A/N: Storyline from Chapter 3 continued. (Thanks to Steph and Anna.)

Chapter 4 - { ... intricacy ... }

Intricacy (noun) - The condition or quality of being intricate; complexity.

It wasn't Tuscany or the Napa Valley, but rural Connecticut possessed a similar beauty that only locals, like Luke and Lorelai, could truly appreciate. Luke enjoyed driving in this area of the state because of the scenery - the endless winding roads that snaked through the small hills and over the brooks and streams. In his peripheral vision, he could see Lorelai peacefully sleeping against her half-open window, a few loose tendrils of hair dancing across her forehead in the breeze. The sunlight penetrated through the tree cover and its rays swept over and under Lorelai's arms, giving her an angelic glow. He rested his wrists on the steering wheel at the 10-and-2 positions and listened to the drone of the engine and tires rolling against the asphalt as he continued through the countryside.

An hour later, Lorelai heard the sound of tires on loose gravel. The truck was parked shortly after, and she rubbed her eyes.

"Morning sunshine. We're here."

"Where's here?" she asked between yawns.

Before she could get an answer, Luke got out of the truck and made his way over to the passenger side. He opened her door and held out his hand to help her out. She grasped it tightly and jumped. The jolt from landing woke her up, and she was glad to find herself in Luke's arms. He hugged her, politely requesting that she stay where she was while he got something from the truck bed.

"Once again, it would be really nice to know where we are," she stated, gesturing to the nearly abandoned parking lot and forest.

"Hammonasset State Park."

"Ham on what?"

"Hammonasset State Park in Madison. According to woodland Indians, it means, "where we dig holes in the ground"."

"Ookay. We're in Madison. Huh. What are we going to do here?"

"You'll see." He returned to where she was standing and tossed her a cumbersome, purple object.

"What's this?" She could feel cloth and wooden sticks of some sort through the plastic wrapping.

"Just hang on to it." Luke tucked a similar package – his was white - underneath one arm, and slung the other over Lorelai's shoulders. "Go that way." He nodded his head over at the sign that read, "Public Beach: This Way."

The beach grass tickled their toes as they headed towards the shoreline. The sea breeze tousled his hair, and she teased him for looking funny; things were good. Her eyes lit up at the sight of the ocean; it glittered underneath the summer sun with the white caps barely visible. According to the signs posted, there was a sandcastle building contest taking place at the other end of the beach, so Luke and Lorelai had approximately a one mile stretch of beach all to themselves. Halfway to the waterline, he stopped and turned to face her.

"Okay, you can open it now."

They stood together in the salty air, faces red from ripping apart the tight plastic wrapping. When all was said and done, Lorelai found herself holding a kite - specifically, a kite shaped like a purple bird. She unfolded the wings and estimated their size to be around four feet; this was one gigantic bird.

"Kites? We're going to fly kites?" Her words were filled with incredulity, much to Luke's disappointment.

"I don't know what else you can do with them."

Lorelai bit her lip. "I didn't mean that it was a bad idea. I never thought you'd want to fly a kite, that's all. It's a silly thing that couples do in romance novels, and you aren't...you don't read romance novels; at least not that I know of."

"I don't."

She waited for more, but Luke said nothing as he attempted to untangle his kite string. Frustration was apparent in the wrinkles on his forehead; this was the second time today that he was faced with a task that required a skill he didn't have. He brought the string to his mouth, hoping to undo the knot with his teeth, but Lorelai grabbed his arm.

"It'll fray if you do that," she said softly. She took the string from him, and with the help of her nails, proceeded to loosen the knot. Luke felt helpless and distracted himself by smoothing out the wrinkles in the tail of his white bird. It was then that he wished he had chosen another color; white seemed too pure for this kind of frivolous activity.

Even though she had managed to loosen the knot, the strings were still tangled and twisted in strange ways around the wooden support poles. During the course of her "fix-it" session, she turned her back to Luke. It was amazing to him how things between them could become awkward so quickly. The uncomfortable quiet feeling came over them like smoke, making it hard for either of them to breathe. When he couldn't stand it anymore, he put a hand on her shoulder apologetically.

She turned and looked at him curiously. "Hmm?"

"Your kite reminded me of something just now."

"Oh, you mean Ellie?"

"Yeah," he replied, grinning. She'd named the kite that he had given her, and somehow that was significant.

"What did it remind you of?" Lorelai was a double knot away from success with the kite.

"Well, I thought about this one time, a long time ago, when Rory was small. You guys came in and started babbling about what people wanted to be when they "grew up", and I remember that Rory said she wanted to be a purple bird that would fly all around the world. Then, that Thanksgiving, you gave me that thing, and..." he trailed off.

At this, she moved the kite off her lap and took his hand in both of hers. She squeezed it gently before looking up. "I remember."

They exchanged a look before Lorelai leapt up from the sand, thrusting a newly untangled kite into Luke's hand. "Let's go flying."

They started off at opposite ends of the beach, the large expanse of white sand between them. He shouted instructions, and Lorelai laughed and waved her arms because she couldn't hear him. She walked closer to the water and yelled to him when her feet got stuck, but Luke merely watched with a lopsided grin because he couldn't hear her either. At some point, when the two of them decided to forget communicating, they threw their kites into the air and took off running.

Luke's kite was instantly carried into the air current, the ivory wings flapping wildly in the wind, yellow beak pointed towards the clouds. Lorelai's bird took off, and then nose-dived into the sand three feet in front of her. He watched her carefully as she picked it up, dusted it off, and catapulted it back into the sky. This time, it soared, and her eyes followed its path.

The two birds fluttering simultaneously in the sky was a sight to behold. Luke held his string taut, so his bird made tight circles in the same area, black strips distinguishing it from the clouds. Lorelai, on the other hand, unraveled her entire spool of string, sending her bird traveling in loose figure eights and other organic patterns.

A strong gust of wind caused her kite to swerve left, and in order to control it, she began to run backwards, attempting to re-wind the string back around the spool all the while. The same gust pulled Luke's kite in the same direction, and he tripped over his steps as he struggled to bring it back. He squinted against the sun and was so focused on finding his bird that he didn't notice Lorelai running backwards until the last minute. He swerved and lifted his arm over her head, but she turned and tripped, causing them to land in a pile in the sand. As if mocking them, their kites lazily spiraled back towards the ground.

Luke brought his hand to the back of his head, feeling a bruise starting to form. "Ouch."

Lorelai wiped sand from her eyes and lips, but was uninjured because Luke cushioned her fall. She sprawled out on top of him and grinned while leaning on her folded arms. He placed an arm around her and did his best to ignore the developing headache. "Next time, watch where you're going," he chastised lightly. She stuck out her tongue and he sighed. "So, did you and Ellie have fun?"

"Yeah! We had the best time." She laughed quietly and said, "I could get used to fictional romance if it's anything like this."

That evening, after Luke and Lorelai had hiked through the park and eaten a dinner filled with various kinds of sandwiches, Lorelai insisted that they go back to the beach. Luke questioned her motives, but followed her.

"Why are we going back? I think I finally got all the sand out of my clothes."

"Because, if you're going to take me kite flying and then hiking through a forest, then you have to finish the package by walking hand in hand with me on a beach at sunset."

"I wasn't aware we were following a package-deal."

"It's the whole romance novel thing I mentioned earlier. We might as well pay full tribute if we're going to pay tribute at all."

"Of course," he said, pretending to understand completely. He dangled his hand close to hers, allowing the backs of their hands to brush up against each other with every step.

She looked at him for a moment before intertwining her hand with his. "Congratulations. We've officially completed the "Create your own romance novel" workshop."

"I think I want my money back," he teased.

Lorelai laughed and elbowed him before sitting down. He noted that the tide was slowly rising, and she responded, "Oh well. It looks like we'll be drowning together, then."

"Super."

"Yep."

Luke observed that Lorelai had begun to mold the sand between them into something. She pushed sand in from the left and right, forming a long island in the middle. She used her fingertips to put indentations in the edges and her nails to cut and dig out small pieces of the central shape. She was doing this silently, and that intrigued him.

"Lorelai, what are you doing?"

"Making Finland," she said, as if it was the most obvious thing.

Oh, of course. Rory. Emily had insisted that mainstream Europe was overdone and that they should tour Scandinavia instead. Rory had adhered to her grandmother's wishes, ignoring Lorelai's pained expression that said she wished she were going too. He remembered when Lorelai spilled every detail of that night to him; she was a mess. She was also quiet, just as she was now.

"Ah. Have you talked to her lately?"

Lorelai shrugged. "A few days ago. She doesn't call much. She doesn't have a reason to."

He smoothed the top of "Finland" with circular motions of his hand. "Is she doing okay? Coping?"

"She's coping. They're in Stavanger, Norway, staying at a Best Western." She tried to laugh at the image of Emily staying in anything less than a Ritz Carlton, but the lonely feeling squeezing her chest prevented that. "I miss her so much, and she's halfway across the world not even thinking of me."

He leaned across what would've been the Norwegian Sea, and kissed her lightly on the forehead. "She thinks about you all the time. She's probably thinking about you and wondering how you are right now."

"Yeah, maybe."

He started forming more piles of sand around her "Finland". He wasn't good with the intricacies of sand building, but he managed to form two more large shapes and a small island beneath those. He felt the gritty sand, remnants of shells, and dead grass pressing into his knees and working their way underneath his fingernails, but at least the sand was cool and the air less sticky than before.

Lost in her thoughts, Lorelai hadn't noticed Luke's construction efforts. She paused to tuck her long hair into her shirt - the wind was picking up as the evening settled in – and tilted her head, interest piqued. "What are you doing?"

"Well," he began as he patted the sides of the recently crafted island. "Last time I checked, Scandinavia included four countries. You only made one."

She bit her lip, and her face changed in adoration; a smile threatened to emerge and he caught a tear or two burning behind her eyes. She crawled over and gave him a sideways hug. Still kneeling, he managed to lean his cheek affectionately against the skin between her neck and shoulder. She pulled away and returned to the other side of their Scandinavian creation.

Lorelai pointed to the island. "That'll be Denmark."

He pointed to another shape. "And this, Norway."

"Last but not least, Sweden," she said, finally smiling.

He chuckled and they both continued to shape the four countries. The people attending the sand-building contest were leaving; medals and trophies were being passed around, the gold plating shimmering in the distance. Two little girls could be seen jumping up and down repeatedly on the winning sculptures, mercilessly destroying the abandoned dolphins, castles, and mermaids. Lorelai hoped that they would leave before she and Luke did; she wanted this to stay here forever. Realistically speaking, she knew it wouldn't, and that's why she made sure they took a long time chiseling out the Baltic Sea and the Gulfs of Finland and Bothnia.

Later, when the light poles along the park's gravel paths lit up, and a wide-awake Luke and Lorelai were driving back to Stars Hollow, the water slowly crept up to the edges of their sculpture. It swirled in and out of the carved fjords, bays, and seas until the tide swept all the way over the sand and retreated slowly back into the vast ocean, taking a stray purple ribbon and their Scandinavian sand-map with it.