So I'm re-watching Gilmore Girls in preparation for November 25th (can I get a hallelujah? No? Okay, nevermind) and just reached the Literati Wonderland that is early season 3. Alas, this popped into my head and now here we are. Hope you enjoy!

xxx

It wasn't the kissing that bothered Dean. He had anticipated it, he had prepared for it. No, the thing that bothered him the most was this, he thought, as he sat in a secluded bench close to Doose's market during his break.

Rory and Jess were sitting in the town square – to mere passersby, they were just a couple of kids enjoying the sunny day, but Dean had already spent an awful lot of time observing them, back when his relationship with Rory started to end, being thus able to read so much more into this otherwise mundane activity.

They were both reading, Rory laying down on the grass and Jess sitting, each focused on their respective books. Every now and then, however, something peculiar would happen.

Almost as if on cue, Jess turned to Rory. Dean couldn't hear him, but he seemed agitated, exclaiming something in outrage. Rory barely reacted, merely holding her hand up, silently telling him to wait. Jess remained distressed, but waited quietly. After two minutes, Rory reached the end of the chapter and got up, closing her own book and turning her attention to Jess, who promptly commenced his rant.

In this case, mere passersby would assume they were now a couple of kids fighting, but once again Dean knew better. Rory listened intently, hanging on every word to process his opinion. Once he finished, she pondered, deep in thought. Jess didn't push, his distress subsided once he got the words out. Rory then reacted in a thoughtful manner, apparently asking a few questions and then proceeding to state her take on the subject.

They could rap like this for hours, and it killed Dean inside. Because for the nearly two years he was Rory's boyfriend, no matter how hard he tried to be perfect – being friends with her mom, waiting for her at the bus stop, watching silly movies, changing the goddamn water cooler – he had never been able to give Rory the thing she valued the most: that intellectual challenge.

Their conversations were fun, interesting on occasion, but when it came to Rory's Russian novels, philosophical wanderings and all else that came along with it, he had never been able to keep up. Hell, he had never made it past the third chapter of Crime and Punishment.

So, whenever Rory wanted to go into this specific – and valuable – part of her world, she retreated, not letting him be a part of it. It happened on weekends when Rory said she wanted to "be alone to catch up on her reading". It never bothered Dean until Jess came along and fit right in.

He found scribbles written on the margins of Rory's books and she would change the subject when he asked about them; she would be late for school because she was in a heated debate about whether Coleman Silk's actions could be deemed immoral ("Nevermind", she replied upon noticing Dean's confused expression).

Dean snapped out of his thoughts as Jess and Rory shared a brief kiss, apparently having settled the issue. Rory lay back down and resumed her reading – Jess, however, took a fraction of a second longer, gazing her as if she was a treasure he had somehow managed to find buried deep within a small town in Connecticut.

Oh, yeah, it also killed him that Jess wasn't a jackass who just wanted to get into Rory's pants – actually, as far as Dean was concerned, he was – but he was a jackass who wanted to get into Rory's pants and who was also in love with her.

"Dean, we need you in here!" Taylor shouted, forcing him out of stupor.

Before going into the market, Dean turned back once again just in time to see Rory snap back up, looking incredulous and forcing Jess's book shut. The jackass didn't seem upset – rather, he seemed amused as he proceeded to take in Rory's speech.

Dean sighed, turning his back on that world he had never been a part of - a world which now had one more inhabitant.