So... I've been a bad person and haven't written in a long time, but uni's been a bit stressful and business has had to take precedence over pressure

But since today is June 3rd I decided that instead of studying for my exam tomorrow i would post another chapter

Hope you enjoy it...

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Luke sat up quickly as Lorelai removed her legs from his lap, he had been sitting like that for too long, afraid to move her lest she wake up so his muscles were stiff and needed stretching out. Entwining his fingers he pushed his arms out first in front of him, then raising them above his head. His shirt lifted slightly and Lorelai caught a peak of the slightest patch of bronzed stomach. Her eyes opened wide for a second before she caught a hold of herself and shook her head , trying to erase the images that were rapidly forming in her head.

After he had stretched out a little more (Lorelai had to look away when he had taken his hands behind his back and pushed his chest forward) he went to pick her up in the same way he had brought her down the stairs.

'Whooooa there' Lorelai put her hands up defensively, pulling away from him a little

'What?' Luke looked a little confused

'Uh nothing. It's just…I think I can probably get upstairs on my own, feeking a bit better. Help me up though.' She held her hands out in front of her and Luke took them, pulling her to her feet and making sure she was steady before taking half a step back.

'I think I'll take a bath rather, I feel like a good soak'

She bit her lip and looked up at Luke, then at the same time they both nodded their heads and said 'Dirty'

Lorelai laughed, shaking her head slightly at Luke 'You really are learning'

She too had been in the same position for a good few hours and once she was stable she gingerly pulled her head down toward one shoulder than the other. Exposing her neck to Luke he fumbled with his hands in his pockets before saying

'Well uh… why don't I go run the bath for you? You can take you time and get whatever you need to change into… or whatever you could stay in that. It's fine too… Works for me… I mean if it works for you. So yeah…' he gestured silently toward the stairs before turning his head away from her awkwardly and then practically running up the stairs.

'Oh Luke?' Lorelai called, her voice still croaky

'Yeah?' he stopped halfway up the stairs but did not bother to look down at her

'Just by the tub is some bubble bath, could you toss some in'

Luke reddened, glad he had chosen not to look at her

'Uh sure' he replied uncertainly. She sounded innocent enough, no flirtatious tone behind her request as was often present, but as if the image of Lorelai in her bath tub were not hard enough for him to deal with, now he would have to know that she was in there, surrounded by soapy bubbles… lathering herself up and -

'Oh god' he let out a strangled mumble as he entered her bathroom.

Lorelai's bathroom was the source of all her smells, and walking in Luke immediately recognized the aroma as a more concentrated version of what Lorelai smelt like from day to day. As he gazed around at the various lotions and gels he was able to identify them; the vanilla of her body lotion, the raspberry of her shower gel and the hint of a gingery smell from her hair product, all combined to make the scent that was Lorelai. He inhaled deeply before realizing that was probably a little bit creepy.

He sighed and approached the tub, seeing the bubble bath sitting on the edge he picked it up, reading the label he shook his head. The hot pink bottle was clearly marketed for 6 year old girls, with Disney Princesses that seemed to be dancing around the label. Jasmine and Ariel smiled up at him from the bottle and he sighed once again. He turned the hot water, adding just a little cold, figuring Lorelai (knowing no moderation) would probably be one of those people who liked their baths scalding hot. Once he had it at the right temperature he put the plug in and squirted two capfuls (the bottle advised one but Luke again adjusted for Lorelai's tastse) of the pink liquid into the tub and watched as the water swirled around and around and the bubbles began to emerge. As he left the bathroom back into herbed room he came across Lorelai fishing through her underwear drawer.

He cleared his throat slightly to let her know he was there

'So I see you made it up the stairs'

'Yeah it took a little longer than usual but I'm feeling a lot better actually, though it was fun to have a super hero to carry me down' She smiled at him meaningfully and he reddened a bit

'It was nothing'

'It was something, this whole day has been, you've been really great. And while I would offer to reciprocate I'm afraid I just wouldn't be able to lift you' She pursed her lips in mock ruefulness

'Plus you could never have made me soup' He continued

'Well that's a given. So I'll tell you what, next time your sick, call me and I'll come over to watch you make your own soup and walk up your stairs by yourself'

'Well sure, cos that's pretty much reciprocation'

They smiled at each other for a second before Lorelai blinked

'Guh… so I'm gonna' she gestured toward the bathroom with her head

'Oh right, yeah well I'll just be around. Yell if you need anything… Not that you can yell right now… and not that you'd need anything from me, when you're… in the tub but…'

'Right' she gathered up her discarded shorts and headed for the bathroom

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She felt awkward stripping off knowing that Luke knew what she was doing. Sure she assumed he knew that she bathed, but the fact that at that very moment Luke knew that she was getting naked and… It was weird. Was he thinking about her? She shook the thoughts from her head and continued undressing

Luke stood looking at Lorelai's bed and decided to change the bed clothes, she would probably appreciate coming back to clean sheets after a bath and just as he was stripping off her fitted sheet he head a low moan coming from the bathroom. Lorelai had stepped into the tub and allowed herself to sink in to the perfectly heated water surrounded by the perfect amount of bubbles. Feeling her muscles relax into the warm water she could not help but let out an audible appreciation of her contentedness.

Luke gulped. Try as he might he couldn't get the picture of a naked Lorelai out of his mind, a naked Lorelai lying in the bath that he had just drawn for her. Yes, this was going to be a long day.

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Luke had remade Lorelai's bed and was just smoothing down the last corner when she emerged from the bathroom, toweling her hair off and sniffling. She smiled at him shyly when she noticed the clean sheets

'You didn't have to do that' she said

He turned to face her taking her all in. She had put the cotton shorts back on and replaced the small tank she had been wearing with an over sized Yale T-shirt. As he looked down at her feet and realized she was bare foot he frowned at her slightly.

'Haven't we had this discussion once already today? You need to put something on your feet. Where are your ebay boots?'

'They were making my feet hot and gross'

'Then put some socks on or something'

'Yes sir' she looked down at the ground feigning child-like obedience before shuffling sulkily over to her dresser and going back to her underwear drawer.

That drawer, Luke had had enough of that damn drawer today. He gulped for what felt like the fifth time in as many minutes as he realized he knew what underwear Lorelai was wearing. He should not know what underwear she was wearing, it was not something you knew about a friend. How they take their coffee? Yes. Their telephone number? Probably. But not what underwear they were wearing on any given day.

Lorelai sat on the newly made bed pulling on white socks that came mid way up her calves. Luke didn't think he'd ever seen her look so… sexy.

'Man I feel so much better after that. You sure know how to spoil a girl!'

'Well I'm glad to hear you're feeling better, do you wanna have another nap or something?'

'No, my body is a little tired but I don't think I could actually sleep, wanna watch another movie?' She asked, her voice betraying a hopefulness she hoped he would not notice

'Uhh no…' Her face fell in the split second before she could shift it back to nonchalance.

'I mean, you've gotta ease me into the movie thing you know. I'm not sure I'm quite ready for a double header yet. But, if you're tired maybe we could play a board game or something. I mean, do you know how to play chess?'

'Whoa whoa whoa. Okay there are a few things I need to say; First: double header – Dirty!' she grinned before continuing 'Second: I can't believe you're suggesting we play a board game. That is so Doctor Seuss of you! And third – I know you don't really think that Rory and I have would actually play chess? I mean we are big fans of board games, if I had a son I would name him Milton-Bradley but chess is so dull. I mean it's all black and white – literally colourless! And it doesn't make sense, why can the king only move one square at a time? He's the king he should be able to do what he wants, he should be like "Hey Knight! Get off your horse and give it to me so that I can run around in weird L-shaped moves or I'll… cut off your head!" And hey,' she continued undeterred by Luke's incredulous face '..it makes absolutely NO sense that castles would be able to move, they are inanimate objects, you can't just slide them along the ground! In fact the only thing that makes sense in that whole game is that the Queen is the coolest piece… If you think about it when a pawn gets to the other side and becomes a queen well that's kinda poetic it has a certain Cindarella type quality to it don't ya think?'

'Okay… so no chess' Luke breathed out, realizing he had been subconsciously holding his breath as she had ranted on

'No chess' she agreed, nodding her head once, firmly. 'But I'd put money on the fact that you would be inclined toward a game of Monopoly'

He raised his eyebrows at her 'Do I look like the monocle man or something?'

'No, but I mean I can totally imagine you as a little kid fighting with your sister over who got to be the thimble'

'No, I always let Liz be the thimble'

'But secretly it's all you ever wanted. Don't worry Luke' she placed one hand over her heart in mock seriousness 'I will let you be the thimble, I would do that for you'

'Well that is just the nicest thing anyone's ever done for me, so where do you want to play?'

He looked at Lorelai expectantly, but she was looking back at him with a funny expression on her face that he couldn't quite read.

'You really did always let your sister be the thimble' she said quietly

'What?' he was confused over her sudden seriousness

'I mean, it's just what you do, you let people be the thimble. To the point where Liz would never even know that you ever wanted to be the thimble. 25 years later and she has no idea that you were constantly sacrificing the thimble for her. She needs to know Luke, you should tell her that you wanted to be the thimble!' Her voice was getting louder as she spoke and she ended almost desperately. This was a familiar tone of voice coming from Lorelai, a tone of voice he hated to hear. She never yelled, she just sort of spoke desperately with a sort of pleading look in her eyes

'Lorelai, what's going on?' He was genuinely confused as to why Lorelai was getting so worked up over a game piece literally 5 seconds after she had been joking with him about chess

'You should have told me that you wanted to be the thimble' She had gone back to speaking quietly

He just looked at her, his eyes silently questioning

'I mean, it's not that we always have to be the thimble, it's just that we didn't realize that you wanted it. We didn't realize how much you were sacrificing and…'

'Lorelai'

'Yeah?' She looked up at him, her eyes glazed with tears

'I never wanted to be the thimble. Thimbles are for girls' He reasoned

'God Luke! It's not about the damn thimble!' She was back to her desperate voice, gesticulating wildly

'What do you mean it's not about the thimble? You've just spend the last 5 minutes talking about the thimble. I didn't want to be the thimble so it's fine'

'But that's what you do Luke, you let us do whatever we want. And so okay you didn't want to be the thimble, but I bet you let Liz be banker whenever she wanted'

'Yeah I did' he admitted 'Even though I knew that she stole money every time'

'So thimble or banker or whatever Luke, sometimes you just need to tell people what you want, you can't go around pleasing everybody all the time. If you want something you gotta learn to ask for it, you never know the person might not mind giving it to you!'

'Lorelai where is all this coming from?'

'Luke I called you this morning with what is essentially nothing worse than the flu, and you left your business and came running over'

'So? it's what you do when somebody needs you' He said matter of factedly

'No, it's what you do when somebody needs you. Luke you are this amazing guy and you're always around when we need you. When I need you. And I just don't want you to think that I'm stealing money from the bank Luke, I don't want you to feel like you have to always give me what I want. I want to know what you want, you can't be too afraid to ask!'

'Lorelai, you're ranting! You're not making any sense! What are you trying to say?' Luke's confusion was heightening and he was starting to get a little anxious about how worked up Lorelai was becoming.

'I'm trying to say… That there may be times when you want to be the banker. And I don't want you to assume that I always have to be. If you want to be the banker sometimes Luke all you have to do is ask. But…' She was getting frustrated at her lack of ability to articulate the thoughts that were swimming about in her head. She realised she was coming across as more than a little left of centre. 'But… you have to ask. And even if I want to be the banker that day as well, you need to let me let you be the banker'

'Let you let me be the banker? Lorelai, this obviously isn't about bankers, or thimbles. What are you trying to say?'

'I'm just trying to say that if you want something you need to ask for it, and even if you don't think you're going to get it you need to fight. Don't let me walk all over you-'

Luke got a little defensive 'I do not let you walk all over me!'

'Luke, I want coffee you give a half assed protest but you'll serve me 3 cups in one morning, my porch is broken and you're over in the freezing cold fixing it. And… I mean what do I do for you? What can I do for you? We've already realised that if you got sick there is very little I would be able to do. I just think that this friendship is being dictated completely by me' Lorelai herself wasn't sure exactly what she was saying, but she very rarely thought too hard about what she was saying before it came out of her mouth, and suddenly she was realising how much Luke was willing to do for her and for some reason she couldn't explain it was making her a little angry.

'So what? You don't want me to fix your porch any more? You really want me to start withholding coffee?' He was starting to get as worked up as she was, mostly out of frustration

'No, I just want to know what you want! What I can do for you, something that I can bring to this friendship!'

Luke softened as Lorelai's insecurities began to show through

'Hey, you do plenty for me. Just by coming into the diner you make work bearable, you keep me company while I clean up at night, you listen to my rants, you educate me in the art of films. Lorelai… you're a great friend. I think that our friendship is fine, I'm not the easiest person to be friends with, and you put up with a lot from me. And really you let me be the banker a lot, without even realising it, in fact I feel like I've been the banker since we met ' He offered, thinking that he finally might have been starting to understand the analogy

'Really? So you don't think I'm stealing from the bank' She asked, her insecurities beginning to be placated

'I really don't think you're stealing from the bank' He confirmed

'Okay, so do you still wanna play Monopoly?' He seemed to have reassured her and her 'mood' was gone as fast as it had come. He was relieved

'….Not so much. But I have reconsidered my former statement on the issue and would really love to continue my film education if you'd be so kind as to oblige…'

Lorelai pretended to consider Luke's offer for a second. 'Well…. I guess it wouldn't kill me to watch another movie...' She put her arms out in front of her like a little kid wanting to be picked up 'Carry me downstairs?'

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Well I hope you enjoyed it... the monopoly metaphor may have gone too far i can't be sure... let me know.