AN: So, funny thing. I'm actually working on a smutty story, and the next chapter of It's About Time, when the lovely DSLeo and I have this PM conversation about season 6. Go read her piece 'Sin of Omission' s/11483089/1/Sin-of-Omission. In the name of full disclosure, DSLeo dared me to write a fic with the name Vanilla Fish. So, here it is. It's actually my first non-smutty one-shot, as well as my first fic that takes place in season 6. I tried to avoid it till now. OK, read, enjoy.
She tossed and turned. Yet again. She checked her alarm clock and let the big red numbers burn into her retina. 3:21 am. She pulled her blanket up to her nose and sniffed it. Lorelai was sure she could smell vanilla. She hated vanilla-scented things. It all had started about ten years ago when every female around her had started to use vanilla-scented deodorant. She still had the extremely sweet scent in her nose. She felt Luke move under the sheets, and froze. Please be asleep, please be asleep. She had no such luck. His long lashes fluttered and exposed his steel blue eyes. She felt his arm snake around her waist, and soon his lips pressed a kiss to her neck.
"Hey", he said with a deep, sexy voice.
"Go back to sleep", she ordered.
"Are you getting sick?", he asked worriedly, adding, "You want me to make you tea?"
"No, why?", Lorelai asked with knitted brows.
"Sounded like you were sniffing, maybe you have a cold."
"I'm fine. Go back to sleep, you have to get up in an hour and a half", she said, but he pressed his body even closer to hers.
"Caesar's opening today, I wanted to spend the morning with you", Luke said, and went back to kissing her neck.
"Luke", she said, as she tried to gently push him away, "It's the middle of the night."
"Hasn't stopped us before...", he said and she could feel his grin against her skin.
His hand was slowly moving downward, until it reached her butt, where it settled possessively.
She shouldn't have gone to the stupid store with its cutesy name. Cute Cottons. What a bullshit name. She shouldn't have told Rory she had no interest whatsoever to ever go there. Suddenly, Lorelai couldn't take it anymore. The vanilla smell in her nose, his hands on her body, it was all too much for her.
"Aaargh!", she yelled as she pushed the sheets away from her, and she quickly got up.
Luke looked at her like she was possessed by an evil spirit.
"What's the matter?", he asked.
"I can't do this anymore", she screamed, and went to the bathroom, locked the door, and turned the lights on.
For a moment, her eyes had trouble getting used to the light. She went to wash her hands, get the vanilla smell off of her, she splashed water in her face, and dried herself with the towel. After a moment, he knocked on the door.
"Lorelai?"
She didn't reply. She leaned against the sink, her head in her hands, as she figured out what to do next.
"Lorelai, please talk to me."
Right, like you talk to me and explain why you do what you do.
The anger was bubbling up inside her, and she was pacing in the bathroom.
"If this is about the trip to Philadelphia, you know I don't have to go. I can stay and we can go Lane's wedding together."
Enough.
She unlocked the door, and saw him standing right in front of her.
"Are you kidding me?", she asked, trying to keep her voice down. "I'm certainly not the evil step-mother trying to prevent a dad from seeing his child! Don't you think I'm better than that? I've wanted for Chris to be interested in Rory forever, I'm certainly not gonna tell you not to see your daughter!"
"Then what is this about?", he asked cluelessly, adding, "The bag?"
"No, this is not about the stupid bag, Luke. Not entirely at least. And I don't wanna start fighting about minor details like a freaking bag!", she yelled.
"Lorelai, please", he said and stepped forward, "You have to give me a clue here."
She went to the bed, and picked up the sheet, brought it to him, and held it under his nose.
"Does this smell like vanilla to you?", she asked calmly.
He sniffed the sheet, wrinkled his forehead, and shook his head.
"No, why would it? You hate vanilla-scented fabric softener. I didn't buy it, I swear."
"Luke, do you really think I would be freaking out if you had bought vanilla-scented fabric softener? Are you insane?"
"I hope not. With you, however, I'm not so sure. It's half past three in the morning, and I don't know what has gotten into you, to be honest", he shrugged.
Lorelai walked back to the bed, and sat down with a sigh. Luke followed her, and looked at her expectantly.
"When we became a couple, I thought about all the wasted time, and how I should have just kissed you five years ago after my dad was in hospital. I had already gone half the way, I had told you that you looked good, and I swear that I felt you were gonna kiss me after I had given you the blue cap. But then I thought, maybe we shouldn't have gotten together so soon because a few months later, Rachel returned, and I'm not so sure how things would have turned out. So right now, I'm thinking that we still should have gotten together five years ago because that way, I would have gotten used to learning about extremely pretty exes of yours. Maybe we even would be married by now, but I'm sure that's never gonna happen-", she said before he interrupted her.
"Lorelai, don't say that, I told you I'd marry you", Luke said as he touched her cheek, and pulled her close.
"You've said that before, you know. In Martha's Vineyard. And nothing has happened. Nothing", she said and felt a lump the size of the moon in her throat.
"But we said we could elope, and I thought maybe we could do it in the summer. Your dress is sleeveless, so summer is good, right?"
The first tear always has to pave the way for the others. Lorelai could feel how the tears in her eyes rose, before the wetness reached her cheeks.
"Sweatheart, don't cry", he said as his thumb brushed the tears away.
"I went to Anna's store", she admitted, "I went there, and I saw her, and there was this vanilla-scented corner, and now I know we're not soul mates."
Though thrown by her first statement, the latter hit him harder still.
"Of course we're soul mates, Lorelai", he said appeasingly, and tucked a curl behind her ear.
"That's what I thought, too", Lorelai said, now openly sobbing, "But then I saw her Luke, I saw her. I saw everything. The brown hair, the blue eyes, her quirky personality. Now I know I'm just one of many, who knows how many more blue-eyed brunettes are running around, I'm not your soul mate, I'm just your type!"
Luke grabbed a tissue from her nightstand, and patted her cheeks dry, at least for a moment.
"Lorelai, that's not true. You're not just my type. I love you, always will. I knew it the day you entered my diner for the first time, I kept the horoscope, I waited for you."
"Exactly! Do you know how stupid it is to keep the horoscope, and you still waited this long? If you knew it right then, why didn't you do anything sooner?", she asked.
"It just wasn't the time! If you knew you liked me, why didn't you say something sooner?"
"Because I knew that as soon as we would start something, it would be serious right away. And I was right, you told me on our first date that you had been pining for me for eight years, and that you'd be all in. You know what, Luke? Right now, you're not all in. Literally. We remodeled this house, you paid for it, too, but you still haven't moved in. This is the first time in weeks that you spend the night here. Before the house was done, we would sleep in this construction site, and ever since everything is how we wanted it to be, you don't want to stay here? Do you know how crazy this is? And speaking of being all in: I'm not all in either. I'm not in your life anymore. You really think I'd be bothered if you accompanied your daughter on her trip? This is not about how involved in her life you are, it's about how uninvolved I am! The entire town is allowed to meet her, and your fiancée is not? Don't you want me to get to know her? Don't you wanna see if we get along? Don't you wanna know if she likes me?", she asked, and her entire body shook as a new wave of tears blazed a trail down her cheeks.
Luke hugged her tightly. They weren't fighting right now. The woman he loves was pouring her heart out to him. His hands were rubbing her back soothingly.
"I'm scared", he admitted.
"Why?", she mumbled into his shoulder.
"What if she likes you better, Lorelai?"
"Luke", she said and leaned back to look him in the eyes, "that's not gonna happen. You're her dad. But you can't put this off forever. You're a great man, you were always great to Rory, why would April like me better?"
"Because kids love you."
"Please don't worry about that, OK?", she said, and realized she was comforting him now.
As both calmed down, Luke took her hand and softly kissed her knuckles.
"I'd really like to talk about some things now", Luke suggested.
"OK", she nodded.
"So you went to Anna's store?"
"Yes. Rory suggested to go there together, but I refused, so she went alone, came back and wouldn't stop talking about Anna, so I had to see for myself."
"Did you, um, talk to her?"
"No, she was busy, so I just looked around the store. And I overheard her say to a customer that the things in that one corner smelled like vanilla for no reason. That's when everything clicked, Luke. She's crazy. And as much as you complain about me being crazy, you kinda love it, too, don't you?", she wondered.
"I guess, but when Anna and I were dating, she wasn't like that. She didn't have her shop then either. No one's like you, you're Lorelai. My Lorelai. And for the record, she was blonde 13 years ago", he explained as his hand rubbed circles on her back.
"Did you love her?", Lorelai asked.
Luke thought for a moment.
"No, I didn't. We weren't dating for long, we weren't even exclusive. Maisy told me that getting out of the house once in a while would do me good. It was after my dad had died. I wasn't looking for the love of my life then. I just needed... distraction, I guess is the word. I saw her on a date with some guy at Sniffy's, and the next day I told her it wasn't working for me."
"I don't want to sound like a huge bitch, but do you think you could trust me more if you had a son?", she asked, deeply looking into his eyes.
"Maybe, I don't know. Why you're asking?"
"I always pictured you with a boy. Don't get me wrong, you were great with Rory, still are. But the image of you and a little boy together in the batting cages is always in my head", Lorelai said wistfully.
He picked up on her mood change.
"Are you saying... Do you want another kid?", he said, his heart suddenly racing.
"Maybe not now, but we talked about it when we got engaged. You started it. You bought the Twickham house for our kids, or plants, or end tables", she said and smiled at the memory of tipsy sex, and the conversation afterwards.
"Maybe I should first introduce you to the child I already have", he offered.
She leaned over and kissed him gently.
"I'd like that", she nodded.
"And maybe tomorrow we should pack my stuff, and move it here."
"Even better", Lorelai agreed, adding, "I'm sorry if I freaked you out or anything, but I couldn't be quiet any longer. I simply don't want to wake up in ten years and look back at this time with regret. I'm ready for marriage, for more kids, and I felt you were slipping away from me. We had agreed on no more secrets, and next thing I know is that you kept one from me for two months."
"I know, and I'm sorry about that. It was wrong, and I regret keeping it from you. You needed time after the fight with Rory, and I need time now. But I promise you that I'll be using the time better. What do you say", he said as he checked the alarm clock, "Is it time for bed? It's past four am."
"Yes, let's go to sleep."
"I said nothing about sleep", he said, and kissed her deeply.
Lorelai lay down on her bed, and Luke mirrored her movements. He cupped her face, and whispered, "I love you."
"I love you, too."
She pressed her torso against his, and loved the firmness of his chest against her soft mounds. Shortly after, she startled and sat up. She started pushing the sheets away, and Luke thought he was trapped in his personal groundhog day moment.
"What's happening?", he half-asked himself.
"Go to the linen closet and get different sheets, this vanilla scent drives me insane", she said, as she freed the pillows from their cases.
Luke just shook his head, but followed her order.
An hour later, they were cuddled up against each other, the fresh sheets bunched up around their sweaty bodies.
"Do you think we still could make June 3rd work?", Luke asked.
"It's only two months away. Do you want to get married so soon after all?", she asked.
"It's not so soon, Lorelai. We've known each other for over ten years."
"I don't want you to rush into this. I just want to be with you. I don't want to get married just to get married. It's you I want to be with, Luke. Can we discuss this later? I'm getting tired..."
"OK, let's talk about this later. Goodnight", he said and kissed her.
Just when Luke was drifting off to sleep, Lorelai startled again.
"Vanilla fish!", she said loudly.
"What?", he said, still not knowing exactly if he was awake or dreaming.
"Sookie once made this fish dish. Maybe it was dorado, maybe not, and it had this sauce with vanilla in it. Well, it wasn't a saucy sauce, it was foam, or spume. Really light. And the vanilla flavor wasn't very prominent. Sookie explained to me that she didn't scratch the black dot thingies out, but put the entire vanilla bean in the sauce and that's why it wasn't so vanilla-y", she babbled.
"Vanilla bean, got it", he mumbled and sat up also.
"That's when I liked vanilla. So I'm not anti-vanilla at all. But I don't like Anna's vanilla corner, and I think you should give the bag back. I'd gladly go shopping and get one for you. Maybe something more practical, with wheels, so you don't have to carry it all the time. You're not getting any younger, you know?"
"Yes, great time to point that out. Can we go to sleep now?", a tired Luke demanded.
"Yes, goodnight", she said and kissed him again.
"Vanilla fish", he mumbled.
It was totally unplanned that this is ultimately a fix s6 story, it just happened. I'm not sure if we ever found out the real name of Anna's store. I actually thought about naming the store Vanilla Fish, but I figured since the vanilla-scented corner was unintentional, the store would already have a different name. Did you like the story? Leave me a review. Reviewers are my favorite readers!