Work Text:
December 2045
“I’m glad we never moved,” said Rory, watching the snow fall beyond the window. “It’s so weird not having the kids here for Christmas, but it always feels like they’re with us, so long as we’re in this house.”
“They’ll be back before you know it,” Jess reminded her, bringing a blanket to wrap around her shoulders. “When they grew up and got married, we knew they’d have to spend at least some special occasions with the in-laws.”
“I know.” Rory nodded, leaning into his embrace. “Honestly, I never thought I could bear to leave home, and then our apartment in New Haven was so perfect.”
“It was small,” Jess noted.
“Yeah, but it was ours, and we were happy there,” she said, looking at him.
“I’m always happy when I’m with you,” he told her, kissing her nose and making her giggle, like the teen she was when they first met. “Now, come here.”
Jess guided Rory towards the couch, and she went willingly, though clearly wondered was he was up to. They moved around the furniture and sat down together. Rory looked expectantly at her husband.
“Now what?” she asked when nothing was said or done.
“Now...” said Jess, reaching behind his back for something then putting his arm up over their heads.
Another girlish giggle escaped Rory’s lips as she spotted the mistletoe, and happily leaned in for a sweet kiss.
“That part never did stop working,” said Jess, smirking as wickedly as he ever had.
“And somehow, we managed to make all the other parts work too,” said Rory happily, leaning back into the couch cushions with his arm around her now. “We’ve had so many happy years, Jess. I always wanted it to happen, but I’m not sure I truly believed when we were seventeen.”
“Same for me,” he admitted, kissing her grey hair the moment her head touched his shoulder. “I wanted to make it work, but back then... God, when I remember the first Christmas we were together. I was such a jerk.”
“No,” Rory insisted, until she saw the look on his face. “Well, maybe a little,” she admitted with a smile she couldn’t help, “but you got better. After the kids came along, we had a lot of really great Christmases.”
“They’re not over,” Jess promised her, “and as much as it will be weird without the kids this year, I think we can have a good time, Mrs Mariano,” he told her, twirling the sprig of mistletoe between his fingers.
“Hmm, I’d like to think so, Mr Mariano,” Rory replied, a contented sigh escaping her lips as she curled in ever closer to her husband and pulled the blanket across the both of them. “Is it bad that I’d kind of like a nap first?”
She felt Jess laugh more than she heard it, her head falling onto his chest as they got comfortable on the couch together.
“I’m glad you said that so I didn’t have to,” he told her, closing his eyes.
There was something to be said for a nice, quiet Christmas, alone together.