Disclaimer: Amy and Daniel Palladino, along with the rest of the WB, own Gilmore Girls. I'm just borrowing the characters.
A/N: Yes, I know it's been forever and a day since I've updated this story, but what can I say? Inspirations strikes when I'm busiest. Cruel irony, huh? Anywho, only about two more chapters to go, so yeah. Enjoy!
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Sun peaked out from behind the clouds in this cold winter day. From what he'd heard, there was supposed to be six more weeks of harsh winter. It sucked, but what could he do to argue with a ridiculous tradition? So, in a move worthy of a Dickens novel, he wrapped his scarf tighter around his neck and put his head down to protect his face against the unmerciful wind.
He was going back to his dorm after his last class of the day. It was almost four in the afternoon, and Princeton was nearly deserted. Only a few people bustled by him, seemly doing the same thing. He was sure that if a tumbleweed were to blow by he wouldn't be the least bit shocked.
It was February. February 2nd, to be exact. It had been nearly three months since he had seen or spoken to anyone from Yale, except Stephanie, of course. It was the law that he talk to her – he couldn't avoid her at boring family functions, could he?
But Christmas had been the last time he'd had contact with the world of Connecticut, and he was in no hurry to strike up a conversation. His ego was bruised, his confidence shattered. He hated her, not to be melodramatic, but he really did. She did it to him, that bitch.
Okay, so he didn't hate her. And he didn't think she was a bitch. Maybe it was the cold weather – he'd always hated the damn cold. It made him think, made him dramatic. Made him hate. Therefore, Rory couldn't be blamed for his rotten mood.
He still didn't want to talk to, or about, her.
Somehow, Stephanie knew that, so she made a point of avoiding the Rory subject when giving him an update of the Yale goings-on. He also suspected she could predict the weather – it was his only reasoning when she always knew what to wear without even so much as looking outside – but that was another thing entirely.
The last time the two had talked was at the DuGrey Christmas party. They talked about Colin and Juliet (the two had finally declared themselves a couple the week before), Robert (Stephanie's new boy toy of whom Tristan had declared bodily harm to until Stephanie reminded him that she was the one using him), and Logan's new girlfriend. That had been the last time they'd talked.
That was what he liked best about his cousin: she knew when to butt in and when to butt out. She hadn't tried to contact him since the Christmas party, and probably told Juliet to do the same because the phone calls from her suddenly stopped a few days later.
He didn't want to talk to anyone from Yale, and hadn't in quite a while, so imagine his surprise when he got back to his dorm and found her sitting in the hallway reading a book. She scarcely looked up when he approached.
"I was wondering when you'd get back."
"How'd you get my dorm room?" he asked lamely in reply. It was the first thing he could think of, and winced when he heard his own voice.
"Stephanie gave it to me," she answered, standing up to face him. She was only a few inches shorter than him, though she made him feel both taller and shorter at the same time. It was an inexplicable feeling.
Then what she said hit him. Stephanie, his own flesh and blood (or close enough), had given her his address. He let out a string of particularly obscene curses in his head, as he figured screaming them aloud would probably deter Rory from whatever she had come to see him about, and that wouldn't do.
"Would you like to come in?" he questioned politely. So much for trying to avoid her.
"Sure." She brushed past him and stood in the middle of the room. "Looks like someone has been Amory Blaine-ing it."
He laughed. "I didn't base my whole personality on him, you know."
"I figured that. Just the parts that stand out the most."
Tristan's face drooped, but he asked, "Would you like something to drink?"
"Water, please." She looked at the couch. "Can I sit?"
"Be my guest." She made a face at him, and he amended, "More than you already are, I mean."
"Am I intruding on anything?"
"Homework. So, no." He got out the bottle of water and handed it to her before sitting down next to her. "Are you going to tell me why you decided to make a two and a half hour drive to boring New Jersey, or am I going to have to guess?"
"I'll give you a hint, it's bigger than a breadbox."
"Brain aneurysm?"
She shrugged. "I didn't want to be at Yale today."
"This is after your classes were done, of course?"
She blushed. "Yeah."
"You didn't want to be at Yale, so you left and drove two and a half hours to Princeton? I can see why you don't want to be at Yale, they obviously don't teach you logic."
"If you don't want me to be here, I'll leave."
"I'm kidding, I'm kidding, sit down, Mar."
"Are you ever going to give up on that ridiculous nickname?"
"It's cute. Admit it, you love it when I call you Mary."
"Actually, I prefer you to call me Rory. You may not know this, so brace yourself, but my name isn't Mary." She paused. "You were waiting for a car crash, weren't you?"
"That's it, I'm not telling you my favorite TV shows anymore."
"My name is Rory."
Tristan considered this revelation. "Whatever you say, Mary."
She sighed in mock frustration. "You're a lost cause."
"And you are beating around the bush. That's my job." He snickered at his own dirty joke, but then suppressed his inner-pervert to elaborate, "You still haven't told me the real reason that you're here. And don't tell me that it's to wish me a Happy Groundhog's Day."
She didn't answer, instead opting to unscrew the cap on her water bottle. For a moment he thought he'd been too gruff with her, but before he could open his mouth to apologize, she squared her shoulders and looked him straight in the eye. "You went AWOL. You stopped returning phone calls, e-mails, instant messages. Stephanie seemed to know, but she wouldn't tell us why. You know, I came here half expecting you roommate to tell me that you'd gone to live in a cabin in the woods."
A slow smiled spread across his face. "You came to check up on me. You care about me."
"No," she protested half-heartedly, shifting in her seat. "I just thought that we were friends, and I was worried."
"Because you care."
"You're delusional."
"That doesn't stop you from caring about me," he teased.
She rolled her eyes, but smiled at him. "I haven't talked to you since October."
"Since the Halloween party," he agreed. "Speaking of which, today would be a holiday, why aren't you partying?"
"You mean, why am I not at a 'The-day-ends-in-y-and-coincides-with-a-holiday' party? I just didn't feel like going."
Keeping as much hostility out of his voice as he possibly could, Tristan replied, "And this is okay with Finn?"
Rory looked at him oddly. "We broke up a month or so ago."
For the second time in ten minutes, Tristan let out a few choice expletives in his mind, this time for going incommunicado for so long. "Really? How did that happen?"
"We just decided that we'd be better off as friends."
Tristan raised an eyebrow. "Your powers of persuasion are good, Mar, but they aren't that good."
"What's that supposed to mean?" she challenged.
He leaned forward so that their knees were barely touching. "You could probably persuade me to do almost anything for you, but convince me, or any guy, to be just friends with you?" He leaned back despite his better judgment. "Impossible."
She rolled her eyes. "Breaking out the Psych 101 already? It's only five-thirty."
"Your wit pierces my heart."
"Now you're trying to be a poet?"
"I'm fluent in the language of love."
"Ah, now I know you're not trying to be a poet; you're trying to be a walking cliché."
"You're making mountains out of molehills," he teased.
"You live to frustrate me, don't you?"
"I'm on a mission from God." He leered at her. "And yes, I do love to…frustrate you."
"Not every comment is a double entendre."
"You said it, not me," he defended.
"You took a perfectly innocent statement wildly out of context."
"Actually, I was just agreeing with you, so technically you took my comment out of context."
She groaned as he began to laugh. "There's no point to this debate."
"Every exchange of words has a point. But if you want a topic change, you shall receive. How are Colin and Juliet doing?"
"A regular Sam and Diane. I swear those two are going to kill each other one day."
"And Stephanie and Robert? Are my days in military school finally going to come in handy?"
"How would . . . ? Never mind, I don't want to know," she decided. "But they're actually doing well. From what Stephanie says, this is her longest relationship to date."
"And this is supposed to make me feel better that she's wasting her time with that douche?"
Rory started to giggle. "I've never heard someone call another person a 'douche,' outside of the Daily Show, of course."
"Is this going to turn into a Notting Hill type of conversation?"
"You've seen Notting Hill?"
"Unfortunately."
"How can you say that? Oh, this is a street thing, you don't want to lose cred with your homies?" she asked seriously, eyes twinkling with laughter.
"I get absolutely no respect."
"Buck up, little camper," she chirped. "I'm sure someone, somewhere, respects you, Rodney."
Tristan laughed. "Always a reference with you."
"I'm an encyclopedia of obscure pop culture references."
"I know. So, have we covered everybody I remotely care about?" He suddenly snapped his fingers and leaned forward again. "Rosemary."
"The one you had sex with on Halloween?" she asked. Tristan raised an eyebrow. He could have sworn he detected some jealousy when she asked that, but that was crazy. "She's one of Logan's girls now."
Funny, the jealousy he promised he didn't pick up on was gone now. Of course, why would she be jealous about him and not about Logan? It just didn't make sense. So he decided to drop it. "You mean she was in line?"
"Extremely close to the front, no pun intended," Rory confirmed.
Tristan almost choked on nothing. She didn't just make a dirty joke, did she? Of course, hanging out with Finn and Logan would do that to a person. But Rosemary wasn't pining from his leaving her without a note in her bed? "But I'm much prettier than Logan," he pouted.
"So that's what happened to Narcissus: when he died, he was reincarnated into you!" Rory exclaimed, as though she just discovered something life-altering. "They leave that part out in Greek mythology."
"I'm not narcissistic, I just have high self-esteem."
She laughed. "At least you know how to classify yourself."
"I'm not afraid to tell it like it is." He smirked. "And while we're on the subject, I think we should talk about Finn."
Rory covered her face with her hands and looked down at the floor. "How about something fun, like Chinese Water Torture?"
"How come you didn't tell me?" he pressed. "I was at your house almost every weekend between the fourth and school starting. You two must have hooked up sometime in that timeframe."
"Only five people, myself and Finn not included, knew," she replied. "Logan, Lane, Paris, Luke, and Lorelai."
"Lorelai? How's she doing?" He paused. "And don't think this Finn conversation is over, either."
"Great," Rory sighed. "As for my mom, she's doing fantastic. She and Luke got married a few weeks ago."
"Really?"
"True story."
"Interesting." Tristan stroked his chin. "And you didn't invite me?"
"You were doing your best impression of a hermit; we didn't think you wanted to be bothered with something as frivolous as my mom's wedding."
"Nothing of yours or Lorelai's is frivolous," he answered.
Rory didn't reply, and he realized that he may have said something too honest for her. Too fucking bad, then. She came here for a reason, and it couldn't have just been out of polite courtesy or on a whim. Whether or not this was a subconscious decision, however, was to be seriously debated. He was leaning towards yes, but one never really did know. Who knew how the LDB may have corrupted her innocent mind? Granted, that once was his objective, but his priorities had shifted slightly with time.
He made sure his gaze met hers when he asked, "Wanna get something to eat?"
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They found a little café not too far away from the campus. It was basically deserted because everybody who wanted to go out at six at night was either at a fast food restaurant or at the local bar. Tristan and Rory were seated at a little booth close to a window so they could watch people pass by the tiny café.
"So," Tristan started, lifting up his fork, "I gotta know; Finn – tool to piss off Logan, or actually going out with him out of pure lust?"
"Neither. Is it so hard to believe that I actually liked Finn?" Rory retorted indignantly.
"No. And thank you for confirming that, you just won me three hundred dollars from Robert," Tristan said smugly.
"And when are you going to collect your prize, Ted?"
"At Stephanie's birthday party, of course. But I may need a witness of the actual events to confirm my story, so you're going to need to go with me," he informed her.
She raised her eyebrow at him, pausing in her reenactment of Moby Dick using French fries. "What makes you think that I won't be at her party unless I go with you?"
He shot her his most swoon-worthy smile. "I think you misinterpreted me, Mary. I would enjoy it very much if you went to Stephanie's birthday party, which I know you're going to anyway, with me."
"Mr. Princeton is asking me out? A student from a rival school?" she teased.
"Well, Ms. Yale, I could always go with Rosemary." He smirked, trying to gauge her reaction to his comment.
She frowned. "You wouldn't try it, Logan would kill you."
"I'm risking winding up in a CSI body bag anyway; it might as well be because of someone I like."
"Charming. Very smooth."
"Ms. Gilmore, I do believe you are trying to dodge my question."
"Mr. DuGrey, I believe you're being persistent."
"You love it when I nag you."
She laughed. "Now you're just torturing yourself over nothing."
He sighed and raked a hand through his hair. "Would you like me to pass you a yes/no/maybe note?"
"I already know what my answer would be."
"Care to enlighten the rest of the class?"
She leaned over the table, grazing her palm over his knuckles, and whispered conspiratorially, "Yes."
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Rory left after dinner, making him swear to call her. He couldn't believe that she'd actually said yes, let alone do it without any blackmail information hanging over her head. He could almost classify it as a miracle, if he was a pious man. He reclined on his bed, lazily stretching out over the whole length of the mattress.
A thought occurred to him, but he tried to push it out of his head. It was an abominable one; he couldn't think of it at the moment, but it kept popping back up. What would Finn and Logan say? He was certain to be tarred and feathered upon sight if he showed up with Rory on his arm. There would be no escape; even Stephanie wouldn't be able to help him out of this one.
Stephanie! Why hadn't he thought about that before? He rolled off his bed, hitting the floor with a thud, and began the search for his phone. It was around, he knew that, but where? He finally found it under his pillow, completely contradicting his previous search of the floor and his drawers.
He hadn't called her in so long, how would she react? Curse him out? Be sympathetic? He never knew; it all depended upon her mood at the time.
She picked up after the fourth ring, sounding winded. "Hello?"
"Hey, Steph," he said almost sheepishly.
"Tristan?" she panted. He didn't want to imagine what her activities prior to the phone call had been. "Coming out of hiding?"
"Yeah," he admitted.
"Well, how have you been? Has it been fun hiding like a monk?"
"You haven't called either," he accused childishly.
"That's because I know you. Well, something must have happened, so spill."
"C'mon, Stephie, you know exactly what happened."
She giggled. "I know. She actually went there? What happened?"
"That's what I called you about, actually," he confessed. "What are you doing for your birthday this year?"
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Thanks yous:
riotgirllina- Yes, they are. I'm just going with what ASP gives me- Rory is undeniably sexy and every boy wants her. Yes, I'm still bitter about how Rory's being written. It shows, doesn't it? Haha. I'm not planning on showing why Logan and Rory broke up, they just did. And Marty was the bartender.
Glow- I adore UC ships. Tristan/Rory was my first favorite, but Finn/Rory has become my favorite. But I'll always remember what got me into fanfiction in the first place. Thank you!
Gilmoregirl- This is a Trory. But I have to put PDLD into all of my stories, otherwise I go crazy.
ReeseAnn- Thank you! And Tristan slept with her because he was hurt. And he's a manwhore, and that's why we love him.
LandonLover- You have fine beta skills, I must say. But I love Groundhog Day. Or maybe I love the movie, and that's translating into the love of the holiday... hmm. Either way, it rocks, haha.
Kyizi- I figured, everyone has Logan and Tristan as cousins, and I wanted to be different, so hey! I'm glad you like it! Thank you!
Fallen Heart- I like to mess with people's minds, so I hope everyone was thrown off by the Finn and Rory first... but it's definitely a Trory from here on out. Cross my heart.
Bookworms- I followed your advice as much as I could, but I couldn't really think of any actions to put in there that seemed to go with what I wanted to go on... of course, I know what's going on because I have it in my mind, but not everyone can read my mind(Thank god!), so yeah. But I'm happy, and isn't that what matters, haha?
More thank yous to: xSMiLES, GilmoreAtHeart74, seslavie, Alenor, xoffeeaddict14, BeDaZzLeNpLaiD, Rachel, Kylie1403, Literati Lover, patrioticangel, smile1, LoVe23, KeitaWolf, jmarit17, and KarahBella.