Not Dreaming
A/N: Sorry it's been so long since this was updated. It just took a while to start writing it and well, I got stuck halfway or so…
Hugs for everyone who has read and reviewed this story so far. Love you guys!
And thanks to Knowhere for your input and thoughts on this. *huggles*
Chapter 13. Pretty Nice
They had been reading just moments earlier. Or rather, he had been reading and she had listened intently to every well known word. But the sun had gone down a while ago and it was now too dark in the apartment to read. And neither of them had wanted to get up to turn on the lights, being too comfortable right where they were.
When he stopped reading the silence felt eerie, almost like they were all alone in the small town. The only sound that could be heard was a car slowly turning the corner to go around the town square. The faint glow of the street lights was the only thing illuminating the apartment, just enough that they could make out the closest details.
The book now lay discarded on the floor beneath the couch and the hand that had been holding it for the past hour and a half was now deeply tangled in long brown waves. The mouth that was no longer reading the words of Charles Dickens was now instead occupied with exploring the soft skin behind her ear.
The exploring elicited the first sound from her mouth in over an hour. It was a soft moan, followed closely by his name, murmured just loud enough for him to catch.
His lips curled in a small smile at the sound and he slowly made his way over to her mouth. She let out another moan, louder this time, and he smiled broader, capturing her mouth with his lips.
They stayed like that, softly kissing, for a couple minutes before she pulled back and rested her forehead against his. "Thank you for today," she said softly, with a smile playing at her lips and lighting up her eyes. "It was perfect."
"I didn't even remember half the things I should have. I didn't even pick you up. It was hardly perfect," he said a little defensively, though he wasn't exactly sure why he was protesting.
"Oh, shut up!" she exclaimed and swung her hand at his arm, for the first time actually hitting her target. "It was perfect!" She now wore a triumphant smile at her own success and giggled when he smirked at her.
He gave in and bit down his protests. She was happy, why protest something like that? "If you say so," he said and smiled at her, giving her a soft kiss before relaxing again and sinking down even further in the couch.
"Besides, you were really cute, being all nervous," she said teasingly, trying hard not to laugh again. When he didn't say anything she continued. "I don't think I've ever seen you that nervous before. For a moment I almost though you were thinking of proposing…" She drifted off when she felt him tense under her and quickly turned her head to look at him, an inquiring look in her eyes.
"Huh?" he mumbled, not sure how to respond to that. Her words had stunned him to say the least and he still vividly remembered the minutes just before she had arrived.
He had sworn, loudly, to himself as he watched his hands tremble ever so slightly, failing to light the match. For a brief moment he had regretted that he actually stopped smoking, but he quickly dismissed that thought. Taking a deep breath he had forced his hands to be steady and struck a light, using it to light the candles.
Task completed he had stood for a while, taking in the scene. The table, set for two, that was now lit with candles and decorated with a vase of flowers. Roses to be exact. Red. With a sigh he had suppressed all the protests to what he was doing that his head made up and listened to the music in the background. He had changed the music a couple of minutes ago from At the Drive In to something at least a bit more appropriate.
He might not have been the most experienced when it came to this romantic stuff, in fact he barely knew what he was doing. But he had an idea that there should be music, probably some cheesy love songs, and he was pretty sure that his normal music did not qualify in that category. Instead he had turned his bag inside out, searching for something that would.
As Human Behaviour changed to Crying he had decided that it probably wasn't perfect, but it would have to do. What was ever perfect anyway? And he thought that the memories associated with it might help get the right mood.
Throwing the match away he had given his hands a last disgusted look before shaking his head. "It's just dinner for Gods sake," he exclaimed. "It's not like I'm gonna propose or anything…" As his words entered his mind he had frozen, a thought he never would have anticipated forming.
It had been a pretty simple thought, but definitely a scary one. The idea of actually asking that faithful question for the first time in his life hadn't seemed all that impossible. Or that silly. It had actually sounded pretty nice.
He had stood dumbfounded in the middle of the kitchen for what seemed like an eternity after that, not sure what to think anymore. It had been the distinct sound of heals clicking in the hallway outside that finally shook him out of his thoughts. And as he came out of his daydreams he could have smacked his head in a wall for not thinking more. He definitely should have picked her up.
He had hurried over to the door and opened it just in time to see her raise her hand to knock. She had looked beautiful. That had been his first thought when he saw her. And his only thought for a few seconds. For those seconds the rest of the world had ceased to exist and there were only them.
He had seen her cheeks turn ever so slightly pink and watched as she shifted her feet a little, making the fabric of her light blue dress flow gently around her. He had let his eyes travel the length of her body and swallowed, hard, when he reached her left hand. As if he wasn't nervous enough to begin with the involuntary thought that had formed for the second time in an all too short amount of time only made it worse.
It had been the feeling of skin against his palm that made him realize he had taken a step forward and grasped her hand in his. And the feel of warm breath against his lips that had told him he was kissing her.
It was her movement next to him that shook him out of the memory and he focused his eyes on her again. He swallowed hard and met her eyes. Her eyes that still held a question in them. He laughed a little uncertainly. "No, I…that was not part of the plans," he mumbled, trying to decide if he should tell her or not.
"Ok," she said, more than a little confused by his reaction. She hadn't actually meant anything by her remark, but judging by the look on his face and the fact that he once again seemed nervous she realized that it had meant something to him.
"I never actually thought about it at all," he said after a moment. "I mean, I don't really have that good memories…"
"Hey, I didn't mean anything like that," she hurriedly said, not wanting him to think she did. "I just thought it was so cute that you were so nervous, 'cause you never really are, and it was fun and then I just though about all the times I've read in some book or something about the guy being all nervous with the fancy dinner and candles and all that and I just couldn't stop it…" She stopped, completely out of breath and saw the grin on his face. She pouted a little, trying to look offended, but had to smile back.
He continued to grin and pulled her closer. "I love it when you ramble. And I know you didn't mean it like that. It's just that… Tonight, before you got here, this thought just hit me and I realized that maybe I'm not that against it after all and it kinda shook me up."
She looked at him for a couple seconds, stunned to say the least. "You would want to get married?" she asked eventually.
"I don't know…maybe…sometime in the future…" He was starting to feel a little embarrassed and was glad that it was dark in the apartment. He was also starting to question the sanity of telling her all of this.
By this time she had recovered from the shock and was starting to see the hidden potentials. She smiled innocently at him and flung her arms around his neck, climbing into his lap at the same time. "I can't wait to tell mom about this," she practically squealed, smiling brightly as a look of horror spread over his face.
"I knew I shouldn't have told you any of this," he groaned out, closed his eyes and let his head fall back against the couch. "You are an awful person, Rory Gilmore." He raised his head again and glared at his girlfriend who was sitting in his lap, practically glowing. "An awful, awful person."
"And still you love me!" She quickly leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek, her grin never leaving her face.
"I'm not so sure of that anymore…" he said warily, a thoughtful look on his face.
"Hey!" she exclaimed indignantly. She gaped at him, playing offended, and raised her hand to hit him in the chest. This time however she wasn't as successful as last time. Instead he grabbed her hand and she suddenly found herself pinned down under him on the couch. She had no idea how she had ended up there.
He stared down at her for a second before slowly lowering his head and capturing her mouth with his in a slow, but passionate kiss. He leaned his weight on his arms, hovering over her and could feel her arms snake around his waist moments later, trying to pull him down on her. He heard her moan against his lips and smiled into the kiss.
She felt him smile and sighed contently, moving one of her hands to the back of his head, burrowing it in his hair, pulling his mouth closer to hers. She couldn't believe how perfect this night had turned out.
He had called her that morning from his cell phone, sounding hurried, and had asked her to meet him that afternoon in Luke's apartment, dressed in something nice. The conversation had only lasted for a couple minutes before he had excused himself and hung up. She had been certain she heard traffic in the background and wondered if he was driving when he called. She knew how much he hated talking on the phone when he was driving.
She had been confused for a while since she had no memory of him saying he was coming up over the weekend. Soon that had turned into excitement when she remembered the date. It was their anniversary. At least the anniversary of the day they had kissed outside her dorm. She wasn't exactly sure if it was their actual anniversary since they hadn't officially said anything about being together that day. But she had felt giddy at the thought that maybe he did, and maybe he had something planned.
She had been swamped with work for the last couple of days, both from the newspaper and for the final week of summer classes, and had almost forgotten all about it. And she had soon realized that she hadn't packed anything she could wear when she went home the day before. She had almost jumped off the bed and run up to the wardrobe, searching for something she could possibly wear. All she had found was jeans and some shirts.
The sound of her mom walking down the stairs shortly after had made her hurriedly bound out of her room, almost running right into her in the narrow passage from the kitchen to the living room. "I have nothing to wear!" she exclaimed, startling Lorelai, who had at the moment just woken up and was in great need of coffee.
Before Lorelai had had any chance to ask her what was the matter, or even catch her breath, she had launched herself into a long rant. It had taken her some time to realize that she wasn't making any sense at all, judging by the look on her mom's face.
After some coffee and a real explanation Lorelai's solution had been to go out shopping. They had spent most of that day in Hartford looking through almost every clothing store they could find. Eventually she had found the perfect dress and been able to relax for the first time that day.
When she had finally started her walk over to the diner she hadn't completely been able to subdue the butterflies in her stomach. She hadn't even been sure why she was nervous, or if it was even nervousness. And she had no idea what to expect. She had been pleasantly surprised by what she found in the apartment.
And now she found herself almost unable to think. He had finally given in and was no longer holding himself up over her. Instead she felt him press into her while one of his hands was traveling up her thigh. The other was busy with the hair at her neck and his mouth was leaving a trail of kisses along her jaw. She felt chills running through her whole body and heard herself breathe out his name.
She could hear his elevated breathing in her ear and felt his heartbeat against her chest and let her hands travel down his back. Slowly she pulled at his shirt, tugging it up over his back, letting her fingers trail over his skin on the way. She could feel him shiver under her touch and sighed contently.
He took a somewhat shaky breath when her hands successfully pulled his shirt over his head and looked down at her for a second, taking in the sight. Even in the dark of the apartment he saw her rather flushed appearance, the content look on her face and the light in her eyes.
"You're beautiful," he murmured before leaning down, once again claiming her mouth, marveling at the sensation of feeling her body against his again after over a month. Thirty nine days to be exact. It felt like so much longer. Too long. But that would change in a week. He smiled against her lips at the memory of their conversation from only a couple hours earlier.
They had just finished eating and moved to the couch, both laughing after Rory told him the story about Kirk's latest job idea. He had been sitting at one end of the couch with her beside him, her legs thrown over his and her arms slung over his shoulders. It had taken her some time to stop laughing, but eventually she had calmed down and moved completely onto his lap, sitting more comfortably.
"I wanted to talk to you about something," he said when she had settled herself on him. It was as good a start as any he figured.
"Ok, talk away," she said, still giggling a little.
"Well, your summer classes end on Friday, right?" he started and waited for her confirmation before continuing.
She had nodded a little and turned her head fully to him, a curious and expectant look on her face. "Yeah, they do," she clarified when he didn't continue right away. "Why?"
"Well, I thought that maybe you'd want to come to Philly for a while until you start up school again. I have to finish some things the upcoming weeks and I though that you could come and keep me company."
"I'd love to!" she exclaimed and kissed him on the cheek, smiling brightly.
"I know you have the work at the paper," he said, smiling back at her. "It would just be for a while, but then when I have fewer things to do that I need to be at the office for I thought I could come up here for a while. Maybe stay here for a week or so at times."
He had hardly finished his sentence before she had more or less launched herself at him, as much launching as her already close proximity admitted anyway. He had had to laugh at her enthusiasm, especially since it wasn't entirely coordinated.
"I take that as a positive response," he said, still laughing. "And I do believe someone's had a little too much to drink tonight."
"Hey! Don't blame that on me! You're the one who brought the wine. I only did my duty as the guest and drank it!" She had nodded her head vigorously, almost hitting it against his forehead before he had taken it in both of his hands to hold her still.
"That's your defense, huh?" he asked, smiling at her and kissed her lightly. "Maybe we should do something quiet for a while to let you sober up."
"I am not drunk! I'm just excited!" she defended herself. She hadn't quite been able to stop herself from giggling.
"Whatever you say," he said, shaking his head at her. "I still say we do something to calm you down a bit. And talk more about this tomorrow."
"Fine," she said, giving in. She had gotten a great idea. "Read to me," she said, turning her head to look at him, pulling away a little to make sure he could see her properly. Then she had proceeded to pout, sticking her bottom lip out, making it quiver ever so slightly and given him the patented Gilmore puppy dog eyes, trying to look as adorable as possible.
"Don't you think you're overdoing that just a little bit right now?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at her questioningly. She had just continued to pout and he had looked at her, trying to decide if he should give in that easily. "What do you want me to read?" he asked after a second when he couldn't bare looking at her very much exaggerated pouting much longer without laughing.
That was about two hours ago and she had indeed clamed down. Until now that is. She was definitely not calm at the moment he decided when he felt her reach for his belt, trying to undo it without him moving from his position over her.
Eventually she got it open and pulled it out of the loops holding it. A few seconds later it joined his shirt and the book on the floor and her hands returned to their exploration of his back. She gasped and dug her finger nails into his back when his traveling mouth found its way to her neck and sucked lightly on her pulse point.
He let one of his arms snake around her waist, using it to hold her even closer as he slowly sat them up. Next thing she knew she was standing beside the couch, his hands on her waist holding her to him, while his mouth once again descended on hers. She willingly followed him over to the bed, stumbling a little over a chair leg when they passed the kitchen area.
She glanced at the table when she with his help regained her footing. She could still smell the wonderful food she had eaten only hours before. It was mixed with the lingering scent of the long since burned down candles and the still perfect roses.
They passed the table and his mouth moved to her neck, finding an especially sensitive spot and she closed her eyes again. She felt her legs hit the edge of the bed and stopped walking, letting her hands tangle in his hair, moaning as his mouth found another spot, right behind her ear.
He let his hands travel down her body, to the hem of her dress and slowly back up again, taking the dress with them. His mouth returned to hers for a second before he pushed the dress over her head, letting it fall to the floor. He reclaimed her mouth once again and encircled her in his arms before lowering them both down on the bed.
It was hours later, almost dawn, and they lay snuggled together on the bed, talking softly about nothing and fighting sleep. Neither of them wanted the night to end. He was gently stroking his hand up and down her arm that lay over his chest, once in a while stopping to finger a little at a lock of hair. In the meantime she was resting her head in the crook of his neck, slowly placing soft kisses along his collar bone.
She suddenly stopped her exploration of his skin and propped herself up on her elbow to look down on him. "Were you really serious about coming up here more often?" she asked a little uncertainly, searching for his eyes in the dim light.
"Decided it's tomorrow, huh?" he said, smirking up at her. "And yes, I was serious. I'm not sure how much I could come up, but at least a lot more than before. Mostly I'm just editing anyway, so as long as I've got a pen I'm good."
"I like the sound of that," she said, smiling down at him. "Where exactly is 'here'?" she asked a second later. "I mean, where are you gonna live?"
"Here maybe," he said, gesturing to the apartment around them. "I can't afford two places at once and well, you've got roommates and there are probably rules against me living at campus. Besides, Luke doesn't really use it anyway, so he said I could stay here as much as I wanted to." He noticed her looking at him with an unreadable expression. "And why are you looking at me like that?"
"I was just thinking…" she began, focusing her eyes on his again. "While I really would like to see you live in this town again, especially Taylor's reaction, I really, really want you nearer to me. And I could talk to my roommates, see if they'd agree to you living there and not telling. It's not like one of them is really there anyway as it is, so…"
"Okay…" he said, smiling up at her and pulled her head down for a kiss. "You ask if you want. I'm not gonna complain." He kissed her again, tangling his fingers in her hair, pulling her closer still.
By now the sun was up over the horizon, judging by the light washing in through the window, and they could hear noises from below, suggesting that Luke was opening up the diner. As if on cue her stomach started to growl, loudly, and she broke away from the kiss, smiling sheepishly at him.
"You want food, huh?" he asked, smirking knowingly at her. "We could probably go down and get something…" He didn't have time to finish before she was halfway out of the bed, a second later already on her way to the door. He watched her walking a few steps, surveying her body, before clearing his throat to get her attention.
She spun around, looking at him questioningly. "What?" she asked, pouting a little and glancing at the door.
"Well…" he began, his smirk widening as she turned around. "Although I definitely don't complain over my current view, I'm not sure Luke would appreciate it as much as I do…" He let the sentence drop and gestured with his hand to her less than dressed appearance.
She blushed furiously when she realized what he was talking about and quickly ran over to the bed, snagging the covers away from him to cover herself up. She didn't quite succeed though and it all ended in her falling over the bed as he pulled back. Still blushing she hid her face in a fold of the covers.
"You know, it's not like I haven't seen all of you before," he teased her, holding back a laugh as he watched her trying to hide and fail entirely. "I do however think that you should work on that one track mind thing you have when it comes to food. I don't particularly want to share this view with anyone else." He easily avoided her hand that came flailing at him.
It took a while before she, still red, emerged form under the covers. And it took a few more minutes before she could meet his eyes without blushing again. It didn't help that he kept smirking at her, unable to keep his amusement out of his eyes.
All in all it took almost fifteen minutes before she managed to, covers securely wrapped around her, make her way through the apartment to the bathroom for a shower.
When she emerged, towel wrapped around her hair and clad in one of his T-shirts together with a pair of his jeans he was in the kitchen, clearing up after the night before. The only things left on the table were the vase with roses and the now empty candlesticks.
Then she noticed a packet wrapped in blue paper beside the vase. She looked at it curiously before looking over at him for an answer. He was still standing with his back to her, rinsing the plates and seemed to not have noticed her come out of the bathroom.
Smiling to herself she sat down at the table, inspecting the packet, steeling glances at him to see if he had noticed her. When he didn't turn around she picked it up and turned it over. It was completely blank, no text on it what so ever. Smiling to herself she decided it was for her and carefully began to tear the paper off.
He smiled when he heard the distinguished sound of paper ripping and stole a glance over his shoulder to look at her. She was staring intently at the packet in her hands, seemingly doing everything she could to avoid destroying the paper. Smirking at the sight he turned around fully, leaning against the counter and watched her continue her task with slightly furrowed brows.
She eventually got the paper off and revealed a very familiar looking notebook. She frowned, her eyes immediately darting up to him, finding him looking back at her with an unreadable expression on his face. "What's this?" she asked confused, motioning in his direction with the hand holding the notebook.
"Open it," he said, nodding a little. He kept his eyes locked on hers, moving his feet a little as if to move away from the counter, but ultimately stayed where he was.
She broke eye contact, once again focusing on the notebook and opened it slowly, not sure what to expect. What first caught her eyes was the inscription on the first page, written in her own handwriting. She had written those words only just over a month and a half ago, not expecting to see them this soon, if ever again.
"You wrote it already?" she asked, astonished to say the least. She couldn't, not that she tried, hide her excitement and smiled brightly at him.
"Well, not exactly…" he said, trying to suppress the light blush rising on his cheeks from her apparent enthusiasm. "I sorted out all the bits and pieces I had written and put them in the right order. I still need to do a lot of editing and cutting and probably rewrite a whole lot of it. But I thought you might want to see it."
"Of course I do!" she squealed, practically jumping up from the chair she was sitting in and flinging her arms around his neck. "Thank you so much!" she exclaimed before kissing him.
"Don't expect any miracles," he said when they broke apart minutes later, resting his forehead against hers. "I told you it still needs a lot of work, and it might not ever get finished."
"Of course it will!" she said firmly, giving him one last kiss before pulling out of his hold and plopping down on the chair again, opening the notebook and starting to read. She hadn't gotten more than a few sentences before the distinct smell of coffee drifted in through the apartment door from the diner below, reminding her that she was hungry.
She thought for half a second, weighing her desire to read his writing against her need for food and coffee. Smiling up at him she closed the notebook and stood up, hurriedly making her way over to the door, notebook in a secure grip in her hand. She remembered the towel around her hair just in time to drape it over the chair.
"Hey!" he almost yelled after her when he saw her leaving, not at all comfortable with the fact that she was going down in the diner with his notebook. The diner that was always full of all too nosy people. "Don't…"
"I won't," she promised, turning back and giving him a kiss on the cheek, before leaving the apartment in search of some nourishment.
He stared after her for a moment, trying not to worry. It wasn't that he didn't trust her, he just knew the people in this crazy town. With a sigh and a last glance at the door he went to take a shower too.
When he came down the stairs ten minutes later, hair still damp, he found her sitting talking to Lane at a corner table. He instinctively searched for the notebook, letting out a small breath when he found it lying securely closed on the table, her hand placed firmly on top of it. And a quick glance around the room revealed that there were only a couple people there, and none of them seemed to look twice at him.
He made his way over to his girlfriend, giving her a quick kiss as he sat down beside her. He smiled out a greeting for Lane once he was sat and was a little surprised at the smile she gave him in return. They had never really gotten along when he lived here, and after he left he had been sure she'd hate him forever. But she seemed almost happy to see him, and he wasn't one to question her reasoning. He was just happy he seemed to have one less enemy in town.
They sat there, the three of them, talking about normal stuff like school, work, the band, for a couple minutes, until Luke called for Lane to get back to work. And then it was just a normal Sunday morning in Stars Hollow.
Kirk came bounding in the diner, asking for coffee and changing his order at least five times. Miss Patty and Babette showed up, immediately walking over to them, asking a lot of more or less impertinent questions. And eventually Lorelai came stumbling in through the door, claiming to be about to die from coffee withdrawal. She miraculously recovered when she spotted her daughter though and came over.
In the following hour he many times felt like he was on display while his girlfriend who had a firm grip on his hand talked to her mother about everything they could think of, including almost everything from the past day. There were more than one time he wished for a hole to open up under him and swallow him whole. And through all of it Luke went around the diner with a smirk on his face and an amused spark in his eyes.
But he stayed, figuring he'd be able to make Rory compensate him for his sufferings later. He had decided he could live with Lorelai teasing him and he could always get back at her later. Sometimes it was a good thing that Luke started rambling when he was nervous. It produced a lot of payback material for situations like these.
He had just gotten through the door to his own apartment that night when his phone rang and he smirked to himself when he recognized the excited voice on the other end. He almost didn't catch her rambling, but eventually he realized that her excitement emanated from the fact that her roommates had agreed to him staying with her. As long as they didn't know what was going on or heard any mysterious sounds at night.
When he went to bed that night he made a mental note to check train schedules to New Haven. If he was going to be spending more time with Rory he would probably need the time traveling to do some work. And he didn't think driving and reading was a good combination. Closing his eyes he fell asleep almost immediately, more tired after the sleepless night than he had realized.