Disclaimer: Amy Sherman-Palladino owns everything except the plot.

A/N 1: First off, I could not be happier that you guys are enjoying the story and reading and reviewing it! I was a bit nervous about this whole thing, it being my first GG fic (Before I'd only written HP) and I didn't want to total the L/L relationship, and the fact that you guys like the fic is so encouraging! A thousand hundred million thank you's to everybody! Damnmydooah, thanks for the tip about Luke's eyes, for some reason I didn't even catch that. :) Rectorgirl, I totally know what you mean about focusing on the L/L scenes; that's all I want to hear about too! :)

Sing One You Know

Chapter Three

Rory stepped inside the inn carrying three bulky plastic bags and narrowly avoiding a muttering Michel as he swept outside, casting her a dirty glance as he left. Rory managed to make it to the front desk, where her mother stood lost in thought with a large datebook open in front of her, and collapse the bags atop the datebook. Lorelai jumped three feet in the air when the bags came crashing down and Rory couldn't help laughing in spite of herself.

"Jumpy, are we?"

Lorelai put a hand to her chest and calmed down. "Only when we are startled out of our wits by our daughter throwing large bags of God knows what on top of our list of dates for an inn that we own that is a week away from opening so we can continue to feed our family!"

Rory looked at her mother carefully. "Are you okay, mom? Because, they're just videos. In the bags. They won't bite, I promise." She picked a video out of the bag and showed it to Lorelai as one might do when explaining to a three year-old that the swings won't thrash out and kill you on their own.

"Thank you, my dear daughter, for mocking the woman who birthed you in her old age." Lorelai stood for a moment, then shook her head and laughed. "Nah, I can't. Me, old!" Rory rolled her eyes.

"So, what were you thinking about so hard when I interrupted you by placing videos on the desk?"

"You didn't place them, Rory darling, you cascaded them. And I wasn't thinking about anything. Just dozing off. Michel isn't here to keep me awake with his whining." She smiled at Rory and started to open the bags, now sure that they weren't going to attack her. "So, whatcha get?"

"Don't change the topic. What were you..." a look of recognition suddenly dawned on Rory's face. "Hang on. Are you..." she leaned in closer and couldn't help the grin forming on her face. "Are you still dating Luke?"

Lorelai dropped the video she'd picked up in the bag. "What? No – I mean – I don't know. I – I don't know." She sighed. "I'm not sure."

"Hence the twelve 'I don't knows'."

"No wonder you go to Yale."

Rory opened her mouth to reply, but just as she did Michel came hurrying through the front door in a very bored manner, as he always did everything, a fact that Rory found slightly fascinating. Lorelai looked up and said. "Michel! Where have you been?"

Michel looked peeved. "I was wrestling with those horrific beasts you keep in the padlock. They were threatening me."

"Aww, did they blink their little brown eyes and flare their nostrils at you?" Lorelai sympathized.

"Or even swish their soft tails at you?" Rory worried.

Michel didn't even acknowledge their replies. "They were mocking me. I was trying to reason with one of them to go inside the padlock and the other was just standing there mocking me."

"Maybe they were just kidding around," Rory said.

"Yeah, you know horses, Michel, world-class practical jokers. You go in to sweep the hay, they dump a bucket of water on your head. What can you do?" Lorelai rested her chin on her hand at this existential question.

Michel glared at her. "I know when I am being mocked. They were watching me with their evil, beady eyes and their stupid sleek coats and they were laughing at my attempts as an inferior human to reason with them on the same level –"

"I'm sorry, did Michel just admit he's inferior?" Lorelai looked at Rory, then back at Michel. "Did everyone hear that? Because, I'm writing it on the calendar." Rory knew she was serious as Lorelai hunched over the datebook.

"If you do that I will release those smelly creatures in the inn and let you feel jeering gaze for awhile," Michel said calmly.

"Michel! You wouldn't!"

"You have no idea," Michel said dryly. He turned his back very deliberately as he stalked into the dining room.

Lorelai grinned as she watched him, then turned her attention back to Rory. "Well, I'd better get back to work before Michel turns the Clydesdales loose. I'll see tonight, okay, babe?" Rory picked up the video bags.

"But I didn't even get to show you what I got."

"Surprise me."

Rory grinned. "Whatever you say. And hey!" she called as she backed out of the inn.

"What?"

"Don't think you're getting off the hook about you-know-who so easy!" And with that, she was gone.

Lorelai sighed. Lying to Rory wasn't quite like lying to anyone else in the world, and she knew she'd have to find someway to tell her what was going on sooner or later. Preferably later, but she knew Rory wouldn't let her get far. Lorelai tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and stared at the datebook. She and Luke had agreed not to tell anyone, and that was what Lorelai was comfortable with. She was starting to remember, however, that Rory wasn't just anyone.

Around six that evening, Lorelai came bounding into the diner wearing a black tank top and what looked very much to Luke like pajama pants. He stared at her as she jumped on a stool at the counter, nearly jabbing Taylor with her elbow as he paid. She ignored the dirty look he gave her and instead focused her attention on Luke, who found himself having to count Taylor's change three times when she turned those bright blue eyes the size of saucers on him.

"Hey Luke."

"What are you wearing?"

Her mouth fell open in mock surprise. "Why Luke, it's the latest in bedtime fashions. Haven't you seen Taylor showing off his plaid long johns around town?"

"Please don't ever say that again."

"My long johns are not plaid," Taylor said, annoyed. "They're striped. Really, Lorelai, you –"

"That's enough information, Taylor." Luke waited for the register to print Taylor's receipt.

Lorelai bounced on her stool. "Guess what."

"You'll probably tell me anyway." He glanced at her with a patented look feigning annoyance.

"No, you have to guess!"

"Just tell me."

"Aw, Luke, you're no fun." She swung her legs beneath the counter. "Rory and I are having a movie night, and you're invited."

"I'm honored." He managed to give Taylor his change and receipt, and Taylor finally left after tossing Lorelai another dirty look for almost kicking him under the counter.

Lorelai grinned. "I thought you might be. So, you'll come then?"

Luke opened his mouth to reply, but before he could Lorelai leaned in a little closer and said softly, "I know it's not what we had in mind when we made movie plans, but Rory's just here this weekend and I wanted us to do something traditional." She was so close; Luke couldn't help but remember kissing her over the counter like this just yesterday. Before history could repeat itself, however, Lorelai leaned back and grinned at him, and Luke felt his annoyance, even if it was just a put-on, melting away at the sparkle in her eye when she smiled at him like that.

Lorelai seemed to know his guard had been dropped, and her grin widened. "See you at eight!" she chirped, exiting the diner.

Luke sighed and started wiping the counter. How did she do that?

"Tissue, please."

Lorelai sniffed as Rory handed her the tissue box, still munching on popcorn. Lorelai yanked a hand full out and handed the box back to Rory, who did the same.

"I can't believe this," Lorelai said, wiping her eyes. "It's really unfair. You're not supposed to cry during Adam Sandler movies. It's a rule."

Rory looked over from where she sat on the other side of the couch, dabbing her eyes with a tissue. "It is?"

"It has to be." Lorelai sighed. "We're both in big trouble, kid. The Stars Hollow police are going to come and take us away in the big trucks with the little padded walls and chain us up in some musty jail cell and make us watch Happy Gilmore all day with some guy named Butch with a tattoo of a heart with 'Mom' inside it on his left bicep."

The doorbell rang just as Lorelai finished her lengthy prediction, and she burst into fresh tears. "That's them! They're here to take us away! Save yourself, Rory! I'll be okay!"

Rory got up and patted her shoulder as she passed, heading to the front hallway. When she opened it, she found Luke standing with his hands in his pockets on her doorstep.

"Luke! Come on in!" Rory stepped back and Luke came inside, looking slightly more comfortable. He heard a wail erupt from the living room and he turned to stare at Rory. "Did you get a pet dragon since I've least been here?"

Rory smiled and took his coat. "No, that's just mom. We were watching 50 First Dates.."

Luke still had no idea what this had to do with the sound he'd just heard Lorelai, if it really was her and not an angry, starving dragon, make, but he followed Rory into the living room as Rory plopped onto the couch in her original spot, leaving Luke to sit between the two Gilmore girls. On the television, some blonde girl on a boat was hugging a kid she held in her arms while Adam Sandler stood by them. Luke stole a glance at Lorelai and was shocked to find her eyes rimmed red and a pile of tissues in her lap. She looked away from the screen for a moment and met his eyes, then turned back, but did a double take and noticed the look he was giving her.

"What?" she sniffed. "He did all that just so he could be with her, even though every day she had to remember who she was and everything that had happened the past year and make her fall in love with him again. And he loved her so much he took her whole family on a boat to Alaska." She turned back to the screen, and Luke found himself invariably impressed that someone could be so heartbroken when Adam Sandler was onscreen. Luke sighed and was happy to see the credits rolling within minutes.

Lorelai pushed the blanket she'd been using off of her and gathered up the mountain of tissues to throw them away, then returned for the half-empty popcorn bowl. "Time for a refill," she announced as she went into the kitchen. Rory settled herself in front of the TV and began pawing through an extremely large bag of videos on the floor.

Luke looked at Rory occupied on the floor, and stood up to follow Lorelai into the kitchen, where he found her stabbing at buttons on the microwave. "Whoa, whoa. What are you doing?"

"Making popcorn," Lorelai replied, as though it was the normal way to make microwave popcorn, punching desperately at the buttons. Luke grabbed her hand in mid-air, and she looked up in surprise. Her hands were warm and fit beneath his like a puzzle piece, even though he'd simply taken hold of it mid-stab. Her mouth fell open a little, and before Luke had any idea what he was doing, he put his other hand behind her neck and kissed her with more force than he'd meant to. She tensed up against his mouth, leaning half against the counter and half into him, but she relaxed carefully and let her mouth brush over his. Luke kneaded his fingers against her neck muscles without even realizing it, and she moaned softly. He felt he'd go crazy if they weren't closer, and he let go of her hand and pulled her to him around her waist, and she needed no convincing. Luke could feel her breathing against him, could feel her heart pounding a million miles a second as they kissed, and his hand brushed the skin of her stomach below her tank top where her pajama pants didn't quite reach, and this time she didn't tense instantly, but rather, she slid her hands up his chest and onto his shoulders, and he felt himself shudder at her touch.

They broke apart slowly, but Lorelai stayed in Luke's arms. Both were breathing hard and Lorelai's face was flushed, and he noticed her cheeks were shining in the dim oven light with tears from the movie. He smiled and brushed them away gently with his fingertips, meeting her eyes, and loving everything he saw reflected inside them: the spark she'd always had, the fear of what was happening between them, the excitement at the same thing. He hoped she could see the same in his own eyes, and one glance at the expression on her face told him she could. His hand on her waist was rubbing her skin absentmindedly, and she shivered when he rubbed beneath the hem of her tank top.

"That's not how you make popcorn, you know," he said softly, brushing a lock of hair that had fallen in her face out of her eyes. She smiled.

"Exactly how do you make popcorn, then, mister know-it-all? Cause, on the box it said microwave popcorn, so naturally, I assumed it meant you put in the microwave, but, you know, that's just me being –"

Luke leaned forward and cut her off with a kiss, less rough then before but not lacking in passion at all. She made an "Mmmm..." sound against his lips as both hands were at her waist now, kneading the bare skin of her hips. When they pulled away, she grinned at him.

"Was that just to shut me up?"

"Partly," Luke admitted.

"Are you going to do that every time I talk too much?"

"Probably," he admitted again.

Her grin widened. "You do realize that's only incentive for me to talk even more."

He returned her smile. "It's a double-sided coin, yes."

She grinned and kissed him again, slipping out of his arms before things got heated again. She bounced to the kitchen table, sat down and crossed her legs, her eyes wide as she looked at him.

"Go on, then. Make some popcorn!"

And he did, taking out a pan from one of the lower cabinets ("Lorelai, this thing has what might possibly be an entire dust bunny farm on it!") and pouring in the oil and popcorn kernels, which, mysteriously, she had in her pantry ("Sookie gave them to me. I didn't know what they were.") and shaking the pot as it crackled atop the stove before dumping the fresh popcorn in a large bowl and salting it carefully. While he sprinkled the salt over the popcorn, she came up behind him soundlessly and wrapped her arms around his waist, leaning her head against his back because she wasn't quite tall enough to rest it on his shoulder. He physically relaxed as she put her arms around him, feeling her breathing into him, her heartbeat once more, only this time, it was calm, content. He finished salting the popcorn and picked up a single piece, reaching around his shoulder and placing it in her mouth. She happily accepted it and said after swallowing, "Remind me to never buy that microwave knock-off stuff again."

He smiled and turned slightly to put his arm around her shoulders, his other hand carrying the bowl of popcorn. They were halfway into the living room before either realized what they were doing, and just as Rory looked up from the video bag, Luke and Lorelai slipped out of each other's arms and stood a good three feet apart, trying desperately to act normal.

Rory gave them a funny look and said, "Is everything okay?"

"Yup," said Lorelai, too loudly. "Are you okay?"

Rory's eyebrows knitted and Luke wanted to drop through the floor. He had never been a good liar; he was sure his face was giving absolutely every detail about their kiss in the kitchen, at the Dragonfly, in the diner...

"Why wouldn't I be?" Rory said. "The movie didn't traumatize me that much, Mom."

"Oh, I know – I – right. Well, I have to worry about you, don't I? I don't want Butch turning you into another tattoo on his arm." She headed over to the couch and sat down, folding her legs beneath her.

"Who's Butch?" Luke said, and instantly regretted it as both sets of Gilmore eyes turned upon him. Lorelai waved her hand in dismissal. "So, what are we watching now? Something less depressing, please."

Luke had been around the two of them long enough to know that the look Rory gave her said something to the effect of, We'll talk about this later, and replied, "Breakfast at Tiffany's. Think you can handle it?" Lorelai threw a pillow at her.

Luke suddenly realized he was still standing there, holding the bowl of popcorn with bits of it scattered on the rug from his sudden jerk away from Lorelai. He set the bowl on the table, at which Lorelai immediately seized it and placed it in her lap. Luke threw away the popcorn from the floor and reclaimed his place on the couch, though it had been pushed over considerably by the popcorn bowl's presence there. Luke wasn't sure what to do; he didn't want to take Rory's spot, but he did want to sit by Lorelai, if for no other reason than if he sat on the floor, he knew she'd throw bits of popcorn in his hair. Luckily, Rory took this chance as she spread out on the floor, pressing play on the VCR, leaving Luke to the couch.

He ate popcorn during the first twenty minutes of the movie or so, but soon found himself a bit lost and wondering why the hell anyone would eat breakfast at a jewelry store. A glance at Lorelai told him it made perfect sense somehow, judging from the entranced look on her face as she absentmindedly munched popcorn. Luke tried to follow, but ended up just watching Lorelai out of the corner of his eye for most of the movie. She was so beautiful, he had known for years, but seeing her like this, so natural, and almost like a little kid, the look on her face being one of total enchantment, and he found it fascinating. He watched her nearly miss her mouth with popcorn handfuls because she was paying more attention to the movie than where her mouth was. He watched tears form in her eyes when some girl ran out of a taxi in the rain, a move he thought a bit ridiculous – couldn't she see the entire sky had opened up and it was pouring outside? Then some guy and the girl started kissing and a cat showed up. This only made more tears fall down Lorelai's face and he wasn't entirely sure what to do. He wanted to comfort her, but, come on, it was only a movie, and the tissues seemed to be holding out pretty well...Luke sat there uncomfortably for the rest of the movie, before the credits finally began to roll.

Lorelai sighed. "I love that movie."

Luke looked up in surprise. "You've seen it?"

Lorelai met his eyes and her mouth dropped open. "You haven't?"

"Well. No. I just thought...you still cry at it?"

Lorelai held up the pillow menacingly. "One more word out of you, mister, about my Steel Magnolias-induced tendencies and you will meet the wrath of the Pillow of Doom."

Luke couldn't help it. "So, at least Adam Sandler wasn't in this one. That makes it a little–"

He never finished, because Lorelai pounced at him, pillow and all, and they wrestled for a few minutes in a laughing and messy tumble of her hair flying everywhere and the pillow eventually landing in the empty popcorn bowl, which had somehow made its way to the floor.

Lorelai was still lying on top of him, laughing into his shoulder, but Luke was distracted by the way her body fit with his, her legs between his and their hips balanced perfectly. He felt like he could feel every inch of her. Finally, Lorelai looked up and noticed their position, the laughter slowly fading from her face. She reached out and touched his face, and her fingertips sent jolts through his whole body. He tried to breathe normally, since she was, after all on top of him and could feel each intake of breath, but it simply wasn't working out. She moved forward a little, so their faces were inches apart, and he started to notice that she wasn't breathing normally either. She leaned in and kissed him so softly he thought he would break right there on the couch with her on top of him, and her hands moved through his hair as her mouth brushed across his.

After a moment, she changed tactics. Leaving his mouth, she began trailing kisses up his jaw line to just below his ear, then down his neck. He shivered as her lips traced his neck, and his hands ran up and down her shoulder blades as she kissed beneath his chin, then on the edge of his lips, driving him crazy, and he tilted his head and kissed her fiercely on the lips. Her hands were beneath his shirt, clutching him, and he kissed down her neck slowly, lingering in each spot before moving lower. She moaned softly when he reached her collarbone, and he bit down just gently enough for her to feel it. She moaned again, more urgently, but whispered this time, and his lips found the other side of her neck, where he did the same.

They stayed like that for what seemed like hours, and suddenly, Lorelai pulled back from him, her eyes shining, her breathing more like panting. "I want you to stay," she said.

Luke's stomach did about three back-flips. They hadn't ever talked about this, it had never...well, it had never come up. He stared at her trying to figure out what exactly she meant by stay. Surely they couldn't...with Rory right there? He opened his mouth to say something, though he had no idea what, when Lorelai clarified.

"I mean, not..." If possible, he thought her face became even more flushed. Lorelai? Blushing? What was going on?

"I meant, I want you to stay here to sleep. I want to sleep with you holding me." Her voice dropped into a whisper at the end, as though she were embarrassed to want something intimate in an entirely different way then what they had been doing, or what it would've lead to. Luke simply nodded, and she eased off him and laced her fingers through his, leading him upstairs. He stopped at the bottom of the steps. She turned around, questioning him with a look. He nodded to the sleeping Rory.

"We'll get up early. You can leave before she wakes up."

This sounded completely rational to him, and although he knew Lorelai had never woken up early for anything a day in her life, he protested no more as they continued upstairs. When they reached her bedroom, she pulled back the covers carefully, as one might make a bed rather than undo it, and he hung close to the door and watched her. When the sheets were spread out, she climbed in and looked at him shyly. He was even more surprised. Lorelai had never done anything shyly in all the time he'd known her. She looked at him and said, "You could wear my pajamas if you want, but you might stretch them out a bit..."

He smiled in spite of himself and came over to the bed, sitting beside her. He slid off his jeans and let them fall to the floor, then pulled off his long-sleeved shirt. He noticed her looking and said, "What?"

"Nothing. Well, I mean – why do you wear that thick flannel all the time? If you got it, flaunt it, babe!" She indicated his arms and he didn't quite know what to say. She smiled and pulled his hand so he would lie down next to her, which he did. "I'm just teasing. You have nice arms, is all."

"Thanks." What were you supposed to say that? Luke forgot all about it when Lorelai turned to face away from him and switched off the lamp next to her bed, leaving them with only the light of the moon shining through the curtains. She scooted next to him, so he cradled her body with his, and hesitantly he put his arm around her waist, resting his hand flat on her stomach. He felt her breathe in quickly at that, and he almost pulled away, when she put her arm around his, holding it to her. He relaxed slightly as she rested her head on the pillow, and he breathed in the scent of her hair, her skin. It was a mix of what he somehow knew was called lavender, and what winter air smelled like, after the first snow had fallen. He found this combination fascinating, and with her hair falling across her shoulders, he brushed his lips across the nape of her neck briefly, though she shivered beneath him when he did. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight," she whispered. That was the last thing he remembered before falling asleep holding Lorelai, just as she'd wanted.

Third chapter done! They just keep getting longer, don't they? I had a bit more difficulty with figuring out how I wanted things to play out in this chapter, but I think I did what I wanted. Hopefully. Probably. It would suck if I didn't, it being a story I wrote and all....anyway. Reviews are welcome!