Disclaimer: Not mine. Don't sue. Thanks.

For Ari.

Rainy Day People

He leaves the diner and feels water randomly drop onto his hand. He looks up, and realizes that it's cloudier than he's ever seen it in Stars Hollow. All at once it begins to drizzle, and then rain. A moment later he hears the sound of distant thunder. He looks up and sees a flash of lightning.

Jess Mariano loves rain. He can't say much for snow (too much shoveling involved), and sunlight is alright, but rain is what his heart lies with.

He smiles briefly before making his way down to Maple Street. He passes screaming children and annoyed parents, all in a rush to find shelter in cars, stores, or their homes.

Jess merely zips up his leather jacket, and walks leisurely down the sidewalk.

He recalls rainy days in the East Village, sitting around in the tiny apartment, reading by flashlight because the lights had all gone out. He remembers the silence as Liz was working, and he smiles.

The rain comes down in sheets outside, but she isn't really paying attention.

-----

She rushes around the house, a smile plastered on her face. She flies down the steps, through the kitchen and into her bedroom to check her dress once more before she rushes out to the front hall, where the doorbell is ringing.

She swings it open and smiles even wider.

He's standing there with wet hair in his eyes, and hands shoved into the pockets of his leather jacket.

She pulls him into the house and kisses him briefly. He tries to lengthen the kiss, but she pushes him back with a laugh, not wanting to get wet.

"Jess!" she cries playfully. "God, did you walk here?"

"I did. I love rain," he tells her, in a tone she's never heard from him; almost childish, almost wistful. He grabs her hand and heads for the door.

"Wait!" she laughs. "Where are we going?"

"We were going to dinner," Jess replies, turning to her.

"We were," she nods. "But…it's so rainy out."

He gives her a smirk. "Rory…"

"Jess," she whines. "I'm all pretty. I don't wanna get wet."

"You are very pretty," Jess admits, giving her a once-over. "But it's just rain. My car is at the diner. It'll be fine."

The snap of close thunder interrupts their conversation, and a flash of lightening illuminates the darkened house a moment later.

Rory stares outside at the storm, and wonders how traffic is from Stars Hollow to Hartford. Her mind skips to wondering when the last time was that Stars Hollow had a storm of this magnitude.

Jess follows her gaze out at the pouring rain. It's his favorite type of weather. His gaze turns to the beautiful brunette at his side and he realizes that she does not feel the same way.

Another crash of thunder booms, and Rory wraps her arms around herself. She turns to Jess to find him peeling off his jacket.

"Why don't we order some pizza?" he offers with a smirk.

She smiles and kisses him softly, brushing the hair away from his face. "I'll go find the phone."

Jess watches her disappear into her bedroom, and his smirk grows wider. He shakes himself out like a wet dog and goes to the linen closet, attempting to dig out a towel.

-----

Lorelai Victoria Gilmore-Danes hates rain.

She always has. On her eighth birthday, her mother planned an elaborate pool party to celebrate…and it rained. It rained on her first date with Christopher. They tried for another pool party on her fifteenth birthday, and it rained then as well.

She pouts as she looks out the diner window. No, nothing special planned for today. Lorelai just hates rain. It's wet, and dark, and loud. Who can concentrate when it constantly sounds like someone is peeing just outside your window, anyway?

She takes a sip of her hot coffee and sighs. At least she's not out in the storm. At least she's married to this diner's owner, so she won't be kicked out at closing time.

She grins a little at the thought.

Luke Danes watches the downpour out of the diner window from the counter. Rain is bad for business, but he can't say he minds. He enjoys it when there are merely a few people, and tonight there are six: Lorelai Gilmore, Kirk Gleason, Dean Forrester, himself, and two employees-- Lane Kim, and Caesar.

He surveys his customers with a sigh. Lorelai is looking out the window and drinking her coffee slowly. She almost looks like some kind of painting. Luke doesn't know too much about art, so he doesn't try and think up a painter or any of their work. He just watches her for a moment before turning to Kirk.

Kirk doesn't seem to notice that it's raining. He merely eats his food and drinks his coffee quietly, for once. Lightening strikes outside and he doesn't let it bother him. He merely takes a bite out of his patty-melt.

Dean Forrester looks angry. But this is nothing new. He takes a sip of soda and broods, looking out at the rain. Luke is kind of shocked that he's stayed in town, what with Rory's rejection, and Lindsay's divorce papers.

Luke smirks, but only a little. He's never liked Dean, and doesn't mind seeing things go wrong for him, as terrible as that may sound.

Caesar is cleaning up the kitchen, as it's getting near closing time, and Lane, having nothing to do, sits at an empty table, her cell phone to her ear and a smile on her face. She is obviously talking to her long-distance boyfriend, and Luke grins.

"Psst!"

Luke snaps out of his thoughts and shifts his eyes to his wife, who is waving him over. He sighs and walks over. "What?"

"You should sit with me," Lorelai says.

"Nah."

"Oh, come on," she insists. "You're just standing there…and I'm sitting here alone, and it's raining."

He smirks a little and sits down across from her.

She shoves her plate of food towards him. "Have a fry."

"I don't eat fries, you know that," Luke says.

"So…you'll make them but you won't eat them."

Luke nods. "Yup."

Lorelai shrugs and eats one. "More for me."

-----

Lane Kim is staring out at the rain with a smile on her face, knowing that three thousand miles away, it is sunny, and her boyfriend is smiling too. He's sitting in his dorm room, perfectly happy to hear her voice, even though they can't see each other; even though they haven't seen each other in months.

That's okay.

"Lane?"

She smiles more and leans back in the red, plastic chair. "Yeah?"

"You still there?" Dave Rygalski asks.

"Yup," she replies. "It's raining here."

"Yeah?" he asks interestedly. He never seems to lose interest. "It never rains there."

"I know, it's freaky," Lane nods. "I miss you."

"That was random."

She bites her lip. "I know…but it's true."

"I miss you, too," Dave tells her gently. And he does. He looks out his own window at the sunny, happy campus bustling below, and misses her, and home. It never gets cold, or really rains too much where he is, and while sun can be very pleasant, he misses wearing big coats, and playing in the snow with his friends. He even misses the annoyance and confusion at freak rain storms. "Only a couple of more weeks until Thanksgiving…then I'll be home."

"Promise?"

"Hypothetical pinky swear."

Lane smiles as thunder claps and the lights flicker in the diner.

"Wow, that was loud," Dave says worriedly.

She nods. "Yeah, it was. It looks like Luke's getting ready to throw people out. The power might go."

"You wanna hang up?"

"No," she replies quietly. She never wants to hang up. It was a silly question for him to ask.

He smiles a little. "Do you need to hang up?"

Lane pouts. "Yeah."

"Call me later, okay?"

She smiles. She feels silly, but she loves it. "Okay."

"Love you," Dave tells her. And it's true.

"Love you, too," she replies. "Bye."

Lane hangs up and looks out the window again with a smile.

-----

Rory cuddles into Jess's warm chest as she stares heavy-eyed at the television, where Robin Williams and Matt Damon are talking in thick Boston accents.

She thinks that this must be heaven.

Trying to watch this movie with her blonde ex and his buddies in the room had been so annoying. They were always so loud.

Jess is quiet and relaxed. He likes to sit still and think, and read. Not so much into the talking, as Logan always was, which can be a little hard sometimes, but she's willing to take the bad with the good.

She is, because he is it, and at the age of twenty-two, she knows it. She thinks she's always known, but she just never wanted to admit it before.

Rory sighs as she hears more thunder and turns her head to glance out the window. It's still pouring. She smiles as she thinks about the blue parasol sitting in her room. It's so pretty.

She pulls the blanket off of the back of the couch and spreads it over them. She hears and feels Jess sigh comfortably and smiles, wrapping an arm around him. He tangles his fingers with hers, and she squeezes his gently.

Heaven.

-----

Emily Gilmore glances out the large window of her bedroom and shivers. She despises rain. You can't do anything with rain. You can't go out, and you can't sit outside, and you're not in the mood to do those things anyway, because for god's sake it's raining.

She sits down in the comfortable chair with her closed book and stares at the downpour. She sees lightning in the distance and sighs impatiently. What to do?

She wonders what Lorelai and Rory are doing.

A memory of her daughter at age three, running around in the rain in her best dress fills her mind and she has to smile a little. Annoying then, but amusing now; Lorelai to a tee.

Emily remembers buying Rory a pretty blue parasol for rainy days and wonders briefly if she still has it. Considering they never really throw anything out, she's betting that she does.

She thinks of the look on Richard's face when Rory first saw it. He was so happy she liked it. She knows that right now, Richard is down in his study, "working." And by working, she knows that he is taking a nice, cozy nap in one of his big, leather armchairs.

The thought that he doesn't have a bad idea pops into her head and she smiles, setting her book down, and kicking off her shoes. She gets up and curls up on the king-sized bed, pillow between her arms, and drifts off, blue parasols dancing around behind her eyelids.

-----

Rainy days are perfect for baking cookies and throwing together some soup.

Sookie St. James Mellville hums as she slices some carrots into her simmering broth. Out of her kitchen window she can see rain coming down like it hasn't in many years in Stars Hollow.

At first she was a little disappointed. She'd been planning on taking her kids to the park to play, but one look out her bedroom window told her that wasn't a good idea. So she spent her day off from the Dragonfly Inn watching Disney movies and reading aloud to Davey and Martha, both of whom were more than happy to stay curled up under blankets and hide from the storm outside.

Both children fell asleep in the middle of watching Toy Story, and so Sookie finds herself in the kitchen, as she always does when there is nothing better to do. Her peanut-butter chocolate chip cookies are baking slowly to perfection, and the strawberry glaze she made to accompany them is chilling in the refrigerator. The soup, she finds is taking a little longer, which happens when you start from scratch. Her kids love chicken soup, and she loves them for loving chicken soup because she loves chicken soup, too!

Sookie peeks into the living room, to find that both Davey and Martha are still sleeping, and the credits are rolling on the television. She grins.

-----

When Luke and Lorelai arrive from out of the rain, Rory and Jess move from the living room couch, to her bedroom, lying on the bed, with books and flashlights, as the power has gone out.

He isn't reading though. Jess is staring out the window at the rain that is still insistently coming down from the sky. He closes his eyes, and lets the sound of it wash over him.

"You awake, Dodger?" Rory asks gently from next to him.

Jess nods. "Yup."

"Why do you like rain so much?" she asks, sliding closer to him.

He keeps his eyes closed and shrugs. "I don't know…I just do. It makes me feel calm."

"Thunderstorms used to give me the creeps when I was younger," Rory says.

"Tune out the thunder," Jess mutters, opening his eyes and wrapping his arm around her. He's never shared his taste for rain with anyone. He finds this a little on the surreal side. "Just listen for the rain."

He watches her close her eyes and rest her head against his chest.

"Jess?"

"Hm?"

"I like rain, too."

END