Disclaimer: not mine
Archive: Yes
Category: Luke/Lorelai
Summary: Late-night confessions at the diner
How Long
By Megan Reilly
Eponine119@worldnet.att.net
February 27, 2001"You should tell them to get a room," Lorelai suggested brightly, looking over her shoulder from where she sat at the counter of Luke's diner to the table where Sookie and Jackson were making out in the corner.
Luke accidentally looked up, and grimaced, making a sound of disgust. "That's unsanitary." He quickly moved away to wipe down the end of the counter.
"Luke!" Lorelai wasn't going to let him off the hook so easily. He tried to ignore her, but she walked down to the part of the counter he was cleaning and set her elbows on it, looking up at him charmingly. "You have to do something."
"They're your friends, you do something!" Luke told her, grumpily hurrying down to the part of the counter where she'd been sitting to clean it up. "You done with this?" He'd already tossed her napkin onto her plate and taken it away.
"Refill?" Lorelai requested, holding out her coffee cup.
"It's ten o'clock at night," Luke informed her. Lorelai simply looked at him as though she didn't see his point. Which, knowing her, she probably didn't. He grumbled and refilled the enormous mug, then shut off the coffeepot.
"Aww! You didn't say it was last call for coffee!" Lorelai pouted, then snuck another look at her friends. "It's kind of sweet."
"It's disgusting," Luke said, leaning against the counter. "Hey!" He yelled, but neither one of the couple looked up. "I'm gonna get a broom," he said, going in back.
"I think you're supposed to use a hose!" Lorelai called helpfully after him.
"I'm not gonna use a hose, that would make a mess," Luke informed her when he returned with a long handled broom. He approached the pair gingerly, then tapped Jackson on the shoulder with it.
"What the hell are you doing?" Jackson demanded, jumping straight out of his chair.
"What are you doing?" Luke asked in return, and both Jackson and Sookie looked mildly embarrassed.
"Sorry," Jackson said as Sookie's face started to turn red. Jackson found some money and handed it to Luke to cover the bill for their meal. Sookie shot a crazy look at Lorelai, who was trying not to giggle. Jackson and Sookie left, and Luke followed them to the door with his broom, closing the door firmly and setting out the "CLOSED" side of the sign.
Lorelai burst out laughing.
"It's not funny," Luke told her, stashing the broom in the corner.
"You should have seen the look on your face," Lorelai gulped.
"There are health department codes," Luke grumbled. Lorelai laughed and he looked at her, annoyed. She stopped and respectfully took a sip of her coffee. "Why are you always in here when I'm closed?" he asked her.
"I think it's nice," Lorelai said.
"I never lack for company, that's for sure," Luke responded, washing out the coffee pot, then turning to the register to start counting it out for the night.
"I meant them," Lorelai said. "Two people, finally making a connection, after a long time. And I mean a loooooooooooong time."
"No excuse," Luke told her, making notes on a scrap of paper.
"C'mon, you don't think that after a dry spell you might lose control just a little bit?" Lorelai prodded.
"Is that cup empty?" Luke demanded. He reached for the ceramic mug, and Lorelai jerked back, protecting it.
"Your ears are turning pink," Lorelai teased.
Luke took a swipe at his hat, settling it more firmly on his head. "They are not."
"So that's what this is about," Lorelai said. He glanced at her and she broke into a grin. "No wonder you're so grumpy."
He turned on her, leaning across the counter almost threateningly. If Luke could be threatening, or Lorelai could be threatened, neither of which was likely. "What are you getting at?" he demanded.
"You're Mr. Dry Spell yourself," Lorelai said.
"Am not," Luke informed her and went back to counting pennies in the till.
"Are so!" Lorelai insisted. He glared at her and moved to put the day's receipts away. She followed him down the counter with her coffee cup. "C'mon, Luke."
"C'mon what?"
"How long's it been?"
"I am not discussing this with you," Luke told her.
She gave him her best pleading expression, but he was immune.
"Out," he told her.
"Not finished." She offered the cup as evidence.
"Take it with you," he told her.
"I knew it," Lorelai said.
"I am not having a dry spell," Luke told her, and she laughed. He looked hurt. "And if I was, which I'm not, it's not like I couldn't go get some if I wanted to."
"With who?" Lorelai demanded.
Luke opened his mouth and tried to force words to come out -- names of eligible bachelorettes, perhaps -- but he merely sputtered.
"What about you?" Luke demanded finally.
"What about me?" Lorelai asked.
"You -- you know," Luke said.
"If I am having a dry spell, you're in the middle of the Sahara," Lorelai informed him.
"So you admit it."
"I didn't admit anything. I date. You don't date, Luke. Your whole life is this diner."
"You don't know that," Luke informed her in a defensive way that confirmed that she did, indeed, know that. He pulled the mop out of the corner and started working in the far corner of the diner. "You could help, you know."
Lorelai sat for a moment, sipping her coffee very slowly and watching him work. He glanced at her, fully aware at that she was watching him swirl the mop from side to side across the floor. "What?" he demanded.
"You're hot," she said, in that way she had where she might have been teasing, and she might have not been teasing, and she might have just lost her mind years ago and because she was Lorelai Gilmore, there was honestly no way to determine which it was.
"Stop," Luke told her. She got up, leaving her coffee cup on the counter. "Stop right there," Luke cautioned, pushing the mop in front of him as though he needed protection. "What are you doing?"
She took the mop from him. "You said you needed help." Lorelai swung the handle and discovered mopping wasn't as easy as Luke made it look. When she'd worked as a maid at the inn, she'd cleaned floors, but the vacuum cleaner was her weapon of choice.
"That's not how you do it," he told her.
"Show me," she requested.
He reached for the mop. "I'll do it myself."
"Show me," Lorelai repeated.
"Where's your kid?" Luke asked.
Lorelai shrugged. "Studying at Lane's. Which they think I don't know means they went into Hartford to a dance club." Luke blinked as though she'd said something confusing. Lorelai took another swing at the floor with the mop, and Luke caught her arm.
"Like this," he demonstrated.
"Rumor has it you have a crush on me," Lorelai said. She fully expected him to yell at her to get out of the diner, but he didn't. He chuckled, a low sound she felt more than heard. "What?"
"Rumor has it you have a crush on me," Luke told her.
"I do not," Lorelai quickly and vehemently denied.
"Now why would you lie about something like that?" Luke asked her.
"Cause I'm not lying?" Lorelai suggested, pulling away from him.
"Your face is flushed," Luke pointed out.
"So what," Lorelai said, annoyed.
"You brought it up," Luke said, dismissively, and quickly finished with the floor. Returning to the counter, he checked her coffee mug and found it empty. He removed it from the counter and with it went her reason for being in the diner.
"Is there any more pie?" Lorelai asked.
"You do this on purpose," Luke told her.
"Do what? I'm hungry." She went to the pie keeper on the counter and helped herself. "You want some?" There was a long pause, then Luke nodded, and she cut him a slice. They ate their pie in silence, Luke leaning against the counter. "You didn't deny it," Lorelai said, her eyes on the blueberries. "That you have a crush on me, you didn't deny it."
Luke didn't say anything. She looked up and felt that little flutter in her chest, the one that was either fear or excitement, she couldn't tell which.
"How long?" Lorelai asked.
Luke scraped his plate, licked his fork, and put the plate in the plastic dirty-dish tray. "You done with that?" He indicated her plate. Lorelai looked at him and he sighed. "Long," he answered like a man defeated. "A long time."
"How long?"
He shrugged.
"Why didn't you say anything?" Lorelai asked.
"Are you done with your pie or aren't you?" Luke asked.
She wanted to fling the plate at him and yell. But she couldn't, because it was much too serious and sad that Luke had had a crush on her for an indeterminate amount of time he couldn't put a number to, and he hadn't done anything about it. She just looked at him, and after a second, he took the plate, no words transpiring between them. Lorelai got up, feeling strange and angry, and got her coat, putting it on with rough movements.
"Lorelai --" Luke said.
"Never mind," she told him, pulling on the handle of the door. It didn't open and she looked at it, perplexed, and tried pushing on it. Still nothing happened and she gave it a good, hard shove and then rattled it.
Luke gently reached in front of her and turned the bolt over, unlocking the door. He was standing right next to her. "You don't have to go," he said.
"You have work to do," she pointed out.
He nodded, and took a step back. Allowing her to go. Once again she'd done the very wrong thing. She was the one who'd pushed it, like she wanted something to happen, and now she was running scared. Lorelai didn't believe in being scared. There was no point to it. She opened the door and went out into the street where it was cold and smelled a little bit like snow.
She looked back and saw Luke standing at the window next to the door. Watching her go. She stood there, looking at him looking at her through the window. And he turned from the window.
Lorelai went back into the diner. Luke met her at the door. For a second neither of them said anything, sizing each other up, and then she reached for him and he kissed her. His baseball cap fell off and her back bumped against the door, the blinds clattering noisily.
Luke stepped back. He looked vulnerable without his baseball cap on, and strange. Lorelai wondered where they were going to eat from now on and how she was going to explain to Rory that they couldn't go to Luke's anymore. But her heart was pounding too hard for her to think.
Luke picked up his hat and crammed it back on his head.
"Luke --"
"Lorelai --"
They'd spoken at the same time, and then each waited to hear what the other had to say.
"No, you go," Lorelai said.
"See you tomorrow," Luke told her.
Lorelai nodded, and tried to smile. "Tomorrow." Luke nodded, and she realized belatedly this was her cue to go. "Tomorrow. Right. You have to close up. Okay. Wouldn't want to keep you. See you tomorrow." As she rambled, she didn't move, then realized she wasn't actually leaving, and tried to open the door. But she was standing too close and it banged into her foot, only opening an inch or two. "Oops. Sorry. I'll just go now." She took a couple of steps back and managed to open the door.
When she turned to say goodbye to Luke, he was watching her. But he didn't look amused at her unintentional clown routine. He looked for all the world like a man in love. A very serious, grumpy man in love, but still. "Luke," Lorelai said and he looked like she'd roused him from a daydream. "Next time don't wait so long." He looked intrigued, but she just walked out of the diner.
A very light snow started to fall as she walked down the main street of town in the silence of the late hour, and she smiled.
End.
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