Tristan slid into the front seat of his…well, he didn't really remember what car it was. He had just hopped in it and driven off to the Gilmore's without a second thought; he couldn't even remember the color. He leaned out the window to inspect any identifying insignia.
"Ah…the Jaguar." He grinned crookedly and settled back in his seat. Rory slipped into the passenger seat. Tristan could tell by her nervous actions and the biting of her lip that she was worried about what had been about to happen in the study. The "almost-kiss", if you will.  Not that he wasn't nervous about it, cause he was. Oh God, he was nervous. This situation could have two outcomes; a) she tells him she hates him and wants nothing to do with him because he's a hormone-driven, walking sexual innuendo, or b) she declares her unbridled love and passion for him which results in a makeout-fest.

….Needless to say, Tristan was vehemently hoping for the latter.

Rory was biting her lip. The silence that had been going on for quite a while was really getting to her. She knew she needed to act nonchalant, and to carry on a dialogue that contained zero references to kissing, quasi-kissing, and any of the usual raunchy "let's-get-it-on" comments from the peanut gallery. And although her logic had never failed her before (let's hear it for the mustard-jelly sandwich event of 97'), she found that irritating little voice in her head winning.

He almost kissed me.

She gritted her teeth. Ok, brain needs to work. Think logically. This was some ridiculous, played-out scenario that she had heard her mother rant about on several occasions when discussing the soaps. Bad-guy-playboy meets innocent little Mary. Tries to obtain Mary. Is denied. Is irritated. Falls madly in love. Mary eventually realizes her deep attraction to said playboy, and both wind up in some heated relationship where the girl becomes pregnant and raises septuplets on a farm in Minnesota.

Ok, so the septuplets in Minnesota was just a badly-written "As the World Turns" plot, but still... Rory thought nervously. She hadn't fallen for him, had she? And if she had, it had been an accident. A mistake, like the Guacamole Incident of '95.  But no matter how many times she repeated this in her head, that little voice kept coming back. It was pretty persistent.

You almost kissed him…and you wanted him to kiss you! And hold you and love you and even call you Mary if it meant getting to hear his voice…

"Ugh…" She muttered aloud; Tristan glanced at her and she blushed slightly.

"Sorry, um…I was just thinking. About things. Not you-related things or anything cause there's nothing to think about." The flush of her cheeks was darkening and she wanted nothing more than to melt into the seat. Tristan just grinned in that infuriatingly-self assured way of his.

"So, your mom's…different."
Rory let out a breath that she hadn't realized she'd been holding. Thank you, God of Cheesy-Played-Out-Conversational Topics. He wasn't making her talk about the kiss incident in the study. YET. She knew it was going to come up sooner or later because that was just Tristan's way of running things.

"Yeah, she'll grow on you."
"Literally?"
"Yes, like a Lorelai-shaped moss lump."
"There's an image."

"What about your parents? All I heard was that they were talking about lame things…like you." She grinned happily; she was pleased to be back into their familiar bantering, since the sexual tension thing generally did not work out well.

"They're just your average, run-of-the-mill social butterflies. Irritating, martini-loving, stereotypical socialites." He grumbled, obviously not comfortable with the subject. He never liked his parents, and it wasn't like he was their sole purpose on this earth. They had more important things to take care of. In fact, the only conversations they ever had with him consisted of, "Don't tell your [mother/father] that you saw me with the [pool boy/maid], and I'll buy you a new [car/beach house/$1,000 t-shirt]." Always the same. He never really thought about it.

"Oh." Rory couldn't think of anything to say to that. She wanted to say something comforting, or helpful, or anything really to bring a leer or a smirk to his face. Bring back old Tristan. Put him back in his element.

"We almost kissed in the study." As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she wanted to take them back. Instead, she just bit her lip and studied her shoes. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a smirk spread over Tristan's face.

Happy now?

Shut up, brain.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Glad you noticed, Mary." The smirk continued to grow as her blush deepened.

"I, um…you just…ugh." She snuggled down deeper into the seat. She was very irritated with herself. So he was now smiling. Yippy skippy. She had also just hopped right into a situation that she would normally rather drink decaf than get herself into. And she was in it WILLINGLY.

"Don't worry, Mary. We won't tell Bag Boy." He winked and she felt something in her stomach. Dean. She had completely forgotten Dean. Ah yes, that feeling in her stomach? Must be guilt.

"Oh, right…Dean…" She murmured half-heartedly. Tristan's eyes softened.

"Really, I won't tell him if you don't want me to." Rory looked at him sadly.

"I just…I feel really bad. I almost cheated on him." She looked back down at her hands. "And you know the worst part?"
"What?" Tristan winced. He had a feeling that the "worst part" was that she had been about to kiss him of all people.

"I really, really wanted to kiss you. And Dean never even crossed my mind."

Well, that wasn't what he had been expecting.

"You…wanted to kiss me?"
"Yeah. Somewhere between the being irritated and wanting to put duct tape over your mouth, I really started to like you. A lot." With every word, she became redder and redder. She was willing to bet her cheeks were on fire.

"Really?" He was grinning broadly now.

"Really really." She smiled slightly and glanced at his face, and took in his grin.

Neither noticed that they were actually parked in Rory's driveway. Neither noticed that Patty and Babette were staring intently at them from Babette's porch. Neither noticed the binocular's secured around Patty's neck. At the moment, the only thing they were noticing was each other.

"So, um, I don't think we're going to have your mother bounding up behind us any time soon…want to try it again?"
"For experiment's sake?"
"Precisely."

"Alright then." She smiled, and leaned in. He met her halfway.

- - - - - - - - - - -

"This sucks. I'm so BORED." Lorelai was pacing around the room after Tristan and Rory left.

"Oo I know…" She bounded over to the bedside table and picked up the phone. She quickly clicked on the numbers, and waited patiently. One ring. Two rings. Three-

"Luke's." A gruff voice filled the phone.

"LUKEY!"
"Lorelai? What the hell-"

"I'm bored."
"Go talk to Rory. "
"She's with Tristan."
"Who?"
"Her friend..thing."

"Friend-thing?"
"Yeah. I think he's madly in love with her."
"…Oh."

"Yeah, so it's up to you to entertain me."
"I'm trying to close up the diner, Lorelai."
"So? Talk while you put up ketchup and salt shakers."
Luke sighed.

"What do you want to talk about?"
"Ok, so I gave this 'spree' thing some thought…".

- - - - -  - - - - -

Rory and Tristan pulled away after a minute.

"Um.."

"Yeah.."

They laughed nervously. Tristan ran his hand through his hair, and then smiled genuinely at her.

"So, for experiment's sake, was that a good kiss?"

Rory let a shy smile cross her features. "Very good."

"Should we try it again? You know, make sure it wasn't a fluke?"

"That might be wise."

They leaned in again. This kiss was longer. Rory wrapped her arms around his neck and he pulled her closer, deepening the kiss. He smiled into the kiss; this was nice. No, this was better than nice. This was perfect. This was what he'd been wanting ever since he saw those electric blue eyes of hers. He felt like he could stay that way forever, just holding her. Kissing her.

But, like all good things, this was about to come to an end. Abruptly.

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

The impatient tapping on Rory's window made them snap out of their blissful moment. Rory pulled always, her hair slightly ruffled, her lips redder than they had been. Tristan had to fight the urge to grab her and kiss her again; to hell with whoever was tapping at the window.

Rory turned around and bit her lip nervously as she saw two inquisitive faces peering at the pair through the glass. She gulped and rolled the window down.

"Hi…Babette. Hi, Miss Patty."

"Dahl!" Babette rasped in that characteristic voice of hers.

"We saw ya from my porch, and we thought, well, did that nice Dean boy get a new cah? And we look closer, and we see it ain't even Dean! So we decided ta come ovah and look for ourselves! Hey there, sugah, I'm Babette."

 She leaned in and offered her hand to Tristan, who shook it politely.

"Tristan DuGrey, ma'am."

He smiled a bit nervously, and snuck a glance at Rory. She looked worried. It suddenly occurred to him that the name Babette was familiar, and then it struck him; Star Hollow's resident gossip. Rory had mentioned her and Miss Patty when they were talking in the study earlier that evening. He quickly adopted Rory's worried facial expression.

Patty quickly shoved Babette out of the way with her hip and extended a heavily-jeweled hand towards Tristan.

"Hello, dear. I'm Miss Patty…" Tristan took her hand and shook it, but couldn't help but notice the way her eyes trailed up and down his body. He suddenly felt a bit uneasy.

"Now, sweetie-" Patty turned to Rory, "-when on earth did you and Dean break up? I haven't heard a word about it!"

Rory's cheeks darkened a bit. Tristan felt briefly homicidal towards Patty. Good job, you 200-pound-ballerina, he thought, now Rory is going to realize how much she "loves" that idiot boyfriend of hers and that this was just a "mistake". He cringed at the thought.

"Well, um, we…"

"Ah..OH…" Miss Patty raised her eyebrows, and she nodded like she understood. "Well, we won't mention this to a soul, hon.  Right, Babette?"

"Huh?" Babette looked up from the cell phone on which she was currently dialing Taylor's number. "Oh, right, sug. Not a soul. We'll see you tomorrow, at the tree-lightin' festival, ok dahl?"

"Oh..kay." Rory mumbled quietly. With that, Babette and Miss Patty were off, casting surreptitious glances over their shoulders as they hurried down the street. Rory sighed and rested her back against the seat.

"Ok, so that was…"

"Interesting?"
"Quite."

Tristan exhaled slowly and turned to Rory.
"Ok, are we going to talk about it? Or is this one of those things we pretend never happened?" He mentioned the latter in a bitter tone of voice which caused Rory to look at him sadly.

"I…I've never actually been in this situation before-"
"Shocking."
"I know. So I don't really have much of an idea about what we should do."

"Well, as surprising as this is, I've never been in this sort of situation either."

Rory raised an eyebrow incredulously.

"You've never kissed a girl who was dating someone?"
Tristan laughed lightly. "No, I've done that before. I've just never cared about the girl." He raised his eyes to look at her, and blue met blue. She smiled.

"I don't want to be a conquest."
"You aren't."

"I was."

Tristan rubbed the back of his neck and sighed again. "Originally, yes."

"But then you realized that I was…different?"

"Different, beautiful, witty, perfect…I can go on."

She smiled, and took his hand in hers.

"So, supposing I go out with you… I won't find you making out with a blonde against my locker within the week?"

"You, my dear, will be the only one I pin against a locker."

Rory blushed.

"Will you never change?"
"Never."
"Good."

They both grinned, and focused only on their entwined fingers, all thoughts of Babette and Miss Patty gone from their heads, and the thought of Dean flickering momentarily in Rory's mind before disappearing altogether.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Rory stood on the porch as she watched Tristan's car disappear around the corner. They had sat in his car for a few minutes, exchanging a kisses and a few words before she suggested he leave, just in case any more snooping Stars Hollow residents decided to drop by. She smiled contentedly and turned to walk inside. But a terribly familiar voice broke her thoughts.

"Rory?"

She spun around. Damn.

"Hi, Dean."
"Are you okay? I heard Taylor talking on the phone with Babette about you; you're alright?"

Curse you, Babette, Rory thought.

"Ok, yeah. I'm great. Just got back from my grandparents."
"Oh…where's Lorelai?"

And the ultimate question…to lie, or not to lie. Break up with Dean and end this charade? Which would, of course, entail stomping all over his heart. But still, Tristan…Tristan's kisses…kissing Tristan…

"Rory?"
"Huh? Oh, sorry."

"Yeah…so, you're ok?"
"Mm hmm…I'm fine…listen, can we talk for a minute?"

"Oh…sure." His expression showed that he knew this wasn't going to be pleasant. A discussion that began with "we need to talk" was never good. He sat on the porch steps, and she did the same.

"Now, Dean…I love you. Very much.."
He beamed.

"…but I'm not in love with you."
The smile was gone.

"Excuse me?"
"Dean, lately it's just…it doesn't feel right. A second of silence is awkward, we hardly talk, we rarely see each other, and when we do, you're usually yelling at me because you think me and Tristan have some hot-and-heavy relationship going on behind your back. And I just…I can't take it anymore."
"So you're dumping me."
"Look, if we had dated much longer, you would have broken up with me. You need a girl who likes the same things you do, someone who loves you as much as you deserve to be loved. I'm so, so sorry, but that girl's just not me."
"Right." He stood up abruptly and turned to her with a gaze that could have made hell freeze over.

"When he gets sick of screwing you, don't come crying back to me." And with that, he stormed off, leaving Rory to fight the tears that were quickly coming to her eyes.

(A/N: ok, so I hate dean. him and his floppy hair. anyway, yes this is also a short chapter. but next chapter will be nice and long…so long you'll be old and senile by the time you're done reading it. im already working on it, and i would love some suggestions. do I a) subtly let dean fade into the unknown, b)have dean do some retarded angry-ex thing, or c) not really care about dean, and have some other thing threaten the future of rory and tristan? ITS UP TO YOU. Vote now or send your regular old stuff…comments, complaints, fruit baskets, etc. thank you for the reviews so far…they make me happy. like, giggly-three-year-old-with-a-brand-new-tickle-me-elmo happy. so continue with the reviews, and I will make sure to update if you review in the affirmative. oh, and could one of you smart people out there tell me what format to upload documents in so I can use italics? thank you, geniuses of the world. carry on.)