Hey! Sorry I haven't updated in a bit. I just got back from camp yesterday, so bear with me. This is just a little one-shot to unclog my writing pores. I was thinking about Jason and Lorelai's shared childhood while watching season four and came up with this. Hope you like it! Disclaimer: I don't own Gilmore Girls, but I would like ASP's brain. (Though I think Bunheads is a serious disappoint!)
Jason Stiles had always been fascinated with Lorelai Gilmore. He didn't know why or when the fascination started. It just had always been there. He remembered playing with her and Christopher Hayden as a kid. Jason had never liked Christopher if only for the fact that he liked Lorelai and Lorelai liked him. The three kids were a trio, but all the adults always cooed about how Lorelai and Christopher would make such a cute couple one day. Both would always scrunch up their faces in disgust because that's what kids do, but they never fought the idea.
Of course, Lorelai fought every other rule and idea of her parents even as a kid. She liked to run and climb and get dirty, all of these being things her mother hated. Lorelai always had a kind of fearlessness he had admired, a way of being able to touch fire and get burned. Or at least not feel it. When her mother would lecture her, Lorelai would just smile innocently and nod.
When they got older, things started to change. More particularly, Lorelai began to change. It happened when they were about thirteen. The rules Lorelai like to test, the things she would do, got wilder. At camp, she flashed the boy's cabin from the canoe, causing him to drop the oar. By the end of the summer, most of the boys, Christopher thankfully not included, had kissed her. Jason hadn't, but he wanted to. He had his chance, that day in the canoe, but blew it when he accidentally flipped the thing over. Lorelai never did forgive him for that. (Secretly, however, Jason thought it was worth it because she was wearing a white t-shirt and no bra.)
They drifted apart in high school. Jason, Christopher, and Lorelai were all still in the same circles, but Jason was a bit of a nerd while Christopher and Lorelai were in the popular crowd. It seemed like every guy wanted to date Lorelai Gilmore. He didn't blame them. Sure, there were a lot of beautiful girls in their school, their circle, but Lorelai was different. She was naturally beautiful and wickedly funny and daring and fearless. She sparkled and made everyone around her sparkle. When they were fifteen, Jason heard someone say Christopher and Lorelai had started going out. All he could think was, "Told you so." Everyone saw a perfect couple, a great match. Jason didn't. Lorelai sparkled, but she was also reckless. She needed someone to hold her back once in a while, not push her further. Chris had the same impulsive streak she had.
Still, Jason was shocked when he heard from his mom a year later that Lorelai was pregnant and dropping out of school. A part of his heart broke. Even through everything, he had always remembered her as the girl who chased him around the Gilmore's backyard, the girl who liked to try to catch butterflies. Nothing would ever be the same for her. He heard the plan: Lorelai would marry Christopher, have her baby, and finish school while Christopher would get a job at Richard's company. From what he heard, however, Lorelai was fighting the plan with all her strength. She had turned down Christopher's marriage proposal at least ten times. Jason thought everyone should've gotten the message by now. Lorelai Gilmore was not to be control.
He laughed when he heard what she had named her daughter: Lorelai Leigh Gilmore. Only Lorelai would name her daughter after herself. Jason didn't hear about Lorelai much until a year later when he heard from a friend that Lorelai had taken he daughter and ran away from home. It didn't shock Jason as much as it should've. The Gilmore house had always been suffocating to Lorelai, and she probably wanted air for both her and her daughter.
Jason didn't think about Lorelai Gilmore for many years. Not in college or when he started working for his dad's company. Not even when he decided to go into business with Richard Gilmore.
No, his fascination with Lorelai Gilmore didn't restart until she stormed his office and started to yell at her. It really did throw him to hear her defend her mother, but it made more sense when she explained she had been the caterer. That Jason had to laugh at. He remembered her burning mac and cheese one time at the Haydens' when they were ten. Lorelai was still beautiful and wickedly funny, but she had grown up, though the sparkle was still there. Even better, he had grown up too. Now Jason had another chance. Now he could get the girl. Because Jason Stiles had always been fascinated with Lorelai Gilmore, but now maybe he could actually be with her.