Not Dreaming


A/N: This took a while longer than I had thought to get out. Sorry about that.

Thank you so much for the reviews guys! :D

Once again thanks to Knowhere for being an amazing beta. :D


Chapter 14. Yale Tales


He was cold; his body ached after sitting still for so long and his stomach was reminding him that he hadn't eaten in over ten hours. But as his bag clashed against the back of his legs with every step as he hurried across the campus and over to the dorms, he barely noticed his hunger.

Opening the front door he took a deep breath, stopping for a moment to gather his thoughts. Then he slowly made his way through the dark and empty hallway and up to the right door.

He knew it was only his imagination, but the atmosphere felt frosty when he opened the door. He thought he could almost see his breath freeze outside his mouth and there was a definite chill running down his arms. And it had nothing to do with the time of the year.

He closed the door slowly and placed the keys down on the desk to his left, looking around trying to determine where she was. Then he heard a loud bang from her room, the room he almost started to refer to as theirs, and winced.

Hesitantly he approached the half open door, setting down his bag on the couch on his way. Halfway there he heard another bang, this time followed by a crash and some swearing, and he grimaced, taking a deep breath.

He reached the doorway and suddenly found himself in what looked almost like a war zone. And in the middle of it stood a very angry Rory, hair on end and clothes askew.

"What are you doing?" he asked carefully, momentarily too stunned to remember what he was going to say.

"God damnit, you scared me!" she exclaimed, jumping a little at his voice, but soon went back to plain angry. "What does it look like?" she snarled, eyes flaring and arms flailing in the air. "I'm cleaning!"

"Huh." It took him about half a second to realize that was far from the right thing to say, but then it was already too late. He winced again in anticipation of what was to come and was far from disappointed.

"Huh?" she almost yelled. "That's your response? Huh?" Her eyes weren't just flaring now; he almost thought they were shooting ice bolts at him. "I waited! For two hours I sat here waiting for you! Then I figured your 'I might be a little late' time was up and tried to call. And guess what? Your phone is off!" By now she was full out screaming.

"I'm sorry…" he started, trying to get closer to her, but she was still waving her arms violently around her.

"You said you'd be here at four! In the afternoon! It's almost midnight now! Where the hell were you?" Too frustrated to care how childish she looked she stomped her foot hard in the floor, making some of the scattered things around her jump.

He winced as she continued to scream at him, and was just about to say something when she started up again.

"I didn't know if I was supposed to be worried that something had happened to you or angry because you didn't show up!" She stopped, standing still in the middle of the room and let her arms fall to her sides.

Deciding that the immediate risk of bodily harm was over he took the final step up to her and encircled her with his arms. "I'm sorry," he mumbled against her hair.

"Do you know how many different things I imagined might have happened? How many times I thought about calling the hospital?" She felt all the rage that had filled her for the last couple of hours seep out. "Where were you?" she asked again, hugging him back.

"On a bench on the other side of campus. I got inspired for the next chapter of the book and I sat down to write. And I couldn't seem to stop and suddenly it was a quarter to midnight." He tightened his hold on her and pressed a kiss to her temple. "I'm really sorry."

"Don't disappear like that again," she whispered against his chest, all of a sudden feeling completely drained. "Please."

"I'll try not to," he whispered back, loosening his grip on her a little and guiding her with him out of the room and back to the common room. One look on the room they left behind had told him it would take a while to get it back to livable condition.

"I'm too tired to be angry at you anymore," she said after she had sat down on the couch beside him. "But don't think that means you're completely forgiven," she added as she curled up against him.

"Okay," he said, holding her close.

"I'm beat. I've been working on autopilot for the last three hours or so," she said, yawning.

"How long have you been…uh…cleaning?" he asked, glancing at the disaster in the next room.

"Since seven," she said, starting to feel her eyes falling close. "God, this has been such a bad day."

"Want to talk about it?" he asked. "You know, besides the obvious."

She yawned again and nodded a little. "You know the class I've been looking forward to the past month? Well, it was this morning and it was a complete waste of time. The professor was sick or something, so we got a replacement, and he had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. It was terrible."

"Sorry," he said, and kissed her gently on her temple.

"Not your fault." She turned her head up a little and gave him a small smile. "Then, when it was finally over I went to get coffee to get in a better mood and someone ran into me and I spilled all my coffee all over me. So now I had coffee all over my clothes and no more money for new coffee and ten minutes to get to the next class. So I ran home and changed and got there five minutes late, still without coffee, and I almost fell asleep during class. It was really bad."

"And when I went by the paper on my way to lunch to see how things were going there were four people who hadn't finished their articles yet. They should have been done this morning. I still hadn't had any coffee and I just got so angry. I yelled at them and I think I called then some really bad things." She cringed as she remembered what she had said then.

"Hey, it's okay. They'll get over it," he said and squeezed her arm reassuringly.

"I hope so," she sighed and shook her head. "But I shouldn't have lost it so completely on them. The articles weren't that important and they could be done easily in the afternoon."

"You can always explain and apologize if you want to," he said.

"Yeah, I already did." She yawned again and stretched a little before settling down comfortably in his arms again. "I still feel really bad about it though."

"And because of that they'll forgive you before you see them again," he said and stroked her arm gently. "You should sleep."

"I'm not done yet," she said when he started getting up from the couch. "I ran into Logan this afternoon."

"The one I think you're talking about?" he asked, sitting back down again.

"The very one," she confirmed and sat up, looking at him.

"Huh, what's he doing here?" he asked.

"I don't know," she said slowly. "I saw him, turned around and walked away. I don't even know if he saw me."

"Come here," he said, motioning for her to sit back down against him. She complied and they sat there in silence for a couple minutes. "You want to know why he's here?" he asked then, startling her out of her thoughts.

"I don't know," she said uncertainly, once again settling in comfortably. "I was not expecting to see him again, ever, so I wasn't at all prepared when I did. And then I didn't really have time to think about it."

"Okay," he said again, thinking about it and taking a deep breath. Closing his eyes he tightened his hold of her.

"I'll think about that tomorrow," she said, yawning again. "Now I want to sleep. I'm exhausted."

"Yeah, me too," he said and stood up, pulling her with him. He waited till she was in the bathroom and then he fell back down on the couch with a sigh. This was not what he had thought he'd do now when he left that morning. And he definitely hadn't thought he'd be thinking about Logan.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to clear his head. Then he went over to survey the mess in the other room. It would probably take a couple hours to get it livable again and there was no way they could sleep there tonight. He sighed again and went to get some spare sheets and a blanket for the couch. Then he put his cell phone on charge.


The first thing she saw when she emerged from the bathroom ten minutes later was that the couch was made up for the night. "You don't have to sleep on the couch," she said, not very comfortable with the thought of sleeping without his arms around her. She had gotten too used to it by now.

"Yes I do," he said from the other end of the room, where he was eating an apple to try to still his grumbling stomach. "And so do you," he added before she could protest again. "The bed is not exactly…sleepable." He grimaced a little, not sure if it was from the word or the reason behind it.

"Oh." She glanced in the direction of the now closed door and mimicked his grimace. "Well, you know who's sleeping on the edge," she said and crept in under the blanket, making herself comfortable.

"I'm sorry about today," he said when he got in beside her.

"I'm glad you're here now," she said sleepily, laying her head down on his shoulder. "Besides, I can think of a couple ways for you to make up for it."


When he woke up the next morning she was no longer lying beside him and the sheets were cold, indicating that she had been up for a while. Stretching his stiff muscles he reached for his watch that was lying on the table. It showed half past six. He stared at it before shaking it and checking that it was working properly. It still said half past six. Granted an extra couple seconds, but still too early.

Rubbing his eyes to get the sleep out he sat up and scanned the room, finding her sitting against a wall, reading. Looking closer he recognized what she was reading and groaned, closing his eyes tightly.

"Rory, what are you doing?" he asked, watching her as she turned a page.

"I'm reading," she said absentmindedly, her eyes not leaving the page and not slowing down their travel over the words.

"I can see that, but why?" he asked, getting up from the couch and walking over to her, putting on a T-shirt on his way.

"I figured that since this was what made you late yesterday I had a right to read it." She still hadn't looked up from the pages, her eyes seemingly glued to the paper.

"I wanted to edit that before you read it," he said and sat down beside her, glancing at the page she was on.

"It's good," she said, finally looking up and meeting his eyes. "It might just be good enough to make you almost forgiven."

"Just like that?" he asked and she smiled at his puzzled expression.

"I said almost," she reminded him, her smile morphing into a grin. "You are coming with me to the dorm's Halloween party on Saturday."

"I'm what?" he exclaimed, staring at her satisfied grin.

"I already had mom make costumes; I just didn't know how to make you go with me." Her grin grew if possible even wider at his horrified look when she mentioned costumes.

"So, this is why you didn't yell more at me than you did last night, huh?" he asked and nodded to himself. "Just out of curiosity, how long have you been planning on dragging me to this?"

"Oh, not more than a month or so," she said, smiling innocently.

"A month? You've been trying to come up with a good reason for me to go for a month?" He looked at her astonished.

"Well, yeah," she admitted, smiling a bit sheepishly.

"How come I've never heard of this party before?" he asked, curious.

"Because I asked everyone not to say anything," she said. "And you were in Philly for most of the actual planning."

"You do know Halloween isn't on Saturday, right? Isn't the whole point of having a Halloween party to have it on the actual day?"

"You can't get out of this, you know," she said, shaking her head and grinning at him.

He sighed and looked at her, shaking his head at her apparent enthusiasm. "So, what are we gonna be then?"

"It's a surprise. You'll see tonight when mom comes by with the costumes." She leaned up and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Aren't you excited?"

"You have no idea," he muttered and slid down the wall a little more, resting his head against the hard surface.

"It will be fun, trust me," she said, leaning her head on his shoulder and taking his hand in hers.

"Where are Sarah and Emma?" he asked after a while, suddenly realizing he hadn't seen either of them since the morning before. The fact that Linda wasn't there was nothing new, since she never was when he was there, or any other time for that matter, but the other two he had grown accustomed to see early in the mornings.

"Oh, they had no classes today, so they went home yesterday afternoon," Rory said, almost adding a 'thankfully' at the end, but stopping herself just in time, not wanting to spoil the good mood of the morning.

"Oh, okay," he mumbled, feeling a little relieved. "Good thing they weren't here last night, huh?" he said, squeezing her hand a little.

"Yeah, probably," she said quietly and they both grew quiet again.

"You really think it's good?" he asked after a long silence and felt his heartbeat pace up as he waited for her answer.

"Of course I do!" She sat up straight and studied him where he sat slumped down against the wall, looking back at her with an unusually unsure look in his eyes. "I wouldn't have said that if I didn't."

He looked up at her, nodded and smiled a little before getting to his feet. "We should probably get ready and eat breakfast before you have to go to class."

She gave him a perplexed look as he reached down a hand to pull her up. Shaking her head she took his outstretched hand and smiled up at him. "You are buying breakfast," she said and walked past him to the bathroom, kissing him lightly on the cheek on her way.

"Yes ma'am," he agreed, staying in place, staring after her, wondering how long he'd have to make up for last night. At least she didn't act like she was angry at him, which he saw as a good thing. An angry Rory was hard to reason with and he did not want to encounter her if he could help it.

While he waited for her to be done with her shower he folded the sheets and blanket on the couch and then checked and double checked that his cell phone was charged before returning it to his bag. From now on he'd make sure it was always charged.


After they had both showered, dressed and packed their things they left the dorm and went to a small diner just off campus. It had become their usual breakfast place in the past months when he was here.

Breakfast was spent talking about normal things, possible articles for the paper, the script he had started reading the day before, the latest addition to the breakfast menu at the diner. Neither of them brought up the subject they both were really thinking about. Not until they were walking in silence to her first class.

"I think I want to know," she said, suddenly stopping in the middle of the walk way they were going down.

It took him a second to realize she had stopped and when he did he turned around, looking at her, meeting her wary eyes. "Okay," he said, standing still and waiting for her to continue. Although he'd tried to avoid thinking about it all morning he'd known this was coming. He still wasn't sure how he felt about it though.

"I know I'll just go around and wonder if I don't," she said and gripped his hand tighter.

"Yeah," he sighed, taking a step closer to her again. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to control his feelings. He wanted badly to tell her not to talk to him, but knew he couldn't, and wouldn't for that matter.

"I don't want to talk to him, just know why he's here," she said, almost as if she had been reading his mind.

He kissed her on the forehead and wrapped his free arm around her. "You know, I think you do want to talk to him. Figure out what really happened or something."

She thought about it for a while and then nodded. "Yeah, I probably do," she said with a sigh and hugged him back, then quickly withdrew to look at him. "You sure you're okay with this?" she asked.

"No," he admitted quietly, kissing her softly. "But you want to do it…"

"You do know that doesn't change things between us, right?" she interjected, cutting him off. "I won't want to get back with him or anything, just get everything sorted out so I can put it past me for good. I still love you; that's not changed. And it won't…"

Despite his feelings about her talking to Logan he couldn't help but smile at her rambling. With a slight chuckle he pulled her close again and kissed her, effectively cutting her off. "I know," he said, kissing her again, suppressing the relieved sigh that wanted to escape.

She smiled a little, kissing him back hard. "I love you," she whispered against his mouth. "But now I really have to go to class," she mumbled, pulling back reluctantly.

He hugged her tighter and then let go and they started walking again. He opened the door for her and she smiled a little at the gesture as she walked inside. He caught up to her and wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her close, as they walked the short distance to the class room.

They arrived at the door and stopped, turning to each other. He leaned in and gave her a soft kiss. "Have fun," he said with a smirk and released his grip on her waist.

"See you at lunch?" she asked, giving him another kiss and smiled when he pulled her closer again.

"I'll be there," he confirmed, somewhat regretfully once again letting her go and watched as she opened the door to the classroom and went in.


He spent the morning in the nearest library, wanting a quiet place to concentrate on the script. He had almost read it through when his watch beeped, signaling it was time for lunch. With a last glance at the page he was reading he somewhat reluctantly put it back in the bag and left the library.

When she emerged from the building after her second class that day he was leaning against the wall outside the main doors, waiting for her. He pushed himself off the wall and walked up to her. "Learned anything useful?" he asked as he wrapped his arm around her waist and kissed her temple.

"As a matter of fact, yes I did," she said, smiling at him and giving him a proper kiss. "It was really interesting."

"Good." He nodded and smiled at her enthusiasm. "So, where to for lunch?" he asked and gestured vaguely around them.

"The cafeteria is closest," she shrugged and looked at him questioningly.

"Sure," he agreed and they started off, his arm still wrapped around her waist.

"So, how was the script?" she asked, curious to know if there would be a new book or not.

"It's really good actually," he said and turned to her with a smirk. "I almost didn't want to put it down."

"Then it must be really good," she agreed, nudging him with her elbow and glared at him playfully.

His smirk grew wider as he watched her. "Feeling jealous of a book, are we?"

"Well, I won, so there isn't really much to feel jealous about, is there?" she asked. By now they had reached the cafeteria and he let go of her and opened the door. "And who says it's not you I'm jealous of?" She smiled brightly at him and entered, giggling as he shook his head at her.

A couple minutes later they were just about to sit down at an empty table when he spotted a familiar face across the room. After putting down his sandwich and soda he touched her elbow. "I guess you might get to know sooner than you expected," he whispered in her ear and cocked his head in the direction of Logan.

"Oh," she said, looking in the direction he indicated and took a deep breath. "I don't think I want to do this now."

"I don't think you have a choice," he said, unconsciously taking a small step closer to her when he saw Logan noticing them and approach. "Unless you want to leave now that is."

"No, I should get it over with," she said slowly, looking up at him, smiling slightly. "You want to stay?" she asked, almost hopefully.

"Sit here, trying to act friendly with my girlfriend's ex? I don't think so," he said, shaking his head.

"Why not?" she asked, glancing back at Logan who had almost reached them by now.

"Remember what happened last time we did that?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "I really don't want anything even close to that happening again, in any direction. You want to talk to him? Fine. Do I like the thought of that? No, but I can live with it. But I rather not have to talk to him, ever again."

"Okay," she sighed. "You're probably right."

He gave her a small smile and kissed her softly. "I'll be outside," he said

"I love you," she said and leaned in to kiss him again.

He wrapped both his arms around her, holding her tight and kissed her back. "I love you too," he said and then let her go, nodding a little, picked up his food and started off in the direction of the exit.

She took a deep breath and looked after him before turning around and finding herself face to face with Logan for the first time in almost a year. "Did you want something?" she asked, relieved that she didn't feel anything else than the lingering traces of anger when looking at him.

"I just wanted to say hi," Logan said, his eyes following the person he had just seen kiss her before leaving with a blank stare in his direction.

"Okay, hi," she said, trying to sound natural. "Do you mind if I eat? I'm starving," she said, sitting down and motioning to her food, thinking it wasn't a complete lie. She was hungry, though she might survive another hour or so. In reality she just wanted something to focus her mind on, to make this talk easier.

"Was that who I think it was?" Logan asked, redirecting his attention to Rory.

"That depends on who you think it was," she answered, opening her soda and taking a sip.

"Can I sit?" he asked, walking around the table to the chair opposite her.

"Yes," she said, only hesitating for a second and picked up a fry from the plate and nibbling at it.

"Can you at least look at me?" he asked, pulling out the chair and sitting down carefully.

She looked up at him, meeting his eyes with an as indifferent gaze as she could muster before turning her attention back to her food. "What are you doing here?" she asked, picking up a new fry, but dropping it back down, looking up at him again, locking eyes with him and holding his gaze.

"My father needed me here for something or other and I thought I'd take the opportunity to visit some old friends," he said with a nod to the people he had been talking to before.

"Ah, should have known," she said with a knowing look.

"Yeah, well…" he said with a dismissing gesture.

"So, checking up on friends huh?" she asked as casually as she could. She didn't' know how to ask the question she really wanted to.

"Yeah, I've been busy…" he started vaguely. "And maybe I thought I'd see you…and apologize for what happened. I didn't know if you'd want to talk to me at all."

"Me neither, but I think I needed to," she said slowly, once again looking down on her fries.

"You seem happy," he said then, making her look up and she thought she saw a regretful look on his face for a second.

"I am," she said with a small nod and smiled a little.


When she walked out of the cafeteria some time later she spotted him almost immediately, sitting on a bench with the seemingly forgotten soda can in one hand and a book in the other. She could also tell that he wasn't really concentrated on the words as much as he stared at the page. Smiling to herself she slowly approached and sat down beside him on the bench.

"Hi," he said and looked up at her, putting the soda down.

"Can you ever not know when I'm coming?" she asked with a sigh and laughed a little. "It's no fun when I can't sneak up on you."

"Are you gonna pout now?" he asked and smirked as she tried, but failed and a smile broke out on her face.

"Don't mock me!" she exclaimed, but couldn't help laugh more.

"So, how did it go?" he asked, suddenly serious again.

"Okay," she said. "It felt weird, but not more than expected. And it feels good to have it done and behind me completely."

"Good," he said, suddenly feeling lighter, but trying to ignore it. "So, what was he doing here?"

"Mitchum called, he came," she shrugged. "Nothing's changed it seems."

"Did you expect it to?" he asked.

"No, not really," she admitted. She reached out for his hand and intertwined their fingers, following the movement with her eyes. "This kinda ruined our lunch, huh?" she asked, looking up at him again. "Sorry about that."

"Kinda," he agreed, smiling at her. "But there will be more lunches."

"I'm still sorry though," she said, leaning her head on his shoulder.

"Well, in that case you can make up for it by going to dinner with me tonight."

"Consider it a date," she said, smiling to herself.

"When's Lorelai coming?" he asked then, remembering she was supposed to come by.

"Around six I think," she said, sitting up again. "She is going somewhere with Luke tonight, so they're dropping the costumes off on their way."

"Luke knows about this?" he asked with a grimace, glaring at her.

"You didn't seriously think that my mom could keep anything from Luke, did you?" she asked, giving him a pointed look and a bright smile.

"No, that would have been too much to ask, I guess," he said with a sigh.

"It's not that bad," she said and squeezed his hand. "But I should probably get going now, so I don't miss the meeting. I don't think they'd be happy with me if I don't show up. Especially after all the yelling I did yesterday."

When she didn't make a move to get up he stood up and pulled her with him. "Come on then," he said, smiling at her reluctance and with a firm grip on her hand started walking in the direction of the paper. "Don't worry about them, okay. They'll forgive you, I promise."

"I hope so," she sighed and followed.


After dropping her off at the paper he went directly back to the dorm and started organizing the mess she had made the night before. After studying it a little closer he realized it wasn't as bad as he first thought. It still took three hours to get everything back to looking they way it should and when he was done he fell down on the now clear bed.

He woke up with the feeling of something soft against his cheek, only then realizing he had fallen asleep. Opening his eyes he was met by Rory's eyes looking down on him, an amused expression lighting them.

"Hey, you're home," he said, trying to get his eyes to focus properly.

"And you've been busy, I see," she said smiling, her fingers lingering on his cheek.

"Yeah, I guess," he said with a yawn, stretching to get his muscles to wake up again. "What time is it?

"A quarter after five," she said after checking her watch. "I'm gonna take a shower before mom gets here."

"Want company?" he asked, reaching up a hand and trailing his fingers softly down her neck, smirking as she shivered at the touch.

"And who'd that be?" she asked, winking at him and started for the bathroom, barely containing her laughter when he almost jumped off the bed to follow her.

Her laughter was caught off though when he caught up to her just as she reached the bathroom door. And it was completely forgotten when he turned her around, pressing her up against the door and kissing her passionately.


They had just barely walked out of the bathroom again when they heard a knock. She stopped dead in her tracks in the middle of the room and looked down on her less than dressed appearance. The knock came again and she looked up at Jess, standing by the closet with a T-shirt in his hand.

"Are you gonna get that?" he asked, a wide smirk on his face as he nodded towards the door.

She blinked at him, snapped the T-shirt out of his hand and hurried over to the door, pulling the shirt over her head and quickly drying her hair on a towel on the way. On the other side of the door stood Luke and Lorelai, holding a garment bag each, and looking a bit surprised by her appearance.

"I was in the shower," she offered with a timid smile, feeling the blush rising on her cheeks.

"The shower, huh?" Lorelai commented, smiling knowingly at her flustered daughter.

Just then Jess came out of the other room, fully clothed, but his hair still wet, and leaned against the door frame. "Hello Luke, Lorelai," he said with a nod.

Luke just stared at him for a couple seconds before shaking his head. "Uhm…here are the…uhm…things… We should get going," he said awkwardly, reaching out the bag he was holding to Rory, not meeting her eyes.

"Um, yeah, we should go," Lorelai agreed, winking at Rory as she reached out her bag. "Have fun tonight," she said and waved, smiling at her now even more blushing daughter.

As they left Jess went up to the door and closed it, turning to his very much embarrassed girlfriend. "Are you gonna let those go?" he asked, motioning to the two bags she was holding to her body.

"In a moment, I have to recover first," she mumbled, taking a deep breath.

"Oh, come on. It wasn't that bad," he laughed. "Here, give me those. You've got a dinner to get ready for." Still chuckling he gave her a kiss and took the two bags, laying them out over the couch.

"Where are we going?" she asked and turned towards him again, feeling her cheeks returning to their normal color.

"You'll see," he simply said, while pulling down the zipper on one of the bags.

Grumbling over his lack of cooperation she quickly surveyed his clothes, a pair of faded jeans and a dark red shirt, trying to figure out what to wear. Finally she settled on a long sleeved red and black dress that matched his shirt and wouldn't be too cold.


When she returned after getting dressed, applying some mascara and brushing her hair she found him standing in the middle of the common room, an odd look on his face and staring at the two costumes now neatly placed side by side over the couch.

One was a long, flowing dress in a yellow, shimmering fabric with shoes that very much looked like they weren't there. The other consisted of an oversized coat with the cuffs turned back almost half their length, a pair of very well worn shoes and a sagged felt hat.

"Quite an odd pair, don't you think?" he asked, an eyebrow raised, his expression changing to one of appreciation as he turned his head towards her.

"Well, mom refused to make anything other than a pretty dress for me and I couldn't resist the opportunity to see my Dodger," she explained, feeling her cheeks color slightly again under his gaze.

"Ah, I knew there was a reason," he said, smiling at her and turned back to the costumes. "I don't think I would have made a very good prince Charming anyway."

"Well, I don't think I remember a white steed anywhere, but you can be quite charming, if you want to that is," she said and walked up to him, circling his waist with her arms from behind. "But you'll always be my Dodger."

"I think I can live with that," he said, ignoring the part about being charming for now and took her hands in his. "So, will Cinderella be ready for her ball this year?"

"Yes, she will," she said, kissing his neck. "Should we go?"

"Or we could just stay here," he suggested, closing his eyes and gripped her hands tighter as she left a trail of kisses down his neck.

"No, no backing out now," she said teasingly. "You promised me dinner."

"Then you should stop that," he said and groaned as she bit gently on his skin.

Giggling she gave his neck one last kiss and pulled back, satisfied with her result. "Come on, I'm getting hungry," she said and tugged on his hands to make him follow her.

"Evil woman," he muttered under his breath as he put on his coat, trying to slow down his breathing again. She only smiled brightly at him as response and intertwined their fingers again, opening the door.


They got back late after a long dinner at a small, quiet Italian restaurant not too far from campus. After dinner they had taken a walk through campus, almost circling it twice and when they finally entered the dorm it was close to midnight. Upon entering he quickly went to bed while she went to cover the costumes again.

He was lying on his back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling, when she crawled in next to him. He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her closer, till her head was resting on his chest. She let out a small sigh and settled in comfortably, her leg over his and one of her hands slowly twirling a lock of hair at his neck.

They lay still like that until he felt her let out a yawn and her fingers started to slow down. "Tired?" he asked with a yawn, closing his eyes.

She mumbled something unintelligible and he could feel her trying to hold back another yawn. He tightened his grip on her a little and bent his head to kiss her on the forehead.

"G'night Rory," he said softly and was soon asleep, tired after the past two days and really glad to not be sleeping on the couch again.