Disclaimer: As I've been professing since approximately 2004, I own absolutely nothing.
Author's Note: I was inspired by the amazing Ultrawoman, who is doing a literati advent calendar for Christmas over on her page. Everyone should go check it out if you haven't already because she's an amazing writer. And in the process of writing this, I may have inspired myself to start another literati Christmas fic. Stay tuned for that.
This takes place in the same universe as Ruined in the Rain, but I don't think you need to have read that to appreciate this little story. Enjoy and review!
A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS
"It doesn't fit." Rory said with a pout, watching as Jess struggled to make the 6-foot-tall tree fit in their small living room. He could struggle until New Year's Day, but he couldn't manipulate the laws of physics.
"I told you it wouldn't." He said with a sigh. The sigh turned into a curse as a rough branch scratched the back of his hand. He stepped away from the offending tree and looked at it skeptically.
"I guess my eyes were bigger than our apartment." Rory was still frowning deeply as she studied the tree. It was grazing the low ceiling of their small, New York apartment, but that wasn't the biggest problem. The full branches were threatening to knock over Jess' laptop on his desk, and had already knocked several books off Rory's desk. Each sat facing a wall of their living room, with only the corner, and now a too-big Christmas tree, between them.
"Can we put it somewhere else?" Rory asked, looking around thoughtfully.
"You know we can't." Jess said, standing next to her as they both looked at the oversized tree. "There's nowhere else for it to go. We really need a bigger place."
"We can pull the desks a little farther apart." Rory said quickly, ignoring the suggestion like she always did. Since they'd gotten married 9 months ago, Jess had started mentioning that the apartment was too small. Rory refused to even entertain the notion that they should move. Her life had changed completely in this apartment, turning her from the jilted bride of Logan Huntzberger to the (mostly) blissfully happy wife of Jess Mariano. She couldn't imagine a world where they didn't live here.
"We can try it." Jess said, mostly to placate his wife. He could already see that doing so would run her desk right up against the bookshelves, and his right up to the television. "I knew we should've measured before we bought the tree."
"This tree was the one." Rory said insistently. "It is the one, and we'll make it work."
"So this is what it's like being married to a Gilmore at Christmas time, huh?" Jess asked teasingly, wrapping an arm around her waist.
"Yes." Rory turned in his embrace and wrapped her arms around his neck. "And this is our first Christmas together, so it has to be perfect."
Jess frowned at that, clearly thinking about the fact that they hadn't been speaking last Christmas, before they'd finally ended up together.
"Nope." Rory said simply, pulling him to her and kissing him. He tightened his grip on her as she tangled her hands in his hair. When they finally separated, Rory breathlessly pressed her forehead against her husband's and said, "That face is completely unacceptable at Christmas time, mister."
"If that's the cure, I will do nothing but make that face." Jess said, his eyes still closed as he ran his hands up and down Rory's arms.
"We're definitely going to need to get more ornaments." Rory said with a smile, kissing the tip of Jess's nose before she pulled away from him. She went over and grabbed the edge of her desk, pulling at it until it was flush against the bookshelves. "It is going to take a lot of decorating to do this tree justice."
Jess followed Rory's lead and went to move his own desk. He moved it as far as he could until it hit the television stand, then stood back to see if it had made a difference. It was cramped, for sure, but it worked.
"What do you mean 'more' ornaments?" Jess asked after a minute, his mind just processing what Rory had said. "Did you already buy some?"
"No…" Rory said slowly, tilting her head to the side as she looked at Jess. "Wait, are you saying you don't have any Christmas ornaments?" Jess shook his head.
"What about lights? Wreaths? Ribbons? Plastic candy canes?" Her voice got louder each time Jess shook his head.
"Jess Mariano, are you trying to tell me that you've never decorated for Christmas before?" Rory asked, dumbfounded by the thought.
Jess shrugged sheepishly and avoided Rory's gaze. "I'm going to put on a pot of coffee." He mumbled.
"Jess! Why didn't you tell me this earlier?" Rory demanded, still looking at her husband with shock on her face. "No, scratch that. Why don't you decorate for Christmas?" She was yelling by the time she finished.
Jess shook his head as he moved around the kitchen, making coffee and not responding to Rory's shocked question. Once it was brewing, he had no choice but to finally make eye contact. Rory was still staring at him, waiting for an explanation.
He sighed and said, "I've never decorated for Christmas."
"Never?" Rory squeaked, as if he'd just said he'd never learned to drive or never tried pizza.
"Never." Jess said with a shrug. "It's always been just me. I never saw the point."
"Oh my God, I married the Grinch." Rory said, looking around frantically as if Christmas decorations were going to magically materialize.
"Hey, I like Christmas just fine." Jess said defensively. "I'm not keeping it year 'round like a reformed Scrooge, but I celebrate it."
"Oh well with enthusiasm like that, they'll be electing you Christmas King before you know it!" Rory screamed, throwing her hands up in the air.
"That's not even a thing!" Jess yelled back, watching Rory stalk over to the hall closet. "What are you doing?"
"There's got to be something Christmas-y in here!" Rory called back, throwing spare towels to the side as she pulled out a box, letting out a sigh of disgust as she found it to be full of books. She dropped it and pulled out another box.
"Every box in there is full of books. Except for one that has a crockpot in it. What Liz thought I would ever do with a crockpot is beyond me." Jess said with a roll of his eyes. "I hope you plan on putting all this stuff back."
"I can't believe there's nothing Christmas in this whole place!" Rory whined. "Seriously, Jess?"
Jess shook his head. He should've known how important this would be to her, but he had never thought about doing anything for Christmas other than buying gifts for his family. Well, almost never...
"Huh." He said to himself quietly. Rory stopped her mad search and peered around the closet door at Jess, who walked back into the kitchen and over to one of the cabinets. He reached past the pots and pans until he pulled out an unopened package. He spun around to show it to Rory, who had come up right behind him and snatched it out of his hand. She studied what she was looking at thoughtfully before looking up at Jess.
"Cookie cutters?" She asked, looking back down at the metal candy cane, Christmas tree, and snowman in her hands.
"I got them last year, before…" Jess trailed off. "I thought it would be fun. Guess I really had it bad for you." He said, trying brush it off like it was nothing. But it wasn't nothing to Rory.
Rory grabbed Jess by the back of the neck and pulled her to him, kissing him fiercely. He responded immediately, lifting her off her feet and sitting her on the kitchen counter, the cookie cutter package falling to the floor with a clatter.
Rory giggled as Jess trailed kisses down her collarbone, finally putting her hands on his chest to push him away. He gave her a little pout as she hopped down off the counter and picked up the cookie cutters, placing them lovingly on the counter.
"That is a good start." Rory said. "The best start actually. But if we're going to get this place looking like the North Pole, we've got some major shopping to do. I'm talking the works, pal. Tinsel, fake snow, a Christmas village, candy canes- real and fake. Oh!" Rory exclaimed so loudly that Jess actually winced. She actually shoved him out of the way and ran into their bedroom. She came back out holding a small, flat white box and walked over to the tree.
"I totally forgot, I bought this the other day." Rory said, beaming a bright smile. She opened the box and beckoned Jess over to her. Dangling from her fingers was an ornament. Two plastic candy canes glued together to form a heart. Dangling from the middle was a small white plaque that read 'Our First Christmas' in painted red script.
"Some vendor on the street was selling them." Rory said, her smiled suddenly shy. "It was so cheesy, I had to buy it."
"It is cheesy." Jess agreed, taking it from her. He delicately hung it on one of the branches and took a step back. It should've looked silly as the lone ornament on a 6-foot tree, but it didn't.
"Perfect." Jess said with a firm nod, pulling Rory to him. She dropped her head on his shoulder in silent agreement.
"I don't know about you, but I think we should leave it just like that." Jess said, smirking.
"Yeah." Rory agreed dreamily.
"Really?" Jess asked skeptically, a laugh in his voice.
"No, get your coat we need to go shopping right now!" Rory said, dashing away to get her own coat.
Jess chuckled but didn't rush to follow his wife's orders. Instead he looked again at the enormous tree, in a corner where it absolutely didn't belong, with one cheap plastic ornament dangling from the branches. He hadn't been kidding when he said it looked perfect.
"Jess Mariano, I will leave this house without you." Rory said firmly from where she stood at the door, Jess's coat in her hands.
"No you won't." Jess said, but he turned and took his coat from her, humming to himself as they went to buy decorations for their first Christmas together.