Title: Trance Awake

Rating: R

Pairing: Rory/Logan

Disclaimer: I don't own the show or the characters, although my birthday's coming up and Logan would be a rather nice present;-)

Summary: Rory moves out to NY on her own, after a life full of one hardship after another, and meets up with an annoying yet loveable blonde. AU

A/N: There are scenes from Rory's past that tend to get pretty dark, so I'll be sure to warn you'll before each chapter that has troubling items of discussion in them. Quite a few characters in this story are OOC, but that's what the AU is for. I tend to sometimes use names of songs for my titles, so be forewarned in case they may seem familiar. By the way, sorry for the length of this chapter, but it's merely an introduction.

(Intro): Fade To Black

It had taken her 5 long years, but finally she had made it. She was here in New York City, living on her own, and although she didn't have the greatest life in the world, that was enough. There was just something about New York that was so refreshing, yet completely strange and displacing at the same time. It had always been her dream to move out here, but whenever she had told someone that when she was younger they would just shake their heads and laugh, give her a slight pat on the head and walk away. Ever since then she had never really confided in anyone about her hopes and dreams and they had since stopped asking.

All of the hardships that she'd had to endure in her lifetime where all suddenly worth it, just in order to be standing here in the middle of her new, if not slightly run down, apartment. Looking around she sighed and let her one lowly duffel back sink to the floor; she had lived in much worse places then this before and at least this time it was on her terms and no one else's. She had yet to get a job and needed to do so soon because her funds were already depleting and she had only been in the city not even a day.

Crouching down, she opened her duffel bag and rooted around until she pulled out a pair of black leather pants and a black and deep purple corset. Stripping of the clothes she already had on, she hurriedly changed into her new ones and slipped on a pair of black combat boots. Chancing a look in the cracked mirror above her dripping bathroom sink, she ran her hands quickly through her purple streaked, long chocolate colored hair and proceeded to apply some heavy black eye liner and mascara to her tired looking blue eyes, making them stand out. She ran a layer of lip balm over her slightly chapped lips, never having really been one much for lipstick, and gave her reflection another quick glance before grabbing her leather jacket and keys and leaving her new place.

She knew that walking down the streets of New York City at night wasn't the smartest move on her part, but she had always been known to throw caution to the wind and just because she was in a new place didn't mean that she was about to go changing herself for anyone. 'Ah perfect, I was just about to go into withdrawal if I didn't get another cup of coffee into me sometime soon,' she thought to herself as she spotted what looked to be like an all night diner across the street. Thinking about coffee made her inevitably think about her mother, which was most definitely something that she didn't want to do. 'Like I've said before, it's been five years and I really don't need to be thinking about any of this shit right now,' Rory told herself.

Stopping for a moment in order to try and compose herself, she closed her eyes and let out a sigh. 'If only she'd never let Rick into her life, none of this would have ever happened. I mean...', but all of a sudden she was jolted out of her thoughts as someone barreled into her from behind, causing her to stumble and fall into the person right in front of her. Her fall was cushioned by the soft, yet hard body that was beneath her own and she found herself looking into startled, yet thoroughly amused, Hershey kisses colored eyes.