Disclaimer: Totally don't own these characters, or this world. I just like to be a part of it. I give all credit to the writers of this fantastic show for the dialogue I've borrowed.

Author's Notes: So, this is my first time writing for GG, so forgive me if I haven't fully hit the characters voices. I tried, but ASP has a writing style all her own that's tough to duplicate.

I've just always had this idea kicking around, that, what if Luke and Lorelai always had a little somethin' somethin' going on in the background none of us knew about? During season one, there was some serious heat going on between the two until life seemed to fully get in the way. So, here's my take on if they actually did.

Apologies for any grammar errors in this, but my usual beta is caught up in wedding planning, and as such, is skipping the real world for a while. So, I'm beta-less, and on my own.

The plan is to go in episodic order, kicking things off before the pilot, before moving into the pilot, but I'll only be touching on episodes that make sense in the scheme of this story. We'll see how far it can go. Let me know what you think!

The Before, and the Pilot

It had started innocently enough. Their easy banter at the diner had begun to take on more and more of a subtle flirting – never in earshot of anyone else however, but it was there in spades when it was just the two of them.

So, naturally, being a woman in her late twenties, and not having been in any relationship she cared about in years, she decided that taking a yoga class would be a good idea. She needed to limber up and all, because if she was going to get into something with Luke, she had a feeling she would need to be limber right off the bat - their daily banter was enough foreplay to keep them going for years. It didn't matter that she had zero coordination. It didn't matter that Sookie told her again and again yoga was a bad idea. All that mattered was that she had an end goal in mind, and nothing was going to stop her.

However, when she fell over and broke her leg - that stopped her.

It did not however, stop the progression of their flirtation - it only enhanced it.

When he showed up at the hospital, it surprised her, but, looking back, she should have expected it. He told her he thought she had died since she didn't come in for coffee the day before. She teased him about him noticing, and he gruffly brushed it aside. Besides, Rory was sitting in the room. She did however, graciously accept the coffee he brought for her, and let Rory run to the nurse's station to ask for a cup so she could share a tiny bit of the coffee. Luke shook his head at the agreement between the two girls, knowing that one day soon he'd be pouring multiples cups of coffee for Rory, just as he did for her mother.

With Rory out of the room, as much as his arrival surprised her, his warm hand on hers did not. The offer of comfort was unspoken, and the spark that passed between them was undeniable. When he offered to drive them home, she readily accepted – much to the chagrin of Rory, who was always eager to spend time with Sookie. In reality, Rory was smart enough to know that spending time with Sookie meant the promise of cookies. So, to ease the disappointment, Luke promised to drop Rory off at Sookie's on the way, and then sighed heavily when Lorelai voiced her disappointment about not getting any cookies either. Rory promised to bring some back to the house, and happily pushed her mother out of the hospital in the wheelchair while Luke brought the truck around.

Taking advantage of the situation of needing help to get in the truck, she had leaned more of her weight on Luke than was necessary, and appreciated his muscles holding her up. That spark between them continued to grow, completely oblivious to the 12 year old sitting in the middle of the bench seat, with a book in her hands.

After a lot of shifting, and way more touching than was actually necessary, Lorelai was safely in the front seat of the truck. During the ride, she kept stealing glances over Rory's head to Luke, and more than once caught him doing the same.

During the weeks of her recovery, he came over often to help out around the house. Rory was perfectly capable of running the house – probably in some cases, more so than Lorelai – but there were a few things she just couldn't do, like change the water bottle - that needed someone else.

Always vaguely aware of her popularity in town, Lorelai took full advantage of the various townsfolk dropping by to feed her and Rory, or help out where needed, but there was one particular townsfolk she most looked forward to seeing.

He would call and check up on her, and one night when she mentioned she had allowed Rory to sleep over at Lane's, he came by with burgers and coffee to watch TV. That night was the first time they kissed, and it probably would have gone a whole lot further than that if it wasn't for her full leg cast. That part came shortly after the cast came off.

They agreed to keep what they were doing a secret. First, because one of Lorelai's hard and fast rules was that Rory didn't know about her dating life. Second, at no point was it ever really brought up that they were dating – they were two adults having fun, so there was no reason for anyone to know about anything. Also, it was just way hotter knowing they were able to keep it away from the town.

Over the next few years, life continued moving forward. Rory got closer and closer to being able to legally drive, and Luke and Lorelai's fun came and went, and came and went again, but their friendship always remained. Ultimately, neither really knew what the other wanted, and life in general just got in the way. They were both busy. Lorelai was gaining more and more responsibility at the Inn, and the diner got busier all the time. Neither was in a place in their lives to devote themselves to the other, so they agreed to keep it light, and when convenient. It was fun, it was familiar, and it felt safe.

It had been awhile however since they had been together, but that morning at the diner when Joey hit on her, Lorelai had definitely seen the spark of jealousy in Luke's eye. Neither had talked about the exclusivity of…whatever it was they had, but neither had downright told the other that dating others was off limits. Not that in a million years would she have dated Joey, but something told her Luke was not ok with the possibility of her being with someone else. And hours later, in the deep of night, that thought had something fluttering in her stomach, and made her sit upright in bed. Who was she kidding? She wasn't going to be able to sleep tonight. She swung her feet over the side of the bed, and shoved them in her slippers. As she stood up, she glanced at the purple fuzzy clock by her bed, and noticed it was close to midnight. She pulled on a hoody that was hanging off the end of the bed that smelled vaguely clean, and tiptoed down the stairs, and out the front door, careful to close it quietly so she wouldn't wake Rory. She had a good four hours before Rory would start getting to the point where any small noise would wake her, so that gave just enough time to walk to Luke's, get some serious stress relief, and get home, and Rory would be none the wiser.

As she walked through the deserted streets, her mind was buzzing as a battle of pure joy and pure desolation fought for dominance. On one hand, Rory was finally accepted into Chilton. She was going to get the education Lorelai never got, she was going to get into Harvard and do all the things Lorelai had ever dreamed of doing. On the other hand, the only way she could send Rory along that path to Chilton was to ask her parents for money, and like she had told Sookie earlier, there were several chapters from a Stephen King novel she would rather reenact than ask her parents for anything.

She blew out a breath, and raked her fingers through her straightened hair before reaching above the diner's door to retrieve the key Luke always left there for her. Well, he left it for emergencies, but essentially that meant it was hers to use. She took a step back from the door, looked both ways, and confident no one was looking, she jammed the key in the lock, and quickly stepped in.

Normally in this situation, she tended to stride quickly across the floor to the staircase on her way to her end goal, but tonight, Lorelai took a deep breath to try to calm her racing breath. However, the lingering smell of grease and coffee just wasn't doing it for her, so after locking the door behind her, she laid the key on the corner of the counter, and made her way up the stairs. No longer needing to keep quiet, but because the stillness of the night air requested it, Lorelai padded quietly up the stairs to Luke's door. Knowing he would already be asleep, she let herself in, shedding her hoody, slippers, and pajamas on the way to his bed.

She eased herself underneath the covers, and was pleasantly surprised to find him sleeping in only his boxers.

He stirred when he felt her cold skin press against his. "You know, if you're here to rob me, go ahead. I'm too tired."

"Ah, see, you've got it all wrong. I'm merely the distraction. Your place is being cleared out as we speak." With only one thing on her mind at the moment, she began to press open, hot kisses down his neck, and along his chest.

"Mmmm. Is that how this works?"

"Yup." The feel of his hand rubbing her flank was heating her skin with every passing moment.

"Well, if that's the case, then feel free to rob me every day."

Not fazed by the commentary, she continued her trail of kisses across his body. "Clearly you don't understand how this works. Once you're robbed, you're robbed. There's no coming back every day."

"Then I better enjoy this distraction as much as I can tonight then."

She stopped and looked him dead in the eye. "Yes, you should."

With her words, he wrapped his arms around her, and flipped her so that he was on top. As his weight pushed her down into the mattress, and she could feel his arousal hard against her thigh, she sighed into his mouth as her tongue dueled with his. And when his fingers entered her, finally the buzzing war in head was silenced.

…..

"So, are you going to say what brought you here? Or are you going to just completely go the full booty call route?"

"Seeing as there was no actual call made, I don't think that's even possible."

"You know what I mean."

She huffed out a breath, and chewed on her bottom lip as Luke played with her hair. She needed to talk. While she was all for stress relief, and god, if she wasn't feeling better already, talking was her thing, and she really needed to talk this out. "Rory got accepted into Chilton today." She felt him shift underneath her.

"What? That's fantastic! No wonder you wanted to celebrate."

As if he hadn't even said anything, she continued. "I don't have the money for her enrollment fee, and apparently Chilton frowns on doing bank jobs." She waited for his retort to her comment, but when none came, and he just went back to playing with her hair, she sighed. "I've gone through all the options, and I've come down to the only one I have. But I literally would rather take my chances with It than to have to resort to this option."

Still, he was quiet, so she forged on. "I'm going to have to talk to my parents. I'm going to have to go over there, throw my impeccably dressed ego out the window, and ask them for money. I'm literally going to have to sell my soul to the devil." When he still didn't say anything, she shifted so that she was propped up on an elbow, and able to look down at him. "How much longer are you going to make me talk before you say anything?"

"Well, are you done?"

She rolled her eyes up in thought, but the fatigue from the day and the previous activities were getting to her, and no witty reply was anywhere to be found. So instead, she looked back down at him. "Yes."

"You should ask them."

His quick, short answer took her aback. "What?"

"You should ask them."

"No, I heard you the first time, but I feel like you're answering someone who didn't just tell you she'd rather face something from Stephen King's mind than deal with her parents. You have heard stories about my parents before. I know you have. These are not good people. Asking them for this money is only going to cause problems. I left them because I didn't want to have to depend on them ever again for anything. And now having to crawl back to them is beyond the worst case scenario."

"Lorelai."

"What."

"Ask them. Yes, this is the last thing you want to do, but like you said, it's your only option. You and Rory have worked so hard for her to get here, and now she is, and you can't deny her of that just because of your feelings for your parents. The option may not be great, but, at least it's an option. At least it's a way to get her to Chilton."

She sighed. The longest sigh she had ever sighed, and laid back down, resting her head against his chest. "You're right. It's the only option. I'll go over there tomorrow. If I don't come back, it's because I'm in jail after being arrested for matricide. Hell, throw in patricide in there too."

"You can just add those to the robbery charge."

She smiled as she felt his lips press a kiss to the top of her head.

"And you're too good for that punk Joey."

She giggled, and as she let his warmth envelop her, she let her thoughts run to why she went to him for advice. Sookie was always there for her – had been there for her this evening – but it was his advice she sought. It was him she sought. Maybe she was ready for something more with him, but was he ready for something more with her? Unable to process such deep thoughts, Lorelai slipped out of bed and dressed before heading back down the stairs, grabbed the key off the counter, and replaced it over the door.

As she walked through the still darkened streets, she briefly thought about what could happen with Luke before thoughts of her bed pushed everything else aside. Once inside the house, her feet felt like lead as she climbed the stairs to her bedroom, and she collapsed on her bed, finally dead to the world for a few hours before her reckoning would begin.

…..

Lorelai collapsed at the table in the diner. Just being in the building made her feel calmer, but the night had been exhausting. And now Rory knew why exactly they had gone to dinner with her parents, but, maybe that was for the best. One less secret Lorelai would have to keep. But still, she was grumpy. She needed coffee.

"I think it was really brave of you to ask them for money."

"Oh, I so do not want to talk about it."

"How many meals is it gonna take 'til we're off the hook?"

She sighed with defeat. "I think the deli spread at my funeral will be the last one." As soon as she spoke however, she realized what Rory's question meant. "Hey, wait, does that mean…"

"Can't let a perfectly good plaid skirt go to waste."

Lorelai could feel the excitement bubble up through her body. "Oh, honey, you won't be sorry." As she finished speaking, she could feel Luke's presence beside her. When she looked up at him, her words failed her for a brief second, and she almost forgot who was sitting right by her. Almost. "Wow, you look nice. Really nice." She noticed that he could barely make eye contact with her, and he tried to keep his eyes on his order pad.

"I had a meeting earlier at the bank. They like collars. You look nice, too."

The giddy rush that resulted from his compliment normally would have caused her to blush, but she was well aware of Rory next to her, and, well, coffee was calling. Big time. "I had a flagellation to go to."

As usual, he ignored her quip, and just moved forward. "So, what'll you have?"

"Coffee. In a vat."

"I'll have coffee also. And chili fries."

"That's quite a refined palate you got there."

She pushed down the desire to watch Luke walk away, and instead used the opportunity to bring up Luke in a different light to Rory. The thoughts of maybe wanting something more with Luke were growing, but she needed the green light from Rory before doing anything. "Behold the healing powers of a bath. So, tell me about the guy."

They chatted for a few minutes about Rory's crush until Luke returned with their order.

"Coffee…fries." He paused for a second before continuing. "I can't stand it. This is so unhealthy. Rory, please, put down that cup of coffee. You do not want to grow up to be like your mom."

"Sorry, too late."

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Luke give her a look before she walked away, but she was too focused on her daughter, grinning at how proud she was of her, and she thought about how much more she could embarrass her about her crush. "So tell me about the guy."

….