Leave me dreaming on the bed

See you right back here tomorrow

For the next round.

xxx

“It’s a new day mom. It’s time to find something new to laugh over besides your daughter’s misery.” Rory muttered as she and Lorelai walked to Luke’s Saturday morning for breakfast.

Lorelai laughed. “Are you serious? This is too good to last just one day. This is a month’s worth of mocking!”

Rory cringed and made a helpless whining noise as she walked to the door of Luke’s and opened it, still hearing her mother continuing behind her.

“Drapes imported from Europe- 3,000 dollars. Hiring a new maid each week- 200 dollars… Emily Gilmore saying ‘thug’- priceless.” Lorelai declared and even had Rory’s lips twitching despite herself.

She had heard nothing but her grandmother’s speech since they had gotten home the night before. Lorelai had been quoting Emily’s words, not only finding it funny the way Emily was so disgusted talking about ‘the criminals of Hartford’, but of course finding it even funnier that she was talking about her own granddaughter without even realizing it.

Rory glanced over her shoulder with a pointed look. “It may have been funny to you but I’m sure that if you were in my position you wouldn’t have found it very amusing.” Rory told her as they both slid into their chairs at a table by the window.

Lorelai smirked. “Hun, I’ve been in your position, but two things were different... One, my mother knew it was me and two, I wasn’t anywhere near the house to hear her rant because I was sneaking out of my bedroom window to continue doing what she was speaking so lowly of.”

Rory rolled her eyes. ”You can’t blame me for anything then. I obviously got it from you.”

Lorelai actually looked proud for a moment before narrowing her eyes at a sudden thought at her daughter. “Just so you know, Darling, when the fun I get out of this mocking ends- which I doubt it will anytime soon- you will go back over your day of skipping one more time, and this time… You won’t forget all the good parts.”

Rory could feel the heat in her cheeks, rising up from her neck. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” she tried weakly, averting her gaze to a menu.

Lorelai snorted. “Pressed up against a building! Face fused to yours…” she started dramatically, making Rory’s face turn an unnatural shade of red.

“I read that one too. She’s a very good writer if you ask me. Though her latest novel wasn’t exactly her best.” Kirk chimed in suddenly and Rory and Lorelai broke off as they both turned their heads towards where he was sitting a table over and realized he was speaking to them.

Lorelai sent Rory a quick look before turning back to Kirk and shaking her head. “What are you talking about, Kirk?”

Kirk furrowed his eyebrows in confusion and set his menu down. “Weren’t you just quoting the new Danielle Steel novel?”

Rory felt her lips twitch while Lorelai openly laughed. “No!” She replied after she settled for a moment and looked at Kirk with wide eyes, “Oh my god Kirk! You read romance novels?”

Kirks face flushed when he realized what he had just admitted. “They have great story lines.” he quickly defended, shifting in his seat, but only caused Rory and Lorelai to break out laughing. “They do!”

“Do I want to know?” Luke asked as he walked over to them and glanced at Kirk. “Why does Kirk look like he’s choking? He hasn’t even ordered anything yet.”

Lorelai grinned up at him. “Oh, he’s just a little embarrassed because we just found out his secret passion.”

“That he has a lab in his basement that he uses to make unusable products and a fetish for insane cats? We already knew that.” Luke cut in impatiently.

“No,” Lorelai told him, grinning like the Cheshire cat. “He’s a romance reader. “

Luke looked confused for a moment before turning to Kirk with a raised eyebrow. “You mean those books with Fabio on the front?”

Rory grinned at Luke’s description.

“There’s woman too,” Kirk defended, looking away and taking a gulp of his tea.

“Sure.” Luke nodded sarcastically, before shaking his head. “I mean… if that’s what you’re into.”

Lorelai and Rory both laughed as he turned back to them, leaving Kirk muttering to himself.

Luke leaned close to them and lowered his voice. “If Jess starts reading anything like that… I’m doing an intervention.” he muttered the promise.

“I can picture that,” Lorelai chuckled. Rory grinned; about to make a comment just to get Luke to annoy Jess, but before she could say anything she was interrupted as the door to the diner burst open.

“Rory!” Lane called as she rushed in with a big fake smile at all the customers who were now looking at her like she was crazy. “I need to talk to you. Don’t have much time. Come. Now.” she ordered, literally pulling Rory up from her chair and out the door.

“Order for me…” was all Rory got out before being dragged outside, hearing Luke say something about Lane and aneurisms before the door shut at their backs.

“What’s going on?” Rory asked, out of breath as they stood on the sidewalk in front of Luke’s. Rory watched as Lanes eyes darted around, obviously watching for her mother.

“What’s going on? What’s going on?” Lane asked her voice close to hysterical. “What’s going on is that… that he came to my house!” she said, her voice getting louder with every word.

“He who?” Rory asked and then grinned as she remembered. “Oh, you mean Finn? Yeah, I know.”

“Finn.” Lane said and then narrowed her eyes. “What kind of name is Finn anyways? And he was stupid enough to tell my mother that was his name! You should have heard her. You would think she would be open to weird names seeing as though I’m named another word for road… but she’s not.”

Rory put her hands on Lane’s shoulders to stop her from moving. “Okay. Calm down.”

“Calm down? How am I supposed to calm down? Do you know what he did?” she asked, throwing her hands up dramatically and then looking around for her mom again.

“Bought a painting?” Rory tried but had a feeling Finn didn’t do just that because she knew Lane wouldn’t be so freaked out if he did.

Lane shook her head and took a deep breath before starting, reminding Rory of Paris.

“He came to the shop. Just waltzed right in. And I was on the stairs going over some notes, innocently sitting there... And he saw me. And then… he just started walking up them!” Lane said and Rory had to hold back a chuckle at her imagining him doing just that. “So then my mom pops up and, I mean pops up because she had this thing with just appearing from places you didn’t think she’d be, and was like ‘the stores down here’, and she was eyeing him over and he… he just grinned!”

Rory tried to hide her smile as she waved a hand at her friend. “Continue.”

“And you will never believe what he said. How stupid can a person get? He looks at my mother and goes ‘Well, I happen to like the merchandise up here.’ and looked at me! Can you believe that? “Lane asked, her voice rising again.

Rory shook her head. “The sad thing is, I can.” she muttered.

Lane continued as if she hadn‘t even heard her. “So now my mother thinks I know him, even though I don’t. I mean, not technically. But she practically drills him into the floor, making him buy this ugly painting that has been in our house for like 5 years that no one else has ever wanted, and all the time I’m sitting there shocked and he keeps nervously glancing up at me with wide eyes like he was saying ‘Oh god, what did I get myself into?’”

Rory let out a breath and nodded. “And..?” she asked and Lane pouted.

“I’ve never been so humiliated in my life.” Lane muttered putting her head in her hands. Rory’s eyes widened before she let out a small surprised smile.

“Really? Why would you be humiliated?” she asked, not being able to help the smile on her face as it grew.

“Because!” Lane started and then turned to Rory and noting her smile, glared. “Don’t even. Not because of that. I mean, why would I like him? I don’t even know the freak. And freak would be a great word to use because it suits him.” Lane declared but Rory remained smiling. “He probably thinks I’m the biggest loser now.”

Rory raised an eyebrow.

“Not that I care.” Lane quickly corrected.

“Of course not.” Rory grinned. “But he doesn’t think you’re a loser, trust me.”

Lane glanced up at her quickly. “You saw him, did he say anything?” she started but then cringed at a glance behind Rory’s back. “There she is I have to go. But you have to tell me later!” she said as she raced off the opposite way, taking a detour around the back of her house so her mother, who was now brushing off the porch, wouldn’t see her.

Rory smiled as Lane ran away and pictured the Finn and Mrs. Kim encounter, laughing to herself.

“Thinking about me?” Jess asked as he came up behind her with a grin. “Sorry Ror, but I’m a taken man. You can’t be out on street corners daydreaming about me with a smile like that on your face.” he told her dramatically.

“Oh, shut up.” Rory said, still smiling.

“Such harsh words.” Jess whined with a hand to his heart, “And although I’d love to hear more of how you feel about me, I must be going.”

“Wait…” Rory started but he was already heading off the other way.

“I’ll be back in a minute… literally a minute.” He added, looking around before ducking into an alley between two stores.

Rory shook her head, all too used to Jess to worry, and walked back into Luke’s and over to their table where Luke was still standing, obviously just getting done taking their order.

"It's going to take a little longer than usual. Caesar’s out with a sprained wrist so I'm trying to run back and forth, taking orders and cooking." Luke said, and Rory noticed him still eyeing Kirk with amusement.

"How'd he do that?" Lorelai asked, glancing back towards the kitchen.

"Tripped on a 20 pound bag of flour that was mysteriously missing and then magically reappeared in the center of the kitchen floor, half empty." Luke answered with narrowed eyes and glanced at the ceiling above them as they heard footsteps going up the stairs, Jess obviously having gone around the back way of the diner, for some reason not wanting to be seen.

Lorelai grinned. "What would an 18-year-old boy need with a bag of flour, Luke?"

"A normal one? Nothing. But we're talking about Jess here. I'm just waiting for Taylor to come in here covered in flour from an unexpected bucket of it falling on his head, or yelling that the pond water is suddenly as thick as pancake batter."

"Giant pancakes for all of Stars hollow!" Lorelai declared and Rory grinned, standing up.

"Is the hoodlum in question allowed visitors?" Rory asked, holding up a book she had to return to him and now even more anxious to see what he was up to.

"For the time being… He’s probably up there planning his next venture to make me go insane." Luke muttered.

"Sorry Luke,” Lorelai patted his arm. “It’s too late. You're already there." Lorelai chimed in and Rory grinned she walked to the stairs, leaving her mother and Luke's voices fading behind her.

"A bag of flour?" She questioned as she walked into the upstairs apartment to find Jess sprawled out on the couch with a book in his hand like he had been there for hours.

Jess glanced up and looked at her with mock innocence, shaking his head. "I have no idea what you're talking about." he replied and at Rory's narrowed eyes, grinned and sat up, patting the seat beside him. "I was testing my baking skills, wanting to follow in my dear uncle’s footsteps." Jess proclaimed as Rory sat by him and handed him his book.

"Oh yeah, where's the finished product?" she asked, looking around and then turning back to Jess with knowing eyes.

He just grinned. "Turns out cooking isn’t my passion. The food was lethal, had to throw it out." he answered easily.

"So what'd you do?"

"I already told you. Rory, you don't believe me? I'm hurt." he said, standing up and walking to the fridge. He grabbed two sodas before returning to the couch. He was never one to care that it was only 9 in the morning.

"Well, I'll just find out eventually anyways." she said shrugging and took the offered soda. "Finished the book. It wasn’t as good as you said, but I dragged through it."

Jess put a hand to his heart. "And the hits just keep on coming." Rory grinned. "Did you hear about Finn going into Lane's?"

"Yes I did." she smiled. "It's pretty amusing if you ask me. Though Lane didn't exactly see it the same way."

Jess laughed. "Yeah, I bet. But I would still have loved to see that even though I have a strict rule about staying three blocks away from The Kim at all times."

Rory grinned. “I would have liked to see it, too.”

Jess smirked and leaned back. "So…” He drawled out. “How's everything going?" he asked, glancing over at her, and Rory knew exactly what he was talking about.

"Everything’s good." she smiled. "Actually, really good." she rubbed her hands on her pants, a restless gesture. Jess may have been one of her best friends but it was still weird talking to him about her romantic life; especially since Jess always asked with an underlying meaning, knowing more about her boyfriend than she did. At least, more than she used to. "We talked yesterday. And I finally found out... well. Alot."

Jess looked over at her, slightly surprised. "You seem like you took it all in stride… You're acting… normal." He said with narrowed eyes as if trying to read her.

"I am. I mean, I was shocked at first. It's not exactly something you hear everyday and all in all it seems like something out of a book or a movie. And then I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I mean, what if he gets caught? And I don't exactly know everything, but then I started thinking about how they do it, why... And well... everything. But I’m accepting it. It could be a lot worse." Rory said, taking a deep breathe and remembering all the ideas that had went through her head before Tristan had told her about what he did ‘out of town’.

"A lot worse?" Jess asked and then turned fully towards her. "Well, you're either a lot more open minded than most people, or we're not talking about the same thing. I'm going with the latter."

Rory frowned and looked at him, shifting in her seat. "I know about how they... they're thieves." she decided, still feeling odd saying that.

Jess grinned, though it didn't have any amusement in it, and stood up to walk across the room and lean against the wall, running a hand through his hair. "Yeah, definitely the latter." He breathed.

Rory watched him for a second before shaking her head and standing up too. "What were you talking about then?" she asked, an uneasy feeling filling the pit of her stomach.

"Jeez," Jess cursed under his breath and then walked back over to the couch and motioned for her to sit down as he grabbed his cigarettes and grabbed one out. He then walking over to the window, knowing Luke would flip on him from the smell. "When I first met you, when I first met anyone in Stars Hollow, I never figured I would ever bring anything like this up. Never have to talk about." he shook his head.

"Come on, Jess. What were you talking about?" Rory asked again, knowing he was delaying what he was saying, and not liking the fact that with every second her nerves increased. A part of her knowing somehow that yesterday was either a lie or just a bit of a big truth.

And it was something she tried to deny. But now couldn’t.

"He told you about the runs?" Jess asked, looking at her with curious eyes.

Rory shifted. "He told me that they- Him, Finn, and who ever else-... stole from places. Out of town or whatever. That they broke into houses." she said and once again hated how stupid that sounded a second later – she was laughing.. "He lied." she stated, feeling sickened and hurt at the idea of it.

"No." Jess corrected, throwing his cigarette out the window after putting it out. "He just obviously didn't tell you everything." He lit another.

Rory shook her head. "What is everything?" she asked in exasperation as she stood again and waved her arms around. "You said he didn’t lie so what else is there? It makes sense. I mean, I wondered why he always said he went out of town. This explains it."

"I never said it didn't. Yeah they steal and break into places, fuck with stuff. Take what they want, pawn it, sell it, they get the profit. It’s not a big thing. I've done it. I did it. But the reason we did it was for fun. It's a thrill." Jess said.

"You broke into houses, stole things, and risked being caught for fun?" Rory asked incredulously.

"It's a rush. It was sometimes a few of us, or all of us. It was more risky with all of us. That's how I know Finn. He used to come to the city all the time. We'd go out, knock a few places. You get away with it, it’s a thrill."

“That’s just stupid.”

"Yeah, it is. But it's fun. It's like a game you have to win. It's just easier for you to understand when you‘re doing it. So if you want we can go over to Doosies and break into the backroom. You're a rookie but I have enough experience for both of us. We can go steal some oranges or something cause we know Taylor counts every one and will flip if he finds one missing." he grinned, trying to lighten up the mood but Rory’s shoulders were still stiff as she sat on the couch.

She knew Jess had done stuff like that when he lived in New York. He'd told her. In some weird way, knowing him and knowing what she knew about Tristan and a little about Finn, she figured they would find some sick enjoyment or thrill in breaking into someplace. But that wasn’t what was running through her head at the moment. And with everything Jess said, she just stored into the back of her head. It was just running second place to his earlier statement that left her pulse beating loudly in her ears.

"This is insane." she said, running both her hands through her hair. "With Dean everything was simple. We knew everything about each other. I didn’t have to worry about if he was going out and breaking into houses for fun."

Jess shook his head and pointed his cigarette at her. "It's not even right to compare them, Rory. They're two totally different people. And anyone would look insane sitting next to Dean. He’s the lamest, boring person I know."

"Why because he doesn’t go out breaking into places?" He words came out more of an accusation than she intended and sent him an apologetic look.

Jess shrugged his shoulders. "You know what I mean." he said and then threw his last cigarette out the window, he was about to reach for yet another, but decided against it. He threw the pack onto his bed and walked over to Rory. "Tristan might be a lot of things but he's a good guy. I don’t really know him but if Finn hangs with him than he’s a good guy. What he does, it’s like a second life. I know for a fact that when he's around other people, when he's around you, it's not even part of him anymore until he does it again."

Rory looked up and met his eyes. "Does what?"

Jess shook his head and crossed the room. "How did we even get on this subject? You diss my choice of books and now this. Just forget it. How bad do you want to know what the flour was for?" he asked, smirking at her.

"Don't you think that I deserve to know?" Rory asked, irritated at his lame attempt at changing the subject he'd brought up in the first place.

"Yes, that’s why I'm going to tell you." Jess said, wiggling his eyebrows, playing along like she was talking about the flour still.

"Jess!" Rory yelled out frustrated as she stood up and his smirk dropped.

"If he wanted you to know Rory, he would have told you. I don't know why this has to get put on my shoulders. I just told you more than I've ever told anyone."

"And clearly avoided the thing that started this amazing and fulfilling conversation." Rory replied sarcastically.

"You're not stupid. Even you can put two and two together and figure out that if they never got caught before, then no one knows what they do. That means that no one would have reason to fear them." he said, his voice now rough, changing his mind an grabbing another cigarette. "And the way people shut up when they enter a room? And the fact that everyone knows them? Even you had to figure that out."

Rory swallowed. "I know. I did."

"I told you what it was like and what happened. I told you way back when you asked me what happened in 'gangs' or so you put it. "

Rory opened her mouth to speak but couldn’t manage to say anything from the anger she felt, and even more with the hurt and the embarrassment that she actually believed what he said.

"Look." Jess said, coming over to sit on the coffee stand in front of her. "This is really messed up that I'm having this conversation with you of all people. I thought that this... that everything I ever did would never have to be brought up." Jess said, looking her in the eye and could see the mixed emotions she was feeling in them. "But you deserve to know. I don’t know him that well. But I know Finn, and he's a good guy, and if he's friends with Tristan than he isn’t that bad either."

"I thought he wasn’t." Rory said. "He didn’t tell me. He just thought that I would believe what he told me and everything would be okay. And I did." she said, uttering the last words with bitterness. "Why can't life ever be simple? How did I manage to get into the middle of all this?"

Jess smirked. "I heard you ran into him. But maybe that's just a rumor."

Rory managed a small smile. "Yeah. I don't know how I can possibly..." she stopped, realizing she was about to say love. "Be with someone that I know virtually nothing about and seems to confuse me more than anything."

"I can’t say I know what you mean, but I have a feeling that your little date tonight’s going to be a lot more interesting than you planned." Jess let out a breath. "Who knew a bit of flour would lead to this?"

"Yeah." Rory said, having all new feelings about seeing Tristan that night and none of them were excitement. "Pancakes are probably done by now." she added, her mind somewhere totally different.

"Yeah. Probably are." Jess agreed, standing up and walking to the door with her.

"So your arms must be killing you from all those dishes." Rory commented as they walked down the stairs.

"What? I've managed to push the dishes on Luke all week." Jess said smirking and looking at Rory with a raised eyebrow.

Rory grinned. "Oh, but with all that baking you did..."

Jess laughed. "Thank god Luke isn’t as smart as you."

Rory smiled and shook her head as they walked into the diner.

xxx

"I'm starting to like this ritual." Louise said as she jumped onto her bed and opened the hot pink nail polish she had in her hand.

"Ritual?" Rory asked in monotone, flipping through TV stations.

"Meeting here, getting ready to go out with our men." Louise grinned.

Rory made a small sound of half hearted agreement, making Louise turn to her, a confused look on her face. "Is that infomercial really that interesting?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

Rory changed the channel but remained looking at the TV. "No."

Louise watched her for another second before putting the cap on her bottle and turning towards her. "Okay. What’s up?"

"Nothing is up." Rory said, in a sarcastic voice, putting on a fake smile but keeping her eyes fixed on the TV. When she continued to just flip stations Louise grabbed the remote, flipped the power off and then tossed the remote on a chair on the other side of the room.

"Who are you and what have you done with Rory Gilmore?" she asked, half serious, half jokingly.

Rory turned to look at her with a questioning eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"

Louise shook her head and rolled her eyes. "I'm talking about how you seem more interested in the TV then me, which I find insulting. And that you went from being excited for tonight, and now you seem like you could care less. Or maybe I’m talking about the fact that you haven’t uttered two words since you've been here other than 'hmm.' and 'okay'." Louise said and then narrowed her eyes. "Are you pregnant?"

Rory’s gaze shot to Louise with a look of disgust and narrowed her own eyes. "God. No." she said and then just sat back and crossed her arms. "Isn't it possible that I can just not be excited to go?"

"Is it that time of the month? Because not even Paris can change her mood swings this fast."

Rory glared at her and then grabbed the bottle of nail polish to occupy herself. She couldn’t help the mood she was in. How was she supposed to act? It was like everyone knew everything but her. And she was getting treated like a child by her boyfriend of all people. Like she was too innocent to know anything. Like he didn’t trust her enough.

And that just hurt.

But she knew that what was really eating at her was the fact that she had no control at all. Especially when it came to him. Life was supposed to be easy, she had all her dreams planned out and then Tristan came. He had more power over her than anyone or anything she could ever think of. He’d totally uprooted her life and she’d went right along.

She loved being with him, and at the same time hated it. She had tried to accept things and was doing fine, but now that she knew she still didn’t know barely anything about him, she didn’t know what to think.

Tristan was the kind of person to let you only see what he wanted you to. And he obviously didn’t want her to know too much.

Who was he?

Preferring the anger over the outright self pity and hurt she felt, she jammed the brush back into the bottle and Louise let out a shriek of protest.

"Okay. You're going to ruin that brush and when I go to paint my nails it’s going to be my whole toe I'm painting because the bristles are going to be deformed." Louise complained, quickly grabbing the bottle from Rory and setting it on the stand by her bed. “Now tell me what’s up.”

Rory shook her head, planning on just dropping the subject but the sudden burst of emotions had her standing and pacing.

"I hate this!" Rory said suddenly, “I know I’ve only had two boyfriends my whole life. But two's enough. One's enough to know that this isn’t normal. I mean, when you're in a relationship you're supposed to tell each other things. With me and Dean, everything was always out in the open. We told each other everything. He didn’t have any secrets, and neither did I. We could talk. But with Tristan..." she said the name as her eyes narrowed. "He treats me like I’m a kid rather than his girlfriend. He obviously thinks I'm better off knowing nothing. And he probably finds it amusing that I go along thinking one thing and probably patted himself on the back after I just believed what he said and was satisfied with it."

She stopped and took a deep breath and at Louise's wide eyes and surprised, yet amused, look, walked over to the bed and put her head in her hands.

"So..." Louise said. "You're one of those kinds."

Rory shook her head, feeling a little better now that she got it off her chest but now that Louise knew, that brought a whole new burden to deal with. "What?"

"You know the ones who bottle everything up and then let it out all at once." Louise explained. "Makes for great sex." she added with a smirk and had Rory rolling her eyes. "Glad to have you giving normal responses and talking. Now, let’s get back to that lovely and I must say, award winning rant."

"I don't know if I want to talk about it." Rory said, trying an attempt to shrug Louise off but knew it wouldn’t work.

"Honey, you're dying to talk about it." Louise said, sitting Indian style and turning towards her friend. “And first of all, Tristan doesn’t treat you like a kid. You haven’t seen the way he looks at you apparently.” Louise let out a breath and fanned herself dramatically.

“Not the point.” Rory sighed.

“Right, the point.” Louise said, resting her chin in her hands. “What do you not know?”

"I don’t know anything, apparently."

"About..." Louise prodded.

"About him. About what he does. He goes and tells me what the big secret thing he does out of town is and I actually thought that ‘Hey, okay, so that’s what he does. The end. Let’s all live happily ever after.’" her voice dripped with sarcasm.

"So you know about the robberies?" Louise asked and cringed at Rory's dry laugh. "Okay. don't get mad that I knew. I just figured... Well, I didn’t figure. I just thought you'd already know."

"Yeah… well I didn’t."

"Apparently.” Louise agreed. “You're mad about that though? ‘Cause I can tell you right now that they just do it for fun. No one gets hurt. Even if Tristan or anyone wouldn’t care hurting someone, I know my brother and he would never go through with anything if someone was going to get hurt. It’s a game to them."

"Your brother does it too?" Rory asked, not at all surprised anymore.

"They all do." Louise shrugged. "Some do it all the time. Some just do it occasionally. I don’t know much but I know that they've never gotten caught and no one has ever been hurt or anything."

Rory nodded, already knowing that Tristan, no matter how much he seemed not to care for anything, wouldn't do something that would end up hurting someone.

"So you're pissed at what he didn't tell you?" Louise continued, her eyes narrowed in speculation. "How do you even know there is something he didn’t tell you?"

Rory shrugged. "I'm not stupid. I guess I tried to just tell myself there wasn’t, but then Jess brought it up this morning and..." she trailed off sighing.

"Guys suck." Louise agreed. "I was seeing this guy once and had no idea that he had a thing for trying on girls clothes. That was until I walked in on him stretching out one of my best shirts over his big head." Louise said, trailing off and narrowing her eyes at the memory. When she looked back at Rory’s amused look she just shrugged. "People make mistakes. I accidentally dated a cross dresser.” She rolled her eyes. “College guys."

Rory’s lips curved.

"But that really has nothing to do with your crisis. Seeing as though you haven’t been answering his calls…” At Rory’s surprised look Louise rolled her eyes. “I saw it flashing, caller id. I’m not as oblivious as you think. So I'm assuming you’re pissed at Tristan for not telling you well... whatever it is you want to know." Louise concluded.

"Whatever it is I want to know." Rory rolled her eyes. "See I don’t even know what it is I want to know."

"I don’t know everything. It’s not like I'm special cause I'm Mike's kid sister. What I know is common knowledge, what I hear around places, and what I’ve overheard from him." Louise said matter-of-factly. "But I can try and fill you in if you give me a main idea. I mean, if I’m totally off track and you want to know about Tristan’s past or something, I have no clue."

Rory shook her head. "I don’t think anyone knows about that." she sighed. "Why is everyone scared of him? Why does he walk around like he just is superior to everyone and everything?" she said, speaking more to herself than Louise.

Louise sat back and took a deep breath. "Well... why is everyone scared of him? Well, besides the fact that he just looks scary..." she started and at Rory’s look, smirked. "In a totally hot, scary way... he's in a gang, Rory. A seriously notorious gang. Who isn’t scared of that?" Louise asked, bringing her knees up to her chin, her eyes serious.

"What does he do though? What is this gang? How do people even know about it and not do anything if it’s so bad?" Rory asked, impatience lacing every word.

"You ever hear of the mob?" Louise asked and at Rory's disbelieving glare held up a hand. "I'm not saying he's in the mob... I'm saying he practically runs his own mob-like-thing." Louise said and then took a deep breath before continuing. "I know they own a lot of businesses. Where they get their money is certainly questionable, but they do. They have connections. Like seriously powerful connections. Where or how they earned it I don’t know. But like it always is, when you have power, you have rivals. Hence the gangs."

Rory dropped herself back onto the bed and let out a humorless laugh. “This is so crazy.”

Louise nodded in agreement. “Don’t I know it.”

“This isn’t supposed to happen in real life. It’s for books and movies. Not for me. It isn’t supposed to be for me.”

“You ever stop and think that maybe we’re lucky to experience all of this?” Louise asked, waving a hand with a small smile. “It’s surreal, I’ll admit that. But how much fun havewe had so far? Would you really rather go back to being bland old Rory and never have met Tristan?”

She denied it instantly, shaking her head. “Not at all.” she admitted with a small smile. “But I just have to know.” she sighed.

Louise nodded. “We could be dating crazy badasses and having the time of our lives but at the end of the day we’re just girls.”

Rory let out a small laugh. Her mood was lightened. But barely. “Yeah. What am I doing with someone like him?” She asked, more to herself than Louise.

"Well... you want me to start on the overall benefits of having Tristan Dugrey as your boyfriend or do you just want me to skip to the physical attributes?"

Rory managed a small smile. She wanted everything to be fine like it had been, but she knew life was never that easy.

Her smile must have faltered because Louise hit her arm and grinned at her. “Come on, just forget about it. Just let it go and have some fun.”

Rory sat up and looked down at her hands. “I’m not just looking for a fun time.” she muttered, knowing the words were nothing but the truth. “He means more to me than that.” she barely whispered but Louise heard and her jaw dropped quickly before she composed herself and nodded slowly.

“Oh.”

Rory nodded. “Yeah, oh.” And then couldn’t help a smile. “And do you know what the funny thing is? I am trying my hardest to stay pissed at him but I just can’t. This isn’t normal.” She said and then let out a laugh that came on it’s own.

Louise grinned. “Ah, the power of hot men. You can’t get mad at them even if you try your hardest. That’s a powerful weapon they have.” She grinned and winked and had Rory rolling her eyes and smiling.

She grabbed the nail polish again and at Louise’s cautious watch, deliberately took it out slowly until Louise sighed, relived she wasn’t going to try and kill it again.

“Do you think I think too much?” Rory asked suddenly, a helpless expression on her face, thinking about how crazy she must have just sounded to Louise and how ridiculous she had been all day, thinking constant negative things. Not to mention the guilt she now had at not answering her phone when he had called, no matter how hard it was not to.

“Way too much.” Louise answered her.

Rory sighed and lay back on the bed. “I am so stupid. I thought this day was going to be me getting ready, being totally excited and then having the time of my life tonight… and yet I’ve ruined it worrying and over thinking things.” she sighed. “I haven’t even for a minute stopped to think that he might have had a reason for not telling me. I’ve completely turned this so it’s all about me.”

Louise smirked. “I know! You are totally self-centered!”

Rory laughed. “Jeez, and I didn’t even answer his calls…”

“Well you’ll just have to make it up to him tonight.” Louise said, wiggling her eyebrows and making Rory blush and roll her eyes in embarrassment. “Okay Gilmore, tell me this…”

“What?” Rory asked, looking up and breaking out her thoughts of planning something special for Tristan though she had no idea what she was going to do. Everything that popped into her head embarrassed her even thinking about.

“How crazy are you about him?”

Rory looked up at Louise startled, surprised by the question.

“I… really crazy.” she said, her voice quiet as she admitted it.

Louise genuinely smiled, “Well that’s all you have to worry about. I… well… I figure we’re friends, you know…” Louise said, saying the last part with what seemed like difficulty.

“We are.” Rory said, feeling like Louise needed assurance and knew she was right when the blonde girl’s eyes lit up and Rory couldn’t help smiling back at her.

“Good.” Louise said. “Well I consider us friends so I just wanted to give you some friendly advice… let things go. Don’t clutter your mind with all these doubts because trust me, every girl gets them no matter if they’re dating Mr. Perfect or an ex convict. It’s normal. But you’re not supposed to let them cloud your mind. Especially when you’re crazy about the guy.”

Rory nodded, realizing what she said was everything Rory had been trying to tell herself all day. “You’re right.”

Louise smirked. “Didn’t you get the memo? I’m always right.”

Rory just laughed and shook her head, her mood completely lifted from what it had been all morning.

Once again she was feeling excited for the night to come.

xxx

“So last guesses to where we’re going?” Louise asked while she and Rory sat on her living room couch, waiting for the doorbell to ring. She bit into a chip from the bowl in front of them that constituted as their dinner since it was already eight at night and sent a questioning eyebrow at Rory.

Rory sent her a small smile and shook her head. “I really have no clue. I’ve never known anywhere Tristan says he’s taking me.” She folded her hands in front of her, wringing them back and forth. Even the anticipation of knowing she’d see him soon was driving her crazy. She didn’t even have to see him yet to be nervous and for her stomach to start fluttering.

“I have no idea either.” Louise shrugged and went to reach for another chip but when seeing crumbs on her shirt, groaned and started frantically wiping them off.

Rory watched her, amused.

After looking at her shirt to make sure everything was off of it, Louise sat back on the couch and then checked the clock on the wall. “Mike’s supposed to be stopping by too. I told him he better get here before I leave because my parents wanted me to tell him to call them since he never checks his messages.” She rolled her eyes.

“Do your parents know about…Mike’s friends?” Rory asked, leaning back and playing with the hem of the hooded t-shirt she was wearing, a bright blue against her black jeans.

Louise smirked. “Definitely not.”

Rory smiled and shook her head and glanced at the clock as she wrung her hands together. “I’m going to go get something to drink.” she said, as she got up and walked from the room, Louise waving a hand as an answer and reaching for the bowl of chips again.

Rory sighed as she walked to the kitchen. This could not be normal. She couldn’t remember a time she was this nervous; she was jittery and couldn’t stop moving.

But it was always like that with Tristan.

She smiled, just the thought of him made her stomach flip. So this is what it felt like, she thought.

But beyond the nervousness was still that same feeling of guilt. She hadn’t answered his calls all day and had spent the entire day angry at him. For nothing.

You could always make it up to him, Louise’s words echoed in her head. She tapped her finger against her glass as she looked out the window in front of her. How would she make it up to him, she wondered. Immediately she felt her face heat up. There was no way she could do that, she thought, remembering something Louise had mentioned earlier about one of her many sex crusades. But maybe she could…

Her train of thought was cut off when she heard footsteps coming towards the kitchen.

“Are they here?” She asked, starting to turn around when hearing footsteps approach but was stopped in her movement when two arms came from behind her and encircled her waist, pulling her up against a hard body she instantly recognized.

“Hey,” He greeted, his mouth against her ear before they moved down her neck and to the bit of exposed skin at her shoulder, trailing small open mouthed kissed in it’s wake.

“Hi.” She replied, taking a deep breath when I chill shot down her spine. “I didn’t even hear the doorbell ring.” she managed to get out before she took a deep intake of breath as Tristan took her ear between his teeth. Immediately a tingling feeling started slowly spreading through her body, making her shiver.

“I didn’t ring it. I came with Mike and since it’s his house…” Tristan said, slightly blowing into her ear and her body automatically arched back into his.

“Someone could walk in any second.” Rory stopped his hand that was traveling up her stomach and turned around; the smile that appeared on her lips instantly matched his own as he stared down at her. She glanced at the door and Tristan’s gaze followed hers quickly before darting back to her.

“No one’s going to come in.” He said, taking a step towards her, making her move back until her back was pressed against the counter behind her.

“Well then…” Rory sighed, looking back up at him quickly before his lips found hers again. His arms moved from her hips and instead moved around her back to wrap around her and pull her body as close to his, supporting her with the half hug.

“I tried calling you earlier.” he said against her lips, his tongue darting out to trace them quickly before pulling his head back to stare down at her with sparkling dark blue eyes.

“Yeah?” Rory asked, feeling the twinge of guilt hit her. “My phone was off.” she said, glancing over his shoulder before getting the courage to meet his eyes. Tristan stared down at her with a blank look, letting his eyes move over her face, her lips, her cheeks, before finally meeting her eyes again. Just that caress with his eyes made her heart turn over.

“So nothings wrong?” He asked, and as she watched his eyes flash, she knew he didn’t completely believe her.

“Everything’s fine now.” she said her sudden confidence to make him want to believe that taking over her. She slid her hands up to his face to rest on his cheeks and leaned up and pressed her lips to his.

She could tell he was shocked at first because he hesitated a moment, both of them knowing it was rare that she initiated a kiss, but after a moment she felt his lips start to move with hers.

This felt nice, she realized. Being in control for once, doing what she wanted. She wove her fingers back through his hair, pulling his face closer as the kiss deepened and she ran her tongue along his lips before biting down on them gently with her teeth before repeating the gesture. Before she knew what she was doing, her hands were on his shoulders and slowly moving down over his chest and to his stomach and resting on the top of his jeans.

Tristan broke back to stare down at her and for a moment she almost backed out, moving her hands away from him but then took a deep breath and let them sit back on his sides, slowly gliding under his shirt.

“I was thinking.” she said, her words coming out quiet as she took a slow breath to steady her breathing although she knew nothing would be able to calm her heart at the moment.

Tristan’s eyes never left hers but she saw them grow darker. Something she thought wasn't real and was said for the soul purpose of description, before she met him and realized a persons eyes really did change with their mood. “About what?” he asked, his voice as low as hers and seeming to travel over her and make goose bumps appear on her skin.

“About… something.” she said, her heart beating wildly in her chest. What was she supposed to say? If she talked she would psych herself out. She knew that would happen, so instead she just moved up to her tip toes and placed a soft kiss on his neck. Then slowly she started working her way down, each time letting her mouth open a little more so every kiss became a little less chaste.

“Mary…” She heard him say, his voice barely audible as it came out more than a sigh and that was all she needed as a boost of confidence.

She didn’t know exactly what to do. But instead of freaking out and wondering if she was doing something wrong like she assumed she would do, her mind was too occupied with thoughts of him to think about anything else.

Her hands moved to the button of his jeans on their own accord as she moved to the front of his neck, letting her tongue reach out to taste him before blowing on the wet skin, and pressing her lips to it, feeling his pulse racing underneath.

“Is this okay?” she asked, as she moved her hands over the button of his jeans and flicked it open, her stomach no longer nervous but now filled with it’s own anticipation. Before he could answer she slowly unzipped his zipper and by the noise he made in the back of his throat, knew that he thought it was definitely okay.

She broke apart from him for a second, her eyes looking up and meeting his, noticing they were almost black in color.

“You have to help me through this cause I don’t exactly know…” she said, her eyes shifting and then meeting his again, staying there and not even moving when her own hands moved down underneath his boxers, her hand coming in contact with him, already unbelievably hard. Her eyes looked down automatically and she let out a slow breath, surprised, as she let her finger tips slowly move over him, amazed.

Tristan let out a long and deep moan, his hips moved towards her hands and his hands came behind her to clasp the ends of the counter behind her for support. “What are you doing?” his words seem strangled.

Rory seemed to break out of her daze at his words and her eyes shot up to his, still marveling at the way he felt under her fingers. Nervous. Freaked out. Sacred. All things she expected to feel. But this, this feeling somewhere between anticipation and amazement that she was making the guy in front of her seem helpless just under her touch was exhilarating. She never expected that.

“I’m just…” she stopped, a small smile appearing on her face at its own accord. “Doing something for you.” she finished and then reached up and touched her lips to his, the slight nerves coming back but she fought them off as she stepped back and then lowered to her knees in front of him.

She heard him say her name again but ignored it, knowing that if she let her nervousness get in the way she would back out as quickly as she had jumped into it. She reached out, letting her fingers slowly touch him, drifting up and down him slowly, barely touching him… and at the feeling of him hot and hard under her touch, she slowly moved her hand so it closed around him and added the slightest bit of pressure.

She heard him gasp above her and heard his hands tighten on the counter and turned to see his knuckles unbelievably white and shadowing into purple, before she looked up to meet his eyes. His mouth was gaping open as he stared down at her.

Darting her eyes back down, she slowly moved her hand up to the tip of him, letting her thumb move over it, as the rest of her fingers fluttered over the hot skin. She heard him gasp and without looking up, sent out the small unsure question to him. “Like that?”

She heard his breathing pick up as she squeezed a little tighter, now feeling freer to experiment, her nerves still firmly in place but slowly fading and turning into wonder.

“Just like that.” She heard him barely say as he bucked his hips into her hands again and she glanced up at him, her eyes meeting his one more time, a small smile coming to her lips as she looked at him. A loving feeling rushing through her body instantly.

She bit at her bottom lip, running her tongue along it slowly before moving her hand to the base and moving forward slightly until her lips touched the tip, her eyes drifting closed at the contact.

He jerked in her hands and she opened her eyes instantly, moving back and quickly looking up at him. He met her eyes, the impossible midnight black of them watching her and she took one more deep breath before moving her lips to him again, this time letting them part slightly as they touched him. He jerked again but this time she just let her hold on him tighten so slightly as she continued.

Her tongue moved out to taste him, slowly running over the tip of him and slowly down the side before she took one final breath and moved her mouth, closing over him.

She wouldn’t lie and say she never thought about it because she figured everyone thought about it once in their life whether in deep thought or just a passing one, but whatever she thought, she never thought it would be like this. For a minute she didn’t move, but then felt one of Tristan’s hands move to her hair, running through it and reaching down to stroke her cheek. The touch was all she needed, and with her eyes closed, she slowly started to roll her tongue along the bottom of him as she started slowly sucking. All fear vanished at his moans and gasps, with every one her confidence growing and she sucked just a little harder, moving her fingers slowly somewhere else, adding pressure wherever they would land.

She didn’t expect to feel good about it. To like it. But she loved what she was doing to him. Every once in a while he would loosen grip on her hair and run his fingers over her cheek before running them back through her hair, lowly saying her name in encouragement or bite out a curse word.

She rolled her tongue over him and then up from the base to the tip of him, nipping gently, not knowing if it was right but not caring and it seemed to trigger something in him because in an instant his hand in her hair tightened and he was bucking his hips into her mouth. Rory’s grip tightened automatically but she didn’t move, continuing to do what she was doing as he bucked his hips into her mouth and then he stilled and before she could move back her throat unconsciously began swallowing.

She leaned her head back against the counter as she took a deep breath as she watched Tristan button up his pants. Then his arms were on her helping her stand up but before

she could say anything his arms were around her and his forehead was pressed to hers.

“God.” He whispered against her face, his hands stroking a slow rhythm against her sides. She felt him move behind her and briefly heard the faucet turn on before a glass appeared in his hand, offered to her.

“We’re in the kitchen.” she said, not a question but a statement as realization dawned on her and she buried her face into Tristan chest, feeling the cool leather of his jacket and the rumble in his chest and knew he was laughing.

“You just do that and now your realizing just where the fuck we are?” he laughed, his low voice moving over her and she took a calming breath. She took the outstretched glass and a took a small sip, turning around to set it on the counter before turning back to meet his eyes for the first time.

The were still so dark, and she stared amazed, not knowing what to say. She knew her cheeks were heating up, she could feel the blush all the way to the tips of her toes but couldn’t pull her eyes away.

Tristan’s hand came up and gently touched the side of her face as he watched her and then a smirk made its way to his lips and he chuckled deep in his throat before leaning forward to rest his forehead on hers. “Wanna tell me what that was about?”

Rory met his eyes, her mouth opening and then closing again before she looked away. “I just…” she started and then looked up into his eyes again. “I just wanted to.” she whispered.

He seemed to stare at her forever and she felt her blood heat from his stare, her stomach flipping. He somehow always made her completely nervous when looking at her. Watching her. Staring at her. He seemed to never move his eyes away from her. Always so direct.

He leaned forward, pressing his lips to hers gently, his tongue darting out slowly but not pushing the kiss to anything deeper. “You amaze me. You know that?” He whispered against her lips and Rory just smiled, relief flooding her body at his words. Any doubt she had in herself disappearing. She looked up into his eyes and bit her lip to try and prevent her goofy smile that she felt appearing on her face.

“I forgot we were in the kitchen.” she blushed, once again realizing right where they were.

“No kidding. God knows what was just going through your mind when you just jumped me.”

Rory’s eyes widened as she stared at him, her mouth gaping open and then glared at him with a grin, blushing as she hit his shoulder.

“Well you could have pushed me away if you were so against it.” she said, crossing her arms, trying to pout but not being able to control her grin. She thought she’d feel embarrassed, awkward, but she felt like she always felt with him. Normal.

“Fuck no.” Tristan groaned, his mouth pressing against hers again, this time parting her lips with his tongue, biting at her lips as he slid his tongue into her mouth, instantly deepening the kiss as he pushed his body into hers, his hands moving up under her shirt to tickle her stomach lightly.

“But it’s only fair...” he said, biting at her lip before delving into her mouth again, giving them just a moment to catch their breaths as he pressed up against her again and she was shocked to feel him already hardening again. “…That I repay you.”

“Oh.” Was Rory’s only response as his lips shifted to her neck, laying openmouthed kissed down to her shoulder when he then nipped and sucked at her skin.

“Rory? Are you guys still here?” Louise’s voice drifted into the kitchen and Rory’s eyes opened instantly, trying to push Tristan back but he just kept kissing her, his hands now traveling further up her shirt.

“Tristan!” Rory hissed and he made a growling noise before pushing back to glare at her. “God, you’re like a rabid animal.” Rory bit her lip to stop from laughing and straightened her shirt as Louise walked into the kitchen and then stopped.

“We’ll finish this later.” Tristan whispered into her ear, the way he said it making heat spread through her body and she tried not to blush as she turned her attention to Louise.

“Oh. Um, I guess you are. I thought you already might have left cause Mike said…” Louise started, looking more uncomfortable than Rory had ever seen her.

“We…” Rory started but Tristan cut her off.

“We’re leaving right now.” he said, grabbing Rory’s hand, lacing their fingers, and pulling her towards the door.

“Don’t let me say goodbye or anything.” Rory joked as he pulled her outside and she realized how much time had obviously passed since it was now pitch black outside.

Tristan stopped when he got to his bike, laughter in his voice as he turned around and pulled Rory against him. “Well you see I kind of lost track of time.”

Rory felt her cheeks heat up, wondering if there would ever possibly be a time when they didn’t and shook her head as Tristan laughed.

Tristan’s lips then descended to hers, giving her a soft unexpected kiss before pulling back and Rory looked up at him with surprised eyes.

“Did I tell you thanks?” he asked, his voice just a whisper that sent electric shocks through her.

Rory looked over his shoulder before meeting his eyes again. “Thanks?” she asked, feeling somehow happy at his small admission though under any other circumstances she would have felt ridiculous having someone thank her for what she just did.

“You were amazing. Really.” He said, his hand touching her cheek again. “Fucking amazing.” he repeated, his smile turning to a smirk. “I love your sudden spontaneity.”

Rory smirked herself and bit her lip, watching as his eyes automatically darted down to them. “I’m actually really spontaneous.” she said, breaking from his hold and walking to his bike, grabbing the helmet that was now marked hers.

“Oh yeah?” Tristan asked, watching her with a cocked eyebrow and a lopsided smirk.

Rory grinned, “Yep.” she said before pulling her helmet over her head.

Tristan laughed as he grabbed his own putting it over his head but not bothering with the lacings like Rory did. He threw his leg over his bike, reaching a hand out to Rory.

“So where are we going?” Rory asked as she settled on the back of the bike, moving her body till it rested against his back. She loved being so close to him.

“You’ll see.” was all he said as he started the bike.

“Ever the cryptic one.” Rory muttered as she wrapped her arms around his waist and they pulled out of Louise’s driveway and onto the main road, heading for Hartford.

xxx

Rory watched over Tristan’s shoulder as they sped down the highway, the buildings going by. Street lights, taxis, buses, they were all one big blur. They turned onto another street and Rory noticed that instead of heading to the outskirts or towards the end of the city where Tristan lived, they seemed to be heading for the opposite end. Somewhere she had never gone before. More streets passed by as Tristan sped down the road and Rory noticed less and less cars seemed to be on the road as they headed further in that direction and more and more houses and buildings seemed less vacated.

She felt the bike slow and looked ahead to the middle of two huge buildings as Tristan drove down the narrow alley way in between and then crossed another road before going through another alleyway. Her grip tightened automatically on his stomach as they turned down what looked like a completely deserted road.

Tristan stopped the bike and put his feet down, bracing them and turned slightly, lifting his visor up and smirking back at her.

“You ready?”

Rory lifted her own visor up briefly as she looked around, her arms still holding onto him tightly. “Ready for what?” she asked, but Tristan just winked at her, pushing his visor down again before taking off to the other end of the long road and then Rory heard it. Music loud enough she heard it clearly through her helmet and over the roar of Tristan’s bike. Large steel garbage cans with fire burning in them, lighting up the dark street and cars and bikes lined up, people walking to one certain road up ahead, turning to stare at Tristan’s oncoming bike and moving out of the way. She noticed people staring or waving as Tristan passed them, but most of her attention was focused on where they were going.

“Hold on!” Tristan yelled back at Rory and she tightened her grip around him.

And then he pulled into another large alleyway and she stared in awe. Tristan revved the bike beneath them and sped down the street and she watched as people cheered, raising their drinks in greeting as he passed them. People were lined up each side of the abandoned alleyway between two huge buildings.

She was still staring when Tristan stopped the bike and moved to get off and she took his hand, not at all worrying about the stares they were getting, too involved with everything else.

She slowly removed her helmet and ran a hand through her hair and felt Tristan take the helmet from her hands with a chuckle, obviously at her face. She had no idea what she looked like at the moment but had a pretty good guess.

The alleyway was wide, in between two huge brick buildings that seemed to stretch on forever. Lit up garbage cans reflected off the walls lighting it all up with the added light of a few cars headlights. People stood everywhere, in between parked bikes and a few cars, holding drinks, dancing to music that was coming from a huge set up of speakers outside a door that was on the side of one of the buildings.

She heard another bike rev and her head quickly shot to her left as she heard Tristan call out a few greetings to people. He wrapped his arm around her waist from behind but her attention was transfixed on two riders as they sped their bikes down the alley way towards them and then lifted them up, one of the bikes lifting up onto only its back tire and the other only on its front. The two guys riding them balancing as their bikes continued to move forward. Another bike came up and started spinning in the middle of the road as the two bikes settled back down and did U-turns, racing back the other way, one of the guys standing up on his seat, balancing himself.

Rory stared, amazed at what the guys were doing and amazed that she seemed to have just stepped into a scene from a version The Fast And The Furious. She assumed things like this probably happened in real life. But she never expected to actually see it. Let alone have it be like this.

“Where are we?” Rory found herself asking and felt Tristan chuckle against her neck, realizing just how close he was. He had his arms wrapped around her from behind and his mouth next to her ear.

“Welcome to my world, baby.” He whispered and Rory smiled as she turned around to look at him, her mouth still slightly parted. Out of everything, she would never have guessed this.

“You do this?” she asked in awe, watching two more guys on bikes start doing tricks as people cheered them on. She didn’t miss that they were dressed exactly like Tristan.

Tristan smirked down at her and shrugged. “A bit.” He answered, a corner of his mouth lifting as he looked down at her with sparkling eyes. “Why, you like it?” he asked, his hand on her hip, rubbing over the area where her tattoo was.

Rory looked around again. It was like she was in a whole different world.

“It’s… amazing.” she found herself saying and saw Tristan’s eyes light up at her statement. “God, I cant believe this.” she laughed, still in awe over everything . “This is what you do?” she asked, the thought suddenly coming to her.

Tristan licked his lips as his arm tightened. “Sometimes.” he said and then turned her around so her back was pressed up against him again and pointed ahead of her to the end of an alleyway, beyond where she hadn’t even noticed before. “But mostly, we race.”

Rory looked past the alleyway to where it seemed was the outskirts of the city. She could barely see from headlights glaring at her, but saw rows and rows of cars and bikes lined up as two other cars sped by the alleyway opening briefly before disappearing.

Rory shook her head amazed, taking it all in as she turned back to look at Tristan with a smile. “Why didn’t you ever tell me?”

Tristan brought his arm around her and pulled her tight to him. His eyes sparkling at her. “I wanted to show you. I wanted you to see my world. What I do.” he said, his voice whispering over her lips before moving to hers with a small smile, nipping at her lips as he pulled her closer.

“God, get a room you two horny fucks. You’re making poor Jonathan here seethe with envy. He hasn’t had so much as a second glance for a year now. Going through his dry spell.” A familiar voice said and Tristan and Rory immediately broke apart and turned to see Finn grinning at them a few feet away as he got off his own bike.

“Fuck off Finn.” another guy who Rory assumed was Jonathan said, glaring at the Australian.

“No need to be so hostile Johnny boy. It happens to everyone. Present company excluded.” Finn winked and then dodged the fist that was thrown at him. “See, the lack of sex is making him abnormally violent.”The other guy just scoffed and walked off with Finn yelling out a ’You know I still love you though!’ after him but the guy just gave him the finger over his shoulder, making Finn laugh.

“Finn.” Rory greeted, smiling and chuckling a bit at the hurt look on the Australians face.

“Did you see that love? He flipped me off!” He mock pouted as he walked up to them. “I think I need a bit of loving to make me feel a bit better. What do you say?”

“I say I would be more than happy to…” Rory started and heard Tristan’s growling warning by her ear though she knew he was grinning at his friend. “…But Tristan’s kind of the jealous type. You know.” She grinned.

“Oh really?” Tristan asked, biting her neck in punishment, making her shiver.

“Really.” Finn answered for her. “About time you two showed up. I thought for a moment you weren’t coming.” he grinned as he leaned against a parked car. “So what did you two lovebirds get up to?” he wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

“Well…” Tristan started and Rory immediately stiffened in response but then felt his chest shake with laughter. “It’s none of your fucking business.”

Finn frowned, flicking the ash of a cigarette he lit onto the ground. “No fun. I always tell you.”

“Doesn’t mean I want to hear.” Tristan answered, smirking.

Finn glared before shifting his gaze back to Rory and grinning. “So doll, what you think?” he asked, motioning around with his arms.

Rory couldn’t help her own grin. “I think that you should have told me you two were the real life Vin Diesel and Paul Walker.”

Finn threw his head back and laughed and Rory felt Tristan chucking too.

“Me being Vin of course, since I’m all buff and all.” Finn smirked as he made muscles, making Rory chuckle at his lame attempt. Finn sighed. “I’m just average I suppose.”

“He’s scrawny.” Tristan corrected.

“Fuck off, you idiot.” Finn glared and then smiled at Rory. “He just says that because you’re around darling. Has to make you think all other men are inferior to his very masculine self.”

Rory laughed as Tristan chucked an empty beer can that was on the ground next to them, at Finn, who ducked out of the way.

“But back to the original question. I couldn’t tell you. Tristan here would have killed me.” Finn grinned.

“What?” Rory asked, quirking a confused eyebrow at Tristan who just rolled his eyes.

“He wanted to show you himself. You should have seen him earlier. All worried and nervous not knowing if you would like it here. He even…” Finn broke off as another can was chucked at his head.

“He doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about.” Tristan told Rory, pulling her to his other side so he was on the outside near the speeding bikes and she was closer to the wall. “He was sleeping all day anyway.”

“No. Only part of the day because this idiot came and woke me up to talk my ear off.” Finn glared at his friend, obviously still mad that he was woken up.

Rory grinned up at Tristan’s face. “Oh, really?”

“Like, I said, he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” Tristan said, looking over Rory’s head but obviously sensing her gaze smirked down at her. “You’re missing everything. I know how you like to take everything in and eat it up. Look around, Mary.”

“Look around. Specifically in my direction.” Finn smirked at her.

“You know, if you weren’t my friend and all, you’d be dead right now.” Tristan glanced over at Finn who just threw his head back and laughed. “So what is it going take to get your friend to go out with him so he’ll shut the hell up and leave us alone?” Tristan turned his attention to Rory.

“A miracle.” Rory said seriously and Tristan groaned and winced but then upon hearing his name called, his eyes blanked and he stiffened next to Rory, bringing her closer to him. A few people approached them that Rory noticed were the guys on the bikes that had just been doing tricks.

“What and I don’t get a greeting?” Finn asked, flicking his cigarette down and gesturing to himself.

“Didn’t see you. That fucking trench coat has you blending into the wall.” One guy laughed and Finn rolled his eyes at him.

“Tristan, Rory.” A voice greeted from the back of the group and a guy stepped forward that Rory recognized as Tee, the guy that she had saved her the night she went to Tristan’s. She sent a smile at him as Tristan nodded his head at him in greeting.

They started talking and Rory looked around, not missing the glances she’d get from everyone going by and from the people in the group that were talking to Finn and Tristan. They’d glance at her, and then Tristan’s arm around her. But she was used to it by now and just ignored it, but still hated the random glares she would receive.

People were standing around, dancing, talking, drinking. Some people were making bets, some were making out against the sides of the building and some were exiting and entering another steel door in one of the buildings that was guarded by two huge guys that looked similar to the bouncers at X.

“Come on!” Finn’s voice made her turn to the Australian who was on his bike, yelling at Tristan.

“I don’t think…” Tristan started but Finn cut him off.

“Don’t you want to impress your girl anyways?” Finn winked at Rory. “Just one. Unless you’re just scared your ego will be bruised when I beat you.”

Tristan shook his head, his eyes still blank and his body still stiff but she could feel him quietly laugh at his friend.

“You going to be okay here with Tee for a minute?” he leaned down, his mouth brushing her ear, only loud enough for her to hear.

Rory looked up at him, not sure exactly what was going on but nodding. “What are you guys going to do.”

“Race.” Tristan smirked briefly, pressing his lips to hers, earning a few wolf whistles from the people around them before winking and walking over to his own bike and starting it up.

“They’re going to race? Here?” Rory asked, glancing up at Tee’s huge frame that had now taken its place next to her. “In this alley way?”

Tee nodded his head, chuckling a bit.

“But, it’s so small, and there are people in the way…” She started; suddenly terrified as Finn and Tristan both raced down to the end of the alley they had entered from. The alley was extremely long, but it was narrow and she couldn’t think of anyone racing in it, especially since it was littered with people.

“They’ll move. It’s Tristan that’s racing.” was all Tee said and Rory watched in amazement as people filtered against the walls, leaving a wide span of empty space.

She opened her mouth to ask if they’d only be racing to the end of the alleyway but was cut off when she heard their bikes and looked down to see them both by the entry way, neither wearing helmets, their bikes roaring as a guy to their left counted down to 1 on his fingers. Then they were speeding down the alleyway at a blinding speed and stopping at the other end, that Rory could barely see from being down so far but noticed Tristan’s bike seemed a bit further away than Finn’s.

She watched in amazement as people cheered as they rode their bikes back down.

“It’s a short race. Nothing but speed. No time to pick up momentum. Just going from point A to point B. A lot of guys wipe out trying to do it. You got to know how to ride. How to race.” Tee’s voice reached her ears, answering an unanswered question.

She watched as Tristan and Finn rode back down to where she was, circling each other with their bikes and she laughed, realizing they were putting on a show for everyone. People were cheering, everyone’s attention on the two guys on bikes.

Finn lifted his bike onto his back wheel and Tristan did the same to his as they spun in circles around each other, grinning at each other all the while. Tristan signaled something to Finn and pulled his bike to the side, jumping off of it and walking over to Rory with a smirk, his eyes lit up like she’d never see them before.

“Congrats on winning.” Rory said as he wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her close to him, nodding his thanks at Tee. She grinned up at him, his grin contagious.

“Did you think I wouldn’t? I have my girl watching.” Tristan chuckled into her ear and Rory felt herself blush, putting her hand over his that was once against tracing the skin over her tattoo. “Watch Finn.” Tristan told her into her ear and Rory turned her head back to the guy still on his bike.

She watched as he stood up, putting his hands on his seat and doing a handstand right on his bike as it moved and then quickly, jumped back down, taking control again.

“Oh my god.” Rory said, gaping at him as he did another ‘trick’.

Tristan chuckled, pulling her closer. “Don’t get too impressed.” he said and Rory grinned at the possessive note in his voice.

She glanced up at him, seeing him watching her with one side of his mouth upturned in a lopsided smile and she felt her heart turn over and reached up ad kissed him quickly, feeling him slowly kiss her back softly. “Thanks for bringing me.”

Tristan looked down at her when she pulled away with a look in his eyes she didn’t recognize and he smiled a slow smile. “Thanks for coming.”

xxx

“So awesome.” Louise said for the 20th time in the last hour. Rory looked over at her from where she sat beside her, on the hood of someone’s parked car, watching the show that seemed to be endless of people cheering on two guys as one of them stood up on the back of the bike behind the one who was driving, holding his can of beer in the air, not bothering to hold on.

“They sure have good balance.” Rory remarked, watching them with a small smile.

“Wait until I tell everyone at school that I came here.” Louise smirked, motioning around. “Though I have no idea how I’m going to exactly explain this.” she added with a raised eyebrow.

Rory shook her head, wondering how she was going to explain it to her mother. She was just as lost. “I don’t know either.” She heard a loud laugh, and recognizing it as Finn’s, looked over to where he and Tristan were standing about ten feet away with a few other guys. When she turned her head to look at Tristan, she found his eyes already on hers and her breathing stalled. His icy blue eyes were shining at her and she watched as he licked his lips slowly, looking her over from head to toe, so much like the first time they’d ran into each other, and then winked before turning back to Finn and saying something.

Rory let out a slow breath, just that one look having made a shock run straight through her body.

“My, oh, my.” Louise’s dreamy voice drifted over to her. “Just what exactly happened in my kitchen?”

Rory’s looked back at Tristan as he stood, talking to Finn and then quickly turned to face her friend with wide eyes, her lips parted, surprised by the question.

Louise laughed. “Oh god, never mind. With that look, it means something that I don’t want to know or I won’t ever be able to ever get a drink without thinking of what Tristan Dugrey and Rory Gilmore got down to over by my sink.”

Rory’s cheeks flushed as she pulled Tristan’s jacket, which he had given to her to wear, tighter around her body. She inhaled his scent and smiled.

“So, question.” Louise’s words made Rory look up at her. “I take it my lovely little pep talk worked earlier? I mean, you’re no longer over thinking and holding everything inside for your next random blowup, are you?”

Rory rolled her eyes at Louise with a small smile. “No, I’m not.”

And she wasn’t. The night had been so unbelievable since the second Tristan had walked up behind her that she had totally forgot about everything else that had been nagging her earlier that day. Something inside told her that it shouldn’t be like that, that it wasn’t safe to be so caught up in a moment you forgot everything else, but she just pushed it to the back of her mind. She wasn’t going to do anything but enjoy the rest of the night. She’d lived the past 18 years of her life thinking everything through, and now, it felt nice to just live in the moment.

“What are you thinking about that has you looking so… serene?” Finn asked as he walked over to her with a grin. “It couldn’t possibly be me, could it?”

Rory grinned at him and then her grin grew when Tristan walked up behind him and hit him in the back of the head, making Finn glare.

Rory smiled sympathetically as Finn muttered under his breath for a moment before his eyes moved, watching a group of girls walk by and then putting on a grin and walking after them.

“You’re so mean.” Rory told Tristan, giving him an amused glare as he walked up to her, settling himself between her legs, level with her from her position on top of the car.

“You like it.” He said confidently, and Rory rolled her eyes and then let them shut when his mouth came to hers and his hands moved from her knees, slowly up her thighs until they rested on her hips and then jerked her forward, pulling her up against him.

Louise cleared her throat before sliding off the hood, “I’m gonna… go get a drink. Bye.”

Rory pulled away, her cheeks flushing but Louise was already walking away. “Wait a minute,” Rory chuckled when Tristan’s mouth instantly moved to her neck when losing contact with her own. “Everyone can see.” She said half-heartedly though at the moment she could have cared less.

“No one cares.” Tristan’s hot breath tickled her neck as he moved up to her ear and took it between his teeth. “And it’s not like I’m gonna pin you down and have you right here on the top of this car.” He said, and then his chuckle vibrated through her body to the tips of her toes. “We can do that some other time.” He breathed.

Rory dug her hands into the front of his shirt when his mouth met hers again. It was amazing how many feelings he sent rushing through her body at his touch, his words, at just being with him.

“Finn was trying to talk to me but I couldn’t even listen.” Tristan’s tongue teased her lips but didn’t go any further, but instead he teased her, nipping at her lips while he talked. “And I couldn’t stop looking at you over here.” He moved to the other side of her mouth. “Couldn’t get earlier out of my head.” He breathed against her lips and then looked her in the eyes.

Her heart sped up a little more and she couldn’t tear her eyes away from his. “Yeah?” she asked, her voice only a whisper as she moved into his touch as his fingers made slow circles on her sides. Every few seconds, his thumb running over her stomach a bit.

“Yeah.” He answered her, his eyes dead serious on hers, nearly black again. “And thinking about how I still need to return the favor.” Now the corner of his lips slowly upturned and she knew heat was flooding her cheeks. “Not to mention,” He continued, chuckling a bit. ”Seeing you over here in my jacket reminds me of the other day when you were wearing nothing but it.”

Rory couldn’t help but smile at the memory and bit her lip to stop it but it didn’t help. “Well I do like your jacket.” she grinned, moving forward to place a quick kiss on his lips. Amazed that she was flirting with him so easily. It had always been something that she was unsure about, not knowing what to say but with him, it came so easily.

“Oh yeah?” He asked, his own smile growing. “Well I said I’d buy you one.”

Rory shook her head, cocking it to the side a bit. “And what if I said I just liked this one?”

Tristan just cocked an eyebrow and shrugged, his smirk firmly in place as he brought his face a bit closer to hers. “I’d say that I’d buy myself a new one then. But of course there’d have to be a few rules if I was giving up my jacket. Certain requirements that would come, obligations you would have to fill."

“Of course.” Rory nodded, knowing exactly what he was talking about at his mischievous look. But her heart was racing for something else to. “You would really do that for me?” She asked, looking at him seriously. She was never able to pull her eyes away from him.

Tristan grinned, shaking his head at her for a moment before lowering his forehead to hers. “Don’t you get yet it, baby?” he whispered, his eyes meeting hers. “I’d do anything for you.”

She couldn’t breath. She never knew something could feel so incredible. This was it, she thought. Love. She would do anything for him too she realized, and that scared her as well as made utter happiness fill her.

“What are you thinking?” Tristan asked, still watching her.

She couldn’t help the grin that seemed to be stuck on her face. “Nothing.” she murmured before bringing her lips to his, her arms slowly traveling around his neck and pulling him closer.

And then she heard it.

Someone yelled and Tristan quickly broke apart from her, spinning around in the direction the voice came from and then instantly grabbing her, pulling her from the hood of the car and pushing her against the side of the building, covering her body with his, knocking the breath out of her, as she heard the loud sound of bikes revving and the unmistakable sounds of guns firing.

“Tristan…” She said, shocked still but seemed to lose her voice after that.

“Stay still, just stay still.” His voice moved over her and her fear grew when she heard more people yelling and screaming.

And then the engines faded and Tristan was pulling her away from the wall and she looked around, people were practically running towards their cars on the streets, people already on their bikes and racing away.

“What’s going on? What happened?” She didn’t even have time to comprehend what was going on because Tristan had her hand and was pulling her towards a car and opening a door and she realized for the first time Tristan’s other hand was occupied with a gun. His gun.

“Get in, Rory. Come on.” He said, his voice as calm as ever only accelerated the fear rising in her stomach.

“Where are we going? Where’s Louise?” She asked, suddenly terrified for her friend as she slid into the backseat, scooting over to make room but Tristan made no move to get in and instead his eyes traveled all around him, watching. “Tristan,” she said again but he just continued to look around and then she caught sight of Finn approaching them and heard them talk in whispered voices. She watched them not knowing what else to do as more people ran by the car doors, heading for their own cars and bikes. Finn and Tristan looked as serious as she’d ever seen them. Both their eyes were cold; their faces expressionless, both hands were gripped around their guns making their knuckles white.

She moved to get back out of the car when Tristan continued to talk to Finn. She couldn’t think. Someone had shot off a gun, numerous times. Was there a shooting? Was it purposely, or did something happen? Her mind was going crazy.

“Hey, where are you going?” Tristan hand stopped her from getting out of the car and she realized even though he was standing as if ready to pounce at something at any second and seeming to be deep in the conversation with Finn, he was well aware of what she was doing.

“I need to find Louise,” was all she could think at the moment as she stared into his eyes and her breath caught in her throat. They were completely cold. Hard. Unfeeling. She’d never seen them completely like that before and the sight alone had her mouth going dry.

“She can take care of herself, get back in the car.” Tristan voice sounded final but Rory shook her head, going to get out again but Tristan’s hand stopped her.

“I need to find her.” She repeated, she wasn’t sure what was going on, what had happened, what was happening, but she knew she needed to find Louise.

“Fuck.” Tristan swore, running a hand through his hair. He swore again and shook his head. “Just wait a second, I’ll find her.” He said, giving her a look to let her know he was going to before saying something else to Finn.

Rory looked out through the windshield of the car and saw that most of the vehicles had cleared out and then her stomach dropped when she noticed a group of guys still there, waiting, all with guns in their own hands. All dressed like Tristan was. Standing to the left of the alley, looking like they were waiting for something.

Finn jogged over to the group and started talking and Rory’s eyes went back to Tristan who was still standing by the car, one hand braced on the door, but before she could even open her mouth to say anything a voice cut her off.

“Rory?” Louise voice called. Rory moved to step out of the car as Louise appeared a little ways down the alley, looking as scared as Rory felt but Tristan stopped her from getting out once again.

“Over here.” he called and Louise’s head swung around to look at him before practically running over to the car. “Get in.” he told her and she didn’t hesitate.

Rory moved over, going to ask Tristan what was going on but he shut the car door and was moving to the other side as Tee got in the drivers seat.

“I’m so happy I found you. Oh my god, I didn’t know what to do. I was way over there and then it just started and, oh my god, I thought I wasn’t gonna find you…” Louise rambled but Rory only paid half attention as she watched Tristan talk to some other guy before opening the door on her side, his face as cold as ever.

“Tristan what’s going on?” she asked again, hating that her voice was unsteady.

He just stared at her for a minute before leaning down into the car till he was face to face with her. “I’m sorry.” he said and then a furious look came over his face before he shook his head and looked back at her again. “Tee’s gonna take you to my place, I’ll be right behind you guys. Okay?” He said quickly, but before she could say anything else, he was pressing his lips hard to hers and then letting go and slamming the door and the car was taking off.

Rory quickly turned around and watched as the car pulled quickly out of the alley, Tristan standing there watching it go as Finn walked up to his side. A sick feeling made its way into her stomach when they turned down a road and the alley disappeared.

“…I didn’t what to do and then I thought you had already left and…” Louise broke off, finally realizing Rory wasn’t paying attention to her and that they were now traveling down the road.

“Louise,” Rory said, taking a careful breath, her fingers digging into the leather jacket she still wore. “What happened?”

Louise stared at her for a minute before swallowing, her wide eyes darting up at the guy driving before back to Rory.

“These guys on bikes just pulled up and started shooting.” she swallowed. “They weren’t from Tristan’s group.” She shook her head. “Oh god, I hope my brothers alright…”

Rory toned her out, everything Jess had said coming back to her. Everything she had thought of earlier in the day consuming her, the cold look on Tristan’s face, the black gun he was holding in his hand.

“A gang.” Rory said, the words barely coming from her mouth and Louise nodded. “They,” she started but then stopped unsure of what to say. “Why did they start shooting? Why would they do that?” her question was now directed at Tee but he didn’t make any move to show that he even heard her.

A few seconds past before his deep voice echoed through the car. “That’s what they do. They don’t need a reason.” he said and the paused. “Tristan will take care of it.”

A million thoughts ran through her head and her heart felt heavy in her chest but that one line just keep repeating itself over and over again, making her sick.

Tristan will take care of it.

xxx

Tee led them up to Tristan’s apartment and unlocked the door. The rest of the short ride there had been silent except for Louise’s quiet muttering to herself. Rory was speechless.

She thought she’d been scared when she’d heard a gun go off and Tristan pushed her against the building. It felt like world stopped for a moment. One of those ‘movie’ terms where everything suddenly goes and blurry and starts moving in slow motion. She thought she’d been sacred then, but now… now not knowing where Tristan was and what he was doing was scaring her more than she thought anything ever could.

“Where’s Tristan?” Rory asked when Tee shut the door behind them. “He said he was going to be right behind us.” her hands were wringing together underneath the long sleeves of his coat, her mind still racing and she knew she wasn’t going to think straight or about anything else until he was there.

“He’ll be here.” was all Tee said as he stood by the door.

Rory turned her head to look and see where Louise went only to find her sitting on the couch with her head in her hands.

“Are you okay?” she asked, walking over her to, touching her shoulder questioningly, knowing she wasn’t even okay herself.

“I’m fine.” Louise nodded. “Now. I was shocked before. I was so scared.” she said, sitting back and covering her face in her hands. “I was just talking to some guy and suddenly all these bikes started coming toward us and then they raised their arms and were holding these guns and they started shooting and I didn’t know what to do.” her voice was quiet.

Rory thought back to every book she’d ever read that involved gangs, every movie she’d ever watched and her stomach spun. She didn’t want to believe it before. She didn’t want to think about it. But now, now she knew why people feared Tristan. Now she knew. Everyone else knew what he did, how dangerous it was. But she was too oblivious to admit it. But she knew now.

She knew now.

The door opened and she immediately glanced over to see Tristan walk in, his eyes immediately meeting hers, still cold dark blue. He stared at her for a moment, the entire apartment quiet and she didn’t dare move, and then he turned to Tee, muttering something to him before looking back at Rory briefly and heading to down his hall to his room.

It was as if her legs had a mind of their own as she stood up and walked after him, walking into his room only to find him shrugging a black hoodie over his head.

“Tristan,” her quiet voice made him turn around and his eyes met hers. He didn’t say anything but instead walked towards her, reaching his arm out to close the door a bit behind her and then she was in his arms. His arms were tightly around her, pulling her up against his body and his face was buried in her neck.

“So sorry, baby. I’m so fucking sorry.” he whispered and she barely heard. All she could do was reach her arms out to wrap just as tightly around him, some of the fear inside of her slowly easing away. “I didn’t think… those fuckers…” he stopped again and let her go and she saw the furious look on his face again and he wouldn’t meet her eyes.

“What’s going to happen?” her voice was still quiet. “Louise said they just started shooting. Did anyone get hurt? Did you already call the cops…” she stopped when his eyes flashed to hers and her stomach dropped, realizing the disbelieving look he was sending her was at her last question.

“I’m gonna deal with it, don’t worry. And no, no one got hurt. Not bad.” he said, his voice rough as he moved to his dresser, not meeting her eyes again.

“I don’t understand. What are you going to do?” she stopped when he turned around and she noticed a dark blue bandana tied around his neck. “Tristan…”

He walked over to her, his eyes not leaving hers, but still that scary unfeeling blue. “You’re gonna stay here with Tee for a bit. Mike’s sister too.” he said but Rory shook her head, sending him a confused look.

“No, where are you going?” she asked but he didn’t answer her, instead just pressed his lips to hers, much the same way as he did in the car.

“I told you not to do that.” she murmured, her heart stopping.

Tristan’s eyes stayed on hers, “What?”

Rory took a deep breath, her fear now coming full force. “Kiss me like it’s gonna be the last time.” she whispered and something in Tristan’s eyes flashed before they were cold again.

“You’re gonna stay here. I’ll be back in a little while.” he said and before she could say anything else he had a hold of her wrist, his fingers sliding down until the intertwined with hers and he was pulling her back down the hall.

Louise’s face looked shocked when she saw Tristan walk out and Rory realized it was from what he was wearing but didn’t have time to fully think it though because Tristan gave her hand a squeeze, before letting it go and walking to the door.

“Wait…” she said, and he turned around but didn’t say anything, just met her eyes with a stare that shook her from her toes to the tips of her fingertips. How had his eyes been so unfeeling a moment ago but now swimming with a million emotions?

“I’ll be back soon.” he said, his voice rough again. His eyes cold again. She watched wordlessly as he reached down, lifting the triangular bandana up over his face till it rested above his nose, covering his face completely from his nose down, and then reaching behind and pulling the huge black hood over his head.

Her breath caught in her throat as he sent her one more look before opening the door and Rory briefly saw Finn standing on the outside, dressed similar except still wearing his dark trench coat before the door shut.

She didn’t say anything. Didn’t know what to say. She still didn’t know what was going on.

She walked over to the couch and sat down by Louise, feeling a chill come over her and snuggled more into the jacket that was pulled around her.

“Where are they going?” the words came out but she didn’t even realize she’d spoken her thoughts.

Louise was quiet for a minute before speaking. “Dressed like that? They’re going after them.”

xxx

“This is a nice place.” Louise’s voice filled the quiet room once again trying to start conversation but Rory just nodded.

It had been an hour already and he hadn’t come back. Her immediate fear and worry had long past turned into anger.

He just left her there. God knows where he was, what he was doing, but he just expected her to wait there for him. Worry. She glared at the coffee table, fear curling in her stomach but she refused to acknowledge it and instead focused on anger. She wasn’t gonna push it back any longer and tell herself what he did was his business. It was hers now too. Very much hers.

“Rory,” Louise started and Rory glanced at her briefly before turning back to stare at the coffee table. “I’m sure they’ll be fine.”

She nodded once, Louise’s words not easing her at all.

She stood up, feeling restless. She took off his jacket, setting it on the couch and paced to the window. All you could see was the tops of other buildings from Tristan’s view and everything was so dark you could barely make that out. But she wasn’t paying attention to it anyways. Her eyes were distant and looking right through everything.

Her head whipped around at the click of the door and she immediately turned towards it when Tristan walked in, his hoodie still up over his head but his bandana no longer around his mouth but hanging around his neck once again. His eyes met hers and she was shocked still at the look, before he turned to look at Louise who was still sitting on the couch, silent.

“Finn’ll take you home.” Tristan’s voice echoed through the apartment before anyone could speak as he nodded his head towards the door. Rory watched Louise stand and cast a questioning glance at her and Rory sent her a small smile and Louise muttered a goodbye to her before walking towards the door and slipping out.

Rory’s heart pounded in her chest as she watched Tristan talk to Tee, his eyes glancing over the guys shoulders to meet hers and she couldn’t breathe. Tee said something to Tristan before walking to the door and leaving, shutting the door quietly behind him.

She watched as Tristan’s eyes flicked over her once before he turned and twisted the lock on the door before facing her again.

It was amazing how bright his eyes were in the dark room. The only light they had bothered to leave on was a small dim one in the kitchen and the rest of the apartment was lit by the moon shining through the huge bay windows, making a white light cover the room. But still, she could see his eyes crystal clear. Blue. Sparkling.

The room was silent as Tristan lifted his hoodie up over his head and tossed it on the couch before his eyes connected with hers again.

“Are you taking me home?” Rory asked, hating the silence and the way he was looking at her. She stood there, knowing she looked completely stiff with her arms crossed and anger radiating through her and it only made it worse that he seemed so calm and uncaring. As if nothing had just happened. As if he had never left.

His eyes were sparkling.

It's a rush. You get away with it, it’s a thrill.

Jess’s words echoed in her mind. Was this what he was talking about too?

“What?” Tristan asked, cocking his head to the side as he walked towards her, the corner of his lips upturning into a lopsided smirk.

Rory shook her head and narrowed her eyes at him. “Why are you smiling?” she asked in disbelief. “Are you crazy?” she couldn’t believe he was smiling. She thought when he came back he’d explain everything. She thought he’d look guilty. But he was smiling. Smirking at her.

“Probably.” Tristan shrugged his shoulders slowly, but his smirk never faltered as he walked even closer to her till he was just a few feet away and then Rory stepped back away from him and he stopped advancing.

“Are you seriously not going to say anything?” she asked, shocked.

Tristan watched her for a minute before speaking. “What do you want me to say?” he asked, his voice was calm, no emotion in it, even as his eyes danced at her. Not with humor, not with amusement or any other emotion. Just alertness. Aliveness. Jess’s words flashed through her mind again.

“Where did you go?” the words were out of her mouth before she could think and she knew instantly by his casual shrug she wasn’t going to get the answer she wanted.

“I think you already know.”

She shook her head, letting out a humorless laugh. “I can’t believe this right now.”

Her disbelieving words seemed to trigger something in him because a cold smirk formed on his lips quickly after. “Believe what? You don’t want to know. You’re asking because you think you want to know but you won’t believe it anyways.” he said, his eyes now as hard as she assumed hers were. “Deep inside, you already know.”

“I already know?” she repeated, her glare only intensifying. “You mean that all of a sudden out of the middle of nowhere, when everything’s perfectly fine I hear gunshots. Gunshots! Next thing I know I’m being pulled into a car and I’m in your apartment while you get dressed to do, what I’m told is, to go after the people who fired off those gunshots.”

“Well, Mary. I think you got it.” his voice was unamused though a smile came to his lips. “So you’re pissed?” he shrugged as he took a step towards her. “I don’t blame you. But why don’t you figure out what exactly you’re pissed about first before you start in on me.”

Rory shook her head. “Pissed?” she repeated. “I just sat here for an hour, not knowing where you were and you think I’m just pissed? I was scared to death…” she started but Tristan cut her off as he swung around from picking his cigarettes up off a stand to look at her with serious eyes.

“You were scared? Do you know how I felt when I fucking heard those guns go off? Knowing sure as hell they weren’t from any of the guys I knew. Knowing you were there.” his voice rose and she was shocked for a moment before crossing her arms again.

Rory shook her head, not knowing what to say. Her mind was still in a million places and she didn’t know what to think.

“That doesn’t have anything to do with anything that just happened. You just left. You just… you went after them. Who are they even?” she asked, throwing her arms up. She didn’t think any time in her life she’d ever been this mad, this scared, this frustrated. “What happened?”

“I took care of it.” Tristan said, crushing the cigarette he lit into an ash tray and she noticed his knuckles were white from the fist he was making.

Rory shook her head, not knowing whether to cry or laugh. “And you expect me to be okay with that.” she said more as a statement than a question.

Tristan laughed then and his eyes met hers. “I told you yesterday you wouldn’t be. You said I was wrong. You said anything I told you wouldn’t change how you saw me.” he laughed again and the deadness of it sent chills down her spine. “Well baby, guess what? You were wrong.”

Rory’s mouth moved to speak but no words came out. She detested the feeling of guilt that ran through her when she knew she had every right to feel the way she did.

“You’re going to act like I’m doing something wrong? That it’s wrong for me to not agree with this? That what you just did was normal?” She asked him, her arms falling to her sides as she stared at him and then lifted to run nervously though her hair.

Tristan’s eyes glanced at her before he took two quick steps over to her and before she could do anything to move from his way, his hands were on her arms and he was pulling her against him and his lips were on hers. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

She felt him whisper the words against her lips and closed her eyes automatically at the contact but her hands were already moving up to his chest and pushing him away.

He staggered backward just a step, her push not having much force behind it but his eyes slanted at hers, turning black.

“There just isn’t any pleasing you, is there?” he asked, the cold words matching the smirk on his lips. “You always wanna know something, always have questions. Always want to know everything. Can’t you just take the hint that I don’t want you to know. That it doesn’t concern you.”

Rory shook her head; his words obviously aimed to hurt her but only fueled her anger.

“You’re my boyfriend, remember?” she asked; her eyes as angry as his. “But maybe it means something else to you than it does to me. Of course it means we don’t talk, or know anything about each other.” she laughed unhumorously. “It‘s all physical to you.”

She was surprised by the grin that lit up his face after she spoke and in a second he had her hips in his hands and was pushing her back until her back connected with the hard wall behind her and his mouth was against hers. It wasn’t a quick kiss like he just tried moments before but now it was hard and fast. His teeth were biting at her lips urgently until she gasped and he was sliding his tongue into her mouth.

“And of course, it’s not physical at all to you.” he said, his words having a bite to them as he spoke them against her lips before kissing her again, his hands pushing hard into her sides holding her in place and she sank into the wall behind her.

She couldn’t help the feelings that shot through her right then. Yeah, he was right. She knew he was right. She wanted him just as much as he wanted her but she wanted more too. She didn’t only want this. Not only this, she thought, even as her hands moved to his shoulders and around to thread through his hair. She didn’t even realize she was pulling him closer or that she was kissing him back just as hard, just as rough as he was kissing her. All her anger floating out of her and into him.

She heard him groan and she bit back at his lips, sliding her tongue over seam of them afterwards and then gasped when his own hand moved to the hem of her shirt, lifting it right over her head without warning. She barely had time to register what was happening before her bare back was against the wall again, his body covering hers once more and his hands now running up her sides. Her body jerked into his and she felt him smirk against her lips before he tore them away and started raining kisses all over her face.

Her hands knotted in the bottom of his shirt before moving to touch the hot bare skin underneath, sliding up his chest as she tipped her head to the side as his mouth moved to her neck, lightly biting the area between her shoulder and neck. She heard him release a deep groan and then let out one herself as he grinded his hips against hers and then pulled back, moving to lift his own shirt over his head before moving back to her neck once again. The part of her body he seemed to have a fascination with.

She couldn’t think. She never could when it was like this. Every rational thought flew from her head and she was left drowning in the feelings he sent through her. Her hands ran up and through his hair and consciously pulled at it as he licked and sucked his way up to her ear and that seemed to trigger something in him because a second later he moved his hands down her sides and lifted her hips, pinning her against the wall with her feet inches off the ground before she laid her hands on his shoulders and wrapped her legs tightly around him to balance herself.

Her hands tightened in his hair and the breath flew out of her lungs as he tore at her bra, pulling it right off her body without unclasping it and she knew it would be unusable after then. But her thoughts about it faded fast when he moved back to meet her eyes as his hands came up to cup her, his thumbs moving over her nipples slowly with his eyes locked to hers. She couldn’t help but arch into him as he teased her but he kept her firmly in place, doing nothing more than slowly running his thumbs over her and letting his other fingers lightly brush the sides of her breasts.

And then he lowered his head, removing his hand and taking her into his mouth, sucking strongly as his other hand began a rougher caress of her other breast. She wove her hands through his hair, her legs wrapping tighter around him and letting out a loud moan she couldn’t hold in any longer. He switched sides, this time nibbling at her before running his tongue over the abused skin while his other hand made a slow journey down her stomach to the button of her jeans, quickly undoing it sliding inside and quickly sliding a finger into her.

Tristan caught her scream in his mouth as he moved his hand slowly, circling around her, pushing deeper.

“Tristan…” She breathed against his mouth as he deepened the kiss, his tongue sweeping into her mouth as he moved his hand inside of her more urgently, pushing another finger into her, stretching her as she felt the familiar feelings building inside of her. She knew her hands were shaking as she held the back of his head but she couldn’t help it. This was different than any other time so far. It wasn’t slow and gradual but fast and explosive.

Right when she felt like her body couldn’t take anymore he moved his hand, sliding it around to her back and before she could protest he was pulling her away from the wall and walking blindly down the hallway and next thing she knew she was falling back onto his bed, his weight crushing her into the mattress.

His hands started moving more urgently and even as she reached down for the button to his jeans, he was already tugging hers down her legs and throwing them to the opposite side of the room. She only managed to get his unbuttoned before he pushed her hands away and bent to kiss her stomach, moving down to her thighs as he slid her last article of clothing down her legs and then his mouth was covering the exposed skin and her entire body arched off of the bed as her hands went to his shoulders, her fingers digging into his skin as he slid his tongue over her slowly before sliding inside of her and she let go.

She felt like she was exploding from the inside out, the feeling moving through her entire body but even then he didn’t stop, his movement only speeding up until she felt herself building up again.

She wasn’t aware she was pulling at him until he lifted his head to stare up at her, his eyes as black as night as he rose over her, quickly discarding his jeans himself and reaching to his beside table before looking back down at her, his mouth lowering to hers once for only a chaste kiss before going to her neck once again as he buried himself inside of her, fast and deep, not giving her a moment to adjust before he was doing it again. He buried his face into her neck and she wove her hands into his hair as he thrust into her over and over. Hard. Deep. Her hands moved to his shoulders to wrap around him, her nails biting into his skin and that only seemed to fuel him as he started to thrust harder into her until she could barely raise herself to meet him.

She thought he whispered her name but didn’t know for sure and a second later his lips came to hers. Just pressed there, not moving to deepen it, not pushing for her to do anything else. Just laid there against hers as she felt her body convulse once again, her body tightening around his before she felt him let go with her.

xxx

Rory tore her eyes away from the ceiling when she finally heard his breathing steady and looked over to where he was laying; his body turned to the side, facing hers, his arm around her stomach holding her to him.

Her heart was still racing just as it had been an hour earlier when they had both been wide awake but that had been for a completely different reason. She hated that he could do that. Make her forget everything.

How he used that to his advantage earlier. Made her forget about everything. And she hated that she was powerless to stop him. Hated that she wanted everything he gave.

Slowly, she slid out from under his arm and stood, looking back to see if he awoke but found him still silently sleeping. Looking so innocent, she thought. Nothing like a man who was feared by almost everyone. Not looking dangerous or emotionless.

Not looking like a guy who just went after a group of guys with guns.

She shook her head as she felt the same anger and hurt come back and moved to pick up her clothes, slowly getting dressed, wincing at the soreness of her body. A good kind of sore, she thought, looking back at Tristan one more time as her hand hesitated on the door before walking from his room.

She wanted to know. She needed to know, but he’d made her completely forget everything. Made her take her anger out in other ways.

She walked into the living room, finding her shirt and slipping it on, seeing her discarded bra on the floor but not even bothering to try and fix it and instead grabbed her shoes and walked to the door, sliding outside and walking quietly to the elevator at the end of the hallway.

She hated him.

She loved him.

She shook her head, the anger fading and the hurt coming through as she walked out into the dark garage at the bottom of the building and made her way to the sidewalk, looking around for anyone and when she didn’t see anyone lurking on the sidewalk, turned and made her way to the bus stop. She knew it’s be coming around again soon.

She hugged her arms to herself as she walked to the end of the road and waited, glancing back at Tristan’s apartment building, wondering what he would think when he woke up and she was gone. Would he care? Probably not, a voice inside of her said but she knew she was just lying herself. But she didn’t want to think he would. Didn’t want to believe he would.

She saw the bus coming and sighed in relief and quickly walked up the stairs, happy to see a familiar driver and found a seat in the back, hoping the journey to Louise’s house was a short one.

She didn’t notice the pair of familiar eyes of the man that had driven them to Tristan’s earlier watching her, making sure she got onto the bus safely before walking back down the street.

xxx

Leave me dreaming on the bed, see you right back here tomorrow, for the next round.

Keep this scene inside your head, as the bruises turn to yellow, and the swelling goes down.

And if you're ever around, in the backstreets or the alleys, of this town.

Be sure to come around, I'll be wallowing in pity, wearing a frown, like pierrot the clown.

xxx