Okay, this is not a new story per se. This is a story I wrote in german at first (my first one) and now I decided to translate it, cause a friend asked for it.

This is placed in season four as you can easily see by the dialogues in the first chapter

Thanks to Sarah for beta-ing

Laura, your very own story (at least the translation ;) )

Chapter 1: You've got mail

„Look, that's exactly what we've been looking for: House, calm area with a garden. Two bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, living room, kitchen. Really nice neighbors. And in the same town: apartment with living/bed-room, kitchen, bathroom and a separate bedroom. First floor, town-center in a small town. That would be great. I would take the house with Kayla and you could take the apartment. In a small town we couldn't avoid each other, Kayla couldn't go surfing and you could get to know each other better without having to be together all the time. If we're bored we could drive to Hartford, the map says it's not far. And what do you say?" Linda asked her boyfriend and smiled.

„Well, if you think that it helps, then we should try it. The relationship between Kayla and me can't get worse than it already is", Sam agreed hesitatingly and shrugged.

„Great! Stars Hollow here we come!", Linda laughed and hugged him tightly.

2 weeks before in Stars Hollow:

Diner:

"If you just wait for the bells, then you'll get to hear the bells, and then you'll know what time it is. " Luke said unnerved to Kirk.

"Actually, that's not true. The other day I stood too close to the bells and they rang so loud that there's now a persistent ringing in my ears. Now I can't tell which are the church bells and which are the Kirk bells", Kirk jammered.

"Oh, no. Did you go to the doctor?" Lorelai said in fake concern and tried not to laugh.

"Yes, he said I have tinnitus. I looked it up on the web at "Celebrities Who Share Your Disease" and found that William Shatner is likewise afflicted." Kirk explained.

"Really, Kirk and Captain Kirk?" Lorelai said and couldn't keep her smile at bay anymore.

"The irony wasn't lost on me. " Kirk said while Luke served the costumers.

"Was that them? "he asked then.

"Relax, the church bells will be the loud obnoxious ones." Luke informed him and went back behind the counter.

"Uhp somebody doesn't like bells", Lorelai noticed.

"Not everyone likes bells." Luke grumped.

"No, actually they do" Lorelai shot back.

"They enjoy the constant interruptions of conversations, the monotonous drone of the same tones, hour after hour? " Luke asked and raised his eyebrows.

"Yes! Can you believe it? These are the same freaks who also like sunsets and the moon and the stars …" she said ironically, but stopped when she saw Luke ruffling through some papers. "What are the paint chips for?"

"Oh, I'm just doing some painting".

"Oh, really? You're not gonna collect and trade them amongst your friends? What are you painting?"

"Um, our apartment", Luke said and suddenly focused a bit too much on the cards.

"You and I, we're getting an apartment?" Lorelai teased him.

"No. Me and Nicole. We're getting an apartment", Luke informed her.

"Oh! That's great. When?", she said not very convincingly.

"When what?" Luke asked irritated.

"Well, when are you getting an apartment?" Lorelai explained what she wanted to know. Or really didn't want to know.

"Three weeks ago", Luke said and prepared himself for the eruption which he knew would come.

"Three weeks … You moved already?" she asked and her chin was a mare millimeter away from the floor.

"Yes," Luke admitted.

"Huh. Uh, wow. So, where is the apartment?" she asked only that something was asked. She didn't really want to know, she was still recovering from the shock.

"Litchfield." He said and walked around the counter

"You moved to Litchfield? " she asked and her chest tightened, which within seconds lessened and was replaced by anger.

"Yes", Luke nodded.

"Three weeks ago you moved to Litchfield?" Lorelai whirled around and looked him in the eyes.

"Yes."

"Litchfield is another county" she remarked.

"Yes", Luke nodded again and busied himself with work in the diner.

"Well, three weeks ago you moved to another county?" she sighed as she turned again and he went behind the counter

"Yes."

"Well, were you gonna mention this to me anytime soon?" she asked now clearly upset.

"Sure," he nodded

"When?"

"When it came up", he shrugged and ignored the anger he saw in her eyes.

"When it came up" she repeated, just to make sure he had really said that.

"Yeah" he said.

"Okay, so if I hadn't asked for the next twenty or thirty years and I sent you a nice fruit basket upstairs you just never would have gotten it", she said louder.

"It's not that big a deal", Luke tried to calm her.

"Okay."

"I mean it's not like we tell each other everything" Luke added.

"No! Of course we don't! I mean, I tore a pair of panty hose this morning and I didn't tell you about it. Oh wait, I guess I just did" Lorelai nearly yelled at him.

"Hey, you know now, right?", Luke replied, now also louder.

"Yeah. Right," she replied sarcastically.

"Look, nothing's changed", he tried to calm her again, also because he was clueless why she made such a big deal out of this.

"Yeah nothing's changed, except you don't live here!" Lorelai was still upset.

"So what?" Luke was now really fed up by her behaviour. She always needed to over-dramatize everything.

"So? I don't even have your phone number" she continued.

"I'll give you my phone number", he said but Lorelai wasn't done yet.

"I don't even know what you live in! An apartment, a trailer, a batcave – "

"A townhouse" he enlightened her.

"A townhouse? Sure, 'cause when I look at you I think "common driveway"".

"It's fine, you'll come over and see it eventually."

"Will I? Will I come over, because me coming over implies we're friends!" she yelled.

"We are friends!"

"No, we're not! We're not friends! Friends tell each other at least the most basic things like where you live and when you moved away. I thought we were friends but I guess we're not!" she yelled, stood up and grabbed her jacket.

"Where are you going?" he asked, because he didn't want to end this like this.

"I can't stay!" she said and bolted out of the diner

" Lorelai!" he called, but his voice got drowned by the bells. "Damn bells!" he yelled unnerved.

One week later Lorelai was still upset. Luke had moved without telling her. Luke had moved. He now lived with Nicole. Nicole. There it was again the pain in her chest. Since their argument she hadn't been in the diner. Even Sookie who was over with Davey couldn't really distract her and many times her thoughts wandered back to Luke.

"Oh. I'm coming, Cookie," Sookie cooed and took the crying Davy out of his stroller.

"What's the matter, is he hungry?" Lorelai wanted to know

"No, it's the bells" Sookie told her and rocked the baby in her arms.

"The bells aren't ringing" Lorelai remarked irritated.

"No, but they're about to" Sookie cleared up.

"He's crying in anticipation of the bells?"

"He hates them. At first he just cried when they rang, and now he knows their schedule" Sookie explained and was still trying to calm her crying son.

"Oh, that's terrible!" Lorelai said and felt for her friend

"Believe me, the 5:00 AM-ers are the worst," Sookie said and that moment the bells really started to ring.

"Oh, oh, I know" Sookie cooed at the baby.

"Poor thing." Lorelai said when something outside caught her eyes. "Hey, Sookie. Look, it's Luke." She said with a small smile and together they walked to the window.

"What's he doing?" Sookie asked.

"Hmph, he's shovelling my walk" Lorelai smiled touched.

"He's good." Sookie grinned.

"I'll be right back" Lorelai told her friend, grabbed her jacket and walked outside.

" Oh, you missed a spot", she called out and wrapped the jacket tighter around her, but Luke didn't react. "This is really nice Luke. Hey, can we fight again 'cause I need my rain gutters cleaned", she joked relieved. She was happy that this fight was finally over. She had really missed him. Luke stopped shovelling , walked towards her but stayed off the porch.

"You think everything is your business. Everything is about you! Well, here's a newsflash. Some things are not about you", he started to yell and Lorelai jumped slightly when he started screaming at her so suddenly.

"Why are you yelling at me?" she asked and sounded hurt.

"If I want to move in with Nicole, it concerns her and it concerns me, and that's it", he continued yelling.

"Yeah, I know", she admitted.

"It does not concern you! It is none of your business! I don't have to tell you anything! And you do not have the right to make me feel guilty because I didn't tell you anything." Luke was now really gathering momentum.

"I wasn't trying…" Lorelai tried to exculpate, but he interrupted her.

"I have been tying my own shoes since I was four, I have been repairing my own car since I was fourteen, and I have been making my own decisions since I could crawl!"

"What does any of that have to do with anything?" Lorelai asked.

"I owe you nothing!" he yelled.

"Fine", she yelled back.

"Nothing!"

"Fine!" they yelled at each other.

"And shovel your walk! It's a safety hazard and you can't just walk past it and ignore the fact that the snow is up to your ass!" Luke yelled and stomped off with the shovel still in his hand.

"You've got my shovel!" Lorelai stopped him.

"I loaned it to you three years ago!" Luke screamed and waved about wildly with the shovel before he left for good.

The same day, after Rory didn't have time for her and Sookie had gone back home, Lorelai decided that she needed a vacation. At first she dumped the idea again, because she didn't have the money.

But when she was laying awake in the middle of the night and the only thing she could think about was that Luke was now lying in bed beside Nicole, she stood up and after some research on the internet she found what she had been looking for: She would offer her house to somebody else and would move to the other house.

She limited the time to one week, because she could leave Sookie alone for much longer at the moment, added a nice description for her house and sent the offer.

The same night Luke wasn't lying in bed beside Nicole, but sat wide awake at the kitchen table in his apartment above the diner. His old apartment, he corrected himself mentally. After the fight with Lorelai he just couldn't sleep and had started doing bills. On the inside the thanked Lorelai for convincing him to start online banking.

Just when he had sent the last transfer and logged out one of those pop-ups he hated so much, opened. "House-exchange- anew holiday experience" it said and before he thought about what he was doing he had clicked on the advertisement and read through the information on the page. 'Holidays would be good', he thought. In the afternoon he had played with the thought of going fishing, but at this time of the year the lake was covered with ice, so he had decided against it.

Without a second thought he filled out the application and clicked on „send".

„You've got mail" Lorelai's laptop told her when she turned it on. When she read the mail a smile formed on her face.

"Wow, that was fast. L.A. here I come" she said happily and danced upstairs to pack her things

Approximately at the same time Luke also found his email that his Apartment was requested.

"I can fish in L.A as well", he decided, turned of his computer and started packing.

TBC