Disc: I don't own 'em. Just borrowing.

Lost, Chapter 1

Rory buried her head into her pillow. Life was hell. He wasn't there anymore. They acted like enemies. Bantering, bitching, yelling. But then there was also talking and even that one time, kissing. Nothing was the same without him.

Tristan left for military school three weeks ago. Three long, miserable weeks had went by without him annoying her or calling her his Mary.

It had also been three weeks since she broke up with Dean. The day after Tristan left, she realized what a sham her relationship with Dean was. She didn't love him. She didn't even really like him anymore. She didn't have the feelings inside around him that she had around Tristan. And Tristan had only kissed her once. She knew there was no point in dragging things out. So she let him go.

She stood up and grabbed for her uniform. Another day of hell, only today, like the past three weeks, the Spawn of Satan wouldn't be there to torment her. Oh, how she hated that.

-GG-

Tristan shook his head. His life was hell. It had been three weeks since he last saw her. He hadn't even kissed her goodbye because Bag Boy had been there. He figured he caused enough problems for her, he wouldn't cause another one.

He ran out onto the field for PT. He needed to get her out of his mind. She didn't care for him. She hated him. They had no contact. He just needed to let her go. He just wished he knew how.

-GG-

Paris watched Rory. She had been doing that a lot lately. She was nicer to the girl, less demanding. Something was wrong with Rory. She wasn't her normal self. Looking back at the past year, Paris felt guilty. She had never exactly gone out of her way to be nice. Hell, she had went out of her way to be down right evil to Rory. But maybe she could make up for it now.

She walked up to Rory's locker. "Here." She said, handing her a slip of plain white paper.

"What's this?" Rory asked, looking at the paper in confusion.

"Tristan's address."

Rory's eyes shot up to meet Paris'. "Come again?"

Paris took a deep breath. "Look, you have been sulking around these halls like a lost puppy since he left. Just write him."

"Why would I do that?"

"Because you care." And with those words, Paris walked away, towards her next class.

-GG-

Rory lay on her bed several hours later. 'Because you care.' The words were haunting her. His memory was haunting her.

She picked up her pen, and began to write. She wasn't sure what she wanted to write. She just knew she had to write something; anything. It didn't matter. She just had to have some link to Tristan.

-GG-

Lorelai walked into the house after a particularly annoying day at the inn. Michele had gone out of his way to cause problems for the guests.

"Fruit of my loins, I'm home!" She yelled, checking for Rory.

"In my room" Came the muffled response. Lorelai shook her head. She was starting to get seriously worried about her daughter. Rory's appetite had become almost non existent. All she did was mope. Mope and daydream. She had a feeling it had to do with a certain blonde haired future leader of hell, but Rory was not talking.

She walked into her daughter's room, determined to get her to talk, or eat.

"Hey honey. What do you say we go to Luke's?"

"Hey mom." Rory said, never stopping the pen.

Lorelai looked at the bed. "Honey, what's with your sudden determination to waste trees?"

Rory looked up. "Huh?"

"Well, you have about fifty pieces of paper all crumpled up around you." Lorelai pointed to the pile of crumpled papers, and the now nearly empty notebook.

"Oh, yeah, they weren't good." Rory shrugged, not offering anymore information.

"What wasn't good?"

"They weren't good. This has to be perfect. I don't want to sound like an idiot."

At this point, Lorelai sat down beside Rory, placed her hand on Rory's arm, and made her daughter look at her. "Look, I know Chilton's a tough school, but you're not an idiot. You-"

"Mom! This has nothing to do with Chilton!" Rory said, shaking her head, frustrated.

"Then what is going on? You have been sulking around the house for weeks. You're hardly eating, and now you're calling yourself an idiot. What gives?"

Rory looked down, biting her lip. It was time she talked to her mom. So for the next hour, they sat on her bed, with Rory explaining all the perplexing feelings she felt for Tristan. And then her mom gave her an envelope and a stamp, and told her to send the Evil One the letter.

-GG-

"DuGrey, you have mail!" Shawn Jarvis yelled to his roommate. They never called each other their first names.It was just the way things were.

"Huh, did the parents send me a post card from Europe?" Tristan wondered out loud, grabbing the item out of his buddy's hands.

It was a plain white envelope, nothing remarkable, nothing heart stopping. No, the envelope was just fine. It was the return address that took his breath away. Stars Hollow. Rory.

At that point, his brain wasn't working very well. He was trying to comprehend the fact that his Mary wrote to him. She cared enough to actually write to him.

Sitting down on his bunk, he carefully opened the envelope. Taking the letter out, he began to read.

Dear Tristan,

I'm really not sure what to write. I could ask how you're doing, but I doubt that military school is very much fun. I really don't know what to say to you. There's so much, yet so little…

There have been a lot of changes since you left. Paris has actually been almost human! I don't know what's happened to her, she's just been nice to me lately. It's starting to freak me out. I broke up with Dean. I just couldn't be with him anymore. It wasn't fair for me to stay with him, when I don't feel the way he does. School just doesn't seem the same anymore, either.

I expect you to walk up to my locker everyday, and annoy me. I miss you. I can't get you out of my mind. I miss hearing you call me Mary, while smirking at me. I miss arguing with you.

I know this is probably really unexpected. As I already said, I didn't know what to write. So I chose to go with the truth. If you don't want to write back, I understand. This was just something I needed to let you know.

Yours,

Mary

Tristan let out a deep breath, reading and rereading the letter. He wanted to be sure he actually saw those words, and they weren't figments of his imagination.

Slowly, he got up and walked over to his desk, pulling out a piece of paper and a pen. He began to write to the one person he cared about. The one person who cared to write to him.

AN: This isn't a new fic that I just started. I've been writing it for a while, and had it at my blog, but I decided to only keep my stories up here now (lots less work) so I'm posting the few chapters I actually have done here now. I don't update this fic very often though, so that's why I never posted it here before. I actually got some ideas for it the other day though, so who knows, maybe I'll update more than once a month on it. Anyways, if you have any ideas/ suggestions, let me know.