Everything comes back to you -J.MARIANO

[1.09]

𝓦inter arrived and with it came a fancy dinner at Lorelai's inn as the people that had planned the event were snowed in. Her parents had received the phone call with the offer from Lorelai herself and they had instantly become obsessed with the idea. Taryn just liked the idea of getting out of her room for a while, creativity had been lax and she hoped the new setting would help strike something within her mind.

After settling into their room in the inn, the Lewis' traveled downstairs just in time for the announcement of horse pulled carriages. Her parents, after checking it was okay, chose to head off on one of the first carriages to leave the inn. Taryn just smiled to herself after they disappeared, glad that her parents were still so incredibly in love and interested in this sphere of things.

"You gonna go?" Luke asked Jess as they watched the people hurry out of the foyer.

"I think I'll wait for the clog dancing," Jess responded with annoyance in the entire situation he had found himself in showing insanely clearly.

Taryn, however, chose not to notice that specific detail as she approached. "My dad's want to go together. Jess, Luke, will one of you go with me?"

"S-"

"Course," Jess interrupted quickly before Taryn would catch anything. He stood from his chair quickly and marveled in her brief thankful smile.

"What about the clog dancing?" Luke asked somewhat jokingly, silently observing the dynamic between the two teenagers. Whilst Taryn furrowed a brow in confusion, Jess silenced his uncle with the widening of his eyes before guiding her away from the conversation with his hand placed in the small of her back.

Without further question, as she sensed any question would be shot down immediately, they both climbed into one of the horse drawn sleighs. Taryn covered herself with the blanket on the seats, as it had started to snow again, but Jess refused to take it when she offered it over. She laughed to herself, knowing he would regret such a choice later, and tucked herself in tighter. It took from them setting off at the front of the inn to getting around to the back of the inn for him to start shivering and choose to pull on his gloves.

"You look a little cold there Mariano," she laughed ever so softly and subtly shifted herself to untuck the blankets in case he did want to be covered in the blanket too.

He scoffed subtly, "I'm not."

"No one will see you partaking in some form of Stars Hollow charm."

He hesitated for a second, waiting for her to turn back to face him before he responded, "You will."

"Like I'd judge you," she scoffed as if the mere idea of such action was a disgusting thought. "Your teeth chattering is getting annoying." As he made no effort to grab the blanket himself, she simply chose to just throw half of it over his knees. She looked at him once before he slid over ever so slightly, covering his legs with the blanket and warmth that came along with it. They fell into discussion after that and now he was finally warm, she could notice that the coldness from before wasn't just due to the weather. He just seemed off and for her, it wasn't difficult to notice. He thought he hid it well but Taryn had a gift when it came to reading inner emotions based on a twinge of a brow or the flex of a certain muscle. She had to be good at it so had learnt at a young age, it made communication just that slight bit easier. Finally, fifteen minutes into their sleigh ride, she worked up the confidence to finally ask, "Are you okay?"

He frowned instantly, "Why wouldn't I be?"

She shrugged, unable to place the exact reason why she felt this sudden change in his disposition. "You seem.. I don't know... More distant than usual."

He sighed and internally tried to figure out a way he could get out of this conversation, a good enough reason to give for his sudden moodiness. But it was a snapshot of a look in her eyes that changed his mind towards the truth. The distinct lack of judgment, only care. So he instead answered truthfully, "My Mom didn't want me to go home. Luke told me it was his idea that I should stay. It wasn't his idea."

"Maybe your Mom thinks you're better off with Luke," she suggested hopefully, though knew it would do hardly anything to convince him.

"I doubt it. She doesn't care that much," he replied with a sigh whilst the sleigh stopped outside the front of the inn again. He practically jumped out of the sleigh and proceeded to offer her a hand out, which she took after laughing at the gesture.

During the dinner itself, the main event and reason they were in that inn, she just could not catch her breath. Between all of the costumes, the acting and how she would fall into laughter again every single time she caught Jess' gaze, breathing properly just was not comprehensible.

-

In the middle of the night, Taryn snuck downstairs to the main room in the inn. She hadn't been able to sleep for hours and figured she may as well use the time instead of laying in the dark. She sat on one of the couches and turned on a singular lamp behind herself. She sketched, finally. The drawings of pieces just poured out onto the page. Warmth poured from the fire in front of her and created the perfect environment for creativity. She sat on that couch, in her pajamas and an oversized jumper, for two hours just drawing. 

It wasn't until Jess sat down next to her that she found herself pulled away from the creativity. "Can't sleep too?" he asked quietly, as if their voices would wake the sleeping many upstairs.

She nodded and rolled the charcoal between her fingertips, "Da snores."

"Which ones that again?"

"Da is Andrew, Dad is Marcus."

"Marcus is the blonde one?" he asked and she proceeded to give her response via a nod. "What are you doing?"

"Sketches, potential clothing pieces," she sighed as he looked over her shoulder at all the black lines on the cream pad of paper. The charcoal itself found itself all smudged over her fingers, from the stick itself or simply just smudging it for a design.

"Steal that from the fire?"

She laughed softly and placed the already worn rectangle of charcoal down in the metal container that rested on the table behind her. "No, I got them for my birthday."

He furrowed his brow, "Recently?"

"Couple of days ago," she shrugged and tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear with her clean hand. Well she had thought it clean.

"Happy birthday," he smiled genuinely and she found it being matched on her own lips. Managing to trail his gaze away from hers, Jess noticed the smudging on the side of her face and tapped his own cheek in the place of the mark. "You've got some on your face."

She sighed in annoyance and pulled down her sleeve, exposing half her shoulder as she attempted to wipe away the markings. "Gone?"

"If anything you made it worse," he replied with the briefest laughter before standing up from the couch. He quickly headed to the kitchen and grabbed a washcloth, which he wetted in the sink before returning to the main room. She smiled as he entered, holding the cloth up to answer her questions. Jess crouched down at the back of the couch and gently wiped away the charcoal as she would have only made it worse without a mirror. He kept his eyes focused on the spot, instead of hers and worked quickly to wipe it all away. Once his gaze did happen to flicker to hers, just as he dropped the now cold cloth from her face, his breath caught in his throat and a honey like thickness swept through his stomach.

"Thanks," she whispered and he snapped out of the deeper thoughts, proceeding to clear his throat of the thickness that had settled there.

"You hungry?" he asked, acting as if he didn't care about the previous response.

In a brief pause, she thought about the ramifications her answer would have. They would most likely raid Sookie's kitchen and possibly create stress for the cook. But she figured that it would be easy to keep the mess to a minimum and they wouldn't move anything drastically. So she grinned, "Absolutely."