AN: My God! 22 chapters? Where did those come from? Ok, well, I have no idea how long this is going to last, I do however know that it shall soon be Christmas, in Stars Hollow at least, with the snow and all that. Here in Australia (as, in most other parts of the world, I'm sure,) it is only the 2nd of November, yet when I walked into the shops yesterday, I saw Christmas trees, I heard caroles, and I wanted to throw up. Because I will have to go to work today and see Christmas trees, listen to caroles and supress the urge to throw up for five whole hours. But enough about me, how are you doing? Let me know will ya? Drop a review when you're done.

"I just don't think this is very fair," Rory complained collapsing onto the couch

"It's only for a few more days, then Mom and TJ will be back and you'll have your room again." Jess reminded her.

"No, I don't care that I had to give you the room. I know I said I wouldn't give it up again, but I was only kidding. What I'm not happy about is the fact that I had to leave the apartment entirely. The last time those two went away we were dating but they still let us stay there together."

"There wasn't really any other choice last time," he added. "However, now, you have somewhere else to stay, while I take back what was once my room."

"Do they not trust us now, or something?" Rory asked, continuing on with her own thoughts, having barely heard Jess' response.

"Well…"

"Because that's ridiculous; have any of these people met you?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, really, just… I'm just not all that thrilled about living here."

"With your mom?"

"With my mom," Rory agreed. "No one asked me, they all just decided that it would perfectly fine and shipped me off."

"I didn't realize it was still that big of a deal for you,"

"It's not… that big. I mean, I understand that having her around is not the end of the world, and spending time together is good for us, but that doesn't mean that I want this yet, you know?"

"So what if we switched?"

"You want to live with my mother? Is there something you aren't telling me? Some Mrs. Robinson fantasy you've come up with, perhaps, that you'd like to act out with her, in the privacy of her home, so no one is the wiser?" Rory joked and Jess jumped off the couch, his ears turning the deepest red that Rory had ever seen on another person.

"No! God- No, that's not what I… I just thought, if… never mind. Forget I said anything at all, ok?"

"I'm not sure I can," she replied grinning.

"You're the one that turned my helpful suggestion into something extremely dirty, so you're going to have to just… deal with her, alright?"

"I'm sorry! I was only kidding. That was very nice of you to offer, but it's alright. I'll find a way to deal with it. I mean, last night I remembered to say good night to her before I went to bed. I haven't done that in a long time. Mostly because we usually weren't in the apartment together when it was supposed to be bedtime, when we lived together last, but still,"

"So things aren't too bad then?"

"I guess not."

"Would you consider staying here, on a more permanent basis then?"

"Why? Has something happened? Did your mom call and tell you she wasn't coming back?" Rory paled and Jess had to suppress a laugh. "Because I can fix that, give me the phone and I'll have her back in town within hours."

"Wow, I think I'd actually like to see that, provided you tell me what you plan to say to her first,"

"Jess, be straight with me here, ok? Is there a reason I should be getting used to living in this building, as apposed to the one where the coffee is?"

"Aside from the fact that this is where your mom lives, and people usually like to think that living with family is the norm? No. I was just thinking that by the time Mom gets back, maybe you guys will have decided that you like it, and you might want to stay here,"

"And leave Luke all alone at his place, after he's grown so accustomed to seeing my scowling face every morning? I don't think so. Plus, I'm pretty sure it would take longer than a week for me to come to that conclusion."

"Fair enough,"

"I already agreed to one night a week, which I told her about; she seemed very happy with the idea by the way, but I don't think I'm quite ready for more than that yet. Aside from the week from hell brought about by your mother's new marriage. Seriously, I think they've all been conspiring against me, and I wouldn't put it passed them to suddenly decide to join their friends out on the road for the next six months. Oh no, did I just jinx it?

"I dunno, let's do that unjinxing thing Lane and I used to do when we were kids."

"What?"

"Give me your hand," Jess instructed and Rory did. Taking hold of her pinky, he moved his hand in a circle, Rory's, being connected followed. "Jinx back, double pinky, round the side, double pinky, jinx back,"

"…Jinx back." Rory added as he finished, loosening his hold on her hand. "What the hell was that?"

"When we were little and we really wanted something to happen, if someone said something we thought might cause it not to happen, then we'd do that and usually it worked."

Rory smiled and picked up Jess' hand, examined his fingers for a moment. "How much would you hate it if I told you, you were adorable right now?"

"After that whole Alice in Wonderland thing, I guess the jinx back isn't too bad," he conceded "So if you must…"

"That is absolutely the most adorable thing I've ever heard. And I didn't even have to bribe you or go to your friends. Tell me more stories,"

"Hang on a second, what about you? The only thing I've ever heard you mention was the reason for your arrest. Which, I've gotta say was not very cute, so it's your turn."

"Really? You're not going to give me anything till I come up with one of my own?"

"That's the deal, take it or leave it."

"Fine! Ok, well there was… I can't believe I'm about to admit this to you, but there's no other way to get any other stories out of you is there?" Rory checked one last time.

"Nope."

"Alright, well, when I was little… eight maybe, I'm not sure, I remember Mom and I were watching Sleeping Beauty and I announced that I was going to marry the prince."

"You wanted to marry a cartoon?"

"Well, I didn't realize at the time that it was impossible to do that," Rory replied, hiding her face for a moment before launching to her own defense. "I just thought… he looked nice, and he was a prince and he woke Aurora up from that spell, so I figured he was something special. Plus he was way better than the Cinderella prince, 'cause he could dance."

"Cinderella's Prince Charming couldn't dance? Are you forgetting where they first met?"

"No, I know he could dance, but Sleeping Beauty's prince danced solo, whereas we never got to see Cinderella's man showcase any of his skills without holding on to her."

"I guess you're right. Well that's sufficiently embarrassing, I suppose."

"Good, now it's your turn again."

"But the jinx thing was my second one. Plus, Lindsey's probably already told you a whole bunch, so really-"

"No, she hasn't, because in case you didn't notice, she went out of town almost immediately after telling me about the cat. If she hadn't been at the wedding I would have thought you'd arranged for her to just mysteriously disappear."

"No, that's not my style. I simply gather information about people that I can use against them later. After eight years, Lindsey is pretty much screwed; if she ever does anything like that again, I'm going to retaliate in a very big way."

"And you expect me to continue talking after that?" Rory asked, incredulously, standing up and moving to the kitchen to get a drink. "I don't think so mister."

"Yes, actually, I do." Jess replied, following her the short distance to the fridge. "Because I know how much you want more dirt on me." He added, putting an arm around her waist as she poured two glasses of juice.

"You mean you have actual dirt to share?" Rory turned around, a hopeful glint in her eye.

"Wouldn't you like to know?"

"Alright, I'll give you the weeping willow story, but only if you promise that afterwards, I get another one."

"That all depends on what happened with the weeping willow."

"I bet I can guess something that you would be less than willing to admit to," Rory replied, stalling.

"Go right ahead."

Rory tilted her head to the side, thinking for a moment, while Jess stood back and leaned against the countertop behind him. "You… you wished that you were Alfalfa, so that you could go out with Darla. Because you thought that their date at the clubhouse was just the best ever!"

"I couldn't stand Darla. She was actually a little too stuck up for me."

"Oh really?"

"Mmhmm."

"Interesting. Ok, the Olsen twins then. You wanted to be adopted by the Tanners so that you could spend everyday with Michelle and of course Stephanie, DJ and Kimmie."

"I can't believe you know all of their names." Jess laughed, walking back to the living room.

"What was their father's name? And the uncle?"

"Danny and Jesse." He replied without a pause, and then smacked himself on the forehead. "Idiot,"

"Uh huh."

"That's it, I have to get out of here, I'm going home to watch the Godfather, reinstate my masculinity."

"If you stay," Rory cajoled, "I'll tell you what I did with the weeping willow."

"Alright, fine. But it had better be good."

"Well, when I found out the name of this tree that was outside of our building, I got really worried about it. So I would sit out there for ages each day, trying to cheer it up. I borrowed joke books from the library, I made up a silly dance, but I never really knew if it was working, so I asked my teacher what else I could do and she told me that the tree was fine, that was just the name that it was given, but it wasn't actually sad. So then I stopped. I still went out occasionally to talk to it, just to make sure that it really was ok, but eventually I gave up talking to a tree, because, really who needs people to think they're that crazy, they talk to foliage?"

"I ran away once." Jess returned once his laughter had subsided.

"You ran away? Why?"

"I just… I wanted to go out by myself, so I waited until Babette was busy feeding her cats, because Mom was at work and I was staying next door for a few hours after school. So I grabbed my backpack with my banana and Hi-C, and I took off. I wasn't allowed to cross the street by myself yet, and that kind of limited how far I could go, but I still wanted to try. I walked for a bit 'til I came to the end of our street. I sat there for a while, thought about continuing around the block, but I was getting tired, so I got comfy in the grass and ate my banana. It was getting dark by then, which I knew meant that Mom would be home soon, so I got up and started back. Halfway home I saw Morey coming towards me, looking around wildly, calling out my name, so I ran over to him and he swooped me up. Turns out Babette hadn't noticed yet that I wasn't there, and instead of worrying her, Morey had said that he was just going to take me out for a bit, we went back to the house and never said another word about it."

"Mom has a thing for the Oompa Loompas, in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.'

"You're kidding, right?"

"No," Rory shook her head. "I'm completely serious. I remember listening to her tell one of her friends about this recurring dream she was having about them."

"You've been talking to Luke, haven't you?"

"Why would you say that?"

"Because my mom had a recurring dream about them,"

"No way!"

"She did. She told me all about it, every day for a month she would come down form her room in the morning and say, 'well, I had that dream again.' It was very disturbing."

"I can imagine, at least I didn't have to listen to Mom's story, but you were stuck. Poor thing."

"I'll get over it. One day, when I'm writing my memoir, I'll be able to fill at least three chapters with the many disconcerting factoids she's shared with me over the course of my life."

"That's mature."

"Says the girl who can't wait to move back in with my uncle so she can get away from her own mother,"

"It's just nice, you know? To be less than ten feet from pie at all times."

"Of course, that's your only reasoning."

"Shut up and kiss me, you cat-napping runaway."

"Prince Charming lover,"

"Full House junkie,"

"Tree crisis counselor,"

"Oompa Loompa offspring,"

"Alright this is getting ugly, just kiss me already, would you?" Jess laughed and complied, before the apartment door opened.

"Oh, come on now, none of that." Lorelai warned walking in and plopping onto the coffee table in front of them. "I know I'm not exactly well-known for enforcing rules, but really, I don't want to get into any trouble with the other adults."

The two teens took one look at Lorelai and both burst into a fit of laughter as they each recalled the conversation they'd just had.

"What? Is there toilet paper on my shoe?" she asked, getting up and moving away from them. "Do I have something in my teeth?"

"Mom," Rory tried to regain her breath as her laughter died down a little, "we were sort of in the middle of something here, could you maybe go back out into the hall for a few minutes? We'll let you know we're done."

"I don't think so, missy. I've been out of the apartment all day, and let me tell you, working for Kirk is no picnic. The guy seems like he'd be a pretty cool boss, but he has so little in his life that he's just… he's like an evil dictator when it comes to the late returns slot." Lorelai explained, as she moved to the kitchen. "There's no coffee." She said, turning around. "School ended over two hours ago, you didn't make any coffee?"

"About that," Rory began

"Yeah?"

"It's just… after living at Luke's and having his coffee on tap twenty-four/seven, other coffee just doesn't taste right. So I've decided I'm not drinking that stuff you have here."

"And that also means you won't make any for the rest of us?"

"Jess agrees with me, don't you Jess?" Rory asked, turning her attention back to her boyfriend who had remained silent since the laughing stopped.

"I'm going to head home now I think leave you two to sort this out amongst yourselves." Jess replied, standing up.

"Wha- But, wait, I thought we were going to trade more embarrassing childhood anecdotes. You can't leave now,"

"Oh, did Rory ever tell you about the time she-"

"Nice to see you, you'd better be off now. Bye!" Rory called out, pushing Jess towards the door.

"Well that wasn't very nice," Lorelai pouted. "I was just going to tell him about the time we were in a mall and your pants fell down. Remember how I called you Droopy Drawers?"

"No, actually, I must have repressed that one. He knows enough for now though, anyway. I think we can leave stories that involve public viewings of my undergarments for a little later in the relationship, sound fair to you?"

"Oh fine, if you want to play it that way. So, tell me, how was school today?" Lorelai asked, collapsing onto the couch.

Just a short one, but I thought it was about time I bowed to the pressure and let you know a little more about the fun parts of their childhoods. Maybe one day soon Rory will divulge more personal information, just not yet. Review!