Luke POV
"Tristan is staying tonight," Lorelai told me as a way of greeting, "It's not safe for him to drive home when the weather is like this, so he's crashing on the couch. His parents are okay with it; we've already spoken."
"Okay..." I knew I sounded unsure, "They've made up?"
"He wouldn't be allowed in the house if they hadn't," She told me like it was obvious, but I liked to be sure when it comes to things like this.
"Where are they?" I asked, not seeing them in the kitchen or living room, and I couldn't hear them, either.
"Tristan volunteered to go for supplies, and Rory is helping Jess with some of his stuff since he's trying to unpack two boxes per day and it's not going very well," Lorelai explained as Tristan came in loaded up with bags. He looked at me nervously but Lorelai stepped in and told him to put everything in the kitchen before I reconsidered my decision to not rip his head off.
The two kids suddenly came running down the stairs the way they did when they knew food had arrived, and I couldn't help but feel very content. Jess' stuff arriving had only confirmed that he was here to stay, which felt right. Like he was supposed to be here.
I shook my head, ridding myself of the sappy thoughts and joined everyone in the kitchen, happily watching the three teens bicker over snacks. I kissed Lorelai's cheek and wrapped my arm around her, knowing she felt it, too.
The next morning, I was awoken by someone knocking on the front door. Crap; Anna and April were spending the day with us at the winter carnival.
I got out of the rocking chair as Lorelai stirred and I told her to go back to sleep. Rory had had a nightmare last night, but it hadn't been as bad as usual. When I left Rory's room, I almost tripped over a pair of legs, and when I registered that Tristan had slept on the kitchen floor, I almost laughed.
I clocked the time just before I opened the door, "I thought we had overslept, why are you so early?"
Anna laughed, not taking the question offensively, "Because of the snow, April decided we had to leave early, which led to us being early. We haven't even had breakfast."
"We can work with that; go straight through to the kitchen and watch out for the pair of legs that are sticking out."
"Legs?" Anna questioned as April rushed through, easily jumping over the legs, "You weren't kidding."
"Don't worry, you can also find Jess asleep on the stairs. Don't ask me why, he seems to like sleeping there."
I wasn't joking; even when Rory didn't have nightmares, we often found him asleep on the stairs. He insisted it was comfortable but I had no idea how he managed that. We were now used to skipping that particular step on the way down, but I knew how it looked to outsiders.
"Care to elaborate?" Anna asked, both amused and concerned at the same time.
"Tristan spent the night because we didn't feel that it was safe for him to drive back to Hartford. We set him up on the couch and hoped he wouldn't sneak into Rory's bed. But Rory has very loud nightmares, which involve screaming and vomiting, and clearly, he didn't return to the couch after our 2 am wake-up call," I paused for a moment, "While Jess does get up for Rory's nightmares, he somehow ends up on the stairs even when she doesn't have nightmares; you'd have to ask him about that one because he just tells me it's comfortable and I have no idea how."
"Let me guess; Lorelai is on Rory's bedroom floor?" She asked cheekily and I laughed.
"No, she and Rory are sharing that tiny bed. We alternate on who does that; usually, the other one would crash on the couch but with her recent... we've taken to sleeping in the rocking chair instead. My back kills."
"Dad?"
I looked up and had to fight the urge to smile; April had been calling me Luke up until that moment as I had told her to do what made her comfortable (and she had also asked Rory about it since she knew Rory wasn't my biological child), but she had just called me dad.
"Yes, April?" I asked softly, ignoring the giddy feeling.
"Can we have pancakes for breakfast?" She requested and I nodded.
"You can have whatever you'd like," I told her before walking into Rory's room, "You need to wake up, April and Anna are here."
Lorelai got up easier than expected since she had probably only been dozing, but Rory pulled the quilt up over her face, "10 more minutes."
Lorelai disappeared in search of coffee, and as I sat down on the edge of Rory's bed to try again, I heard a very loud thud and a cry of, "Legs!"
Rory poked her head out, "What am I missing?"
"Your mother tripping over your boyfriend," I told her, "You going to get up now?"
"If I must," She said with a small smile, "What's the time?"
"7:30, April and Anna are early, I'm making breakfast for everyone. What would you like?"
"Chocolate chip pancakes," She told me, running a brush through her hair and walking into the kitchen.
She laughed as she took note of Tristan, who was now awake, and Lorelai, who was sitting a little way away with a split lip, who instantly pointed her finger at me, "You didn't warn me about the pair of legs sticking out!"
"So, it's my fault?" I asked with a laugh, "Rory, go and wake Jess. He's on the stairs."
"He's always on the stairs; I'd be more surprised if he was in his actual bed," She said, working around Tristan and Lorelai and aiming for the stairs.
"Are mornings always this crazy?" Anna asked, amused by the display.
"No," I told her, "It's usually a bit more organised than this but today has been a bit out of the ordinary."
"It's actually an organised chaos, complete with shouting, clumsiness and coffee," Lorelai corrected, "And there's no coffee yet."
I rolled my eyes and ignored her, knowing that responding would only encourage it. Tristan got up from his position on the floor and set up the coffee maker, knowing there were at least 3 people who would like a cup, and then asked who wanted what with their pancakes.
After breakfast was done and we were sorted for the day, we went out to see the winter carnival, collecting Lane along the way. Lane and Rory walked with April between them, talking to her about all the attractions, and the boys seemed to be making bets about something.
"The snowman building competition!" Rory cried, pointing it out to April, "Me and Mom do it every year, we even have a box of stuff for it at the diner."
"When does it start?" Lorelai asked.
"20 minutes," Rory said, "Mom, go and get the bits!"
Lorelai rushed off, and I took the opportunity to steal April from the girls, "Want to build a snowman with me?"
Her eyes lit up, and she nodded her head enthusiastically, "Definitely."
Somehow, that started something and the boys also decided they'd join in, even though they had already declared it stupid. Anna decided she didn't want to and decided to get a hot drink instead, and we all signed up in our teams, surprising Kirk when I put my own name down.
And once again, I remembered how fun these things could be.
AN: Tomorrow, it'll be a year since I first started posting this series. One whole year. That sounds crazy, I must admit. And this story makes me smile so much; it's unreal. I love working on it and I really hope you love following this journey. I don't even know when it's going to end, but I know it's incredible, and I'm so thankful that I've finally been able to stick with something for this long. I love my followers of this story and the ones who review make my day.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing, and a big thank you to those who have stuck with this for this entire journey.