(un)Quiet Coffee
Timeline: Set Mid S3
A/N: Written for the OLC challenge. A huge thanks to Ava for the beta.
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She comes into the darkened diner because it's Friday night and he's closed and that certainly doesn't matter when there's Emily to deal with. From the kitchen he can hear the door jingle open, the hollow noise of metal against linoleum as she pulls a stool from the counter. Then silence. Silence and Lorelai are an unsettling combination and that thought alone propels him out behind the counter.
She's touching his coffee pot.
She's behind the counter and stealthily trying to pull the pot from its home in the machine.
"Hey!"
She's a deer in headlights except she doesn't look surprised or guilty as much as pissed.
"Lu-uke!" His name is two syllables and he knows he's in trouble. "I just wanted some coffee."
"You ask for coffee. I pour it. You whine for more. I pour it."
"Thank you for the recap. I wanted quiet coffee. Coffee I didn't have to whine for. I was going to get it poured before you got out here." The coffee pot inches out. Slowly.
An exaggerated double take and Luke responds, "Quiet coffee? Is there such a thing?" He takes a step forward and reaches for the steadily moving coffee.
"Silence is golden tonight… Emily." And that's all the explanation he gets as she grabs a mug. He's quick off the draw and manages to snag the rim of the pot while she's distracted.
He gets a growl in return. A growl. It's actually kinda hot. (And where the hell did that come from?)
Before he realizes it, they're tug-of-warring, and she's shouting, and he's wondering when this turned into recess. "Rory's ditching me for Jess tonight and I need something good after that brutal dinner and everything good happens over coffee. Let. Go."
It's slow motion as the coffee slips and they're both reaching, Luke to avoid the mopping and Lorelai to prevent unneeded brewing time. They end up on the floor of the diner, propped by their hands and feet, desperate not to let the pool of coffee soak into their clothes. It's some bizarre version of coffee twister. Right hand brown. Left foot brown.
He's hovering over Lorelai, flannel and denim barely skirting cotton and silk and all his mind is registering is the heat. It's steam and sizzle and not even Luke can blame it on the hot liquid rapidly drenching his cuffs.
"I uh… You couldn't just let go of the coffee pot?" Lorelai's tone is pure annoyance but her eyes are sparkling and her breath is tickling his temple. (Like he'll ever let her know that.) There's hair strewn across her forehead and he curses his occupied hands that are itching to brush it away. If he were to tilt his head just to the right his lips would quickly find her neck and now the only thought in his entire brain is…
"Jeez!" Jess looks at them with a mixture of disgust and amusement as he heads toward the door. "I'm going to see Rory. Be done by curfew or at least be less conspicuous." The door is still rattling behind him as they turn to look at each other again. Silence. Well, she wanted quiet coffee.
He pushes himself up off the ground before offering her a hand to help avoid the shards of glass littering the diner floor. Wordlessly he moves behind the counter to put on another pot of coffee and then she is beside him reaching for a mop.
They work without noise or awkwardness and he absently thinks, 'Everything good really does happen over coffee.'
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Challenge: Base a story on the phrase, "Everything good happens over coffee."