fic: beware the bottled thoughts of angry men; gilmore girls; jess/rory; pg
title; rating: beware the bottled thoughts of angry men; pg
fandom; pairing; wordcount: the gilmore girls; jess/rory; ~1700
notes: written for stainofmylove for her comment fic thing here - also my first gilmore girls fic ever.
Thanks to Facebook, Rory's always got a pretty good idea what Jess is up to. Not that it didn't take him forever to join, but after his last book took off, he kind of had to. Now he makes a lot of well-thought-out and sometimes grumpy political posts. Rory shares a lot of cat videos. (Not that she's particularly fond of cats, but sometimes you can't help a thing. The internet always wins.) It's all a little ironic when you consider that Jess writes fiction and Rory is still covering politics, as like, her day job.
Well, sort of.
It's complicated.
(The publishing world is not remotely what it used to be.)
Anyway, she's just glad that their world views still align in most of the ways that matter. Time changes people. And truth be told, she's "unfriended" way more people than she would like to admit.
One day Jess shares something that is, surprisingly, not political at all. It's an event, a concert near home, near Stars Hollow. In a couple of months.
Jess marks himself as Interested.
Rory does the same.
-
Jess: Are you going to this concert thing?
Rory: I don't know. I'm not sure I can get home.
Rory: ...you?
-
It's early fall, and with this heat wave they're having, might as well still be summer.
Rory wears red, white and blue, completely by accident.
"Well aren't you just downright patriotic?"
Rory almost cringes, but keeps her cool as she turns to him.
"Always," she beams, and is in his arms already.
"Been a long time, Gilmore," he says, squeezes her tighter. "Too long."
Jess's hair is long and Rory feels like he's taller too, but maybe she just feels shorter around him. Seventeen again.
The years dissolve like sugar.
-
There's not a lot of talking that can happen at a concert, so after the show when Jess reveals he somehow finagled his way into possession of a key to Luke's, they end up there.
It's nearly midnight, and Rory's got coffee brewing and Jess is cooking omelets for some reason, and the whole thing just feels like some kind of perfect throwback.
"So how come you never come back here anymore?"
Jess sighs.
Rory shrugs.
He groans. Almost annoyed, but playfully so. "No reason. I mean, Stars Hollow was never really home for me," he says. "And I don't get invited often."
"Oh, come on," she says, rolling her eyes. "Luke's not the most verbal guy, but you can read between the lines."
"Maybe I can," says Jess, and he pops another green pepper into his mouth. "Maybe I was just born stubborn. Runs in the family."
Rory laughs.
Ain't that the truth.
-
He takes her back to New York that night.
It's not something they plan. It just kind of happens.
Turns out Rory's got a meeting in the city the next evening and a red-eye to catch afterward so.... it makes sense.
It's already morning when they find their way to his apartment. Rory has never been more grateful that black-out curtains are a thing that exist than she is on that morning.
Jess's bed is comfy, and for a while, all they do is sleep.
A few hours at least.
-
It's not even noon when someone bangs on his apartment door.
"No," Rory groans. "No, no, no."
Jess scrambles up, makes his way toward the door. "Probably just my neighbor," he says.
A minute later, Rory can hear voices out in the living room. Something in Spanish, a child too. Everything else is muffled beneath her deep cocoon.
She'll get up.
Eventually.
-
A half an hour later, Jess is sitting on the floor, coloring at the coffee table with his neighbor's kid while Rory brews some much-needed Italian roast. Her meeting isn't until late afternoon, but she has some notes to go over first.
"We help each other out," Jess explains. "I keep Rosie in top-shelf coloring books, and her mom keeps me in papusas."
Rory finally makes a sound. "God, I love papusas."
"What food don't you love?" he jokes.
"Good question." She agrees.
-
Rosie's mom picks her up about forty-five minutes later.
"Thank you," she tells Jess at the door, her accent not as heavy as Rory imagined it in her sleep. "I don't know what we'd do without you. There was an emergency at the restaurant and we're short-staffed this week so they needed another pair of hands. I tell you, my husband cannot do a thing without me."
Rory watches the exchange, feeling a little like an outsider. New York is a far cry from Stars Hollow, but it does appear that Jess has created a little community of his very own here. (It also appears that Rosie's mom is handing him a take-out bag from the restaurant in question. A fact that Rory does not take lightly, especially considering how amazing it smells.)
"For you and your friend," she says. Then she gestures to Rory. "I'm Eliza," she says.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Eliza," Jess says quickly. "This is Rory."
"Hello," Rory waves.
She can't help but notice a flash of recognition between Eliza and Jess.
"Well!" Eliza says abruptly. "I've got to get this one home! We've got a playdate to get ready for! Bye Rory! Nice to finally meet you!"
-
"Nice to finally meet me?" Rory says a moment later.
"What?"
"You know what."
"Oh, don't make a big deal."
Rory can't hold back her grin. "You, Jess Mariano! You! Have talked about me to that woman!"
"Eliza."
"Eliza! You have definitely told her about me. She totally knows who I am!"
"Yeah, so?"
"So..."
And then he's closing the distance between them and Rory's backing up against the wall.
"So... I talk about you," he admits with a shrug, a grin playing at the corners of his mouth when he notices how much Rory's blushing. "Is that so hard for you to believe?"
"Jess," Rory says his name.
"What is it, Gilmore?"
"Shut up and kiss me."
-
Two days later, Rory is hard at work on an assignment, when her phone pings.
Jess: So I heard you got some big promotion...
Rory: Care to cite your sources?
Jess: Luke.
Rory: Really?
Jess: Yeah. Making plans for a big fishing trip in a couple of weeks. You'll be home?
Rory: Is that a question or an assumption?
Jess: Dammit, Gilmore.
Rory: I can be there... yeah. What's in it for me?
Jess: I mean, I didn't want to say anything, but Eliza may or may not have shown me a trick or two in the kitchen.
Rory: Say no more, Mariano.
-
Lorelei tries to act cool in that very Lorelei way of hers where she is anything but cool.
"What a strange coincidence that you and Jess are both back here at the same time. Again! So soon! Luke, don't you think that's a strange coincidence? The strangest!"
"Leave me out of it," Luke calls, gruff as ever, his head underneath the counter, tools clanging. It's like nothing has ever changed.
"That's helpful, sweetie." Lorelei sing-songs before turning back to Rory. "So, any special reason why you just had to come home this particular weekend?" She sips her coffee, raises her eyebrows.
"You're pathetic," Rory says, grabbing an English muffin from the table.
Lorelei gasps in mock offense.
Rory tosses a piece of the muffin at her. It sails over her, and Paul Anka chases it down the hall as enthusiastically as Paul Anka can chase anything. (Which isn't much.)
"I may be pathetic," says Lorelei. "But at least I'm not half as transparent as you are."
Rory snorts. "Oh, no?"
"Well, okay. Maybe. But at least I own it."
-
It's not the last weekend they make it back to Stars Hollow that fall.
And they're not like official like Facebook official. Not that anyone really does that anymore. But they are... something.
Rory traces her finger behind Jess's ear, grins when he stirs.
"Good morning," she says, places a kiss on his lips. "I like your hair long, you know."
"Thank you," he says, rolling over. "But it can't be morning."
"What? Why not?"
He lifts his head from the pillow, to clarify. "A Gilmore without coffee in the morning is about as real as Santa Claus at the galleria."
"Jess, you take that back!" She pounces. "Everyone knows that mall Santas are the utter and absolute real deal."
He's smiling into his pillow.
He could, in fact, already has, gotten use to this.
-
By Christmas, Rory has moved to the city. Partially because she spends so much time there for work now anyway that it just makes sense for her to transfer to the New York offices, and partially because of Jess.
She gets her own apartment and it's nicer than his and ten blocks away and they end up staying at her place more often than not.
Jess is working on a new manuscript and managing the same book store he has for the past six years, and Rory sometimes goes there to write. She watches him work with the customers when she's not buried in her computer, lets him give her free coffee.
Guess she's a lot more like her mother than she even knew.
-
They go back to Stars Hollow for the New Year, and this time, they travel together.
It's the anniversary of her grandfather's death, and Emily always takes it hard.
Rory expects a confrontation. It's not like Jess and her grandparents have the best history.
"That hairdo," Emily says, handing Jess a drink. "What do you call it?"
Lorelei nearly chokes on her cocktail.
Rory wants to hide behind the vase she's standing next to, and almost does just that.
Jess doesn't miss a beat. "I mean. Well. I've heard it called a 'man-bun,'" he says. "But I don't think that it's meant to be nice."
Emily hums. "Well whatever you call it, I like it," she says. "I think it suits you."
-
Later, as they're leaving, Rory tosses Jess his jacket, and sets about looking for her own.
"That was..." he starts.
"Perfect," Rory finishes for him. "It was perfect."
-fin
fandom; pairing; wordcount: the gilmore girls; jess/rory; ~1700
notes: written for stainofmylove for her comment fic thing here - also my first gilmore girls fic ever.
Thanks to Facebook, Rory's always got a pretty good idea what Jess is up to. Not that it didn't take him forever to join, but after his last book took off, he kind of had to. Now he makes a lot of well-thought-out and sometimes grumpy political posts. Rory shares a lot of cat videos. (Not that she's particularly fond of cats, but sometimes you can't help a thing. The internet always wins.) It's all a little ironic when you consider that Jess writes fiction and Rory is still covering politics, as like, her day job.
Well, sort of.
It's complicated.
(The publishing world is not remotely what it used to be.)
Anyway, she's just glad that their world views still align in most of the ways that matter. Time changes people. And truth be told, she's "unfriended" way more people than she would like to admit.
One day Jess shares something that is, surprisingly, not political at all. It's an event, a concert near home, near Stars Hollow. In a couple of months.
Jess marks himself as Interested.
Rory does the same.
-
Jess: Are you going to this concert thing?
Rory: I don't know. I'm not sure I can get home.
Rory: ...you?
-
It's early fall, and with this heat wave they're having, might as well still be summer.
Rory wears red, white and blue, completely by accident.
"Well aren't you just downright patriotic?"
Rory almost cringes, but keeps her cool as she turns to him.
"Always," she beams, and is in his arms already.
"Been a long time, Gilmore," he says, squeezes her tighter. "Too long."
Jess's hair is long and Rory feels like he's taller too, but maybe she just feels shorter around him. Seventeen again.
The years dissolve like sugar.
-
There's not a lot of talking that can happen at a concert, so after the show when Jess reveals he somehow finagled his way into possession of a key to Luke's, they end up there.
It's nearly midnight, and Rory's got coffee brewing and Jess is cooking omelets for some reason, and the whole thing just feels like some kind of perfect throwback.
"So how come you never come back here anymore?"
Jess sighs.
Rory shrugs.
He groans. Almost annoyed, but playfully so. "No reason. I mean, Stars Hollow was never really home for me," he says. "And I don't get invited often."
"Oh, come on," she says, rolling her eyes. "Luke's not the most verbal guy, but you can read between the lines."
"Maybe I can," says Jess, and he pops another green pepper into his mouth. "Maybe I was just born stubborn. Runs in the family."
Rory laughs.
Ain't that the truth.
-
He takes her back to New York that night.
It's not something they plan. It just kind of happens.
Turns out Rory's got a meeting in the city the next evening and a red-eye to catch afterward so.... it makes sense.
It's already morning when they find their way to his apartment. Rory has never been more grateful that black-out curtains are a thing that exist than she is on that morning.
Jess's bed is comfy, and for a while, all they do is sleep.
A few hours at least.
-
It's not even noon when someone bangs on his apartment door.
"No," Rory groans. "No, no, no."
Jess scrambles up, makes his way toward the door. "Probably just my neighbor," he says.
A minute later, Rory can hear voices out in the living room. Something in Spanish, a child too. Everything else is muffled beneath her deep cocoon.
She'll get up.
Eventually.
-
A half an hour later, Jess is sitting on the floor, coloring at the coffee table with his neighbor's kid while Rory brews some much-needed Italian roast. Her meeting isn't until late afternoon, but she has some notes to go over first.
"We help each other out," Jess explains. "I keep Rosie in top-shelf coloring books, and her mom keeps me in papusas."
Rory finally makes a sound. "God, I love papusas."
"What food don't you love?" he jokes.
"Good question." She agrees.
-
Rosie's mom picks her up about forty-five minutes later.
"Thank you," she tells Jess at the door, her accent not as heavy as Rory imagined it in her sleep. "I don't know what we'd do without you. There was an emergency at the restaurant and we're short-staffed this week so they needed another pair of hands. I tell you, my husband cannot do a thing without me."
Rory watches the exchange, feeling a little like an outsider. New York is a far cry from Stars Hollow, but it does appear that Jess has created a little community of his very own here. (It also appears that Rosie's mom is handing him a take-out bag from the restaurant in question. A fact that Rory does not take lightly, especially considering how amazing it smells.)
"For you and your friend," she says. Then she gestures to Rory. "I'm Eliza," she says.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Eliza," Jess says quickly. "This is Rory."
"Hello," Rory waves.
She can't help but notice a flash of recognition between Eliza and Jess.
"Well!" Eliza says abruptly. "I've got to get this one home! We've got a playdate to get ready for! Bye Rory! Nice to finally meet you!"
-
"Nice to finally meet me?" Rory says a moment later.
"What?"
"You know what."
"Oh, don't make a big deal."
Rory can't hold back her grin. "You, Jess Mariano! You! Have talked about me to that woman!"
"Eliza."
"Eliza! You have definitely told her about me. She totally knows who I am!"
"Yeah, so?"
"So..."
And then he's closing the distance between them and Rory's backing up against the wall.
"So... I talk about you," he admits with a shrug, a grin playing at the corners of his mouth when he notices how much Rory's blushing. "Is that so hard for you to believe?"
"Jess," Rory says his name.
"What is it, Gilmore?"
"Shut up and kiss me."
-
Two days later, Rory is hard at work on an assignment, when her phone pings.
Jess: So I heard you got some big promotion...
Rory: Care to cite your sources?
Jess: Luke.
Rory: Really?
Jess: Yeah. Making plans for a big fishing trip in a couple of weeks. You'll be home?
Rory: Is that a question or an assumption?
Jess: Dammit, Gilmore.
Rory: I can be there... yeah. What's in it for me?
Jess: I mean, I didn't want to say anything, but Eliza may or may not have shown me a trick or two in the kitchen.
Rory: Say no more, Mariano.
-
Lorelei tries to act cool in that very Lorelei way of hers where she is anything but cool.
"What a strange coincidence that you and Jess are both back here at the same time. Again! So soon! Luke, don't you think that's a strange coincidence? The strangest!"
"Leave me out of it," Luke calls, gruff as ever, his head underneath the counter, tools clanging. It's like nothing has ever changed.
"That's helpful, sweetie." Lorelei sing-songs before turning back to Rory. "So, any special reason why you just had to come home this particular weekend?" She sips her coffee, raises her eyebrows.
"You're pathetic," Rory says, grabbing an English muffin from the table.
Lorelei gasps in mock offense.
Rory tosses a piece of the muffin at her. It sails over her, and Paul Anka chases it down the hall as enthusiastically as Paul Anka can chase anything. (Which isn't much.)
"I may be pathetic," says Lorelei. "But at least I'm not half as transparent as you are."
Rory snorts. "Oh, no?"
"Well, okay. Maybe. But at least I own it."
-
It's not the last weekend they make it back to Stars Hollow that fall.
And they're not like official like Facebook official. Not that anyone really does that anymore. But they are... something.
Rory traces her finger behind Jess's ear, grins when he stirs.
"Good morning," she says, places a kiss on his lips. "I like your hair long, you know."
"Thank you," he says, rolling over. "But it can't be morning."
"What? Why not?"
He lifts his head from the pillow, to clarify. "A Gilmore without coffee in the morning is about as real as Santa Claus at the galleria."
"Jess, you take that back!" She pounces. "Everyone knows that mall Santas are the utter and absolute real deal."
He's smiling into his pillow.
He could, in fact, already has, gotten use to this.
-
By Christmas, Rory has moved to the city. Partially because she spends so much time there for work now anyway that it just makes sense for her to transfer to the New York offices, and partially because of Jess.
She gets her own apartment and it's nicer than his and ten blocks away and they end up staying at her place more often than not.
Jess is working on a new manuscript and managing the same book store he has for the past six years, and Rory sometimes goes there to write. She watches him work with the customers when she's not buried in her computer, lets him give her free coffee.
Guess she's a lot more like her mother than she even knew.
-
They go back to Stars Hollow for the New Year, and this time, they travel together.
It's the anniversary of her grandfather's death, and Emily always takes it hard.
Rory expects a confrontation. It's not like Jess and her grandparents have the best history.
"That hairdo," Emily says, handing Jess a drink. "What do you call it?"
Lorelei nearly chokes on her cocktail.
Rory wants to hide behind the vase she's standing next to, and almost does just that.
Jess doesn't miss a beat. "I mean. Well. I've heard it called a 'man-bun,'" he says. "But I don't think that it's meant to be nice."
Emily hums. "Well whatever you call it, I like it," she says. "I think it suits you."
-
Later, as they're leaving, Rory tosses Jess his jacket, and sets about looking for her own.
"That was..." he starts.
"Perfect," Rory finishes for him. "It was perfect."
-fin