Disclaimer: Gilmore Girls is created by Amy Sherman-Palladino. I am in no way affiliated with her and I make no profit from this story.

Portrait of a Man Named Imperfect

1. He has a tattoo. Dodger is written in small letters across his left shoulder blade.

He got it when he was twenty-one (and still reckless enough to love) in a seedy tattoo parlour just off the highway somewhere between Philadelphia and Hartford. She had changed and he had wanted (needed) a permanent reminder of who she had once been.

It's stupid and sentimental and he's not sure if he should regret it.

2. He was ten when one of Liz's boyfriends started hitting him. He didn't know he could fight back until he was thirteen (after he'd gotten into that brawl with Justin Howard at school).

3. He read The Fountainhead when he was eighteen. She was in Washington for the summer and had made no attempts to contact him at all. So he read the stupid book just to spite her.

He hated every minute of it.

4. He wrote four short stories before writing The Subsect. They were all written while he was doing the Kerouac thing and all four were published in obscure, local magazines in four different states. Not one was published under his real name.

He keeps a copy of each magazine in a cardboard box under his bed.

5. He had his first cigarette when he was fourteen. He had snuck into a party that some high school seniors were having (Liz had been passed out drunk and hadn't noticed him leaving). Some eighteen year old, blond guy had given him the cigarette and then laughed when he coughed the whole way through smoking it.

6. Luke was the first person to ever believe in him. And for that he owes Luke everything.

7. He likes Star Wars.

And it is the one secret he will never, ever let Lorelai Gilmore find out about. He saw what happened when she found out that Luke had been a Star Trek fan. The poor guy was still copping the Trekkie jokes. So he keeps his DVDs hidden on the top shelf of his wardrobe (even though Lorelai doesn't know where he lives and probably doesn't want to).

After all, you never know where a Gilmore might suddenly turn up.

8. He kind of likes Stars Hollow. He doesn't ever want to live there again (it's too small, and the people are crazy, and he needs the anonymity of big cities). Besides Taylor would find some law (or make one up) to stop him from buying a house there.

But he likes the weird town. Sort of.

9. He still has his first car.

Aside from his books, the car had been one of the first things that had really been his. He had worked hard and saved up all his money and paid for everything himself. He paid for the gas, and for the repairs, and for the new tyres he got off Gypsy.

He still drives it even though it's still a junk heap. He often thinks he should get rid of the damn thing.

He never does.

10. He loves Rory Gilmore (unequivocally, irrevocably, and eternally).

Not that he is ever going to tell her that.

(Not again.)