Disclaimer: I don't own Gilmore Girls.

"I am not eating that."

"Oh, a little more mustard please," she asked the vendor as she stood on tiptoes peering into the stand, as if fearful there might be some condiment she could miss. "Oh! Oh! Relish! Put some more relish on that one!"

Smiling widely she turned to Luke, ignoring both his refusal and his defiant body language—arms crossed tightly over a puffed out chest, brow furrowed just a bit. "See?" she asked proudly. She allowed a few milliseconds for a response before supplying the answer herself. "Green! Relish is green! Green is healthy! You'll love this!"

"Lorelai, I am not eating that," he heard himself repeat.

Again his words went seemingly unheard as she once again turned back to the vendor, making a show of struggling to hold both hot dogs and retrieve her wallet from purse. "Luke, you're going to have to hold these so I can pay the man."

"I'm not…"

"Luke, it would be very bad if we didn't pay the man."

Her tone was playful but the steely gaze of the man behind the silver metal hot dog stand was not. Sighing deeply he held out his palms allowing her to place the unwelcome food items in his possession as she riffled through her purse.

"Great," she said after the monetary exchange was done. In one swift motion she had spun away from the stand, removed her hotdog from his hand, and begun moving down the street, leaving him stuck with the remaining dog and nothing to do but tighten his grasp on it and stride after her.

"Loerlai…" he shook his head, almost sure he could see her mischievous grin through her brown hair. It took him only a few strides to fall into step with her and one more to cut in front of her, turning so that they were face to face. He extended his now hot dog clad hand towards her. "I am not eating this."

Her eyes sparkled, unaffected by his refusal. "But I bought it for you." Her lips began to form a small pout.

"No…"

"Yes, yes I did. I paid him with my own money!"

"No…I mean…yes…"

"Exactly. I opened this pocket of my purse right here and dug under the gum wrappers until I found my wallet…"

"What I mean is I didn't ask for it! I can't eat this, Lorelai!" He looked disgustedly at the object lying in his palm. "Ugh, how could anyone eat this…"

The last comment was more thinking out loud than an actual question but Lorelai grinned widely at him and took the biggest bite he'd ever seen anyone take out of anything, mustard shooting along the corners of her mouth. "Iwf gouwf," she smiled, a mouth full of stale bun flashing before his face.

He felt his eyebrows raise.

"It's good," she repeated, still chewing.

"How can you eat that this early in the morning? Do you have any idea what something like this does to your digestive tract? Do you know what they put in these things to begin with? Let alone when bought off the back of someone's bicycle! These condiments could be God knows how old, left out in the sun, flies have probably crawled over every inch of this! I mean the bacteria count alone…" he paused mid-sentence, mid-breath as he meet her gaze. "What?"

She gave him a small, tight-lipped smile, keeping her head tilted and her gaze steady for a moment before shaking it away. "Nothing," she said softly.

He shifted his weight a bit, nervously, and let out a soft, shaky laugh. "No, not nothing, what?"

She tucked a strand of hair behind her ears and shrugged a bit as she continued to gaze up at him. "I was just…thinking, that's all."

"About hot dogs? Cuz if I was standing there thinking about it I'd be a lot closer to puking and a lot less…smiley." He laughed at his own choice of words.

She glanced down at the mustard soaked mess in her hand. "Yeah, about hot dogs…" Her gaze floated back to his face.

"And?" he prodded.

"And…" she shrugged and looked out at the street, watching the traffic creep forward, despite the red light. "And how some things change…but some things don't…and…and it's just nice to know, that's all." She turned back to face him, smile gone, eyes earnest.

He nodded. "Some things don't," he heard himself repeat softly. She looked ready to continue their walk but he felt his gaze fall to the hot dog still resting in his hand. Taking a deep breath he raised it to his mouth, closed his eyes, and took a bite large enough to match the one she had taken. Bits of loose relish sprinkled the sidewalk by his feet and he had to lean forward to keep from spilling any dripping condiments on his shirt.

Her eyes bulged slightly, as if she was unable to believe what she had just seen. As Luke struggled to chew the gooey processed mess he saw her raise one hand to her mouth, trying to both cover her smile and stifle her laugh, but doing neither quite in time.

"What on earth…?" she laughed, eyes still wide as Luke took another bite, and another, finishing the hot dog quickly, tossing the wrapper in the garbage can behind him and, seeing neither had had the foresight to grab napkins, wiping his fingers on the thighs of his blue jeans.

Swallowing the last bit he noted that it actually hadn't been bad, although if he had any pride left he'd never tell her that. When he felt his mouth was clear again he locked his eyes into hers, allowing the casualness of his tone to be over ridden by the steadiness of his gaze, as he said, "Some things don't…but some other things can."

He saw her straighten a bit at this, her head tilting back slightly as she did so, a gesture she completed rarely, as it wasn't often she didn't know what to say.

He cleared his throat, nodded softly at her and moved himself out of her path and back to her side. Her eyes followed him, and he decided to give her something else to respond to before the mood became too serious too early on. She followed as he stepped forward on the cracked concrete and he jabbed her lightly in the ribs. "Better hurry up," he nodded at the uneaten half of hot dog she was still holding, "it's not like you to fall behind in the food count." She blinked at him for a moment before laughing and responding with another large bite.

"See," she said after chewing this time, "I knew you'd like it."

He shook his head in mock defeat. "Alright crazy lady, where to now?"

Next to him Lorelai tossed the now empty wrapper into a near by trashcan as they passed. "Onward!" she cried, extending her right arm out in front of her and pointing up the street.

Luke rolled his eyes playfully skyward and, following her lead, quickened his pace.