Disclaimer: I do not own anything that comes from "Gilmore Girls" or Luther Vandross.

Author's Note: I had planned on keeping it a one shot, but I've decided to do a set of revisions to scenes between Rory and Tristan as they should have gone. Please continue to review and tell me what you think.

Thanks to Curley-Q, Kate, KariandTK, Sleeping to Dream About You, chezzybabe, LoVe23, lexie9890 and Jeremy Shane for reviewing!

Scene: Tristan has left for military academy. It has been approximately three months since the Romeo and Juliet play. The piano scene went according to the show, not my version (confound it!)

Need No More

Tristan strolled down the hallway stuffed full of boys and girls in heavily starched camouflage. He was laughing with some friends as they headed to their final class of the day: English. If the sound of his laughter was a bit forced, no one commented on it. He responded half-heartedly to the various flirtations of the many girls who sought to replace his one and only. They couldn't comprehend the depth of feeling he'd had for the girl he'd left behind.

Ever since he had started attending the Eisenhower Military Academy, rumors had spread of his player reputation at Chilton. Girls who had already tried every boy in their class chased after Tristan's company, hoping to be the first to test his experience. When he failed to respond to their obvious tactics with anything other than humor and friendship, the gossips had dug shamelessly for the reason.

They had found out the reason was Rory Gilmore, otherwise known as Mary to Tristan. As he sat in his seat, the whispers flowed around him. Apparently the king of Chilton had fallen hard for Rory, a girl not only immune to his brand of charm, but attached to another boy. After having settled on an uneasy friendship, he had gotten into trouble and had been shipped here before the two were able to progress to something more.

Tristan knew they were talking about him. He could feel their eager eyes on the back of his neck. He hadn't let his irritation with the attention show, but he wished a new rumor or intrigue would surface. As he clicked his mechanical pencil, he smiled as he realized the irony. Not too long ago, Rory had probably felt the same irritation with the Chilton students.

A slash of pain lanced through him as he thought of Rory. He had said goodbye to her at the Romeo and Juliet play, but he often found himself wishing he could turn and find her with her head buried in a book. Simply seeing her would surely ease the ache in his chest… but she had a boyfriend. She had no need of him and he wouldn't set himself up as the best friend secretly in love. He wasn't a masochist.

"Hey, man, the kickboxing sign-up sheets are up. You going to join?" James Dillabough asked, leaning over Tristan's left shoulder. He saw where Tristan had written 'Mary?' on his paper.

"Dude, are you still thinking of her? She must have been really good for you to still be obsessing over her for three months. It's not healthy, you know." James was forced to sit back when Tristan swiveled in his seat. The blue eyes seemed to freeze James' tongue.

"I've told you it wasn't like that. Stop talking to me about her. You couldn't try understand." Just then the teacher walked in and started class. James was given a reprieve, but not for long. Tristan joined the kickboxing club and James ended up as his partner. One hour after school practicing with Tristan, James was forced to limp to a steam bath to relieve his aching muscles.

Tristan remained in the gym, consistently punching the swinging bag. He couldn't believe the insinuations James had made towards Rory. She was pure, clean and lovely. Beautiful was the best way to describe her but it had been worn weak by constant use in the world. Finally, Tristan settled on his favored moniker for her; it epitomized everything she stood for in his life: Mary.

Mary: pure, virginal, beautiful, sacred, honored, revered, respected, lovely, charming, hallowed and treasured. She was all of those and more. A swift roundhouse kick rocked the bag on its chain. Mary was also someone else's, he reminded himself furiously. A quick succession of punches, then a combination of intricate kicks helped him release his pent up tension. Breathing hard and wiping the sweat from his brow, he turned and began to head towards the locker room for a shower.

Even in the shower and while he dressed, he found Rory in the back of his mind. He toweled his hair fiercely and went to collect his duffel bag. The sight of feminine shoes encasing delicate feet standing beside his duffel halted him. Confused, he followed the line of slender legs outlined with dark blue socks up to a blue plaid skirt, then a blue sweater with the Chilton crest emblazoned on the left side to a pair of blue eyes that never failed in freezing his thought processes.

"Hey." She smiled shyly at him. His knees trembled and he kept staring at her eyes, unable to comprehend the fact that she was standing in front of him. At his silence, her smile faltered.

"Um, your friend, I think his name was Michael, said you were probably still in here. I watched you attack the bag for a while, but you didn't notice me. I didn't mind, it was nice to rest after the long drive, but I couldn't get your attention when you headed into the um…" embarrassed, she motioned towards the locker room. As if attached by a string, his eyes followed her hand before returning to her eyes. Blushing more now, she continued to trip over her tongue.

"Anyway, I just wanted to say hi and talk to you about what's new in Chilton. I haven't seen you in so long and we didn't have a chance to really say good bye or anything like that, so when I told my mother I wanted to see you she found out where you were now from my grandmother who talked to my grandfather who talked to your grandfather and your grandfather wants me to tell you that he hopes you get to come home soon and I think that would be great, I mean, if you could come, because then you could come over to my house and meet my mom, who demands an introduction-" she was blushing hard now while she stared at her toe. It was trying to gouge a hole in the floor.

"Why?" Finally his vocal chords worked to force the harsh word out. He cleared his throat and threw the towel down on his duffel. He tried again. "Why does your mother want to meet me?"

If possible, Rory only blushed more. "Umm… because I told her about you?" she offered to her shoe. Tristan began to see the humor in the situation and smirked as his arms crossed over his chest.

"Why did you tell her about me?" he asked next.

Rory studied the gym, still refusing to meet his questioning eyes with her own. "I had to give her a reason as to why I broke up with Dean."

He stepped forward eagerly and she finally met his eyes with her own. His hands tensed with the need to grab her into his arms. "Why would you break up with Dean over me?" He waited anxiously for her answer.

Finally Rory grew tired of the questions. "What, did military school cause you to regress to a four-year old? 'Why, why, why?'" she muttered angrily. She turned to stride away but his hand caught her wrist and used her momentum to spin her into his arms. He locked his arms firmly around her, rendering her struggles fruitless.

"Let go of me!" she ordered. He simply waited for her to stop wiggling. When she simmered in his arms, he began again.

"Why did you say you broke up with Dean because of me?" he asked again. She glared at him before looking over his shoulder as she answered him.

"I couldn't get you out of my head when you left. He'd go to kiss me or hug me and your last comment would float through my mind. I'd kiss you good-bye but your boyfriend is watching." She quoted it from memory. Tristan remembered the self-control he'd had to inflict on himself when he had made that promise. Ignorant of his wistful remembrance Rory continued. "I'd think, 'stupid Dean, you ruined my chance.' Which is completely ridiculous, you only wanted to torment me and then add me to your long list of ex-girlfriends." He opened his mouth to refute that last statement but she hushed him. "You wanted an explanation, I'm giving it."

"I started thinking back and went through all of our encounters. I talked about them with my mother, who doubles as my psychiatrist (scary thought). She reminded me that in elementary school a boy would only pick on me if he really liked me. I thought: what if Tristan was doing that and I missed the signs? Then I remembered the scene in the classroom after your date with Paris." He flinched remembering. She smiled. "You said you liked someone else and you had such an earnest look on your face, almost as if you were pleading with me to realize something. I thought it was your pain over Summer. You wanted me to realize you liked me, right?" She overrode his response. "Now, seeing you shock at my being here, I have reached the humiliating realization that you never liked me that way. I'm sorry, I'll just go ahead and leave." When he kept his arms around her, she prompted, "You can let go of me now."

Tristan smiled almost apologetically when he answered her. "No, I can't really." She opened her mouth with a furious retort resting on her tongue but he beat her to it. "You see, I had come to the conclusion that you were better off without me and that you didn't want me anyway. All of my flirting, teasing and tentative offers of friendship never got through your continued refusal of me. I thought that coming to military school would help the fire I feel towards you calm down. It didn't. I envied every guy at Chilton who would see you and have the opportunity to interact with you. I envied Dean and his chance to date you. I envied everyone who would be around you and I don't know who they even were! But now that you have confessed to liking me, I can feel free to confess that I like you too. Probably more than is normal for a teenager, but it's there nonetheless."

He waited for Rory to respond to his confession but she simply kept her head against his shoulder. Tristan began to worry. "Rory? Mare? You did mean that you like me, right? That's what the whole speech thing was about, right?" He felt her shaking and leaned back to try and see her face. He saw the tears and started to babble in fear.

"Oh crap! I'm sorry Mary, I shouldn't have pushed this on you right now. I mean, you said that you had just broken up with Bagboy but-" Rory started laughing out loud at the confusion on Tristan's face. She weakly waved a hand in front of her face, trying to calm him down.

"Hold o-on" she wheezed between laughs. "Just let me finish l-laughing!" She laughed so hard her stomach hurt, while Tristan replayed his confession speech in his mind. Unable to find the reason for her laughter, he waited it out.

She let out a breath when the chuckles finally subsided then pulled him down beside her on the floor. Trying to assure himself of her presence, he wrapped his arm around her shoulder. "Now will you explain or do I try and salvage my ego?"

Rory rolled her eyes. "Your ego needs no help. A little humiliation could actually make it easier for the rest of us breathe when you're in the room."

"I admit, my looks are breath-taking, but that's a little off-subject. Why were you laughing?" She punched him light-heartedly on the shoulder for his smart aleck remark before replying.

"First of all, I do like you and would be honored if we began a serious relationship, however serious you can be in a relationship. Second of all, do you remember when I told you that my mother demanded an introduction?" A giggle escaped her before she could prevent it. The relief that had swept Tristan from her first statement was set aside by her second one.

"Yeah, I remember. I think when I come back for the holidays then I can meet her. But I still don't find what's so funny about that…" Rory merely pointed behind him. He looked over his shoulder and then froze in shock.

On the opposite end of where he and Rory sat, Lorelei stood with a tape recorder, a video camera and a notebook. She had set the video camera up on a stand to catch the moment on tape and then recorded the conversation to play in the car to embarrass Rory. The notebook was for all the questions she had for Tristan. She looked up inquiringly when the conversation stopped.

"What?" she asked innocently. "You didn't think I would actually wait until she came home to tell me did you?" an expression of horror crossed her face. "No way! That's not for two days! I'll just find out now and bug you two for the next couple of days. Continue," she ordered, waving her hand imperiously and returning her attention to the notebook.

Tristan stared at Rory. "You saw her when I was making my big speech and you didn't tell me about it?" Rory simply nodded, already laughing again. "God, I'm so embarrassed. But, do you think it helps my case with her?"

"No, your case was made when Rory told me about you." Lorelei answered for her daughter, deciding to join the couple. "You don't have the chance for defense."

"Not even cross-examination of the primary witness?" Tristan asked, motioning towards Rory. Lorelei laughed at his retort before answering: "No. But you can always bribe the judge…"

Rory perked up. "Coffee?" Lorelei nodded. "Definitely."

Tristan rolled his eyes and stood, offering a hand to Rory. "Fine, but can Rory and I have a moment? We'll join you in the hallway."

"Don't do anything I would and beware: I'm short on caffeine so time is precious."

"Yeah, well, I'm short on time with Rory so I have more reason to treasure it."

"Smooth." Lorelei complimented as she sashayed out the door. Tristan shook his head and met Rory's sparkling eyes.

"I like your mom a lot." He gathered her close in his arms. "But I like you more." He brushed a gentle kiss on her lips. "And you like me, right?"

"Right." She returned the gentle kiss with interest. He hummed with pleasure as she sighed softly. "So…"

"So… we're together now?"

"Yep." Another kiss.

"And you won't flirt with Bagboy or any other male specimen?"

"Well, I don't know… the male gnome in Babette's yard is pretty-"a more forceful kiss cut her off. "Non-interesting," she finished breathlessly. He smiled and kissed her cheek.

"You won't flirt with any female specimen will you?" she asked, imitating his voice as best she could. He kissed her hard enough to bring a blush to her cheeks. "Nope, you won't." He stopped the questions with a foray into her warm mouth. Their tongues were too busy tangling, sliding and rubbing to form anymore unnecessary questions.

And really, Lorelei thought from where she stood recording the loving kiss, they didn't need any more assurance they loved each other.

Author's Note: This is just a scene rewritten with my ideas. Tell me what you think!