They're not dating! They're not.
"Luce and I have-" Lorelai pauses, both the right word and the drama of it all. "An understanding."
"That's what we're calling it these days?" Sookie says all innocently, like she's not currently smirking over the edge of her mug.
"Sookie!" Lorelei attempts to kick her under the kitchen table. Gently, of course, because she just wants a change of subject. She'll blame her blush on the cold. "I'm not a - I'm not into-"
The thing is: it's getting harder to deny it these days. It had seemed so simple when it started: a bit of fun and a fresh new experience that Lorelai had never gotten to have because of, y'know, having to raise Rory instead of fitting in those flirty college years. So of course she was curious and of course it was easy to be curious about Luce, who flaunted her sexuality like the worst-kept secret Stars Hollow had to offer.
Sometimes friends just wanna remove a friend's flannel and maybe run their fingers through a friend's hair, you know?
"You've never asked me to remove my flannel," Sookie points out. This time Lorelai collides properly with her shin.
The first time it happened was like a bolt of lightning, stars aligning. Lorelai had decided a pond would be a fun new feature to her and Rory's lives - fish to feed! Frogs sitting on water lilies to admire! Luce, former hardware store owner, merely had the appropriate tools.
So she came over on a day when Rory was at Lane's, handed Lorelai a shovel, and they dug.
The heavens opened ten minutes later.
"So it's a small pond!" Lorelai decided, as the soggy mounds of earth they'd piled around the wannabe-pond slumped back to where they came from. She caught her own soaked hair up in her hands and squeezed: water splattered the boards of the porch where they'd retreated for shelter. Thunder rumbled overhead.
Luce was as soaked as she was, cap sagging to match her frown like she was genuinely upset Lorelai's silly little idea had failed so quickly. The friendly thing, the proper thing to do was to offer her some dry clothes, maybe a hot shower.
Luce reluctantly peeled her flannel off in the midst of an unexpected August storm and Lorelai short-circuited.
Things just. Happened. And then they happened after that. And then they kept happening. Things that Lorelai didn't know Luce was capable of. Things Lorelai didn't know she was capable of.
And sure, she'd turned down the last two perfectly cute guys who asked her out for seemingly no good reason. She'd let Luce into her bed while Rory was sleeping over elsewhere, when she'd refused to let any of the handful of guys enter. Luce's strong palms on her waist, the way she dipped her nose to nuzzle Lorelai's collarbone like she couldn't believe she was being awarded the honor, was not something Lorelai thought about constantly.
Sookie's giggling, even as she reaches down to rub her leg with a mocking "Ow!".
Lorelai fails to appreciate the theatrically of it because she's too busy wondering if she can send Rory off to Lane's tonight. Third time this week was fine, right?
23. Bad Idea, Right? by Olivia Rodrigo so of course I HAD to make it an au and well while making it an au why not go all out!