A/N: I own nothing, sadly. Everything belongs to those lucky, lucky Palladinos.

Thank you all so much for your kind reviews! I really appreciate them, and they definitely motivate me to keep up with the writing!

Today

Rory knocked firmly on Tristan's door. She needed to know why he'd called Paris, why he'd asked about Logan, but she would wait until dinner was over. If it was a rational reason, surely Tristan would bring it up? Explain himself? Of course, she couldn't think of any rational reasons, but it was certainly possible that there was one.

The door opened suddenly. Tristan smiled at her, one of those stunning brilliant smiles that lit up his whole face. One of those smiles she had never seen at Chilton.

"Hey!" he said happily, "You're right on time! Come on in." He moved aside to let her pass. Rory entered, taking her coat off and handing it to him. She moved into the apartment, looking around her. It was a nice place, but not extravagant. Cleaner than the typical male apartment, with rugs on the floor and framed prints on the walls, it had a welcoming feeling to it. And something smelled delicious. Tristan led her to the kitchen and offered her a drink, which she accepted.

"I like your place." she said, filling the quiet.

"Thanks." she smiled. "It was pretty nasty when we first moved in, but Alex said he was never going to get a girl to date him unless we decorated the place."

"Alex?" Rory inquired.

"Oh—my roommate. He's great. Society but not, well, the way I was. He's out now, but you'll get to meet him later." Tristan stirred something on the stove.

"So…It smells wonderful." Rory said, again feeling the need to fill the brief silence. She just wanted to poke him until he explained what was going on, but until then, she was afraid to speak freely, worried that an accusation would slip out.

"Thanks! I hope it tastes as good as it smells." Tristan finished stirring, tapped the spoon on the pot and set it aside. He took a deep breath and turned to Rory.

"Look, there's something I have to tell you." he said. He had known, when he spoke to Paris, that she would tell Rory what they had talked about. But it was important for him to know, and Paris was the only person who could tell him who wouldn't be on Logan's side. "I called Paris yesterday."

"I know." Rory replied. She started to say more but closed her mouth. She wanted to hear his story. She folded her arms, determined that if it weren't a good story she would leave.

"Yeah. I figured you would. But I had to—I had to find something out before I saw you." Tristan looked apologetic.

"Oh?" Rory asked, giving nothing away.

"On Friday I went out with Alex. We went to a LDB party. And I met Logan."

"Oh?" Rory repeated, really interested now.

"Yeah." Tristan looked down. "He was talking about how he was going to get back together with some girl, some 'Ace'. I didn't like him. I…REALLY didn't like him. He was so confident, so smug, so pompous, so…so sure that she couldn't resist him. And then I found out that it was you that he was calling 'Ace', and, I don't know, I went a little crazy."

Rory cocked a brow. "Oh?" she encouraged coolly, and slightly threateningly.

"I didn't fight him or anything!" Tristan reassured her. "I just…I kind of…I implied that we might have had a history." He looked hopefully at her, finding no softening in her face, and looked down again, bringing one hand around to play with the back of his neck awkwardly. "And then I might have told his friends that I had a claim on you. Um. To stop them from hitting on you unless you wanted them to. And then I had to make sure you didn't actually like the guy, because then I'd have to apologize, and I REALLY didn't want to, especially because his face was just priceless, but I would have. Um. So." He stood there, shamefaced, and waited. Waited for her to scream at him. Waited for her to stomp out of his apartment. Waited for her to tell him that she expected him to be fair in grading her, but that she didn't want to see him outside of class ever again. Instead, she—laughed?

Rory threw her head back and howled with laughter. This was perfect. This was utterly, completely, perfect. In one fell swoop, Tristan had insulted Logan, gotten the ever-more-attentive-in-that-slightly-more-than-friendly-way members of the LDB off her back, and apologized to her. It was genius. And wait until Lorelai heard! After a few minutes, she finally calmed enough to begin speaking. "You—told—him—You—I—oh—ow!" she collapsed with laughter again, this time picturing Logan's face. It was beautiful. Tristan straightened, and began to grin. As Rory continued laughing, he began to chuckle himself. "His face!" she howled, and he laughed along with her. Their laughter slowly calmed, and they stood in companionable silence for a moment.

"So." Tristan began. "I take it you're not mad at me?"

"No!" Rory stated emphatically. "I am definitely not mad. It was a little ill-advised, given that you didn't know how I felt, but it was kind of—sweet—too."

"I'm glad." Tristan grinned at her. "Whew! So, you hungry?"

"Do you even have to ask?"

"Good! So, we can eat, we can laugh, and we can talk about all of the things we have done in the past few years that do not involve me humiliating myself in front of you!"

"Aw!" Rory pouted. "But I like it when you humiliate yourself. It's so—cute!"

Tristan narrowed his eyes in mock anger. "Humph! See if I let you have seconds!"

"Noooo!" Rory cried in false fear, and laughed up at him. Dinner was going to be fun. Today was turning out to be a very good day.