Chapter 3

Rory and Lorelai were in the kitchen talking about nothing and getting the first wave of dinner ready when they heard a knocking at the front door. Simultaneously, they turned to look at the time.

It was 5:45.

With a small smirk, Rory gestured over her shoulder toward her bedroom. "I think I'll, uh, just go and check something."

Lorelai narrowed her eyes at her daughter's retreating back and walked out of the kitchen to open the door. "Hi!" she greeted brightly.

Luke smiled. "Hey. I brought food." He replied, lifting the three Luke's bags he was carrying.

"Oh, main course! Now we don't have to call for pizza. Come in." she stood back and opened the door a bit more.

Luke stepped over the threshold and slightly past her, before looking through the archway into the lounge. "Where's…?"

Lorelai pushed the door shut. "Her room." She answered with a glint in her eye.

They stood together awkwardly for a second, when Lorelai took a half step toward him. He smiled and Lorelai closed the gap and planted a soft kiss on his lips.

"Hi." She breathed, her eyes sparkling and bluer than Luke could ever remember.

"Is it safe?" called a voice from the kitchen.

Luke blushed and Lorelai rolled her eyes. "Yeah! C'mon." she tilted her head towards the kitchen as she took Luke's elbow. "Look what I found." She announced.

"Oh! Food! Hey, Luke." Said Rory, gingerly stepping out from her room.

"Hi Rory." He replied, setting the bags down on the table. "So, I brought burgers and fries and pie for you two. I didn't know what sort of fries you'd want, so I got both chili-cheese and plain."

"Perfect." Lorelai nodded as she reached over and opening a bag. "Uh, Luke?" she asked, pulling out a salad.

"Don't worry, it's mine."

Lorelai and Rory nodded their agreement and set about opening the rest of the bags before collecting their respective dinners and heading into the lounge. Rory immediately sat on the floor at one end of the couch, while Lorelai sat smack-bang in the middle. She patted her left hand on the couch, indicating where Luke should sit and he glanced nervously at Rory.

Rory shrugged. "It's a rule. The girl with the boy gets the couch."

Lorelai nodded. "And let me tell you how good it feels to finally be me." She smiled up at Luke, who hesitated for a moment, before slipping in next to her.

"Okay," started Lorelai in an official voice. "Now for the rest of the rules. Number one: -"

"No phone calls."

"Number two: -"

"No pausing, rewinding or fast-forwarding of the movie."

"It ruins the flow of the movie." Lorelai explained. "And, three: -"

"Get situated before the movie starts. Mom hates people wriggling and fidgeting. I remember one time when I was about five I really needed to go to the bathroom. I couldn't ask her to pause it because that'd be breaking rules one and two. I think that's how we got that third rule?"

Lorelai nodded. "Of course, this was when we were still living at the potting shed, so we were watching the movie from the bed."

"Which is worse than having someone fidget next to you on the couch, apparently."

"That bed was. The thing was so rickety. For the first three years I thought it was going to collapse under us if I rolled over."

"And then it did."

"Yes. And I distinctly remember telling you not to jump on it."

"I didn't believe you."

"But you never did jump on that bed again."

"Just the one in my room now, when we first moved in."

Luke sat in silence, his eyes darting back and forth as each of the girls spoke. He hadn't known Lorelai and Rory back then, when they first moved to Stars Hollow. He'd only known them for five or six years now. "So, what are we watching first?"

"Well, as you're the guest of honor, we thought we'd let you decide. Your choices are sitting on the table there." She pointed to the corner of the coffee table nearest where he was sitting.

Luke picked them up and went through them. "Casablanca, Pretty In Pink, Love Story and Dirty Dancing?"

Lorelai nodded. "Yep. I told you it was 'classics' night."

Luke nodded slowly. "Well, it doesn't really bother me. I haven't seen any of them."

Lorelai and Rory gasped in mock horror. "You haven't?"

Luke shook his head. "Whatever you two want to watch is fine by me."

Lorelai and Rory looked at each other. "We have such work to do." Muttered Lorelai as she handed Rory Casablanca. "We'll start here with the greatest movie I have ever seen. And I've seen lots."

Rory nodded and dutifully crawled across the floor to put the DVD in the player. She handed her mother the remote off the coffee table and squished around on the cushion she was sitting on as Lorelai set the DVD up.

XXX

Luke had made it through Casablanca, Pretty In Pink and half of Dirty Dancing when he felt his eyelids getting heavy. If it weren't for the fact that Lorelai was leaning against him, using his shoulder as a pillow, he would probably leave. That, and Rory was resting her head against Lorelai's curled up knees.

Luke looked down at the girls and realised that this was one of those 'picture perfect' moments in time, when everything felt just so right. It had been a long time (probably since he was a kid) that he had felt like that. That he felt like nothing could go wrong and everything was exactly how it should be.

"You tired, hon?" asked Lorelai quietly.

He nodded and held a finger to his lips, determined not to break any rules.

Lorelai shook her head. "Doesn't matter. Rory's asleep. The rules only count when the two of us are awake."

Luke snorted. He probably should've realised that. His heart skipped a beat when he looked down at Lorelai. She was watching him with such soft eyes that he wondered why he hadn't tried anything with her sooner. He would've kissed her, but he was afraid of Rory waking up and seeing them kissing and scarring her for the rest of her life.

Lorelai's soft smile matched her gaze and she reached up and kissed him softly. "You wanna stay over?" she asked quietly.

Luke looked momentarily frightened.

"We don't have to do anything, but if its too late for you to go back to the diner…"

Luke looked down at her and grinned. "Okay." He whispered and kissed her lightly.

Lorelai beamed and settled back against him, the smile still on her face.

That smile was reflected on both Luke and Rory's faces as well.

XXX

"Ah!" shouted Rory the following morning.

"What's the matter, babe?" asked Lorelai, slightly panicked.

Rory pointed over Lorelai's shoulder to Luke, who was standing at the stove cooking them breakfast. "There's a man in my kitchen!"

Lorelai smirked and looked over at Luke. "Oh, so there is." She said casually, giving off the air of only just realizing he was standing there.

"Why's there a man in my kitchen?"

"He's cooking us breakfast."

"Well, I can see that! I don't remember the last time there was a man in my kitchen before 12."

"Rory, its Luke. Calm down. You fell asleep on my legs last night and after I finally got you into bed, we finished watching Dirty Dancing. Because it was so late I asked Luke if he would like to stay."

Luke nodded.

"Did you sleep together?"

Luke blushed dark red and Lorelai nodded slowly. "Yeah, but not in that sense. You know, I've never slept in the same bed as a boy before." She added wonderingly.

Luke rolled his eyes, his face still slightly redder than usual. "Oh, please. You were engaged."

Rory, having calmed down now, replied, "Yeah, but on the one occasion when Max stayed over she crept down here to my bed." Rory grumbled.

Luke raised his eyebrows and nodded without saying anything.

They were silent for a few moments as Rory sat down at the table and Luke served her some coffee. She smiled in thanks and sipped at it. Just as Luke was finishing off the cooking of their meal, Lorelai leaned toward Rory and, in a stage whisper, said, "Just be thankful you got up when you did. I had to convince him to get dressed so you wouldn't see him naked."

Rory and Luke groaned. "Oh, jeez."

Shorter, I know. But I usually write short chapters. Well, short-ish chapters. They're certainly shorter than the first two of this story, anyway. La, la, la. I love this story... Please review?