Title: Uncharted Territory
Author: DiraO
Rating: K-T
Setup: AU. One shot. Jess goes to Yale to convince Rory to go away with him. Sometimes, all we need are specific directions.
UNCHARTED TERRITORY
The map guides you to New Haven, no sweat.
You dive into deep waters, over her, once again. You walk up to her palace of overgrown-ivy. You think, 22.8 miles can be very long when you need to get somewhere, very short when you need to prepare yourself for the wild.
You are an explorer, drawing a map of a land never before seen. Scratch that. You are also the map, you draw yourself as you walk closer and closer to her door. You think, so this is what it feels like, to step on new land. You see your tall competition, and suddenly new land seems very much like old land.
He leaves.
You stay.
She is angry, her eyes tell you this. But they are less and less like ice with each passing confession. You begin to get the lay of the land. You begin to understand what it means to be laid out on the table, a map anyone can read.
You ask her to leave, never expecting her to say yes. But she has never been predictable, and she has always been amazing. And she's not one to break a record.
She doesn't exactly say yes, but she doesn't say no.
"Where are we going?" she asks.
"Wherever."
"Pick a spot," she insists, her anger flaring up for only a second.
You've never been one to think ahead. You didn't think this far. You thought, one last-ditch attempt. So you do what you do whenever you face a last ditch attempt. You turn to the classics.
"West," you say. "I want to see the Pacific with you."
She smiles. "Beatnik," she adds, knowingly. "So I'll be the Sal to your Dean." She bites her lower lip, expectantly. You need to think that one through. There's a right answer here, and a wrong one. You can't afford to be wrong.
"That didn't turn out so well. Let's do it our own way," you say.
She likes this. You can tell, because she raises her eyebrows. "We do it my way," she counters.
It's your turn to raise an eyebrow. What will her way be?
She senses something in your eyes, something akin to fear. She smiles, comforting.
"What I mean is, first we drop these off in Stars Hollow," she starts, pointing at all her boxed belongings. "We have dinner at Luke's, and after I say goodbye to Mom and pack us some food, then we go West."
You look at her suspiciously. She knows where to hit to know if you've changed. You haven't changed all that much. But you've changed enough.
"You want me to introduce you to my mother, too?" you ask, half-joking.
She smirks. "It would be nice, but it is her wedding. Maybe we should wait until we come back."
She's serius. You try not to grin. You take the tape from one of the shelves and start taping up the leftover boxes in her dark dorm.
"Is that a yes, Jess?" she asks. And you thought you were the one asking. "Are we doing this my way?"
"We go West, your way," you confirm, looking into her eyes, her eyes that promise, her eyes that say, hey, buster, you won't get kissed tonight, but maybe tomorrow.
And there she goes again, never ceasing to amaze you and surprise you. She throws herself at you, full force, full speed, lips and hands and makes you drop the tape dispenser, with a clang.
And then you think, this land, this land is new.
And then you think, maybe the metaphor should go fuck itself.
Because you are Jess Mariano, who has just walked his (reformed) mother down the aisle. The Jess Mariano who will now go deliver boxes to Lorealai Gilmore's house, and then have dinner at Luke's.
You are the Jess Mariano who kisses Rory Gilmore back, amid boxes and boxes of her books and papers and stuff.
And when you take to the road, three days from now (because the Gilmore way will always change, fluctuate, vary and screw up your newly-made plans) you will not need a map.
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Author's note: I guess it's been done before, but I had to get it out of my system so I could keep going with The Kid. Please review, tell me how this worked.