pouch. “You’re Luce’s old pal from Highwind, right? She’s mentioned you a few times, though she didn’t say you’d be in town.”

Nia needed a second to parse the nickname. “Oh! Lucy! Yep, I’m that Nia.” She grinned. “She doesn’t know I’m here yet. It’s a surprise!”

He shook his head, a small smile gracing his handsome face. It was the sort of smile meant for someone who wasn’t there. “Woman’s due for a good surprise finally, ‘specially after all that mess with the trees.”

“Logan and Lucy chat,” Owen told her with a twinkle in his eye. Nia resisted the reflex to put her hand to her mouth. Lucy! Lucy who was always too busy and too focused on her work for a social life, that Lucy and this yakboy! Her eyes slid to the Logan, who was giving the other man what looked to Nia like a very practiced neutral look. “Still want the rice omelet?” Owen asked, ignoring it.

“Oh, yes! And a hot sandtea if it’s no trouble.”

“No trouble at all. I’ll just let the cook know.” Owen made his way to the kitchen, tossing the jar of spice from one hand to another. “If you thought my food was good, you’re in for a treat.”

Owen’s food had been the sort of cooking you thought about for years, so now Nia was very curious. Not as curious, though, as she was about Logan. “Uh, excuse me for bringing it up,” she said, “But last time I was here you were a criminal? Your face was on these great big wanted posters?”

He ducked his head. “Yeah. It’s…hard to explain.”

“Duvos,” Nia said grimly. A lot of Sandrock’s recent problems could be traced back to Duvos.  She was going to get the full story from Lucy (Luce! He had a cute little nickname for her!), because the gently worded letters were definitely not the full thing, but it didn’t seem right to go around interrogating the people who’d been betrayed by their own for years.

“Duvos,” he said, nodding. They sat there in silence for a moment. “Er, ya’ll think you can get the trees planted proper?”

“We’ll see.” Owen came back with a fresh delicious-smelling omelet and a steaming sandtea to sit in front of her. Her stomach rumbled and sweet Peach, she hadn’t had any food since an early dinner on the train last night, had she? “I’m not going to give anyone any false hope,” she said, pulling from the discussion she and the professor had during that dinner. She eagerly seized the fork Owen sat out for her. “But it doesn’t look hopeless, either.”

“That should be Sandrock’s motto,” Owen said, “’But it doesn’t look hopeless, either.’ Doesn’t quite roll off the tongue like ‘conserve water’, though.”

“Uh.” Nia paused with her fork above her omelet. “Does ‘conserve water’ roll off the tongue?”

Logan scoffed and Owen chuckled. “Depends on who you ask,” the saloon owner said. He looked to Logan. “Larry says that stuff is exactly what he needed. Took one whiff and I think he had a moment.”

“A good moment or one of them crying-if-he-could moments?” Nia’s eyes widened as she dug into her omelet. Just what kind of small-town drama was going on around here? Oh, Highwind was never this interesting!

“Both? You’re a bit better at reading them than me.”

“So the theory goes. Let him know I’m still trying to learn more about what exactly happened at Gecko Station. Ain’t many of his old pals left who are willin’ to talk.” He rubbed at his neck. “I best finish up along the north canyon rim ‘fore Elsie sets up a pensky kennel or somethin’ in the outpost.”

“I did hear Catori say something about a petting zoo last night.”

Logan sighed, finally sliding his ten gols from the bar into a pocket. “Pa used to say ‘sufficient unto the day is its own evil’ and I’m startin’ to see why.” He tipped his hat to Nia again, making her want to squee in delight, it was a like a trashy novel and it was the one Lucy was in, and paused before he really left to fix Owen with a clear blue glare. “If she brings that up again, tell her I said it was a very bad idea.”

“I’m sure that will convince her. Oh, wait!” Owen pulled a heavy bag off a shelf behind him and held it out. “Drop this off with Lucy on your way, will you? It’s that order of salt she put in last week.”

Logan tossed the bag over one shoulder with a nod and left. Nia ate another forkful of omelet as she watched the door close, then turned back to Owen. “So,” she said brightly, “would he stop over if he didn’t have her order?”

Owen gave her a wink as he wiped down the bar where the jar of spice had been. “I’d be surprised if he even gets around to his northern patrol today.”

Nia allowed herself just a little squee between a bite of omelet and a sip of sandtea.

Chapter Text

Lucy reserved the right to zone out during her morning walk to the Commerce Guild. Her morning coffee had kicked in, she’d already started several of her machines, she’d gone over on what she’d need to restock soon, but it was nice to just stare vacantly ahead on her way to look at the morning’s new commissions not thinking of anything.

The first interruption to this state was the blue cloak and the man attached to it, which made her smile- she’d helped get his house into shape the day before, which the gang had made far more fun than dusting and fixing faucets had any right to be- and the thing that really jolted her out of it was the purple jacket standing next to him, attached to a blond reporter who was paging through his notepad as he spoke.

She drifted to a halt for a moment. She was too far to hear what was going on but she couldn’t leave Logan to this. He didn’t know what Ernest was doing with his life story but she did. Lucy’s focus snapped into place and she walked over with a purpose.

“Mr. Logan, thank you again for agreeing to do this interview,” Ernest was saying as she got within earshot, “It really means the world to me.” He was still paging through his notepad.

“Just Logan is fine,” the yakboy told him, a little nervous, “So what's this all about? What went down up north? I'm not much of a storyteller. Maybe Justice is your man for that.”

“Oh, no...” Ernest finally found what he was looking for in his notepad and looked back up, smiling in that reporter way he had that made Sandrockers either lean in or back away depending on the person. “No, actually, I was hoping to learn a bit more about you as a person. Your life on the run. What inspires you. You see, I've been working on this novel...”

“Uh huh,” Logan said. Lucy suspected he was going to be in the back away camp after this.

She stepped forward, trying to wipe away her glare as she thought of some way to divert Ernest. He was well-intentioned, she knew, trying to tell Sandrock’s stories to the world, but sometimes the guy was too Ataran.

“Ah, Lucy!” he said before she could come up with anything. His alertness made her jump. He had come out here this morning with a plan and caffeinated accordingly, it seemed. “What a pleasant surprise!” Was it? She walked this way every morning when she wasn’t bombing minister’s residences. “I don't suppose you could join us? I had some questions for you as well, if you have time.”

“Sure!” she said with a grin she didn’t feel. She chanced a glance at Logan.

He gave her a small smile, wariness in his bright blue eyes. The man had been sleeping in either caves or a cell until last night for years, getting jumped by a reporter- actually, worse, a novelist- couldn’t be fun. “Alright, then. The more the merrier,” he told her.

“Fantastic!” Ernest announced. The look on Logan’s face revealed he was settled firmly into the ‘back away’ camp now. “Let's move to a more suitable location.”

He led them across the street toward the Blue Moon. Lucy cast a longing look at the Commerce Guild, hoping this didn’t set her too far behind. The town was still doing repairs and Solstice was coming up in a few weeks. Indulging Ernest was not in her plans today.

Or in Logan’s, she noted as he glanced down the road in the direction of the Civil Corps office. He had community service to get to and a big fine to pay off, plus Andy to take care of.

They settled into one of the bigger booths, Logan sliding in next to Lucy after Ernest was seated. She hoped the look she was giving him let him know she had his back.

“So!” Ernest said, flicking through his notes again, “’The Battle of the Northern Ruins’. Working title. You all were just so heroic over there! Really inspiring. I've spoken with Justice already and he mentioned a few details I thought were a bit... odd.” He looked up at them. “Was hoping to cross-check them with you two if that's alright.”

They both nodded.

“So according to Justice's reports, Grace the town cook boarded the Duvos airship alone, where she then managed to take out a propeller engine, making the ship an easy target for the Alliance,” Ernest continued, reading from his notes before looking back up, “I mean, we all know her university is known for its martial arts team, but, I mean, come on, what's the story there? Is it possible I've missed something big that everyone else knows already? In any case, spill the tea!”

Owen was eying their table over Ernest’s head, an eyebrow raised. Lucy shook her head minutely. They could handle this.  “There weren't that many people on the airship,” she said. Grace had enough on her plate from the sound of it and, from what she knew of ACI, they didn’t like to have any kind of public face.

“Yeah,” Logan said, sounding relieved, “They had everyone down in the ruins moving that rocket engine. She slipped into what was essentially a ghost ship. She was hardly ever in any danger at all.”

“Hmm. I see.” Ernest tapped his notebook with his pencil a few times. “Not very dramatic…I know there was a giant duck, that’s too much for this sort of novel…trying to avoid kids’ stuff here. Well.” He flipped to a blank page and readied to write as he looked up at them. Oh no. “Logan, can I ask you something personal?”

Oh no.

“Shoot,” Logan said.

“Are you…seeing anyone?” It was only through a valiant effort that Lucy did not slam her hand into her forehead. Atarans. “I mean, uh, did you ever have any chance romantic encounters on the run as an outlaw?”

Logan just stared at him, totally taken aback.

“Right, right.” Ernest lifted his pencil pointedly. “I realize I'm kind of crossing a line here but can you at least give me something? Something to help me get the romance right in this novel I'm working on.”

“Afraid nothing comes to mind,” Logan answered a little stiffly.

“Ernest, I took you to that cave where he was hiding out,” Lucy said, “It was full of monsters and…well, it was a cave.” Their other setup had been much more comfortable, but Ernest didn’t need to know anything about that. “Think of how hard it is to find water out here, or food for that matter. Remember the shortage after the Geegler attacks?  Do you really think Logan had time for that kind of thing out in the wilderness?”

Ernest had the sense to finally look a little embarrassed. “That’s a good point.” He looked down at his notes. “And there was the whole Duvos thing, that was terrifying and I only was dealing with for a day! Still, being hungry, thirsty, and living in a dirty cave is not the sort of thing people want to read about.” Not, she suspected, the people wanting the kind of book he was writing anyway. “Maybe something like... driven by rage, his eyes focused only straight ahead, his vision tunneled, he was unable to see the love no doubt chasing after him. A true anti-hero, tragic…”

Logan just stared at him. Lucy wondered if the purple prose was all that much off the mark on his mindset at the time, which made it worse.

“Sorry!” Ernest said, “I was kind of putting words in your mouth. Don't worry, I won't print that. Just doing a bit of thinking out loud for my novel.” He shut his notebook, looking satisfied. “Ah, well, I think we can about call it here. I've got enough. I'm going to get back to my desk while these ideas are fresh in my mind.” He stood. “Bye! Thanks! And farewell!” And off he went, out the door like something was nipping at his heels.

Lucy and Logan stared at the door after him. “He’s Ataran,” she said after a second, feeling apologetic as if she’d enabled this instead of tried to help.

Logan shifted at her side a little. “He’s, uh, he’s writin’ a book about me?”

“I think he says ‘inspired’.” She looked away from the door to see him looking at her. “Sorry, I guess I wasn’t much help in getting him to be less nosy.”

“’s alright. I appreciate the attempt. I’m sure it would have been a lot worse on my lonesome, just me sitting here stammerin’ while he scribbled away.”

“Still. You just really came home, you shouldn’t have been ambushed like that.”’

He chuckled, brightening a little. “Already had to fight my way through Duvos in my own streets, it wasn’t worse than that.” He stood. “I’ve got to head out to help Cooper finish wranglin’ the last few yakmel them Duvos soldiers scattered.” He tipped his hat to her and Lucy was hopelessly charmed by the gesture somehow despite the fact every man in town did it all the time. “Whatever he writes can’t be too awful and it ain’t my problem anyway. Thanks for your help, Luce. Be seein’ ya.”

***

It was amazing that a monster hunter had hair like this, really. Lucy ran her fingers through it again, admiring the softness and the bright white color as she smiled at the man whose head lay in her lap.

Logan cracked an eye from where he lay sprawled across the bed. His long white eyelashes made the blue color even more intense. Men always had such nice eyelashes. “’Member, the outpost is no place for you to stay the night.”

She snorted and moved to undo the small braid she’d made in his hair earlier. “I’m not the one with my eyes closed.”

He grumbled insincerely. “Not really a place for you to spend time, too much sand, smells like monster bait…”

It did, but she got over it. Braid undone, she dragged her fingers through his hair again, scratching his scalp lightly. He gave a pleased hum and arched into it. “Just a visit,” she said soothingly. She listened carefully. Andy was still outside with Nemo, under the watchful eye of two goats and surprise escort Captain. “Adjusting our original Sunday plans, that’s all.”

He grumbled again, this time sincere. They’d intended to take Andy out into the Eufala today, partly desert survival lesson and partly just for fun, with the added bonus of being able to be them without having to worry about Sandrock sticking its nose in. But some emergency had come up at Wandering Y- Logan said Elsie had used a lot of words to fail to explain anything, proving the fruit didn’t fall far from the cactus after all- so Logan had to take Elsie’s shift at the outpost that day instead.

Andy had been so excited all week, and so good this last month about not blabbing about Logan and Lucy despite there surely being a lot of sugar in doing so from interested parties, that Lucy had decided to go with a modified trip anyway, seating herself and the kid on Merle with Nemo trotting alongside. Captain had invited himself along as they left town, planting himself on the saddle horn and consenting to respectful scritches from the two riders.

The boy had marveled at the Shipwreck Ruins and the huge sea-beast bones. Lucy had pointed out the different plants they passed, telling him their uses. They’d swung by the still-growing Little Woods where she’d regurgitated all she knew about them. He’d been impatient to stop by the outpost to see Logan, though, and there had been this look in his eye that warned of trouble.

“No campout at the old hideout,” Logan said, both eyes closed again, “Not with just the two of you. Somethin’ is bound to have moved in there.”

“Hmm, the place where you and Haru tried to kill me in several ways and failed? How ever could I handle that place, just little old me?” He opened his eyes to give her a look somewhere between a glare and apology. She laughed and ran her thumb gently along his scarred eyebrow. He owed her that story. “No, I’ve got a little camp thing set up in my workyard. It’s not as thrilling but it’s something.”

Logan sighed and resettled himself on the bed. “Elsie owes me for messin’ this up. Kid’s been doin’ right, not just by school an’ Sandrock, but by us, and I needed to give him this time.”

The excited barking outside grew closer to the door. Andy was chatting to dog. Lucy’s eyes narrowed as she listened. “See, Captain knows, he’s comin’. I gotta point to make.”

Logan titled his chin up towards her curiously. “You might want to put that ‘doing right by us’ assumption on hold,” she told him.

His brow furrowed, but any questions he had didn’t get out before the door slammed open. “Andy,” he snapped, glaring at the boy with his head still in Lucy’s lap as Captain, Andy, and Nemo came inside like a little parade.

Lucy chuckled quietly and ran her hands through his hair again.

“You look funny with your hair down,” the kid said as he shut the door gently, “And just what do you have Lucy doin’? Pettin’ you like some kind of dog?”

“You’ve heard the dog story,” Lucy said, watching Andy grab a stool to set in front of them. There was that plotting look in his eyes again. “You can’t say he isn’t like some kind of great big dog.”

Andy looked thoughtful. “Well, if a dog tried to cook, it would cook like Logan. Sorry, Nemo.” He shrugged. “Makes sense to me. Anywho, I went to Owen’s storytellin’ on Saturday.”

“Heidi always takes you to that,” Logan said, wary.

“Owen told someone else’s story this time.” Andy leaned forward. “It was Earnest’s! And it was about you!” He pointed at Logan. The monster hunter was frozen on Lucy’s lap.

Lucy rubbed at her eyes. Sweet Peach. It had been years now since Earnest moved here and months since he quit poking around at Logan’s life. She’d hoped he’d quit with that particular plotline.

Andy pulled a piece of crumpled paper from his pocket. “I took some notes.” He uncrumpled the paper with a lot of ceremony and read flatly. “’The masked face, the hypnotic, fierce eyes, the silver hair sweeping across his forehead from under his hat. It’s Diego.’” Andy dropped the paper to his lap. “Logan! You need to get him t’ pay ya! Have him give ya, uh, those loyalties thingies!”

Logan sat up, tense but trying not to show it. “It’s just a story. Anyone can write what they like for cityslickers so they can make a livin’.”

The kid scrunched up his nose. “Was real popular at the saloon, so it ain’t just cityslickers. Kinda surprised no one else caught on.” He scratched his head and shrugged. “He has you doin’ all sorts of bandit stuff in this book, like robbin’ a bank. Not very effectively, in my opinion.”

“How do you effectively rob a bank, Andy?” Lucy asked, morbidly curious.

“Mobile waterslide robot.” He nodded sagely. Ah, right, he sometimes went to annoy Qi. “All I’m sayin’ is it’s all sorts of silly. You’re a way better bandit than this Diego fella. You should get yours at least if you’re not going to challenge such slanderin’.”

Logan shook his head. “I’ve got mine, kid.” He reached out and ruffled Andy’s hair, then looked to Lucy. “I may stay out here for a few days until this blows over, though. It’s, uh, a little too much attention for…things.”

She knelt behind him and put his hair up, taking her time. Ernest meant well, she reminded herself as she pulled his hair gently back. He just wanted to tell an interesting story. Lots of stories had their basis in real people’s lives. “If it’s just about bandit adventures, it’s not really that bad,” she said, “That’s all ancient history at this point. You served your sentence, you did your service, you paid off the fee. I don’t think anyone in town even wants to remember all that.”

He chuckled, leaning back so he could look at her with soft eyes. “Thanks, darlin’. It is just some adventure story, nothin’ embarassin’, you’re right. All sorts of them things in the city library.”

“Pfft.” Andy crossed his arms, looking put out. “Still say you should get some money outta it.”

***

She was going to strangle Ernest with the strings of his jacket hood.

“Oh come on!” Nia shouted, paging through her copy of Diego’s Mask furiously. After a minute, she tossed the book down on the picnic blanket and glared at it. “Alright, I know his editor made him cut the juicy bits out, because it totally is that kind of book.”

Lucy slowly drew her hands away from her face to stare up through the branches of the young saxoul trees. “Sure is,” she squeaked.

“Oh, I think it’s sweet,” Mi-an said, “It doesn’t violate anyone’s privacy, and we all know who...” Lucy glanced over at the dark-haired Builder, narrowing her eyes. “Er, it means kids can read it and it’s such a big deal to have a Sandrocker publish a book that’s getting big in Atara that it would be a shame if they couldn’t.”

Lucy groaned and covered her face again.

The three women sat in silence for a minute. “So has Logan said anything?” Nia asked finally.

“He said ‘good for Ernest’ and went on patrol after we got breakfast.”

“It can’t be about you two really,” Mi-an told her, reaching over to give her shoulder a comforting pat, “By the time most people knew about you two, Ernest included, he had to be almost done. It might have already been on the way to his editor.”

“It’s a trashy novel, Mi-an! About me! And my…er, Logan!”

“It’s an insufficiently trashy novel,” Nia declared. Lucy glared between her fingers. “I get it, it’s…it’s a version of Logan, and it’s a kind of melodramatic version of you, and the whole town is going to say it’s you two, but it’s just missing that spice. I mean, you two have it, just look at how everyone who didn’t already know figured out you were a thing, embarrassing, sure, but, y’know, a little spicy.”

“Thanks.”

“I’m a helper.”

Mi-an picked up the book. “He could have changed not-Logan’s hair color, really. It’s the real tell.”

Lucy settled her hands on her stomach. “I hope my ma doesn’t read this.”

Nia sat back on her hands. “Well, it’s not like you’ve told her you’re seeing Mr. Tall, Bright, and Handsome so she won’t be able to guess that you’re this Dawn character. And Dawn is from Seesai.” She shook her head. “It really is a trashy novel in every way but the one that makes people remember it, so from your perspective it’s got that going for it.”

“Diego is a silly name for this guy,” Mi-an muttered as she read, “Not Sandrock-y enough.” She let the book dangle from a hand. “It doesn’t look like she smacks him with a spear even once, Lucy, so in a week no one will think it’s about you guys.”

Lucy smiled despite herself. “Also some other thing will happen.”

“For sure,” Nia said, “I heard Catori’s been talking with Director Qi. Something big is coming that’ll make everyone forget about Ernest’s not-trashy-enough novel.”

Lucy closed her eyes and listened to her friends speculate on which of Catori’s endless business plans was most likely to happen. No, she wasn’t going to strangle Ernest with the strings of his jacket hood. But Grace was back in town, so she could arrange to have her be the one who cooked for him at the Blue Moon, that seemed like a good compromise.

Then she’d write her parents about Logan.

Chapter Text

“This is not smart,” Lucy breathed.

She felt Logan grin against her throat before he continued kissing his way down to her collarbone.

This is what she got for dressing up for this little thing with Catori and Trudy and Justice and all the people meeting outside of this closet in City Hall. Everyone, she thought hazily as Logan’s teeth scraped against her clavicle. Everyone was probably outside waiting on Catori’s presentation of her grand plan.

Everyone, she thought one last time before grabbing Logan’s hair and dragging him back up to her lips. He couldn’t do much to fight her, because he was holding her up against the door with her legs wrapped around him so he didn’t have to strain to reach anything.

Their teeth clacked together- bad angle, first teamwork fail of the long day, how about that- and he drew back just a smidge. “Seein’ you all cleaned up,” he breathed against her lips, “After you sorted out them mutants this mornin’…couldn’t hold off.”

“Group effort,” she whispered against his lips, then pulled him back to her at a much better angle.

Who had shoved who into this little broom closet while Trudy was occupied with Catori upstairs before everyone else showed up was absolutely not important. So was who got the credit for sealing the mutants away in the Valley of Whispers, which might have been what he was talking about.

This, this was why she showed up early to things, it turned out. His hand slid up the back of her thigh and she moaned into his mouth, wanting.

He shifted, trying to press closer, as if there were any space to be closer, and she desperately tried to pull him in with her legs.

Afterwards, it was hard to say who was at fault for what happened next. It might have been Logan shifting his grip on her that knocked the door handle down or it might have been how Lucy arched her back as he pressed against her just so.

Lucy felt the door start to give behind her but did not process it as she tugged Logan’s head back to get at his throat. He made this rumbling growl as she lightly pressed her teeth to it and then very suddenly they were falling and then her back was on the floor and it was a lot brighter.

She looked up at Logan and he looked down at her and then they both looked around.

Everyone had indeed come to City Hall tonight. Which meant everyone was staring at them.

Catori stood nearby, frozen with one hand stretched out toward an easel with a map on it. The rest of the Sandrockers were gathered around to watch her presentation. Owen and Justice, Lucy noted, looked smug, Andy was rolling his eyes, and Nia was grinning like a lunatic.

Mostly, everyone stood in shocked silence.

“I was wondering where you two were,” Trudy said after a minute.

Pablo turned to Amirah and Heidi, gesturing violently toward Logan and Lucy. “How did we miss this?” he demanded.

Heidi shrugged, still staring at them. Lucy finally remembered she should probably untangle her legs from around Logan and did. “This month, we have been trying to figure out how Owen’s courtship of Jane was going, then that turned into a whole history of Owen’s courtship attempts.” Owen looked up briefly as if beseeching the Light’s help. “Before that you got that letter from your ex who had moved to Portia and that’s been our past few months since the road got done.”

“You do get tunnel vision when one of your exes writes,” Amirah told the barber.

He huffed and crossed his arms.

Logan pulled his hand from under Lucy’s head- acting before thinking meant he’d kept her from getting a concussion when the door flew open, she was terribly tempted to kiss him again- and slowly got up before reaching down to help her stand, both of them blushing furiously. They stood there not looking at each other and holding hands, because…well, because.

“I knew,” Owen said, still smug.

“Me, too,” Justice added, “You could tell it was going to happen from the way they rode the giant duck into battle.”

“You could?” Elsie asked. Mabel reached up to pat her daughter’s head fondly. Lucy noted she also stomped on Cooper’s foot to get him to shut his mouth before any sound came out.

“Are we done with this?” Andy asked, bored and impatient, “Miss Catori was just gettin’ to the rollercoaster plan!”

“I was,” Catori said, finally dropping her arm, “Uh, unless anyone has any further…things…I’ll continue on with my presentation for the Catori World construction plan.”

Jasmine raised her hand, her face all scrunched up in confusion. Catori nodded to her and she dropped her hand, turning her confusion on the pair still holding hands. “What were they doing in the broom closet?”

Heidi sighed. “Nothin’ kids should see, Jasmine, don’t you worry about it none. Catori, let’s hear about that rollercoaster.”

Logan and Lucy shuffled off to the back of the crowd, all eyes following them before sliding back to Catori, who launched into her briefing about the rollercoaster as if she had never been interrupted. Hugo reached out as they passed to pat Logan’s shoulder, an amused smile on his face. Zeke and Mort gave them friendly nods, while Krystal and Rocky were giving each other a very fond look. Trudy seemed quite happy when she glanced their way, which was nice, considering they had just been making out in City Hall’s broom closet during official business.

Lucy tried to keep her attention on the presentation, especially as Wei moved into the guild’s part. She was going to do a lot of welding and wiring. That was good, because it meant she had no reason to show her face much around town for a long period of time. Weeks if she could help it.

However, a lot of the crowd was not being so attentive. Nia was having a whispered conversation with Jane, filling her in on something that Lucy could guess, with Mi-an leaning towards them as she watched the presentation. Pablo had pulled Amirah into a hushed conference across the room, though Heidi wasn’t a part of it because she actually had a useful role in this Catori World thing, which at least a few people here did, thank Peach.

It wasn’t all chatter, though that was sure to flow after like water now did from the oasis. Dan-bi was smiling at them, holding Rian’s hand; the carpenter gave her a thumbs up when he noticed she was looking. Arvio was beaming at them, ever the romantic. Burgess was writing something down in his neat little notebook and Lucy prayed this event didn’t end up in a sermon. Ernest was openly staring at Logan and Lucy, notepad out, pencil tapping on his chin. That wasn’t good.

Andy kept glaring at them occasionally throughout the presentation. Lucy was going to have to get him something. It wasn’t like he blew their cover, that was entirely, spectacularly on her and Logan.

Logan swiped his thumb across her hand where they still held onto each other. She finally did look at him and he gave her a little smile.

She returned it. They’d be okay. Everyone was going to learn eventually. This hadn’t been ideal but…but this was a long-haul thing. It wasn’t a fling or a trial courtship. She’d known that since…since the start, really, since he’d kissed her in his house after his injury, but right then was when it really bloomed in her heart like a new rose and her small smile became a big one. He matched it, lighting up his wonderful blue eyes.

Catori’s presentation ended as these things usually did: with a promise for diagrams and orders to be delivered to the relevant parties. The crowd broke up without further incident, everyone headed home to gossip about this all under their own roofs.

Lucy tried to avoid eye contact as they followed people out the door. Heidi and Qi were right in front of them, moving way too slowly. The Director was looking at Heidi curiously. “You did not see the evident mating rituals they were engaged in? It was quite obvious.”

“Don’t you start. One of Pablo’s exes wrote, it always turns into a whole thing. Plus I’ve been busy with all the repairs and the road and whatnot.”

Logan heaved a heavy sigh once they finally emerged in Martle Square and turned around to Andy, who was following them with his glare at full force. “Let’s get you home,” he said, “You’ve got school in the morning.” Andy gave their joined hands a pointed look. Logan looked at them too, then squared his shoulders. “Don’t be so touchy, we didn’t mean to interrupt the discussion of the roller coaster.”

“It’s not that!” He threw up his arms. “It’s that no one’s gonna be talkin’ about the theme park, just you two smoochin’ in a closet! It just ain’t right, you two have been smoochin’ since spring, it ain’t new and it ain’t a theme park.”

“I’m sorry, buddy,” Lucy said, meaning it, “You can help me make the rollercoaster tracks if you want.” A welding helmet could be adjusted to fit him and Andy was a lot better at following directions when doing something that actually held his interest than he was with chores.

“Really?”

“Really.”

All was immediately forgiven. “That’s gonna make me a part of Catori World history! Thanks Lucy! Let’s get home so I can get to bed so those diagrams will come sooner and we can get started.” He started heading towards home, but turned around for a second to point at Logan. “Ya gotta let her get to bed so she can start first thing!”

Logan blushed. “What…Andy, just go home.” He turned to Lucy. “I’ll catch up in a minute.”

The kid tossed a dismissive hand toward them and hopped up the stairs towards Logan’s house. “He’s goin' to be on about helpin’ with the rollercoaster nonstop now,” Logan said.

“I owe him for not telling anyone about us like we asked.”

His eyes dropped. “We told on ourselves pretty well, didn’t we?”

She leaned up and kissed his cheek. “That we did. Andy going on and on about the rollercoaster is going to be a relief.”

“Yeah, droppin’ Andy off at school is going to an interrogation. Still, I have to say, I am glad it’s out in the open. It was nice just being you and me, but…”

She squeezed his hand. “We had to tell them all someday. Yeah.” They stood there for a long wonderful moment smiling at each other under the stars. “I do wish it had been a little more, er, dignified.”

“Right now, I’m just glad you didn’t get your skull bounced off the floor.” He leaned down and kissed her gently on the forehead, then on the lips. “We’ll, uh, finish that business some other time, if you’re good with it.”

“Very.”

He chuckled. “And somewhere more private. What was I thinkin’, a broom closet in City Hall durin’ a meeting, Light’s sake…” He squeezed her hand one more time then let go, long legs carrying him up the stairs towards his home.

Lucy grinned all the way back to her workshop.

Chapter Text

Logan slapped the monster whistle as he finished testing the last strap holding it down. “All set,” he told the woman in the front of the cart. One of outlying villages had put in an order for the thing through Elsie and Lucy had made it right quick, but she was too busy to see it on its way, so that fell to him.

Luce had showed him how to do a final inspection for the village Builder and walk her through the installation instructions that morning, fretting that she had too much on her plate to see the job done. He’d reminded her that this was one of those things a husband was for, then had messed up her pretty little schedule by reminding her of one of the other things a husband was for.

Luckily, the village’s Builder didn’t seem to mind having time for a nice long breakfast at the Blue Moon and Lucy’s schedule wasn’t nearly as strict as she tended to think it was.

The sunburnt woman turned from her yakmel team to eye the whistle under its tarp, not eager to leave town. He didn’t blame her, it was a hard life out that way. “An' it’ll work?” she asked.

“Sure as the sun rises.” He patted the thing fondly. It had been a very good morning. “Got a set of ‘em in the Portia tunnel. It’ll keep those storage caves clear.”

The Builder looked in the direction of the Portia road and nodded. She tipped her hat at him and snapped the reins, headed north through one of the rugged passes.

Logan watched wagon trundle past the Civil Corps and scratched idly under his hat.  He had a few around-town bounties on his list today- Cooper on about a spoiled bumble ant on the edges of his ranch, a nest of tripions that had moved into Eufala Salvage’s ruins- but he couldn’t bring himself to be in a hurry. He might need to grab Elsie for the tripions, she was small enough to crawl into any hidey-holes they had....

Rambo huffed and stomped, shaking himself and making the small cart attached to his saddle rattle. He eyed Logan with a look that promised revenge for being treated as a draught animal. “Oh, take it easy,” he told the goat, pulling a sugar cube out of a pocket. Rambo ate it and settled a little as Logan scratched at the base of his horns. “We’ll get a proper yakmel for this sort of thing soon. You can put up with it every once and awhile ‘til then.”

He should go swing by and grab the commission fee from Wei, cross one more thing off Lucy’s list. It was on his way to look for Cooper’s spoiled ant anyway.

“There you are!”

He turned to see Heidi looking delighted to see him. She had a bag in her hands stuffed to the brim with rolled up papers.

“Hey, Heidi,” he said, “Lookin’ busy there.”

She gestured uphill at most of Sandrock. “Oh, just getting some of these old fixer-uppers ready for fixin’ up. Ever since Catori World opened, there have been lots of interested parties.”

Logan nodded, well aware. One of the things keeping Luce so busy was renovations to the houses around town that had stood empty so long. It seemed Heidi was busy, too, but to go by the gleam in her eyes, busy suited her just fine. “Gonna be somethin’ else to see a lot of new faces ‘round here,” he said, “Eh, maybe Haru’s right, maybe I do need to look into settin’ up a guild.”

She nodded. “Hmm. Maybe. Hey, did you hear about the fashion show?”

Logan stared at her for a second. “Heidi, I got married two weeks ago. Even if I was the sort to listen for a fashion show, I’ve had other things on my mind.”

“Well,” she said, and he was beginning to think it wasn’t real estate and architecture that was causing that gleam in her eyes. He had a bad feeling this was about to become his problem in some unknowable way. “Pablo’s gettin’ it all set up right here in Martle Square weekend after next. I’m actually on my way to drop the diagram for the runway off with Lucy.” She rested a hand on her hip and gave him a judgmental look. “You sure Lucy didn’t mention it to you? Pablo said she was the first person he told that he was going for it, before even Trudy for the permits and all.”

“Married two weeks ago,” he said again. He grabbed Rambo’s reins and led the goat back towards the Commerce Guild and the workshop. “Good for Pablo, I know somethin’ like this was the end goal of all that tumbleweed roamin’ he does.”

Heidi kept pace with him. “You should see the designs. You’d never think glamor and Sandrock would go together, but he pulled it off.” She shook her head in wonder. “He’s got fashion folks from Atara and Walnut Groove comin’, can you believe that? Right to little old Sandrock!”

Logan nodded, trying to remember where he could find Elsie for the tripion job.

“I’ve been talking to Cat, she says she’s happy to give the local kids passes to Catori World for the duration of the show, doing it all outta the goodness of her heart…and knowin’ the show will have a few of them fancy folks on her roller coaster while they’re in town, of course. Got Venti to chaperone, says it’s more her speed and she wants to win a giant teddy bear at some new game.”

“Why’d they need to do that for a fashion show?” Logan asked.

“So the models could be free to, well, model, of course.”

They’d reached the Commerce Guild and Logan stopped. He didn’t go in, just looked down at Heidi dubiously, trying to sort out why she was telling him all this, exactly. “Andy’s got permission if it ain’t a school night, of course, though if he eats that much candy floss again I can’t be held liable for the consequences.” He could, Justice had informed him, but also it had been kind of funny, so it was fifty-fifty and Logan wanted a defense out there in advance.

Heidi sighed and cast her eyes to the sky. “So you’ll be free to model, Logan. So. You. Can. Model. For the fashion show.” She rubbed at her temples with one hand. “Light help Lucy.”

He took offense to her frustration. She had not actually been communicating this information to him at all. “Wait a minute, model? Fashion ain’t my thing and I—”

The door to the Commerce Guild swung open. “Hello, Heidi!” Wei called out cheerfully as he emerged onto his porch.  

“How’s it going, Mr. Wei?” she said.

“Another wonderful day not in the Periphs!” The man had told Logan some of his stories; he meant it. “I heard about the fashion show. It’s amazing what Sandrock’s grown into, isn’t it? Please, let Trudy and Mr. Pablo know that the Commerce Guild is here to help.”

“Aw, thank you. It’s going to be such a huge event for the town.” She gave Logan a sideways glance. “Really put us on the map in a whole new way, you know?” Logan refused to believe it would outdo the theme park there. “It just means so much to Pablo and all the models. Grace and Owen are awful excited. Trudy’s got real high hopes, really pullin’ out all the stops. I’m on my way to deliver some diagrams to Lucy personally, matter of fact. Guild gets its cut, of course.”

Wei chuckled. “Oh, it won’t be much. With all the work from Catori World, things are really turning around for this little Commerce Guild.” He smiled back at the building. The good twin indeed. When he turned back around, he was beaming at Logan. “Mr. Logan, I’m so glad you’ll be a part of this, too. I know it hasn’t been an easy time for you these past few years. It’s good to see the someone who has given so much to Sandrock really get their chance to shine.”

Logan blinked at him. He had been ambushed. If this had been anyone other than Wei, he’d thought it was some kind of complex plan, monster whistle and Lucy’s schedule and all. He just nodded, then remembered himself. “Oh, I just delivered the monster whistle to that village builder for Luce. Thought I’d stop by to collect the fee, if that’s alright.

“No problem at all!” Wei swiped at his eyes with a pristine blue sleeve, his voice taking on a slight rusty edge. “So good to see such a healthy marriage between two sweethearts.”  He pulled a heavy pouch of gols from a pocket inside his jacket and dropped them in Logan’s hand. “If you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to grab another coffee.” Wei’s face fell a fraction. “More records from my brother’s tenure to validate. Or mostly invalidate, so far.” He resumed his usual cheer and headed over to the Blue Moon.

“Okay,” Logan said to Heidi with resignation, watching after the commissioner, “What do you need me to do for this shindig?”

She made a delighted sound and handed him a piece of paper from her bag. “Here’s your schedule. First fitting is with Vivi tomorrow!”

She darted off, clutching her bag close so all her papers didn’t fly out, while Logan looked at the schedule and sighed.

Rambo, wise goat that he was, reached his head over Logan’s shoulder and took a bite out of the top corner. Logan yanked the schedule away, obligated to save it, and scratched his old pal under an ear. “The things I do for Sandrock,” he told him and led the animal towards the workshop and the busy woman he called home.

***

Time. Lucy never had enough time.

Actually, she did Monday morning, as her husband had very wonderfully reminded her, but the fashion show runway ended up being the straw that overburdened the camel’s back.

The weeklong break from work she and Logan had taken after the wedding wasn’t a mistake, but it had left her with a backlog. There was the constant flow of Catori World commissions to work through. Then the home renovations she was working with Heidi on required a lot of fine custom work now the major repairs and updates were done. The interested parties wanted something classy, apparently, and most importantly were willing to pay for it. The miner’s guild was repairing and renovating some of its long-empty apartments, too, though that was all mercifully simpler and more standard.

That was hardly it, either. Grace had asked for a booth to sell her killer cocktails and Lucy was tossing in both a little cash and a little work to help Mi-an and Nia with their new store. The mysterious owner of the Old Town Lodge was putting in for upgrades, and mulling over who the landlord actually was- she was torn between Jensen, Pablo, and someone out of town- helped her stay sane as she ran all over gathering materials, making repairs, and installing completed bits and bobs. It was good solid work, helpful to her friends and her funds, but it left her tired at night.

And now she was taking Merle out to the desert to grab petrified wood for the stage and then for a jaunt out to the Badlands to talk with Ged about silver and other metals for Pablo, which took even longer than it should have because her and Logan’s marriage had made Lumi quietly heartsick which made Ged chattily heartsick but also full of inapplicable mole marriage advice.

By the time she’d been getting home, Logan was drooling on his pillow and the most interaction they managed was to curl around each other when she slipped into bed. He’d be gone by sunup, dropping a kiss on her lips as he left for his patrols and bounties.

It was not ideal. When this was done, she was going to talk to Wei. She needed time. Not another break, just time. She and Logan had to figure if they were going to renovate her little three-room shack or move into his house. He and Andy had moved in after the wedding, but it was far from the school and honestly not really much better than Mason had left it years ago. She knew Logan had Haru’s old idea about the monster hunter guild on his mind, as well. And she wanted to go riding with him, sit on that bench out back to watch the sunset with him, take Andy to Catori World, just really live her life with the man she’d chosen and the boy who looked at her as his ma.

It was the Monday before the fashion show when her grumbling stomach and lack of groceries drove her to the Blue Moon for lunch like a civilized person for the first time in…surely not a full week? She stared at her Highwind Fried Rice as she tried to process how much time had passed.

“Something wrong, Lucy?” Owen asked, his arms full of dirty dishes.

“Just been a busy time,” she said, digging in. Owen added more pepper to the fired rice than they did in Highwind, but she liked it better this way. “This place looks like it got a new coat of paint.”

“We’ve got all Pablo’s fancy fashion people coming in, so I put in a few late nights getting things updated. Thought about getting the old grandfather clock repaired but you and Mi-an seem to have your hands full. If any Walnut Groove fashion critic complains, I’ll stick my nose in the air and say it’s integral to the feng-shui of the saloon’s rustic charm.”

She gave him a grateful smile as she ate. “You’re booked up for that, then?”

He nodded, stepping around the bar to deposit the dirty dishes in a pile so he could chat. “First group arrives tomorrow.” He eyed her curiously. “How’d you talk Logan into modeling, by the way? I told Pablo and Amirah they’d never manage to get him or Fang or Qi to do it, but I guess they did.”

“Model?” She thought back. Logan had grumbled something last week with that word in it. Peach, she needed to slow down. “Huh. I didn’t.” She couldn’t imagine trying. Logan, a model in a fashion show. She tried to conjure the mental image of her husband on the runway she was building and failed. It was too far from his native habitat. Logan’s grace was innate, casual, never forced, never showy.

Owen folded his arms across his chest contemplatively. “That leaves someone guilting him into it.” He shook his head. “Explains the attitude at the fittings. He’s like a kid being forced to get a new suit by his ma.”

Logan as a model. “What is Pablo putting you guys in, anyway?” Pablo had shown her sketches back at the start of this during a conversation that hadn’t registered much through her lingering newlywed bliss. The outfits had all been drawn on sketches of Amirah, as usual, which gave her no clue what her husband would be wearing on the runway.

Owen grinned and shook his head.  “I’m sworn to secrecy. I’m sure you’ve got ways to get it out of another source, though.”

She swallowed another forkful of rice and snorted. “We’re so busy we haven’t said more to each other than ‘good morning’ for the last week. I think.”

Owen frowned. “You two need to slow down, then. It won’t do to have the first new marriage in Sandrock in over a decade get ground to dust by your schedules.”

“I just need to get this stupid runway built, then things will start clearing up.” And Grace’s booth. And those displays for the girls.

He let out a bark of a laugh. “It is a little silly, isn’t it? It’s Pablo’s dream, though. I never quite understood why he stuck around and didn’t go off permanently to Walnut Groove or somewhere without all the sand, cacti, and, worst of all, us dull hicks. It couldn’t all be burned romantic bridges.”

“Sandrock doesn’t give up,” she said thoughtfully over the last of her meal, “And if you’re the kind of person who doesn’t give up, then I think it keeps hold of you.”

“A good way of putting it. I can tell you’ve been getting serenaded by a lot of yakboy poetry.”

Lucy blushed.

***

Andy was staring a hole in the side of Logan’s head and had been the whole walk down the hill towards the workshop. He finally spat it out when they reached the Blue Moon stage. “You really gonna go up and there and strut in them fancy clothes?”

“I said I would so I am.”

“Is Pablo making you look cool?”

Logan considered this, not really sure what the standard was here. “He’s makin’ us all look fashionable as the folks at Walnut Groove see it, anyway.”

“I’m almost mad Miss Venti’s takin’ us kids to Catori World for the night,” Andy said, playing with his ragged cape. They needed to order a new one from Vivi, but she was already going to be slammed with backorders for weeks after this thing was done. He had to go be poked at with more needles this evening at the supposed last fitting. “Almost.”

He ruffled the kid’s hair. He was tired and he still had to cook the pair of them dinner before he headed over to Vivi. He wasn’t betting on his wife being at the dinner table, unfortunately, as she’d had to run off to the Badlands earlier that afternoon according to a note he’d found when he got back from patrol. He missed her, and she missed him. She’d started a countdown on the fridge of how many days until her schedule stopped being quite so much.

Two. Same as the days to the fashion show. If Logan had more energy, he would seriously consider resenting this whole event and everyone involved. As it was, he just was tired and he missed his wife.

“Is Lucy goin’ to be up there, too?”

“Not sure,” he said thoughtfully. Not everyone was getting fitted at the same time. He knew Fang had been talked into this thing, too, but they hadn’t crossed paths during the preparations. He was pretty sure she would have mentioned it in a note, but she was busy with everything else. Still, seemed nuts for Pablo not to have her up there showing off his clothes- Lucy, the most beautiful woman in the Eufala, brighter than sunstone and sure as the revolver on his hip. “She certainly could be a model.”

Andy nodded. “Got that right. She’s prettier ‘n all the girls in them Walnut Groove magazines Miss Jane reads during lunch sometimes. They got all this crazy color on their eyelids, makes me think they’re some kinda mutant.”

“It’s called makeup, Andy.”

“I know, Jasmine told me, but it looks like mutant stuff.”

Logan tried to think back to when he was eleven and what he would have thought of all this. Would his pa have done this if someone had asked? He didn’t think so. There was something about all this that reminded him of his ma in some way, and Howlett didn’t bother with things that did that except Logan. It didn’t really bother him, though, that he wasn’t acting like Howlett would with this. This was his path. “Well, it ain’t,” he told Andy, “Just some kind of special dust, I think.”

“Walnut Groove seems like a real strange place. Miss Jane says they got these festivals where some of the girls attach feathers to their skirts like some kind of crazed roosters…”

Logan listened to Andy describe, probably poorly, the festival Jane had told the kids about, tried not to be unhappy about the fitting later, and missed his wife.

Only a few more days.

***

It was shaping up to be an insanely busy weekend in Sandrock.

Lucy eyed the flyers plastered on the Blue Moon’s stage. There was the fashion show- Deserticte, Pablo was calling it in the flyers- tonight. Mi-an and Nia’s Mi-ni Botanica and Grace’s Squeeze the Day were both set to open tomorrow. The two new venues couldn’t have picked a better weekend to open considering how many tourists had arrived in the last few days. Lucy hadn’t realized that had been her real deadline for those jobs.

Trudy, Lucy decided. Trudy had made sure everything synced up.

She turned from the stage and trudged toward Martle Square past little knots of tourists. It was late morning and they seemed to be just emerging. The fashion crowd didn’t seem to embrace early starts. The tool belt around her waist and the cables slung over her shoulder marked her as some kind of worker, so they cleared out of her way without any fuss or acknowledgement.

She sighed with satisfaction when she got to Martle Square and the fashion runway that dominated it.  Almost done with this. It looked good, too. Polishing all the wood that went into the external-facing structure been a lot of work but had made it really stand out.

People were swarming all over here, but few were tourists. Krystal and Arvio were setting up tables for food, refreshments, and merchandise, chatting with Mabel as she trotted over with her arms full of tablecloths. Trudy was overseeing some Hugo and Zeke as they hung up star-themed decorations around City Hall. Heidi was standing in front of Pablo’s, the real headquarters of all this, with a clipboard and a no-nonsense attitude.

Lucy waved to her before she hauled herself up to the stage, smirking as her dusty, well-worn boots hit the polished runway. She and the ladder she’d left on stage last night didn’t match anything else around here but the dirt.

She clambered up the ladder and started wiring in the last lights. She’d done the ones along the runway itself yesterday, but the ones above it, on the end that backed into City Hall, she’d left until today. She was just too exhausted to trust herself on a ladder late at night.

Wei had put a halt on commissions over the weekend, saying nothing was so pressing that they couldn’t enjoy the festivities. Lucy frowned as she connected the wires. What was she going to do with herself for the next two days?  Andy was living the Catori World dream, Mi-an and Nia were doing their opening weekend thing, most of her friends were involved in this up to their eyeballs, and Logan was stuck in it, too.

It took her maybe half an hour of moving the ladder around the stage to get everything connected. She blew her hair out of her eyes as she finished on the last light. It was done. Finally. She began descending the ladder.

Just to find herself picked up off it and spun around before she was sat on her feet. She yelped in surprise, then grinned as she recognized the arms around her.

Logan leaned forward, curling around her and pressing his cheek against hers. She gripped his forearms, shutting her eyes. His heart was beating against her shoulder.

“Tell me,” he rumbled, “how you escaped all this mess, you with them oasis eyes?”

She laughed and opened her eyes to meet his gaze. He was in his shirtsleeves, hatless, his hair bright white from a recent washing. “I had to build all this.” She let go of him for a moment to gesture to the runway. “Not sure you noticed.”

He chuckled and kissed her cheek. “I did a little. Hadn’t hardly seen ya for it.”

“Hmm.” She leaned against him. “We need to slow down after this.”

“We do. How’d Andy do with his handoff?”

“Venti’s giving the kids a tour of the scrapyard until later. I don’t think it was a plan, exactly. She just really loves scrap.”

He chuckled and, sweet Peach, had she missed the feeling of that when she was pressed against him. “She manages her pack o’ yahoos there day in and day out. She can handle a bunch of kids.” He squeezed her gently. “Light, I’ve missed you.”

She turned in his arms and framed his face in her hands. She hadn’t seen him when they’d both been really awake in a week. They hadn’t even been married a month. “I missed you, too.” She was a little surprised as tears pricked at her eyes. She dropped her head to his collarbone, sliding her hands down to his chest, and sighed. “I’m so tired.”

He draped an arm over her shoulder to pull her into himself, threading his fingers through her ponytail, shielding her from the world. “Me, too, darlin’. Me, too.”

They stood there for a minute, a little private island of stillness in the flurry that had overcome Martle Square, until she decided to lift her head to look at him. He smiled and leaned down as she raised herself on her toes and they really kissed for the first time in far too long.

He broke away for a second to look her in the eye, the heat she’d missed burning through his eyes like the summer sky at noon, and dove back in, lifting her off her feet. She responded with the same fire, clawing at any piece of him she could reach.

“Hey! Stop! You two! Now!”

They broke apart and turned to where Pablo was waving his arms furiously from in front of his parlor. Logan did not put her down. Lucy noted that Pablo looked even more tired than she felt and was the most disarrayed she’d ever seen him, including during the Duvos invasion.

Pablo pointed at her with a comb. He had a curling iron in his other hand, the cord trailing out the door. “Do not mess up his hair! Or leave any scratches! Or love bites! Anywhere!” She felt her face heat. “Two nights, Lucy! Give me two nights!” He held her eyes for several long seconds, then turned and marched back into his parlor, a man on a mission.

Logan slowly let her down. Arvio let out a wolf-whistle. Lucy saw Mabel clutching her heart fondly across the way. “Good thing this town has so many hopeless romantics,” she told her husband.

“And Pablo’s bein’ the town’s hopeless dramatic,” he said, no anger in it. He let her go ever so slowly. “I guess I’ll just have to miss you a little longer, seein’ as how we’ve gone so far down this trail.” He rolled his eyes. “Remind me not to agree to this sort of nonsense again.”

She pressed a light kiss to his lips. His eyes fluttered closed and stayed that way when she drew back. “No teacher like experience, yakboy.”

He huffed a laugh and opened his eyes. “Guess I better get back to the stable with the other clotheshorses before I get a hair out of place, then.” He gently tugged on her ponytail. “Saw you on the ladder through the window and couldn’t resist. Not bein’ a man known for my self-restraint and all has its advantages.” He dropped a lingering kiss on her forehead and headed back into Pablo’s Parlor, glancing back over his shoulder the whole way as Lucy watched.

She let out a frustrated breath as the door shut behind him. Two days, originally, now two nights. Right.

***

Lucy hadn’t realized how long it had been since she’d seen a crowd of people where she didn’t really know any of them. It was strange. In Catori World, she was always surrounded by her family and friends, but here right now it was just here. She’d sat herself on a stone wall at the edge of Martle Square, watching the aftermath of the Starlight collection’s debut. She knocked the heels of her dressiest boots against the stone as she waited, eager to be away from all these chattering anonymous faces but more eager to see Logan again.

A well-groomed suit-clad Pablo was holding court at the end of the runway, Amirah and Unsuur of all people serving as practical demonstrations when he had point to make about his designs. From what she could hear, Pablo using that razor wit off his to hit it off with the out-of-towner fashion reporters. The other models had vanished back into City Hall after the show.

All-in-all, this seemed like a hit. It was funny not being one of the people getting a back-slap for something, though. She couldn’t say it bothered her, but it was different.

The models finally emerged from City Hall, herded by Heidi. The girls, Owen, and Ernest scattered into the crowd to pose for pictures, but Lucy couldn’t spot Fang or Qi; they must have left through some other entrance. It didn’t really matter, because she only had time for one of the models.

Logan cut his way through the crowd, his height and the bright white suit Pablo had on him making him so very easy to spot. Some of the attendees snapped pictures but he paid them no mind as he locked eyes with her. Lucy felt herself grinning at how little the spotlight meant to him.

He stopped in front of her, his eyes sweeping up her bare legs. She’d dug this little black dress out of her closet, part of the clothes she’d originally brought to Sandrock- packed by an insistent Nia, in fact- but never worn. The little crystals scattered around it made it look like she’d meant to match the starry theme, as did the bright diamond on her left hand.

“Nice hat,” she said.

He snorted and stepped closer, plucking the ridiculous white hat off his head and dropping it onto hers. It slipped over her eyes a little. He tipped it up with a finger. “The feather was a mite much, I thought.”

Her eyes darted over the deep V of his suit. No scratches or love bites, Pablo had said. And swimwear tomorrow, too. “Logan, it’s all a bit much.”

“Hmm.” He slipped an arm around her waist and lifted her chin up so he could kiss her. The fancy hat fell away behind her.

He tasted like whiskey and she broke away after a minute giggling. “Now the finger guns make sense.”

He blushed and her giggle turned into a full-on laugh. There were cameras clicking at them but she didn’t care. “Owen brought a little somethin’ to settle the nerves.”

“So you’re not ready to embark on your modeling career?”

“Heh. Give me a dive buzzard any day.”

***

Logan slid the devices over his ears uncertainly. Owen, Unsuur, and Qi watched him curiously.

He tapped on the side of one to start the music. It sounded like that Ataran girl’s crooning. He pulled the…headphones…off and held them up. “Huh.”

“Do they work?” Qi asked, squinting at the tech.

“Yep.”

“It seems like no fun to just sit there and listen to music no one else can hear,” Owen said, shoving his hands under his armpits.  It was too cold to be parading around without a shirt on, frankly, but none of the models had one, just some light jackets or thin shirts that didn’t button. The poor ladies ddn’t veen have that over their tops. Heidi and Trudy had rushed to get some blankets from Trudy’s house as they waited to start down the runway, but there weren’t enough to go around and the ladies huddled together under them. The men were trying to work with what they had on.

“I sing songs in my head all the time,” Unsuur said. He was holding the thin sleeveless jacket thing Pablo had given him over his chest. “It would be pretty awesome to actually hear them when I was on patrol.”

“They would be an excellent focus tool,” Qi added. He poked at the headphones.

Logan looped the things around his neck like Pablo had showed him earlier. He’d have to put them on when he walked himself down this runway one last time, but they were fine like this for now. “I don’t reall like not bein’ able to hear anything else.”

Pablo threw open the front door and clapped his hands. Owen passed around his flask one more time.  “Alright, my darlings, let’s line up and get ready to go.”

“Pablo,” Amirah said as she took her place, shedding her blanket after hesitating a moment, “We will not be posing for pictures after this. It is much too cold.”

“Of course.” Pablo came to take her hands. “It’s terrible lighting for a swimwear photoshoot anyway.”

Amirah rolled her eyes, softening the gesture with a smile. “Always you have your priorities.”

Pablo gave her an honest smile, then resumed his business face, clapping his hands. “Quickly, please. Quickly, quickly.”

Logan would probably appreciate the swimsuit in the summer sun, especially now they could really swim in the oasis, but it was spring and night. Normally this sort of nighttime chill was only an inconvenience, but being so exposed in such a public way made it far worse than it was.

He slipped his headphones over his ears, putting on the dark glasses Pablo handed him, shutting out everything. He imagined the coming summer days as he walked out beneath too many prying eyes: desert heat and cool water, Andy learning how to swim and Lucy in one of them bikini things the color of her eyes.

***

Lucy smiled at Andy over her book where he lay curled up in an armchair with Nemo, using the giant teddy bear he’d won at Catori World earlier that night as a pillow. The kid had clearly been running on sugar all evening. They’d have to move him to bed at some point but for now he was comfortable.

Logan finally came downstairs and she stifled a laugh. He was dressed in his worn, soft sleep shirt and pants, then bundled in one of her ma’s quilts. He was wet from the shower still, hair down, looking a little like a sad wet dog. “Not planning on going to bed?”

He shook his head and dropped onto the couch next to her. He shifted, pulling the quilt tighter as he gave Andy a soft look. “Guessin’ he didn’t bring Catori World down ‘round his head.”

“Venti said they all had a great time and Andy was the first person ever to win the grand prize at the new shooting gallery game.”

“Is he?”

“I’d have to slip Catori a few of Owen’s special reserve milks to get an answer, I think.” She watched him for a second. “Still cold?”

He scowled, not looking at her. “Sometimes the desert chill just gets into your bones and won’t get out for the night. Sometimes bein’ when you go parading around after sundown without a shirt in front of everyone south o’ Baja.”

Lucy shifted on the couch to press her back tightly against him. “Does body heat help?

He moved fast, especially for someone so tired, and enfolded her in the blanket. He nuzzled into the spot between her neck and shoulder. His nose was cold; he hadn’t been kidding. Normally the man was a furnace. If he got sick, she was going to give Pablo a piece of her mind in the most creative way she could think of. “Yeah,” he muttered, the words muffled. His accent got stronger in his exhaustion. “You e’er hear o’ me agreein’ t’ this sort o’ thing again, you put a stop t’ it.”

“I promise.”

He let out a breath. “I hope it helps the town.”

Would it? Lucy leaned her head against his. “Well, it got Pablo his dream. He’ll be in magazine articles all across the Free Cities.”

“Good,” he said, meaning it.

Lucy chuckled, shaking her head. She kissed Logan’s temple. “You’re a better man than most, Logan.”

He hummed, relaxing into her. She returned to her book. It was a simple fantasy novel, a recommendation from Mi-an, for once not some kind of technical treatise. She was trying this slowing down thing.

“Got ya a gift ‘fore we left,” Logan murmured.

“Give it to me tomorrow. Rest now.”

“Ordered it. One o’ ‘em swimsuits. Pablo said he’d hurry on account o’ you doin’ so much work for the show.” He moved his arm to hold her tighter. “Can’t wait t’ see ya wearin’ it at the Oasis in summer…you ‘n me teachin’ Andy t’ swim.”

“You know how to swim?” she asked, surprised. Most people who grew up here didn’t.

“Sure do. Pa made sure. Me ‘n Haru. There’s water outside Sandrock, little springs. Villages ‘round some. Others ain’t safe t’ drink. But can swim.”

“Leave it to Howlett to teach you how to swim during a decades-long water crisis.” She shut her book, giving it up for a lost cause this evening, and combed through his drying locks with one hand. He still smelled like whatever expensive shampoo Pablo had used on the models. “I’m taking tomorrow off, by the way.”

“So ‘m I.” She felt him really begin to drift off. “Rest.”

She nodded. “Rest.” She’d have to herd everyone to their actual beds at some point, but for now she was content to be here and shut her eyes, listening to the breathing of her boys.

Chapter Text

Logan sighed, tapping his knuckles on one of Lucy’s workshop gateposts. He was dithering, he knew it, and he hated people who dithered, but… how would pa put it, he had written a check he couldn’t cash and this felt like it had been quite some check.

He rotated his shoulder, feeling the nearly healed wound’s subtle ache, and opened the gate. Lucy’s small front porch was newer than the house and more carefully crafted, something he always noticed when he was here. The woman was too busy to do much to Mason’s old shack, and likely to busy right now for that date he’d promised a few days ago, but that didn’t much help his worry.

He’d said when he was healed up they’d spend some time together. He was healed up, doctor approved for monster hunting and everything, but now Andy was sick.

Logan was wondering if he’d missed that the kid was coming down with something. He’d been out of it a little between his own recovery and the wonder at learning Lucy felt the same way he did, with all the thoughts- memories, now- of holding her again, kissing her…

He knocked on her door and waited, pulling off his hat to run a hand through his hair. He hoped he looked alright. It had not been a good morning.

“Logan!” Lucy said as she opened her door, coffee mug in hand. Her whole face lit up as she saw him, which made all his worry about speaking to her fade away. “You’re better!” She stepped towards him, then stopped. They’d agreed to keep this quiet for now. The whole town would stick its nose into it, which was too much to bring down on this sweet new thing. The idea of it even was exhausting.

“Lookin’ good yourself, Luce,” he said, briefly grasping her hand, “Er, I know I’d said we’d spend some time together after I was healed up, but Andy's feelin' a bit under the weather. Nothin' serious, but...”

She nodded. “Poor kid. I get it, Logan.” She smiled over her coffee mug then took a sip. “I’ll take a rain check. Sand check. Whatever you call it. Take care of Andy first.”

 f course she understood. He didn’t understand why he’d been so nervous. “Thanks. Uh, he looks up to you... reckon it'd mean a lot to him if you stopped in. He’s been askin’. I think. He’s got a fever.” Andy with a fever ran laps Andy in any other state in terms of nonsense coming out of his mouth. “Doc’s been by, given us some meds to help him sleep, nothin’ much for it but rest and stayin’ hydrated, I guess. High spirits always lead to a quicker recovery in my experience, so I’m tryin’ to keep him cheerful.” He shifted from foot to foot, unable to look away from her gentle blue-green eyes. “So, if you’ve got a minute, if you could drop by our place, that’d be a real help.”

“Let me take care of a few things and I’ll head right over.”

“No hurry, Luce.” He put his hat back on. “I best head back. I just wanted to…” He hesitated, not sure how to explain what he wanted or why he’d stopped by. He usually handled this sort of minor crisis himself…or, well, with pa and Haru.

Lucy cocked her head, then stepped out onto her porch. She was wearing a set of unzipped coveralls, the arms tied around her hips to reveal a worn t-shirt that showed a thin sliver of her waist. His eyes fixed on that bit of skin as she looked around.

She sat her mug on patio chair, grabbed his face, and pressed a swift kiss to his lips. She’d drawn back and was holding her coffee again before he’d even really understood what she’d been about. He swayed forward, tempted powerfully to continue this, town gossips be damned.

She blinked up at him, a pretty little blush on her face. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.” She tangled her fingers in his. “You don’t handle this alone.”

He tipped his hat to her and reluctantly let her go so he could hike back up the hill to the house. Neither of them lived in places helpful to this sneaking around. They wouldn’t always be doing it this way. Just now, while it was new. He’d told her this was no passing fancy and he meant it. The thought of it all going wrong made him feel like a pit had opened up under him and he shoved it aside, determined not to let it even be a possibility.

Andy was asleep when Logan got home. It looked like Fang’s medicine was doing the trick. Logan sat next to the kid’s bed, placing a hand on his forehead. Still running a fever, but not as high as it could be.

He was glad Luce hadn’t seen him earlier. He’d gone to check on Andy to see just why he wasn’t ready for school yet and found him laying in bed with glassy eyes, asking Logan why the goats were covered in butter. Panic had set in and Logan had raced off to Fang’s clinic, riding hell for leather like he never had before, not when he’d seen the Duvos airship in the sky, not even when Pen had nearly killed him at the water tower.

Images of Howlett’s collapsed body in their doorway had flashed through his mind the whole time. Fang had seen his barely contained panic and hoped on top of Rambo without question. People thought the doctor strange, but only out-of-towners thought him cruel. He’d evaluated Andy quickly, gave Logan some medicine and instructions, and told him clearly it was a normal sickness.

And it was. Logan had seen Haru this way growing up and had caught this sort of bug himself a few times. He knew it was normal, not some nightmare plague from the Day of Calamity. But he’d never done this before and the memory of the last sick person he’d loved was rawer than his arrow wound.

He dragged his hands down his face and shook his head, looking at the sleeping child. “Leadin’ me down whole new paths all the time, kid.” He smiled and smoothed down Andy’s wild blond hair. The kid turned into his hand. “Usually a little more fun for you than this one though.”

***

Lucy let herself into Logan’s house after a moment’s debate. He’d given her a key the other day, pressing it into her hand as he pressed a kiss to her lips, but it felt so strange just using it. She blushed as she supposed she should give him one same for her house.

This whole thing made her feel like she was fifteen again. It was wonderful and awful all at once.

She made her way up the stairs toward Andy’s room, following the mumbling. The door stood open, but she stopped next to it before entering. “Banana-orange jelly... I need... The yellow and orange kind...” This was some fever. Poor kid. “Haru...! Ya... came back...! And ya brought... the goods. Better... share 'em...”

Logan was sitting next to Andy, brow furrowed as he listened to the kid’s fever rambling. Andy was awake, but his maroon eyes were half-lidded and unfocused. Lucy knocked gently on the door.

Logan turned and gave her a brilliant grin. “Luce. He's been goin' in and out of it...high fever, but could be worse. And you may have noticed the ramblin': jelly, 'n donuts; somethin' about a gumshoe named Ned.”

Lucy smiled down at Andy as she stepped to his bedside. “The hero of Ernest’s kids book.”

“Andy’s favorite, right. I should read that.”

“Logan,” Andy said, sounding actually awake. His eyes focused.

“Hey, kid,” he answered, “You awake? If you can hear me, tell me who we got here.” Lucy sat gently on the bed.

Andy’s fevered gaze moved slowly to her and a tired smile broke out across his face. “Luce!” he said, pretty excited for someone who didn’t seem able to lift his head, “I got something for ya.” He shifted under the blanket. “I was gonna bring it to ya, but... wouldn't ya know... came down with the dang plague before I could take it over.” He started coughing.

Logan shot to his feet as if someone had drawn a gun on him and moved to help the kid sit up so he could cough more effectively. “Easy there. You’re wearin’ yourself out.”

Andy shook his head. “Important,” he said, “It's the Super Shield! Mark two! Even more super...” He coughed. “Got me a diagram and everything!” Andy weakly struggled to get his arm out from under the covers and held out a neatly folded piece of paper, which she carefully took.

Logan stared at the kid then gave Lucy a disbelieving look. “That's what this about? Thought you needed cheerin' up.”

“Nothin' would cheer me up more than a Super Shield.” Andy’s arm dropped limp to the sheets. ”Just...look at it... I learned a lot since way back... when...” He was starting to fade again.

Lucy unfolded the paper and her eyebrows rose as she looked at the diagram. Unlike Andy’s last attempt, this was actually a useful diagram. A pauldron for Logan this time…no, not just a pauldron… “This looks great, Andy.”

He gave a weak smile. “Like I said, I learned a lot. Y'know, that uppity science feller, he knows a lot of stuff, even if you've gotta... “ He gave a cough “...wring it out of 'im. Then there's all the late nights I spent writin' it and rewritin' it…”

Lucy nodded, remembering that she had seen Andy dogging Qi’s heels, chattering. That must have been about this.

“Kinda the last feller in town I'd ever see you takin' after,” Logan said, then glared at Andy, “Hey, wait a sec, late nights? That's why you're sick, kid. What'd I say?”

“I regret nothing,” Andy said with a pale sort of pride, “For…science!” Logan sighed and rubbed at his eyes. “Luce, just take the diagram home, alright? Think on it. I'll be better soon. Logan needs it for the Outpost. It'll absorb high impact blows... made it with the Space Punch in mind... based on that chip I stole... It's like the anti-Space Punch...you need it out there, pal...” Andy’s head lolled back, his strength gone.

“Uh huh.” Logan gave the boy a skeptical look. Lucy covered her smile with the diagram. “Doin' it all for me now, are ya, pal?” Logan glanced at her and she saw he noticed her amusement. “Alright, alright, your offer's been heard. It's time for you to get back to restin' up. I'm gonna see Lucy on her way, hear me?”

“Okay,” Andy mumbled, then suddenly sat up a little, “Wait!”

Logan sighed. “What?”

Andy began coughing again. “I want to ask ya…”

“Make it quick, then. Sounds like you’re gettin’ worse.”

Andy clutched at Logan’s arm so hard his little knuckles turned white. “How's I supposed to know if you two ain't gonna take a page outta Haru's book and quit the gang?”

⁠Logan⁠ rested a hand on Andy’s shoulder and Lucy reached out to touch his leg. “Easy, pal,” Logan said gently, “Who said anything about any of that?

⁠Andy⁠’s glassy eyes were wide. “How's I supposed to know you two ain't gonna ditch me, too?”

⁠”He ain't ditched us.” Logan took a second. “We sent him up there on behalf of the gang. Next time we see him, he'll be the twice the man you knew him as.”

⁠“Yeah?”

⁠Logan⁠ nodded.  “Sometimes the pack's gotta split up, kid. Them's the breaks. One day you might have to fly a solo mission yourself.” He rested a hand on the boy’s head. “But I won't let you outta my sight til you're good and ready. That's a promise.”

⁠”Alright.” He began to slump back into bed. “‘Member! You promised!”

⁠Logan⁠ ruffled his hair. “Have I ever let you down? Now quit blubberin' and get some shut-eye.”

Andy sniffled, his eyes already sliding closed. “’kay.”

Logan and Lucy sat there for a moment until the boy’s breathing evened out. Logan jerked his head to the door and they eased their way out, Logan pulling the door almost closed. Lucy tucked Andy’s diagram into a coverall pocket.

“Thanks for comin',” he said, keeping his voice quiet, “Sorry your well-wishin' got turned into a sales pitch.”

“It was no trouble.” She reached for his hands and he smiled as he let her.

⁠”Oh, uh... what about that shield thing?” he asked after a minute, “Didn't want to commit you to some fruitless endeavor. Can you actually make somethin' out of those drawings?”

“Defintiely.” She chuckled. “He did good. I can see Qi helped him, but Andy’s handwriting is hard to miss. I can have it done in a day or so, I think.”

“That'd be mighty swell if you could. But no pressure. I know you’ve got a lot on your plate.” He squeezed her hands, concern on his face. “Just, uh, bring it on by if you manage to cook anything up.” He glanced at the door ruefully. “Hopefully something like that would lift his spirits like I'd originally intended.”

“You’re doing good, Logan. What you told him…that was good.” She looked down. “I think, anyway, I’m not an expert.”

“Does my heart good to hear that.” He kissed her forehead. “Not sure this is the sorta thing is what you thought you signed up for with…ah…with me.”

She lifted her head to meet his gaze. “Logan, what I signed up for with you is your life and this is a part of that.”

“You’re something else, Luce,” he said, awe in his voice. He sighed and slowly let go of her hands, fingers skimming across her knuckles before he broke contact. “Reckon I'll step off for a bit and see if I can't track down some of that jelly he's mumblin' about.”

“I wish I could point you in the right direction, but I’ve never heard of it.”

They moved down the stairs, trying to avoid too many of the creaky stairs and disturbing poor sick Andy. This place needed some work still. Lucy wondered if she could manage to sneak in here once Andy was better while he was at school and Logan was on patrol.

They paused in front of the door, not sure how to do goodbyes yet. Logan looked tired and Lucy reached up to cup his cheek. He leaned into it, eyes soft. It was amazing to see that look from him, at her. He was always so clear-eyed, his head held high, traces of his temper obvious in the line of his jaw.

She got to see this, not Logan the hero or Logan the bandit, but just Logan.

“Best get goin’, huh?” he murmured.

“Yeah. Daylight’s a-wasting.”

He kissed her palm and grabbed his hat from atop a table. “Be seein’ ya, darlin’.” And he was gone with one last lingering look.

Lucy stood there a minute holding the palm he kissed against her lips, before she headed back home, trying to focus on Andy’s diagram.

***

“I…Mabel,” Logan said, following the woman across her kitchen, “Mabel, I just need the recipe, you don’t—”

She whirled on him, making Logan back up a step. Mabel was probably the smallest adult in town, dainty as a songbird, but the look in her eyes made Logan step back. “Now listen here, mister,” she said, pointing at him with a large wooden spoon, “If I know Howlett, Light rest his soul, I know just what state your pantry and your cooking skills are in. You just give me a few and I’ll get you somethin’ fixed up for the evenin’ and then I’ll be over tomorrow with everything you need.”

Logan held up his hands in surrender and nodded. He settled in awkwardly by the door as Mabel bustled about. It was a bit dizzying to watch the woman work. Mabel was a charming, sweet figure everywhere else, but in her domain, she was a force of nature.

He was watching her carefully pack up a basket with artfully bundled food when the door opened. Cooper sidled in. “Is that chestnut pork I smell?” he asked, possibly before he noticed Logan.

“Clean your boots, dear,” Mabel said absently.

Cooper scuffed his boots on a bristly mat and eyed Logan. “What’s got you here, monster hunter?”

“Andy’s come down sick,” Mabel answered, grabbing a few yakmel milks from her fridge and putting them in the basket.

“That’s what he gets for messin’ around in my rutabaga.” Logan stared blankly, bracing himself. “You know what a delicate vegetable a prize rutabaga is, son? It needs the right balance o’ care and discipline, and it can’t get that is some crazed child is stampin’ it under foot! Wonder if it was chasin’ ‘em hootanannies that done make that boy sick…I ‘member, more ‘n ten years back, Elsie got herself a miserable belly-ache by eatin’—”

“Coop, no bad bumble honey story before dinner,” Mabel said, rearranging the basket’s contents, “We agreed.”

Cooper sighed, removing his hat and hanging it on a nearby coat rack. “You packed the chestnut pork for that rutabaga ruinin’ child?”

“I did. I’m workin’ on some nice five spice steak for you ‘n me, seein’ as Elsie’s workin’ late.” Mabel picked up the basket and handed it to Logan. “Here you go, Logan. Before you head home, might I suggest checkin’ in with Miss Jane to let her know your boy won’t be in school for a few days?”

“Good idea.” It wouldn’t do for Andy to get in trouble at school over this. “Er, thank you, Mabel.”

She gently herded him out the door, spotting that look in Cooper’s eye just as Logan did. “No need to thank me. It’s the right unneighborly thing to do. I’ll be by in the morning, y’hear?”

He nodded and headed to where Rambo was stuffing himself at the trough with Cooper’s cart yakmel. The goat paused as he drew near, flicked his ears and turned with a sigh, waiting on Logan to mount up. Logan patted his flank as he settled the basket carefully against a hip. “At least you got somethin’ out of it, partner,” he said. It was afternoon, which meant school should still be in. “One more errand and you can enjoy your day off.”

Rambo bleated and trotted amiably back uphill. Logan made sure to keep the pace steady so as not to lose Mabel’s food. As Mabel had said, his own cooking was lackluster, to say the least, and it would be nice to not have to cook as he kept an eye on Andy’s condition.

He should work on that skill, now that it wasn’t just himself he was taking care of.

Logan eyed the temple as he steered Rambo to the school. He didn’t often get up here when he wasn’t hurrying to drop Andy off and then hurrying out to patrol. In his mind’s eye he could still see the hole blown in the side of the temple. It hadn’t been him and Haru, not really, but he’d thought it had been for a long time.

Mason had done a nice job of repairing it. It was like the violence had never been. Some of Mason’s finest work by all accounts. He supposed fixing it back up would be Matilda’s priority, trying to make everything nice and normal, that moment of risk to her operation covered over completely.  

He tied Rambo up outside the school and let himself in. It felt a little like walking into someone’s house with the toys and bookshelves all lined up. Most things were made smaller than normal, meant to be in easy reach of children. It made him feel taller than usual, out of place. He walked carefully over towards the classroom where he heard Jasmine talking, trying to make himself small and quiet.

Jane was watching Jasmine give a presentation to Pebbles on some book or other, smiling as the girl explained something about symbolism, then caught sight of Logan and jumped. “Keep going, Jasmine,” she said, getting up from her desk. She stopped a little far from him, keeping a desk between them. Not everyone had forgotten Logan the bandit, it seemed. “Mr. Logan, how can I help you? I haven’t seen Andy today.” Her mouth pressed into a thin worried line.

“He’s at home sick. I reckon he will be for a few days.”

Her worried look became a fond smile. “I’m glad that’s all it is. You hear all sorts of things about the Eufala.”

Over the teacher’s shoulder, he saw Jasmine had not kept going and was clearly listening in. “He’ll be missing some of his homework,” the girl said, “l’ll make sure he gets it, Miss Jane.” Logan wondered what Andy had done to her recently.

“Of course! It wouldn’t do for Andy to fall behind. He’s such a bright child, if a little mischievous.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Logan said, “Ah, thanks.” Andy would not be thanking him, but she wasn’t wrong. He tipped his hat to the teacher and headed out, eager to get home and make sure that kid was still doing alright. He’d been gone much longer than intended.

When he got home, Andy was mumbling to Haru again. He seemed happy to see Logan, though, and leaned against him after Logan coaxed him into a few bites of Mabel’s food and gave him another dose of medicine.

“Don’t recommend gettin’ this here plague,” Andy said into his shirt.

“I’ve had a go a few times and I certainly agree.” Andy groaned and sniffled. Logan stroked his hair. “I let Miss Jane know you’re goin’ to be away from school for a few days.”

“Maybe the plague might be a little worth it.”

Logan chuckled. “I think your teacher is scared of me, kid.”

“She jus’ has all them stories from papers out of town in her head is all.” He rolled his head to fix a feverish, sly look at Logan. “I know who ain’t scared of ya, though.”

“You do now?”

“Mm-hmm. Lucy.” He laid his head back down on Logan. “You two are smoochin’.”

Logan’s hand froze on the boy’s back. “How’d you figure that?”

“I’m only dyin’, not stupid.” He coughed. “Saw ya in the hallway.”

“You were supposed to be in bed!”

“Well, I wasn’t.” His breathing began to deepen.

“Hey, Andy,” Logan said, hesitant.

“Mmph?”

“You, uh, you mind? Me ‘n Lucy?”

“It’s nice. Like havin’ a family again, ma ‘n pa ‘n…” He drifted off.

That counted as approval, Logan supposed, surprised at how happy that made him.

***

Lucy almost dropped her key when the door was pulled open.

“Hey, Luce,” Logan said, stepping back to let her and the paper box she held in, “Join the party.” Voices came from upstairs- Mabel and Cooper in the kitchen, she thought. She looked at Logan and he shrugged. “Whole neighborhood got wind of the Andy situation and, well…” He waved a hand up the stairs.

Cooper and Mabel’s quiet bickering in the kitchen went on, but then there was big clunk in Logan’s room and she heard Hugo saying, “This cabinet is pretty heavy, better let me get it. Don't want you to pull a muscle.”

“Let’s push together,” Trudy said. There was the sound of heavy furniture being pushed along the floor.

Lucy gave a Logan amused sidelong glance. “No party like a Sandrock party.”

“They, uh, figured I had my hands full with Andy, offered to do some chores.” There was a pained grunt, then the sound of Trudy fussing over Hugo. “Somehow that turned into rearranging some furniture.”

“The house does need work.” There was a clatter in the kitchen and some yelling. Lucy and Logan both winced.

“They want me down here taking a break, but it's kind of turning into a hostage situation. Won't let me help out with anythin’.”

She laughed. “I’m surprised you haven’t turned the bookshelves into target practice, then.” She lifted the box a little. “This is Super Shock Shield.” She delivered commissions this size carefully packaged and had seen no reason not to do so with this, though this job might be against Guild rules on several levels. “You could take it to Andy?”

Relief flooded his face. Something he could do and not get run back down his own stairs for trying. “Let’s take it to him together.” He led her up the stairs. “He’s startin’ to feel better, though still runnin’ a fever. Doc stopped by early, said he needs another day or two in bed.”

Lucy heard more home improvements- or at least home changes- being made as they walked toward Andy’s room. Logan was stoically ignoring them all. She wondered what he thought of people making changes to his father’s house.

Jasmine was telling a story they could hear as they neared Andy’s half-open bedroom door. “…of attempting to understand a community that has all but forgotten he ever existed.”

Andy turned from Jazz as Lucy and Logan entered, his spaced-out expression brightening. “Hey, Luce! You came!” His big eyes darted to the box in her hands. “Is that the Super Shock Shield Mark II?”

She smiled at him and walked over to sit the box gently on his lap. “Take a look.”

He opened the box eagerly and shoved aside the scrap paper she used as filler for these things to pull out the pauldron. He held it delicately, though the thing was incredibly tough, and turned it over with awe. “This looks just like I saw it in my head!”

Jasmine huffed. “Hey! Don't forget! I made up a whole story for you, too!”

Andy looked up from his prize. “Oh, er, yeah. Thanks, Jazz!” He scratched at his head and looked sheepish. “Thanks... everybody! Didn't know so many people cared.”

⁠”'Course we care, you're a Sandrocker too, silly!”

Logan grinned and laid a hand on the end of the bed. “How ya holdin' up, kid?”

⁠”Better every minute!”

“Uh-huh.” Logan leaned over and placed a hand on his forehead. “Still runnin’ a little fever.”

“Nevermind that, just check this bad boy out! Put this between you and the bad guys and this shock absorber here'll make a ton of bricks feel like a cool breeze!” He held up the pauldron to Logan.

Lucy watched him take and turn it over in his hands. It was a much more impressive bit of engineering than it looked like- Andy’s aesthetics tended to be a bit on the bandit side- but she wasn’t sure what Logan would make of it.

⁠“High praise for one of your own machinations,” Logan said, “I'll test it out in some spars, see if I can use it in the field.” He looked at Lucy, eyes warm. “Thanks again for your help, Luce.”

⁠”Heh heh... I have a feeling this is the beginning of a bee-yew-teeful friendship, Lucy,” Andy said. He still had that kind of off feverish look to him. “Every time we team up, it's just hit after hit after hit!”

⁠Logan held the pauldron against his shoulder, his brow furrowing. So he did notice some of its little tricks. ”I'll say it feels lighter... springier... not unlike yourself, kid.” He dropped the pauldron his side. “Looks like you're really bouncin' back. Did you take your next dose yet?”

⁠Andy sighed and reached over to his nightstand to grab one of Fang’s little glass medicine bottles. He held it up. “Last sip in the bottle. Bottoms up!” He tossed it back in a way that said he was going to be very good at some of the holiday celebrations at the Blue Moon down the line.

⁠”Jasmine!” Trudy called from downstairs.

⁠Jasmine bounced over to the door. “Coming, Ma!” She turned back to them with all the authority of Trudy at a planning committee. “Time to go. Remember to avoid the pitfalls of organized crime, Andy. Don't be like evil butler kitty!”

⁠”Uh, yeah... sound advice...”

⁠”See ya when you feel better!” Jasmine pulled her backpack around and held up a few books. “I'll leave some books with you, so long as you promise not to write spoilers in the margins again!”

Andy screwed up his face but just nodded. If Lucy knew the kid at all, he had something he wanted to say with Jasmine not in the room.

⁠”Oh!” She dug around in her backpack and pulled out a folder labeled with a ‘Andy’ written in precise, kind-looking letters. She sat it down on Andy’s desk, clearing a few doodles of robots out of the way. “And here's the homework that you missed!”

⁠Andy⁠’s eyes went wide. “Huh?”

“See ya soon!” And off she went.

“I nearly die and I still have to do homework?” Andy asked Logan.

“Time stops for no man, buddy.”

He slumped, slamming the medicine bottle back onto the nightstand. “Life ain’t fair, I tell ya what.”

Logan and Lucy exchanged a glance. “That goes both ways,” Logan said. He sat on the edge of the bed and ruffled the boy’s hair. “You should try to sleep. You’re bouncin’ back, but not bounced back yet.” Andy scowled and Logan looked thoughtful. “Or you could get started on that homework you missed.”

Andy gave a large yawn. Lucy shook her head, holding back a laugh. “I’m awful tired as it turns out, y’know.”

“I bet.”

“Quick thing though.” Andy looked between the two of them. He really did look tired. “Seems t’ me that you two don’t want anyone to know what’s goin’ on ‘tween ya.”

Lucy blinked. “When did you…?”

“Yesterday,” Logan told her gruffly.

Andy yawned again, a real one, and shook his head. “That’s just when I was sure, I knew…” Another yawn. “I knew Logan had a crush a long time ago.”

Logan blushed. “Thanks, kid.” Lucy laid a hand on his, unable to help a little grin. She wasn’t going to say she’d noticed how handsome his Wanted posters were from her first steps out off the train into Sandrock.

“I just wanted to say I won’t tell if you don’t want it told. This is a gang, we keep each other’s secrets.”

“Honor among thieves?” Lucy asked.

Andy nodded, serious and sleepy. “That’s right. Just wanted t’ know…I’d be able to get a lotta candy outta tellin’ if you don’t mind.”

Lucy and Logan looked at each other. “Far be it for me to get in the way of your candy supply,” Lucy said slowly, “But if you’d keep it quiet for now, we’d appreciate it.”

Andy nodded. “Don’t blame ya. Everybody ‘round here’s got somethin’ to say about everythin’ all the time. Light forbid you color a yakmel green on your homework, ya never hear the end of it…”

Logan ruffled his hair. “Get some rest, kid. I’ve got to go thank everyone for helpin’ us out.”

“Yeah, that’s…the other side…” Andy’s eyelids grew heavy. “They care.”

Logan and Lucy slipped out as he drifted off. “He’s on the mend,” Lucy whispered.

“Thank the Light,” Logan muttered, “Ah, I guess if I’m seein’ off my guests, I should see you out, too.”

She gave him a grin and stepped close. “I’ll be seen off, but whether or not I go…” She shrugged.

Logan chuckled and ran a broad hand slowly along her spine. “Let’s go before they come lookin’ for us.  I have a feelin’ we could make right fools of ourselves.”

So did she. She followed him down the stairs and out the open door. There wasn’t much room in Logan’s downstairs so the assembled ‘let’s help Logan’ team had moved outside and were being amused by Jasmine’s account of Andy’s condition.

Logan didn’t even pause to grab his hat before stopping in the doorway for a second. Lucy touched his shoulder and he took a deep breath and walked over to the little knot of his neighbors. Lucy moved into the little crowd, standing next to Trudy and trying not think of how it felt when Logan had slid his hand down her back. Or at least trying to keep it from her face.

“Thank ya’ll for all the help,” he said, “Andy appreciates how much ya’ll care.”

“He’s such a sweet child. A good sight less mischievous than Elsie, really,” Mabel said, “Now, Logan... if'n you ain't come around to ask how to make that gelatin, we'd have had no clue you had a sick kid on your hands! Don't be a stranger, now! We all want to make amends from what all's happened in the past.”

Hugo nodded. “Here's to hopin' things could go back to the way they used to be. You need anything from any of us, just ask.”

“That's right!” Cooper said, launching it like a rooster’s rocket.  “Send the boy on over to the ranch, we'll give 'im a lesson in shootin', ridin', how to be a man and a half! Down at the ranch, we can give you the diligence and know-how that can move mountains, m'boy…”

“Yep,” Hugo said, looking at his friend, “Listen close to your uncle Coop, reckon you could get a lesson in humility there, too.”

Everyone laughed. Cooper’s brow furrowed. “I don’t get it.” His wife kissed his cheek.

Logan ducked his head. “Well, shucks.” He looked away from everyone and Lucy itched to reach out and soothe the worried lines from his face. “I never held nothin' against none of y'all. Things just got a bit sideways for a while, that's all. As for today, I'll make it all up to you at the Blue Moon.”

⁠Mabel slashed her fine little hands through the air with a surprising amount of violence. Lucy recalled a story of her with a shotgun during the invasion. “No need! Neighbors help each other out! Now you enjoy your banana-orange gelatin, we're all gonna get out of your hair. Get yourself some rest.” She took Cooper’s arm, nodding as he chatted at her and they headed through the tunnel towards the ranch.

⁠Trudy took Jasmine’s hand and patted Logan on the shoulder. “Bless your heart. Alright, let us know if you need anything else, Logan!” Jasmine waved as Trudy led her off towards the school.

Lucy watched and realized that she, too, would probably be expected to make her farewells. She smiled at Logan. “Always glad to help out Andy,” she said, “He should really keep with those diagrams- that thing is pretty impressive, try it out.” She pointed at the pauldron he still held.

“Maybe we’ll spar, give it a workout sometime.” Logan’s eyes burned into hers.

“Let me know when.” She gave him a small wave as Hugo lingered, leaving Lucy to look like she was examining Rambo’s saddle closely on her way somewhere else.

“When…everything was wrong,” the smith said, “I told people your pa would be ashamed of you. I said it in a lotta ways I shouldn’t.” He shook his head. “I was wrong. Howlett would say sometimes you were the best of him, and you are.” He held out his hand and Logan shook it.

“That means a lot, Hugo. I’m not sure I’ll ever agree, but I’m glad to hear it.”

Hugo chuckled. “That just makes your Pa’s point better.” He swaggered down the hill back to Hammer Time.

Lucy stayed next to Rambo for a minute, watching Logan look after Hugo in the dusty half-shaded street. He looked like a lonely figure out of an old painting at times like this, a man who walked the deserts without anywhere to call home, fighting and maybe dying in far away places. She could see sometimes why it had been so easy to make him into a villain with the lonesomeness and violence he wore like his cloak.

But it was very shallow and a man is not some old painting, no matter how he looked for a moment. Lucy patted Rambo and walked to his side.

He blinked and looked down at her, sighing. “Can be tough jugglin' all this at times.” He drew hand over his face. “Hope I never made you feel left out.”

She touched his arm. “I’m always happy to help with Andy. He’s an amazing kid. Kind of a…chaos gremlin, too, but that’s part of the appeal.”

“Yeah, it's... I appreciate it. But let me know if it's gettin' to be too much.” Lucy just snorted. Logan looked away for a moment, then fixed her with that soft gaze that took her breath away. “Havin' you by my side... well... three of a kind sure beats two, huh?” He grinned.

Lucy laughed. “It’s a sure win.”

He took her hand, running his fingers over it quietly. “Still, I’m sorry, this all kinda…ate everythin’.”

Of course it did, his kid was sick! Still, Lucy couldn’t help but tease. “How are you going to make it up to me?”

He matched her grin. “Well, you know me. I'll think of something.” He glanced around, then Lucy found herself pinned against his door, his mouth crashing down on hers.

Just as quickly, he pulled back, breathing hard against her.  

“That was something,” she said breathlessly.

Logan huffed out a laugh and took a step back, giving her enough room to move from the wall, but she wasn’t up for that yet. “I’ll come up with somethin’ even better. Just the two of us. We'll ride off somewhere. No destination. How's that sound?”

“Like something to look forward to.”

Chapter Text

“…so I’m thinking I need to give them a budget to work with.”

“Uh.” Lucy was struggling to keep up with Jane’s rapidfire discussion of her plan for this Model Free Cities plan. The teacher had nervously stopped her as she was making morning deliveries to see if they could chat after school was out. With nothing else on the docket that day, Lucy had cheerfully agreed. Jane was still new in town, despite having grown up here, and Lucy was sympathetic to the way the other woman had started out being bombarded by the locals the moment she said hello.

Once you got her less nervous, though, Jane could really talk your ear off with her thinking aloud. She’d been chattering away about Model Free Cities from the moment Lucy agreed to help her talk to the parents and now they were nearly down the hill.

“Though maybe that’s too restrictive. Pebbles is really young, though he’s learning really fast. Andy and Jasmine are such big dreamers, it would be a shame to start off crushing that.”

“Try to focus that, I think,” Lucy said, “That’s a good start. Andy certainly can focus when he’s motivated.” The kid’s hobby of making diagrams was a getting little intimidating as he integrated pointers from both her and Qi. So far only the Super Shock Sheild Mark II had been viable, but he was getting close to making something actually buildable on a regular basis. “Give them the restrictions once they’re past the initial stages, maybe.”

They turned the corner to see that Rambo was in front of Logan’s house. Lucy hadn’t been sure. She knew he tried to get Andy from school more often. It bothered him how often he was gone, enough that he’d talked a lot about it on their riding date out in the desert last week, and Logan was not a talker.

He certainly hadn’t been talkative once they reached that little watering hole. She felt her face flush as she thought about it.

“Are you okay, Lucy?” Jane asked, “Make sure you’re drinking water, it’s getting hotter out.”

“Er, I’m fine, it’s just a long walk down the hill.”

Jane nodded, adjusting her hat. “Oh, trust me, I know. Do you know the kids like to just go running down it at the end of the day? I’d love to have that kind of energy!”

Rambo bleated a greeting as they approached. Jane dropped back a step, eyeing the animal cautiously. The goat was geared up still, which probably meant Logan was headed out again. Lucy pulled one of her homemade granola bars and gave it to him. It was a belated thanks for initiating events the other week, but Jane took it as a way to calm him down. “I didn’t know goats could be this big,” she said, gently reaching out to touch Rambo’s shoulder. The goat flicked an ear towards her and back, but kept munching happily on the granola bar.

“They’re a Eufala breed,” Lucy sad, reciting what Logan had told her as she scratched Rambo at the base of the horns, “Howlett bought him and Merle at a village way far out in the desert for Logan and Haru when they were just starting to really hunt on their own. Logan thinks the village was lost to the sands.”

“So many things have been.” Jane patted the goat with tentative fondness. “Well, if he’s here, Mr. Logan should be, so let’s go see if we can talk?”

Lucy nodded and patted Merle on the nose. Jane stood at the door, looking nervous again. Lucy gave her a reassuring smile and knocked. It was tempting to use her key- Logan would know it was her, Logan always knew it was her- but they were still trying to keep quiet about things.

The door flew open, making both women jump back. Logan was holding it open, sparing them only a glance and small nod, keeping his attention on Andy.  “I gotta run, bounty to take care of,” he told the boy, who was standing on the stairs, “Stay home an’ do yer homework, alright?”

“You got it! Ain’t no problem, my homework is history!” Andy said, gung-ho as ever. Lucy could smell food, they must have managed to have an early dinner together. “Well, it’s math, but…”

“Oh, sorry, is this a bad time?” Jane asked, “We can come back.”

Logan shook his head and gestured for them to come in, his eyes meeting Lucy’s for a brief heated glance. She thought she saw a little flush on his sun-kissed cheeks. He’d missed her, too. “Nah, ain’t a problem. I can make some time for Andy’s future. C’mon in.”

Lucy looked over at Andy to see him roll his eyes and silently mimic Logan. She glowered at him dramatically and he shrugged.

“Well, thank you!” Jane told Logan brightly, “Actually, we’re here to talk about a “Model Free Cities” after-school activity.”

“After school?” Andy muttered, “We’re gonna have after school, too?” Lucy and Logan both shot him a look to tell him to shut it.

“It’s, uh, well it’s a way for the children to learn about how to run a city,” Jane said, her nervousness fighting with her enthusiasm, “The idea is that they can each come up with a development plan and present it to our judges, who will then vote one of them in as mayor. Over the next month, we’ll work together to simulate putting that plan into action.”

“Well that sounds like a heck of an idea,” Logan said, “If it helps Andy learn, I’m all for it.”

⁠“Thank you so much!” She turned toward Andy. “Andy, do you have any ideas for something to present?”

⁠The kid was all into the idea now he’d heard it. “That’s crazy! I was jus’ thinkin’ the other day, dang, if I were mayor, I’d turn this whole town into a theme park! Why ain’t there a big slide goin’ from my house to the Blue Moon?”

Logan chuckled. “Sounds like you better write it down an’ tell everyone all about it, kid.” He turned back to Jane. “Oh, I been meaning’ to ask ya, we owe any fees lately? Andy said he needed a hundred Gols for textbooks an’ the like; I wanted to know when we gotta pay again.”

“Gols?” Lucy asked, her expression as confused as Jane’s. She’d been dragged into a lot of planning meetings about the school as it was being built, and after Mi-an’s big donation any talk of fees had been happily tossed out.

⁠Andy’s excitement turned into a hurry to be anywhere else. “Wouldya look at the time? I ain’t done the dishes yet, an’ there’s all that homework…” He started up the stairs.

⁠Logan reached over and grabbed him by the back of the shirt, halting his progress upstairs. “Hold one, you ain’t goin’ nowhere.”

⁠”We, uh, never asked for any fees,” Jane said, clutching her hands in front of her as Logan’s intense gaze fixed on her, “The school is free for every student.”

⁠Andy⁠ stood frozen with one foot each on separate steps. He refused to meet the glower Logan turned on him. “I can explain.”

⁠”You little-“ Logan cut himself out, closing his eyes for a second, then looked at his guests. He kept hold of Andy and cleared his throat. “Jane, Luce, I reckon it’s best you two head off now, Andy here’s got ‘bout a million years of chores to get through now.”

⁠Jane⁠’s adjusted her glasses and her eyes went to the clock on the nearby wall. “Oh, would you look at the time. I think it’d be best if we go then.”

Logan gave them a tight smile. “Be seein’ ya,” he said, the words mostly directed to Lucy, his face flashing an apologetic expression before he turned toward his charge.

Lucy touched her lips for a second as she and Jane bustled out the door.

“Whew,” Jane said, “I’ve always found Logan a tad intimidating but I didn’t expect him to be so… caring.”

Lucy smiled fondly, listening for any argument to come out of the house, but Andy seemed to be quietly accepting his fate. Not really a way to argue his way out of this one. “Logan’s a sweetheart, really. I know you heard all those stories before coming out here, but he’s…he’s really a good man.”

“You can tell he really cares about Andy's future. It's touching, really. Just glad I’m not in Andy’s shoes right now. We should head to Pebbles house. I’ve got so much to do now we’re really going to do this!”

Lucy nodded, looking back at Logan’s house one more time before they headed to Rock and Krystal’s place, wondering just how long Andy thought he could get away with that scam.