fic: the best of it (rory/paris, ch. 19)

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THE BEST OF IT – Gilmore Girls; Rory/Paris; the one where Rory and Paris pretend to be girlfriends for JUSTICE!, and a documentary crew.

Chapter 19: In which the Firelight Festival comes to a dramatic conclusion, and this story comes to a fluffy one.

Read it: [AO3]

They head back to the town square an hour later: coats on, dresses swapped out for jeans and character heels for boots, and hair looking mighty suspicious. There are some activities that even copious amounts of hairspray can’t entirely withstand. Rory had grabbed a few knit caps from the house before they left. She passes one to Paris as they walk.

“What’s this for?” Paris frowns down at the hat. It’s a survivor from the week that Lorelai thought chartreuse might be her new signature color. (It wasn’t.)

“To cover up your hair,” Rory says. “We look like beauty pageant contestants who just got swept into a tornado.”

“Or beauty pageant contestants who just had spectacular sex,” Paris counters.

An involuntary, impossible-to-fight smile tugs at Rory’s mouth as she puts on her own hat.

“It’s crooked,” Paris says. She pulls Rory’s hat down so it’s a little more snug, then lingers there, smiling up at Rory. Rory dips down to sneak a kiss. She can’t believe how easy this is. Underneath the emotional cocktail of relief and wanting and pure stupid bliss, she keeps trying to find panic. She and Paris, they’re panickers. The past two weeks have been basically a nonstop festival of proving that. But now, it just feels calm, and good. She feels ready.

And thank God, she thinks Paris does too.

“Spectacular, huh?” Rory asks teasingly.

“You know me. Usually I try to steer clear of superlatives, sexually speaking. You don’t want your partner to stop making an effort because the praise has been heaped on right away. To pull a Modern Family, as it were. But I know you. You’re a reliable overachiever.”