DISCO NIGHTS !
CHAPTER TWO
DYLAN MCKAY WANNABE !

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"LUKE, YOU DON'T have to keep thanking us for saying, like, three words to your nephew earlier." Maeve huffed out a casual chuckle as she poured Babette a cup of coffee, both her and Delaney momentarily glancing at Luke, who was wiping the table beside the one Maeve was currently serving. "It honestly required no effort, whatsoever."

"Which just happens to be perfect, considering our favourite types of activities require little to no strenuous work." Delaney swung around in her counter seat as she followed Maeve and Luke with her eyes and chimed in, sitting up briefly to do so. "And in all honesty, it was no problem at all."

"Thanks, doll, you saved my mornin'." Babette loudly cut in, flashing Maeve a grateful smile as she held the coffee cup up in appreciation, then patting Morey's arm beside her as Maeve poured her partner a cup of coffee too. "You saved Morey's too."

Morey gave a low hum of agreement. "Yes, definitely."

"I'm just saying, he'll take some time to get used to. Hell, I'm struggling with the kid, and it hasn't even been a whole day yet." Luke grumbled under his breath, quite disappointed that Jess' attitude contributed to his standoffish behaviour, and his nephew didn't live up to his expectations as a whole.

Maeve just shrugged, trying to muster up some optimism as she attempted to downplay the boy's rudeness, one hand going to rest on her hip. "How bad can he be?"

Luke just 'tsk-ed' in some form of nonverbal agreement, which was quite unenthusiastic, and continued wiping the table, jumping in fright as a loud, but familiar, voice suddenly caught his attention. "Hi."

"Oh, jeez!" Luke cursed his own actions as he spilt the contents in the previously half-full coffee cup that was on the table, which he was now cleaning.

"Sorry." Lorelai cringed as she closed the diner door shut behind her, pitiful eyes watching Luke's rushed movements.

"No, I just- you want some coffee?"

"It's okay, I'll just lick it off the table."

At Lorelai and Luke's playful banter, which was wholly amusing for the entirety of Stars Hollow, Maeve and Delaney both grinned, Maeve beginning to approach the counter and refilling the coffee vat while Delaney waved enthusiastically at the woman from her seat.

"Hi, girls." Lorelai shot the two friendly smiles as she then pointed to Maeve, beginning to tease Luke even further as she continued the running joke. "Maeve, you got any more spilt coffee I can drink and not pay for?"

Maeve tilted her head as she smiled, going along with the joke with a signalled nod towards the table Luke was cleaning. "Just from the floor."

"I'll take all of it in the biggest cup you've got." Lorelai smirked at Luke's dissatisfaction, the man rolling his eyes at the girls as he blew out a breath in indication of his faux-exasperation.

Luke pointed between the two as he grabbed the plate and coffee cup from the table he had now finished cleaning, and began to approach the counter, where Maeve was standing. "You two shouldn't be allowed to converse."

"But our teasing is always so civil and fair." Lorelai humorously protested with a small pout as she followed Luke, but stopped on the 'customer' side of the counter, sitting beside Delaney as Maeve leaned against the back counter and faced the duo, standing beside Luke as she grabbed some wet coffee cups and dried them with a rag.

Maeve's eyebrows teasingly quirked upwards as she glanced at Luke. "Just call us Statler and Waldorf."

"Those crusty muppets?" Delaney cringed as her eyes flickered between Maeve and Lorelai. "They kinda freak me out."

"Hey, don't knock those darned muppets." Lorelai frowned at the girl, leaning back in her seat to convey false offence as her hand flew up to emotionally rest on her heart. "They may be crusty, but they hold a special place in all of our collective hearts."

"Okay, I'm shutting this conversation down before it gets any more disturbing." Luke's face recoiled at the woman's playful words.

Lorelai swiftly moved on, placing her forearms on the counter comfortably and crossing her wrist over the other. "So? Is he here?"

"He's here." Luke lowly murmured in response, moving on to more of the diner's tasks as he preoccupied himself.

"Yeah? How is he?"

"He's fine."

Maeve and Delaney's eyes were currently flickering between the adults like they were watching an incredibly entertaining tennis match.

"Did he see the bed?"

"He saw the bed."

"I want to meet him."

"Really?" Maeve's indifferent voice, almost inaudibly, mumbled, Luke shooting her a brief glance that conveyed his distaste in her reply and causing Maeve to raise her head and pretend that she heard someone call her name, the girl pointing to another customer at the end of the counter as she began to take their order.

"He's out." Luke blew out a breath as he watched Maeve take the customer's order with a careful eye before refilling Delaney's coffee cup.

"Thanks." Delaney shot the man a kind smile, who sent her an acknowledging nod in response.

"Out where?" Lorelai verbally probed Luke.

"I don't know." Luke shrugged nonchalantly.

"You don't?"

"No, he just went out."

Lorelai sat up in her seat as her eyebrows creased inwards, and she took the jacket off her shoulders. "You didn't ask him where he was going?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because he's not two." Luke's voice was slightly tainted with an irritated undertone, annoyance beginning to bubble up in his body at Lorelai's, quite critical, words.

"Yeah, but, Luke, he's new in town, he doesn't know his way around yet."

"Way around what? This is Stars Hollow, you take three left turns and you're back in the centre of town."

"When a kid goes out, you have to, at least, ask where he's going."

"Whatever point Lorelai's making, I agree." A comforting voice interrupted the conversation, Maeve, Luke, Lorelai, and Delaney turning to face the doorway at the sound of Marjorie speaking up.

"Margie, not you too." Luke irritatedly blew out a breath as he watched the woman sit down at a table.

"Hey, it's our lord and saviour!" Delaney happily exclaimed as she approached the table Marjorie was sitting at and sat down in the seat beside her, resulting in Marjorie releasing a humoured laugh at the young girl's behaviour.

Maeve grinned as she approached the table with the coffee vat, pouring her grandmother a cup of coffee as she spoke up. "That's my grandma."

Lorelai beamed at the woman. "Making a fantastic entrance is your specialty, Margie, there's no one who does it quite as well as you do."

"Why, thank you, honey." Marjorie smiled, then gently patting her daughter's hand as she took a sip of her coffee and picked up a page of the newspaper that was shoved in the diner's shelves behind her. "Go save Luke from Lorelai's wrath before the vein in his head pops, my darling."

"Will do, nana." Maeve smiled, nodding as she approached the counter again and stood beside Luke as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Seriously Luke, you're responsible for him now." Lorelai blew out a solemn breath as she faced the man again, reverting the conversation back to where it was going before. "If he goes and knocks over a liquor store, it's gonna be your fault."

"Who are we talking about?" Marjorie whispered as she slightly leaned closer to Delaney.

"Luke's nephew, Jess, he just got here and he's staying with Luke for a while." Delaney quietly and briefly explained, meeting the woman's gaze.

"Liz's child?" Marjorie raised her eyebrows in surprise once Delaney answered her question. "Oh, wow."

"If I had asked him where he was goin' and he actually intended to knock off a liquor store, do you really think he would have told me that?" Luke raised his eyebrows at Lorelai as he tried to solidify his point.

"If he's dumb." Lorelai sang in response.

"He's fine. New topic." Luke snapped.

As if on cue, the subject of the group's conversation strode through the diner, determinedly heading straight for the stairs to Luke's apartment, although, very reluctantly, stopping once Luke spoke up and interrupted his movements. "Jess, good. I'd like you to meet a few people."

"Hey." Lorelai flashed a pleasant smile at the boy, who reluctantly blew out a breath and turned to face the woman, holding back the immense desire to ignore her. "I'm Lorelai. I just wanted to meet you before Luke filled your head with all kinds of little lies about me."

"Hi." Jess curtly answered.

"Young man." Marjorie chimed in from her position as she immediately gauged the boy's personality from the, very short, frame of time she had witnessed his insulting attitude, Jess' eyes flickering to her at her abrupt tone. "Wipe that unpleasantry off your sour face and answer other people in a way that is socially acceptable. I've met a lot of you in my day, and let me tell you, you come across as very ill-mannered and arrogant."

The entire diner had now watched the scene like it was a feature film, a silence filling the space at the words, which, coming from Marjorie, were taken incredibly seriously—the woman never scolded anyone unless it was incredibly necessary.

Maeve's lips rolled inwards as she tried not to laugh or smile in satisfaction, watching Jess' cocky face, only slightly, falter. His voice was an, almost inaudible, low murmur, as even the stubbornly rude boy knew not to cross the woman. "Sorry..."

Marjorie nodded once in acceptance of his apology as her harsh glare immediately shifted into her previously neutral one, and she went back to her newspaper.

Luke was incredibly shocked at this new behaviour from his usually stoic nephew. Somehow, only after a few seconds of informally meeting the boy, Marjorie had done the impossible—make Jess apologise. Suddenly, as if a black hole ripped into the space-time continuum, there was a glimpse of hope for correctional humanity and humility in the impolite boy.

"Wow, she went easy on you." Lorelai raised her eyebrows as she spoke up in pure entertainment after a brief moment of silence, the rest of the diner's patrons returning back to their previous conversation as Marjorie took a sip of her coffee.

Jess just slowly nodded, pretending that he cared in any form in quick recovery from the minor embarrassment that he, shortly, felt from Marjorie's reprimand.

Suddenly coming up with a great idea, Lorelai then shifted her attention to Maeve and Delaney, gesturing between the girls and continuing her line of speech as she did so. "Hey, why don't you girls give him a tour of Stars Hollow? Show him around town?"

Maeve's eyes shot to Lorelai after sharing a hesitant glance with Delaney, the girl just huffing an awkward chuckle as she shook her head in immediate refusal. "Uh, I'm working, and Delaney's...here for moral support."

Delaney perked up, nodding hurriedly in agreement as she went along with Maeve's denial of the suggestion. "Yep. Moral support, you know how that goes."

Jess' unenthused eyes flickered between the girls in some form of strained agreement.

"No, that's a good idea, actually." Luke's eyebrows raised, nodding slowly as he glanced between the teens.

Maeve tried to put an end to the discussion as soon as possible as she poured another customer a cup of coffee, and she could tell that Jess wanted the same thing. "The town's quite small, though, there's not much to show..."

Already running with her own suggestion, Lorelai shifted her attention to Jess. "It's a great opportunity for you to make some friends around here, Jess."

"I don't need to make any friends here." Jess deadpanned, staring at the woman.

"Well, just try." Luke countered with a tone equally as sharp.

"If I agree, will you stop talking?" Jess harshly fired back.

"Wow." Lorelai's eyebrows raised in disbelief, not comprehending that a kid could be that rude to a stranger.

"Sure, I guess..." Luke let his voice trail off as an offended frown etched onto his face.

"Fine." Jess snapped, simply striding back to the diner's door and swinging it open, consequently letting it slam shut behind him.

The group's bewildered eyes followed after the boy, Maeve's widening as she shared an overwhelmed glance with Delaney.

Marjorie's eyebrows quirked upwards as she just sent her granddaughter a 'go on' look, Maeve blowing out a hesitant breath as she just placed the coffee vat on the counter and followed Jess outside, Delaney standing up and hurrying after her best friend.

•

The tour, thus far, had consisted of Maeve and Delaney briefly explaining what each building of town was, gesturing to every section that was worth mentioning, and giving Jess a rundown of each of Stars Hollow's citizens—for example, how to avoid getting cornered and setup by Miss Patty when she was on a mission to play cupid—, with Jess just responding with nonchalant hums and slow, uncaring nods.

The whole thing was utterly bizarre for Maeve and Delaney, and extremely infuriating for Jess—he could be spending his time doing something more prolific and worthwhile of his time, like reading or smoking.

It was about halfway through their tour when the trio passed by a particular street, Maeve summarising who lived in which house, but subtly—to the best of her knowledge—skipping over hers.

"What about that one?" Jess' voice caught Maeve and Delaney's attention, neither girl expecting him to utter more than two words as they shared brief, surprised gazes before reverting their eyes to Jess momentarily.

"Wow, that was the first non-monosyllabic sentence you've ever spat out. And, uh, someone else lives there." Maeve brushed off the question as she walked faster, past her house, Delaney silently rolling her lips inwards as she kept up with Maeve, Jess trailing slightly behind.

"You skipped it."

Maeve stopped, now fully turning to face Jess as a frown overtook her features at his, unexpectedly curious, words. "What?"

"You live there, don't you?" Jess' eyebrows, just barely, quirked upwards as he finally found out something that could be of great interest and use to the boy—for leverage and blackmail, of course.

Maeve scoffed, shaking her head and defensively crossing her arms over her chest, eyes darting away from him. "What? No. No, I live on Oak."

"No, she lives on Oak." Jess gestured to Delaney with a nod. "If you lived on Oak, you'd proudly mention it, considering your proclaimed best friend lives there too. You clearly live here."

Maeve looked at Delaney, who sent her a sympathetic 'can't help you', shrug, before bowing out a frustrated breath and turning to face Jess' provoking face again. "Gee, he's both annoying and observant. Just perfect."

A very small, accomplished smirk tugged at the corners of Jess' lips, which fleetingly shocked the girls—he could show some form of emotion, after all—, and the boy simply walked ahead in satisfaction of the fact that he had irritated Maeve.

Maeve just waited a moment, rolling her eyes before turning around and walking in the direction Jess was.

"You're a horrible liar, by the way." Jess' tauntingly gladdened voice cut through Maeve's disgruntled thoughts about him as she wordlessly passed the boy, overtaking him shortly and simply refusing to answer, with Delaney in tow.

"I thought you were quite convincing. And the Dylan McKay wannabe's actually kinda smart..." Delaney whispered as the girls continued walking ahead, Jess trailing behind yet again, and, to their misguidedly hopeful assumptions, out of earshot.

"I'd say he's less bad boy from 'Beverly Hills, 90210' and more...Mr. Rochester." Maeve corrected, a faux-frown overtaking her features as she pretended to be in deep thought for dramatic effect, causing Delaney to snicker and nod in agreement.

"Really?" Jess loudly cut in, causing the girls to turn around and face him, yet again. "That's the best you've got?"

"Well, aren't you quick witted?" Maeve's tone was equally as snarky and scornful, if not just a little more, than his.

"Just call me Sherlock Holmes." Jess irritatingly calmly, yet rudely, fired back. "Jane Eyre's kinda weak, you got anything more emotionally jarring, Catherine Moreland?"

"Oh, I've got plenty, Edmund Corcoran." Maeve narrowed her eyes at Jess as the boy began to continue walking, approaching the two girls and ending up beside them.

The trio resumed their journey, Jess about to fire back a clever insult, but being cut off by Delaney before the argument could enter genuinely offensive territory. "Okay, as entertaining as this verbal sparring match is, I'm going to put a quick end to it before it makes my head explode. Believe me, it is a riveting battle of obscure literary references, but it will slowly kill me if I let it keep going on."

"Great idea, Del." Maeve finally returned Delaney's gaze as she swiftly moved on, the other two coming to a stop once Maeve did at the sight of a clearing towards a peaceful lake, pleasantly cool breeze rustling the leaves of the large trees surrounding it and, just barely, causing the water in the lake to slowly sway around the sturdy wooden dock cutting through and sitting on top of a small fraction of it, connecting both sides of the small town to one another.

Jess awaited Maeve's explanation of the environment, although once he looked at her and observed the way her face slightly softened at the sight, he quickly came to the conclusion that it must be a special place for her.

Delaney sent a smile towards Maeve, already knowing that this was Maeve's happy place. The girls have countlessly spent their spare time on this dock; reading, talking, dancing, studying, listening to music, anything that could possibly come to mind, the girls had retreated here to do it.

Simply choosing to move on before Jess could get any ideas to ruin the place for Maeve, the girl just turned around and continued walking, Delaney alongside her best friend, and Jess taking a brief moment to admire the beauty of the lake before unwillingly following after the pair.

•

That night, Luke had walked into his apartment to find Jess comfortably slumped on the raft-mattress he had laid out for him earlier, the boy sitting up and shuffling a deck of cards with a cigarette loosely between his lips.

After informing Jess of the dinner that he was forced to go to at Lorelai's house the following night, Luke sat down in the seat that was across from Jess' raft-mattress, an awkward silence passing between the two before Luke cleared his throat. "So, how'd the tour with Maeve and Delaney go?"

"All three of us held hands and cried over just how beautiful the big, wide world is." Jess sardonically quipped, his words abrupt and harsh as he briefly shot a glare towards his uncle before shifting his gaze back to the cards in his hands.

Luke just released a long breath, mentally forcing himself to remain calm as he continued trying to make an effort with his nephew. "They're great people, Jess, I think you'll really like them if you got to know them, have a conversation or two, y'know?"

Jess casted his, now irritated, gaze back to Luke, seeking to provoke the man as his condescending voice was sharp, yet again. "Well, if you think I'll like them, then they must be real gems, Uncle Luke."

With that, Jess just stood up, and without another surly word, dropped the cards that were previously in his hands, grabbed a book from his bag beside him, and stormed out of the apartment, leaving Luke to sit back in his seat and move his hand up to his face, his index finger and his thumb rubbing the bridge of his nose as he blew out a deep breath.

•

"Hey, how was the dinner thing at Lorelai's last night?" Maeve questioned Luke as soon as the man appeared in the diner from the stairs leading to his apartment.

"It was fine at the start, but then it got kind of nuts." Luke briefly explained as he began to take orders from customers.

Maeve just raised her eyebrows at the man, placing her hands on her hips expectedly. "Let me guess, that 'nuts' thing is because you and Lorelai got into some kind of fight?"

"Wasn't a fight as much as it was an angry disagreement, and- wait a minute, how did you know that?" Luke furrowed his eyebrows at the girl as he cut himself off mid-sentence when he realised that Maeve was right on the money.

"Because she's right around that corner with Rory, probably negotiating some kind of deal so she doesn't have to come inside and talk to you." Maeve simply shrugged, gesturing to the corner of the diner outside—which concealed Lorelai and Rory from the view of anyone in the diner—, Luke widening his eyes at her incredible ability to foresee the following course of events.

"How did you d-"

As if on cue, Rory entered the diner, approaching the counter with a small, polite smile on her face. "Hey, Maeve. Hi, Luke."

"Hi, Rory. Coffee to go for two?" Maeve returned the smile as she had already began pouring coffee into a takeaway cup.

Rory grinned. "And can I get two cherry Danishes too, please?"

"Two cherry Danishes and two coffees, huh?" Luke cut in, releasing a knowing sigh as he expectedly raised his eyebrows at Rory.

Maeve unenthusiastically glanced at Luke as he slyly continued with narrowed eyes, the girl already knowing that he was going to have a field day with this argument between himself and Lorelai. "One of these is for her, isn't it?"

"Who? Oh...no, no, no." Rory blurted out, shaking her head as she released an uncomfortable chuckle, Luke shooting her an unconvinced, raised-eyebrows look at the hurried words. "Th-they're all for me. I am super hungry today. I was debating ordering three, but I'll tell you how I feel after two. Maeve, please help me..."

"Luke, just giv-"

"Tell you what, I'll give you one Danish and one cup of coffee, you can sit over there and eat, and when you've finished, right over there where I can see you, then I'll bring you a second one." Luke cut Maeve off mid-sentence, still looking at Rory challengingly.

"You're really gonna just stand there and watch me eat a Danish?" Rory cringed, face scrunching up as she began to feel incredibly disturbed at the image.

"Cable's out, I'm starved for entertainment." Luke fired back.

"Sorry, Rory, I can't help you." Maeve sympathetically shrugged at the girl before beginning to grab plates from the kitchen and hand them out to whoever ordered them.

"Okay, this is insane. So, you guys had a fight. Big deal! You know you're gonna make up anyway, and what better day to make up than Danish day? The happiest of all days? The day when we all say, 'hey, let's forgive and forget over a nice Danish and a cup of coffee'."

"One Danish, one coffee, take it or leave it."

"I'll take it. I still think you're being silly."

"That's the general consensus." Maeve chimed in as she walked past Rory to hand a customer their food and return back to the counter.

"Thank you for sharing, come back soon." Luke blew out an unbothered breath as he handed Rory her coffee and Danish in a bag before narrowing his eyes at Maeve. "Get to work, and leave out the comments, Maeve."

Maeve narrowed her eyes right back at him. "I'll leave out the comments when I've decided that you don't need to hear them anymore, Luke."

Rory just huffed a small chuckle in entertainment before turning and exiting the diner, handing her mother the Danish and keeping the coffee before walking to the bus.

The sound of the diner's phone caught both Maeve and Luke's attention, Maeve answering it, as she was the closest. "Luke's Diner, this is Maeve, how can I help?"

After the person on the other end of the line answered, Maeve's face visibly fell, and she met Luke's questioning gaze with a look that conveyed minor chagrin. "Hi, Taylor...yeah, he's right here, I'll put him on. Yeah, no problem, give me one second."

Luke signified for her not to put him on the phone multiple times, however, Maeve just tauntingly smirked and shoved the telephone in his hand, Luke just releasing an irritated breath before putting the phone up to his ear and speaking in an unfoundedly fed-up tone. "What is it, Taylor? Slow down, you're babbling."

A few seconds passed before Luke straightened, expression shifting into one of seriousness. "Well, how do you know it was Jess? Okay, Taylor...I'll talk to him. But if he tells me he didn't do it, and nobody saw him do it, then he is off the hook. Understand?"

With that, Luke slammed the phone back into its socket, then beginning to bring food to the people that ordered them.

"What did your nephew do?" Maeve curiously questioned, wanting to know, directly from the source, what Jess was possibly getting in trouble for as she placed her hands on her hips.

Luke just dismissively waved as he continued bringing orders to customers. "Apparently, he took some money out of the donation cup that'll go to repairing the bridge, but I don't know if I believe Taylor yet."

"Good call. When you find out, let me know if he did it or not." Maeve raised her eyebrows at him as she went back to working, Luke furrowing his at the girl's reply in question. "What? I'm allowed to want some entertainment around here."

•

Jess, soaking wet, barrelled through the diner's door, beginning to head straight to Luke's apartment as he dragged his fingers through his soggy hair, but stopping at the sound of Maeve letting out a wholly amused laugh from her position behind the register, one arm going across her chest and her other elbow resting on top of that arm, hand going up to cup her mouth as she taunted him between laughs, and soon gestured to his appearance. "Went for a swim, Mariano?"

Jess' entirely damp clothes were now clinging to his body, the light grey long-sleeve compression shirt—with the sleeves rolled halfway up his arms—even more fitted to his torso than it would've been dry, the outline of his abs slightly visible as a result. His blue jeans were now darkened, and the book that was in his back pocket was entirely ruined, the ink smudged, paper stained, and thin material on the front and back covers tearing.

Jess was dripping lake water, that was surprisingly fairly clean, on the ground, which Maeve would have to clean the minute he left, but the girl certainly didn't mind—this humorous scene was so worth the extra effort. It certainly didn't hurt that the effect the water had on him was quite a sight in itself.

The boy shot her a death glare before shaking his head and striding behind the curtain and up the stairs, Maeve still laughing in pure joy. She would hold this day over him for as long as she possibly could.

The clear consequence of Jess' behaviour on Jess, himself, led Maeve to assume that Taylor wasn't lying, and Luke's form of discipline was pushing his nephew into the lake.

Whether Luke impulsively decided on the punishment then and there or decided on it way earlier, Maeve was simply grateful that it happened at all.

It was incredibly satisfying to see Jess get a sliver of the treatment that he bestowed upon others, and this punishment certainly reflected his crime.

•

© voidvaleska