a/n: it is indescribable how much I love all of the reviews. Thank you so much. I really appreciate the feedback. There are some very intuitive people out there. I'm not going to name names, but there are definitely some reviewers who are on the right track…keep reading to figure out who you are!

And I take all your comments seriously. Thank you IloveJMAC for your idea about the italics. If you look back to chapter two, I fixed it. Thanks everyone!

Oh yes, I realized that I butchered logan's last name in the first chapter, but I'm too lazy to fix it. I'm sorry, but it is a toughy.

disclaimer: i love logan and tristan (and dean and jess for that matter too,) but unfortunately i don't own them or any of the characters/places associated with gilmore girls the tv series.

Chapter Three: Mentioning the Unmentionable

Tristan's kisses made her dizzy. At the moment, she felt like she was flying high above the drawing room in which they were enclosed.

Tristan pulled away slowly. "Your eyes are so beautiful," he whispered. Rory smiled.

"Yours are the same color."

"Then you think they're beautiful?"

"I didn't say that," Rory teased.

"But you've been thinking it all evening," he smirked.

Rory smiled and responded by kissing him. This moment was what she had been dreaming of for so long, and they were finally there. His hand caressed her back and sent shivers up her spine.

"Rory?"

The shivers turned to chills as Rory broke away and turned towards the sound of the voice. Tristan's hand did not leave her back.

Logan stepped through the drawing room door and stared at Rory with a look of disbelief. The three stood in silence.

"Logan, I found some champagne. I don't think it's all that cold, but it will-"

Rory watched with the same air of composed amazement as the young blonde trailed into the room.

"Hello Louise," she said, with only a trace of coldness in her voice. Tristan's hand was still around her waist. She leaned into him a little.

"Rory, how good it is to see you," Louise replied, using her 'polite' voice, one completely different from the almost drunken one she had been using just a moment ago.

"Well, isn't this cozy," Logan said, glancing casually from Tristan to Louise, and settling his gaze on Rory.

"I think I'm going to go find Madeline. She wanted to talk to me a while back," Louise said as she backed out of the room.

"We need to talk, Rory," Logan said.

"Do you want me to stay?" Tristan whispered.

Rory shook her head and stepped towards Logan. "Logan's right. We need to be alone for a moment."

Tristan nodded and left the room, closing the door behind him, leaving Logan and Rory standing alone in the dark.

"So you and Tristan, eh?" Logan said, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

"Logan I-"

"No Rory. It's fine. It's not like I expected either of us to stay faithful in this relationship. After all, it is just a piece of the business arrangement between our families. We don't know each other. We hardly talked before the engagement was announced two weeks ago. We've hardly talked since then. It would be unreasonable for either of us to assume that you would be completely devoted to me, and I to you."

"So what are you saying?" Rory asked.

Logan shrugged. "Keep seeing Tristan, I'll keep seeing Louise, or whomever I chose. We'll get married, we'll show up to all the dinners and parties and charity events together. Everyone will think we're the happiest couple on earth. And we will be, you know why?"

Rory didn't reply. She uttered a small sigh and sank into a nearby chair.

"Name one couple in Hartford that you think has been one hundred percent faithful to each other."

Rory thought for a moment and shook her head. "Probably none of them."

"Exactly," Logan said. He walked across the room and began turning on the lamps. "Don't you see Rory," he said, finally sitting down in a seat next to hers. "Everyone is unhappy in their marriage because they have the guilt of secrecy and deceit hanging over their heads. We don't need to have that. If we're honest with each other, we can have a decent life, with no unrealistic expectations. We could share a nice friendship together. I mean, there's no such thing as everlasting love, is there? Why waste our whole lives trying to find it in each other if it just doesn't exist?"

They sat in silence for a few moments. Rory thought about everything he had said. She knew he had spoken the truth. She just couldn't believe how easily he had taken the sight of his fiancée kissing another man.

"What are you thinking?" he asked after several silent minutes had passed.

"I just never thought you would be interested in Louise," Rory said, smiling slightly.

"What's wrong with Louise?"

"She's so…simple."

"And Mr. Dugrey is some fine intelligent being?"

"He does go to Harvard."

Logan laughed. "You are such a woman."

"And what is that supposed to mean sir?" Rory replied with playful indignation.

"You think college is this fine intellectual experience. Do you really believe that we just pound around at the books all day?"

"Why wouldn't you?"

Logan laughed.

"Logan Huntzberger, you are a terrible boy. Do you know that? You have the opportunity that every man in this country dream of, and you're telling me that you just waste it all away? What do you do, sip wine and smoke fine cigars all day?"

"I'm not that partial to cigars, unless they are the ones that your grandfather always provides. Those are beauties. And I prefer champagne to wine. No, we play cards-"

"Cards?"

"Gambling is quite a hobby. And of course there are all sorts of, well, organized activities."

"Like?"

"Well, don't you ask a lot of questions."

"Well I am going to spend the rest of my life with you. I might as well know how you spent the last four years of your life."

"I belong to a society of sorts."

"What kind of society? Don't tell me a gambling one. I can't condone gambling."

"Not gambling. It's a traditional society. One that has existed for many generations."

"Does it have a name?"

"Yes."

"Will you share it with me?"

"I will," he said at length. "But you must promise me you won't talk about it with anyone. Ever."

"Well that sounds menacing," Rory said, completely intrigued. "Alright I promise."

"The Life and Death Brigade."

"The Life and Death Brigade?" Rory repeated. "What kind of society is that?"

"It's a brotherhood, I guess," Logan explained.

"Well what do you do?"

"That my dear is information that I cannot disclose."

Rory thought it over for a moment. "I still think you are being completely selfish."

"How so milady?" Logan mocked.

"Well, here you are about to graduate from a fine university and you have naught to show from it. You didn't take the education seriously."

"No one does. It's just an opportunity for our fathers to get rid of some excess money. No one actually learns anything. It's not like my father did, or yours for that matter."

"My father is brilliant."

"That may be true. But his education did not come solely from the four walls of the classroom."

"Men are so stupid," she said.

"Excuse me?"

"Well there you are, wasting away a divine education when I would commit murder to be handed half the opportunity."

"Murder, eh? That's not very ladylike."

"I often wish I wasn't a lady. It is so unfair."

"I'm sorry, but I just can't picture you as a man. What else would you commit murder for?"

"Coffee," Rory replied. "That is the only thing that gets me through my day."

"Coffee stains your teeth."

"I'll deal with the consequences," she replied.

"Tristan won't be too keen on kissing you when your teeth are all yellow."

"And Louise won't be so willing to drink warm champagne with your corpse if you dare to take away my coffee."

Logan laughed. "You do have quite a spirit Miss Lorelai Hayden. I think we will get on marvelously."

a/n: sorry, no l/l this chapter. Maybe the next one…