VMars: "Towards Zero" (Keith/Veronica/Mac, NWS)

[alixtii]

Title: Towards Zero
Fandom: Veronica Mars
Pairing: Keith Mars/Veronica Mars/Cindy Mackenzie
Rating: NWS
Summary: A story should tell the journey to Zero Hour. Concept from the Agatha Christie play of the same name. 3_ships version is here, with its public comment(s) here.

Towards Zero

Zero Hour

He can't not trust her. He knows this, because he's tried. Even after the incident with the Manning child, he couldn't help it. She might not always do the wise thing; she's still a little reckless. And she can still be a little vengeful, he knows. But really, who is he to judge?

She's an adult now, eighteen years, but really she's been one for years. Lilly's death made her grow up fast. So did Lianne leaving. He wants to be the father for her, protect her from the big bad wolves, but it's been made more than clear over the last two years that he can't. She accomplishes what she sets out to do, and Keith has learned to pity those who stand in her way.

All of this is rationalizations, of course—Keith has gotten good at rationalizations. It's not that she's earned his trust. It's that he can't help but give it to her.

So he has to trust her about this, that when she says this is what she wants she is telling the truth.

Veronica steps out of her room, naked but holding a towel. "I'm going to take a shower, Dad," she tells Keith. "Feel free to join me if you want."

Keith nods and makes his way to the bathroom, loosening his clothing as he does.

He trusts her.

Zero Hour Minus Two Weeks

He wakes up breathing in Veronica's scent.

He and Mac are spooning, sort of, his face buried in the nape of her neck, but she's wearing one of Veronica's shirts and the smell is pure Veronica.

And there's Lilly Kane, dressed in that same silly green-and-white outfit she was found murdered in. And since, yeah, she's about as dead as they come, he's pretty sure he is—

"Dreaming me?" asks Lilly. "Probably. But the eighteen-year-old girl in your bed? She's as real as they come."

Keith is certainly not going to explain himself to a sixteen-year-old girl who has been dead for two years. It's not like he's done anything wrong.

"Come on, Mr. Mars," she says, her face that of angelic innocence. "You just slept with your daughter's girlfriend. You can't tell me that isn't majorly fucked up." And she smiles with glee.

Zero Hour Minus One Month

Somedays, she reminds Keith of Lianne so much that it hurts.

Not Lianne as she is now, broken, alcoholic, at war with the world, unable to face the ghosts which haunt her, but Lianne as she was, in her prime, the woman who had Jake Kane panting after her, who was friends with everyone and had only a world of possibility in front of her.

The woman Keith fell in love with, all those years ago.

Keith looks at Veronica and sees Lianne's face, and it hurts so bad.

She exits her room in a backless top, a black skirt, pumps, and a purse. "Ooh, baby," he says in a playful voice, and whistles. "You and Logan going out?"

Veronica's hesitation speaks volumes.

"Is there trouble in paradise?"

Veronica sighs. "It seem like my relationships with Logan are always fated to never outlive the summer."

Keith nods. "He's a summer romance sort of guy." He's not a bad kid, not deep down, but Aaron's screwed him up bad and he's not the sort of boy Keith really wants dating his little girl.

There is no sort of boy Keith wants dating his little girl. Still, Keith is surprised at the strength of his pleasure at finding out Logan and his daughter are no longer dating. "So, you and Wallace, then?"

"Mac," Veronica corrects him. "She's thinking about trying the whole 'being seen in public' thing again?"

"How is she?" Keith asks, concerned. The Mackenzie girl was only one of many victims in last spring's events, and not one he'd followed up on.

"She's…better," Veronica says cautiously. "I think she's avoiding boys for the time being."

"Very wise," Keith notes. "You could learn from her example."

Zero Hour Minus One Week

"Now this is kinky," Lilly Kane's ghost says. She's sitting at the kitchen table, eating some sort of spectral popcorn as she watches him, but Keith is more than a little distracted at the moment because he sort of has his dick up Mac's ass.

Also because Veronica is on her knees performing cunnilingus on, again, Mac. "Even I never got to do it with the dad and the kid at the same time," Lilly notes. "Aaron probably would have gone for it, but I think Logan would have been a hard sell."

Keith can feel the effects of Veronica through Mac, both directly as flesh is pushed against him and through the gasps and shudders Mac emits.

"It's so wrong," Lilly Kane says as she simulates an orgasm, clutching her arms to the kitchen counter, "but it feels so right."

Mac's breath gets quicker; unlike Lilly, she's clearly not pretending. Keith comes while Veronica's still working; he slips away to trash the used condom, then comes back, kisses Mac's neck as, with a final shudder, she climaxes. "Come on, Keith," Lilly says as Veronica rises to her feet, "kiss your daughter. With tongue. I know you want to."

She isn't wrong, but he doesn't do it.

Zero Hour Minus Three Weeks

"Here you go, Mr. Mars," the Mackenzie girl says, handing him back his laptop. "It's amazing you were able to use the thing for anything at all, with all the spyware and adware and trojans you had on there."

"Trojans," he repeats, and he's half-joking and half-confused. Darn those kids with their netspeak and actually knowing how to operate computers and all. "Ribbed or lubricated?"

Mac smiles, and Keith thinks that once she's ready for boys again she really shouldn't have any trouble finding one. Hopefully a gentleman who can undo some of the damage Cassidy Casablancas might have caused. "Just make sure you keep running the detection software," she said, "so it doesn't happen again."

He nods. He knows how to use one perfectly well; it's the inner workings that require expert advice. "Thanks for your help."

"Sure thing, Mr. Mars."

"Call me Keith," he says, and she graces him with another smile.

Veronica comes in. "Hi, Dad," she says, and then kisses Mac, an open mouth kiss with tongue, the sort of kiss she never would have dared to do in front of Keith with Logan. "You ready to go?" she asks, and Mac nods. The two leave holding hands.

The Mackenzie girl is eighteen and attractive, and Keith rationalizes that his physical response to what just happened is a perfectly natural one.

Comments

[hollywood-r-bin.livejournal.com]

Cool fic, interesting style. I love the combination pairings here, I hardly ever read VM but i totally love this fic, I never would have thought of these pairings. I'm not a Veronica/Mac fan (I just see it as friendship, which is really weird for me cause I totally ship Lana/Chloe on SV and Paris/Rory on Gilmore Girls) but I like the combination of that with Veronica/Keith and i never would have thought of Mac/Keith.

[hollywood-r-bin.livejournal.com]

BTW you've got me hooked on more dirty wrong Keith fics, you wouldn't happen to know where I can find more do you? Especially Keith/Veronica fics.

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

Other than of course pointing you to Ari's VMars fic if you haven't been there already, I don't know where to send you. Sorry; Keith/Veronica isn't a pairing I've seen much outside Ari's journal, even though she taught me to see it in canon.

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I don't think Veronica/Mac does have the intensity of the UST of Paris/Rory (I don't watch Smallville) but it's the maingame in town for VMars femslash (people just don't write Mac/Madison unless I've bribed them, it seems) so I would read it and love it a lot. wisdomeagle taught me to see Keith/Veronica in canon, and while I don't know of a Mac/Keith fic other than the Veronica/Mac/Keith Ari wrote for me in the ficathon I wrote this for, , I'd been wanting it for a while since it combines much of the awesome of Veronica/Mac with that of Keith/Veronica in a way that people might actually write since it's not 'cesty.

[hollywood-r-bin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, been there already. That sucks. I really like it, it seems to be one of the few hetcest I'm really interested in (the other being Teaguecest in s4 of Smallville, that one was beyond obvious). I usually go for slash incest.

[hollywood-r-bin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I love the UST. And on Smallville Lana/Chloe has UST too I think, more so in earlier seasons before they completely watered down Chloe's character.

Mac/Madison sounds awesome!! I would LOVE to see that. If anyone does write it, tell me too? Oh and I also really like Veronica/Meg, I love Alona Tal. I have a thing with fics though, i hate PWP and short fics and sappy fics, which seems to be what i find most of when it comes to femme in general, at least in the fandoms i like, maybe i'm just not good at finding stuff but I can't seem to find any of those awesome novel length stuff like i do with slash.

I went looking for Keith/Veronica after rewatching s2. I really really wish there was more out there.

I have no problem with cesty. I'm native to the Supernatural fandom. We have more incest and none incest fics in that fandom, though my favourite pair there isn't incest and is completely underrated without enough fics for it.

[hollywood-r-bin.livejournal.com]

Not sure if this is the person you've bribed for the Mac/Madison, but I kinda stumbled onto it. It's the second story in this rec post

http://community.livejournal.com/vm_fic/12401.html

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

OMG. I'd never seen that before. Thank you so much!

*goes off to read*

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

I have far too few canons with siblings to satisfy my kinks for anytype of 'cest--although I suppose if I liked m/m better, it wouldn't be so bad.

[hollywood-r-bin.livejournal.com]

Lol, nice icon. Yeah, there's lots of sibling cest around that's m/m... do you think it's possible that that's because the writers are mostly women and so they aren't anyone's brother so it bothers them less? Like it's harder for a random thought to pop in with you in the situation and causing an ick factor?... maybe not. Still, it's why I can't do Gilmorecest... of course Gilmore Girls is so scarily like the cute and fluffy version of my life it's not funny. I mean when i first saw it i wondered if i accidentally met the creator somewhere. Rich grandfather who has a rocky relationship with my mother who's gotten away from all that high society crap. My mum and I having a close relationship, like we're almost sisters. Her raising me by herself, but grandad coming in with the money. I've also been in a few love triangles in my life (though my love life has been dead lately) and my name is Leelarai.

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

Well, there's more m/m 'cest for many reasons, I think.

First off, there's all the reasons why non-'cesty m/m is popular: opportunity to make room for queerness in texts, exploration of the sexuality of the Other, het women find 2 men together hot, the possibility of a relationship between equals, etc. (Some of these would apply to f/f as well, some wouldn't.)

Some of these, like the importance of an equal relationship, would be doubly important in 'cest. Consent insues in 'cest are always already fraught; sometimes just making one of the characters male and the other female is enough to push the pairing far enough into dubcon or even noncon to produce a major squick. (Thus my main m/f pairing, Peter/Valentine, being a "dark" pairing--while my f/f pairings like Laz/Lor and Annie/Hallie can be fluffy.)

malnpudl has a poll on whether having real life siblings make fictional sibling incest pairings less interesting here. I have a brother, but I'm not squicked by m/m 'cest so much as just not interested in m/m in general; I'll be more willing to read an m/m 'cest pairing than an m/m non-'cest pairing, all things being equal. (But all things aren't equal, so must of the m/m I've read has been McKay/Shepherd when I'm not even in that fandom or seen the show, since thinky, meta-like fics with that parent keep on getting recced.)

I don't have a problem with writing a pairing no one else does, though; I'm a femslasher who focuses on minor characters, so that's pretty much modus operandi. My problem isn't that no one else is writing m/f or f/f 'cest, but that few canons offer the necessary openings to do so. Are there more brother&brother pairings in our canons than brother&sister or sister&sister pairings? Perhaps, since the the genres of shows people write fanfic about (speculative fiction at the top of the list) do often still tend to privilege male perspectives. But I suspect there's a dearth of siblings on television in general, the Winchesters notwithstanding.

[hollywood-r-bin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know there's lots of possible reasons. I'm trying to do a paper on Broyay right now, got lots of ideas, nothing coherant. Thank you for the link, I didn't see that but I could definitely use it :)

I never read McKay/Shepard, mostly because I don't read anything from a show I don't watch.

That's cool, I'm more of a femmeslasher in terms of writing and I mainly write SV's Lana/Chloe which is a main femme pairing in a show that hardly has anyone in femme at all. I am writing something with minor characters though most of my stuff is Lana pairings cause I love her.

I think there's some m/f cesty canons around, I'm open to River/Simon of Firefly, but yeah, more men, more brothers around I agree.

What does dearth mean?

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

I think also the fact that men don't get pregnant can explain some of the lessening of the taboo in fandom againt m/m 'cest.

I wonder sometimes about how prevalent incesty overtones are in people's real life sibling relationships. I haven't done any research, but some post metafandom linked to ages ago offered some compelling evidence that I didn't follow up on that incesty overtones are often quite common in sibling relationships, and I have to say that would be true of my rl experience as a little kid (less than 8 or so).

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

What I really like about this is that it's completely ambiguous (at least to me) what's actually occuring and what's in the realm of dream/fantasy.

I love that you use Lilly much the way she's used in canon.

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

Well, speaking as someone who's 'cest goggles are firmly attached to his face (there's a brother and sister who could go to my church whom I secretly 'ship hard), 'cesty "overtones" are everywhere. Incestuous sexual attraction and/or activity is I'm assuming much rarer, but "overtones"? I have to assume that what you mean by "overtones" is something much more specific and/or concrete than what I would mean. I've written meta about that, though. (Some of this from my unorthodox pomo mechanism of looking at reality in general.)

But, yeah, especially with younger children, there's a whole lot to be able to sexualize precisely because of the way sexuality is presumed to be absent, c.f. "they're too old to be sharing a room" which implies there's a "young enough." Erase that assumption, and suddenly you have two people who are slashy as hell. And really, if you even just live in the same house as someone, you're going to come in contact with them as a sexual being.

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

it's completely ambiguous (at least to me) what's actually occuring and what's in the realm of dream/fantasy.

That reading hadn't occurred to me but it totally makes sense to me given what I'd written. So, yay!

I love that you use Lilly much the way she's used in canon.

Yeah, I've written something like seven VMars fics, and of them four have Lilly in them, and in all four of those there's ghost!Lilly. She's just so useful to provide a running commentary to a scene or to get a character to face a truth from which they would prefer to hide, because she has even less inhibitions now that she's dead, and she's always a blast to write.

*still plans to write the Lilly Kane/Shepherd Book "two people who meet in heaven" fic one of these days*

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

Oh, I would read the hell out of that fic. LOL

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

I have to assume that what you mean by "overtones"

I think what I meant by using the word overtones is that it's all well and good for me to dissect at great length Sam and Dean's Wincestous experiences but I quail when offering commentary on my own personal experiences apparently. What I meant was, I wonder if a lot of people have had mildly incestuous experiences as kiddos (for example: ooooh, I figured out this cool thing [masturbation] that is awesome and I am going to tell you about it/show it to you, oh brother who I spend all my time with).

Thanks for the links, BTW.