A/N: I own bupkis, it's all the property of those lucky, lucky Palladinos!

And thank you all so much for all of your kind reviews! I love getting them, so please, write more! (the more I get, the more inspired I am to keep writing in defiance of the need to do other work--or, indeed, to sleep!)

Months

As she straggled towards her Arabic section on Monday, Rory was very conscious of the fact that it had been months since she was in school. She hadn't expected it, but it was a lot harder to get back into the swing than normal. It had been—pleasant—to come home from work for the last several months and know that there was nothing she had to do until it was time for work again in the morning. Now she was finding it hard to accept that even on the weekends, there was still work that needed to be done for the following week, that there was no real time off. And of course the sound of Paris and Doyle fighting and—well, she preferred to think it was all fighting—was a little distracting. But she had persevered, and everything was done for this week. She had paid special attention to the Arabic homework—she knew it was shallow, but she wanted to impress Tristan, wanted him to think that she was gifted with languages. Of course, she also wanted a good grade, but Tristan was probably the stronger motivating force this time!

Talking with her mother on Friday had made her realize that there was nothing wrong in thinking of Tristan as a man, and an attractive man at that. If he had changed as much as he seemed to have, then he was not only attractive but eligible: while it was too soon after her break-up for anything serious, Rory had no intention of letting Tristan think of her as just another student—or as the girl who broke his heart. They had failed at friendship before, and she wasn't going to let that happen again. If Logan had taught her anything, it was the value of going after things she wanted. Logan might be history, but she intended to remember that lesson. She wasn't going to try to influence her grades with anything other than her brains, but she might try to influence Tristan to think of her as more than a painful part of his past.

She made it to class just in time, and didn't get the chance to speak with Tristan before he started the days exercises. She watched him out of the corner of her eye as he moved from pair to pair, only giving her full attention to her partner when he moved closer. He really was gorgeous. How had she not noticed that at Chilton? He had a different energy now than she remembered him having—then he had been on edge, burning up from the inside like Knox Overstreet from Dead Poets Society. Even when he was flirting or teasing or charming, he had an edge of tension, as though it would only take one thing to make him explode. Now he seemed calm. Relaxed. His smile as he spoke to one of the other students was genuine, and his eyes were kind. He winked at her when it was her turn, corrected her partner, and moved on, otherwise acting no differently than he had with anyone else. This new Tristan was a mystery. He seemed so content with himself, but the other day he had been so raw. So damaged. How could he be both?

Rory shook her head and concentrated on the dialog. There would be time to worry about this after class.

Tristan had left the party fairly early on Friday. He needed time to think about what he had learned, and he didn't want to deal with Logan any more than he had to. When he'd left the bar, Logan was surrounded by several pretty Han Solo groupies, and didn't seem to be fighting to escape them too hard. Maybe he didn't really mean to try and get Rory back—but Tristan still needed to figure out how to deal with him if he did. He ran into Finn on his way out.

"Leaving so early mate?" the tipsy Australian inquired. "Don't you want to meet some of the girls? There are lots of lovely girls here—none of the redheads though, I like the redheads."

"That's ok Finn," laughed Tristan, "I'm not looking for a redhead, they're all yours. Good luck! I've got someone I'm working on, but she's not here tonight." He wasn't worried about it getting back to Logan, he had made his intentions fairly clear there. But Rory was in society circles now, and as Finn and Colin had indicated, if Logan didn't make a better effort to get her back than he was right now, she would be considered fair game in no time. He didn't want to have to deal with that, but more, he didn't want her to have to. He was fairly sure, even after her relationship with Logan, that Rory had no idea what it was like to be available in this group, the kinds of pressure these men could and would put on her, especially as a known ex- of ladies man Logan Huntzberger—and he didn't want her to find out. He continued, watching Finn's reaction carefully, "I think you know her. Rory. Gilmore."

"Rory! Rory Gilmore?" sputtered Finn. "But-reporter girl? She's—Logan's—Ace! She's not- well- not really- she's not available!" He had obviously been joking about going after her himself, or he wouldn't be so upset about the idea of Tristan chasing her. "You can't—how do you even know her!"

"She may have been Logan's 'Ace', but she was my 'Mary' first." said Tristan calmly. He had to present this the right way, but he knew he could manage it. If he could keep the marauding hordes of rich boys away from her, he might have a good shot at getting her to stick around until the end of the semester. And the best way to do that was to convince them he had prior claim. "We were at Chilton together. She needed some time to grow up, figure things out, so I stepped back. But I'm here now."

Finn looked stunned. Logan was not going to like this, not at all. DuGrey had a prior claim? Hell, DuGrey had a claim at all? While their fathers might have been punctilious over matters of precedence in dating, they tended to feel that the girl had a right to her own opinion in the matter, so they only backed off if she showed a definite preference—or if the guy fell really hard, as Logan had done. But it sounded like Tristan was about to muddy Logan's waters. "Oh crap." Finn muttered softly.

"Yes." Tristan stated. He looked at Finn for a moment to make sure he understood, nodded, and then left. Logan was going to be much more difficult to deal with, but this was the only way to protect Rory. And, he had to admit, selfishly, to keep her single until he could ask her out. For that matter, Rory was probably going to kill him if he didn't explain things well. But he would worry about that later.

Tristan had a plan in place by the time class rolled around. He needed more information. Rory had obviously changed—changed in some ways he liked and some he probably wouldn't—but it meant he didn't understand her the way he wanted to. He needed to figure out who Rory was before he could do anything else. And he needed to warn her about his conversation with Logan…and with Finn…oh, she was going to be pissed…

He made it through class, concentrating hard on not looking at her, on paying attention to the other students. How to tell her that he had declared her off limits? That he had told Logan they had a prior relationship? Oh, this was going to be painful. Maybe he should give her a couple of days, let her see that he wasn't just pursuing her like he had before. If she realized he was making an effort to act totally normal with her, maybe she would be more likely to understand his reasoning? It seemed worth a try.

After class, Rory slowly gathered her things. Several of the girls in the section were asking Tristan questions, clearly hoping for a bit more of his attention than the purely academic. They flirted and blinked and shoulder-touched and did the hair twirl, but he appeared oblivious to their intentions. He didn't even smile overly much as he answered their questions and sent them on their way. She grabbed her bag as he left the room and caught up with him just outside.

"So, teach, no 'pie' today?" she asked laughingly. She figured with a casual opening like that he wouldn't think she was just another of the girls hitting on him.

He laughed. "Nope, the conversation was completely pastry-free. Which is kind of a shame, come to think of it!"

"Maybe I'll try to throw one in next time, liven things up." She glanced over at him as they walked, trying to think of an opening. "So, we got cut off last time."

"Yeah, we did. How did the meeting go?" He was friendly but not expansive, and she realized this was going to be a little more difficult than she had thought. She wasn't used to being the one who did the chasing or the asking, she was used to being pursued.

"Good. Well, not good, exactly, but I think there might not be open mutiny for the next little while. You know Paris though—you can never tell what she'll do next!"

He laughed. "God, yes, she's a firecracker, that girl! I'll never forget the time she beat me up."

"Paris beat you up? You? Tristan the King of Chilton? I'm shocked you admit that in public!"

"Well, we were only six. And I suppose she really only hit me once or twice." He sighed nostalgically. "She claimed I broke her butterfly jar. Never touched the thing, it gave me the creeps—all those dead bugs. But you'll keep this between us, right? Got to protect the rep!" He said laughingly, winking at her.

"Of course!" Rory teased. "Heaven forbid the big strong man get a rep as a butterfly lover!" She slowed as they neared the corner. "I have to head to another staff meeting, but—do you want to get together, talk, catch up? Without a time limit?" Rory cocked her head and looked up at him as he seemed to consider her invitation. She could feel herself starting to blush, and willed the heat to subside. This was just an old friend asking another old friend to get together, this was nothing more. Ok, it was something more, but she was damned if he was going to realize that until she figured out what she wanted!

"I—would like that." Tristan replied. He was startled that she had asked him. It wasn't a date, nothing so clear-cut as that, but she had invited him to spend time with her outside of class. This was definitely a good sign. "What did you have in mind?" He would let her take the reins, see where she was going with this. Anything would be good, but her suggestion would give him an idea of her intentions.

"Maybe… dinner? Tomorrow? I've got class until 6, but if you're free after that…" She had to resist the urge to dig her foot into the ground like a five-year-old, waiting to see what he would say. This shouldn't make her so nervous!

"Tomorrow?" Tristan stalled for time, waiting for his heart to settle down. She had asked him to dinner! That could almost be construed as a real date! Of course it couldn't be a real date, they were just old friends catching up, and she was probably pretty busy during the day, and anyway they weren't allowed to date, but. Still. Dinner was way better than coffee, or even lunch. Dinner was…ambiguous. "Yeah… I can manage that. You're free at 6?" she nodded. "I'm not on the meal plan, so why don't you come by my place and I'll make something? I promise not to give you food poisoning!" he teased, holding his breath. She considered for a moment, and then nodded again.

"Sure! Tomorrow shortly after 6 it is then. Email me your address and let me know what to bring. And I'm trusting you on this edible food thing—I would never have pegged you for a cook!"

"Tomorrow I will tell you all of my deep dark cooking secrets, I promise! Once, I even made an Iron Chef style liver ice cream. Not my most successful meal ever!" he grinned, and they went their separate ways.