1 4 Out of 5

2 Chapter 7

Tristin sat on the hood of his SUV, leaning against the windshield. It was one of those fall days you dream about; the sky was a brilliant blue and the air had that crisp, fresh feeling not possible in the summer. He put his hands behind his head and closed his eyes, enjoying the warmth of the sun's rays while he waited for Rory to appear.

A few minutes later she ran out the door, school bag bouncing on her back as she bounded down the stairs. A pop-tart was clenched between her teeth as she struggled to pull her hair into a pony tail. She stopped short when she saw Tristin. "What are you doing here?"

At least that's what Tristin thought she said. It was hard to tell with that pop-tart still in her mouth. He jumped off the vehicle and walked towards her. "Good morning to you too. I'll come every day if you promise me a greeting like that." He smirked at her and grabbed the pop-tart, looking at it suspiciously before taking a bite. "Blech, pure sugar. How can you eat that for breakfast? And your mom called me."

"How can you possibly start your day without a dose of sugar? Or caffeine? Or both? And my mom told you to come pick me up?" Rory grabbed the offending food from him and took another bite, grinning.

"Nope," he said, letting the breakfast foods conversation drop and opening the door, closing it behind her as she slid inside. He started talking again when he got in the driver's side, buckling his seatbelt before pulling out of the driveway and heading towards Hartford. "She called to. I'm not sure why, exactly. I know she said something about having my tux cleaned, but she lost me after that. Something about sheep in hoop skirts and salt and pepper shaker dowries. She was talking really fast and it sounded like she was blow-drying her hair." Rory laughed. "Seemed like a chaotic morning, so I thought I'd come pick you up."

"Thanks, that was sweet," Rory answered, leaning over and dropping a kiss on his cheek. "Feel like doing me another favour?"

"Does it involve my tuxedo and sheep in hoop skirts?" He really had no idea what Lorelai was talking about it, but something in her voice had made him nervous. She had sounded. smug.

"Afraid so.."

"Sheep?"

"Oh, not the sheep. Just the tuxedo."

"What?" Now he was really confused.

Rory sighed. "I went to pick up a book from Grandpa yesterday, and Grandma had company, and somehow they talked me into coming out at the D.A.R. debutante ball."

"This is going to sound redundant, but. What?"

"I know. But it seemed to mean a lot to her. And really, how bad can it be?"

"You've obviously never been to a debutante ball."

"That bad?"

"You have no idea."

"So you'll go with me?"

"Of course. This means you owe me though."

The look on Tristin's face made Rory nervous. In a good way, anticipatory way, but nervous nonetheless. "Oh, I realize that. If it's as bad as you and Mum say it is, I may never pay you back."

"I dunno," he said with a wink, "I'm sure you'll manage."

Rory laughed. "You know, I think I'd rather owe you until eternity than pay you back with whatever methods you've got in mind."

Tristin took his eyes off the road briefly to smile at her. The rest of the drive passed quickly, the pair discussing the details of the weekend's big event. Tristin wasn't sure why he was so surprised Rory had agreed to come out. He'd seen her go out of her way to do something nice for a total stranger, so agreeing to dress up in a poofy dress and parade around a ballroom to make her grandma happy wasn't really out of character. But he just couldn't see Rory fitting in with the debutant crowd. He grinned. Should be an interesting weekend.

--- 2 hours later ---

"Remind me again why I agreed to do this," Rory begged as she collapsed into the seat next to Tristin in the Chilton cafeteria.

"Because you wanted to make your grandma happy."

"Right. Make her happy. Keep reminding me."

"And, of course, there's the added bonus of dressing up, pretending to be some snooty debutante, and catching up on the Hartford gossip. You know, you could spread a vicious story about one of the other debutantes. That would get our names off the rumour mill for a few weeks."

"Tempting. Maybe the girl beside me will confess her secret affair with her mother's personal trainer. Plans tonight?" Her eyes took on a slightly desperate edge.

As if he could ever deny her anything.. "Nothing that can't be changed, why?"

"Meeting for the paper right after school. Then I have a 'fitting' at Grandma's, whatever that means. And we are supposed to start dance lessons with Miss Patty at 7:00."

"Tristin DuGrey, chauffeur to Hartford's high society, at your service."

"You're a life saver."

Tristin smirked. "Don't worry, I'm adding it all to the list of things you have to pay me back for."

Rory groaned and dropped her head to the table with a thump. Sunday couldn't come fast enough.

3 Chapter 8

"There's something wrong with Paris."

"Hmmm?" Tristin finished scribbling a note in the margin of The Great Gatsby before looking up at Rory, who was sprawled out on the couch, her own copy of the novel in one hand, a pencil in the other.

"Paris. There's something wrong with her. She smiled at me in the meeting on Tuesday, and today after school she told me to have a good weekend." Tristin just looked at her, obviously waiting for more. "She was serious. No sarcasm, no biting insult added just loud enough for me to hear."

Tristin shrugged, remembering his conversation with Paris on their first day back at Chilton. "Maybe she's just trying to be nice."

"How long have you known Paris?"

"I dunno, 10 years maybe."

"And how often in those 10 years have you known her to be nice just for the sake of being nice?"

Tristin sighed. "I know. And I know that after everything that happened between you two, there's no reason for you to give her the benefit of the doubt. But there was no reason for you to give me the benefit of the doubt either, and you did." He was flipping through a notebook as he said it, but Rory sensed the tension in his statement. She offered him a soft smile, which he returned. "We've got lots of Chilton left, you can't tell me you wouldn't like to have at least one friend there."

She laughed. "What about you? I've got you."

Tristin turned to her then, their gazes locking. Her laugh died in her throat, the look in his eyes leaving her breathless. He advanced on her until mere centimetres separated them, never blinking, never taking his eyes off her.

"Yes," he whispered, close enough that she could feel his lips moving against hers, "you've got me."

The meaning behind his words was blatantly obvious, but Rory knew she didn't fully understand them until he kissed her. Everything around her faded, every sense heightened in its awareness of him. Her hands drifted up to the back of his neck as his slid down her body to rest possessively on her hips. Possession. That's what this kiss was about.

Every instinct in his body was telling him to get closer to her. Touch more, taste more, feel more. Which is why Tristin put forth a Herculean effort and pulled away. Rory moaned softly when the contact broke, tugging his head gently back to hers and winding her fingers in the hair at the nape of his neck. Her tongue slipped between his parted lips, teasing him, but he called on a willpower he never knew he had, dropping a kiss on her forehead before letting his rest gently against hers. Rory smiled at him, sitting up and tugging on his hand, pulling him onto couch behind her.

"We need to talk about this."

"I know." He bit back a groan as she settled herself between his legs, leaning back against his chest and squirming slightly to get comfortable. They stayed like that for a few moments, her head on his chest, his hands wrapped around her. The silence, though loaded, was somehow comfortable.

Rory finally broke it. "I don't know how this works."

"Me neither."

Rory snorted in disbelief. "Tristin, please. You have way more experience in this than I do."

He pulled her tighter to him and pressed his lips to her temple. "No Rory, I don't. I have never felt even a fraction of what I feel for you before. Nothing has ever mattered as much as getting this right."

Rory could feel the tears welling up in her eyes. She turned in Tristin's arms to look at him, love radiating in her gaze. "You amaze me."

The corners of his lips lifted ever so slightly. "I love you."

"I love you too," she whispered, turning and settling back into his embrace.

The quiet settled over them again, and Tristin finally broke it, struggling to find words for what he wanted to say. "I've never had this kind of relationship before, where I invested so much of myself, and cared so much about the other person. Even with my family and most of my friends, there's an artificialness to it, a part that is just for appearances."

His words were steady, his voice calm, but Rory could feel him tense up as he talked. She ached for him, because she knew how hard it was for him to talk about his relationship with his parents, how much it hurt him. And she realized that of the two of them, she was probably the more comfortable in this situation. Because while he'd had a lot of superficial girlfriends, she'd had a lot of loving relationships with lots of different people. She squeezed his hands where they rested on her stomach and waited for him to continue.

"I'm scared I'm going to make a mistake. Say or do the wrong thing at some really important moment, and you're going to realize that you can't be with me, with someone so unsure of what loving people takes." Finally, his voice broke with emotion. He tightened his arms around Rory when she tried to turn to him, not wanting her to see his tears, feel pity for him. She settled for leaning farther into his embrace, brining a hand up to his face and turning her head to look at him.

"That's not how this works Tristin. We're both going to screw up at some point, say things we don't mean, do things we wish we could take back. But I love you, and I know you love me, and we forgive each other. That's how relationships work."

He kissed her then. It was softer, more gentle than the last kiss, full of love and tenderness and hope. She smiled gently when she broke away, because she knew that he understood what she meant. It was all in the kiss.

"You're turn."

Rory wasn't sure how to say the words. She ended up just blurting them out. "I'm not scared. Which terrifies me."

Tristin chuckled. "Why should you be scared?"

"This is the most physical relationship I have ever been in, and you've been a complete gentleman the entire time," Rory answered, frustration in her voice.

"You make that sound like a bad thing."

"Of course it's not a bad thing. It's just.frustrating."

Tristin couldn't hold back the grin. It spread across his face, starting with his lips and leaving his eyes sparkling. He slid out from behind Rory, moving to sit facing her on the couch. He thought he should maybe try and act a little more together, a little calmer, but shrugged the thought away, knowing there was no way he could pull it off. There was apprehension in her eyes and his grin faded, but his eyes were still shining and there was a teasing lilt to his voice. "Why Miss Gilmore, I'm beginning to think your intentions are less than honourable."

Her cheeks were flushed, but she met his gaze, a smile gracing her lips. "I'm not suggesting you drop the gentleman act completely," she assured him. "I just think that sometimes, it would be OK to more.teenage boy like," she finished lamely, her blush growing to an almost fuchsia colour.

Tristin tried to reassure her with his eyes. "I just don't want you to feel pressured. At all."

Rory nodded. "I know. And I'm not suggesting we tear off our clothes and have sex right now," her voice cracked a little, but she kept talking. "But there's a middle ground."

He couldn't understand it, didn't believe it was possible, but he fell a little more in love with her. "If you ever change your mind," he started. She opened her mouth to interrupt him, but he stopped her with a gentle finger placed on her lips. "If it ever becomes too much, just tell me, OK. Promise?"

"You're making this about me," Rory whispered, so in love with him at that moment that she could hardly speak. "And it's not. It's about us. I trust you. And I promise."

"Thank you," he answered softly, pulling her to him and wrapping his arms around her.

Lorelai found them like that, hours later when she finally escaped from her parents. Rory had been excused from Friday dinner on account of the ball, but Lorelai had spent the entire evening going over details again and again to ensure everything would be perfect. She smiled at the two teenagers, draped a blanket over their sleeping forms, and turned off the light, heading upstairs to get some much needed rest.