Okay this is my first Gilmore Girls FanFic and my first time writing at all in wayy too long so please be nice :) I just thought it might be interesting to explore the idea of a role reversal as far as the whole pining storyline between Luke and Lorelai goes. In my version, Luke is in sort of an "oat sowing" phase, while Lorelai seems to find herself becoming more infatuated with and devoted to her unattainable best friend with every passing day. I took some liberties with their personalities and how close their friendship was, but tried not to stray too far from reality, so here goes nothing.
Also the cringey Lorelai and Max relationship didn't happen. There is no specific time frame to this story at the moment, so feel free to let your imaginations run wild.
When they had first met she was unsure of him, because he was kind and he was gorgeous and he was quiet, which was a heady, rather dangerous combination in her book.
As time went on, their friendship blossomed and her discomfort shifted to something more akin to friendship. Eventually she grew to depend on him as a constant in her and Rory's life.
The relationship was far from one sided, however, as Lorelai Gilmore was not the type to receive any sort of help without giving back in some way, meager as her showcases of gratitude sometimes were. He may have rather put something sharp in his ear than admit it, but Luke relied on her companionship as well.
To the untrained eye, their relationship may have resembled one between siblings, with a strong foundation of camaraderie and fierce protectiveness. And for a while, that assumption was not so far from the truth, in theory at least.
But that was then.
The sound of the bell above the door was a fairly unexciting occurrence for Luke Danes; while the heads of his patrons would swivel periodically to observe newcomers with fascination, he had developed the habit of calling out for them to seat themselves while he finished whatever task he had been priorly focused on at the same leisurely pace he had been working at before.
Some people (Taylor) may have called this customer neglect, but since when did Luke care what 'some people' thought.
He happened to be wiping down the counter (a rare occurrence and welcomed respite from refilling the cups of greedy caffeine-addicts) when Lorelai decided to make her rather ungraceful, but ostentatious as always entrance into his establishment.
He was already reaching with one hand for the superglue he kept below the counter for such occasions, when her anticipated plea reached his ears. The other hand was pouring her coffee, a habitual self preservation reflex.
"Luke my heel broke can you… hey thanks!" A smile lit her face as he pushed her coffee over to her and set to work at the embarrassingly familiar task.
"Geez this is what, the third heel I've glued since New Years?"
She huffed with embellished indignation at the perceived slight, "What are you suggesting, you think I've gained weight?"
Bright red in under four seconds. It had to be some new record.
"What? You know… I mean I didn't mean to… that's not what I—Hey!"
Her unsuccessfully stifled grin gave her away.
"Relax Lukey."
"Don't call me that."
"Don't call you what?"
"Lorelai," it came out as more of a growl than he had intended it to.
"Why on earth would I call you that when it's my name?"
Patty came to her rescue before he could reach across the counter and wring her neck. "Lorelai dearie, have I got a man for you."
Now it was Lorelai's turn to go red. "Patty—"
"No, no no I will not take any more of your excuses. Honey, I hate to break it to you, but you need the loving touch of a man. Since you don't seem to be overly concerned with finding one for yourself, Babette and I are taking matters into our own hands."
With a smirk and a mouthed "karma," Luke disappeared into the kitchen, leaving Lorelai defenseless against the conniving older woman.
With no easy out in sight, Lorelai submitted to her fate with a sigh. She listened halfheartedly as Patty described the man she believed to be "perfect for her," knowing that no matter how perfect, smart, or charming this man turned out to be, he wouldn't stand a chance at stealing her heart. Nevertheless, she agreed to what she was sure would be a terrible mistake of a blind date, one she planned to drown out afterwards with booze and junk food galore.
Days later Lorelai sat in the same position at the Diner counter as she rattled off every possible excuse not to go on the wretched blind date to her audience of one uninterested diner owner and one Kirk.
"Ooh I could say I had a cat-funeral to go to, that one got me out of dating Rory's teacher back when she started Chilton. Thank God I dodged that bullet."
"If you want, I can go to the same restaurant where you're having your date and sit at a nearby table and pretend to have a heart attack."
Both heads involved in the fruitless discussion swiveled towards the uninvited commentator.
"How on Earth would that help Kirk?" She hadn't meant to snap, but Lorelai was already on edge and she hadn't even met the mystery guy yet.
"I don't know, you could offer to drive me to the hospital, unless he's a doctor, then he might want to come too…" Kirk allowed his sentence to trail off as he scratched his chin in search of a better plan.
"Kirk how long have you been here for?"
"Well I got here at 10:41 this morning so really only 5 hours and twelve—"
"Out."
"But Luke please, my mom has a new boyfriend and they're always—"
"Kirk, if you finish that sentence, so help me God..." Luke allowed the sentence to trail off with his unverbalized threat weighing heavily on the mind of the easily frightened man.
With his metaphorical tail between his legs, Kirk slunk from the diner.
Luke turned his attention back to Lorelai, unfazed by the strange antics of of of his 'regulars.'
"Why do you even have to come up with some elaborate excuse? Just call him and cancel."
She hid her face in her hands as she moaned that it was too late.
"Hey maybe you could come in and act like some crazy ex boyfriend of mine and threaten him to leave me alone or else!" Her face brightened considerably at the idea.
"As tempting as that offer is, truly, I can't. I'm going out with Kelly tonight."
As he turned to ring up a customer at the register, he missed her expression change from one of excitement to one of anguish before she plastered on that carefully crafted fake smile of hers to hide her distress.
Kelly was the newest, who Lorelai had yet to meet, though she had beard nothing but praises of her beauty from various townies. Before her was Linda, the New Year's Eve date, and Carley, who, to her credit lasted almost a year and a half.
Luke didn't even register the goodbye she tossed casually over her shoulder until he noticed the money she had left for her coffee on the counter. He glanced up just in time to see a flash of her red cardigan disappear around the corner at an unusually brisk pace for the notedly unathletic business woman in heels.
Later that very evening, Lorelai fiddled with the end of her scarf as she glanced fruitlessly about yet again. He was clearly not going to show; 50 minutes had been long enough of a wait to prove that fact to her. Yet she remained seated at the classy hotel's restaurant bar, nursing her second dirty martini and debating the cost of calling a cab versus the embarrassing burden of calling Sookie to pick her up.
Just as she was collecting herself to test her sobriety with a risky walk to the exit, she heard her name being called.
"Luke?"
He eased himself onto the barstool beside her, panting only slightly at the exertion of rushing to catch up with her before she left, having observed the empty martini glasses in front of her from afar and deducing that she may not be fit to leave on her own, which appeared to be the case as there were no detectable traces of any companion in her vacinity. "Hey."
She was dumbfounded, "hey. What on earth are you doing here? I thought you were going out with Kelsey tonight."
"I did go out with Kelly, we went to see a movie but she started feeling sick in the middle so I offered to drive her back. This is the hotel she's staying at while they redo her pipes."
Lorelai nodded her understanding as she signaled to her new, close and personal friend Gavin the bartender to refresh her drink. Luke eyed the empty glasses around her nervously before ordering a beer for himself and paying for both of their drinks. Lorelai offered an uncharacteristically timid thank you and he shrugged off her gratitude, as was his habit.
"What about you?" He asked after a stretch of silence, as the bartender returned with their drinks. "Wasn't tonight your big blind date? How did that go?"
"It didn't."
"Huh?"
She shrugged, torn between embarrassment at having been stood up and relief at having avoided what would have surely been a disasterous evening. "He was a no show. I've been sitting here almost an hour because he was supposed to be my ride home."
Luke's brow furrowed, "you didn't bring the Jeep?"
Another shrug. "I knew the hotel was just down the block from where I take my business class so I just brought a change of clothes and took the bus because the Jeep is making that odd sound again. I changed in the bathroom and walked over after class was finished, and was counting on a ride home from the mystery man. By the time it became clear he wasn't coming, the last bus to Stars Hollow had already left. I was just debating calling a cab or Sookie actually."
Luke frowned at her statement but refrained from reprimanding her on her plan to accept a ride from a stranger, she seemed embarrassed enough already. "I can take you home and I'll stop by tomorrow to have a look at the jeep. Have you eaten anything?"
The corners of Lorelai's mouth lifted, and he was relieved to see the ghost of a smile for the first time that evening. "Nothing but a few of these olives," she brandished the toothpick-skewered olives from her third drink about in front of her. "I was supposed to dine for free tonight but that doesn't seem likely at this point…." Away went the smile, and he was desperate to see it returned to its rightful place on his dear friend's face.
"How 'bout I buy you dinner? Kelly and I never got to eat either and I'm starved, which I'm sure means you're about ready to eat a camel."
She smiled almost shyly, "you don't have to do that, I can pay for myself."
He brushed her offer off, already standing and offering her his arm to lead her to a nearby table. "Don't worry about it, you deserve to be wined and dined like a lady."
He winked. She blushed.
Lorelai stood in the doorway waving goodnight to Luke as he eased his familiar green truck out of her driveway and disappeared into the night.
With a heavy sigh she closed and locked the door behind her, leaving herself all alone in the big blue house. She slipped out of her impractical heels and dragged herself over to the couch, which she allowed herself to collapse on top of.
Phone in hand, she dialled the number of the only confidante privy to her top secret dilemma, desperate to provide the latest update on the 'situation.'
Sookie picked up sleepily after several rings. "Lorelai? It's almost 11. What's going on?"
Lorelai cringed, "sorry I hadn't realized how late it was. I'm sorry for waking you, I'll let you sleep."
She made to hang up but heard Sookie reassure her that she was wide awake now, so the duo settled in for some late-night gossip.
"Whoa," was Sookie's sole response after Lorelai had relayed her story. "That's quite a night you've had."
"I know, I don't even know what to think of it yet. Everything just happened in such rapid succession and before I knew it, Luke was dropping me off at the end of the night, as opposed to Bryan, the no-show blind date. What do you think?"
"I don't know sweetie," Lorelai could hear the look of pity on her friend's face through the receiver. "It just sounds like a happy coincidence to me, I wish it didn't. If I were you I'd try not to read anything into it."
She sighed, she seemed to be doing a lot of that lately. "I know Sook, I know I'm probably just looking for things that aren't there, but I can't help it. Tonight just felt really really good; it felt amazing to just be with him. And I know I'm with him all the time but it felt different. He talked about his parents; it's been ages since he brought them up with me. He told me stories about how he and his pals used to terrorize Taylor growing up in the Hollow. He smiled. He smiled more in one sitting, laughing and telling stories, than he usually does in a week. I just… It just felt really really good while it was happening, like nothing else mattered or even existed beyond the two of us. Now I just feel yucky and sad and alone."
"I know sweetie. I know." And she did. Sookie was the only one who knew about Lorelai's dilemma, and had been her number one confidante on the subject for almost two years now.
"When I started developing feelings for Luke I thought for sure it was just a crush; surely it would go away with time, denial, and willpower. I was scared. I was so scared that I might ruin the amazing friendship we've always had. Now it's been two years and I'm in love with my best friend and he has no idea and I'm just scared this thing is going to consume me. It's so hard Sook."
There wasn't any good response to that, so Sookie just sent her distressed friend as much love and support as she could over the phone, and sat with her in silent solidarity.