Sugar and Spice: The More Things Change
By Misha

Disclaimer- They don't belong to me, I'm just borrowing them for a while. I'm not making any money off this story, so please don't sue me.

Author's Note- I'm back! I took a long hiatus because of some major life changes (I've had two babies in the time I've been away). This story and Christa wouldn't leave me though. While, I always intended to tell the whole story, it was the college years that wouldn't leave me alone. So I'm starting this story in Season Five. Maybe, I'll go back and do the other three seasons, but for now at least I'm continuing Christa's journey. I'm going to break away from the cannon here a fair bit, mostly because I'm not an L/L fan. A lot of things are similar to the show, though there will be a lot of changes as well. It should be easy to follow along though. I hope you enjoy it and thank you to everyone who has reviewed S&S over the years, I've gotten a lot of love for that story and it means a lot to me.

Rating- PG-13

Spoilers- Up to the end of Season Five is fair game.

Summery- Rory and Christa have grown and changed over the past three years, so much so that they have started to grow apart. As the world changes around them, can the Gilmore-Hayden twins regain their old bond? Sequel to "Sugar and Spice".

Prologue- Endings

August 2003

"We leave tomorrow." Logan told Christa, looking at her carefully.

"I remember," she said dryly, "I leave for Yale in two weeks."

"You haven't changed your mind?" Logan asked quietly.

She sighed. "Logan…"

"Sorry, I had to ask," he said, "but I know it's the right thing for you."

"You do?" Christa asked, honestly surprised. There had been so much negativity surrounding her decision to not go with everyone else that she was surprised someone supported her decision. Well, other than her family, of course, who had been furious at the mere suggestion of ditching college to sail around on a yacht for a year. Her mom and Rory didn't actually know yet that she had decided to stay, but she knew they would be thrilled. Her friends on the other hand had mostly seen it as a betrayal.

"Coming with us would be the easy solution," Logan pointed out, "you'd get to hang out with your friends, please Colin, live up to everyone's low expectations for you as the reckless twin, and let you run away from your problems. Again."

"Again?" Christa asked, a little defensively.

"What was this last year in Connecticut if not you running away from your problems?" Logan asked her. "You ran to your grandparents because you don't like your father's fiancé and you don't want to deal with the reality of a half-sister, you slept with Robert because you were mad at Colin, but also because you were afraid you'd cave and you wanted to make sure he wouldn't try and persuade you. You take the easy road, Christa, I'm not criticizing you, most of us do, it's one of the things we have in common. We're the slacker wild children of the rich and privileged, after all. This time, you're not doing that and I respect that."

Christa made a face, but didn't argue with his assessment of her. "I need to do this," she said slowly, "I need to prove that I'm not a screw-up, mostly to myself, you know?" She sighed. "How come you understand me so well and Colin doesn't?"

"Colin doesn't want to." Logan told her. "He's hurt and he's angry and… I think he's also scared, I think you both were, of your commitment, so when this came up, you both used it as an excuse to not have to make it work."

Christa wondered if he was right. She and Colin, it had been so complicated from the start. It was supposed to be no strings, but there'd always been invisible strings, right from the start. It was supposed to blow over, but it had lasted over two years. Neither of them did commitments, but they had tried. Yet, though Christa loved Colin, being committed to him had terrified her, more than she'd wanted to admit and maybe she'd taken the easy road out. She turned from Logan and looked out the window, thinking back to that last fight with Colin.

Christa was surprised to see Colin's car in her grandparents driveway when she pulled up.
As soon as she got out of her car, he got out of his.
"You're finally home." He said dryly, leaning against his car. "Must have been an exciting night."
Christa stiffened. So he was going to have it out with her here. Fine. She'd been on edge for days, since their fight and she was ready to have it out.
"I was at Robert's."
There was no surprise on Colln's face.
"I saw your car there this morning." He told her after a moment. "I dropped into see Robert and I saw your car in the driveway and no one else's. I didn't stick around to say hi, just came here and figured I'd wait for you, I was hoping you'd tell me you just dropped it to see Robert for some weird reason. I've been waiting two hours. Good thing your grandparents aren't home or they'd have probably called the police, I'm sure the maid has considered it."
"What do you want me to say?" Christa asked defensively. "We broke up Colin. You broke up with me, remember? You told me that if I didn't put off Yale to sail around the world with you, I obviously didn't want to be in this relationship. Remember?"
"Well, given how fast you bounced into someone else's bed, I must have been right." Colin said bitterly. "I wanted to be wrong, Christa. God, I wanted to find a way to work it out."
"How?" Christa asked. "Would you have stayed behind?"
Colin was silent for a long time. Christa took his silence for an answer. "Didn't think so and God Colin, do you actually think we could have made a yearlong separation work? The two of us? At eighteen and twenty-one?"
More silence from Colin. Christa laughed bitterly. "I see, by 'finding a way to work it out', you meant getting me to cave." She shook her head. "God, Colin, are you that selfish? That you don't care what's best for me, as long as I go along with what you want!"
I want us to be together!" Colin shouted, "I thought that was what you wanted too! Apparently, I was wrong. After all, why else would you, the self-professed Queen of screwing and slacking off suddenly care about doing the 'responsible' thing? You're never going to be the good twin, Christa, we both know that and I don't think you care—I think it's an excuse. You committed to someone for the first time and you got scared, but you can't admit it, so you found an excuse to call it off and still look like the better person."
Christa went white at his accusations.
"I can't believe that I was actually serious about giving us a shot." Colin said in disgust. "I should have realized that relationships are bad news. I should have learnt that from my father."
"I'm not the one running away." Christa said bitterly. "Seriously Colin, my decision to go to Yale isn't about you, not everything is. You know what, maybe I'm just sick of being the screw-up, of living up to everyone's expectations, don't you ever get sick of it or do you like shoving it to your father as your run your credit card up?" She glared at him. "You know what you're right, it was a bad idea. We're a bad idea, maybe we always were. Two screwed up people, with screwed up parents and screwed up ideas of relationships trying to make it work. It was always a bad idea, but you know what I'm trying to be a little less screwed up, obviously I have to do it without you."
She turned and walked towards the house, not looking back. But before she reached the door, she heard the slamming of a car door and a moment later the screech of tires as Colin drove away. She got inside the door and collapsed in the front hall, tears running down her face.

"Have you talked to him at all?" Logan asked, breaking into her thoughts and putting a hand on her shoulder.

"No." Christa said flatly, turning to look at him. "And I don't expect I will. I think we said everything we had to say to each other two weeks ago."

Logan sighed. "You guys were good for each other, Christa. I'm a huge advocate of 'no strings', but you and Colin, you guys fit together."

Christa smiled bitterly. "Apparently not well enough." She looked up at Logan and her smile turned genuine. "I'm going to miss you, Logan. So much."

"I'll miss you too." Logan told her, placing a gentle kiss on her head. "Be good ok, but not too good?"

Christa laughed. "Ok. And try not to get captured by pirates, ok? Or sink the yacht."

"I'll try, but I make no promises." Logan told her with a roguish grin, making Christa heartache when she realized just how much she was going to miss him. Miss all of them. Even Colin.

Maybe especially Colin.