A/N: Hey everyone! Just wanted to say thank you for all of your kind words. I appreciate every review, favourite and follow! I'm so so happy that there are still people out there interested in Gilmore Girls and in Luke and Lorelai specifically. So, THANK YOU for reading! Here's another chapter for you...


MONDAY MID-DAY:

"On your lunch break?" Lorelai said in lieu of a greeting.

"I don't really have one of those."

"You're at the booth?"

"No I'm headed to a grocery store. Gonna buy something things to make us sandwiches."

"Tired of renaissance food?"

"There's only so many turkey legs you can have."

"Speak for yourself those things were amazing."

"Mm," Luke acknowledged, focusing on safely making a left turn at the busy intersection.

"How's the faire today?"

"Moved some pewter actually so I'm in TJ's good graces."

"Oh yeah? How much did you sell?"

"Four pairs of earrings and a necklace."

"Well well, who knew Luke Danes was a master salesman?"

"What can I say," his voice dipped charmingly, "I'm a man of many talents."

Lorelai smiled. Was Luke flirting with her? "Oh you don't have to tell me, I've known about your prowess for a long time."

"My prowess huh?" Luke pulled into a spot in the grocery store parking lot but stayed in the truck.

"Mhm, I've seen the way you pour a cup of coffee. That takes real talent my friend."

Luke beamed and shook his head ruefully. From anyone else it might have been facetious, sarcastic even. But from Lorelai, he knew it was a sincere compliment.

"Wow," she said at his lack of a response, "a genuine Luke Danes smile."

"I'm not smiling," he grumbled, trying not to.

"Oh yes you are, I can hear it."

"You can't hear a smile."

"Maybe not, but yours is coming through loud and clear."

"Oh yeah?"

"You can deny it, but I can hear it in your voice. Your body's giving you away Luke."

"Dirty."

Lorelai's smile was immediate and grew quickly at the realization of where his mind had gone.

All Luke heard was silence. "Lorelai?"

"You are very surprising sometimes, you know that?"

"No I'm not," he scoffed.

"Yes, you are."

"I'm probably, the most predictable guy ever."

"Au contraire my friend."

"What are you talking about?"

"Luke you just said a dirty!"

"I've 'said a dirty' before."

"Uh no, you haven't."

"Yes I have."

"Not like that you haven't."

Luke's head reared back in bemusement. "How many different ways are there to say dirty?"

"Well there's curious and happy, shock and disgust and—"

"Ok," he interjected, stopping what he knew could be a full list of every emotion out there, "then how did I say it?"

"Well you normally just say it to stop me from saying it, like 'yeah dirty I know,'" she said gruffly trying to imitate Luke, "And it usually comes with an eye roll. But this time you said it unprompted."

There was silence on his end. "…Ok, and?"

"And it was surprising!"

"Why was it surprising?

"Because you've never done it before."

"What, I'm not allowed to play the game too?"

"Of course you are, I just, never thought your mind went to those kinds of places."

"Ok…" Luke smirked but said nothing more. It was probably for the best to bite his tongue here—they hadn't even been on a proper date yet.

"That's it," Lorelai continued teasingly, "Just letting you know that you can still surprise me. After all these years Luke, the magic's not gone."

That made him smile. "No, it's alive and well. Maybe just finally being acknowledged huh?"

"Yeah, just, finally being acknowledged." Lorelai smiled too; her sudden shyness extremely similar to how she felt at the test run, when Luke had copped to making those romantic gestures she hadn't been entirely sure he was making. "Are you um, at the grocery store yet?"

"Been sitting in the lot for 10 minutes."

"Oh, well, go, go get your food. We'll talk later."

"Ok, talk later then."

Lorelai ended the call and unconsciously leaned her elbows on her desk, resting her chin on the phone still in her hand. A few butterflies fluttered in the pit of her stomach. Luke was flirting with her, right? That was him flirting? She was used to guys being more overt with their attention, but that wasn't Luke. Luke was subtle. He had finesse. Her smile widened as his words played back in her mind. I'm a man of many talents. My prowess, huh? It's alive and well. The tone of his voice was…a few more butterflies flapped their wings as her face tinged pink. He had to have been flirting. She hoped he was. And she hoped he did it again soon.


TUESDAY EVENING:

It had been a pretty good day until the phone rang with a long-distance call 15 minutes ago. It was her mother checking in from Brussels. Her mother. Not Rory. She hadn't come to the phone again—having apparently just stepped into the shower. Instead, Lorelai had spent a few minutes listening to her mother gush about the beauty of Europe and the superb quality of the hotel they were staying at. It sounded like they were having a great time, going to museums and art galleries, 5-star restaurants…not holed up in their suite overthinking and rethinking and questioning like she was. It seemed that this rift between she and Rory hadn't put a damper on their trip at all. Lorelai had been bracing herself for the onslaught of questions her mother was sure to have about the whole thing, but they never came. That had to mean that Emily hadn't noticed the lack of communication between her daughter and granddaughter yet…so at least there was that.

Lorelai wondered how long Rory was going to freeze her out. She could only assume it would be for a while, it had already been over 2 weeks. She heaved a frustrated sigh and picked up her phone to call Luke. She hated feeling this way and she especially hated feeling this way towards Rory. This not talking thing? It wasn't them. It was she and Emily, not she and Rory. She sighed again as she listened to the phone ring. She hoped Luke was available to talk…he was proving to be the best distraction these days.

"Hey."

"Hi."

"How are you?"

"Oh I'm fine."

"You sound tired or something…"

"Yeah I'm a bit, tired," Lorelai half-lied. She was tired, just not in the way he meant. She was more the emotional kind of tired, but she didn't want to get into it. It was easier to let him believe she was just exhausted from work. "How are you doing?"

"Also a bit tired."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah, getting settled in this new town was more work than I was expecting."

"Where are you guys now?"

"Bucksport. It's only about a half hour away from where we were before but I had to make a few trips."

"How come?"

"I couldn't fit all of the booth stuff and their luggage in the truck at the same time…well, I could, but I was afraid it was going to fall off the side so I ended up going back and forth 3 times."

"Jeeze that's a lot of driving."

"Yeah well…" he shrugged, "Wasn't so bad. Bucksport's actually pretty nice."

"Yeah?"

"The town's got a lot of older buildings and, it's near a river…saw some people fishing from the dock, a few of 'em were taking their boats out…"

"Well maybe you can get some fishing in if you have a spare hour or two."

"Naw, I'd just be worried about Liz and TJ re-injuring themselves because I wasn't there to help them. I can wait until I get home. I'm sure the fishing in Connecticut is just as good."

"Phew!" Lorelai said would-be dramatically, "for a second there I thought you were thinking of extending your trip to play tourist."

"Oh no," Luke replied assuredly, "I still want to get home as soon as possible. But who knows, maybe I can come back up here on vacation some time."

"You? On vacation?"

"It's been known to happen. You'd probably like it here, Liz said there's good shopping nearby. And on the drive up I saw this place called Stubborn Cow Glass… apparently you can create your own stain glass stuff there, like your own lamp or I don't know…window, I guess. Why you would need your own stain glass window I don't know, but, you could."

Now he didn't actually say that'd they'd be on this imaginary vacation together, Lorelai told herself, but it was implied, and the mere implication made her blush. She gingerly licked her lips and answered as casually as she could. "The Stubborn Cow, huh? Sounds like a must-see."

"Thought you'd like that."

"So the faire's in Bucksport?"

"No, the inn Liz and TJ are staying at is in Bucksport—"

"Inn? Not motel?"

"It was the most decent looking place around."

"Ah."

"But the faire's on Verona Island."

"How very Romeo and Juliet."

"Yeah. TJ wouldn't shut up about it on the drive over here."

"TJ knows Shakespeare?"

"Just the one line when Juliet's on the balcony."

There was silence as Lorelai smiled. "You know Romeo and Juliet?"

"Everyone does."

"But you've read it?"

"I had to for school."

Lorelai's smile widened. She just knew—somehow—that Luke had read the whole thing cover to cover. Not skimmed it—as she had done with so many required readings in school, but read it fully, and probably enjoyed it. Maybe he was really just an undercover, hopeless romantic.

"It was for school Lorelai," he stated again.

"I believe you."

"Good. …So what about you," Luke asked before she could take the Shakespeare conversation further, "How was work today?"

"Work was fine, nothing much to report. There was a town meeting tonight—you missed a doozy."

"Oh yeah?"

"It was an hour of Taylor and Bootsy talking over each other, arguing, trying to get everyone on their side. I only wish I had popcorn."

"What were they fightin' about?"

"Well. A bunch of magazines got delivered to Doose's instead of the newsstand and Taylor sold them. He claims he was waiting on his own shipment of magazines and made a simple mistake assuming that the ones that got delivered to the market were the ones he was expecting. Now Bootsy basically said that that's bull. The shipment was apparently double the amount Taylor usually orders and he was 110% sure that if we looked at the shipping label, his name would be on it."

"And of course, the boxes are long gone, right?"

"Yup, probably in a garbage dump somewhere. Anyway, so Bootsy's solution is for Taylor to give him the money he made from selling the magazines and Taylor threatened to use his authority in the Stars Hollow Business Association if he even so much as suggests it again."

"Which he did."

"Immediately."

"Well, glad I missed that one."

"Really? I would've thought you'd enjoy watching your two least favourite people go head to head."

"Well when you put it that way…" They both chuckled. Luke glanced at his watch and sighed disappointedly. It was getting late. "I think I should get to bed…"

"Oh yeah, ok."

"But listen, there's some corporate event coming to the faire tomorrow night—"

"Corporate event?"

"Not really sure, I think it's some team-building mandatory event kind of thing. They basically rented out the whole faire for their staff."

"Oh."

"So we have to stay open later than usual."

"Ok."

"So I'll call you tomorrow, ok? I don't know how late it'll be—"

"Doesn't matter, I'm usually up pretty late." She knew 'late' for Luke was only like, 11 PM.

"Ok," he smiled, "Then I'll call you tomorrow."

"Ok, later Luke."

"Talk later."


THURSDAY AFTERNOON:

"Hello?" Luke answered his phone, ignoring the curious look Liz was sending his way.

"Hey"

"Lorelai?"

"Gilmore, yes."

Luke rolled his eyes good-naturedly at her cheeky answer. "What's up?"

"I was calling to ask you the same thing. You never called last night."

"Oh, I, uh, yeah it was, late."

"How late are we talkin'?"

"Uh, about, 10:30." Luke said stiltedly.

Lorelai's brow furrowed. 10:30 wasn't late. They'd talked later than that plenty of times before. "Oh. Well, I was up. Think I was watching TV around that time."

"Oh, then uh, sorry about that."

She had a hunch he was leaving something out. "Was that the real reason you didn't call last night?"

"Kind of?" Luke said, scratching the back of his head nervously. "I—it occurred to me yesterday that I've been calling you every day…and, I don't want to be annoying, you know, thought you could get a good night's sleep for once," he ended his reasoning with a nervous chuckle that was not returned. He loved their phone calls, it was his main source of happiness while he was away. As far as he was concerned they were as good as together, but he didn't know if that's how she felt. They hadn't actually been out yet, or had any proper 'we're dating' conversations…so, really, they were in some kind of relationship limbo and he no idea what the rules were there. It hadn't occurred to him until yesterday that he might be calling her too often, coming off a little too strongly.

Lorelai sat there on the other end of the line, confused. "You're not, annoying me Luke. And you're not calling me every day, I call you too," she pointed out. "It, felt weird not talking to you yesterday."

"Yeah," he said shyly, "for me too. Guess we got used to it."

"Well it's not like we don't talk every day when you're at home too."

"That's true."

"And, I, like, talking to you," Lorelai said softly feeling simultaneously exposed and baffled that she actually had to tell him that.

Luke smiled. "I like talking to you too."

"Good. Now, I expect to talk to you tomorrow, ok?"

She said it jokingly but he knew she was at least partly serious. "Absolutely."

"Good. So, now that we're clear," she smiled, "Catch me up, how's the faire been treatin' ya?"

"Well yesterday Liz started sitting up front with me."

"Oh yeah?"

"She's on a lawn chair and I've got her leg propped up on a stool, so she's half lying down. Seems to be working for now."

"She must be happy to get back to it."

"I'm happy she's getting back to it. She's much better at dealing with the customers than I am."

"No," Lorelai scoffed in false incredulity, "That can't be true. You're Mr. Sunshine, customers love you!"

Luke smiled at her sarcasm. "Yeah, right," he scoffed as well.

"Well maybe you're not always the sunniest, but your customers do love you," she said, serious now. "They know you're not as grumpy as you seem. You've actually got a lot of patience."

"For you, maybe."

Lorelai smiled. "Well now I feel special."

"You should." Luke picked up a tray of new earrings to replace the ones on the display case that they'd sold that day. As he moved to the front of the booth he saw Liz surreptitiously watching him. His brow furrowed fleetingly but he dismissed it and kept talking to Lorelai. "What about you? What's new over there?"

"Nothing really. It's day 3 of the Taylor vs. Bootsy fiasco and there's been no resolution."

"Anyone taking bets on the outcome yet?"

"I think Miss Patty's got a pool going."

"Of course she does."

"So yeah, nothing to report really."

"Hmm. Oh, hey Lorelai I've gotta go, there's a big group of customers coming this way." They was a large group of young girls about two booths down, but he'd seen them excitedly point to Liz's booth—he figured he had about a minute before they were bombarded with a thousand questions about matching sets and stone shapes and a bunch of other stuff he could care less about.

"Oh yeah, go go."

"We'll talk later ok?"

"I'm holding you to that," she said seriously, still not liking that he'd thought for even a second that he was annoying her.

"I know. I'll call."

"Ok, talk later then."

"Talk later."


FRIDAY NIGHT:

Crashed out on the couch for the evening, Lorelai sat curled up under a blanket in her old Grinch pyjamas. Sure, they weren't season appropriate, but all of her usual sleepwear was sitting in the laundry basket in her bathroom. She hated doing laundry, so as usual she was putting it off until necessity forced her to start a load. It didn't matter anyway. She was alone, and with no plans for the evening, she didn't have to worry about anyone seeing her fashion faux pas. The house was too quiet, so she put the TV on. They were showing reruns of "The West Wing" back to back and though she had no interest in watching it, she stopped there and let it play. Turns out TV just wasn't as much fun to watch when you didn't have anybody there to mock it with you.

Lorelai picked up her house phone and dialled Luke's cell number. She had it memorized now. It's wasn't an intentional effort, but just something that had seeped into her brain little by little every time she called him. It was probably useless information to have—there was a high probability that Luke would get rid of it as soon as he got home. But nevertheless, she had it.

"Hey."

"Hey," she returned.

"You just get home?"

"No, been home for a while. The night manager had everything under control so I ducked out a little early."

"Good, you could use a break."

"I guess. I did have some paperwork to do, but nothing that couldn't wait until tomorrow."

"What are you doin' tonight?"

"Nothing really, I'm watching TV right now. I'll probably go to bed soon…I want to see if I can get to Kim's early tomorrow morning. I put a table on hold a while ago and I'm pretty sure if I leave it there another weekend Mrs. Kim will bite my head off."

"It's a possibility, she does hate it when people forget to pick up their purchases."

"God," Lorelai let out a breath, "It's a Friday night and I'm on my couch watching TV, then going to bed early so I can wake up and go antiquing? Who am I? Mrs. Cassini?"

"I'm pretty sure Mrs. Cassini participates in the church bingo night on Fridays."

"Great even the octogenarians have more of a social life than I do."

"You can always join her, I'm sure Reverend Skinner would be happy to see somebody under, you know, 70, there."

"Ha ha," Lorelai replied sarcastically.

"Got nothing going on tonight huh?"

"Not even a little bit. What are you doing tonight?"

"Same thing I do every night. Lay down in my cot and hope it doesn't take long for me to fall asleep."

"Well aren't we just two wild and crazy guys."

"The wildest."

"Seriously, that's what you're doing?"

"Currently, yes."

"Well that's…boring. And kinda sad. Why don't you go for a drive or something? Check the town out?"

"Nah, I don't really feel like going all the way back out to the truck."

"There's gotta be something you can do…what do the other people at the faire do when it's closed?"

"Some of them leave every night and stay in a hotel."

"And the others?"

"Everyone mostly does their own thing. About once a week they have a get together."

"What kind of get together?"

"Not really sure. I can just kind of hear them when I'm walking back to my tent. I think they're over by the stage tonight." At least that's the direction the noise was coming from.

"They're having a get together tonight? Why don't you go?"

"Hang out with a bunch of strangers for an entire night? No thanks, I'm ok."

Lorelai rolled her eyes. "You don't have to stay for the entire night, you can go for an hour, meet some people."

"I've met people here."

"Oh yeah? Who?"

"There's the guy from the appledoll booth and the lady that sells the candles and the—"

"See? You don't even know their names. You should go tonight, it can't hurt to be friendly with the ren faire people, might make your last week there go by a little faster."

Luke sighed, seeing her point. Still, he resisted. "What if they're all in costume?"

"They're probably not, it's after hours."

"And it's late anyway, I should be getting to bed."

"It's 9 PM Luke. We both know you're not going to fall asleep in the next hour." When he didn't say anything she continued. "Come one, it's Friday night, one of us should be doing something."

Luke sighed heavily. "Fine. I'll go."

"Yay!"

"One hour, tops."

"Tops! I promise you won't regret it."

"Yeah well…I better go. Merriment awaits," Luke responded not bothering to hide his sarcasm. They hung up and Luke began gathering his jeans and flannel from earlier in the day to change back into. Though he didn't really want to socialize with the ren faire people, he had to smile at the fact that he was going to. They weren't even in the same state and Lorelai was still convincing him to do things he wouldn't have thought to do. He grumped about it, but she was usually right. She had gently nudged him out of his comfort zone many times before, and almost every time it happened, he'd realize that she was right to do so. So he was, apparently, going to spend time with his sister's friends tonight. Not for long though, he wasn't crazy. He'd stay for an hour, like he said he would, and then it was back to bed.

/

Still on her couch, Lorelai sighed. A pang of loneliness hit her now that she didn't have Luke's voice in her ear. She was happy he'd caved and decided to go out. He deserved a break. Unconsciously, she pouted. It seemed that everyone was out except for her. Sookie had hired a babysitter so she and Jackson could have a date night. Michel had taken a half day off to go see a show in New York. Rory wasn't in the country and still wasn't talking to her anyway, and now Luke was going out. Hell, she didn't even have an obligatory Friday night dinner to go too. Feeling slightly sorry for herself, Lorelai sunk deeper into the couch, burrowed further into the blanket and settled in for another episode.


SATURDAY MORNING:

Checking one last time to make sure the table was secure; Lorelai flopped into the front seat and closed the jeep door behind her. Mrs. Kim was happy she'd finally come by to pick up her purchase. At least, she thought Mrs. Kim was happy about it…it was hard to tell with her sometimes. Either way, Lorelai had accomplished task number one on her to-do list and was ready to move on to task number two: the beauty supply store. Fastening her seatbelt, Lorelai started the ignition and pulled out her phone to dial Luke.

"Hey," Luke answered.

"Good morning!"

"Morning, you're up early for a Saturday."

"Trying to get that worm. I have a few errands to run today so I figured I better get started on them before I check in at work."

"Well, good for you."

"Yeah. I also wanted to call and see how your night went," Lorelai said leadingly.

"Oh, uh, it was fine."

"Yeah? You had a good time?"

"Well I wouldn't go right to good, but I didn't completely regret the decision so I guess take that for what you will…"

Lorelai smiled, and cut the ignition, preparing to hear all about Luke's night. She knew is grumpiness was mostly a front. "I'll take it as a win then." At Luke's affected sigh, she continued, "So did you meet anyone cool?"

"Again, I wouldn't go right to cool."

"No one interesting? They're people who choose to pretend they live in the 1500's there has to be someone worth telling me about."

"Uh, I guess I did end up talking to one guy for a while, Henry, he's uh, he's got a beard."

"He has a beard…? That's the most interesting thing about Henry? What did he do before joining the circuit?"

"He worked in a car manufacturing factory."

"Well see, that's more interesting than his facial hair."

"You'd think, but he really loves that beard…even tried to convincing me to grow mine out."

"Hmm. Well, that would be…different."

"Different?"

"Well I'm not sure how it would look I'd have to see it on you. But I am of fan of that stubble-thing you have going on."

"You are?" Luke smiled.

"Yeah," Lorelai confirmed with a slight blush. She was a fan of the clean-shaven Luke too, but she wasn't about to say that.

"Noted."

"So uh, Henry with the beard, anyone else?" Lorelai asked quickly, wanting to steer the conversation away from that potential diversion. She was thankful when Luke went along with it.

"A few others, met some people from the Antler Art booth, and the lady that acts as the queen in the play they put on—she was really nice actually, once you get past the goofy wig."

"She kept the wig on after hours?"

"Apparently there's a whole process to take it off so she left it on."

"Huh," Lorelai frowned in consideration, she guessed that made sense, "So there's a stage play?"

"Yeah, from what I can tell they do a couple shows a day, and then after they stay in character and walk the grounds…take pictures with people, that kind of thing."

"Oh cool! Make sure you take a picture with some of them, I want to see what their costumes look like."

"Oh yeah, for sure I will," Luke rolled his eyes.

Lorelai laughed, knowing he'd never do it, but still finding amusement in the possibility existing, "So. What did you guys do, just hang around? Crack open a case of grog?" Restarting the ignition, she pulled away from the curb and headed towards the beauty supply store.

"Pretty much. They have this portable fire pit that they lit and put a bunch of lawn chairs and benches around and everyone was just talking… One guy brought out a guitar and was playing the whole time."

"Was he any good?"

"Yeah I mean, he wasn't putting on a show or anything, he was just kinda playing background music, but he was pretty good."

"That sounds nice."

"Despite the 70% of them that were still in costume by the way—yeah, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. You were right."

"Aw see, I knew it couldn't hurt to get out and mingle a little."

There was a beat of quiet before Luke spoke again, his voice showing his confusion. "You know they do this thing, and I don't really get it."

"What thing?"

"They keep yelling out huzzah."

"Huzzah?"

"Yeah like one person will yell it out and then everyone joins in and repeats it."

"Isn't that like, a celebratory thing?"

"I don't know," Luke said thinking back to the last time he'd heard it, "I don't think so…they just kind of do it randomly throughout the day."

"Maybe you should ask Liz about it."

"Maybe."

"So you met a few people, and apparently don't hate me for encouraging you to go out."

"No I don't hate you," Luke smiled.

"Good. So was that all the news from last night?

"I think so…That guy Henry was telling me about the inner workings of the faire, you know, who's friends with who, the politics, the gossip—"

"Ooh ren faire gossip? Spill!"

"It's all kind of pointless…I mean I don't know these people so none of it really matters."

"Come on Luke!"

Luke chuckled, "Ok fine, the grog booth girl, Annie, she's goin' out with the fruit ice guy—"

"Fruit ice?"

"Popsicles."

"Ok."

"But she also has a history with someone else on the circuit—not sure who."

"Ooh intrigue."

"Henry said that the fruit ice guy has a jealous streak. He thinks it's going to lead to a duel of some kind. Everyone was throwing out theories so, I guess that'll be the buzz for a while."

"Wow, who knew things in the renaissance could be so scandalous?"

"Not me."

"Thanks for catching me up on all the hot goss," she said smiling, knowing Luke would balk at the phrase.

"Hot goss?"

"It's what the cool kids say."

"And you're a cool kid?"

Lorelai gasped affectedly. "I'm the coolest! People wish they had my natural charm and effervescence."

"And she's humble too," Luke replied amusedly.

Lorelai chuckled. "I wonder what's going to happen with the grog booth girl. Do you think the duel will be more of a jousting situation or a sword fight?"

"I don't know."

"Because either way, good show."

Luke let out an amused but bewildered breath. "Why does it matter?"

"Well for one, it's entertaining. And…I don't know," she shrugged, "I like hearing about ren faire stuff…kind of makes me feel like I'm there with you, or, at least like I'm a part of this new world you're in."

Luke smile was soft. He wished she was there with him. Or better yet, he wished he was back home with her. "Well you do like to stay in the loop."

"That I do."

A quick glance at his watch told Luke that he'd have to hang up. "I should get goin'."

"Busy day?"

"Not really. Liz and TJ have a doctor's appointment so we decided not to open the booth today. Their doctor's office is further out now that we're in Bucksport so it'll take up most of the day."

"Right."

"I'm hoping for some kind of good news."

"Me too."

"Ok, well, I guess I'll talk to you later."

"Talk to you later." Lorelai ended the call and sighed softly as she returned the phone to her purse—half tempted to hit redial and ask him to meet her halfway between Stars Hollow and Bucksport—somewhere in New Hampshire she guessed. With the latest extension of his trip, she'd thought seriously about going to see Luke. After all, wasn't taking a few days off on a whim, one of the perks of owning your own place? But as much as she missed Luke—and she did—it didn't take long to figure out that dropping everything to go see him wouldn't be a great idea. The Dragonfly was still getting its sea legs, they were still figuring things out. Technically, she could leave…but that would shake up an already tenuous schedule. Sookie would be left to deal with all of it, and for what? It's not like she'd be able to spend any substantial time with Luke if she met him in Maine, or even in New Hampshire. He wasn't just lounging around the faire all day, he was working, helping…they needed him. So he probably wouldn't have the opportunity to sneak off somewhere with her. Somehow Lorelai knew that having to leave after that visit would only make their remaining time apart worse. It would feel like a tease, she thought, exiting her car and walking up to the store. No, she didn't just want a few hours, she wanted to spend time with him, proper time.


SUNDAY NIGHT:

"C'mon Luke!"

"No."

"C'mon! It'll be fun!"

"I'm not watching tv with you."

"Why not?"

"Because. I'd feel, stupid." Luke responded disjointedly.

"You think watching tv with me is stupid?"

"When we're not in the same room, yeah kinda," he said frankly.

"It won't be, I promise. We'll put on the same show at the same time and—"

"I don't know Lorelai."

"C'mon," she continued to cajole, "Next time you're in a hotel we'll watch something together again, it'll be our thing!"

"Inn," he corrected, "and we already have a lot of things together."

"What things do we have?"

"Well the whole you annoying the hell out of me thing for one."

"Ha ha."

"The bantering thing—"

"Also known as the flirting thing." Lorelai remarked then closed her eyes tightly. She didn't mean to say that. It was true, but she didn't mean to say it…and now there was quiet. Luke wasn't responding. She wondered if she'd just ruined their conversation—if that was too transparent. She was just about the abruptly change the topic when Luke spoke up.

"Uh, yeah," he smiled, "I guess we do have that too."

His voice was soft and smiley—somehow, she could tell, and it made her feel better about what she'd blurted out.

"Right," she smiled too, "so, this will just be another one of our things."

"But if we already have things together then why do we need another one?"

"You can never have too many things Luke."

"Jeeze. This conversation is getting confusing now."

"Get used to it, I'm a very confusing person."

"Tell me about it." At Lorelai's laugh, he smiled and continued on, "Go easy on me though, ok? We both know you can talk circles around me but I'd like to at least be slightly aware of what's going on in this relationship." The other end of the line went quiet, and then it was Luke's turn to wonder if he'd just ruined their conversation.

"Relationship, huh?" Lorelai remembered him saying something similar on one of those messages he'd left to let her know he was going out of town. She hadn't thought much of it at the time, but now here it was, coming up again: relationship. Surprisingly, she wasn't all that intimidated by the word or what it meant. It was Luke, casual was simply not an option. Now that they'd started, they were either going to be in a full-on relationship or they weren't. She'd always known that would be the case if anything were to happen between them. So instead of being scared or freaked out, Lorelai found the prospect of being in a relationship with Luke exciting.

"Yeah..." Luke replied, mentally kicking himself for slipping up. "I know we haven't been on a proper date yet but—"

"You hate dating."

"Yeah, I do. Relationships are just better."

Lorelai's eyes dropped shyly as though she could feel Luke's gaze on her. "Yeah, relationships are better."

"I-I mean, if that's what you want too."

Lorelai smiled at his caution. "It is."

"Ok," Luke said decidedly, "That's good."

"It is, isn't it?" Lorelai replied light-heartedly.

A relieved laugh made its way through Luke. He was happy to not have overstepped, but happier for the clarity and damn near ecstatic that they were on the same page.

"Ok burger boy, now that that's settled, let's get back to finding something to watch."

"Or we can just keep talking."

"We could, but The Sopranos is on. Flip it to HBO, you'll like this show."

"I'm pretty sure this place doesn't have premium cable Lorelai."

"Oh. Right. Well then put it on CBS," she said hitting last channel button on her remote.

"You know I don't think I actually did agree to watch something."

"Hey this is a compromise, I passed by two perfectly good movies. It's a half hour show, you can do a half hour show, right?"

Luke waited a few more seconds before giving in. He did think it was a little odd to watch tv with someone over the phone, but truthfully, he didn't mind. It was a Lorelai kind of odd and that meant he would probably end up having a good time. If anything, at least he'd enjoy her colour commentary.

"Fine," he said with an exaggerated sigh, "what are we watching?"

"Yes!" she said triumphantly, "it'll be fun I promise."

"What's the show called?"

"The King of Queens."

Luke groaned as he flipped through the channels trying to find the correct station. "This isn't some dramatic old-English royalty crap is it?"

"It's a sitcom about a couple from Queens New York. He's a UPS driver and she's a legal secretary. Throw in a crafty father-in-law and you've got the makings of comedy gold!"

"Think I found it, CBS right?"

"Right. Ok, this is a rerun so let me catch you up, the guy in the shorts, that's Doug, the lady is Carrie, and the other guy in the printed shirt, that's Spence, he's their…"

Luke listened as Lorelai enthusiastically rambled on. He lay back on the bed with an amused smile, settling in for the remainder of the show.