Meltdown in the Park
A Gilmore Girls fic by Gigi
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
Chapter 4: Tongue-Tied
A/N: So I've just moved into my own place, and I don't have internet yet. So I curled up with my laptop, a glass of wine…and Raincoats & Recipes. It all just came rushing back, how much Lorelai and Luke were just my favorite couple ever. So I decided to update this since I don't really have much else I can do without internet!
Sunlight streamed through the window and—quite rudely—bathed her face in its glow. Unable to ignore the heat on her face, Lorelai squeezed her eyes shut and rolled over so that her back was to the window. Her blankets were rough against her cheek, and she slowly blinked her eyes open at the sensation. Brown plaid sheets rested, rumpled in front of her, possibly the ugliest sheets she'd ever seen. Her sleepy mind tried in vain to remember why on Earth she would buy those bed sheets until a small note on the other pillow caught her attention.
Grabbing at the note with a heavy arm, she was vaguely aware that she was naked under the sheet; but no one would be in her room this early.
You were asleep when I woke up for work. I'll bring your breakfast. Don't wanna give the town a heart attack.
Luke.
And then she remembered.
That was why she was naked.
She'd begged Luke for money, and then she slept with him.
"Way to go, Lorelai," she groaned into her pillow. Not that she wasn't happy with this new development…but it was Luke. Her Luke. Her best friend Luke. Dependable, rant-prone Luke. And…he was wonderful to her.
She sagged onto her back and stared up in the ceiling. Her heart was pounding, and all she could focus on was how comfortable she was just lounging in Luke's bed. Her mind flitted back to the dream she had about him a year ago. Had that been a surprise to wake up to! But she felt the same way she did in the dream, just…light.
Footsteps floated up the stairwell, heavy and slow. Luke, making good on his promise of breakfast, most likely. Suddenly, Lorelai's heart was beating a thousand times harder than before. She didn't know yet! He couldn't come up until she knew where her head was in all this. There hadn't been any warning, after all. They just slept together and he was already bringing her breakfast in bed! Too fast, too much, too…it's Luke!
When the door swung open, Lorelai was sure she looked like a deer in headlights when she lifted her head to look at the tray-laden diner owner. He looked so normal, if significantly less grumpy than usual, that it made a flush rise to her cheeks as she recalled how the sheet had slipped down to her stomach.
His eyes honed in on her bare skin immediately, and it took every ounce of her willpower to keep from tugging that sheet up because that stare was so heated and affected her more than she would have cared to admit before last night. As terrified as she was right then, there was definitely something inside her that almost yearned to return that stare.
"Hey," he grunted, tearing his gaze away from tracing the lines of her body.
Lorelai couldn't help the small cough that bubbled out of her mouth before she got her voice to work properly. "Hi," she breathed. "We, uh, we…last night…"
"Yeah," Luke affirmed, but something lurked beneath that single syllable. Amusement? Was he really enjoying how disoriented she was? Laughing at her while he held her breakfast and coffee, now that was just very much the Luke she knew.
For some reason, that helped break the panicked state in Lorelai's mind and she could breathe again. Sitting up and finally bringing the sheet up under her armpits, she gestured toward the tray in his hands. "That coffee better be for me."
Breakfast was one of the most bizarre meals she'd experienced. Juggling coffee and a cherry danish and a sheet was no easy feat, especially with the completely flannel-and-denim-covered man hiding his laughter and trying to be respectful whenever she lost the battle with his sheets. But she made no effort to reach for her dress or her jacket or even the spare flannel shirt Luke had draped over the back of his chair.
She should have been running for hills by now. She shouldn't be willingly putting up with the awkwardness, the looks, the nakedness over breakfast. It certainly shouldn't feel so natural to blush when his calloused fingers brushed against any of her exposed skin.
And she absolutely shouldn't have succumbed to Round Two.
xoxoxo
Lorelai ducked into the Dragonfly, hoping Michel wouldn't snark about her tardiness. The front desk was blessedly empty, however, so she quickly deposited her purse behind it and made her way to the kitchen. "Sookie!"
"Back here!" A chubby, bandaged hand waved over the shelves near the stove. Lorelai leaned over and peered around the island counter to see Sookie seated on the kitchen floor surrounded by pots and pans.
"Uh, what's going on back here?"
A beaming Sookie shrugged and pointed to the piles. "I've finally nailed down my system from the Independence Inn again," she explained, about to continue until she caught a look at her best friend's face. "But never mind that. What's going on with you?"
Somehow Lorelai found herself sitting right beside Sookie on the kitchen floor in the back of the Dragonfly, dishing out everything about Luke. "…And then it happened again this morning," Lorelai admitted, still unsure if she was embarrassed or thrilled.
Sookie waited all of two seconds of shocked silence before breaking out into an ecstatic squeal. If she wasn't sitting down, she'd have been jumping up and down. As it was, her face went pink with excitement. "You and Luke!" Glee lit up her eyes. "I am so happy for you, and for Luke! It's about time he got out of that dead-end marriage, and you and he finally—Lorelai, I'm so happy for you!"
As Lorelai let herself be pulled into a bone-crushing hug, her stomach dropped and she suddenly felt like throwing up.
Nicole.
How could she have forgotten Nicole?
A/N: Hi, hopefully I won't take as long next time. But I am so excited to be back writing them, because the original fic was so not in character and I'm happy for the chance to fix that. I hope you still enjoyed this, so please review!