"So Luke asked me to marry him tonight," Lorelai said conversationally, as she and Rory walked through Stars Hollow in the inky darkness. The garment bag containing their party dresses swished as they walked back home.

"Oh yeah? It's about time," her daughter answered.

"Wait, what?" Lorelai stopped suddenly, causing Rory to bump into her. "What does that mean?"

"Oh, Mom, come on. You know he has a thing for you."

"Uh, come again? It was a joke, Rory. He was joking."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure. Can you imagine? Luke would rather cut off his own arm than be joined in holy matrimony to me."

"If you say so," Rory said, giving her mother a placating look.

Lorelai's jaw dropped. She shook her head in disbelief, then continued, "Besides, didn't you say I couldn't date Luke?"

"Right, because dating implies something temporary. Marriage is different, more permanent. Less likely to lose our food and coffee source that way. You can marry Luke, I give my blessing."

Lorelai snorted, and then turned the topic to the upcoming birthday parties for the rest of the walk.


I can't sleep tonight

Everybody's saying everything is alright


Sunday morning dawned gloomy and wet, and she knew nothing would pick up her spirits like some coffee and pancakes. After trying and failing to pry Rory away from her homework - "I've been busy all weekend with parties and I haven't had a chance to get any done!" - she grabbed an umbrella and hopped into the Jeep.

It wasn't only the weather that was the cause of her mood. It was partially her mother's fault. After her insinuations about porterhouse steaks and lap dances at Rory's party the night before, it was inevitable that she'd have a sexy dream about Luke. She didn't even remember the dream exactly, but she woke up feeling slightly off balance. So that, compounded with the rain and grey skies, left her in need of carbs and caffeine.

As she neared the diner, a figure in the middle of the street caught her attention. Luke was standing in the pouring rain, soaking wet, waving his arms and pointing at Taylor, who was hovering in the doorway of Doose's Market. Normally, she'd be dying to know what Taylor had done to inspire one of Luke's rages, but she was distracted. For some reason, Luke wasn't wearing his customary flannel, and his plain white t-shirt clung to his body like some kind of Calvin Klein underwear commercial. She could see all the hard planes of his back, and when he turned to stalk back into the diner, she saw evidence of a formidable six-pack. Her pulse quickened, and she began to have a hard time breathing.

Without pausing a moment, she decided something from Weston's would hit the spot more, and stomped on the gas.


I got my mind on something else


Days later, Lorelai was flipping through the latest issue of Cosmo when her eyes landed on an article that seemed to jump out and scream at her: "I'm Having Fantasies About My Male Best Friend". Her eyes scanned the text of the article, and she began to feel slightly uncomfortable. It was all of this talk from Rory and her mother, putting these ideas in her head. Maybe she should call Max for that date after all. Her cell phone rang, and was glad to see Sookie's name on the caller ID, hoping a good vent to her friend would set her mind straight.

"I need to get laid!" she cried, tossing the magazine onto the coffee table. There was silence on the other end. "Sookie?" she repeated.

"This… isn't Sookie," a deep voice replied hesitantly.

"Luke!" she gasped. "Oh my god! Oh my god!" She flipped the phone shut, hanging up on him. She wanted to crawl into a hole and die. The phone, still clutched tightly in her hands, rang again. Taking a deep breath, she flipped the phone back open. "Hello?" she ventured meekly.

"Hi. I, uh, called to ask if you would mind going to the diner and grabbing my tool box." Despite the dirty that was begging to be said, Lorelai was too mortified to make the joke. "I'm… trying to fix Sookie's kitchen sink," he explained.

"Sure, I'll be, ah, right there. With the toolbox." She cringed.

"Thanks," he replied. He sounded normal. Why did he sound so normal? Lorelai huffed silently after they hung up. Well, if he was going to act like everything was fine, so was she, she decided, grabbing her coat and heading toward the diner.


Why does it always rain on me?


Luke was leaning over Sookie's sink with a towel in his hand when she arrived, groaning from the weight of the tool box. He took it from her, setting it on the kitchen counter and digging around until he found what he was looking for. He knelt down and crawled into the lower cabinets, without saying a word or looking directly at Lorelai.

She fidgeted a moment before daring to break the silence. "So, what I said earlier, I was just, ah, joking. Sookie and me, we do that."

"I figured," he said, his voice muffled from under the sink.

"I just didn't want you to think that, um, well, I don't know what I didn't want you to think." She ran her hands through her hair. "I just haven't dated anyone in awhile, and I was feeling a little frustrated, and… "

"Lorelai, you really don't have to -" Suddenly, a spray of water hit Luke in the face, and he sputtered, dropping the tool that he had in his hand. He wrapped his hand around the leak, trying to slow the flow of water. "Should have turned the water off first," he grumbled to himself. "Hold this together while I tighten it back up."

"Who, me?"

"Do you see anyone else here?" She rolled her eyes, but bent down to crawl under the sink beside him. She went to wrap her hands around the pipe, but when he let go, the water sprayed again, soaking them both. It took a moment before she was able to stop the gushing, but not before her t-shirt was drenched and clinging to her body. Luke deftly tightened where the pipe had loosened, and then leaned back onto his heels, grabbing the towel and wiping his face.

After Lorelai stood up, he handed her the towel. They were both soaked from the waist up. Lorelai could see the outline of Luke's chest through his shirt, just as she had the day before, and she could only imagine what sort of show he was getting. Her heart started pounding and she could feel her face flush. They stared at each other a moment. Her eyes flicked to his crotch, but he didn't appear to be having any kind of reaction.

"How are you acting so calm?" she blurted out, feeling slightly offended. Glancing down, she could clearly see the outline of her bra through her shirt, and even the slight peaks of her hardened nipples. "This is a quality wet t-shirt show here," she complained. "Am I that unattractive? No reaction, none whatsoever!"

A wry smirk spread across his face. "I guess that's the benefit of being doused by cold water."

"Oh?" she asked, slightly mollified.

He rolled his eyes. "Lorelai, I'd have to be dead to not find you attractive."

She grinned. "Yeah?"

"Yeah." He shook his head, and stood up. "I'm going to dig through Sookie's stuff to find something to wear home. It's too damn cold to walk home like this." Lorelai followed him into the master bedroom.

"So, you think I'm attractive and you want to marry me, huh?" she teased.

"Not here, Lorelai," he groaned.

"What, are you afraid you can't control yourself around me?" She was just teasing. But the look on his face when he met her eyes said it all. "Oh," was all she could say. He grabbed some clothes and went into the adjoining bathroom. Lorelai felt her heart hammering against her ribcage and blood rushing in her ears. All of a sudden, she understood why her mother had said he looked at her like he wanted a lap dance. The look she had just seen in his eyes made her feel like he wanted to ravish her.

Standing in the doorway of the bathroom, she watched him pull on an old t-shirt on over his head. She was starting to shiver from the wet shirt plastered to her body, but it hardly registered. "Luke," she said, in hardly louder than a whisper. He looked up, and noticed her trembling.

"You need to get warmed up," he said, looking concerned. He grabbed a fluffy bath towel from the shelf to his left, and wrapped it around her like a cape.

She could hardly breathe, being this close to him, after his silent admission. She reached a hand out to rest against his stubbled cheek. "Luke," she said again. She leaned forward, and made the slightest contact with his lips. When she pulled away, his eyes were closed, and he looked like he was trying very hard to maintain his composure.

"Say something," she whispered.

"I can't," he whispered back. She reached for him again, but he opened his eyes, and stepped back. "This isn't just to scratch an itch, is it? Me and you, this is more than that to me."

She stepped forward, dropping the towel to the floor. "This is everything to me," she said. "I can't get you out of my head."

She lunged toward him, crashing their lips together. He stumbled backwards from the surprise, and fell into the bathtub. Lorelai tried to gain purchase on the wall, but accidentally turned the shower on. They coughed and spluttered from the shock of water spraying them again, Luke laying on the floor of the tub with his legs hanging out, and Lorelai half-standing, half-crouched over him. The towel was in a forgotten heap on the bathroom floor, and her shirt was reaching new degrees of transparency. His eyes drank in her torso, clearly visible through the wet fabric.

Lorelai reached behind her to shut of the water and slipped against the tile, falling on top of him. They were soaking wet again and neither could gain any purchase on the slippery surfaces. "This is nuts. What if Sookie walks in?" Luke asked worriedly. "Because once we start I don't think I can stop."

"Never stop," she breathed. "God, I want this."

"Damn it to hell," he said, then went for her. He yanked her t-shirt over her head and began to run his tongue all over her wet skin, lapping up the tepid water. She moaned, reaching for the buckle of his jeans.


I get the strangest feeling

You belong


Wet clothes were removed as quickly as possible. Luke sat up, pulling his own shirt off over his head, and Lorelai stood to peel off her jeans, which were tighter than normal when drenched. Lorelai kneeled before him, completely bare, and he pulled her onto his lap. She sank onto him with a sigh, and he pushed a tangle of wet hair out of her face. They moved together with soft kisses, and cried out as they hit their peaks. As their breathing returned to normal, they held each other in silence for several moments, both trying to get their heads around this change in their relationship. Luke was the first to break the silence.

"We should get out of here before Sookie comes home," he said wryly.

With a groan, Lorelai lifted herself off of him, and looked around the bathroom until she found what she was looking for. "Ah, ha!" she cried, and grabbed two fluffy robes from a hook by the door. Luke looked at her questioningly. "We'll toss our clothes in the dryer, and wait for them to dry."

"That won't look suspicious if Sookie comes home," he muttered sarcastically.

"We'll just tell her about the sink exploding, it'll be fine."


Is it because I lied when I was seventeen?


As they stood in Sookie's tiny laundry room, wrapped in robes, Lorelai looked over at Luke. "So what were you and Taylor fighting about yesterday?"

He looked at her curiously. "How did you know about that? I didn't see you yesterday."

"Oh, uh, well, I was on my way to the diner when I saw you outside, but I changed my mind and went to Weston's instead."

"Why did you go to Weston's?"

She blushed. "I wasn't certain I could keep my hands off you."

"Why wouldn't you be able to keep your hands off me?"

"Well, you were standing in the street, soaking wet, and I could see all the goods you've been hiding." He smirked, moving closer to her. "Hey, now, no more funny business!" He snaked a hand between the opening of the robe and she gasped. "Tell me about Taylor," she demanded, trying to resist his advances.

He let his arm drop to his side. "Well, that'll kill the mood," he groused.

"Mission accomplished," she said, lifting herself to sit on top of the dryer. He stepped between her legs.

"Well, when I was 17, I wasn't the responsible business owner that I am now."

"Yeah?" she said, her eyes lighting up. He rolled his eyes.

"So, I played this prank on Taylor. You know, he was always the way he is now, taking over and with a stick up his butt. So I just wanted to take him down a few pegs."

"Right, right," she said, urging him on.

"So one night a couple of friends and I decided to break into the market and cover the floor with cheap school glue. It took a few hours. And then I went home and called him, pretending to be panicked that there was a fire at Doose's."

"Oh my god!" she crowed, bouncing up and down on her seat a little. "This is fantastic!"

He pretended to sigh wearily, but she could see the smile dancing in his eyes. "So, of course he came barrelling into the market and slipped on all the glue. And it was a huge mess and his movements got slower as the glue dried, and yeah. Anyway, I need to get this new permit that Taylor just invented expressly to piss me off and he threw this whole mess back in my face. Apparently, I need to fill out more paperwork because I have a record. For something that happened almost 20 years ago!"

"A record? Luke Danes!"

He rolled his eyes again. "It's seriously nothing. Less than nothing. I did like 50 hours of community service because, as you know, Taylor is the type to press charges. Anyway, the moral here is that I was a horrible, horrible kid and please don't tell Rory this story."

"Scout's honor," she replied with mock seriousness, holding her hand over her heart.

"You weren't a scout," he replied.

"I'll have you know that I was, for about five minutes before I got kicked out."

"Your mother let you be a girl scout?"

She shrugged. "It looks good on college applications. Besides, it was a posh chapter. No camping in dirty woods, only resorts."

"But you got kicked out?"

"Not for any pranks as deliciously bad as yours," she said, leaning forward to kiss him.

"Well, now I need to go through a bunch of unnecessary paperwork."

"Maybe I can help," she suggested. He leaned forward, wrapping his arms around her.

"Just make sure I don't kill Taylor. That is a record I don't think I can paperwork my way out of."

"You got it," she replied, laughing.