SUMMARY: The morning after the night before -- Rory and Lorelai talk about boys. Spoilers for So... Good Talk.

THANKS: To Jo and Em for the quick-and-fabulous beta. ::g::

***

Rory's cellphone bleated relentlessly, pulling her from a really great dream about her job as National Book Reader, in charge of reading every single book published each year.  Groaning, Rory flopped over, accidentally elbowing a warm lump beside her.  A lump that resolved itself into Logan as Rory's vision swam into some semblance of focus.  

As she stared blearily, Logan opened his eyes, grinned at her, and said, "Hey, watch yourself, Ace."

Stupid boy waking up all coherent.  Rory merely grumbled something and reached for her phone.  It was her mother, of course.  Rory flipped the phone open, flopped back onto her pillow, and said, "This better be good."

"Good morning to you, too, sunshine," Lorelai answered in a strange, hushed voice.  She sounded... excited?  Rory couldn't quite tell.

Logan shifted closer and pressed a kiss to Rory's shoulder, which was seriously weird considering she was talking to her mother.  "Why are you whispering, Mom?" Rory asked, turning her head to give Logan a pointed look.

It was still a little weird for Rory to wake up with a boy, and Logan's knowing smirk from mere inches away was not helping.  He slid a hand across the along the mattress and squeezed her thigh.

Rory's voice was a little high-pitched when she added, "And why are you up so early?"

Logan heaved an exaggerated sigh and nonchalantly tossed the covers back.  Rory flushed and averted her eyes as he stood up, searching for his boxers.  Really, really weird to wake up with a naked boy.  Getting naked in the dark to have all the sex was a very, very different experience than waking up in the bright sunlight -- and, oops, why hadn't she remembered to close her curtains? -- with a naked Logan.

"I'm up," Lorelai answered, "because it's nearly eight, and I'm whispering because I don't want to wake Luke."

Rory was about to ask why her mother hadn't simply left the room if she was so concerned about waking Luke up, but then the Luke part registered.  Rory's eyes widened, and she started to smile.  "Luke?  Really?"

"Yes," Lorelai confirmed, nearly squealing.

"So you're back together?" Rory asked.

Logan leaned into her line of sight, fully dressed now, and mouthed, "Coffee?"  Rory nodded gratefully, and he grabbed his wallet from the bureau.  With an amused arch of his eyebrow, Logan said quietly, "Be right back."

Rory tried not to cringe, practically holding her breath until her mother didn't ask exactly who that was talking in the background.

"Yes," Lorelai chirped instead.  "Oh, kid, I can't tell you how great this is."

"Mom, I'm so relieved."

"Relieved?" Lorelai echoed, sounding a bit miffed at Rory's choice of words.

"You've been so sad without him," Rory explained.  Because Rory had seen her mother upset before, but nothing like The Refusing To Get Out of Bed Incident of 2005.  Part of the Gilmore schtick was that Rory often acted more mature than her mother, but Rory'd never really had to watch her mother suffer like that without being able to make everything better.

"Well," Lorelai admitted grudgingly, "sure, I missed him, but I wasn't a total basketcase."

Rory choked down an inappropriate laugh, because -- "You really were."

"I was not!"

"Oh, please, mom.  You were the Joe Lies Girl, except less angry and more depressed."

"Oh, my God," Lorelai yelped, "you're bringing up Say Anything?  That is so not -- Oh," she lowered her voice.  "Sorry."

"Mom?"

"I woke Sleeping Beauty," her mother confessed.  She didn't sound particularly repentant, and Rory could hear Luke grumbling something in the background.

"Tell Luke I missed him," she instructed.

"My daughter says you owe me shiny jewelry or at least pancakes," Lorelai told Luke.

"Missed you, too, Rory," Luke said, obviously leaning closer to the phone to avoid the Lorelai-centric translation.

"Pancakes," Lorelai wheedled.  "And seven or eight cups of coffee."  A moment passed, and then she was back, voice lower again.  "The hunter-gatherer is gone now, so we can talk about him."

"I don't think making pancakes qualifies Luke as a hunter-gatherer," Rory observed, smiling a little even though her mother couldn't see her.

"Who cares?" Lorelai laughed.  "He's making me coffee."

"Good man," Rory said, delighted to hear her mother sounding so much more herself.  She'd recovered from The Refusing to Get Out of Bed Incident, of course, but her smiles had still seemed a little brittle, and her laughter a bit forced.  Now, though, she sounded better.  "Seriously, Mom, this is great."

"I think so," Lorelai agreed cheerfully.

Rory snuggled a little further into the covers, rolling onto her side and resting her cellphone along her cheekbone.  "So what happened?"

"That is a very long and mildly disturbing tale not suitable for the hallowed halls of Yale," Lorelai answered.  "But the short version is that I look surprisingly hot in his flannel shirts."

"Mom!" Rory exclaimed, mildly scandalized.

"So speaking of boys..." Lorelai prompted.

"Logan's fine," Rory answered, amused and a little flustered.  He was fine, of course, but he'd be back pretty soon, and she was naked in his bed and her mother was talking to her like they were sitting at their table in Luke's and it was--

"Just fine?" Lorelai prodded, interrupting Rory's frantic train of thought.  She sounded a little reluctant, but not at all awkward and nervous the way she had whenever she'd forced herself to ask about Dean.  Rory was quite relieved that she'd explained the Logan situation well enough that she didn't have to hide anything from Mom.

Of course, Rory wasn't quite sure how open her mother wanted her to be, but she had just made the inappropriate flannel joke, so Rory took a breath and said, "He's getting me coffee."

"On a regular--?  Oh, you mean now," Lorelai surmised, her voice going all funny and high-pitched.  "He's -- he went out for coffee."  She laughed nervously.

"Is this weird for you, Mom?" Rory asked, splaying a hand over her face in embarrassment.  "I'm sorry," she apologized quickly, her words tumbling over each other.  "I don't want it to be weird between us again."

"No, not weird," Lorelai answered, still sounding, well, weird.  "Just... not normal.  Yet."

"So," Rory wondered, dropping her hand to Logan's navy blue sheets, "I shouldn't talk--?"

"No, I don't want us doing that again either," Lorelai answered firmly.  "And I did call you about Luke, which is probably an overshare."

"As long as we stay away from certain details," Rory decided, letting out a relieved breath as she plucked at a stray thread on the sheets.  "I think we're fine."

"That goes double for you, missy," Lorelai answered.  "But he -- I mean, he treats you well?"

"I already told you -- Oh."  Rory blinked, her fingers gripping the edge of the sheet.  "You mean..."  Her mind went blank.  She couldn't think of a single, genteel euphemism for sex.  How could she possibly have spent 14 years of her life reading high literature and not be able to come up with a way to talk about sex with out really talking about sex?

"Yeah, I mean..." Lorelai confirmed, her voice high and nervous.  There was an awkward pause, then she continued, "You don't -- please -- have to answer in detailed essay format or anything.  I just -- the Dean thing was so -- and the first time is never-- and I just want to be sure -- if--"

"Mom," Rory interrupted, actually tempted to duck beneath the sheets, not that her mother was there to see her or anything.  But still, her cheeks were burning.

"Oh, thank God," Lorelai muttered.  "I thought you were going to let me ramble until I started using words like deflowering."

Snickering, Rory said, "Please don't ever use that word.  Really, it's --"  Again with the mind blanking.  "He treats me well," she finished, using Lorelai's original phrasing to ensure they didn't wander into The Land of Too Much Detail.

"Good," Lorelai answered, her voice slightly less strange as they took a couple steps away from the really awkward topic.  "Good.  So I think it's safe to say Logan cut his trip short to see you."

Rory was still a little unclear on the boundaries of her relationship with Logan, so she hedged, "I wouldn't jump to any conclusions."

"Seriously, we need to find a Jump-to-Conclusions mat.  Someone must sell that."

"Try eBay," Rory suggested, relieved they'd slipped so easily back into the non-linear conversation portion of the phone call.  "Listen, I know I'm supposed to come by on Friday night, but I know I'm going to be grumpy and I don't want to make you any more angry with Grandma than you already are."

"Not possible, Rory," Lorelai remarked, her humor laced with a bit of genuine hurt.

"Still," Rory countered, not wanting to wade any further into that particular cesspool.  "Why don't you and Luke come down on Saturday instead?  Not for a double date or anything," she explained hurriedly, "just to visit for a while."

"That sounds good, kid," Lorelai agreed enthusiastically.  "We can have lunch.  Preferably somewhere that will drive Luke batty.  Oooh, is there a good place with a no-hats policy?"

"Mom!"

"What?  He looks good without the hat.  Will you invite Logan?"

Rory blinked, not quite expecting the question yet.  "Yes, but I have no idea if he has plans, so no promises," she answered, trying not to sound defensive or uncertain.  "I want to see you and Luke either way."

"Speak of the devil, someone just arrived with pancakes, coffee, and a choir of heavenly angels singing his praises."  Luke replied, but Rory couldn't make out the words, only his acerbic tone.  "Luke, Rory has requested the honor of our company Saturday.  Are you free?"

"Of course," he answered.

In Logan's apartment, Rory heard the door and slid a little more upright against the headboard, pulling the sheet up higher over her chest.  "Great.  Hey, Mom?"

"Your coffee has arrived?" Lorelai guessed, and she sounded mostly normal, which Rory chose to take as a good sign.

"Exactly," she confirmed, relieved that Mom hadn't said anything that would tip Luke off to the precise situation.  If her mother was having some trouble with this, Rory knew Luke would just totally flip out.

Again.

"I wouldn't dream of getting between a Gilmore and her coffee," Lorelai remarked.

"I'll call you later," Rory said as Logan appeared in the doorway, carrying two gigantic cups of coffee.  "Love you."

"Love you, too, kid."

Rory flipped the phone closed as Logan approached, brandishing a cup just out of her reach.

"Come and get it," he instructed with a sly grin, eyeing the sheet.

"You're a prince," she teased, reaching for the coffee while keeping the sheet firmly in place with her free hand.  "Thank you," she added primly, hiding her smile behind the cup as she took a sip.

"No problem, Ace."  He nodded toward the phone.  "How's your mom?"

"Very good.  She and Luke worked things out."

Logan removed his wallet and tossed it on the bedside table.  "And Luke would be which one?"

"One of the men who threatened you, yes," Rory confirmed.  She took another sip, scalding temperature be damned, and her eyes drifted shut in delight.  He'd brought her a caramel macchiatto with an extra shot.

"Good for her," Logan said, stepping out of his shoes and dropping to the edge of the mattress.  He leaned back on his elbow, the picture of insolence.  "He seems feisty."

"Oh, he's just protective of me," Rory explained.  "I think in his head I'm probably still about fourteen.  He's a great guy, though.  Really."

"Okay."  Logan didn't move, didn't blink, just stared at her with that half-smile of his until she grew too uncomfortable with the silence and started rambling again.

It didn't take long.  "In fact," Rory said, shifting carefully to face him more fully without spilling any of the precious liquid onto his bed, "Luke and my mom are coming to New Haven Saturday."

"Oh, really?" Logan asked, one perfect eyebrow lifting a fraction of an inch.

"Yeah," Rory answered, warming her hands on the coffee cup.  "Just, you know, to spend some time, probably grab lunch.  I haven't really seen Luke since the breakup, and he's a big part of Stars Hollow."

"He owns the diner, right?"

"Yes.  Exactly," she confirmed, nodding emphatically.  She took another sip, then picked at the lid as she continued, "And it was weird being there and not going to the diner and not seeing Luke.  Except for when he honked at Frank and Lane and me, but I didn't talk to him or anything."

"Naturally," Logan commented.  He was really, frustratingly good at noncommittal answers.

"So it'll be good to see him Saturday," she added lamely.  "And to see my mom happy again."

"Sounds like a good time."

"Probably.  I'm thinking of taking them to that Thai place, you know--"

"The little hole in the wall with the killer Pad Thai?" Logan guessed, shifting a little on the bed.

"Exactly," Rory confirmed.  "You like that place, right?"

"Absolutely."

"Good."  She twisted the cup in her hands, not quite sure how to ask him this.  Because Logan wasn't her boyfriend, but he'd come back from spring break and they'd had sex a few times, so she felt like she had some sort of grounds to ask him to have a simple lunch with Mom and Luke.  Rory cleared her throat, "Good.  So--"

"Are you trying to ask me to double date with your mom and her boyfriend?" Logan asked, and that annoying (and sexy) half-grin was back in full force.

"No!" Rory practically yelped.  "No.  Definitely not."

"Because that's way too Brady Bunch for me."

"Right," Rory agreed, hurt and determined not to show it.  "And besides, it would be awkward."

"True," Logan answered levelly.  But he simply stared at her, waiting.

"On the other hand..."

"Rory," Logan groaned, "parents usually like me, okay?  Your grandparents would plan the wedding tomorrow if they knew about this," he added, gesturing to the bed.

"Are you kidding me?" Rory argued.  "My grandparents would pay someone to kill you if they knew about this!"

Logan waved off her perfectly valid point.  "I'm fine with meeting parents in the abstract, because like I said, parents like me.  But these particular parents already met me under less than idea circumstances."

"I know.  That's exactly why I think we should just go somewhere really casual, grab lunch, nothing weird or--"

"Awkward," Logan supplied sullenly.

"Right.  Nothing awkward."

Logan sighed.  "Rory--"

"Forget it," she interrupted, scrutinizing the coffee cup in her hands.  "It was a stupid idea."

Silence.

Logan's hand landed on her knee, rubbing circles through the sheet.  "It obviously means a lot to you."

"It's fine, Logan, really," she answered, and she couldn't seem to stop the irritation from bleeding into her tone.  "I don't want to push you into doing something so awful.  I mean, all that terrible food and horrible conversation -- it would be too much to ask."

"Ace."

She forced herself to meet his gaze with a blank expression.  "Really.  It's fine.  Let's just forget it."

Logan stared back at her for a long moment.  "What time Saturday?"

"I'm not sure yet," Rory admitted.

He tapped his fingers against her knee.  "I have a family thing in the afternoon.  Can we make it closer to noon?"

Rory started to brighten.  "I think that can be arranged."

Logan raised his eyebrows and leaned closer.  "You owe me."

She leaned in and kissed him quickly, getting a little more comfortable with whatever the hell their relationship was, even if she couldn't quite define it.  "I always pay off my debts."

Laughing, Logan rolled away and stood, pulling his shirt off.  He reached for the fly of his jeans and glanced over at her.  "We're not getting up at this ungodly hour, right?"

"You brought me a large coffee," Rory observed, lifting the cup a little in case he'd forgotten, a little disconcerted by the way he was so carelessly stripping.

"So?" he asked, pushing his jeans over his hips and stepping out of them.

"So it has two shots of espresso!" she said, her voice a little higher and squeakier, considering the fact that he was naked again.

Logan rolled his eyes, pulled the sheet back, and slid into bed.  "I've seen you drink twice that and still looked dazed."

"I do not look dazed!" Rory protested.

"Little bit dazed, Ace.  Don't worry, it's a good look for you."

"So I'm supposed to just drink this and go back to sleep?"

Logan's hands dipped under the cover and landed on her body, tracing little circles into her skin.  "Not right away."

Okay, Rory thought as she carelessly plopped the half-empty coffee cup on the nightstand and rolled closer to Logan, maybe waking up with boys has its positives.

THE END

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