Disclaimer: I'm just a poor school teacher in Tennessee...you know I don't own much, and I obviously don't own any of the people in this story...but I love them...well, not so much Taylor, but everyone else.
A Good Spruce
The morning sun was glinting through the blinds of Luke's diner as the bell over the door announced the arrival of more patrons. Lorelai was perched on a stool at the counter sipping her coffee. She was perfectly content, blatantly staring at Luke as he took care of the usual morning customers. She smiled pleasantly when Taylor walked through the door and sauntered up to the counter next to her.
"How's it going Taylor?"
"Fine Lorelai. I actually have some business to attend to if you don't mind." He looked at her expectantly.
Lorelai knew he wanted her to move somewhere else, but she just stared at him over the rim of her coffee mug, batting her eyelashes a little for effect.
He gaffed at her petulance, but quickly forgot about her as Luke came around the counter to refresh the coffee pot.
"Luke," Taylor pestered, "may I speak with you for a moment?"
"I'm busy, Taylor," Luke answered, not even turning around.
"Just a moment Luke, really," Taylor whined. Lorelai couldn't help but smile into her cup at the sight of Taylor begging.
Luke turned around and placed the coffee pot on the counter a little too roughly. "What?"
"Well Luke, as you know, spring in Stars Hollow is right around the corner. And as I'm sure you are also aware, spring in Stars Hollow is the start of the tourist season. Now, as a member of the Stars Hollow Committee on-"
"Don't," Luke said, refilling Lorelai's mug. "Get to the point."
"Yes, well, I...I wanted to get your permission-as my landlord-to repaint the Soda Shoppe."
"Is that all?"
Taylor nodded; clearly a little scared of Luke's reaction.
"Fine. Now I have to get back to work." Luke walked out from behind the counter and continued pouring coffee and taking orders.
Taylor was on his way out when he stopped at the door and took a closer look at the doorframe. "Oh, Luke," he turned, "it looks like this diner could use a little spruce for spring as well."
Luke's eyes narrowed. "No," was all he managed to grunt. Lorelai buried her smiling face in the coffee again. This was better than television.
Taylor slipped out quickly and Luke refilled Patty's cup. She smiled up at him sweetly. "You know Luke," she said in a sugary voice, "It might not be such a bad idea to give this place a fresh coat of paint." Babette nodded emphatically in agreement.
Luke struggled to control himself, but Lorelai could see that steam would soon be shooting out of his ears. She grabbed his hand as he walked by. He spun back around, startled, nearly spilling coffee all over her skirt.
"What?" he grumbled.
"Hey," she cooed. "Come with me for a minute." He sighed as he looked at her and realized there was no point in arguing. He set down the coffee pot and followed Lorelai back to the storeroom.
The door swung closed behind them, and Lorelai dragged him over to the table. She hopped up onto it, pulling him in close to stand between her knees. He still looked grumpy and frustrated. He opened his mouth, most likely to say something about how he didn't have time for this today.
She put a finger to his lips to silence him, and then slowly traced it down his chin and across his jaw line, back behind his ear, then on around to the back of his neck. She wove her fingers in his hair and pulled him down for a slow, lingering kiss. He leaned in over her, with one hand on the table next to her and another one on her bare knee. His tense muscles were loosening under the flannel that she gripped tightly.
Suddenly she felt his fingers sliding up her thigh, on a mission. She giggled involuntarily and pulled back from the kiss. He opened his eyes and looked around confused. "Wha? Huh?" was all he managed.
She pushed him back up so she could sit comfortably. "Sorry. That's not why we're here." He groaned and she grinned. The look on his face was one of bitter disappointment.
"Luke," she drawled, while she traced the plaid pattern on his shirt. "I was just thinking...maybe it would be fun to paint the diner again."
"Lorelai, there is no way I-"
"But Luke, we could do it together. It would be fun! We never did get to paint together last time..."
"Yeah, because you were...with..."
"Mmm, 'kay, so maybe that wasn't the best thing to bring up."
Luke sighed. He knew he would never hear the end of this now. "We use the same colors." Lorelai nodded. "All the decorations stay the same." She nodded again, a grin spreading. "And there will be absolutely nothing froufrou."
"Oh, you mean like your curtains upstairs?" Her eyes twinkled.
"Lorelai, I swear..." His threat dissolved into sputtering and stammering.
She hopped up and kissed him quickly. "Okay, well I'll see you tonight. We'll go to Home Depot. Bye!"
She ran out quickly before he could change his mind and he just stood there for a moment shaking his head.
It was still dark outside when he made her get up the next morning. He had thought well enough ahead to plan on getting up an extra hour earlier than he actually wanted to start working. He needed to have enough time to get several cups of coffee pulsing through her veins after the long, caffeine drought of night.
As he expected, she whined and grumped her way into the shower and then into the old painting clothes she'd brought over the night before. She finally slumped down on the couch and he handed her a steaming mug then went to take his own turn in the shower.
The first thing they did when they got downstairs was close all the blinds, as neither of them wanted the town to know what they were doing. Lorelai thought it would be a great surprise. Luke just didn't want anyone pestering them.
Lorelai made a sign for the front door: "Closed for the weekend. Surprise Monday."
"What did you have to add that last part for?"
"So that everyone will be surprised."
"But we're not changing anything. It will be the same colors and everything will be in exactly the same place. There isn't anything to be surprised about."
"Ah, yes," she grinned, "But that's the surprise!"
His brain hurt. Maybe he'd given her too much coffee. "What the hell are you talking about?"
"Don't you see? The sign will make people think that we're doing something big and dramatic, but when they come in on Monday it will be exactly the same and they'll be surprised that we didn't do anything big or dramatic."
"Your brain is an amazing place," he said, and kissed the top of her head.
Lorelai was thoroughly amused all morning when people showed up at the door. They could hear everyone outside talking about her sign. Closed? But why? A surprise? What could they possibly be doing?
Kirk had arrived first, as he always did. He twisted the handle and rattled the door for what seemed like a good five minutes. Lorelai had to bury her face in Luke's chest to suppress the noise of her giggles.
"I can still hear you!" Kirk pleaded through the door. "This is not funny Luke! I need my morning eggs! Mother says I need lots of protein damn it!"
Lorelai felt Luke's chest convulsing with uncontrollable laughter now too. He looked down at her and sighed. His eyes asked the obvious question. She nodded and stepped back to enjoy the show.
They could hear the door rattle a little as Kirk leaned against it, trying to get a peek between the door and the door jam. Luke counted to three silently before quickly unlocking and yanking the door wide open. In fell Kirk, tripping first, then landing flat on his back.
Luke closed the door and came to stand over the stunned Kirk. "Did you need something?" He asked, barely able to keep a straight face.
"Eggs," Kirk squeaked. "Just some eggs...Please."
Luke stared down at him, trying to look menacing. "Fine."
"I'll even help you guys paint as repayment."
"That won't be necessary."
"But I'm a professional house painter." They just stared at him. "I took a class once at the hardware store in Litchfield. We even had to learn the names of all the paint colors."
"Wow," Lorelai marveled, trying not to laugh. "It would go a lot faster with three people," she tried to convince Luke.
"We're doing just fine by ourselves, Lorelai," he said. He looked back and forth between the two crazy people in his presence, trying to discover a way out of this mess. Then he remembered. There's never an out when you're stuck between Lorelai and Kirk. "Go get a roller. I'll be right back with your eggs."
The three of them worked through the afternoon and into the evening, only stopping for lunch and more coffee for Lorelai. Kirk regaled them with stories of high school Kirk and high school Luke, all of which Luke punctuated with "aww" and "geez" and "that's not the way it really happened..." Luke finally kicked him out when he would not stop using the name Butch.
"Well, I think that's it," Luke said later that evening, standing back from the doorframe and admiring their work. With Kirk's help they had finished ahead of schedule.
Lorelai sat on one of the cloth-covered tables, sipping more coffee Luke had made for her. "It really looks nice, Luke."
He came over and set the paintbrush down in a tray. She set the coffee mug down and stood in the middle of the diner, turning around slowly to see if they'd missed anything. Luke sidled up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. He laid a kiss softly on her cheek. "Thank you," he whispered in her ear.
She craned her neck around a little to look at him. "Thank you for what?"
"Thank you for convincing me to do this. Thank you for doing it with me. Thank you for...aww hell." She was grinning too widely.
"You liked it, didn't you?" She turned around and wrapped her arms around his neck.
Luke looked at her with a look of grim determination. "I will never, under any circumstance, admit to liking something that will make Taylor happy."
"Fine," she winked. "I know, even if you won't admit it."
She kissed him lightly then left to take her coffee cup back to the kitchen.
"Hey Luke," she called, coming back out, "do you have any of that peach- Oh my God!"
His head snapped around, "What? What's wrong?" She was staring at the side of the shelves behind the counter.
"Luke, I..." he came over and she pointed. "Luke, we forgot to tell Kirk about the spot where your dad..."
She looked up to see that his face had fallen. "Oh Luke, I'm so sorry." She hugged him tightly and heard him breathe a deep sigh and inhale the smell of her hair.
"It's okay," he said. "It was stupid anyway."
"No it was not! It was sweet, and now it's gone and it's all my fault."
He pulled back to look at her quizzically. "How is it your fault? Kirk was the one painting over here."
"Well if I hadn't convinced you to repaint, and if I hadn't convinced you to let Kirk in, and then if I hadn't convinced you to let him paint too...then it would still be here." She sighed, "What did it say again?"
"Three hammers, Phillips head screwdriver, and three boxes of nails, assorted sizes."
"Yeah...Hey! We could just rewrite it!"
"No, it's not a big deal. Really."
"But Luke!"
"Lorelai," he said forcefully.
"Okay, I'm sorry." She walked away and pouted quietly for a moment while picking up brushes and putting lids on paint cans. She perked up suddenly, "hey Luke!"
"Let it go."
"No Luke, listen. I have an idea."
"Oh, great."
She threw a crumpled up ball of masking tape at his head. "Shush. Now listen. What your dad had written there was a reminder for you of something from the past. A good something, but still the past. What if we write something new there? Something about us. Something that will remind us of our future...together."
He stopped fiddling with the drop cloth. "I am not writing 'Luke and Lorelai forever' in a heart on my wall."
She smirked. "Wait." She found a pen and a napkin, scribbled for a minute, and then handed it to him.
He took one look and rolled his eyes. "I am also not quoting a Bono song on my wall."
"Oh, you're no fun." Lorelai went back to scribbling, her face scrunched up in concentration. Luke watched her, amused, while he went back to the drop cloth. How did he get this lucky, he wondered to himself. After all these years here she was, finally. Still the same crazy, caffeine-addicted friend he had always had, but now it was more than that.
Lorelai was too focused on finding a clever thought to notice the smile that spread over Luke's face. He stood up a little straighter, puffed his chest out and squared his shoulders. He finished his folding and then set the fabric down on a table. He strode over to her purposefully and took the pen right out of her hand.
"What the...Hey! Luke..." she tried to grab for it, but he pinned her arms back and kissed her quiet.
"I know what to write," he said calmly. "You sit here for a minute. No peeking." She sputtered, but then sat impatiently, twitching her foot and trying to figure out what he could be writing by listening to the sound of the pen scratching against the wall.
It seemed like eons. "Can I please come look? Luke?"
"Just...one...more... Okay. Now you can come." She practically flew to his side.
Lorelai crouched down next to him to examine the corner where he had been writing, and started reading. She almost couldn't finish. Her vision was getting cloudier and cloudier. She was suddenly very conscious of his breath on her neck and his hand on her back.
"Oh, Luke..." she sighed.
"What do you think?"
"Dear God yes." She whispered emphatically with a weak smile. She plopped down on the floor before her legs gave out. She was completely overwhelmed by emotion.
He smeared the tears streaking her cheeks with his thumb. "Why are you crying?" he murmured, confused and concerned.
"I just...I definitely did not expect this. That's all. They're happy tears."
"I didn't expect this either," he said. "I mean, I've been thinking about it, I just haven't been able to find the perfect way to do it. Then I was looking at you just now, and you're so incredible, and I didn't want to waste another moment. Something just came over me. I'm sorry, if it's too soon...We, we can just paint over this again...We can put that song you wanted up here. Damn it! I don't even have a ring to give you, I was waiting until I had everything completely planned out. I'm so-"
She shushed him. "It's okay Luke. It's completely okay. This is perfect." She kissed him deeply and passionately. A sense of calm and serenity swept over her like she had never felt before.
He woke her early again on Sunday. She groaned. "How can you be awake right now? After all the work we did yesterday and then all the..." she coughed coyly, "...ahem, ifun/i we had later."
"Actually, I couldn't really sleep anyway, but it doesn't matter. I was thinking that if we get up now we can be in New York City by the time the good stores open."
"You want to go shopping?"
"Well we can stay here and sleep, but I thought you might want to pick out something round and sparkly."
Her eyes lit up in understanding. "Oh. Well in that case, you'd better get the coffee started."
She was too tired Monday morning to make it downstairs early enough to see the surprised looks of the townspeople. Her reasons for sleeping in made it okay though.
When she finally came downstairs the place was packed. Everyone had shown up to see what the big surprise would be. They could tell that Luke and Lorelai had painted, but everything still looked basically the same. It didn't make much sense.
Luke met her by the counter at the bottom of the stairs. "Good morning, beautiful," he whispered quietly in her ear. Lorelai looked around to make sure everyone was looking. She took her left hand and carefully placed it on his cheek as she gave him the morning kiss he deserved. The sun coming through the blinds glinted off the stone on her hand. She smiled into the kiss as the room fell silent.
Now it all made sense.
The End