19. Christmas Cousins-in-Law
'Verse: AU, in which Rory & Jess never met before.
Timeline: pre-series
Date: December 1999

Rory was pretty sure she had never seen her mother so excited about anything as her own wedding day, and honestly, Rory was pretty happy about the whole thing too. It wasn't every fifteen-year-old girls dream to have her life drastically altered by the appearance of a step-father into the picture, but Luke was the nicest guy in the world, stepping up to the plate when needed for the past four years, loving Lorelai and Rory as much as any man could love a family. Today, on Christmas Eve, he was becoming part of the Gilmore girls' lives in a permanent way and that was just fine by Rory. Of course, she was a little cautious when it came to mingling with all of Luke's real family members at the reception...

"I just want to give you both a general apology for anything terrible that any member of my family does or says while they're here," said Luke, already looking pained.

"Luke, I'm sure it'll be fine," Lorelai insisted. "They seem okay so far."

"Yeah, well, wait until they start drinking and dancing, and then when they remember the last time they all saw each other and start fighting," he said, rolling his eyes. "The only decent people in the Danes clan were my parents and with them gone, all that's left is kind of a disaster waiting to happen."

Rory smiled, biting her lip so she didn't laugh. It made her nervous to know these people were technically related to her too now. Some of them were getting pretty tipsy already, and many seemed kind of loud. Case in point was Luke's sister, Liz, who came rushing over right at that moment, flinging herself first at Luke and then an unsuspecting Lorelai.

"Wow," said Rory, getting out of the way fast, before she was next.

"She's kind of intense," said a voice, and Rory jumped as she turned to find a boy her own age stood right behind her. "Hey, I'm Jess."

"Rory... is my name," she said, stammering a little. "I, uh... I'm Lorelai's daughter."

"Luke's my uncle," he explained, smiling as his eyes looked her over.

"I guess he's my step-father now, so that makes us... cousins-in-law?"

"Technically, I guess." Jess nodded, hands stuffed in his pockets as he shifted awkwardly in place for a minute.

"Hey, kid," said Liz, all the adults' eyes suddenly on the teens. "Don't just stand there, ask the pretty girl to dance."

Jess rolled his eyes and Rory felt just a little insulted. She knew she was blushing and she hated that too.

"It's fine," she insisted, folding her arms across her chest. "He doesn't have to."

"But he wants to," said Liz, grinning too much. "I can tell."

"Maybe he would if you'd go someplace else," Jess grumbled.

"Ooh, excuse us, we're being embarrassing," said Liz, laughing as she turned away from the kids and made a big fuss about Lorelai's dress instead.

"So," said Jess, glancing at Rory. "You wanna dance?"

"Maybe," she said, smiling some. "Unless you're only asking because your mom-"

"I'm really not," he promised, holding out his hand.

"Fine," she agreed, placing her hand in his and following him onto the dancefloor. "I guess it's okay, since we're not really cousins."

"Thank God for that," said Jess, as he put his arms around the most beautiful girl he had ever seen in his life and realised he's be okay with never letting go.