Title: Love Manual

Author: Bru Gravem

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Characters based on Gilmore Girls and story loosely inspired at the synopsis of the movie "Manuale D'Amore" (Love Manual)

Summary: Love usually has the same pattern; it's like a manual. Four installments of how love works. Post 6X08 How it could have been. Rory/Jess

A/N: Reviews are highly appreciated.


The Passion (Chap 01)

She smiles shyly and bites her lip. Her hair fallen in a cascade over her face, making the blue of her eyes contrast with her dark hair. He smirks and pushes the autographed book on the table in her direction.

"Thanks. I know you must do it all the time and I'm sure it gets boring after a while but it really means a lot to me."

He shakes his head lightly and waves a hand in the air, "It's no problem. I'm kind of proud of having you asking for my autograph, actually."

Her eyes become a bit wider and she defends herself quickly, "Oh, I'm sure it's gonna be worth a lot soon. In a few years when your book gets the attention it deserves and becomes a success, my first edition copy with your autograph will become priceless."

He laughs and leans in, "I'm really glad you came. I just wanted to tell you this now, in case I didn't get the chance later tonight. Just so you know."

"I'm really glad I came too. Thanks for sending the invitation by the way. After the last time we saw each other I wasn't so sure you'd want to see me ever again."

"Nonsense. So, about that, have you figured it all out?" he asks hesitantly, knowing he just might have ruined his own night.

"Yeah," she trembles a little. Then repeats in a more confident voice, "Yes, I have."

"Really?" he asks slightly surprised and by her expression he can tell she is a bit offended.

"Yes," she says firmly and he tries his best not to smirk at her fuming form in front of him. "I went back to Yale, and now I'm the editor which led to Paris kicking me out. I've talked to mom and we're fine now. Everything was fixed."

"What about that boyfriend of yours?" he asks looking at a shelf by his left, avoiding her eyes.

"That was fixed too," she tells him in a shaky voice, ashamed of having dated him in the first place. "We're not together anymore."

He can't help the smile that appears on his face and Rory just glares at him. "So, you said something about Paris kicking you out, huh? Where are you living now?"

She shrugs. "I'm crashing at a friend's place but I'll have to move out soon. I've been looking for apartments, but it's kinda hard to pay the rent all by myself…"

"You know, me and the guys have been talking about opening a filial somewhere near the big fancy colleges with smart rich people who read. New Heaven is one of the possibilities on the list…"

"Really?" she asks, a smile growing on her lips, her voice in a teasing tone.


"Jess! Bring my books up, please!" She yells from the corridor, carrying a box to their apartment.

"You want me to bring all your books upstairs?" he asks with the most unbelieving voice.

"Well, someone has to carry them!" she whines and hears him sighing.

"They are your books, you know?" he points out, still yelling from downstairs.

"And you're my beautiful amazing muscular and macho boyfriend who can carry all my book with no effort."

He snorts, "Now you are using the word macho, but I don't remember you using it when Lorelai suggested to paint our room pink."

She tries to suppress her giggles before defending herself. "Well pink is a macho color."

He sights loudly in defeat just for her benefit but has a hidden smile behind the annoyed voice, "Where is the box with your books?"


He hears her unlock the door and turns around on the couch where he has been watching TV to watch her come in. She throws her keys on the coffee table and jumps on him.

"Ouch!" he says out of breath, but soon is silenced by her demanding lips.

"Tough day?"

"Tell me about it. It's amazing how many texts I have to edit and how many times I have to do it. Sometimes I end up just re-writing the whole thing! Sometimes I think it'd be easier to just write the whole damn paper by myself!"

He laughs and rubs her sides while she positions herself, straddling him. "I missed you today," she tells him.

He kisses the corner of her mouth and answers against her skin, "I missed you too." He deepens the kiss and she thrust herself against him. His lips start to travel to her jaw and down her neck.

"Jess, I'm hungry," she whines and tries to release herself from him but he only grabs her hips making her stay in place and descends his lips to her chest. "Oh, I'm starving too, baby," he tells her with a smirk and a voice that drips with double meaning.

She laughs lightheartedly and search for his lips, kissing him hard, making him loose control. Next thing he knows she has jumped from his grasp and is giggling and running to their room. He sights with the biggest goofy smile on his face and throws his head back before standing up and going after her.


It's a Saturday afternoon and the sky is gray outside. It had been raining. Her head is laying on his lap, reading some copy by E. E. Cumming while he is reading his copy of Yeats. Her pajama consists of one of his sweatshirts and socks, he prefers a pair of old sweat pants and a white wife beater.

She sights and bites her lower lip, looking at the words on the book, but not really reading them. She looks at each word but can't connect their meanings. After much effort she finally gets to the last word. Four letters. She just can't find its meaning.

Her eyes wander the poem again and again and another time. At the end she is always faced with the same word. But this time she finds something to connect to it, a meaning. The thing is, she is surprised to what she connects this word.

She has been thinking a lot about it later. The word. After nights without sleep she concludes she has never really meant it, with anyone. And she is not sure if she should use it now. Sometimes she doubts if it is true this time, if she really means it. Other times it's like one of the only certain things in her life.

She glances at him with the corner of her eye and looks back at her book. She is afraid. She is afraid of his reaction. She is afraid of him not saying it back. She bites her lip and sighs again.

She turns her head to the right and looks out of the window again. The gray sky is turning into the darkest shade of blue and she knows the afternoon has turned into evening. Just like her relationship with Jess has turned into something new. Something different. Something else.

"Jess?"

"Yeah?"

"I think I love you."

She feels like her heart has stopped beating and the air is not full filling her lungs anymore, but she hides it and pretends to concentrate on her book. Three minutes pass and the silence is driving her crazy. Five minutes pass and she thinks he won't say anything. Ten minutes pass and she gives up; he's not ready to say it back.

When he finishes his book much later he closes it and leans down, placing a soft kiss on her lips, "I think I love you too."

She smiles, she knows they don't 'think', they both know.