Gilmore Girls - The Day Before


Title: The Day Before
Written For: misskatherine
Pairing: Luke/Lorelai
One water/bath-related object (soap, sponge, rubber ducky, etc.) that must be featured in the fic: Hello Kitty soap
One optional prompt which the author may or may not incorporate: post-series, futurefic
Spoilers: Vaguely through The Perfect Dress
Author's Note: Thanks ever so much to my last minute beta (who shall remain nameless). Sorry for cutting it so close to the deadline!


June 2, 2006

Lorelai wakes up and looks blearily at the alarm clock. She panics for a moment when she sees that it is nearly nine and she’s late for work, but then she remembers that it’s the day before her wedding and she doesn’t have to work.

“The day before my wedding,” she says aloud, to herself. She’s surprised when she realizes that she’s not panicking.

She gets out of bed, pulls on her robe and slippers and heads downstairs to make coffee. She finds a pot of coffee already made on the counter. Next to it is a wrapped package and a card. She pours herself a cup of coffee and takes the package over to the kitchen table, smiling to herself.

After downing a healthy swig of coffee, she puts the mug down and opens the card. It’s got a picture of an old lady in one of those old fashioned bath tubs with the claw feet on the front. Her eyebrows knit together in confusion and she opens the card to read:

Lorelai,

Take a deep breath, relax, and don’t even think about running. I love you and I’ll see you at the Dragonfly at six.

Luke


She rolls her eyes at Luke’s suggestion that she might actually run out on him, but opens the package to find a Hello Kitty bath set. Giggling at the idea of Luke buying anything pink, she opens the package to find a wash cloth, a bottle of sparkly bubble bath, and three little bars of soap shaped like Hello Kitty.

Refilling her coffee mug, she grabs the kit and her cell phone and heads up to the bathroom. She starts the water, pouring in a generous helping of the sparkly bubble bath, and hits the first speed dial number on her phone.

“Luke’s,” her husband to be answers the phone gruffly, as usual.

“I can’t believe you’re working the day before our wedding,” she scolds him playfully.

“We talked about this,” he starts to say. “I explained to you that I didn’t see any reason to sit around the house, doing nothing, before the rehearsal dinner and you said that you were okay with that.”

Lorelai laughs. “I’m teasing you, Luke. Relax and take a deep breath.”

His tone softens immediately. “You found your gift?”

“I did,” she confirms. “I’m running a bubble bath as we speak.” That reminds her to check the water levels and she grins when she realizes the tub is full. She leans over and turns off the water.

“Oh?” Luke asks in a strangled tone.

“Yep! In fact, the tub is now full, so I’m going to slip off my robe and slide into the hot water,” she says, her voice automatically lowering to a seductive register.

There is silence on the other end of the line. Lorelai lets out a deep, throaty chuckle as she sheds her robe and steps carefully in to the tub. “Luke? Honey? You still there?” she asks, keeping her voice as innocent as possible.

“Huh? Yeah, I’m here,” he replies, obviously distracted. Lorelai can hear Caesar yelling about orders being up in the background.

“Ahhh,” she says, sinking into the bubbly warmth. “Thank you so much for my present. I was trying to figure out what I was going to do to keep myself busy for the next six hours and a bubble bath is the perfect distraction.”

“You’re, uh, in there now?” he asks.

“I am. It is absolute heaven,” she tells him, sighing dramatically. “It’s also very sparkly and pink. I bet I have glitter all over my body all day.”

“All over?”

“Yes, well, you know how glitter is, Luke,” she explains. “It sticks everywhere and you find it in places you never expected to find it for weeks after you use it.”

Luke’s tone turns grumbly. “Yes, I know how glitter is. I’m still finding it from the Welcome to the Family party you threw for April in the diner four months ago,” he reminds her, apparently forgetting for the moment that she is in the bath tub while they’re talking.

“Well, geez,” she says, innocent tone firmly in place. “I wonder if I’ll be finding glitter all over my body four months from now.”

“What? Oh, that bubble bath stuff really has glitter in it?” he asks.

“Yes, Luke. And, by the way, where on earth did you find a Hello Kitty bath set? I love the little Hello Kitty shaped bars of soap.”

“Uh, I don’t remember,” he says, the distracted tone back.

“I’m sorry, are you busy? I’ll let you get back to work and just enjoy my bubble bath all by my lonesome,” she tells him.

“No, no, I’m fine,” he says quickly. “In fact, it’s not even that busy here today. I was thinking about coming home.”

Lorelai knows he’s lying because she can hear Caesar in the background yelling about orders again. She can also hear Miss Patty’s voice chattering on about how distracted Luke is and she can’t understand why he’s working on the day before his wedding. In fact, it sounds as if the entire town is in the diner this morning.

However, Lorelai really isn’t looking forward to spending the day alone. Rory is working until noon and Sookie is no doubt going insane at the inn, getting everything ready for the rehearsal dinner that evening.

“Well, if you come home soon, I’ll probably still be in the tub when you get here,” she tells him, the seductive tone back.

“Right. Hang on a sec.” She can tell that he’s covering the phone with his hand, but she can still hear him telling Caesar that he’s got to run home and asking if he can cover the diner alone. Caesar starts grumbling, but then Lorelai hears another voice saying that Luke can go, she suspected he wouldn’t really want to work today so she came in.

Lorelai makes a mental note to buy Lane a really fabulous present while she and Luke are on their honeymoon as Luke’s voice comes back on the line. “Okay, Caesar says he can handle things here,” he tells her. “So I’m going to head home.”

“Okay, well, I’ll be in the bathroom, enjoying this fantastic present that you gave me,” she says, hiding her amusement.

“See you in a few minutes,” he says, hanging up the phone.

Lorelai finally laughs out loud. The water is starting to cool, so she lets a little bit empty, then dumps another capful of bubble bath in the water and runs some hot water to warm the tub up again.

She leans her head back and waits for Luke to join her, amusing herself with the image of his body covered in pink glitter. She realizes that she’s going to have a hard time not laughing tonight at the rehearsal and tomorrow at their wedding.

Their wedding. She’s getting married tomorrow. To Luke. And she’s still not panicking. Lorelai is proud of herself.

The sound of the door slamming downstairs jars her out of her reverie. She grins in anticipation of Luke joining her in the pink, sparkly bubble bath.

End