Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A/N: This came out to be an awkward size. Too long for a oneshot, too short for a real chapter story. So I'm posting it as a... two-shot? The second part will be out shortly. It needs editing.

The Perks of Nature
Part I

"I cannot believe you convinced me to do this." She got out of the truck and surveyed her surroundings. She sighed. "It's so… outside."

"That would be the point," he said, well-veiling his amusement.

"Well, what do we do?" she asked, looking at the trees for inspiration.

"Now? Now we set up," he said. He opened his truck's tailgate and pulled down a large box. He drew a large canvas roll from the box and laid it on the ground. "Help me put up the tent."

She stared at the canvas, shocked. "Tent? What are we going to do with that?" she asked, fearing the answer she already knew.

"We're going to sleep in it."

She picked up a corner of the tent critically. "It's fabric. How do we sleep in fabric?"

He rolled his eyes. "You sleep in fabric every night."

She sighed. "Well I know that, but usually there are more substantial materials, like brick and concrete, surrounding the fabric."

"It's unnecessary."

"Unnecessary? What if we get attacked by lions?"

"In Connecticut?"

"Tigers?"

"I doubt it."

"Bears?"

"Oh my."

"Fine. But if we do get attacked by lions, your little fabric house had better be enough to protect us."

He moved the canvas roll to the other side of the campsite and spread it out. The clang of metal on metal could be heard as it unrolled, and several long poles were revealed as the tent flattened. "Here," he said, throwing several poles off of the canvas onto the grass. "Help me get the poles off of the tent."

She gingerly picked up a pole and laid it next to the ones he had thrown. "What are these for?"

"They make the tent stand up."

"Oh." She considered the poles. "I thought it just… you know, stood up when you pitched it."

He couldn't help but smile a little in his exasperation. "It does stand up when you pitch it, but pitching it requires poles."

She nodded. "Oh. Well, then."

"Look." He slid a tent pole easily through one end of the tent fabric. "Now do that on your side."

"Do you really want to trust me with our shelter?"

"It's just for one night, Lorelai."

"Yes, but one night is all it takes. If I do this, our house will fall in on our heads while we sleep."

He rolled his eyes. "No, it won't."

"Yes, it will."

Luke sighed. He walked over to Lorelai and helped her slide the pole into the canvas.

She pushed him away. "Hey, stop! I'm not four."

He smiled. "You said you couldn't do it by yourself." He eased her over to the next pole. She relaxed and let him help her slide it into the base of the tent. He tried to connect two of the poles together and tripped over her leg. By the time he caught himself, they were both laughing.

"Smooth!" she giggled.

He laughed, but made no reply but to help her put together the rest of the base of the tent. He was the one doing most of the work, but each was enjoying the close company of the other, although neither said so.

After much longer than it would have taken Luke to set it up himself, but much less time than both would have liked, the tent was up. Luke stepped back, and Lorelai did with him. "So, it's done?" she asked.

"It's done," he confirmed. "You could go in if you wanted to."

"Can I?" she asked, eyes full of wonder at being able to enter something she helped to assemble.

He laughed. "Sure. Unzip it first." He motioned toward the zipper on the front of the tent.

"I know that," she said authoritatively.

"Are you sure you're not four?" Luke asked as she peered into the tent.

She removed her head from the tent, turned to look at Luke, and kissed him. "If I was four, would I have done that?" she asked when they pulled away.

Luke smiled. "Hopefully not."

"So, what now?"

"Well, there's more to set up."

"Like what?" Lorelai asked eagerly. "Anything as much fun as the tent?"

"Probably not. Next we need to build a fire and set up the sleeping bags."

"I don't do wood."

"Can I say 'dirty'?"

"Nope. My job."

"Can you spread out a couple of sleeping bags in the tent, since you seem to have a thing for it?"

"Dirty!"

Luke sighed. "Now she says it."

She laughed. "Yes, I can set up the sleeping bags."

"Good. They're in the truck."

She climbed up into the bed of the truck and found the two bulky rolls of bedding. She rolled them out of the truck bed and jumped down to meet them.

When the tent was set up, Lorelai ventured back outside to meet Luke. She found that the fire ring had several strategically placed logs in it, and Luke was in the process of setting up two folding chairs.

"I didn't know there'd be chairs." Lorelai smiled, pleased at the development. "I assumed we'd be sitting on the ground, or on moss-covered logs or something."

"I figured if you were really going to sleep on the ground, the least I could do is let you sit in a chair."

"Good," she said. "So, what now?"

Luke looked around at the hazy sky. The sun hadn't yet set, but it soon would. "Let's take a walk," he suggested.

Lorelai looked down at her flip-flops. "Do I need to change my shoes?"

Luke shook his head. "We're not going far."

"Where are we going?" she asked as he led her out of the campsite.

"Nowhere in particular," he insisted, "just around the campground."

She looked around, profoundly unfamiliar with her surroundings. They passed several campsites similar to their own, some inhabited by a single person, others populated by large families. Some people had bikes parked beside their cars, others stoves and grills for cooking, and still others had parked large RVs in their sites. "We should bring one of those next time we come here," Lorelai said, smiling wistfully at the thought of the relative comfort inside.

Luke rolled his eyes, a look of bitter resentment sweeping his face. "Defeats the purpose," he grumbled.

Lorelai smiled, almost excited. "Do I smell a rant?"

He continued as if he hadn't heard her. "If you're going to go camping, you might as well go camping. Why bother driving to a campground if you're going to sleep inside? If you want to sleep inside away from home, fine. Stay in a hotel! You don't need the fire pit, the trees or the lake. Leave that to the people that'll actually go outside and appreciate it. Don't gawk at it from the window. If all you're looking for is the view, buy a postcard!"

Lorelai giggled. "I don't know, it seems nice to me. You get to come out here without actually having to sleep on the ground."

Luke didn't give any sign that he'd heard her. "Next time?" he asked instead.

Lorelai was thrown off by the sudden shift in the conversation. "What?"

"You said 'next time'. You want to do this again." It wasn't a question.

She smiled. "Let's see how the sleeping on the ground part goes, and we'll take it from there." Slowly, she snaked her hand into the grasp of Luke's.

They walked past a playground, devoid of children. It seemed that they'd all had to go back to their campsites to eat dinner. Lorelai's stomach growled. There had to be some law against eating dinner after the sun went down. It wasn't dark yet, but by the time they got back she had full confidence that it would be.

They walked through a field of slightly unkempt grass until they got to the lake. There was a break in the trees, and the pinks, reds, oranges, and purples of the sunset were visible twice: in the sky and on the water. "We're here," Luke said softly.

"Pretty," Lorelai breathed. She took a step toward the water reflexively, as if to touch it.

Luke smiled. "I thought you might like it."

"I wish I had a camera," she mused. "Or… I don't know. Something."

Without a word, Luke leaned in and kissed her.

"That'll work," she pulled away just long enough to murmur.