Snowflake Eyelashes

A/N: This is another story that goes along with Two TwentyNine and Calling Off the Guards. You don't really need those to understand it. This takes place about five years before those two. Thanks to everybody who reviewed my other stories! I have another one written in this sort-of series, but I'm not going to publish it yet.

Rory glanced at her watch for the third time. She took her book out of her purse and leaned against the brick wall of the building she was standing next to. She switched her coffee cup from one hand to the other as she opened her book. Both her coffee and her ears were getting cold quickly. She wished she'd actually taken the crazy hat her mother had tried to sneak into her bag.

She was dimly aware of the presence of someone next to her.

"Reading again? How novel."

She wrinkled her nose, not taking her eyes off of her book. "Have you been talking to DuGrey or something?"

She heard him chuckle. "You've lost me already, Ace."

She took another sip of her coffee. "You're late."

"Late? Me? No. Are you sure you set your watch to the right time when you got here?"

She snapped her book closed to glare at him. "Do not blame the airline, mister."

"I would never dream of doing such a thing." He leaned closer, brushed her hair out of her face. "God, you're a sight for sore eyes." Her eyes slid over his face and he saw the hunger in them, even if she'd never admit that it was there. "So who's DuGrey, Ace?"

She stuck her thumb in her book and opened it back up, staring at a random page. "My lover. Sorry you had to find out this way."

He tugged the book out of her hands gently. "How're you doing, Rory?"

She took a sip of coffee. "Fine. I'm fine."

He placed a hand on either side of her, resting them against the cold brick. "You really think I'm going to believe that?"

"Why wouldn't you?" Despite her couldn't-care-less attitude, he could see that she was vulnerable.

Fine, he thought. Two can play this game. "Hm. Let's see. Because your grandfather just had a heart attack, your grandmother's a mess, and your mom's busy with her husband and her baby. Your boyfriend's in London."

She stared down at her styrofoam cup. "Hey, I've still got DuGrey. This coffee sucks."

He pulled a travel mug from behind his back and handed it to her, gently easing the styrofoam out of her hand and tossing into a nearby garbage can. He knew this reaction all too well. "Yeah, well, the British like tea."

Her breath caught in her throat and she blinked quickly. He tried to kiss her, but she pulled away. "I didn't want to come here."

"Because you're mad at me."

She pressed her lips together. "Mnamad."

"Sorry?"

"I'm not. Mad," she said clearly.

"Surrre you're not."

She looked at him, anger flashing in her blue eyes. "How old are you, five?"

"Ace."

"Don't…call me that." She blew out an exasperated breath. "Your coffee sucks."

He took the mug from her and threw it in the garbage can. It'd only cost ten bucks.

Apparently, however, she didn't see it that way. "Logan, what are you doing? Those things cost money!"

"I bought it, Ace," he said calmly.

She squirmed under his gaze. He could read her. He could read her so well. "Stop looking at me like that," she ordered.

"Who's five now?" He was so calm. She hated that he was so calm.

"My grandfather had a fucking heart attack, Logan! I don't need to be here right now. You're so…you're such an insensitive…horrible…you're so…"

"Language, Ace," he chided playfully, leaning closer to her. Her body was so magnetically attracted to his. Her lips were aching to touch his. She whimpered, and he smirked, stepping closer so that her body was flush with his. "You needed to get out of there."

"No. I needed to be there. And here is a long, boring flight away from there."

"Bad in-flight movie?"

A tear slid down her cheek. "It was crap."

"My, aren't you full of profanities today?"

"Logan," she snapped.

His hand came up and she saw him wind her hair around his fingers in her peripheral vision. She leaned into his hand gently and he released her hair to cup her cheek. "I'm worried about you," he said softly.

She rested her forehead on his chest, and he immediately placed his chin gently on her head. "I'm such a spaz right now," she muttered. "I…I'm twenty-two! What kind of twenty-two-year-old gets jealous of her two-year-old brother?"

"The kind who's had her mother all to herself for twenty years. The kind who has always counted on her mother for every little thing, and whose mother was always able to give her whatever she needed. The kind who's not used to sharing the person she loves the most." He knew it would only be a time before she admitted that she was jealous of William. And, of course, being Rory, she'd picked the time when she should have been admitting that she was so terrified of the possibility of her grandfather's death.

"I just…miss her, I guess," she sighed. "And I miss you. I need you, too." Her lower lip stuck out slightly, and he leaned in to kiss her- but her hand on his chest stopped him just when his lips were grazing hers. They stayed there for a couple minutes, just breathing into each other's mouths. "It's cold," she whispered.

"Richard's going to be okay."

She sighed deeply, letting her body relax a little. "At this point, I'm more worried about Grandma."

"Emily'll be fine, too."

"Yeah, I know. God, I just…needed to get out of there."

Logan gave her a pointed look.

Her jaw dropped. "My grandfather is the hospital!"

"So I'm not allowed to be right?"

She kissed him then, quickly and firmly.

"Ace," he groaned as she pulled away.

She smiled softly and grabbed both of his hands in her own. "I always know how to shut you up."

He pressed his forehead to hers. There were snowflakes in her eyelashes. "Ah, Ace, you should know better than that. I think DuGrey is the only one that works for. Me? I can still talk for a while."

She giggled. "We're talking about a guy I went to high school with on a street in London while I'm having an emotional breakdown. God."

He pulled a gift certificate for her favourite coffee shop near Yale out of his pocket. "I'm sorry I couldn't have been there."

She accepted the piece of paper from him and stared at it affectionately. "You've got your…stuff, here."

"I would have come right away, Ace, if I could have."

"I know. I…I was drunk when I called you."

His eyes widened and she blushed. "One more time?"

"No! Don't make fun!"

"Rory."

She sighed. "I was drunk when I called you."

"How…?"

"I was at Grandma's! They have so much alcohol there, and I just…I was so drunk," she giggled, sounding tipsy at the memory.

He nodded slowly. "It makes sense now."

"What makes sense?"

"The night you called me…your mom called three hours later, she woke me up."

"What'd she say?"

"Get her out of here, Logan," he quoted.

"Oh. Yeah, she…I guess she found me in Grandpa's study, totally out of it."

He pulled out a first edition of Emma. "You crazy party girl."

"That's a magic coat you've got, there," she said softly, taking it from him and running her hands over it. "Logan…giving me presents isn't going to make Grandpa better. Or anything better, for that matter."

"No," he agreed, as he pulled a jewellery box out of his pocket and opened it to reveal a sparkling necklace.

"Pretty," she breathed, looking from him to the necklace and back.

He fastened it around her neck. "My heart broke, when you called," he told her seriously. "I was so worried about you."

Her cheeks turned pink, and she looked down. "We'll have to un-break it, then," she replied, just as serious.

He pulled her flush against him and kissed her.

"Mm, you taste good," she murmured between kisses. She laughed, her teeth a bright white that matched the snowflakes in her eyelashes.

"What?" he asked, kissing her cheeks, her forehead, her eyelids.

"I was just thinking about all the corny love songs that would fit this situation."

"Fix You?" he laughed.

"Wonderwall," she returned softly.

He pushed her back against the wall and began kissing her neck.

"Get a room," muttered a passer-by, and they broke apart.

"Logan! I hate public displays of affection! You know that!"

"My girlfriend's in London for one night. I don't really care." He drank it her appearance. Her bloodshot eyes, tearstained cheeks, messy hair. But most of all, her snowflake eyelashes.

"You have snowflakes in your eyelashes," she noted, hooking her thumbs through the loops of his belt. She leaned up a little to kiss his jaw.

"So do you," he said softly. He could see this. On a London street, in the snow, with a beautiful girl. This year. Next year. And every one after that. He wanted that so badly. But there was one thing that, at that moment, he wanted even more. "Let's continue this at home, Ace."

"You're working blue," she murmured teasingly.

"Am I better than your lover?" he replied.

"You idiot. I'm in love with you."

"Prove it," he dared with a smirk.

"My flight's at seven, Logan," she protested, but they both knew that her heart wasn't in.

"Well, Ace, then there's only one thing to say," he said as he took her hand and pulled her down the street and to his apartment building.

"Yeah?" she asked, looking up at him through her snowy eyelashes. "What's that?"

"Wake Me Up Before You Go-go."