Title: Lovely Things

Author: Buffychick

Pairing: Rory/Jess (Literati)

Timeline: Two years after Rory graduates from college.

Disclaimer: Yeah, right.

A.N.: Basically, I started this, and if you like it, I'll keep going. If not...well, I may just keep going anyway, 'cause I can't get enough of Rory and Jess.

Feedback: Is delicious and keeps me writing (and more importantly, posting).

They sat in a booth away from the band and Jess shook his head when Rory opened the menu a waitress sat on the table for them. "You can't be hungry."

"Never say that to a Gilmore."

"We just ate. Three courses and dessert," he reminded her.

"That was prissy food. This is real food," she told him without looking up.

The waitress glanced from one to the other, pen posed. "I can come back…"

"I'll have a beer. Whatever's on tap," Jess told her. His gaze moved to Rory.

"Um…"

"Wine?" he asked.

She shook her head. "Beer's good for me, too." The waitress gave her a nod. "Oh, and the jalapeño poppers, please."

Jess closed his eyes and shook his head. "You're going to be sick."

"Doubtful," she smiled.

"Slumming with the beer, though."

Her expression turned to one of surprise. "How's that? I like beer."

"You look like you should be a wine connoisseur these days."

"This is for work," she reminded him, indicating her clothing. "When I get back to the hotel it's flannel pants and layers."

He nodded and grinned. "Okay, okay."

"Enough about my pajama choices. Tell me everything. I know you're teaching. English, Literature, some writing… What else? Are you going to publish again? I've been all over waiting for your next book."

He groaned, his head falling back to the cushioned back of the booth as he laughed at her. "No…no books for a while. I'm going to keep doing the college thing for a while. Teaching, that is. I'm working on my Masters…but it's a slow process."

Her eyes rolled. "Tell me about it. Grandpa's pushing me to go back. And I probably won't be covering world events until I do…but I was just so tired of school after graduation."

"I was tired of school in the third grade," he reminded her.

Their drinks arrived, and the poppers, and she dove into them with zest, slathering one in salsa before popping it whole into her mouth.

He watched her appreciatively. "If you actually chew that I hear there's flavor and other kinds of fun experiences for your taste buds."

She ignored him, pushing the plate to the middle of the table. "Have one."

"I can't eat any more, Rory. Mariano's are great at many things, and I'm not so bad at eating…but I'm no Gilmore."

"More's the pity," she sniffed, then grinned. "Mm…so good. So anyway. You've got the roommate, no girlfriend."

"No girlfriend," he acknowledged.

"Dating anyone?"

"Nope."

"Having meaningful conversations with anyone? Glances across a room?"

"Only right now," he smiled.

"Har har."

"You're so full of questions, why don't you answer some? What happened to the blond dick from Yale?"

She sputtered with a mouth full of popper. "Logan? Oh…that's been over forever. He's in London. Or it might be Venice. I'm really not sure anymore."

"What happened?"

She shrugged and took a sip of her beer. "He went to work for his father, in London. He stayed there a year, then transferred to California, then back to London. It got incredibly hard to keep up with. Plus, there's the problem of him sleeping with a coworker."

Jess' expression didn't change. "That'll do it. I'm sorry."

Rory shrugged again. "It was a year ago."

"Still. Not a cool thing to do."

"Well, he's a daddy now, though he's fighting that in court, despite the DNA evidence. Apparently the Huntzberger's are trying to say she set him up."

"He's such a super cool guy."

She shook her head with a mock laugh. "One of millions."

He snorted. "Hey, we're not all bad."

Something in his tone had her looking up over the edge of her mug. "No, you're not. You were never that horrible to me."

"Well, I never cheated on you, anyway. I just left you, made you crazy, stopped contacting you, ordered you to run away with me and then yelled at you about your life's choices."

"I'm serious, Jess. For everything you…we…didn't do right, you never strung me along for a year then impregnated a stranger in Milan."

His lips pursed thoughtfully. "I do have that going for me."

"Don't give yourself such a hard time. I hurt you, too."

Jess's shoulder jerked. "It was a long time ago. Let bygones be and all that."

"We never talked about it."

"What, you throwing me over for the guy who ended up cheating on you?"

She winced. "Yeah, that. And I didn't exactly throw you over."

He gave her a look. "You came to see me, and let me think you were broken up with dickhead, and then when I kissed you, letting it all come back to me again, then I find out you're still with him. That you loved him."

Her nose wrinkled. "I did do that, didn't I?'

Because she looked so bad, Jess dropped the offended act. "Yeah…but that's after I split for California without a word, then came back and demanded you run away with me so…"

"Call it even?"

"I'd say I get the better deal out of that, so okay."

She smiled at him. He smiled back.

"I'm sorry I made you think Logan and I had split up."

He looked at her evenly. "I'm sorry I ran away to California without telling you."

"I'm sorry I kissed you at Sookie's wedding and then went to D.C. for six weeks."

"And didn't call," he reminded her.

"And didn't call."

"I'm sorry I made things difficult for you and Dean."

She laughed. "No you're not!"

He grinned. "Yeah…I'm really not. But I am sorry that I yelled at you outside that bar that night with Logan."

Her eyes widened. "Ooh, my turn not to be sorry. That was a good thing, Jess. Really."

"How's that?" he asked with interest.

"Because I was so messed up before that. Between not talking to my mom, and community service for stealing a boat…a boat! I stole a boat. I mean…who does that? Not me! And my grandma was running my life and turning me into a mini-Emily, and I wore weird clothes…and I only did the things that Logan and his friends did…"

Jess' eyes glimmered. "Wait, you stole a boat?"

"A yacht, actually. And yes. I did. Well, Logan and I did. And I got totally busted for it, and Logan got like, nothing, and I had to do a million hours of community service for it…I have a record. Me. A record."

"I bet you look cute in an orange jumpsuit."

"It was not funny," she glared before breaking into a grin.

"Crime doesn't pay, miss."

She scoffed. "Because you don't have a record. Yeah, right."

"Never been caught," he corrected, tipping back his mug for a drink. She rolled her eyes again and sat back. "So…there had to be a guy after Logan."

"Eh…maybe a date here or there. Nothing serious, though. Not that I don't have the time for it. I'm not exactly writing a weekly column or anything."

"Love's overrated."

"You may be right about that."

They fell into silence until Jess grabbed a popper off her plate and stuffed it in his mouth. "Aren't we just a couple of bitter old hags."

"Here's to hagdom," Rory nodded, clinking her glass to his.

He settled back into the booth, stretching his legs out on the seat. "So tomorrow you've got the thing…when do you leave?"

"My flight's at four. Back to the fun and excitement of Hartford."

He traced a finger around the top of his mug thoughtfully. "Going back to Stars Hollow anytime soon?"

"Probably. I usually head back there if I'm not working over a weekend. Since the baby came I go back pretty much whenever I can so I can watch him grow up." She looked up at him. "When's the last time you were back there?"

He thought for a moment. "About six months ago, I guess. Just stopped in, saw Luke, scared Kirk. The usual."

"I think I was actually on assignment that weekend or I probably would have been there too. How come you never come back for holidays? We always do the huge feast at Thanksgiving and Christmas."

He shrugged. "Dunno. Never really been my thing."

"Well, you should. You've got a new cousin now. And Luke would love it. Me, too."

"You would?" he asked with surprise.

She grinned. "Sure. Like we said…bygones and water under bridges. We're grown ups now, right? I'm sure we can handle a crazy family holiday. We might actually keep each other sane through it all."

He nodded thoughtfully. "And if we can't, we can always steal a boat and sail away."

"I have quite a bit of experience in that department, as it happens."

Jess walked in the door to his apartment, surprised to find Kate sitting on the couch, awake. "What are you still doing up? Don't you have to work in the morning?" he asked, tossing his keys into a bowl on the table.

"I wanted to see how you were doing. And if you were bringing her back here for hot monkey love, I wanted to be able to go elsewhere."

"Jesus, Kate," he groaned.

She raised an eyebrow. "What? It's Rory."

"Yeah, it's Rory. And I can tell you one thing, I don't think Rory has hot monkey love." He paused a moment. "At least I don't want to think about her having it."

"So what did you guys do?" she asked, tucking her legs underneath her on the ancient couch.

"She had a dinner she was covering for the newspaper she writes for. They told her to bring someone, she didn't have someone, I became someone."

"Sounds like a hoot. Then what. You said you were having drinks."

"And we did. Two each."

"Am I going to have to tickle you to get the details out of you?"

"I will breathe jalepeno poppers on you," he warned.

"Ah ha! So there were poppers! That's more than drinks."

His eyes widened. "You are a super sleuth, Ms. Lansbury," he told her as he collapsed onto a chair. "We had drinks. And poppers. We talked a bit, cleared some of the air. She goes back tomorrow and I probably won't see her unless I go home for a weekend."

"Home?"

"Yeah, Stars Hollow."

"I know Stars Hollow. My surprise comes from you never calling it home before. Not once. Ever."

He thought about it a moment, surprised himself. "Yeah…I guess I haven't. Whatever, it doesn't mean anything. Luke was more of a dad to me than my real dad was, so I guess I thought of that as home. Plus, my mom lived there. A couple times, actually."

"But you always said New York was home."

"Kate…do you have a point here?"

"No…no point," she pouted slightly.

He stood up and walked to his room, taking off his suit and slipping into a pair of flannel pants, then grinning as he thought of Rory doing the same in her hotel room. Grabbing some papers to be graded he padded back to the living room and to the chair he'd been occupying moment earlier.

"Did you kiss her?" Kate asked out of nowhere.

He looked up, surprised. "What? No."

"Are you sure?" she demanded.

"Not that it's any of your business, but no, I didn't."

Kate watched him for a moment before nodding. "Okay."

"What's your problem with Rory?" he asked heatedly.

"I don't have a problem with Rory."

Jess glared. "Something's up your ass about her. First today at school, then the phone call, now this."

"I just don't want you to get hurt. That's all," she confessed, flipping off the TV and turning to face him. "Remember you showing up at my apartment the last time she saw you in Philly? You were a mess, Jess. You were so hurt, so needy. My heart broke for you. If I'd known it then, that she was why you turned to me, I wouldn't have slept with you that night. When I found out…that's when my heart broke for me." He didn't say anything, and after a moment, she continued. "I just don't want to see you get hurt like that again. I know how you feel about her, even after all this time. You probably don't even know that you're half in love with her anymore. But I see it. Any time your uncle calls, or you mention something about Stars Hollow…or high school…or Ayn Rand, whatever that's about."

He was too shocked to speak for a moment. When he did, he had to clear his throat first to get the words out. "I didn't know you felt like that."

"Well, you never asked, did you?" she bit out. "You decided we should be friends, and I didn't have much a choice, so we're friends. And I think that's the right decision," she assured him sincerely. "You and I are meant for many things…greatness…riches…world domination…but being lovers is not one of them."

His eyes were troubled. "So…I hurt you."

She shrugged. "I'm over it."

"Doesn't sound like it."

"Get over yourself, Professor," she rolled her eyes. "I am not pining away for you day and night. I love you, you're my best friend and the biggest pain in the ass in my life, but you're my friend and that's it. However…Rory is something different. She's the girl. The one. She's Neo, she's your lobster…whatever you want to call it. You're not over her yet, and her just showing up is bizarre."

"She had something for work. We ran into each other in the coffee shop. She wasn't hunting me down."

Kate gave him a sad smile. "I know. I'm not saying she planned this. I just don't want you to fall for her all over again and I don't want to watch you hurting over her anymore. You never date Jess, not much. And I know why, even if you don't. I hear it when you talk about her. I'm sorry it didn't work out between you, and that you both hurt each other. I'm just scared for you. I don't want to watch you go through what you did three years ago."

He didn't say anything, just stared at the floor, hunched over his knees as he sat in the chair, arms crossed over his chest. She stood up a moment later and crossed to him, kissing the top of his head. "I'm going to bed. See you tomorrow, okay?"

He nodded but didn't move as she walked into her bedroom and casting him one final glance, shut her door for the evening.