A/N: So, I'm sorry about the massive wait between chapters, and I'm sorry the last one was so short, which I didn't realise, but here is an extra long one to make up for it!

Rory had gone inside after she'd said that, leaving Tristan standing in the corridor, tiger stripes still visible on his cheeks. He couldn't believe that he'd finally done what he'd been dreaming of for years; he'd made out with Rory Gilmore, and it had been amazing. He sighed suddenly. Now he had to go home and face Logan, the other guy fighting for Rory's affections, and tell him that she'd chosen a winner, and it certainly wasn't the slacking son of a media mogul.

He trudged back to the bar and picked up his car, driving home without the accompaniment of the radio or CDs, just reliving the moment that he'd finally realised one of his dreams. Back at his apartment, he killed the engine and sighed. What if it tore the two of them apart? What if their friendship didn't survive, and Logan never spoke to him again? What if Finn and Collin took Logan's side, and never spoke to him again either? He didn't want to lose the three of them; they were his best friends, and even Rory wasn't worth breaking up the band. He got out his cell phone.

*

Rory closed the door on Tristan, a dreamy smile on her face, and turned around to face a curious looking Paris.

"What happened out there? I heard you two talking, but didn't think you'd appreciate me spying, so I left you to it, and now you've got this really goofy grin." Paris sat down on the sofa and stared hard at her roommate. Rory sighed. "Spill."

"Tristan kissed me." Rory told her, sitting down on the other end of the sofa.

"Well, it's about time, too." Rory looked puzzled. "He's been after you since Chilton, and meeting you again in college hasn't changed that. He's been trying to get you to choose him over Logan since he arrived." Paris explained.

"He has?"

"He has. Not in a 'I'm Tristan Dugray and I just want to gloat about getting the girl' way, either. He wants to be with you, but he's a coward. So I'm glad he finally got it over and done with tonight."

"Well, he never actually said anything about what would happen after the kiss." Rory said, frowning slightly. She didn't like being kept hanging, when it came to matters of the heart.

"He'll call and ask you out soon, I'm sure, Rory. He'll probably do it tonight."

As she said this, Rory's phone started buzzing in her purse. Paris shot Rory an 'I told you so' look, and wandered into her bedroom.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Rory, it's Tristan."

"Oh, hey!" Rory visibly perked up at the sound of his voice. "What's up?"

"I, uh, I...this isn't easy, Ror, but I really don't think I can do this whole 'us' thing at the moment."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I don't want us to go out, and I want us to forget about the kiss. Listen, I'm sorry, but it's just not the right time for us to be together."

"Oh." Rory's voice was small as she sank down onto the sofa. "Fine. Okay then."

"Listen, I really want to stay friends, Rory, really I do. Can I meet you for coffee tomorrow?"

"Sorry, Tristan, but I have classes all day."

"Well how about-"

"Goodbye, Tristan." Rory hung up the phone without letting him finish his sentence. She tried to take deep calming breaths, and not over react, but she couldn't. A violent sob racked her body, and Paris, coming to visit her craft corner, noticed the change in her friend's demeanour.

"Rory! What's wrong?" She asked, showing a softer side of her personality, and putting an arm around Rory's shoulders.

"Apparently it isn't the right time for us to be together." Rory replied, pulling herself together and holding in her tears. "He wants to forget about the kiss and just stay friends. Guess you were wrong after all."

She got up and went into her room, closing the door and finishing the conversation, leaving Paris sitting on the sofa.

"That son of a bitch." She growled.

*

The next morning, Tristan hung around the coffee cart Rory usually went to, in the hope of seeing her and explaining himself, but she didn't come. She wasn't at the newsroom anytime throughout the day, and on his fifth visit, Doyle had banned him on Paris' orders. The blonde had glared at him every time they crossed paths, but refused to talk to him. He assumed that she had been told about his less than smooth attempt to back off of Rory.

He was miserable, and it had only been twenty four hours since he'd made the call that had changed his life, and his college experience. But, he kept telling himself, he'd done it for the good of his friendship, and rule number one of their friendship had always been 'mates before dates'. Logan had seemed pleased when Tristan told him that the walk to her dorm had been totally innocent, and that Rory didn't seem interested in the boy she knew from high school, and it had made Tristan feel better about what he was doing, but he knew he couldn't keep using Logan's happiness to keep him going.

*

Friday came around all too quickly, and Rory found herself dressing for dinner with her grandparents and mother. She'd had a pretty miserable week, avoiding Tristan and burying herself in her work. Paris had told her that he'd been looking for her for several days, before apparently giving up. Obviously he didn't care enough about her then. She'd made several dates with Logan, as an attempt to cheer herself up, and she'd done a pretty good job of acting like Ace instead of Mary, but seeing him only made her think of the guy that had turned her down, and shattered her heart in the process.

Several tearful conversations had been had down the phone with her mother, who had sworn to castrated the Dugray heir the next time she saw him, and Rory was feeling slightly better now, but she knew that Emily would want to gossip about Tristan, having seen him with her granddaughter at the party. She thought she was just about ready for that scenario; could bluff it quite well.

The reality was quite different.

*

"You ring the bell."

"No, I rang it last week, you ring it."

"You always say that, but I always ring it, so you obviously didn't ring the bell last week." It wouldn't be Friday night without an argument with her mother over who would make it impossible for them to run away. "How about growing up and ringing it."

As she said this, the door opened, to reveal Emily Gilmore. "I thought I'd save you two the trouble of standing on the doorstep for another ten minutes, considering my guests can see you. It's really quite embarrassing."

"You have guests tonight?" Lorelai asked as she removed her coat. "Does that mean we can leave?"

"They're guests that I want you to meet and get along with, Lorelai, but Rory should have no trouble with that."

The two younger Gilmores frowned at each other, puzzled by this remark, and followed Emily into the living room. Suddenly they weren't so puzzled.

"Rory, Lorelai, you already know Tristan, but this is Claire and Everett Dugray, his parents. Claire, Everett, this is my daughter Lorelai and granddaughter Rory." Emily made the introductions, as her relations just stared at the guests, and Tristan stared right back.

He couldn't believe how Rory looked. To an untrained eye she seemed just a little stressed, common for someone at college, but to Tristan, who knew her face inside out, she looked like she hadn't slept or eaten for days. She had bags under her eyes, which were now glaring at him, and she seemed thinner. Tristan himself didn't look his best either. His normally floppy hair was almost on end from the number of times he'd run his fingers through it in agony, and he too had heavy bags below his eyes.

"Wow. This night just got really interesting." Lorelai whispered.

"What was that, Lorelai?" Emily asked, as they sat down as far away from Tristan as possible.

"I said that I'm very interested to meet the Dugrays, mother."

Emily shot her a sceptical glance as she handed her a martini, and Rory a Coke. The seven people sat in slightly awkward silence for a moment or two, before Richard began talking to Rory.

"So, Rory, how's the Yale Daily News doing?"

"Its fine, Grandpa." Rory said, quietly.

"Oh! You're on the newsteam?" Everett Dugray asked. "I was on it in my day, and I wish I could get Tristan to join."

"Well, getting a reporting spot is quite competitive, sir, and you need to be able to stick at it for a long time, he can't just get on the team and then decide he can't be bothered and doesn't want to do it." Rory said, sweetly, as if she wasn't trying to prove a point to Tristan.

"I decided not to join the newspaper because that's Logan's territory, Dad, and I didn't want him to feel like I was barging in and taking away things that he liked and wanted." Tristan replied, not looking at Rory, but allowing his words to sink in.

"Logan is a big boy now, Tristan, I'm sure he could have handled it." Claire laughed, and Rory nodded at her comment.

"I guess some people just don't have the guts to fight for what they want regardless of other people's feelings, huh Rory?" Lorelai mused, looking into the distance.

"Is there something going on here that I'm not getting?" Emily asked, looking slightly confused.

"No, Grandma, we're just talking about the trials and hazards of being a Yale Daily News reporter." Rory told her, innocently.

"Hmm...Well, anyway, it's time to go in for dinner."

*

The meal was tense and really only the elder Gilmores and Dugrays took part in any conversation. Tristan was across from Rory and kept trying to make her look at him, by tapping her with his foot, dropping his fork loudly, and even burping to get her attention. But she looked resolutely at her plate or at the adult speaking, and hardly said a word all night.

Once the Dugrays were gone, and only the Gilmore clan remained, Emily turned on her daughter and granddaughter.

"You two couldn't have been more taciturn if you'd tried!" She said, accusingly. "Claire and Everett are very good friends of ours and you probably insulted them terribly."

"Sorry, Grandma, I wasn't really in the mood for entertaining tonight." Rory said, quietly.

"Why ever not? I thought you'd enjoy having Tristan there, what with the two of you being so close, but you didn't say two words to him all night."

"Tristan and I aren't as close as you think, Grandma." Rory replied, wearily.

"So you just let any boy stay by your side for half the night and buy you drinks and put his arm around your waist?"

"Occasionally, yeah. Besides, just because we aren't close doesn't mean he's a stranger."

"And just because you aren't close doesn't mean that you shouldn't be friendly and polite when he's over for dinner." Emily replied.

"Okay! Stop it, guys! Mom, Rory and Tristan had a fight, and it was really hard for her to face him, let alone talk to him. That's why she was silent all night. And by the way, Tristan didn't say much either, so stop blaming everything on Rory." Lorelai jumped in and finished the argument. "Are you coming home this weekend, kid? I've forgotten."

"Yeah, I've got some stuff in my car, so I'll just meet you back at the house." Rory replied, gathering her coat and bag. "The food was great, Grandma, see you soon, Grandpa." She gave them each a kiss and followed her mother out of the house, where they each got into their cars, and drove off.

*

Tristan got back to Yale feeling sad and demoralised. His friends had hardly noticed how bad he had been feeling, and he'd had to endure Logan gloating about the dates he'd had with Rory.

"Shit. I don't think I can keep this up anymore." Tristan muttered, as he paused outside the door to the apartment, and heard Logan tell Collin that he and Rory were getting together on Monday evening. He squared his shoulders and walked into the apartment. "Logan, we need to talk."

"Oh man, are you dumping me?" Logan asked in a high-pitched voice.

"Seriously, dude, I need to tell you something." Tristan sat down on the sofa and removed his jacket.

"Well, then shoot."

"Rory and I kissed."

"What? When?" Logan looked suspiciously at his friend. "Are you kidding?"

"No, I'm not kidding. We kissed the night we went to the carnival. I walked her back to her dorm and we kissed. Several times, actually."

"Okay, but why are you telling me this? You basically haven't seen her since that night."

"Exactly. I decided that I didn't want to risk our friendship over a girl that we both like, so I told her I just wanted to stay friends, and she got really annoyed. Possibly because I didn't get to tell her why I wanted to be friends." Tristan explained.

"Wow, man. You backed off because of me? Thanks." Logan looked genuinely grateful, and Tristan almost felt guilty for what he was about to say. Almost.

"Yeah I did, but I've been feeling horrible ever since, and I saw Rory tonight and she looked bad too. She wouldn't even look at me throughout dinner, and it killed me a little. I think I love her, man. I don't think I ever stopped actually." Tristan paused and glanced at his friend, who looked confused. "What I'm trying to say is that I've decided not to back off. I've gotta do this for me, for my sanity I have to see whether it works out. So I'm warning you now that that's my intention."

He didn't wait for a reply, just walked out of the apartment. Declaring his intentions was all very well, but how on earth was he going to get Rory to look at him again, let alone talk to him and date him? Paris was the obvious answer. He drove over to hers as quickly as possible and knocked several times, praying that Doyle wasn't going to be there in her nightwear.

Luckily, Paris, fully dressed, answered and one look at him made her gesture to the couch. "What's wrong, jackass?"

"So Rory told you, huh?"

"I was the first to know, and the first to think 'what the fuck is wrong with that guy?'" She replied, scathingly.

"I have no idea what was wrong with me, but I do know that I was wrong. I need Rory, I think I might love Rory, and I need to get her back." Tristan groaned and flopped back on the sofa. "What am I gonna do?"

"Rory's a hopeless romantic. So do something romantic for her." Paris told him, calmly.

"Something romantic, something romantic." Tristan started wracking his brains.

*

It was four in the morning when Rory thought she heard a car pull up outside her house. She woke up properly when she heard a door slam and footsteps make their way to the front of her house. Someone fumbled around with something, and she got out of bed. That was when the singing started.

"Girl, you really got me goin'
You got me so I don't know what I'm doin', now
Yeah, you really got me now
You got me so I can't sleep at night
Yeah, you really got me now
You got me so I don't know what I'm doin', now
Oh yeah, you really got me now
You got me so I can't sleep at night"

The guy singing didn't have the greatest voice, but it was being boomed through a megaphone and distorted slightly. They were, however definitely singing to her house, so she ventured a look outside.

"You Really Got Me
You Really Got Me
You Really Got Me"
It was Tristan. Tristan was serenading her with The Kinks, in an attempt to win her back.

"See, don't ever set me free
I always wanna be by your side
Girl, you really got me now
You got me so I can't sleep at night"

People had emerged from their houses, watching. Babette had a video camera, and was recording Tristan as he stood in their driveway and sang his heart out.
"Yeah, you really got me now
You got me so I don't know what I'm doin', now
Oh yeah, you really got me now
You got me so I can't sleep at night
You Really Got Me
You Really Got Me
You Really Got Me
Oh no..."

The singing stopped, the song was over, and Rory was practically in tears. But apparently that wasn't all.

"Rory Gilmore I love you!" Tristan yelled, so practically the whole town could hear him. "I love you, and I'm sorry that I did what I did, even if I did have some stupid reason. Will you give me a second chance?"