Author's Notes: So, at least it wasn't as long this time between updates. As usual, the chapter was giving me a bit of trouble, but I definitely got in what I wanted to get in (and man, do I wish that was a pun) and fleshed out a few aspects of Chris's personality that I've always wanted to explore (and a little of Luke's).

In any case, my sincerest apologies for the long time between updates. This chapter is shorter by about a page, and editing was on me for this one, since Legacy doesn't particularly care to beta the *ahem* naughty bits, if you catch my drift. So any remaining mistakes are my own from the read-throughs I did on my own.

So, any remaining mistakes aside, hope you enjoy!

XXXXX

17. You're Holding It In

The familiar streets of Stars Hollow were wet with recent rain as Chris drove through them. Most of the shops were closed, though the arcade, video store, and bar were still chugging along. The rain was light, barely coming down hard enough to even qualify as precipitation.

Chris spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to determine whether it was rain, snow, or ice. Most of that time was spent sitting just inside the limits of Stars Hollow, ignoring how his gut was churning over the dinner with his mother. It was when he realized his knuckles were white against the stark black of the steering wheel that he put the car in drive again, following a route he knew too well.

Of course, the diner was closed. And he spent yet another absurd number of minutes simply in his car outside of it, listening to music through headphones and debating if it was really that good an idea to even sit outside of Luke's for as long as he had. The jittery nerves made his heart pound anxiously in his chest, the stiff rhythm only making the stomach upset worse.

The only thing that sprung him into action was a hard knock on his window.

Startled, Chris rolled the window down to find Kirk staring at him in an unsettling way. "Yes?"

Kirk stared him down levelly, hands crossed behind his back. "We don't allow "parking", otherwise known as loitering, within the limits of Stars Hollow. I would really hate to have to call the so-called law on you, Christopher. I always found you rather easy to get along with. However, I will have to ask you to move along if you're not intending on visiting someone here."

Chris scoffed quietly to himself. "I'm just sitting here, you know. I'm planning on visiting someone soon."

"Well, you were spotted sitting quite close to the Stars Hollow town limits earlier, and you've been reported—"

"Reported, seriously?" Chris stumbled out. "I was sitting in my car, which—"

Kirk held up a hand. "As I understand it, you're going to argue that your car is your property, which yes, it is within your right to dawdle as long as you wish. However, the Township of Stars Hollow strictly prohibits acts such as "parking" within its limits. Again, you do seem like a nice guy, so I'm letting you off with a warning before the "po-po" is called in. If you're visiting, then it's fine. If you're simply finding our city nice to look at, it's fine. But if you're just looking for a place to park your car, a place to sleep—"

"Kirk, it's fine. I'll be out of your hair soon enough," Chris snapped. "I'm just—"

Kirk cut him off again. "I'll have to ask you to leave the city limits if you're going to continue to park your car on the sides of the road." He looked uneasy for a moment before he leaned forward uncomfortably close to Chris's face with an earnest gaze. "You have to understand, I'm only doing this because Taylor mentioned—"

"Oh, well, since Taylor mentioned," Chris responded sarcastically.

Kirk waved his hand nervously. "Taylor only wanted that the township laws are abided by." He frowned for a moment. "Followed by? Allowed? Acknowledged? Yes, that's it. Acknowledged."

Chris nodded warily. "Well, fine. Tell Taylor that I acknowledge that there's township laws; I get it. You won't find me around the corner selling crack to the crazy high school kids."

Kirk jumped as if someone had stabbed him. "Not so loud, Christopher!" He looked around in paranoia. "Taylor has ears, and they're everywhere."

Chris sighed. "Look, I get it, Kirk. I need to complete my business here or move along. Is that the gist?"

Kirk nodded uncertainly. "Well…yes."

"Then rest assured, I will move along or do what I need to," Chris said, laying on the charm as heavy as he could.

"Well…fine then. I'll relay the information to the proper authorities," Kirk agreed, and awkwardly rapped his knuckles on the hood of Chris's car. "Good evening!" he finished jovially.

Chris sighed, staring first at the steering wheel and then the closed sign of Luke's door. His mother's words still scraped at the base of his skull in a raw sort of headache that made his skin feel like it wanted to slough off. He shrugged in the seat, rolling his shoulders and letting his head bang against the headrest.

With the dinner confrontation still echoing hollowly in his mind, he realized it was sleet falling on his windshield as the ice gathered behind his wipers. Kirk's speech about "loitering" was also sticking out in his mind, and it made him feel all the more awkward.

His phone vibrated briefly in his pocket.

You gonna stay down there all night…theres a key taped on the left side of the door.

Chris grinned briefly at his phone before he made his decision. Still shaking (though he didn't know whether it came from the dinner with his mother or anticipation of seeing Luke), he parked his car behind Casey's as the last patrons were leaving. He briefly conversed with the bartender that night to make sure his car wouldn't be towed.

After, he found the key taped to the side of the door. He made his way through the dark restaurant, carefully avoiding the upturned chairs on tables and thinking that his shoes sounded loud on the freshly mopped floor. His stomach was still turning knots and his mind kept the circles going until he had reached the upstairs apartment door. He gave four brief taps with his knuckles against the glass that read "Williams Hardware", wishing he could tell that there the nerves running wild through his blood were solely due to seeing Luke instead of being mixed with the disaster that had been dinner with his mother.

Luke answered fairly quickly, looking somewhat pleased to see him. "I didn't expect you tonight, but I saw you parked outside, and then Kirk came up, and no conversation with Kirk ever ends well, so I thought I'd at least make the decision easier for you."

Chris nodded, hoping that the aftermath of the dinner with his mother wasn't showing. "I know it's late; I wasn't sure if you'd still be up."

"I'm not usually, but I got a phone call from April that went on longer than it normally does, and I couldn't get to sleep right away. I was getting a glass of water when I saw you and Kirk talking." Luke opened the door wider. "Coming or going?"

"Coming," Chris muttered, already feeling as if he wouldn't be able to expel the poor mood he was in owing to his mother. "You still have that rum sitting around?"

Luke shrugged, as if finally realizing that there something in Chris's body language that was…off. "Yeah, I do. No gaming consoles, but I've got a TV and a DVD player."

"You said you weren't much of a movie person." Chris wondered absently what Luke's music collection was like, or if he even had one. His thinking was stopped by Luke's hands abruptly grabbing his shoulders and stopping his pacing, something he hadn't even realized he was doing until Luke had intervened. "What?"

"Chris," Luke responded, looking so damn understanding that Chris wanted to kiss it out of him, "What's going on?"

"Can I just table that for now?"

"You were having dinner with your mother and Rory tonight, weren't you?" Luke pressed onward. "You didn't say as much, but I kind of got it from some your texts."

Chris scrubbed his hands over his face, sitting heavily on the couch. "Yeah, I had dinner with my mother and Rory tonight."

Luke sat beside of him stiffly, as if preparing to be cast aside. "I take it that it didn't go well?"

Chris snorted softly. "What gives you that idea?" He glanced at the table and then back to Luke. "Weren't you getting that rum?"

"Look, man…I was with Lorelai long enough to know to recognize what a bad dinner looks like. What happened?"

Clenching his fists on his knees, Chris stared steadfastly at the coffee table. "If you were with her that long, than you should know that I don't want to talk about this."

"And I was with her long enough to know when to force it out. I don't want this to bite us in the ass later; what the fuck happened?" Luke snapped.

Chris shot to his feet, the enormity of his evening finally crashing in a wave. "Everything happened," he bit out angrily. "My mother knows about us. She confronted me at dinner tonight in front of my kid, who doesn't even want to really talk to me right now. Sure, she came to dinner tonight, but only because Lore talked her into it. And then, I'm sure, stood up to my mom when even I can't. I'm tired of being an outcast, whether it's my own family or this stupid town, but I put up with it, because I was with Lorelai, and I know this town is everything to you, and I don't know how to assimilate to that, because the last time I tried, we got a shit welcome-wagon at the stupid knit-a-thon, where, when I tried to help, I got shunned instead. Seriously, this town was fine with me until I was with her, and now I've got my mother breathing down my neck, and—"

Luke grabbed him again, shoving him none-too-ceremoniously on the couch before climbing over to straddle Chris. "Stop," he said quietly.

Chris made a strangled sound from the back of throat. "I can't; don't you get it, I—"

"Stop," Luke said again, more firmly this time, ignoring the way his knees ached as he settled deeper onto Chris's lap. "Lorelai and Rory are okay, right?"

"Well, yeah, I think, but—"

Luke shook his head sharply to shut him up. "And Gigi is fine? You haven't heard anything to suggest otherwise?"

Chris could practically feel the obligation rise up before he responded. "Geege is fine; I talked to her a couple of days ago to make sure she got in okay. April's fine too?"

Luke nodded, almost patiently, even if there was a certain amount of desperation behind it. "April's fine. She's staying with Anna and as far as I can tell, they're trying to settle on where she's going to college." He moved closer, becoming a warm, solid weight against Chris's body. "I'm asking about you though. Lorelai never could tell me anything about her other life, not directly. Even in the end, I found out through someone else."

Chris sighed deeply, feeling annoyed and hurt. He settled his hands on Luke's hips all the same, his thumbs rubbing under the flannel and undershirt Luke wore. "I'm fine," he finally said feebly.

Luke snorted and rolled his eyes. "No, you're not."

"What do you care?" Chris spat out, his fingers digging in viciously on Luke's hips. The wince on Luke's face hit him like a ton of bricks though, and he jerked his hands back as if he had been burned. He slammed his head against the edge of Luke's couch, breathing shallowly and feeling as if he just wanted to forget the entire evening. "Seriously, though…what do you care?"

He didn't expect the large hand wrapping around the back of his neck or the feel of lips on the skin of his collar. It made him flinch slightly, but Luke didn't seem deterred, continuing a path across Chris's neck.

Chris settled his hands back on Luke's hips, arching his neck and slipping his fingers against the skin along the waist of Luke's jeans. He pulled forward, his own hips jerking up to meet Luke's, and felt enormously satisfied when Luke's groan reverberated heavily against his collarbone. There was an answering hardness in Luke's jeans rubbing against his own cock, and his fingers twitched hard over the skin.

"I care because I care about you," Luke said gruffly against a spot behind Chris's ear that, quite frankly, Chris had never paid attention to before, but now, seemed like it was the most important patch of skin in the fucking world. "I care because you don't; I care because you think you need to hold it in around me, and I can't do that again."

Chris traced his hands up Luke's torso, carefully fluttering his fingers over Luke's nipples. "I care about you more," he admitted. He pulled his hands from under Luke's shirt briefly, but only to start unbuttoning the flannel shirt. "I think you'd be a lot more comfortable with this off."

Luke stared at him for a moment before pulling away. "Look, I do want this; I do."

Chris tightened his grip on Luke's hips, thrusting up again and beginning to move a hand toward the tight erection in Luke's jeans. "Then what's stopping you? I want it too."

With a sigh, Luke finally unwound his fingers from the back of Chris's neck so he could wrap them around Chris's hand. "You're only doing this now because you're upset or mad or whatever; I don't really know, but I do know you're only doing this because of what happened tonight."

With a scowl, Chris glared at Luke's hand wound about his wrist. "She knows," he said helplessly, as if that explained everything. "My mother knows."

Luke snorted before getting up to peruse his sparse DVD collection. "So I'm going to put on the third season of "Scrubs", because April insisted on having this show available since I don't really see the need to pay for not only my cable subscription—which I only got because of Jess—but also Netflix and Hulu. If you have any objections, than feel free to suggest something else."

Chris immediately missed the solid bulk that had been sitting against him, his hands twitching restlessly on his thighs while Luke talked. "I can just log into my account from here, you know."

Luke shook his head, lifting Chris's legs unceremoniously so he could sit, and letting them rest on his knees as he handled the remote. "Yeah, this is better. I can only go so fast."

"I like this show," Chris said idly, crossing his arms over his chest as he hunkered down further into the couch cushions. "It's funny."

"You know, I didn't think I'd like it; I hate hospitals. I only go to one when I absolutely have to," Luke responded, his hand resting first on a knee before working up Chris's stomach to snag a hand. "But I liked this."

Chris squeezed his hand. "That's because it's funny." He stretched his legs out, feeling a hand settle onto his ankle. "I wish you'd brought that rum out."

Luke scoffed, enforcing his grip on Chris's ankle and hand. "You don't need that shit," he said bluntly. "You had a crap night with your mother. You need something else."

"Yeah," Chris replied, moving his fingers lower to trace patterns over Luke's wrist. "I guess I do."

Luke only grinned and settled further into his seat, drawing meal orders from the day onto the skin of Chris's ankle.

XXXXX

Groggy and disoriented, Chris woke slowly. Sunlight barely streamed through the windows, both weak and in threat of the impending day. He stretched his legs first, since one of his arms was curled around Luke's neck and collarbone, the other draped over Luke's hips. He yawned, turning his face into the pillow before glancing over Luke's shoulder to look at the clock.

He barely had time to register the lower half of a tattoo before he realized the time—7:42AM.

"Luke," Chris whispered hurriedly, carefully running a hand over Luke's shoulder. "Luke, you're late."

Luke groaned beside of him, reluctantly moving around beneath the blankets before hitching backwards into Chris's warmth. "God, would you shut up? I set the alarm; jeez."

"Yeah, your alarm didn't go off; wake up," Chris said a bit more urgently. "It's a quarter to 8."

Luke rolled his eyes as he turned around and planted a firm kiss along Chris's neck, letting a hand drift over Chris's narrow hip as he sat up a bit more. "No, it's not. I set my alarm for six; I open late on weekends."

"So you open in—" Chris checked the clock again; 7:44AM—"42 minutes ago?"

Luke snorted irritably, wrapping an arm around Chris's waist. "42 minutes ago?" he asked tiredly.

Chris sighed in exasperation, snagging the corded alarm clock from Luke's nightstand so he could all but shove it in Luke's face. "7:45AM," he said deliberately. "You're late."

Luke finally seemed to read what was right in front of him. "Fuck," he swore sharply, jumping sharply from bed, revealing that he only wore boxers. He started rummaging quickly through his dresser, pulling out pants, tee-shirt, and flannel, throwing each item on the bed as he found them. "Why didn't my damn alarm go off?" he shot out, pure impatience rolling off of him.

Chris picked up Luke's alarm and phone before falling back to the warmth of the bed as Luke dressed quickly. "Possibly because you set one for PM and the other you set at 8 for some reason."

Luke grunted as he tried to put on a shoe while standing on the opposite socked foot. He hopped like a fish out of water for a moment before repeating the action with his other foot. "I was pretty tired when we finally got to sleep." He pulled his baseball cap over his hair, sliding his hands along the brim of the hat before leaning in to smudge a haphazard kiss over Chris's lips. "I gotta go."

"Yeah, I get it," Chris said. "I've got work to do too; I'll show myself out."

Luke snagged a hand behind Chris's neck in a motion that was becoming all too familiar, dropping a heavier (if messy) kiss onto Chris's mouth. "Don't worry or give a shit about what people see or think, yeah?"

Chris nodded tightly. "Yeah, I won't," he said in a voice that cracked on his throat.

"You promise?" Luke asked, and when Chris didn't respond right away, he leaned forward again and kissed Chris's forehead hard. "At least call me later, okay?"

"Yeah, I'll call you," Chris said, though it sounded tired.

Luke tightened his grip on the nape of Chris's neck. "I mean it; call me, text me, whatever."

Chris nodded. "I'll call you. Get down there; you've got a business to open."

With a fleeting smile, Luke pressed his forehead against Chris's again before sprinting out of the room.

Thinking over Luke's words and the actions of the previous night, Chris didn't get up right away. He slouched back down into the bed, pulling Luke's pillow closer to him as a bolster before he promptly fell asleep again. He could get to work later.

XXXXX

Luke sprinted upstairs to put the deposit bag of money into the safe. The morning had been crazy, what with him being late and (what seemed like) half of Stars Hollow outside of his diner for breakfast by the time he was ready to open. While Cesar had a key to the diner, Luke had made it very clear that unless he was found murdered on the front steps of the building, Cesar wasn't to open alone unless Luke had discussed it first.

Lane had only tossed him a considering glance; Cesar had muttered about wanting a raise if he was going to be dealing with the townsfolk about the diner still being closed when there wasn't an obvious reason.

What Luke didn't realize right away was that the majority of the denizens of Stars Hollow were only there because Kirk couldn't help himself, and had told Taylor that Chris had entered Luke's Diner at an hour that was considered far too late for business.

Luke had ignored most of the whispered gossiping; he was accustomed to it. He spun the dial on the safe, shoving the bag in quickly and then counting out the change he needed (jeez, did no one use nickels anymore?), making a quick penned note of cash-in, cash-out so he could balance his sales at the end of the day. He was still writing it when he nearly jumped three feet because a set of fingers drifted across his neck, beneath the brim of his cap.

Chris looked startled. "So, I was just getting ready to leave…"

Luke adjusted his cap. "You scared me; sorry. I was writing down my change-outs between my safe and my register." He felt uncomfortable at the way Chris looked skittish, as if the way he had jumped meant that Chris thought Luke didn't want him there.

"I didn't mean to scare you," Chris said, shoving his hands into his pockets awkwardly.

Luke sighed, finished penciling his note in, closed the safe, and stood up. "It's fine. I don't normally wake up late, and I don't normally set my alarms wrong. You can stay all day if you want, but I've gotta warn you; I am very much lacking in entertainment around here."

Chris chuckled weakly. "I've got work to do, and my laptop's at my apartment. I can do some of it with my phone, but there's a few things I've got to pay attention to right now."

Luke snatched Chris's hip, pulling him toward him. "Then do some of it with your phone. Stay."

The last smirk that Chris sent cinched it. "I can't stay; I've got to go."

"Bullshit," Luke muttered. "You're still holding it in. Why can't you just talk to me? I thought we were doing pretty good with that part."

Chris looked reluctant. "Can I just say that I don't want to talk about it right now? You don't know my mother, my family, what I'm dealing with right now with Rory and Gigi, you don't know any of that. I just need some time."

Luke looked at him levelly. "If I didn't make this clear, I do want this. I've never done any of the…well, guy-on-guy stuff, but I'm pretty sure I can figure it out, or we can figure it out, you know?" He sighed, feeling like he was drawing the sound up from his toes. "I want to figure it out. Stay?"

"Luke! We need you down here!" Cesar's voice rang up.

"I really can't stay; it's a work thing,," Chris responded apologetically, though Luke wasn't sure he believed it. "I will call you though, okay?"

Luke huffed irritably. "Promise? Remember, this isn't my first go-round with someone's hoity-toity family. I'll be there."

Chris nodded. "I promise."

Luke kissed him again, tightening his hand over Chris's hip and swiping a tongue over his lip. "Just don't shut me out, okay? Don't ever do that."

"I won't shut you out. I just can't guarantee that I won't be drunk when I decide to drop everything on you; they kind of breed that into the kids I grew up with."

"Drunk, sober, whatever; keep me in the loop. Talk to me, okay?"

"I will." Chris looked at his phone and turned a regretful stare to Luke. "If I don't leave now, I'm going to be late for my own meeting."

Luke felt his chest constrict at the business-like way Chris was collecting his coat and scarf, at the way he was scanning the apartment for any other items he might have left behind. Luke didn't want to seem desperate though, and didn't press again that he wanted Chris to call or text if anything else came up.

Chris paused at the doorway, throwing his coat and scarf on. After, his hands fidgeted.

Luke stilled them with his own, twining their fingers together. "I'm into this. Do you know that?"

"Yeah, I know," Chris responded in a way that Luke didn't really believe, but appreciated the way Chris tightened his fingers around Luke's. "I have my days, you know."

Luke nodded, not sure if he wanted to reveal how much he could relate. "Yeah. I do."

Chris kissed him quickly as he wound his scarf. "I'll call you?"

Something loosened in Luke's chest, if only because he finally believed him. "Yeah. I look forward to it."

XXXXXXXXXXX

Author's Notes: Stubborn-ass boys -_- This is what I get for writing a rare!pair as a slow burn. They want to, but they won't.

I know this chapter was a bit shorter (by a page or so), but I needed (as an OCD author) to have things happen a certain way, progress a particular way, and end a certain way. Frankly, I'm pretty happy with how things went; I wanted more physical stuff, which I got, but it also set up the next chapter.

Hope you enjoyed!