Title: What Lies Within Us
Chp.10 Meeting The "Parents"
Disclaimer: I don't own. Duh.
Introduction: I know I'm delusional….but Trory. Well, obviously not at first because that would be too easy, but I wanted to clarify. Basically set in the present, maybe like a year ahead, slightly altered to make things work. Oh, side note, and although this fic started before viewing of 'wedding bell blues', assume Rory and Logan got together in similar matter (they're just not having sex), and decided on some 'strings' eventually.
Rating: Pg-13 this chap.
Author's note: I hate reviews (I'm also a really bad liar). If I believe people are reading, it helps.
Oh and yes, last chapter was a little sappy. Didn't quite mean to make it so much so.
A crash in the next room cut into Rory's sleep as she was trying to catch up on the days of sleep she had missed during finals. Groaning, and not really caring at that point if a burglar was trying to get in, she rolled over and covered her head with her pillow. Not consciously awake yet, her mind drifted back to the dream she had been interrupted from. She and Tristan were making out in front of a fireplace similar to the one that was in her grandparents place, his hand slipping under her shirt, finished mugs of coffee beside them…..
Crash!
The noise was louder this time, and finally completely intruded into her consciousness. Fully awake now, the dream became even less than a memory. One of those things that even if you tried to remember, would slip away with the effort. She opened her eyes, not wanting to move. The clock on her bedside table said 6:30 AM. With other muffled noises in the kitchen, she resigned herself to being awake, and groaning sat up in her bed.
Remembering there were two men in the house now, she pulled on a robe over her SpongeBob pajamas, and slipped on her bunny slippers to go venturing out and see what the problem was. Yawning widely, she opened the door to her bedroom and slipped out into the kitchen, nearly tripping in her sleepy state.
Tristan sat at the kitchen table, wearing a sweatshirt soaked in sweat, and sweatpants. He glanced up apologetically as she came out. "I tried not to wake you," he whispered, not that Lorelai would have heard them talking from upstairs. "I just came back from my run, and needed something to eat. But see, when I opened a kitchen cupboard,…….you know the place that normally stores food or food-related items………a pile of shoes sort of fell out.
He watched as Rory seemed to take his explanation in stride. Yawning again, she answered, "Yeah, Mom probably ran out of room when she was cleaning for you to come and stuck them there. She does that sometimes."
"So, I'm taking it as there's no food for any sort of breakfast?" he asked, his hopes dashed of at least a piece of toast.
She shrugged, and dragged herself into a seat at the table beside him. "Luke's is for breakfast. But I imagine if you scrounge around the fridge you might be able to find some pop-tarts or leftover Chinese."
What pop-tarts would be doing in the fridge, he didn't even want to know, but they were there, shoved in the vegetable crisper when he got up to look for them. He grabbed one, and popped it in the toaster.
"Do you always get up this early?" Rory asked with a yawn, "Or did you just decide to be insane today?"
"For the past 4 years," he replied, leaning against the counter as he waited for the pop tart in the toaster.
She just nodded, and let her head rest on her arms on the table. "You can go back to bed you know," he suggested when she didn't rise back up.
"Once I'm up, can't go back to sleep," her voice was muffled by her arms, "of course doesn't stop me from being tired, but I won't be able to go back to sleep. Besides, might as well keep you company. Not like there's a ton of entertainment at 6:30 in the morning, and you've probably already ran your 10 miles."
"Five," he qualified. "And, I don't think you'll be great company when you fall asleep at the table."
Still not lifting her head, she waved her arm. "Minor point."
"It's not like I'm the only one up," he pointed out. "Luke was leaving to open his diner at the same time I was going for my run."
"Crazy, the lot of you." She added.
Luke had spent the night last night. It had been the first time he ever had with Rory home. Actually one of the few times he had slept there at all. He and Lorelai usually stayed over at his place. Rory supposed it was because she was home. It had been a little awkward, but not much. Of course when Lorelai had suggested going to bed, she had wiggled her eyebrows suggestively at Luke in front of them; Rory hadn't knew the man was capable of turning that shade of red. While she liked Luke, and knew the two of them were together in every way possible, she was glad her room was on the bottom floor as she didn't want to have to hear her mother's sex life.
"I can't believe it's Christmas Eve," she told him, finally pulling herself into a fully seated position. "I just wrote a final yesterday for crying out loud. Twenty four hours is not enough time to get into the Christmas spirit."
He didn't say anything, not really in the Christmas spirit even though he hadn't spent the better part of the last month writing finals. He remembered Christmas as a kid, all excited and thrilled every time it hit the month of December. Christmas pageants at school, and presents were always given in abundance by his parents as they excelled at monetary displays of affection. But then he grew up, and the magic and wonder was lost. In high school he spent the holidays skiing with friends. For the past couple years he hadn't even done anything; the extent of his celebration last year had been watching the Christmas day NBA basketball games on a television with some other guys who were overseas as well.
Better not to think about that.
He turned when the noise on the toaster went, signalling the readiness of his pop tart. He slipped it out, and put it on a plate, and went to sit back at the table with Rory.
"Did you get all your shopping done?" he asked, sliding into his chair.
She nodded, "Yes. Well, mostly. Had to do most of it at the end of November. Not as exciting; I missed the excessive crowds, lack of parking and screaming kids at the mall." She usually enjoyed Christmas shopping, but it was hard to come up with meaningful gifts when you were doing it a month ahead of time with time constraints and on a budget.
She yawned again as she watched him bite into his pop-tart, "I do have one more thing to pick up, but I can do it here in town. I was going to forget it as it's already Christmas Eve, but since I'm up so early I might as well be productive. I'm thinking a stop at Luke's sounds like a good idea, and then I'll finish up shopping. You interested in coming?"
He nodded. Normally shopping sounded as much fun as a trip to the dentist's, but there was little else to do. And, it would be with her. "Sure," was all he said.
"I can give you a tour of the town," she added, "Of course you saw a large percentage of it walking back from Luke's last night, but we can see about the three streets we missed. It will be very exciting."
He laughed. "I'm sure it will be."
Last night had been one of the most enjoyable nights he'd had in a long time. As promised, Luke had opened up the diner for the four of them to have some donuts and coffee. He didn't think he had ever smiled or laughed that much. It was easy to fit in with the three of them; he had enjoyed the feeling of belonging however premature and deluded it may be. He had heard some scary things about Lorelai from Logan, but he couldn't reconcile the Lorelai from last night with the 'dragon lady' Logan had warned him about. Of course he had gathered in the past while that Lorelai wasn't too fond of Logan, and that probably influenced things. And after meeting Luke, he wouldn't have wanted to meet that man while kissing Rory.
He had been out of his parents house long enough that he was far from the world of privilege he had used to belong to, but it hadn't stopped the errant thought that 'if only his father could see him now' last night. He was sitting in a diner, eating donuts with a man who wore a backwards baseball cap and flannel, and two women who probably hadn't stopped talking the entire time. And then they had played some "hockey" on the counter with some of the stale donuts. It had been ridiculous. It had been juvenile. It had been completely insane.
It had been the most fun he had had in his life.
Even when Lorelai had decided to give inanimate objects personalities (for example the salt and pepper shaker had become a bickering married couple) he had enjoyed the whole thing. He was self-aware enough to know that he had started out the night, and most of the past years, sober for most of it. A GI wasn't supposed to laugh. But by the end of the night he had been snickering along with them.
A couple times he had caught Rory looking at him, but he didn't know how to decipher what she was thinking. It had started at the pageant when he had wiped the snow from her face. A crazy, momentary impulse he shouldn't have given in to. Initially he had been worried she would notice something amiss with it, think he was hitting on her, but she hadn't seemed to think anything of it. But he had caught her watching him more closely the whole evening, and wasn't sure what to think about it. Once, when he was laughing aloud, he had caught her staring intently at him, and it had confused him. When she realized he noticed her looking, all she had done was blush and say quietly, "You don't laugh enough." Had surprised him beyond belief.
Now, she was lugging herself to her feet. "I'll shower and get ready to go." And, as she yawned widely again, "Maybe an ice cold shower will help perk me up."
The way she was looking right now he didn't think even that would do it, but all he said was, "Maybe." And tried valiantly not the think of her in the shower.
The door jingled as they entered Luke's. Rory still managed to be surprised at all the people who were willingly up this early; the place was packed. They manoeuvred their way to the counter, the only place where there were seats available.
Luke walked up to them, obviously surprised to see Rory there, but he didn't say anything. "Coffee I assume?" he asked dryly, grabbing the pot from the warmer behind him.
"Just hook it up to my veins," she uttered dramatically, holding out her wrists. Luke just shook his head and poured her a cup. And Tristan's nod, he poured a cup for him as well.
Tristan tried not to stare, but he was enthralled with her taking that first sip of coffee. As she sipped the warm liquid, she closed her eyes, and licked her lips, while letting out what sounded suspiciously like a moan. As hard as he tried, he couldn't stop thinking that the way she reacted to coffee was the way that most women responded to sex……yeah, he really didn't want to think about that.
He was broke out of his reverie when Luke tossed a menu on the counter in front of him. He looked up guiltily, worried the man could guess the direction of his thoughts. He actually breathed a sigh of relief that Luke's expression didn't seem to get any stormier. Of course it probably helped at the moment that he wasn't standing up. He opened the menu, but Rory was already rattling off her order, and then turned to look at him expectantly. "Cheese omelette and toast?" he asked, assuming those were safe orders, and Luke just nodded and wrote it down.
When Luke left them, Rory swivelled her stool to face him and smiled. "Is it not the best coffee you've ever tasted?" she asked as she took another sip, and he was almost disappointed she didn't do the moaning thing again.
"Sure," he replied. It was good coffee, but he wasn't exactly a connoisseur. He had gotten used to some pretty bad coffee, usually not more than some instant coffee mix mixed with warm water.
As they sat at the counter, he could pick up snippets of the conversations behind him.
"….Logan?..."
"No….heard….Patty….fight Dean."
"Hoity-toity family…."
"Heard…soldier…."
"Nummy, man in uniform….."
It was hard not to turn around and find out who all the people were talking about him and her, but he managed. He felt himself blushing a little at the last comment.
Rory smiled, obviously having heard the comments as well. She laughed a little, patted his arm, and turned around. Surprised, he followed suit. At that point he realized it wasn't just two women talking about him, it was a whole group of people.
"Merry Christmas everyone," Rory said brightly. The group included the larger women from the night before, now dressed in another extravagant silk outfit, and the woman with her bean pole friend. There were others now too, many eyeing him suspiciously.
He felt Rory place her hand on his arm. "This is Tristan, an old friend of mine. He's starting at Yale next term, and spending the holidays with us. He's also a friend of Logan's. He was in the military out of high school, and now wants to go to university. He's a very nice guy, and will be here for the holidays." He wasn't sure how to react to her announcements, so he just gave a little smile and waved at the group. A little weird having his whole personal agenda aired out like that.
Satisfied, she turned back around, and as he followed she said, "That should sate their curiosity for awhile."
When he heard the conversation start up again, and his name mentioned several times, he just smiled and sipped his coffee as she shook her head frustratedly, and gave him an apologetic look.
As Luke popped their orders down in front of them, he watched Rory smile at the man before digging in to her pancakes. He had to say that the food smelled really good. Of course all he had on his stomach was a pop-tart, so the tell-tale rumble of hunger in his stomach probably could have been evoked from even the most disgusting food. It was as he took his first bite of his omelette that the diner door dinged as it opened again. Being with his back to the door, he didn't bother to turn around, but he did notice a bit of a hush that fell across the diner.
He watched Rory look back, and when she startled a little, he was forced to turn and look as well. Standing at the doorway was a tall boy with floppy brown hair. Even with the slight stubble on his cheeks now, he still didn't seem more than a boy. Tristan could remember that face, he's tortured the guy enough back when he went to Chilton. Dean, her old boyfriend. The boy seemed to have stopped dead in his tracks, not sure whether to leave or continue on to the counter. And that had been just at the sight of Rory. When he saw Tristan, his look got darker, but he walked up to the counter, probably mostly as a manner of pride. But he did stop as far as he could from the two of them. Even though he and Rory were broken up, he had hated Tristan in the past, and probably hadn't forgot him.
Tristan watched Rory swallow uncomfortably as Dean placed his order for six coffees, letting Luke know it was "for Tom and the guys". She didn't touch her plate the whole time he was standing there. Which, by the time Luke was done filling up 6 coffee cups in between orders, was a long time. Tristan noticed the way they studiously didn't look at each other, even when Dean had nowhere to look but straight ahead.
Luke handed him the six cups in a cardboard tray, and Dean turned to go. He hesitated momentarily when he inadvertently looked right at Rory, and almost made a motion to come over, but he continued on to the exit without saying a word. The door jingled again on the way out, and conversation partially resumed, now at a larger level. Obviously everyone knew there was some tension there, and the whole exchange just fuelled the massive amounts of gossip.
Rory still seemed tense as she just kept staring at her pancakes without touching them. Tristan wasn't sure what else to say, so he just asked, "Must have been a tough break-up."
He words seemed to shock Rory out of the reverie sheappeared to be in. She picked up her fork again, and refused to look at him. He was a little surprised when she gave a rather terse response of, "I'd rather not talk about it."
It was very tempting to throw back her speech to him before about friendship, but that seemed a little hypocritical. So he said nothing, simply sipped at his coffee and let her be, even though he wanted to be her confidante. It didn't help that she looked absolutely miserable.
Rory was picking half-heartedly at her pancakes now. It had been hard to see Dean. Since she lived at Yale, it was rare to run in to him even when she was home, but sometimes it was unavoidable. Like today. And every time it was uncomfortable. They couldn't even do the civil 'hellos' anymore, they just tended to pretend the other didn't exist. It probably hadn't made it any better when he saw her with Tristan today, even if he didn't know they weren't dating. To break up with her because he felt he 'wasn't good enough', and then see her sitting there in his town with someone he still considered to be part of society crowd. Dejectedly, she took a big sip of her coffee, wishing it all wouldn't be this hard. Dean had been her first love, although he had also been her biggest mistake, and she hated wanting to cross the street ever time she saw him.
She felt bad snapping at Tristan, but this all wasn't something she could share with him. "So, the name of the store I want to go to is called the Cat Club…." She began, trying to pretend the whole exchange hadn't happened.
It was a couple hours later when they were wandering aimlessly down main street, her purchases clutched in her hand. Of course they hadn't just stopped in one shop, and it had taken a long time as she seemed to know every person in the town, and they had stopped to chat, sizing Tristan up as if he were trying to pass some crucial test.
"You know," he said thoughtfully as some weird guy named Kirk had just left them, "It's got to be pretty intimidating when you bring a boyfriend home. He doesn't just have to "meet the parents', he has to meet the town."
"Well, if it helps, they all seem to like you so far," she told him, then blushed at her words. He wasn't a boyfriend she had brought home. Just a friend. But he didn't seem to notice anything about her comment.
But it had been fun hanging around with him. It helped that he seemed tolerant of all the eccentric characters, and happy to be there, not bored out of his mind. Well, except at the Cat Club, but no guy would be stimulated at the Cat Club. She was barely stimulated at the Cat Club. It had been more to buy a 'gag' type gift for her mother, but she had pretended to be serious about buying an apron so as to not offend the little old woman who had been running the establishment for years.
It had started snowing again, and Rory stuck out her tongue to catch a flake, a habit she had never broken. She blushed and laughed a little as Tristan caught her doing it. "Child-like, I know," she shrugged her shoulders unapologetically.
When she gave a sudden shiver, Tristan asked her, "Are you cold?"
She shrugged, "Not really, but I think the toque and scarf might have been a good idea." She watched in horror as he started to shrug out of his jacket to give to her, which would leave him in nothing but a shirt. "Don't be crazy, you want to literally freeze just so I can ward off a slight chill? That's ludicrous, put your jacket back on."
He hesitated, but seeing she was serious, zipped up his coat again. She had a passing giddy thought that if this were a movie this would be the point where one of them made a comment about body heat, and then he would put an arm around her, just to keep her warm, and things would take off from there.
When her cell phone rang, she was startled and felt a little guilty at her thoughts, especially when she noticed Logan's name in her call display.
"Hi Logan," she answered as she flipped open her phone, and noticed Tristan step a discreet distance away to give her some privacy.
Tristan wandered a couple steps away, and pretended to be examining something in a store window. He didn't really want to have to listen to the conversation, to the sweet nothings that couple liked to gush about over the telephone. Of course Rory and Logan weren't the 'sweet nothings' type, but it still wouldn't be fun to listen to, and feel like an awkward third wheel at that point even though he was the one physically here instead of Logan.
It seemed a long time before he felt her hand tap his shoulder, and he turned around to face her. "Logan said hi," she told him with a smile, but he could see her expression was a little strained. Obviously not just sweet nothings had been exchanged. Probably an argument about him in some way, shape or form, even if Rory didn't realize that was the cause. But he wasn't going to pry. This had been the second time Logan had called since they had left last night. Tristan didn't know what he expected to find out when he called, the two of them in bed together at her mothers house, with her still answering her phone?
"Want to head back to your place? Warm up?" was all he asked as she shivered again.
She nodded, and they turned in the direction of the Gilmore house. His initial inclination was to put his arm around her, but knew that if he did that it wouldn't just be for warmth, no matter what excuse he may give. So, he just stuck his hands in his pockets to go.
It didn't escape his notice as she hesitated, then turned off her cell phone before sticking it back into her purse.