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24. it's actually you
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LORELAI TUGS ON the hood covering her hair, nervous fingers fiddling with the fabric habitually. Her plane had landed ten minutes ago, and she was just now getting off of it. In short, she felt terrible. Her travel day was bordering on eighteen hours now, and all she wanted to do was go to sleep. However, sleeping on an airplane, in a mask, didn't exactly come easy to her. She had gotten an hour long nap during her second flight, but that was all.

Her back hurt, her neck was terribly sore, and her eyelids were drooping as she made her way out of the gate. Illuminated signs pointed her towards baggage claim, but with her exhaustion and the fact that English was her second language, she took a good three minutes to understand where she was being directed to.

She was not dressed to impress, and she was pleading Corpse wasn't either. Her fluffy red Christmas socks peeked out of her beaten up Vans, and they did not match the dark blue and black sweatshirt covering most of her body. On the way to baggage claim she had stopped in a bathroom to try and look a little more presentable, but she had deemed herself hopeless at the sight of her jet-lagged body in the mirrors.

Corpse had seen her tired and lazy before, surely this wouldn't be any different.

The signs led her down an escalator to where people were crowding around a few baggage carousels. People were reuniting with those who had flown to San Diego, and signs with names printed on them were being held up everywhere. It was chaos, simply put.

Lorelai carefully pushes her way through the crowd, trying to get at baggage carousel two where 'Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW)' was on the screen advertising where the bags were coming from. The carousel wasn't even moving yet, much to Lorelai's dismay.

crops 👨‍🌾💓
let me know when you have ur luggage and ill meet you at the curb outside

Lorelai rubs her temple and rereads the message again, finally understanding what he was saying the second time around. She types out a quick response of agreement before switching to Spotify and changing the song blasting through her AirPods. Everyone around her was talking to friends and family while waiting for the bags to come out, but it was all drowned out by Lorelai's music.

Did she care that Corpse wasn't meeting her inside? Not at all. She would never have asked that of him. Airports were loud and anxiety inducing, no place for a person with agoraphobia. Lorelai would've gotten a cab to his apartment had he not insisted he would pick her up himself.

Finally the bags start to come out, and Lorelai perks up a little. It takes a while for her bag to come out, but eventually she grabs her white suitcase and lifts it off of the carousel.

laura lee 👩‍🌾🖤
got my luggage
heading out to curb now

crops 👨‍🌾💓
in a black jeep wrangler
i'll roll window down when i see you

Lorelai walks out of the automatic doors and into the warm Californian air. She reshoulders her backpack, brown eyes scanning the street for Corpse's car. On the way out she had googled the type of car, so she felt prepared and ready to spot it.

The street was undoubtedly busy, yet Lorelai managed to find a black Jeep Wrangler making its way towards her despite that. The passenger window was rolled down and Lorelai could somewhat see the dark figure sitting behind the wheel. It could very well be Corpse, the person had a hood over their head and a black mask covering the rest of their face, and a few dark curls of hair peeked out from beneath his hood. He had described his appearance to her before, so it could be him. Or a murderer, actually, but preferably it was Corpse.

The Jeep pulls up in front of Lorelai, coming to a park as Lorelai just stands there. Waiting for some kind of sign that it was Corpse and not a murderer, Lorelai watches as the driver reaches into their center console and pulls out a bag from Sonic and a milkshake.

Lorelai smiles wide under her mask, practically running towards the Jeep. The trunk pops open and she shoves her suitcase in, bringing her backpack with her to the passenger seat. It felt surreal to open the door and sit next to Corpse, and serotonin was rushing through her at an insane pace.

"Hi," she breathes out.

"Hey," Corpse replies, the voice confirming it was him.

Lorelai leans over the center console, pulling the boy into a hug. She rests her head in the crook of his neck, squeezing him tight as he did the same. His hand reaches up to pat her head over her hood, and when they finally separated, Lorelai was still smiling.

Corpse began to direct the car away from the curb as Lorelai says, "I can't believe it's actually you."

She pulls off her hood and mask, hand immediately going for the milkshake sitting in the drink holder.

His face is covered by his Covid mask, hood, and hair, but Lorelai can see a little bit of his eyes. He laughs lightly, shaking his head. "This is insane. I can't believe you're actually here."

Lorelai takes a sip of her milkshake. "I can't believe you brought me food, too. You're the best, oh my God."

The car comes to a complete stand still as they hit traffic. Corpse takes the opportunity to reach into his backseat and grab a fluffy white blanket. He hands it to Lorelai saying, "I brought you the blanket too."

"I'm gonna cry," Lorelai pouts as she curls up under the blanket.

Corpse lets out another small chuckle. "Eat your chicken nuggets and don't cry, Lorelai."

Lorelai follows his directions, opening up the box of chicken nuggets and popping one into her mouth.

When they've finally left the airport behind, Corpse asks, "so, do you want to go home and sleep or drive around for a bit?"

Lorelai checks the time on his dashboard. "Drive around for a bit. If I go to bed now, I'll be fucked over by the time change."

"Well, you can receive the most scuffed tour of San Diego in history right now, then," Corpse jokes.

Corpse turns the wheel, turning the Jeep onto a road taking them directly along the marina. Tons of boats are docked there, including two giant ships with masts and sails and everything.

"Okay, you see that bigger ship there?" Corpse asks, pointing his hand out to gesture at one of the ships. "My fourth grade class slept over on it one night for a field trip."

"That's so cool, oh my God," Lorelai comments. "We went to museums and shit when we were young."

"Perks of living in SoCal."

Lorelai takes another sip of her milkshake. Her eyes linger on the ships in the marina as she finally notices the music playing through Corpse's speakers.

Fool. By Cavetown.

Lorelai lets herself sink into her chair, memorizing the moment and putting it in a mental lockbox. There it would sit; pure, beautiful, untouchable. Forever hers would be the memory of that single passing moment. Bliss was still keeping her moving; serotonin was still keeping her eyes from drooping. Soft music and small murmurs from Corpse kept her sane, and the smell of salt lingering in the air kept her grounded.

Maybe she was borderlining on something again. She had realized it a few weeks ago. At some point she made the decision to push back the question of 'maybe?', but now it was time to resurface it. There was no way to ignore how happy Corpse made her feel now.

Not when his hand was interlaced with hers on the center console of his car.

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author's note

damn anyways irl content go brrrr

literally have so many things planned plus y'all get to meet my fav soon

anyways have a swaggy day