Topgallant : Gilmore Girls : Isn't it.

Isn't it?
Written for

loverly:
Fandom: Gilmore Girls.

loverly requested Tristan/Jess.
Length: 398 words.
Notes: This probably isn’t what you were expecting but it was a really interesting place to go.

“Small world,” Tristan says when Jess mentions Connecticut. “Used to be in love with a girl from Star’s Hollow.”

He is leaning against the printing press in their dusty basement publishing house, which would be an inadvisable position for anyone whose father didn’t own the company. Jess ponders the way he looks, propped up against what will be the first edition of Jess’s book, hopefully the first of many. Jess figures it’s a good sign that he’d rather laugh than rol his eyes, so he smiles and says, “Really. Me too.”

Tristan looks interested, perks up, and says, “Yeah? What was her name?”

He takes Jess out for drinks and Jess isn’t even aware until he’s through his second beer that it’s sort of a date. But Tristan makes jokes about Jack Kerouac and mentions the French Existentialists out of nowhere, and Jess winds up smirking a lot, so he keeps ordering. He’s always wondered if it’s true, what they say about the seven-beer rule.

It is true, as it turns out. Tristan pushes Jess against the wall of his apartment and Jess runs a hand up underneath his shirt. He notices the expensive furniture, the ridiculous excesses of the ridiculously wealthy in the size of the tv, the fully-stocked bar, the thickness of the carpet under his knees. I’m a fucking boytoy, he thinks, and laughs a dry laugh. Tristan twists his hand in Jess’s hair. “You really need a haircut,” he says, and pushes his head down. The sheen of sweat decorating Tristan’s navel tastes like salt and beer. Jess likes it all right.

He goes to see Rory when his book is published. He tells her about Philadelphia. He doesn’t tell her about Tristan. She probably wouldn’t believe him anyway. He wonders what she would say if she knew that he’s dating exactly the kind of guy they used to make fun of.

When he meets Logan he can barely stop himself from laughing out loud. Logan could be Tristan’s double, right down to the expensive suit and the daddy issues, and suddenly a whole bunch of things about Rory make a lot more sense.

Later when he finds himself yelling, he isn’t sure whether he’s doing it at her or himself.

“How’d it go?” Tristan asks when he gets back.

“Small world,” Jess says, and sets his duffel bag down in Tristan’s foyer.