It was warm inside the diner, and Rory stared at the surroundings. It was certainly different from the last time she saw it. Cheerful, bright and…sparkly were just three of the words that came to mind.

“I never thought Luke was a tinsel and mistletoe man,” she commented lightly.

“Huh.” Jess followed her line of sight, his gaze falling upon the festive little bunch of shiny emerald leaves adorned with waxy berries placed strategically above the doorway. “Guess Luke has his own agenda.”

Rory laughed. It was such a ridiculous thought.

“Yeah, Luke.”

“Who else could have put it up?” Jess asked.

Rory was tempted to say his name, but she wasn’t quite sure where they stood yet.

“My mom,” she said instead. “She’d find it really entertaining that the diner’s daily operations would be interrupted by couples kissing all over the place, especially since Luke … well, you know.”

“Luke’d never fall for it himself.”

“Most definitely not,” Rory agreed, then sobered. “So um…are we okay now?” She asked tentatively, more vulnerable in that one single moment than Jess had ever seen her.

“Yeah,” Jess replied, looking into her eyes. It brought a small smile to Rory’s face.

Outside, the wind picked up.

***

Lorelai hustled into the diner, Luke following her, still clad in his dressing gown and pyjamas. A stray drift of snow followed the two in, sweeping around their feet. The howling wind was shunted outside when Luke firmed closed the door in its face, metaphorically speaking.

Lorelai brushed herself off energetically. The prank pulling seemed to have reinvigorated her.

“Blizzard,” Luke replied to Rory and Jess’ questioning looks.

“Are we snowed in?” Rory asked incredulously.

“For now,” he replied grumpily. Not only was he cold and a little wet, he could almost hear Lorelai’s conjectures on the decoration.

“But Stars Hollows never -”

“What a thing to happen,” Lorelai said, trying to force a dejected tone into her voice. In reality, however, she wasn’t particularly upset. She looked around at the decorations and a delighted look spread across her face.

“Tinsel, mistletoe…I knew it Luke,” she uttered with complete belief. “You’re a total romantic!” Her arm swept around the diner, unaware, or unwilling to be aware of the three pairs of incredulous eyes fixed upon her.

“Damn the weather,” Luke muttered.

“Totally,” Jess agreed.

***

“What should we do?” Lorelai asked.

The four of them sat in the diner, the Gilmores each nursing a piping hot coffee; Jess had opted for casual observation of the flowchart, while Luke stood silent and somehow hulking behind the counter. The scene could be viewed by the ignorant passer-by as an unusual double date.

“Got any board games Luke?”

There was a very pregnant pause.

“Monopoly,” he finally conceded.

“Excellent. Bring it down please.”

And, as impossible as it may sound, a fast and furious game of Monopoly began. Lorelai had ‘bagged’ the car, Luke the slow but steady wheelbarrow. Rory and Jess opted not to participate, instead half-talking, half-watching until the early hours of the morning.

***

It was quite a while later. Luke and Jess were asleep. Luke was lying on the bed, after attempting to drown out Lorelai’s extremely expressive voice with a pillow. Jess was sprawled on the couch, where he had fallen asleep talking to Rory.

The fireplace was still going strong; every now and then a cute little puff of embers would flare up as more of the kindling burned, sending waves of heat through the apartment.

Lorelai noticed that Rory was rummaging through her bag.

“What are you doing?”

“Looking for your makeup bag.”

“My make-up bag? Why?” Lorelai feigned being disgusted. “Please don’t tell me you’re making yourself pretty for Jess.”

“No!” Rory protested, smiling. “Actually, I think you’d rather approve of what I’m doing.” With a grin, she carefully unscrewed the top of the cherry-coloured nail polish and began painting Jess’ nails.

Lorelai smiled, an instant co-conspirator.

“Let’s see him be the grungy rebel now,” she said.

“Aren’t you going to…” Rory motioned to the sleeping Luke.

“Excellent idea,” Lorelai agreed, and fished out her Barbie-pink nail polish. “I’ve had this in preparation for years in case a chance like this came up.” She sighed blissfully as she began coating his nails in thick strokes.

“I’ve got even better news,” Rory said, and held triumphantly aloft a bottle of shimmery liquid. “Glitter extra-strengthener. Guaranteed not to chip or flake for at least 5 days.”

“Could tonight get any better?” Lorelai asked to the room in general.

***

It was even later. The two Gilmores were still awake, heatedly whispering so as not to disturb Luke or Jess. Rory, who had been up for a few hours too long, had become somewhat belligerent. At least, as belligerent as possible for Rory.

“Well look who’s talking,” Rory retorted.

“And what do you mean by that?” Lorelai’s hands went to her hips, striking an indignant pose that looked silly, considering she was sitting cross-legged on the floor.

“Haven’t you ever thought about it? At all?” Rory insisted.

“Can’t say I have.”

“Think about it,” Rory continued forcefully. “You’re always in the diner, he always lets you stay in the diner, even though you cause the most damage of any of his patrons. You play pranks on him and the most he does is make a sarcastic comment. You ask him to do ridiculous things and he does them!”

“And…?”

Rory made a half-incredulous, half-exasperated sound.

“It’s obvious he likes you and you like him!”

Lorelai exhaled sharply.

“Is it…really obvious?” She asked weakly.

“I’m not going to dignify that with a response,” Rory replied. “Let’s just say the obvious attraction between you is of titanic proportions.”

“I see. Well thank you for that, honey. But I think you should really go to sleep. Now.”

Rory sighed, but obligingly lay her head down, and was asleep in three winks.

Lorelai stayed up, staring into the fire.

***

“Rory! Psst…Rory!” Lorelai poked Rory awake.

“Mmmm hmmm? Pah!” Rory swept the hair out of her face and groggily sat up. “Wha nm?”

“It’s stopped snowing! Come on, let’s sneak over to the house!”

Rory buried her head in a pillow as an answer.

“Rory! Rory!” Lorelai pulled at her arm, but that only resulted in her burrowing further into her blankets, until she resembled a cocoon of some sort. Lorelai eventually gave up and stealthily made her way back to their house, catching her foot on a cord, tripping over a rug and nearly breaking a lamp in the process in true Lorelai style.

***

Rory’s eyelids gently flitted open, then shut, then quickly open again. Perfect timing, she thought.

***

Rory walked alone, her hair held in place with a tartan headband. She loved this time in the morning, just before people were awake. There was a feeling of perfect serenity in the air

“Hey,” came a familiar voice.

“Hey yourself,” she replied. “Did I wake you?”

“Nah. Woke up by myself.” Jess took his hands out of his pockets. “With this.”

Rory burst out laughing at the expression on his face.

“You realise this means payback,” he warned.

“There’s always a risk involved,” she replied lightly. “So, was Luke snoring?”

“Yep. He sleeps like a log.”

“Winter in Stars Hollow is always so picturesque,” Rory observed.

A solitary branch drooped threateningly over an unsuspecting Rory.

“It’s so peaceful,” she said.

Laden with fresh snow, the bough creaked and groaned under the weight.

“So quiet,” she continued.

“Yeah.” Jess put his hands in his pockets, warding off the cold.

With a crack, a sizeable proportion broke off. Almost in slow motion, Rory looked upwards, eyes widening in terror, her feet unable to react in time as the limb fell, shedding flakes of snow as it plummeted towards her.

It crashed, sending a mushroom cloud of sparkling frost and snow into the air. Rory uttered a cry as she fell, suddenly forced to the ground.

There was silence as the branch and the snow settled on the ground.

Rory breathed deeply, looking into the now cerulean sky as she lay helplessly on her back. She felt winded. A face appeared in her range of vision, blocking the myriad of stars that hung in the sky like crystal droplets.

“Sorry,” Jess said, somewhat apologetically. “I pushed you over.”

Rory offered a wan smile.

“I gathered, seeing as I don’t have a concussion and the branch is over there.”

“Well, your brain hasn’t gone soft,” Jess observed.

“Can you help me up? I think the snow is soaking into my jacket.”

“I suppose I could do that.”

He knelt and took hold of her freezing cold hands, gently pulling her into an upright position. Standing on her own two feet again, Rory felt dizzy for a second and, as bright sparks flew behind her eyelids, she drooped, and fell.

This time, Jess caught her. He caught her by the arms, about an inch before she fell to the ground. Rory’s eyes opened at the impact.

“These branches…really deadly.” Jess said dryly.

“Yeah,” she agreed, realising what a compromising position she was in.

Rory rather self-consciously brushed tiny icicles from her hair and disentangled herself with an embarrassed cough.

“Now would be the time to fall through some ice, or get hit by a car,” Jess said. “While I’m still here, that is.”

Rory smiled.

“That won’t be necessary,” she replied, a little curtly.

Then, she remembered something.

“Thank you. For both times,” she said seriously.

“No problem. Shall we head back?”

“Yeah, we probably should. It’s not a good idea to leave Luke with my mom for any period of time.”

“Got that right.”

The two headed back, their footprints parallel to each other’s, starkly dark marks through the flawlessly pale snow.

***

“Wake up Luke!” Lorelai cried in an effervescent voice bubbling with cheerfulness and vivacity.

Luke shuddered. It was like waking up with the hangover of a lifetime. He tried to ignore her, but the voice cut through, however hard he tried to block out his ears.

“Get uuuup Luke!” Lorelai trilled. Suddenly, it stopped speaking and started laughing. “Bed hair,” she said quietly, and burst out into quiet laughter that nevertheless that filled the room.

“Excuse me,” Luke grumbled sourly, and wandered off to the bathroom to change. Honestly, one act of goodwill and you’re paying for it the rest of your life. The only consolation he could think of was the poster Taylor had put up in the diner the previous day. Possibly the only useful thing Taylor’s ever done, he thought a little nastily.

Below, in the diner, Lorelai stared with delight at the gaudy gold and red and green paper that announced the coming of KK presentations.

“I can’t wait,” Lorelai said out loud.

***