Disclaimer: Once again. Don't own nothing!
Dave stood huddled in a corner, near the entrance of the studio, soaking in the music and the scene. It was really interesting, actually, the kind of thing you'd only see in a small town. There were people on medical cots, sleeping and nursing small wounds, bruises, scrapes. For a moment, he abandoned his nerves to think about how competitive these small town people were, about something as trivial as a dance marathon.
He was a bit afraid to go in, mainly because the person he feared the most in the world at this moment was in there somewhere, undoubtedly looking beautiful and polished with her hair in perfect braids and with some kind of bored look on her face. What if she was dancing? He knew it was slightly unlikely because she'd revealed to him that she was terrible at it and had only really danced with one boy, her ex. Henry. He hated that name. It was so… Hen-ry, henree, HENry… This was not a good thing to think about.
He gazed in again. He saw a very tired looking Lane walking across the studio to a big thing of yellow stuff. Oh yes. The sandwiches. Personally, Dave thought that stuff that was organic was pretty cool. His mother was vegetarian, so he'd gotten used to the beef substitutes and the occasional soy milk. But eggs, he wasn't so sure.
Lane looked perfect as usual. Only more tired. He knew she had been awake for the equivalent to a day, but yet, she was still ready to dole out egg salad. Wow.
Well, it was almost 5:30. Now seemed as good a time as any. He'd dawdled enough. Actually, he'd met a guy, while strumming his guitar on the steps, who was walking around town, yes, this early in the morning, singing with a duct-taped microphone and a guitar. He'd let Dave tell him his story. He never commented on the story, but listened. He was a troubadour of some sort. Dave liked the troubadour idea, except he wasn't sure how he'd get revenue. And what Lane would think of it. But if she liked it… He imagined him with his guitar on a street corner while Lane banged on a bongo drum… Oh well, whatever, never mind.
He walked in and said, "One sandwich, please." Lane looked over at him in weary, but happy surprise. She was wearing a skirt and a shirt with buttons. "Hi!" He tiredly ambled forward, offering a shaky "hey".
"What are you doing here?" He was trying to register in his mind what he was intending to do and how the hell this was going to work, as he placed his hand on Lane's shoulder for support. As soon as he had an even footing, he let it down, while staring at the sandwiches. Looking at her face would only complicate things.
"Uh… Well, you mentioned this the last time we talked…" he started, and thank god he was good at feigning confidence, "and it sounded very… Blue Velvet, so I figured I would come by and check it out…" She smiled.
"What do you think?" He met her eyes.
"I think you held back." She smiled and shrugged.
"Yeah, well…" Okay, he had come here for a purpose.
"Anyhow, I hadn't seen you in a while and I thought I'd come down and maybe we could figure something out on this band issue."
"Sure, we could do that." Lane, held in her obvious disappointment. It wasn't like he'd come to see her.
Dave internally struggled. Oh smart Dave; you came to discuss this at five in the morning? Yeah, clearly this was a stupid excuse, so he opted for something more… honest, "… And plus, I missed you."
Lane was visibly stunned. "You did… you missed me." She repeated it back, not believing it. Dave was a little frightened at the lack of response. He didn't admit things like that to beautiful girls all the time, and he'd never be able to guess her reaction. He was a little sheepish and smiled embarrassedly.
"Well yeah, did you miss me?" Lane mentally kicked herself for not understanding it before. She retracted.
"Yeah definitely!" she calmed down a little and said in a more restrained fashion, "I definitely, definitely missed you." She nodded.
Dave was surprised at the enthusiastic, yet not-so-much reply, "Glad and relieved to hear it."
Lane surveyed the ground for a second. Well, now he knew how "definite" she was. He was… relieved? Lane smiled at the ground.
Just that moment, Mrs. Kim came marching forward. "Who are you? What do you want?" Dave was surprised. This was obviously Lane's mom. She was a lot more intimidating than Lane had described her as.
"Mama!" Lane was obviously scared for Dave's life.
"Do you know this boy?" Lane looked like she was going to do some really fast unconvincing babbling, as Dave came to the rescue.
"Uh, no. Actually, I just heard a bunch of people talking outside about the sandwiches and I thought that I would come in and maybe try one. I'm sorry, may I?" he asked, humbly and politely. Lane looked amazed. She'd never seen anyone deflect her mother like that. Mrs. Kim smiled and handed him a sandwich. Lane and her mother watched as he took a big bite and chewed it fast. He gave them an astounded look as if he'd just taken a bite of heaven. "That's delicious."
"Really," asked Lane in bewilderment. The funny thing was that Dave actually did like it. That Mrs. Kim could cook. He asked for another and Mrs. Kim obliged.
"Thank you. You know my parents would love these sandwiches. I wish I could bring them by, but unfortunately there in private bible study right now." Dave's dad was Jewish, but whatever. Dave knew that he obviously couldn't hope to talk to Lane right now, so he decided to let her meet up with him a little later. "Say, how long are you serving?"
Mrs. Kim looked curious, "Why?"
"Well I thought that if they got out in time, I could bring 'em over." Now Dave was lying through his teeth.
"Well, the bread is only good for another twenty minutes, after that there's no point. You chip a tooth." This lady was very thoughtful. He could see where Lane got her scheming from. Dave could definitely see a bit of Mrs. Kim in Lane. The dominating part of Lane that he saw at practices, when she was ordering Zach and Brian around.
"Okay. So if I can get my parents back here in twenty minutes, then you'll still be serving, but in thirty you're done?" He stared at Lane, willing her to understand. She'd be done in thirty minutes. He could wait. Mrs. Kim confirmed this.
"Great. So if for some reason I'm not back here in twenty minutes, that means that I'm gonna be over there, on the church steps, waiting for my parents to get out so that I can tell them about the great sandwiches that they missed. Okay?" Lane nodded. He would be on the church steps in thirty minutes waiting for her to talk about the band, "Okay, great. Thanks a lot and I hope to see you soon." He turned to leave. Thirty minutes was a good amount of time to try and figure out what to say.
Thirty minutes later, Dave was found by Lane on the steps of the church. He had been focused intensely on his notebook. She walked up the stairs and sat next to him, looking at a diagram he was drawing. "Hi," she said, quietly tapping his shoulder. Dave flinched and immediately shut his notebook.
"Whoa, when'd you get here?" he was surprised that he hadn't noticed her. He'd been so deep in thought, about her, that he'd failed to notice her presence. It was insane.
"Just now," she said, "Mom's packing up and I told her I was going to find Rory… so hi." Dave looked at her. He was so afraid he was going to kiss her. She was just sitting there, all pretty, next to him and here he was sweating in places he didn't even know he had glands, his heart was beating faster and he felt like his stomach was going to fall out merely because of her presence. It was nuts too, because he'd waited all week to see her and here he was, sitting on the church steps in Stars Hollow, staring at her and he was dead scared. "Hi."
"You wanted to talk about something." She reminded him. She had been mulling it over for thirty minutes, "The band. And stuff."
"Yeah, what's your favorite Bowie album?" Lane was a little bit surprised by this question, but decided to go with it. She never imagined this. Spending time at night, well early morning, with the one object of her affection, a perfect one, who was on the same terms as she about music.
"Probably Ziggy Stardust," she said, "You know it was kinda pre-Bowie."
"Definitely, me too," he said. He sighed, "You know, lately it's kinda been the soundtrack to my life."
"Really." Lane didn't know where he was going with this, but listened intently.
"Yeah, ever since I met you, it's been all Ziggy and Quadrophenia." He looked into her eyes. She'd never seen him like this. She could tell he was sincere but at the same time he was utterly focused. She knew he was trying to tell her something, but she didn't know what. Her affection for him welled up inside of her, though she did her best to stifle it.
"I don't understand." He stared at her hard. She almost wanted to turn away.
"I mean," he decided to let it go, "when I see you, it's like the audio department of my brain goes nuts. Suddenly, I'm hearing Suffragette City on repeat. Then when I was away from you I was all Rock'n'Roll Suicide and even my parents noticed. It was just weird, beyond belief. And suddenly, my calluses are open sores because I've been playing so much and I've written songs…" He stopped, "And I never rant. But now I am. And I know that if I'm just being an idiot here and you don't… you don't think that… well, the band… but more than that, you… well I guess, it'd be good for songwriting." There was a silence. Lane just stared at him for a moment and smiled.
"I think I get it." Dave stared at her, willing her to say something, "I've been listening to just Nico and the Velvet Underground and the Who for the past few weeks … and Weezer." Dave knew that only a person in love would feel compelled listen to that combination of artists, repetitively.
"Oh really?" he smiled. A wave of relief swept over the both of them. He took her hand. She stared at it as he asked, "What do you think we should do now?" She smiled at him.
"What do you think?"
"Well, I would really like to date you," he said. Lane couldn't contain herself. She draped her arms around him.
"Really?" she smiled and asked.
"That is what I was trying to say all along," he said, grinning. She stopped smiling all of a sudden.
"Lane… what's wrong?" he asked. She was suddenly upset, her face screwed up, lost in thought.
"My mom… she'd never let me. And I don't want to hide it." Lane looked tearful.
"Come on, Lane," he draped his arm around her shoulder, "We'll make it work. Just, start scheming. That is, if I'm worth it."
"Of course you're worth it. You're perfect… I mean, well, you know... And I know if Mama knew you, she'd think so, too. I mean, she already likes you."
"So she has to get to know me."
"Yeah, but Dave, are you sure? Because, we could just forget about the whole thing and we could just go back to… playing in a band together." Lane was making a great personal sacrifice so that Dave wouldn't have to.
"Yeah, and you know, I could just be heart broken for the rest of my life," he said, his voice ringing with sarcasm.
"But Dave…"
"No, I like your mom. I understand her," he explained.
"You… like her?" Lane was shocked. She didn't know anyone who didn't think her mother was the most deadly person on the earth.
"I'm still desperately afraid of her, but I really do want the same thing as she does," he said.
"And what's that?" Lane thought Dave must be certifiably insane or a genius.
"Well, she and I both want you to be happy. And we're both willing to kick the ass of anyone who'll get in the way. The only difference is that she'd like to kill anyone who breaks your heart, and I'd like to be the one who won't." Lane could feel her heart melt like chocolate.
"Whoa, Dave," she smiled really big. He stroked her hair. Lane bristled. No one had ever done that before. She looked straight at him as he did to her. Lane could feel herself leaning forward, as Babette's booming voice said, "Oh Laney sweetie! Your mother's looking for ya and I thought I'd warn you first, cuz it looked like you were gettin' pretty cozy! All you kids are just so damn cute! But ya know I gotta feeling that Rory's switchin' studs, if you know what I mean! But anywayz, she's cummin' this way, so you," she pointed to Dave, "better scat!" Dave didn't need telling twice. He got up and said a hurried goodbye.
Lane sighed. God was she tired.
A/N: I don't know about you, but I'm so glad they're finally together. It seemed like it forever. Remember to review and tell me if it was out of character or stupid or anything. I find it's easier if you imagine they're actually saying it.