A/N: Yes, I know... I promised to finish my other story, and instead I start a new one (we hear those words so often don't we?)... However, I do intend to finish 'It still matters' during January, I just got inspired... This was really supposed to be posted during the twelve days of Christmas (25th of December-5th of January) but I won't be able to... We'll be at my mom's for Christmas, and then at my in-laws for a couple of days, so it will be posted whenever I have the time to... Happy holidays...
A Partridge in a Pear Tree
They had finally been able to leave their family obligations, and had met up at Yale as soon as possible. It was 8 in the evening on December 25. and they had just stopped for coffee on their way to the pub. Finn Morgan was dreamingly looking at a pretty brunette, who was standing further up the queue, and wondering why she wasn't home for Christmas. She was wearing a red coat that ended just over her knees, and light brown boots. Between the coat and the boots, he could glimpse a pair of black, woolen pantyhose. Topping it off was a striped, multi-colored hat and scarf. She was impatiently tapping her food while waiting for her coffee, she had a book in one hand, and a light brown leather book bag over her shoulder. Her beautiful deep blue eyes were following every movement made by the barista, and it amused him to se her frown when she was asked if she took anything in her coffee.
"Yeah, coffee." She replied in a confused voice.
He was about to laugh loudly, but he settled for a big smile, so that his friends wouldn't notice. However, Logan turned to look at him just in that moment, and caught a glimpse of Finn's amused expression. Colin was still arguing with him passionately, without noticing that he no longer had Logan's attention. Logan was instead focusing on Finn.
"What are you looking at?" Logan questioned him with a look in the same direction as Finn.
Logan looked at the people in the queue, there was an elderly couple, and a tall, amiable looking guy who looked slightly familiar. There was no one who Finn should take such an interest in, no cute girls, and no funny looking faces. Then he saw her, a pretty, brown-haired girl, who had been hidden from his view by the tall guy who she was deep in conversation with. She was looking up at the guy with an engrossed look, and then she laughed at something he said with a sound like a thousand little ringing bells. She was not what he normally would pick as being Finn's type. She looked like one of those intelligent girls that actually cared about what they were truing to knock into peoples heads in this bloody institution. Logan looked back at Finn with a feeling that he had missed something.
"Finn?" He said again, since it seemed he had not gained contact the first time.
"Yeah mate," Finn was saying in a somewhat dreamy voice.
"Saw something you liked?" Logan said with a smirk to his Australian friend.
"Huh?" Finn had followed the girl with his eyes until she turned a corner, and now he was pulled out of his trance by Logan's voice. It was not like him to get bewitched like that by a girl, but there had been something special about her. Colin was now shouting at Logan again, this time because he hadn't paid attention. Finn shook his head and smiled, and shaking of the effects of the unknown girl, he joined his friends' conversation.
Rory Gilmore had finished her last exam the day before, evil as the people who decided the dates of exams seemed to be, it was on December 24, though this year it didn't really matter, since she hadn't been celebrating Christmas with her mother anyway. Lorelai and Luke were on their honeymoon, and Rory were going to stay at Yale, and celebrate Christmas with the Jewish Paris. Marty had also stayed as moral support, and since he didn't have enough money to go home. Since his exams were over on the 10 he had brought her coffee and Take-Out during her long study sessions, and he had made sure that she ate and slept. He had been a really good friend she thought as she looked up at him while he paid for his coffee, but deep in her consciousness a voice roared at her that he wanted more, and that she didn't. But as always, she just shrugged the feeling off. She returned her attention to the story Marty was telling her, he had been bartending at a party last week and was imitating a very drunk, upper class guy who had chased around everything with breasts and a pulse. None of them noticed the dark-haired guy who were eying them with an amused smile, they just turned the corner on their was back to their dorm, Marty telling stories and doing his best to make her laugh. He knew that Christmas without her mother had been hard on her, and hoped that he had made it just a bit easier.
Suddenly, on a whim, Rory got an idea. She wanted something to tell her mother when she got home, and for some reason she felt that going to the Yale campus pub and getting drunk for the first time since her 21st birthday was the thing to do. Her mother would love that, hell, she loved anything that made Rory seem like a normal college student. She had been having a trip lately, complaining how she was not able to live viscerally through her daughter as a mother was supposed to. Rory frowned, her mother just wanted her to live, and for exiting things to happen to her, but she was not too good at opening the door to the possibilities.
"Let's go to the pub," she suggested as Marty stopped talking for a moment. He looked at her with confusion, it was not exactly something one heard Rory say too often.
"Ehh, okay," he shrugged.
He had hoped for a movie-night, it would be an obvious possibility for him to take their relationship to another level. She was lonely on Christmas, and he would be there to support her, be her rock, and hopefully get to comfort her a bit. When she suggested the pub, it took him by surprise, but he just had to make the best out of the cards he were dealt. They proceeded towards the pub in silence, while he was silently cursing her sudden idea of growing a sense of adventure. When they got there, he took her coat and went to get then a table, and she went to get then the first drinks.
Finn, Logan, and Colin entered in the same moment that Rory walked to the bar. The first thing Finn noticed as he stepped through the door was her, and she caused his stomach to take a small leap. She was no longer wearing the coat, and he looked her over quickly. The coat had hidden her clothes, and how slender she really was. She wore a denim skirt, and a tight, coffee-colored, knitted sweater with a pattern of snowflakes. He smiled wide.
"I'll buy the first round mates.," he said just as Logan turned to look at him.
"Aren't that your little girlfriend from the coffee stand" Logan shot at him but Finn had already left for the bar.
"That was quick," Colin muttered grumpily. Stephanie had just called to say that she couldn't escape her parents and he was disappointed. He had hoped to get a Hey-let's-celebrate-Christmas-lay, but now chances seemed to be slim. "Don't we normally have to argue about who buys the first round?"
Logan shook his head, normally Colin would have been thrilled that he didn't have to buy, but today he was being impossible. Logan knew exactly what Colin was grumpy about, but he didn't like to think about it, after all Steph was his cousin, and he loved her as a sister. To be honest, he hated the fact that she had a, no strings attached, relationship with Colin.
"It's the girl", he motioned towards Finn and the girl in the bar, and it seemed he had already chatted her up. "He saw her in the line at the coffee stand, and he got all dreamy-eyed."
Colin turned his attention to Finn, and grinned impishly at Logan.
"Are you up for a bet?" Logan looked at him with interest and smirked back.
"Always!"
Rory gave the bartender a smile, when he turned to serve for her. He looked as if he would rather be anywhere else, and she felt sorry for him, working on Christmas couldn't be too fun.
"Could I have two beers please," she said.
The bartender shot her a look, and stopped moving in anticipation. After a break that seemed to last forever, and gave Rory the feeling that she had been caught in the act of pretending that she did this often, the bartender sighed.
"What kind?" he sounded like he was talking to a small child.
Rory heard a chuckle behind her and a deep, amused voice with an Australian accent addressed first the bartender and then her.
"I'll have two Miller's and a Foster's", she turned to look at him as he lowered his voice "I'd recommend the Foster's, Australians are the best brewers in the world you know".
Behind her was a dark-haired guy around her own age, and he looked at her with a mischievous glint in his green eyes. He was just a bit taller than her, and was now leaning comfortably on the counter next to her, and behind him at one of the tables close to the door, she could see two guys looking up at them. They looked like they had just come in, and as she returned her attention to the Australian in front of her she noticed that he was still wearing a coat and that his face seemed to glow from the cold outside.
"I'll have two Foster's, please," she said to the bartender, who was now putting the Australians order in front of him.
"On me" the Aussie smiled at her as he said it "I'm Finn Morgan"
Rory took his outstretched hand.
"Rory… Gilmore"
He lifted her slender hand and kissed it, while his eyes never left hers.
"It's a pleasure to meet you Miss Gilmore."
Normally Rory would have found a gesture like that ridiculous, but when he did it, it seemed almost normal. She was struck by something in his eyes, a sincerity that she had never expected to find in the eyes of a guy she met in a bar. He smiled at her slightly, and let go of her hand.
"So, is it just beverages you have problems ordering? Or is it other things also?" his smile grew along with her confusion.
"Sorry?" she said, completely bewildered.
"I think I stood in line behind you at a coffee cart 10 minutes ago" he now grinned openly "I think most normal people would just say no when asked whether they take anything in their coffee."
"Sane people wouldn't ask." She smiled triumphantly.
"Touché" he grinned back "so Miss Gilmore, would you like to join us".
He made an over exaggerated movement with his arm towards the table where the two guys were sitting, and they both gave her a little wave. She only just held back a laugh at the monotonousness of their move, and turned back to Finn.
"Are you sure they're still alive?" she deadpanned.
Finn looked thoughtful. He looked over at the two guys, and saw the stiffness in their salute, he grinned and turned back to Rory again.
"Not always, sometimes I have to pinch them, just to make sure. Would you care to try, it can be quite exhilarating."
He winked at her, and she had to fight a sudden urge to say 'Dirty' just as her mother would have done. Instead, she smiled at him and shook her head lightly.
"I'm afraid I'll have to take a rein check, I have a friend waiting for me." She nudged her head towards Marty.
Finn looked at the guy at the table she motioned towards, he looked somewhat angry, and he couldn't help but feel happy he didn't have to go join him. He was sitting with his arms crossed, and leaned just a little bit too far back in his chair, Finn got an uncomfortable feeling that he had been watching them the whole time.
"I guess you better go join him, he doesn't look like he's having fun."
Rory looked down at Marty, then back to Finn. He could see her roll her eyes as she turned back to him.
"Yeah, I guess you're right." Rory smiled "It was nice to meet you Mr. Morgan"
"You too Luv, you too!"
Finn looked after her for a second of two, and then returned to the table where Logan and Colin were sitting. Colin scowled and handed a hundred dollar bill across the table to Logan, who was smirking broadly.
"What was that about?" Finn asked after drinking half his beer in one swig.
"We made a bet" Logan grinned "Colin said you would get her to come with you down here, I said she would shoot you down."
Finn frowned at the both of them, and drank the rest of his beer in another gulp.
"And you're supposed to be my friends" he said, but noticed that both their attentions were on Rory's table.
She left Finn standing at the bar, and went down to Marty. He looked less than happy with her, as she sat down across from him and slid his beer over to him.
"No thanks," he spat "I wouldn't take a beer from that guy if he offered it to me personally, and I certainly don't want to take it when he bought it for you."
Rory was stunned. What the hell was his problem? Her face must have shown her complete confusion, because Marty started speaking again.
"He is one of them, the people I serve to. Remember the guy I just told you about? That's him. He's a player… and a really bad one even. He's nothing but a spoiled rich kid, and he's not worth your time."
Anger started to rise in Rory, she had never liked it when people were judgmental.
"Whatever made you the expert? He was nice to me. And by the way, all he did was to buy us beer."
Marty rose from his chair and pounded his hand in the table in front of her, hard enough to make Rory jump a couple of inches in her chair. She had never seen Marty this angry.
"Damn it Rory, even you can't be that naïve. The only reason he bought you beer, was because he was hoping to score with you."
"Really? Well it takes one to know one, doesn't it" she shouted back at him.
His face slowly turned pale, and he fell back in his chair. For a second or two he just sat there, and then he got up, took his jacket, and left. Rory just sat there, she was stunned, and she couldn't believe what she had just said, or what he had done. She didn't move until she felt a hand on her shoulder.
"Are you okay Kitten?" the Australian accented voice rang close to her ear.
She nodded.
"Did I somehow cause that…" he was searching for the right words "…little outburst of emotion?"
Rory turned to him, his face was closer to her than she had thought, and they almost bumped their noses into each other. He looked mildly concerned, but not exactly sad that Marty left.
"Sort of" Rory couldn't help but smile at him, "he doesn't like you much, you know?"
Finn looked bewildered.
"Does he have a reason not to?"
"I don't know" she smiled, his eyes were very green, and she had the feeling that her knees would've trembled under her if she had been standing up.
"Will you let me prove to you that he hasn't?"
He looked at her, and he could feel a fluttering sensation in his stomach. He had never felt anything quite like it, at least not as far as he remembered, and if he had, it had passed quickly. God, let her say yes…Please…His eyes had locked with hers, and he decided not to blink until she said yes.
"Promise you won't bite?" her lips formed the words but only little sound came out.
"Not 'less you want me to, Kitten" he croaked
"I'll get back to you on that", Rory had suddenly remembered why she had gone to the pub in the first place, and meeting a hot Australian would definitely please her mother. She got up and followed him to his table, smiling inwardly. This was most likely going to get interesting.
