Ain't Nothing But a Family Thing (Gilmore Girls, PG-13)
Title: Ain't Nothing But a Family Thing
Rating: PG-13
Fandom: Gilmore Girls
Pairing: Rory/Lane, Rory/Paris, Lorelei/Suki
Summary: Lane might be going through a phase. Rory definitely isn’t.
For sansets
Rory doesn't think that Lane likes girls. Not really. It's just one more thing to piss off Mrs Kim, and when did she start using words like 'piss off', anyway? Maybe around the time you started kissing girls for fun and not just to practise for boys? her brain suggests, snarkily. Sometimes, Rory thinks, her brain sounds scarily like her mother. Who is, after all, to blame for all this. As usual.
Rory remembers growing up in Stars Hollow. She remembers Luke coming round to babysit when her mother and Suki wanted a girls' night out. She also remembers when her mother and Suki would stay in. She was little, so she could be imagining it, projecting like they talk about in psychology books. But she's pretty sure it happened. She had a nightmare, and she went into the tv room where Mommy and Suki were watching movies on the tiny television and eating burnt popcorn that made the whole house smell funny. She thought that maybe they were watching a horror film, or something with Jim Carrey in it, and that Mommy was scared. Then, with the kind of calm preciociousness that makes Rory know that she didn't make it up, because she has her mother's flair for drama as well as for kissing girls and her version would involve screaming and crying and then Suki coming to live with them forever, then she realised what they were doing and crept out of the room quiet as a mouse.
Which was why, when her mother started dating seriously for the first time ever, she freaked. Not because of Max, but because she missed Suki and that meant that whatever happened between her and Lorelei was never going to happen again. And because Rory, being Rory, was self-aware enough to know that right then she needed a decent role model or two.
Which brings her back to girls, the liking of. More precisely, liking Lane. Lane says all the right things - how guys are jerks and Dean isn't worth it and Tristan sounds like an asshole and why can't Rory just transfer back to Stars Hollow anyway? Lane also says that all the best rockers are girls who like girls, and this is what worries Rory. Because she's pretty sure that it isn't a phase with her - she's spent too much time deliberately not looking at Paris 'underneath all this attitude I have a great rack' Gellar in the locker-rooms to think she's anything approaching straight. And if her first girlfriend breaks her heart by going back to boys, even if they are boys who look a bit like girls - well, Rory isn't sure what she'll do. Because getting dumped by a straight girl may be a rite of passage in all those books she furtively reads under the covers, but she isn't sure she's ready for it to happen to her. Especially not with Lane.
Paris breaking her heart, now that she could handle. Because it's not as if Paris even likes her anyway, so she wouldn't lose a friend and it's not like she could make her a bigger enemy. And Paris has that whole 'repressed smart girl' vibe which Rory goes for. She knows it's hot because Lane tells her all the time, usually when she's feeling daring and her hands slide up Rory's sweater. She has a thing for making out with Rory in her Chiltern uniform, and once Rory accused Lane of being a secret Britney Spears fan. Lane didn't speak to her for a whole week after that, and only then because Rory had convinced her dad to get her Sleater Kinney tickets for her birthday. She hated Sleater Kinney, she'd rather have another copy of The Power of Myth to replace the ones her mom kept hiding, but she wanted to make Lane happy.
When Emily found out, she was predictably appalled. She demanded that 'this Lane character' come over for Friday night dinner so she could meet her, and it took two whole hours before Lorelei talked her out of borrowing one of Lane’s CDs ‘to assess the suitability of the lyrics’. Friday night dinner turned into a sleepover in Rory's 'teenage girl by numbers' bedroom. They played Bikini Kill really quietly, and ate the candy Lorelei had hidden in Rory's slippers, and giggled into each other's mouth until they realised the door had opened. Emily was standing there with an unreadable expression on her face.
“Grandma we were…uh, we were just practicing…” Rory’s voice trailed off as the door closed with a sudden click, and both girls listened to the sound of footsteps going slowly downstairs. Rory bit her lip.
“Lane, I have to…”
Lane nodded, looking pale and scared. “Don’t let her tell my mother?”
Rory pressed a kiss against the other girl’s lips. “I promise.”
The ground floor of the house was dark, but Rory could hear noises coming from the kitchen. Her grandmother was sitting at the table, staring into space and drinking one of Richard’s expensive single malts, the kind that Rory knew was designed to be sipped slowly, savored, not gulped down between sobs the way Emily was drinking it now. She must have made a sound, because Emily’s head snaps round. She looks at Rory for what feels like hours even though the clock only ticks for a few seconds. In the dim light, Emily looks angrier than Rory has ever seen her.
“If you break that poor girl’s heart, I will no longer consider you my granddaughter.”
She doesn’t know what to say so she stammers out their agreed excuse, even though she isn’t sure it’s really just an excuse as far as Lane is concerned. Emily cuts her off, standing up and making it clear that this conversation, which never really got started, is at an end.
“Rory, you’re a very perceptive young girl. And so I expect you to understand when I tell you that sometimes, one person can think that this sort of thing is entirely innocent, when someone else feels….well, feels very deeply about it. And that only ever leads to…” Emily trails off, tears clouding her voice again. “Well, leads to unpleasantness. And if there is one thing we are not in this family, it is unpleasant.” Her voice sounds odd, far away, like she’s repeating something someone else said, years ago and in a different context.
“Grandma?”
Emily knows what she’s asking, and Rory knows that she knows, but all she says is, “It’s getting late, Rory. Time for bed. Don’t keep your friend up till the early hours, I’m sure her mother wouldn’t appreciate it.”
She leads the way upstairs and when they say goodnight Rory wants to reach out and hold her, to tell her about Lane and how she’s scared that she’s the one who’ll get her heart broken, and to tell her about mom and Suki and about Paris, and mostly just hold her and say that she gets it, she does. But Emily is Emily, and all Rory gets is a fleeting kiss on the cheek and the impression of not-quite-dry tears.
So now Rory has two secrets from her mother. When Lorelei finds out - which she will, it’s just what she does - the hurt and the tears and the shouting are going to be worse than a hundred heartbreaks. Rory just hopes that Lane is worth it.
Rating: PG-13
Fandom: Gilmore Girls
Pairing: Rory/Lane, Rory/Paris, Lorelei/Suki
Summary: Lane might be going through a phase. Rory definitely isn’t.
For sansets
Rory doesn't think that Lane likes girls. Not really. It's just one more thing to piss off Mrs Kim, and when did she start using words like 'piss off', anyway? Maybe around the time you started kissing girls for fun and not just to practise for boys? her brain suggests, snarkily. Sometimes, Rory thinks, her brain sounds scarily like her mother. Who is, after all, to blame for all this. As usual.
Rory remembers growing up in Stars Hollow. She remembers Luke coming round to babysit when her mother and Suki wanted a girls' night out. She also remembers when her mother and Suki would stay in. She was little, so she could be imagining it, projecting like they talk about in psychology books. But she's pretty sure it happened. She had a nightmare, and she went into the tv room where Mommy and Suki were watching movies on the tiny television and eating burnt popcorn that made the whole house smell funny. She thought that maybe they were watching a horror film, or something with Jim Carrey in it, and that Mommy was scared. Then, with the kind of calm preciociousness that makes Rory know that she didn't make it up, because she has her mother's flair for drama as well as for kissing girls and her version would involve screaming and crying and then Suki coming to live with them forever, then she realised what they were doing and crept out of the room quiet as a mouse.
Which was why, when her mother started dating seriously for the first time ever, she freaked. Not because of Max, but because she missed Suki and that meant that whatever happened between her and Lorelei was never going to happen again. And because Rory, being Rory, was self-aware enough to know that right then she needed a decent role model or two.
Which brings her back to girls, the liking of. More precisely, liking Lane. Lane says all the right things - how guys are jerks and Dean isn't worth it and Tristan sounds like an asshole and why can't Rory just transfer back to Stars Hollow anyway? Lane also says that all the best rockers are girls who like girls, and this is what worries Rory. Because she's pretty sure that it isn't a phase with her - she's spent too much time deliberately not looking at Paris 'underneath all this attitude I have a great rack' Gellar in the locker-rooms to think she's anything approaching straight. And if her first girlfriend breaks her heart by going back to boys, even if they are boys who look a bit like girls - well, Rory isn't sure what she'll do. Because getting dumped by a straight girl may be a rite of passage in all those books she furtively reads under the covers, but she isn't sure she's ready for it to happen to her. Especially not with Lane.
Paris breaking her heart, now that she could handle. Because it's not as if Paris even likes her anyway, so she wouldn't lose a friend and it's not like she could make her a bigger enemy. And Paris has that whole 'repressed smart girl' vibe which Rory goes for. She knows it's hot because Lane tells her all the time, usually when she's feeling daring and her hands slide up Rory's sweater. She has a thing for making out with Rory in her Chiltern uniform, and once Rory accused Lane of being a secret Britney Spears fan. Lane didn't speak to her for a whole week after that, and only then because Rory had convinced her dad to get her Sleater Kinney tickets for her birthday. She hated Sleater Kinney, she'd rather have another copy of The Power of Myth to replace the ones her mom kept hiding, but she wanted to make Lane happy.
When Emily found out, she was predictably appalled. She demanded that 'this Lane character' come over for Friday night dinner so she could meet her, and it took two whole hours before Lorelei talked her out of borrowing one of Lane’s CDs ‘to assess the suitability of the lyrics’. Friday night dinner turned into a sleepover in Rory's 'teenage girl by numbers' bedroom. They played Bikini Kill really quietly, and ate the candy Lorelei had hidden in Rory's slippers, and giggled into each other's mouth until they realised the door had opened. Emily was standing there with an unreadable expression on her face.
“Grandma we were…uh, we were just practicing…” Rory’s voice trailed off as the door closed with a sudden click, and both girls listened to the sound of footsteps going slowly downstairs. Rory bit her lip.
“Lane, I have to…”
Lane nodded, looking pale and scared. “Don’t let her tell my mother?”
Rory pressed a kiss against the other girl’s lips. “I promise.”
The ground floor of the house was dark, but Rory could hear noises coming from the kitchen. Her grandmother was sitting at the table, staring into space and drinking one of Richard’s expensive single malts, the kind that Rory knew was designed to be sipped slowly, savored, not gulped down between sobs the way Emily was drinking it now. She must have made a sound, because Emily’s head snaps round. She looks at Rory for what feels like hours even though the clock only ticks for a few seconds. In the dim light, Emily looks angrier than Rory has ever seen her.
“If you break that poor girl’s heart, I will no longer consider you my granddaughter.”
She doesn’t know what to say so she stammers out their agreed excuse, even though she isn’t sure it’s really just an excuse as far as Lane is concerned. Emily cuts her off, standing up and making it clear that this conversation, which never really got started, is at an end.
“Rory, you’re a very perceptive young girl. And so I expect you to understand when I tell you that sometimes, one person can think that this sort of thing is entirely innocent, when someone else feels….well, feels very deeply about it. And that only ever leads to…” Emily trails off, tears clouding her voice again. “Well, leads to unpleasantness. And if there is one thing we are not in this family, it is unpleasant.” Her voice sounds odd, far away, like she’s repeating something someone else said, years ago and in a different context.
“Grandma?”
Emily knows what she’s asking, and Rory knows that she knows, but all she says is, “It’s getting late, Rory. Time for bed. Don’t keep your friend up till the early hours, I’m sure her mother wouldn’t appreciate it.”
She leads the way upstairs and when they say goodnight Rory wants to reach out and hold her, to tell her about Lane and how she’s scared that she’s the one who’ll get her heart broken, and to tell her about mom and Suki and about Paris, and mostly just hold her and say that she gets it, she does. But Emily is Emily, and all Rory gets is a fleeting kiss on the cheek and the impression of not-quite-dry tears.
So now Rory has two secrets from her mother. When Lorelei finds out - which she will, it’s just what she does - the hurt and the tears and the shouting are going to be worse than a hundred heartbreaks. Rory just hopes that Lane is worth it.