A/N: Okay. I am a totally inexperienced person when it comes to relationships. If that is not immediately obvious when reading my stuff, then I have succeeded in fooling you all! Wha-ha-ha!…ahem, yes. Anyway, I tried to keep them in character and yet tweak them the way I want them to be. Standard disclaimers…blah, bah-dee, blah, blah, blah.

After the Diner

The dinner rush had left Rory too busy to think about exactly why she'd greeted Jess like she had. She hadn't ever been that bold before, but she was feeling romantic tonight, and he was so handsome…he was beyond even cute. And he was sweet, running the diner so Luke and Lorelai could have a romantic evening was just the kind of thing he did that made Rory realize he was much more than just a "bad boy."

So what had possessed her to grab him and kiss him in front of everyone in the diner? She'd lived with her mother long enough to be able to identify lust. Or at the very least want. And she took umbrage to the fact Dean had insinuated she couldn't think enough for herself to know that she was being manipulated. She knew her own mind. And since their first kiss, hers had been consume with thoughts that would make even her mother blush.

She watched Jess move up the stairs in front of her, and wondered what he looked like without a shirt. Then she blushed, wondering exactly how much influence Miss Patty had had on her when she was younger. Unsure of her emotions, Rory hesitated outside the apartment door.

Jess continued back to his room, chatting idly. "So, Luke of course doesn't have many movies. You can go ahead and check if you want." He turned and frowned, craning to look into the hallway. "Rory?"

She hurried into the apartment. "Um, a random movie is fine with me," she said, and leaned—casually, she hoped—against the doorjamb to his room. Then she found out how he looked without his shirt as he pulled it over his head and rooted around in his dresser for a clean one.

"Uh, Jess?" Rory asked, watching as he covered his leanly muscled torso again.

"Yeah?"

"Can we talk?" She sat on his bed, eyes shooting upwards to his face.

He frowned. "Yeah. Always. You're one of the few people I can talk to. But I can tell this isn't going to be one of those literature talks we're so good at." He sat next to her and wanted to take her hand, but wasn't sure he should.

Rory took a deep breath, and let it out. "I need to know…about you. Well, your past. Your romantic, past."

"Huh," Jess said, looking away.

"I said that wrong." Rory blew out a breath. "I don't need to know. I want to know. I want to know what other girls you've um…liked?"

Jess scooted back until he could half-lay against his headboard. He smiled thinly at Rory. "I could ask the same," he said, then held a hand up to forestall her saying anything. "But I know there's only been Dean."

"And Tristan," Rory blurted.

"Ah," Jess said, his eyes narrowing. "The good girl has a past. Wait, Tristan? Isn't that the guy at the dance?"

"Yeah," Rory said. "A couple months after the dance Dean and I broke up. That same night, practically, I went to a party and Tristan and I kissed."

Jess waited a moment. "And…?" Rory shrugged. "That's it? That's your history? Kissing another guy when you broke up?" He sighed. "You really are an innocent. Oh, god," he added, sitting up. "Was that your first hickey?" Her blush was answer enough. "Ugh, Bag Boy was an idiot. The first girl I kissed was Sheila King at a party." Rory blinked at the sudden change in topic, but sat back to listen. "We were playing spin the bottle and I was hoping it would point to her friend Dana."

"How old were you?"

"Twelve. After that, I went out with a few girls and things got more intense, but never went quite all the way. Last year, this girl started coming on to me. Intensely." He sighed. "Kristin was the girl everyone wanted, and a lot got. After a while I stopped resisting. She was…active. A week later I saw her friends giving her money. She'd made a bet that she could bed the bad boy."

"Jess." Rory held out her hand, and he took it, pulling her up to lie next to him. She put her head on his shoulder, and their fingers intertwined. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bring up bad memories."

"Hey," Jess said, and turned until his nose was buried in her hair. "I know. I was telling you because you have the right to know. And I guess I wanted you to know that I'm not as 'experienced' as everyone seems to think I am."

Rory sighed and gathered her courage. "I asked because…well, because…I, um, want you to be my first." She mumbled the words and he almost didn't hear her. But he felt his whole body tense, and knew the words had registered.

His heart began beating double-time and he had to clamp down on his suddenly-rampaging hormones. "Rory," he said, his voice catching. "I can't tell you what that means to me."

"I mean," Rory said hurriedly. "Not immediately, or anything. We've just started going out. But…yeah, sometime."

"Why? I mean, you went out with Dean longer, and he's sure as hell better-liked in this place."

"I don't care," Rory said. "I had no trouble calling myself your girlfriend. You should have heard how I stuttered over that word with Dean." Jess smiled and burrowed further into her hair.

"Why do you do that?" Rory asked, feeling his breath flow over her neck.

"Do what?"

"Just kind of breathe through my hair."

He made exaggerated snuffling sounds. "I like how you smell. Your hair smells. I like your neck."

"Yes, I believe my 'birthmark' proved that." Rory smiled, though, and yelped when his teeth nipped at her nape.

"Come on," Jess said, then bit her again. "It's your turn to complement me."

"Is that the way it works?" Rory joked, and squealed when he drilled a finger into her side. She grabbed his hand and pulled it up so she could examine it. "I like your hands. Strong. Capable. Mischievous."

"I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about," he said, and watched their hands.

"You put an adult movie in a Bambi case. You cut the head off a snowman." *All for me,* Rory suddenly realized. *Oh, god, has he liked me that long?* "You've fixed multiple toasters around town—"

"Yours and Luke's," Jess scoffed.

"Hush. You've used your hands as weapons, and used them for the greater good." She brought his hand in hers up to her mouth and kissed it.

"Rory…." Jess turned her in his arms until she faced him, and then kissed her. She sighed and kissed him back. He kept it slow, letting his feelings pour into the kiss. He was in love with her. If he'd had any doubts before, they were out the window.

He felt her hands creeping under the hem of his shirt and was surprised enough to pull away. Her warm fingers slipped up his diaphragm, and he drew in a sharp breath. "Rory," he began.

"I like how you look without a shirt," she murmured. "I got to see it, and now I get to feel it." She sighed and inched her hands higher. Jess groaned and sat back, fighting for control.

*I am my mother's daughter, after all.* Rory thought back to when she'd learned about sex. Her mother had said something about it being a beautiful thing if you do it right and at the very least care about the person. *And with love,* Rory thought without being conscious about it. *It can only be better.* Then she froze, feeling her high color drain out of her cheeks. She sat back on her heels, and felt herself begin to shake.

*"No, no! Don't be like me,"* Lorelai's voice echoed in her head. *"Be cautious, yes, but not scared. Jess wouldn't hurt you, not on purpose. You've got to know that."* Rory felt the tremors ease, but didn't say anything when she saw Jess sit up. "Rory?" he asked, his voice slightly hoarse, his shirt askew. He looked very befuddled there, almost …cute, which was a word Rory never thought she would attribute to him. "Rory? What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she said, and smiled, realizing the knee-jerk response was true. "I trust you," she said, unwilling to say anything else, but reveling in that little bit. Because what was love without trust? It was as good a starting point as any.

"Thank you," Jess said, blinking in confusion. "I trust you, too. If you want to stop for the night, we could put in a movie."

"We can't do both?" Rory asked playfully, and moved back up to lie next to him. His relieved sigh was the only response before he kissed her again.