Pairing - Tristan and Rory...
Disclaimer - I wish I owned them, but unfortunately I don't. They belong to Dorothy Parker Drank Here Productions and Hofflund/Polone in association with Warner Bros. Television. I'm merely borrowing them. Although I would love to steal Tristan away...
Feedback - Please? And thank you!
A/N - So obviously the time frame of this fic doesn't fit with the show since as of the S3 finale, Rory graduated from Chilton. So in order for everything for everything to fit in, lets just say that S2 and S3 were all condensed into one super-season (with Rory finishing her junior year at the end of it, but Jess still leaves), and this all begins at the beginning of Rory's senior year.
As Paris angrily walked off, Tristan easily caught up to her and grabbed her arm. He whipped her around so that she faced him, as she angrily tried to shake his hand off her arm.
"It isn't what you think," he muttered again.
"What am I supposed to think?" Paris hissed. "You just said 'I love you' to some random girl on the phone while you're supposedly dating Rory, and 'oh, it's not what I think'? Do you take me for some fool DuGrey?"
"In this case, yes," he said, slightly amused. He watched as Paris looked at him, slightly taken aback that he actually talked back to her. "How could you even possibly know who I was talking to? Did you hear me say her name?" he asked, as Paris glared.
"But your the tone of your voice suggested that -" she began in response to his question, before she was interrupted by his raised hand.
"Please Paris, you're smarter than that. When is my voice ever not sexy?" Tristan asked, a smirk forming on his lips. "But if you must know, I was talking to my mother on the phone," he lied. He watched her expression, as she narrowed her eyes at him.
"Our families are cut from the same cloth, Tristan. We don't express our feelings for one another. So what's with the namby-pamby lovey-dovey act you're suddenly pulling?" she asked suspiciously.
"Maybe ever since my grandfather died, things changed," he said softly, instantly hating himself for using his grandfather's death as an excuse to get his way, for being like his father. But as predicted, Tristan saw the suspicious look on Paris' face soften somewhat.
"You better be telling me the truth, because I don't want to have to lie to her," Paris said slowly. "A lot of things changed when you were away, and believe it or not, I consider Rory to be my best friend. And if you hurt her, you're going to have to answer to me," she said softly.
Tristan finally let go of her arm, and once again she turned around and walked off. As he watched her turn the corner, he felt deflated as he repeated her words in his head.
He knew that she'd be watching them even more closely now. Tristan didn't think it'd be possible, but somehow things had gotten even more complicated.
"And that concludes the first meeting of the Franklin," Paris said, as she adjourned the assembled group.
"Thank God," Louise not-so-subtly murmured.
"I do have ears Louise," Paris snapped.
Rory watched their little tirade with an amused expression on her face. The rest of the meeting had dragged on, but she noticed that Paris hadn't been shooting any dirty looks for the remainder of the meeting. Instead, Paris had seemed to be avoiding looking at Rory altogether.
As she packed her books into her already overstuffed backpack, Rory began to go over in her mind what she was going to say to Tristan once she walked out the door. I know it's only been one day, she would begin with, but I don't think I could keep this up. You see... And that's about all Rory could come up with during the half hour she didn't listen to Paris talking about layouts. It's hopeless, she thought grimly. The only way that she could get out of this was to admit her feelings to him, and watch helplessly as he shot them down. And that was something she wasn't prepared to do.
Rory glanced up from her daydreaming stupor, and noticed that her and Paris were the only two people left in the small office. Except now Paris was looking intently at her, her mouth slightly open as if she wanted to say something.
"Yes?" Rory prompted.
"I... You see..." Paris began. She looked down at the table, as if the fine cherry oak held all the words she wanted to say. "It's nothing," she muttered.
"Are you sure?" Rory asked, a concerned look on her face. Paris was never the type to keep things bottled up inside. She was outspoken, albeit sometimes too outspoken for her own good.
"Don't worry about it," Paris clarified, meeting Rory's eyes for the first time. She quickly grabbed her notebooks and stuffed them into her messenger bag. As she walked out of the room, she could hear Paris murmuring softly, her words barely audible.
"I hope he was telling me the truth... I hope he makes you happy."
He glanced down at his watch for the fifth time in a span of twenty seconds. Jesus, could time go any slower? Tristan thought to himself. He settled back into an uncomfortable stance against the cool metal locker once again, as he waited for Rory to exit the Franklin office. Most people had left the office a couple of minutes ago, with the notable exception of Paris, who cast a stony look towards him a second ago as she hurried off, and Rory.
Just as he looked up from his watch, Rory had materialized at the door. He straightened up. As much as he hated to admit it, the sight of her still made his heart beat a little faster, his breathing more shallow. She looked slightly flustered, as she shot him a nervous smile.
"Sorry I'm late," she apologized, as she walked over to him, and gave him a small kiss on the cheek. "Paris, Louise and Madeline are standing at the corner," she whispered, as she pulled away.
"Then they wouldn't believe that I'd let you get away with just a kiss on the cheek," Tristan replied, his voice low. He looked down at Rory, who was biting her lip.
He slowly leaned down, his lips inches away from hers. She gazed up into his eyes, with an understanding of what was about to occur. Her eyelids fluttered closed, as she felt his warm breath on her face. His hands slowly ran down her back, before finally clasping together at the small of her back. He licked his lips, and joined hers, never anticipating the flood of feelings that suddenly came rushing towards him.
Her lips were as soft as he remembered. He savored the faint sweet taste of her strawberry lip gloss, as he felt his lips part open, then hers. He felt a sigh escape her lips, as he pulled her closer to him. She responded by wrapping her arms around his neck, her hands running through his hair, gently pushing his head closer to hers.
"Rory..." he softly whispered.
The second her name escaped his lips, her mind started functioning again. It was like some kind of wake up call.
You wanted to talk to him, to break off a relationship that isn't even real, one side of her brain scolded. But it just feels so right, the other side told her.
She heard a small moan involuntarily escape from her lips, as he furthered the kiss, pulling her closer to him as he leaned against the bank of lockers.
It never felt like this with Dean or even with Jess, she thought, as she hungrily kissed him back. These are the lips I was meant to kiss, she could feel her thoughts fading away, as she began to enjoy the feel of Tristan's arms around her, his lips on top of hers.
But these are the same lips that kiss Evelyn... And mean it.
The last startling thought jolted her. It was the reasonable side of her brain's final argument. Her eyes snapped open, and she abruptly pulled away from Tristan in mid-kiss.
"We need to talk," Rory said, her eyes downcast. Tristan ran a hand through his hair and let out a deep sigh.
"Yeah, I think we do," he agreed. He looked down the hall and saw that Paris, Madeline and Louise had left sometime during the kiss.
"I know it's only been one day," she began, just like she rehearsed. And then her mind went blank. "And that's about all I got right now," she admitted.
"I know this isn't the best situation," Tristan put in. "I never wanted to put you in this position. I never intended for you to have to lie to your friends, your family about this relationship..." his voice trailed off. Rory was quiet for a moment as she tried to re-gather her thoughts.
But at the moment, the only thing that consumed her mind was that kiss, and how for one perfect moment, she was able to forget everything that had happened between them and focus on her feelings for him. The truth was that she hated the situation, yet she couldn't help but be curious. She wanted to feel close to him, she wanted to see what could have been if she hadn't made the stupid mistake of uttering the words "Tristan? I hate him." And that kiss provided her with the answer. The only problem was that Rory didn't know how Tristan felt about that kiss, or if he even felt anything at all. Or was he just a really good actor? As she stood across from him, all the words she wanted to say were stuck on the tip of her tongue. Her thoughts swirled around in her mind, poking at her from all angles.
"That kiss," she suddenly blurted out. She looked Tristan in the eye. "Did it mean something to you?"
His eyes wandered over to a spot to the left of Rory's shoulder as she watched his reaction carefully. He knew she was trying to decipher the look in his eyes. But at the moment, they were blank, sort of how he was feeling at the moment.
That kiss. He had spent countless nights in the past wondering what it'd be like to kiss Rory Gilmore again. And as amazing at it was, in reality, he had a girlfriend he needed to think about. All the old feelings he had for Rory began to resurface with that kiss, and threatened to combat with the feelings he had for Evelyn. He felt as if there was an internal struggle with his heart - one who felt guilty for letting down the wall he built up against his feelings for Rory, and one that wanted to tell her what she wanted to hear, although he wasn't quite sure what that was either.
He opened his mouth, still unsure of what he would say. But just as he found his voice, the sound of heavy footsteps down the hall interrupted him. Both Tristan and Rory turned around, to find some random guy walking down the hall.
Tristan turned back to face Rory, but she was still gaping at the guy walking closer and closer to them. Her eyes widened slightly, she mumbled something so quietly that Tristan wasn't even sure if he heard her right.
"Jess."