DEDICATION: To the one and only -the bestest- potostfbeyeluvr. Thanks again, Kara! Here's to you!

SUMMARY: LM, LD -or LuRo- in other words.

DISCLAIMER: If I owned them I wouldn't need a disclaimer, now would I?

A/N: No flames please, but CONSTRUCTIVE criticism is always welcome!

Chapter Three

It was around ten o'clock when Lorelai finally replied.

Hey, babe.

Sorry I didn't check my e-mail sooner, but Max took me out for dinner. It was a surprise, and he picked me up right from the (Dragonfly) Inn. Maybe tomorrow?

Sookie said to say hello, and guess what she did today…

Rory looked up from her laptop to find a slightly darkened empty diner. Her mind raced, What the hell? Where was Luke?

She stood and grabbed her empty coffee mug; as long as she was here she might as well make the best of it. She walked behind the counter and filled her mug, inhaling the dark fumes.

Just as she was relaxing into the deep beverage Luke came bursting out from behind the curtain that 'hid' the entrance to his apartment. "I'm not repainting this place, Rachael!"

"Luke," Rachael sighed, "Faded paint is a bad reflection on this place."

"Whatever happened to giving up?" Luke asked rhetorically as he refilled Rory's mug when she sat down by the register. "Do you want anything else?"

"Uh, yes I do. I want to know why you won't paint this place?" Rachael nodded in agreement, but this conversation was clearly just between Rory and Luke now.

"Painting's a pain. I'd have to close the place for a day, which I can't afford, or paint it in the middle of the night which I don't want to because I hate painting."

"Ok, how about this? I'll help you because I love to paint."

"You do?"

"Yes, I do."

"You love it?"

"I want to marry it," Rory clutched her mug and smiled sweetly.

"You have strange passions.

"I like washing dishes too," Rory shrugged. "I'm multifaceted abnormal."

"Ah come on, we'll drink a couple of coffees and we'll sing some painting songs."

Luke leaned across the counter, "Painting songs?"

Rory nodded enthusiastically, "Yeah! Painting songs like, um…you know the songs that goes, um…'Grab your brush and grab your rollers, all you kids and all you… bowlers, we're going paintin' today!'. Say yes or there's another verse," she warned.

"Well I guess maybe if…I had help."

"Really? Oh my God that's wonderful!" Rachael's eyes lit up, but Luke didn't notice; he was to busy drowning in Rory's crystalline eyes.

WBggWBggWB

"Now, this is another way to go. It's sort of a French bistro kind of look," Rory said, trying to show Luke paint samples the next day at the diner.

"This isn't a French bistro."

"Really? Huh, it's amazing the things you learn when you bother to listen."

"Which you usually don't?"

"Yes, but then I don't have a lot of useless information intruding in my brain."

"Thank God."

"Now, if you wanted to do more warm, golden Tuscan countryside -"

"Then I'd go to Italy," he said and then turned to some customers, "Here I'll wrap this."

"We could also go with a pastel-y English country-garden theme. Oh, maybe we could add a little stenciling on the ceiling."

"No stenciling," Luke shook his head.

"Excuse me, do you even know what stenciling is?"

"Does Martha Stewart do it?"

"Yes."

"No stenciling."

Rory rolled her eyes and pulled out a new sample, "Well, what about…"

WBggWBggWB

"Are you ready to talk paint?" asked, setting her laptop bag on the counter.

"No," Luke said, looking over at the empty diner.

"Good," she said, ignoring his noncommittal answer. " 'Cause I've got all the choices set up. And while any one of them would work, I think this combo is currently my favorite."

"Oh."

"See, imagine - this will be for the walls, and this would be for the trim - the edging around the doors and the windows -"

"I know what the trim is."

"Ok. The colors are actually quite similar to what you have here now but they're just a little richer, a little warmer. What do you think?"

"Well…"

"Wait, wait, wait, wait," she turns the lights down. "Huh? A little ambiance?"

"This is a diner, we don't do ambiance."

"Alright, one argument at a time. So what do you think?"

"Honestly?"

She nodded enthusiastically, "Yep."

"I have no idea. You like it?"

"Yeah."

"Ok."

"Good."

"What are you doing?" Rory asked as he walked over to the door

"That's it," he said and flipped the OPEN sign. "We're closed for the night."

"You know, listen, since you have to take everything off the walls anyways, now might be a really good time to decide what stuff you're going to keep and what stuff you're going to get rid off."

"Everything stays."

"Ok, there is a plastic dancing pork chop that says…"

"Everything stays."

" 'I lost my head over a good chop, you should too'."

"Everything stays."

"Ok - everything stays." Rory smile was small but true, she was secretly proud that he was keeping it all. She loved it this way just as much as he did obviously.

"You know this place hasn't been painted since my dad was alive."

"No, I didn't know that." Rory was so shocked to have Luke open up to her that she didn't mention that she never even knew that his dad had dies, or even owned the place… That explained the 'William's Hardware' sign though.

"He painted it once before he opened it, and once more when the roof caved in one winter. I think that's probably it."

She looked around, "The paint lasted a long time. He got his money's worth."

"Yeah. He really loved this place, you know? The store was his life - mine too I guess. I spent every minute I wasn't in school in here. I spent a lot minutes I was supposed to be in school in here too."

"How come you opened a diner? Why didn't you keep it a hardware store?"

"I don't know. I didn't love the hardware business the way my dad did, and you know, I knew how to cook, so I just thought a diner would be more…" Luke struggled to pick the right word, finally landing on, "fun."

"That's a hard word for you to say."

He chuckled, relaxing completely, "Yeah. I just always wanted to work here. Just where dad did."

"God that's nice - the be so…I don't know - connected to your dad. That's - I would have loved that."

Luke studied her for a moment, wondering what he didn't know, and wondering why he was so desperate to know it. He looked around nervously, as if she could hear his thoughts and changed the topic. "You know, I still think there's still a spot on the wall somewhere where my dad took an order one day when he ran out of paper."

Rory's face lit up, "Really? Where?"

"I don't know," he was surprised and please to find that she cared.
Behind the counter maybe. Next to the door…on the right side."

Rory crawled along the floor, "Oh! Here it is. Three hammers, Phillips-head screw driver…" she trailed off, feeling Luke's comforting presence behind her. She looked over her shoulder at him, and watched his lips as he finished reading the order, "And three boxes of nails - in assorted sizes."

"Wow," she said, her heart pounding from his closeness.

Luke shrugged, thinking she was talking about the order, "I've seen it from time to time. Yeah, well I guess it is time for a little spruce."

Rory watched his face, "Yeah, it is… But let's not spruce this particular spot."

"That sounds good," Luke nodded, his lips so close to hers as they both leaned toward the order.

"Ok." Rory said, her mouth dry, as she spoke to fill the silence.

"So…" Luke said, not putting any room between them.

"So…" Rory whispered back, tipping her head up so she could meet his eyes, her hair cascading off her delicate features. Luke smiled and brushed some bangs on her face and hooked it behind her ear. Rory blushed cutely, and tears began to drip down Rachael's face as she stood on the stoop, one hand on the diner door; frozen in time as she watched Luke and Rory's world meld down to the two of them as their eyes locked on each other.