A/N: Well, as it's summer and S5 reruns are fresh in my mind, I got the idea for this. So this fits into "A Messenger, Nothing More" (5.02). After the parade interrupts Luke and Lorelai, before Lorelai and Rory watch Show Girls. Enjoy! Thanks to my wonderful betas!
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Rory watched as Lane got up from the table to go take orders and deliver plates of food to customers. She wasn't sure she had been much help to Lane and her quandary, simply telling Lane that she should examine her feelings for Zach more closely. Lane had asked her if she was all right, and she had said she was and they had left it at that. Then Lane had jumped up to take an order, and Rory was left alone staring at her root beer.
Luke returned to the diner, letting the door close behind him with a bang louder than normal. She watched him go behind the counter, and he glanced at her and gave her a smile and a nod, not seeming to care that her mother was now missing. Rory shrugged and took a sip of her root beer, wondering when her mother would get back from Doose's. She watched Luke some more, noticing that he seemed frustrated yet content at the same time.
Seconds later the door opened and her mother came in, also with a mixed expression on her face. She looked happy, yet disappointed. Rory frowned, wondering what was going on outside.
Lorelai returned to the table and plopped back down on her chair, putting an arm on Rory's shoulder.
"Sorry."
"That's okay," Rory shrugged. "What did you get?"
"Huh?" Lorelai asked absently as she glanced around the diner.
"You said you had to go to Doose's to get something," Rory reminded her. "But you don't have anything."
"Oh," was all Lorelai said. She noticed Luke come out of the kitchen and smiled at him. He returned her smile, then quickly looked down at the order pad he had in his hand.
"'Oh?'" Rory asked her. "That's not an answer to my question."
"Right, what was your question?" Lorelai asked, turning to focus her attention on Rory.
"Well, I now have like five," Rory said, raising her eyebrows. "Like, why did you say that you were going to Doose's and came back with nothing? Why are you smiling and staring at Luke more than usual? Why did you and Luke both leave and return within a minute of the other's departure and return?" she stared at her mother for a moment. "And were you wearing a necklace earlier?"
Lorelai shrugged and smiled at Rory knowingly. "Well, there's one answer to all of your questions."
"What?"
Lorelai glanced around the diner, making sure that no one she knew was within earshot. "Luke and I are together."
Rory gasped and put her hand over her mouth. She had recalled the conversation she had had with her mother outside the diner at the beginning of the summer where she had told Rory she thought she was dating Luke; but then nothing had came of it and Lorelai had never said another word to her about dating Luke, and Rory had figured it had just been some crazy idea of her mother's.
"You're what?" Rory asked, leaning closer to her mother, making sure to not speak too loudly as it was clearly a secret. "How long!" she suddenly asked.
"Well, technically, I guess, about seven weeks."
"You've been dating Luke for seven weeks?" Rory whispered harshly. "How did I not know this!"
"Well, you were in Europe and everything, so…"
"If you've been dating Luke for seven weeks, why does no one know?"
"I said technically we've been together seven weeks. Nothing about dating."
Rory frowned. "You're losing me."
"He's been gone all summer, he left the day you did," she realized with a frown. "And he just got back today. He was up in Maine with Liz and TJ."
Rory nodded. "But you were together while he was gone."
Lorelai nodded. "Right."
"But you've yet to go on a date."
"Exactly."
"What happened? When did this happen?"
"Well, remember I thought I was dating Luke…"
"Right."
"Well, I was."
"And how did you figure that out?"
"Remember Jason was at the test run?" Rory nodded. "Well, apparently someone told Luke who Jason was, and Luke talked to him for awhile and Jason started telling him that he and I, Jason and I, were still together. Luke felt stupid for going after someone who was taken, I told him I wasn't taken, we started arguing, and we kissed."
Rory gasped. "You kissed!" Lorelai nodded. "At the test run?"
"At the test run." She paused and smiled. "Twice. Then stupid Kirk came running down the stairs naked and Luke had to go after him and the moment was gone."
"'Big things are happening,'" Rory recalled Lorelai's words from when she had come home from the test run that night for her camera and band-aids. "That was after you kissed."
Lorelai nodded. "Yep."
"So then the next day he left."
She nodded. "Yeah. We never got a chance to talk after the whole Kirk thing, so I called him that day and we agreed that we were going to give the relationship a try. Then he left."
"Did you talk to him while he was gone?"
She nodded. "Oh yeah. All the time. I know all about everyone on the Renaissance Circuit," she added. "Like, did you know that Bill and Annie were--" she stopped when Luke appeared at their table. "Hey," she said, flashing him a smile.
"Hey. You guys need anything or is the root beer enough?"
"Actually, I think I'm ready for a burger and fries now," Rory said.
"Got it," he said. He looked at Lorelai. "You?"
"Same."
"Coming right up." He disappeared behind the counter and took the order to the kitchen.
"So you and Luke," Rory realized with a smile. "Wow."
"Yeah," Lorelai agreed.
"I always knew you two would get together."
"Yeah, yeah," Lorelai teased. "That means nothing unless you had money on it."
"Well maybe I did," Rory said with a smirk. "So did he give you the necklace?"
"Oh," Lorelai said with a content smile. "Yeah. He brought it back. Liz made it."
"It's pretty," Rory agreed.
"It matches the earrings," she added, pulling her hair back so Rory could see.
"The ones he gave you," Rory said with a smile. "Well look at you two all cute."
Lorelai smiled and glanced towards Luke once more.
"So," Rory added, "does it feel… weird? I mean, it's Luke. You're dating Luke."
She grinned. "I know. And no. It feels completely normal."
Rory smiled.
After she and Rory had finished their burgers and fries, Lane came up to Rory and asked her to tell her all about her trip while there was a lull in the diner. Lorelai listened to Rory tell Lane some stories for a few moments before noticing Luke standing behind the counter alone. He disappeared into the storeroom, and she glanced around, noticing that no one seemed to be paying any attention to her, Rory and Lane included.
"Be right back," she mumbled, but Rory was so into telling her story that she didn't seem to notice Lorelai had even gotten up. She walked towards the storeroom as if it was perfectly normal, and glanced over her shoulder subtly before walking in, wondering if anyone was watching her.
She slipped in and closed the door behind her softly. Luke seemed to be so interested in what he was doing that he hadn't noticed her presence yet.
"There shouldn't be any parades coming through here," she stated, causing him to snap his head in her direction.
"Jeez, you scared me," he remarked, turning his head back to the bottles of ketchup he had in his hands.
She stepped closer to him, just slightly, and smiled. "Sorry." He set down the bottles on a shelf and stood to face her.
"So…"
"So," she repeated with a smile, breaking contact with his eyes and looking down at her shoes. "I love the necklace."
He nodded and smiled slightly. "It looks good on you."
She returned his smile. "Thanks." She took a deep breath and walked up to him, standing just a couple feet from him. "I missed you," she admitted softly.
"I know. I mean… I missed you, too," he replied, shoving his hands into his pockets.
She giggled a little, enjoying that he seemed nervous, too. She really just wanted to kiss him, but for some reason she wasn't sure if she was supposed to do that. Of course she was. She had kissed him twice already. She was in a relationship with him. They had almost kissed earlier before the stupid parade. "Good to know."
Taking a deep breath, she closed the remaining few feet between them and slid her arms around his neck. She felt his hands come out of his pockets and immediately find their place on her hips. She leaned in close to him and smiled at him slightly before pressing her lips against his. She started out by kissing him carefully and gently, but once their lips came in contact with each other, she remembered that night at the Dragonfly and the magic of kissing Luke, and suddenly found herself attacking his lips with hers.
The kiss broke slightly, and in the moment where they had to decide if it was time to pull away or pull back in, Luke made the decision for them and captured her lips with his own. Lorelai suddenly had a surge of confidence, her nervousness from a few moments earlier gone completely, and she took the chance to pull his bottom lip between her teeth, biting it lightly. He let out a stifled moan, and she responded by releasing his lip and opening her mouth slightly. His tongue glided over hers immediately, as if it has been waiting for the chance to slip in.
When they broke apart this time, she smiled against his lips and placed one quick kiss on them.
"I could really get used to doing that."
He raised his eyebrows. "Well, I'm sure we can work something out."
"That'd be nice," she said with a giggle.
He nodded and looked into her eyes for a moment. "Yeah," he said softly.
She smiled at him and leaned forward to kiss him softly again. "Welcome home," she whispered into his ear.
She pulled away from him, letting her hand find his to give it a squeeze before letting go of him completely, and then she smiled at him over her shoulder. "Hey Luke?"
"Yeah?"
"Just so you know… I'm not changing my mind," she told him with a knowing smile, remembering the message he had left her before he left, telling her not to change her mind until he got back… and now he was back.
"Oh," he couldn't help but grin. "Uh, good. Good."
She nodded as she slipped back out into the diner.