Summary: Post Swan Song Lit fluff. Sometimes a bit of navigational confusion can lead to the perfect night. One shot.
A/N: Huh. I opened this word document with the full intention of writing another chapter of How Soon Is Now, but instead, this came out. I blame my recent re-watching of season three, it's made me realise I've never written a story in which Rory and Jess are together from the beginning. I also blame the fact that I've been listening to Sweet Child O' Mine on repeat for around three hours, and while I don't see how it's linked to this fic, I think it probably isn't too good for my health. Anyway, hope you enjoy the story and please review!
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
"Admit it: we're lost," Rory stated, looking at her boyfriend with a mixture of accusation and amusement as they drove further through the wooded area in which they'd been stuck for the past half hour.
"We're not lost," Jess replied, repeating what had become his mantra since they'd entered the damned forest, "we're merely taking a short cut."
"Uh-huh," Rory said, sceptically, "and this is a short cut that takes a half hour longer than our usual route to the Hartford bookstore?"
"Yup," Jess answered, succinct in his stubbornness.
"Unless you plan on taking me to the set of The Blair Witch Project for our date, I'd say this is pretty much the middle of nowhere."
"Go ahead and ruin the surprise then."
Rory mock-pouted, "Don't joke; I couldn't sleep for a week after I saw that movie." She paused a minute, before continuing on her previous line of conversation, "You know, you can admit it; do you think you'll lose some of your manly pride if you turn back, drive to civilisation and ask for directions?" she asked, before adding, with a mock-gasp, "Will they revoke your grunting licence?"
"The only manly activity you could come up with was grunting?" Jess asked, raising his eyebrows as he turned away from the headlight-lit forest path ahead of them to catch her eyes briefly.
"Well, I guess you've got spitting and drinking beer, but you're not 21, so you don't exactly have a licence to drink beer, and I've never once seen you spit – a fact I'm very thankful for, by the way," Rory said, as Jess pulled over into a grassy clearing to consult the map. "You're pulling over! Does this mean you admit that we're lost?"
"I'm just double-checking I know where we are," Jess replied, eyeing the map with what Rory believed was fake concentration.
"And that would be in the middle of nowhere?"
"Okay, so if we continue along this path for around ten minutes, then..."
"We'll still be in the middle of nowhere," Rory finished for him, opening her door and stepping out into the clearing.
"What are you doing?" Jess asked, as Rory sat down in the grass, leaning against the side of the car and staring up at stars. The starlight on her face and the look of excited awe as she gazed up at them made him marvel, yet again, at why this celestial being would even entertain the possibility of being with him.
"Hey, come out here, it's beautiful," Rory said, turning her head to grin up at him from her perch on the ground in a way she knew he would never be able to resist. "We can wait for someone to drive past so we can ask them directions, but in the mean time, come on, sit."
"We don't need to ask directions because we're not lost," Jess repeated for the umpteenth time, but came and sat by her outside, none-the-less. "This is freezing."
"Guess we'll just have to hold onto each other for warmth. Bummer," Rory deadpanned, snuggling close to him as he wrapped an arm over her shoulder.
"Grass is wet, too," Jess persisted, despite the warm feeling of contentedness that was currently spreading through him as he stared out at the scene before them, the light vanilla scent of Rory's hair slowly turning his mind to fuzz.
"It's dew, it's pretty!"
"Call it what you want, it's water."
"Whatever happened to your inner child?"
"Died of pneumonia."
"You're sounding more and more like Luke every day," Rory declared, earning a light nudge from her boyfriend. Boyfriend; she'd never realised how much she liked that word until recently.
"On second thought, the dew is a magical, magical, uncomfortably damp thing," Jess corrected, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
"That's more like it," Rory said, grinning her approval as she turned to face him, pressing her lips to his. All thoughts of the dew left his mind as he melted against her, responding gently to the soft touch of her lips. The kiss was more tender than Rory was used to from him; he usually kissed her with the intensity of someone trying to hold onto something they know is slipping away, and she hoped this was a sign of his recognition that she had no intention of doing so. She pulled away when the need for oxygen took over, turning back towards the stars as she leaned her head against his shoulder. "So, I guess getting lost isn't too bad."
"We're not lost," Jess mumbled absent-mindedly into her hair.
"Hey, Jess?" Rory asked, a while later, her head now resting on Jess' lap as he toyed with strands of her hair, her having forgotten to care that they had no idea where they were, him having forgotten to pretend that he had any idea where they were.
"Yeah?" he replied, curious as to what she'd come out with next as he looked down at her thoughtful expression.
"Tell me something," she requested, open vulnerability shining through her cerulean eyes as she looked up at him, expectantly.
"What d'you wanna know?" he asked, confused.
"Anything."
"I think we may be lost," he replied, smirking slightly.
She chuckled, "Something I haven't known for the past hour, something about you."
Something in Jess' stomach clenched at this request, as the usual alarm bells went off in his head, alerting him to the fact that he was dangerously close to letting someone in. He avoided her gaze, replying a little shortly, "Nothing much to tell."
"Fine, never mind," Rory sighed, and the open disappointment written across her face stung him as he felt the familiar cold prickling feeling that he'd let her down in some way, that he was proving what everyone but her suspected: he didn't deserve her.
The feeling rose like bile in his throat, until he blurted out, "I hate carrots."
Rory's expression immediately changed to one of surprise and, after a minute, amusement, "What?"
"Liz used to go through random phases of parenting: she'd decide we didn't spend enough time together, then wouldn't leave me alone for a week before she found a new guy and forgot about it, or she'd decide that she was too disorganised and sell most of our possessions in order to live a more minimalistic life. Anyway, once, she decided we didn't eat healthily enough, and practically force fed me carrots with every meal; it was carrots breakfast, lunch and dinner for around a month. Never really been able to stomach them since," he finished, chancing a glance down at Rory for the first time since he'd started, and seeing a look of pure joy across her face. Silently, he resolved to do whatever he could to get her to look at him like that again, whenever possible.
"See! You shared something!" she said, triumphantly. "Was it that hard?"
"I told you I hated carrots," he replied, dryly.
"And now I know you a little bit better than I did before," she explained, happily. She allowed her gaze to drift back to the stars, satisfied with the tiny bit of groundwork she'd made towards getting Jess to open up to her.
After a little while, his voice broke through the darkness, "Your turn."
"What?"
"I told you something, now you have to tell me something about yourself that I don't know."
"Okay," Rory replied, grabbing his hand and rubbing circles on his palm with her thumb absent-mindedly as she thought of something. "I'm terrified of clowns."
"Doesn't count, already knew it."
"How did you know that?" Rory asked, incredulously.
"We watched It together, remember? You made me sit through three hours of boredom only to find that you'd had your eyes closed for most of it."
"I'd had a small aneurism when we rented it, briefly causing me to forget my phobia until we actually started to watch it," Rory explained. "And you said you liked that movie," she accused.
"It turned out okay, I can just think of better ways to spend three hours," he replied, smirking.
"What'd you have in mind? Something like this?" Rory asked, playfully, bringing her face up to meet his in a quick kiss, before she thought of something. "Okay, I've only ever kissed three guys."
Jess raised his eyebrows, "And who was the third lucky guy?"
"Mailman," Rory joked.
"Was it the glass eye?"
"What can I say? He's irresistible," she quipped. "He was called Tristan; complete arrogant jerk, enjoyed messing with Dean – you would have liked him."
"Sounds like a good guy."
"Okay, your turn."
Jess gulped slightly, before asking, tentatively, "You know my black eye the other week?"
"Yeah, from where you were hit by that football," Rory said, not quite seeing where this was going.
"I wasn't exactly honest with you about how I got it," he started, hesitantly.
Rory frowned slightly, "How did you get it, then?"
"Remember the no-laughing agreement? That still stands."
"Okay, okay, I promise not to laugh and hurt your delicate feelings," Rory agreed, "now how'd you get it?"
"It was, uh, a swan..."
"Speak up, I don't think I heard you right," Rory said, a devilish glint of amusement in her eyes.
Jess glared at her, "A swan, it was a swan."
"How much do I stand to lose if I go against the no-laughing agreement?" Rory asked, with visible efforts to withhold her mirth.
"Fine, laugh, maybe next time you'll be the one getting beaked."
"Beaked?" Rory repeated, her voice almost a squeak in her efforts not to laugh, "It just came right up to you and beaked you in the eye?"
"Yes! It's like the more violent, animal version of Taylor!"
At that, Rory couldn't help but let out a laugh.
Once her laughter had subsided, Jess began, "Look, I'm- I'm sorry I lied to you about it."
Rory looked up at him, adopting a more serious expression, a smile playing on her lips, "It's kind of understandable under the circumstances. But, in future, it'd be nice if you told me these things straight away. Not that I really foresee many more events in which you're attacked by members of the animal kingdom."
"If I get mauled by a bear, you'll be the first to know."
"Glad to hear it."
There was a slight pause, then Jess said, "Your turn."
"I devil-egged your car."
"Huh, kinda figured. I killed ringer-guy's snowman."
"Kinda figured that, also. I yelled at Shane in a beauty store."
"I was only ever with Shane to drive you crazy."
"Well, from the fact that I ended up yelling at her over hair dying products, I think we can safely say it worked."
"Hey, Ror?"
"Shhh, it's my turn, I'm trying to think."
For the second time that night, Jess found something rising up within him, and this time it was far more consequential than admitting his hatred of carrots. One last glance at her face, deep in beautiful concentration, was enough to push the words clumsily out of his mouth, "Rory, I love you."
Her eyes snapped back onto his, taken aback, "That- that's definitely better than anything I could come up with," she stuttered, the words slowly processing in her head, as warm happiness began to replace her initial surprise. Straightening up, so she could be on his eye level, she replied, "I love you, too, Jess."
She didn't have a lot of opportunity to allow her own words to sink in, releasing the burden that she'd been carrying for far too long now, before his lips came crashing onto hers with more passion than she'd ever experienced in her life. She responded eagerly, exploring his mouth hungrily, wanting to re-claim all the places she'd spent the past few months discovering now that she was able to so knowing that her feelings were reciprocated. As his arms locked around her back, pulling her just about as close as physically possible, something clicked in her head, and she pulled back for a moment, finding all the confirmation she needed in the dark eyes before her.
Pulling him back in towards her for another kiss, she groped blindly behind her for the car door handle, eventually finding it, opening the door, and pulling them both clumsily across the back seat, him lying flush on top of her.
"Rory, what are you-?" he started, before she cut him off with another heated kiss.
Breaking off, she murmured against his lips, "I want this, I-I want it to be you."
Pulling back, Jess stared at her with a mixture of utter disbelief and intense lust, not quite willing to believe what he was hearing, "What?"
"Look, I'm ready, I'm on the pill, I want this," Rory repeated, with slightly more confidence than she felt. Taking advantage of his lack of response, she pulled him back in for another kiss, her hands beginning to feel for the collar of his shirt, unbuttoning once, twice...
"Rory, no," he said, pulling back with an effort that looked like it was physically paining him to do so.
Hurt and embarrassment flooded her expression, "You mean, you don't want to-?"
"No, that's not it- God, that's not it..."
"Then what's the problem?"
"Rory, we're in the backseat of a car. A car held together by rust and a crappy paint job. This is your first time, I don't want you to regret anything, and if that means waiting – and you have no idea how much it's killing me to say this – then we'll wait. It shouldn't be like this."
"Jess, I don't care where it happens, I just care about who it happens with; I love you, Jess. No regrets," she said, firmly, watching his resolve slowly crumble.
Still not sure he believed what was happening, he replied, "And you're sure? Because, God, I don't think I have the strength to pull away again."
Rory grinned, pulling him back down to her, murmuring "Good, don't," before meeting his lips once again, and continuing her efforts with his shirt. And, for the first time in his life, Jess Mariano happily followed instructions.
A/N: Thanks for reading, please review!