Disclaimer: Do not own Gilmore Girls.
AN: You are soooooooooo great:):) thank you for all the wonderful reviews! Here comes chappie 3! And italics are still meaning flashback!
Chapter 3: Morning Glory
It was the shrill sound of an alarm clock that pulled Rory out of the embrace of a dream. As on autopilot she rolled on her side and hit the beeping thing.
"Au, Ace! That was uncalled for."
Still held by slumber's velvet fingers, she was confused. Alarm clocks did not speak. At least not hers. And if they did, they did not call her Ace. The beeping went on a few seconds longer, before it stopped.
Rory crawled deeper under the soft covers. She felt so comfortable that only the thought of getting up made her cringe. Getting more aware she suddenly opened her eyes. This were not her covers, this was not her bed, not her bedroom, not her clock. Completely disorientated she sat up.
Logan was brutally awakened by Rory's fist hitting him in the head. The yelling of his alarm clock was issue number two. God, morning had come way to quickly. He set out the monstrous beeping thing and turned his head to face Rory. Only a pluck of her brown hear was sticking out from under the covers. Suddenly she jumped up, frantically looking around the room.
"Morning there, Ace." He said.
She looked adorable. Her messy hair sticking out in every direction except down, her eyes barely open, her eyebrows furrowed, a slight pout playing on her lips. Her eyes locked with his. She didn't seem to recognize him, for her eyebrows furrowed even more.
"Loooo-gan.." he clarified.
She hit him on the arm, abruptly curling her lips into a smile.
"I just need a little time to wake up. Did I hit you earlier?" she asked.
"You did. You banged your fist on my head."
"Sorry.." she patted him on the head, "I always have the clock on the left…"
Logan smirked: "I figured… But left is my territory, for future references."
"I like left too!" she pouted.
"Well that's too bad.. cause this is my bed."
She stuck her tongue out to him. It was so strange; waking up next to Logan. He never stayed. Not the first night, not the nights that followed. She never asked, he never told. And now waking up next to him in his apartment in his bed was just plainly weird…Good weird, though. Definitely good weird. She looked at him once again. He looked a little ruff around the edges. Hair even more helter-skelter than usual, stubbles on his chin, bedroom eyes. Without question thumbs up for Logan in the morning. She just then noticed she was wearing a Yale T-shirt.
"Huh… can't remember pulling that on," she said fingering the navy blue shirt.
"I had to wrestle you…" Logan laughed, "Man, you're a vast sleeper."
"You undressed me?" she asked her cheeks slightly pinking.
Logan smirked: "It's not like I haven't seen you in your birthday suit before. And vice versa. You don't have to be shy around me, Ace."
"I know." She said meekly pulling the covers up till only the tip of her nose was showing.
"So the fridge did not do, huh? You plundered my closet?" he asked her. Enough embarrassment for one morning, he thought.
Rory started laughing.
"Yes, can you explain me something?"
"Did you find porn or something?" he asked her with raised eyebrows.
"Well I don't know.. Do you have any…" she wiggled hers.
"To get on a man's consciousness, that man has to have one." Logan smirked.
"And you don't have one?"
"No, I'm shameless…"
"Huh… so what's the story behind the pictures where you are running around in green tights?"
Logan's smirk disappeared.
"Excuse me?"
"I found pictures of you running around in green tights, very fierce creature… how old were you? 8? 9?"
"I was imagining I was the Hulk and I was 8." Logan stated, "and don't you dare laughing!"
"Quit the display of manhood…" Rory roared with laughter. "A boy so skinny as a stick running around the yard naked except for frog green tights.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaace…"Logan whined, "I'm sure you have done your share of embarrassing things."
"What time is it?" She suddenly asked. Logan glanced at the clock.
"Almost 8."
"I'm so late! I have a class at 8.30!" She was on the verge of jumping out of bed when Logan grabbed her T-shirt.
"Relax. Just skip your first class. When is your next one?"
"At noon. But I can't skip class!" she said putting her feet on the cold hard wooden floor.
"Sure you can! I do it all the time." Logan smirked.
"Uhu… And you are the measurement standard for the average IVY-league student." Rory rolled with her eyes.
"Believe me, the average student DOES skip a class once in a while."
"Well I don't like skipping class." She pouted.
"What class is it?"
"What does it matter?"
"Just indulge me.."
"Poli. Sci."
"From Davenport?"
"Yes. Why?" Rory looked confused at the smirking Logan.
"No reason, just curious… So what are you kids learning these days? Still using 'Goldstein' I suppose…"
Rory nodded, the look on her face getting more and more puzzled.
"North South relations?"
"Logan! What is your point?"
"Huh… there actually is none, but it's a quarter past 8 now, so no way you are going to be on time and Davenport, - not too keen on naughty children." He grinned.
Rory opened her mouth, but closed it again. The indignation prevented her from thinking straight.
"You are horrible!" she eventually exclaimed. "You are a horrible, time- stalling butt-faced miscreant!"
"Now where have I heard that before?" Logan mused smirking. She smacked him with her pillow and succeeded to hit him good a few times before he snatched the pillow from her and pulled her in bed. Rory let out a shriek as the soft and warm Egyptian cotton covers swallowed her whole. The blissful peace and quiet in the apartment was invaded by rustling sheets and a hysteric laughing Rory.
--gggggggg--
"Oh my GOD!" Rory yelled at the sight of his bathroom.
Logan got out of bed and went to see what was wrong.
"What?"
"You have a bathtub!"
"I have a bathtub…"
"A bathtub!"
"Yes, a bathtub and a toilet and a sink and a shower…"
"A bathtub!"
"Rory, you're scaring me."
"A bathtub!"
Logan shook his head.
"You want in the bathtub?"
"I can?" She looked at him like a giddy five year old.
"Yes, Ace… embrace the bathtub.." Logan laughed.
"Bathtub!"
He laughed again at her joyful facial expression
"Do you mind if I jump in the shower, while you go tubbin'?" he asked her.
She shook her head and turned on the tap. From a linen closet he pulled a few towels and placed them on the edge of the tub as Rory pulled the T-shirt over her head and blushed profoundly when she noticed that he was watching her.
Logan smiled.
"You're beautiful, you know that, right?"
Rory blushed even more if that was even possible. He pulled her into his embrace, her warm skin against his, running his fingers down her bare back.
"Thank you for staying," he murmured in her hair.
"Thank you for letting me use your tub." She murmured back in his neck.
He laughed, lightly slapping her butt.
"Well go on! Get your cute butt in the tub before the water turns cold." Rory giggled and pinched his side.
"You think I have a cute butt?" she asked.
"Based on previous research I can safely state that you in fact do have a cute butt."
"My butt is eternally grateful for the recognition."
" Anytime."
He let his arms down, letting her go.
With a loud: "OH LORD THIS IS GOOD." She let her body slip in the hot water. Logan turned around making his way to the shower when she called him.
He turned around.
"Your butt is pretty cute too."
"Oh shush," he laughed, "you make me blush."
--gggggggggggggg—
After an hour Rory still did not attempts to get out of the bathtub.
"Ace, come out of there! You've been tubbin' for an hour! That just can't be healthy. You'll get all wrinkly and probably shrink." He called from the kitchen, turning the page of his paper. No answer. With a sigh he got up and knocked on the door.
"You still breathing in there?" No answer.
"I have coffee." 3…2…
"I'll be there in a sec!" her muffled response came.
Atta girl. He smirked and returned to the kitchen, getting the largest mug he had out of the cabinet and filling it to the rim with steaming coffee, before resuming his reading.
--ggggggg—
After her class Rory desperately needed a caffeine fix. She was heading for a coffee stand, when suddenly someone pulled her in a corner…
Rory was padding to the coffee stand. She had been unable to concentrate on the English lit class what so ever… And although she would have found Rushdie's Satanic Verses very interesting, she hadn't heard a word the professor was saying. Her mind was focused on Logan and on the night they had spent together… Suddenly someone pulled her in the corner. Confused she turned around and looked right in Logan's chocolate eyes. He smirked before kissing her.
"Logan," she uttered out of breath, "everybody can see us."
"So let them see.." was his answer before his lips crashed into hers again.
"I need coffee," she murmured against his lips. God, he smelt good.
"Well, lets get you some then…"He slung an arm around her waist and led her to the coffee stand. While they waited in line, Rory just watched him. His warm eyes, the blond chaos on his head and his smile, that always seemed to be present. And then there was his body…
"Ace?"
"Huh… what?"
"Black or late? Big or small?" Logan asked.
Rory felt her cheeks turning red.
"Uhm.. large black one." She really had zoned out there for a moment.
He handed her the cup and gave the coffee guy a twenty. By the time he had collected his change and his own coffee her cup was as good as empty.
He smirked.
"What?"
"It's nothing… you just keep amazing me. That coffee was boiling hot and you downed it in a blink."
"Years of training, my friend."
They sat down on a free bench nearby. The air was filled with an autumn breeze and an uncomfortable silence. It was Logan who broke it.
"We need to talk…"
"I would like to see you again… like last night, I mean…"Rory blushed. This was so weird.
"That's what we need to talk about."
"You didn't.. ?" she was searching for the right words.
"Oh no!" he smirked, "you're amazing, Ace, no complaints." There was a brief silence again.
"I like you," he then said, "and I value you as friend. Therefore I don't want you to get hurt. Commitment isn't my thing, Ace, and there is nothing I can offer you. With me you're bound to get hurt."
"I don't WANT anything from you, Logan, other than your company once in a while." She answered, "No strings"
"You think that now, Rory. Eventually you'll want strings and you'll get hurt when I can't provide them."
"Aren't we full of ourselves?" she asked bitter.
"Full? God, Rory, I bloody well know that you are way too good for me. That's why I'm telling you this."
"That's not true…"
"It is. You're beautiful, intelligent, witty, sweet and caring. You're like the billboard for a perfect girlfriend! Me, on the other hand the complete opposite of a good boyfriend or just boyfriend for that matter…"
Rory had to digest those words. Yes, she used to be girlfriend- type- of- girl, but Logan she liked in such a different way than Jess or Dean. She simply wanted him. And if it meant she had to settle for the next best thing, she would.
"Logan, I don't want commitment. I want a careless, no-strings attached relationship with you…"
Logan took a deep breath. He doubted she could do it, just the way he couldn't or wouldn't do commitment. But truth to be told, he wanted more nights like that as well as he wanted her company. A little voice inside his head kept nagging, that he was doing the wrong thing as he leaned in to kiss her.
Rory smiled.
"So care to join me for dinner, tonight?" he asked.
"I would love to, but I can't. Dinner with my grandparents."
Logan nodded.
"I could eat something afterwards with you…"
"That's a start…"
She smiled. God, that man was sexy.
Logan kissed her soundly on the lips.
"You have got to stop doing that," Rory laughed.
He winked.
"Coffee, Ace?"
"Do you even have to ask?"
They strolled to the coffee cart.
"Two large black ones, with just a little cinnamon and chocolate and a small plain black one." He said.
"That you have got to stop doing too!" she said.
"What?"
"Buying me 2 expensive coffees every time."
"Well, Ace you leave me no choice. If I want to have coffee WITH you I have to buy 2 coffees! Otherwise I'm having coffee, while you are staring at it."
She pouted, knowing it was true… How was it that he seemed to know her so well, but she didn't really know him. Because he didn't let her… She took the coffee from him and strolled to their bench while he paid. She sat down and wondered why he was so reluctant to open up towards her. He came her way and laughed noticing that her first cup was empty already.
"See?" He handed her the second one and sat down next to her.
She smiled.
"Cheers!" He said. "To morning glory!"
She 'clung' her cup with his.
"To morning glory!" She took a sip. "And your bathtub!"
AN: Hope you like it! Let me know what you think:)