Half A Fic
Apr. 9th, 2010 08:01 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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tamingthemuseTitle: The Pursuits of Pasta and Maple Candy (otherwise entitled, the Untitled Love Affair of Joey and Ross)
Author: tigerstriped86
Crossover Fandoms: Gilmore Girls/Friends
Pairings: Luke/Joey; Joey/Ross
Rating: Mature
Author's Note: Totally forgot I wouldn't be on tomorrow in time to post...or I'm not sure at the very least. This fic also offers prove that I am either insane, morally bankrupt, or really just can't keep my fingers out of various creative cookie jars. Probably a bit from all 3 categories.
Also, crudely betaed by myself and...bonus! part one of the unofficial story...as in, lots of revisions to come most likely!
Disc.: Not mine. But proof I can bring these pairings along is win.
Prompt 194: al dente (yum!-fyi, its actually better just a touch past al dente unless you A) throw it against a wall or B) are mixing it with alfredo sauce)
Summary: Joey and Ross have a chance meeting years after Joey had left New York (ignore the spin-off, for the love of all things) and Joey is having that mid-life introspection moment. I threw Luke into the mix because...well...because I am a bad, bad boy and I need to be punished. Tee hee.
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Ross finished his rambling remark as Joey kicked the door open with his foot, one shoulder under Ross' arm and the hotel key firmly planted in his teeth, as he desperately tried not to think about who else might have handled the key. “And they don't have maple fudge like that in the city, so I had to eat that entire pound all up!”
Joey dropped the key from his jaws onto a bedside table, using his free shoulder to nudge on a light somewhere in the room, the double beds accentuated by the soft glow.
“Yeah, you sure do like your maple fudge, don'cha?”
Ross nodded as Joey eased Ross over to the bed and sat him upright, releasing his shoulder from the slight burden of Ross' weight. “Best in the state.”
“Yeah, but now we gotta get you to sleep it off, huh? We'll get some pancakes in the morning from the diner, all right?”
Ross' eyes lit up. “You promise?”
“Cross my heart, but lets get you into bed first, buddy.”
Ross smiled at Joey with affection. “Okay.” Reaching down to try for his shoes, Ross felt the sugar hit his brain and his fingers fumbled with the laces. He looked up at Joey, who was dumping salt water taffy out of his pockets and not paying particular attention to the bed's occupant. Joey fingered the strawberry cream pieces he had absentmindedly picked up for Chandler before he noticed Ross' pitied stare.
“I got you, bro,” Joey stated as he walked over and bent down to help Ross with the laces. He wasn't about to help undress him more, but there were at least man law protocols to follow and taking shoes off was one of them when drunk, or in Ross' case, going through a sugar high.
“Sorry 'bout that, must've had a bit of a sugar rush to my occipital lope. Funny word that-occipital,” Ross started to apologize but Joey just waved him off.
“That's what friends are for, man.”
“And you're a good friend. And good friends tell each other things.”
“Sure.”
“Like how much they mean to each other.”
Joey suddenly felt uncomfortable. The whole sloshed “i love you man” speech came often enough, but he had a feeling that it would be different coming from Ross. Ross had this whole expressive love emotion thing that Joey couldn't copy on good days, let alone on those frequently recurring off days.
“It's okay. Lets just get you to bed. You'll feel better in the morning. Sleeping always helps.”
Ross fell back into the blankets, burrowing his head into the pillow and giving a sniffle with his agreement. “Sleeping is always good.”
Out like a light, Joey thought as Ross squirmed around until he was comfortable, his blurry eyes already checking him out of reality for the next few hours without the rest of him yet realizing it. Joey moved Ross' shoes closer to the bedside table and then reached under the lamp to click off the light that Ross had left on before they had gone off sightseeing, so that nobody would come snooping around.
Joey caught himself studying Ross as he slept, as his features relaxed and those worry lines that bounced around his eyes or from his nose to his chin, and he thought that Ross looked almost young and innocent that way. Of all of his friends, Ross was the most interesting without trying.
Shaking off a feeling welling up inside himself, Joey went to the bathroom and took one of those plastic cups from the sink basin, filling it with water and then leaving it next to Ross' bed for him to find when he woke up. Knowing that his friend would be in a sugar coma for hours, and wake up not a pound heavier, Joey decided to take a walk.
Joey liked Stars Hollow at night. He had been here nearly a week now, a chance meeting with Ross a day or so ago setting the rest of his break in motion. Well, technically, it was more than a break, Joey admitted to himself guiltily. It had been more than a break for some time. Joey was out of his element these days, out of his game. Ever since he had left New York with his soap, he had just been out of touch with who he was.
Seeing Ross and how good his life was now, he was helping to host a convention nearby for starters, made Joey jealous. Joey was jealous of Ross. Saying that out loud as he walked, the grass fresh with dew and moonlight, felt like a relief. He could name it, identify it. The way that Ross embraced life, didn't question feeling, ate too many maple fudge slices until he hit a drunken sugar high...Joey couldn't do that. Joey also couldn't move on from what had been.
Sure, with encouragement, he could fake learning how to play a guitar or try and convince a casting agent that he was uncircumcised or even let a girl pee on him to help get rid of a jellyfish sting, but not alone. Left to his own devices, and without a cover like John Adams or Drake Remoray, he was nothing.
Actors, he began to quip, are either the best of humanity or the worst. We're the emotion, the victors, the conquerors. Why then did Joey feel like such a loser these days? He had his choice of roles and walk-ons, but they just did nothing for him. But he did his best to hide it when he guest spotted on ANTM and such.
Joey's mind called attention to the fact that he was headed back toward Luke's Diner, where that guy in the backwards baseball cap made great pasta. It was unexpected in a little sleepy place like this, someone who came close enough to his mama's recipe to make him wish he were home. But he could never go back to New York. No, he had burned enough bridges there. Everywhere he'd look, he'd expect 5 faces but they'd never be there: all gone, all different, all changed.
The light was still on above the diner, but the door was locked. Tapping on the door, Joey noticed the guy in the backwards baseball cap was wiping the last two glasses clean with a dish towel. He made his way to the door while slinging the towel over his shoulder.
Luke blinked at Joey, one hand referencing the overturned chairs. “Sorry, we're closed.”
Joey responded through the glass door. “Look, I just need a place where I can get some black coffee or something. None of that Starbucks stuff, real coffee. Can you tell me where I can get that at this hour?”
Joey thought Luke was gonna hit him with the glare he received and he was taken aback by the thought that this guy might like the cream that Starbucks baristas called “coffee.” Instead, Luke opened the door with a loud clink of the lock. Sticking his head out, he addressed Joey.
“Look, I normally don't do this, so don't get in the habit of asking. If word gets around town that I've gone soft, people might wanna come in at all hours and I like some time off at night.”
Joey nodded, throwing up a hand as if he were being sworn into silence. “Hey, I can understand. Just looking for some coffee. And maybe some pie.”
Luke rolled his eyes as he pulled away from the door. Joey slid in behind him and Luke looked around as though by closing the door and locking it again, people wouldn't be able to see inside. “Can't say I've got any pie left. Lane took the last piece with her. But I can do a fresh pot of Folgers.”
Joey snorted gratefully, liking the sound of anyone who would take the last piece of pie, which he had forced himself to become accustomed to not doing since he had noticed his waist line beginning to expand. Something about what one of Chandler's kids had said to Uncle Joey....well, he didn't like to think about it. “Trust me, I'll make the coffee tip worth it enough then.”
Luke started fiddling around with the coffee pot just out of Joey's view, though whether it was the recipe or just because the coffee pot was around the corner was never clear. “Don't worry about.” Luke thought again and then stuck his head around the corner. “That doesn't mean I'm not gonna take your money. Had a long day and believe me, I'm gonna bilge you for some real coffee. But that doesn't mean I need a big tip.”
Joey's brow furrowed. “So...this isn't your diner? You're not Luke?”
Luke came back out with a clean white coffee cup and a bowl of Sweet n Low. Joey immediately felt guilty that he was dirtying another dish, especially if this guy wasn't the owner. “Didn't say that. I actually am Luke, or Baseball Hat guy if any of my exes are around.”
“I don't get it then. Why not make somebody else stay late and clean glasses?”
Luke rummaged around behind the counter for his own lopsided glazed mug in an odd oatmeal color. Some kid had made it for him, a girl if the handwriting of Luke wasn't mistaken. If he had looked at the bottom, he would have seen RG written there. “People in this town talk twice as much as they need to listen and listen half as much as they should. God, it is late. I'm talking like her now.”
Joey nodded conspiratorially as the scent of fresh coffee started to waft around the corner. “You've got a her too? Just let me know if I'm getting too personal.”
Luke merely shrugged as he poured the coffee since it had finished brewing. “Every guy with a few miles on him has a couple of those.”
Joey murmured in ascent. “Here, here. Just thank God for good coffee.”
“I'll drink to that,” Luke finished warmly as he clinked his coffee cup against Joey's. “So, you must be a tourist? We get those from New York quite a bit.”
Joey shook his head. “Nah. Haven't been a New Yorker in a long time. I'm just taking a rest. Stars Hollow just seems built for it.”
“Well, thats what Taylor and his gang want you to think. Me? I leave the atmosphere alone and let my food do the talking.”
Joey took a long sip of the hot brew with a slurp of approval. “As well you should. Only my mama and one of my sisters does al dente as good as yours.”
Luke nodded in thanks. “I'll take that as a complement, but I won't take credit for it completely. There's this one place....nah, never mind. You wouldn't be interested.”
Joey got off his stool quickly. “If it's food, I'm in.”
Author: tigerstriped86
Crossover Fandoms: Gilmore Girls/Friends
Pairings: Luke/Joey; Joey/Ross
Rating: Mature
Author's Note: Totally forgot I wouldn't be on tomorrow in time to post...or I'm not sure at the very least. This fic also offers prove that I am either insane, morally bankrupt, or really just can't keep my fingers out of various creative cookie jars. Probably a bit from all 3 categories.
Also, crudely betaed by myself and...bonus! part one of the unofficial story...as in, lots of revisions to come most likely!
Disc.: Not mine. But proof I can bring these pairings along is win.
Prompt 194: al dente (yum!-fyi, its actually better just a touch past al dente unless you A) throw it against a wall or B) are mixing it with alfredo sauce)
Summary: Joey and Ross have a chance meeting years after Joey had left New York (ignore the spin-off, for the love of all things) and Joey is having that mid-life introspection moment. I threw Luke into the mix because...well...because I am a bad, bad boy and I need to be punished. Tee hee.
--------
Ross finished his rambling remark as Joey kicked the door open with his foot, one shoulder under Ross' arm and the hotel key firmly planted in his teeth, as he desperately tried not to think about who else might have handled the key. “And they don't have maple fudge like that in the city, so I had to eat that entire pound all up!”
Joey dropped the key from his jaws onto a bedside table, using his free shoulder to nudge on a light somewhere in the room, the double beds accentuated by the soft glow.
“Yeah, you sure do like your maple fudge, don'cha?”
Ross nodded as Joey eased Ross over to the bed and sat him upright, releasing his shoulder from the slight burden of Ross' weight. “Best in the state.”
“Yeah, but now we gotta get you to sleep it off, huh? We'll get some pancakes in the morning from the diner, all right?”
Ross' eyes lit up. “You promise?”
“Cross my heart, but lets get you into bed first, buddy.”
Ross smiled at Joey with affection. “Okay.” Reaching down to try for his shoes, Ross felt the sugar hit his brain and his fingers fumbled with the laces. He looked up at Joey, who was dumping salt water taffy out of his pockets and not paying particular attention to the bed's occupant. Joey fingered the strawberry cream pieces he had absentmindedly picked up for Chandler before he noticed Ross' pitied stare.
“I got you, bro,” Joey stated as he walked over and bent down to help Ross with the laces. He wasn't about to help undress him more, but there were at least man law protocols to follow and taking shoes off was one of them when drunk, or in Ross' case, going through a sugar high.
“Sorry 'bout that, must've had a bit of a sugar rush to my occipital lope. Funny word that-occipital,” Ross started to apologize but Joey just waved him off.
“That's what friends are for, man.”
“And you're a good friend. And good friends tell each other things.”
“Sure.”
“Like how much they mean to each other.”
Joey suddenly felt uncomfortable. The whole sloshed “i love you man” speech came often enough, but he had a feeling that it would be different coming from Ross. Ross had this whole expressive love emotion thing that Joey couldn't copy on good days, let alone on those frequently recurring off days.
“It's okay. Lets just get you to bed. You'll feel better in the morning. Sleeping always helps.”
Ross fell back into the blankets, burrowing his head into the pillow and giving a sniffle with his agreement. “Sleeping is always good.”
Out like a light, Joey thought as Ross squirmed around until he was comfortable, his blurry eyes already checking him out of reality for the next few hours without the rest of him yet realizing it. Joey moved Ross' shoes closer to the bedside table and then reached under the lamp to click off the light that Ross had left on before they had gone off sightseeing, so that nobody would come snooping around.
Joey caught himself studying Ross as he slept, as his features relaxed and those worry lines that bounced around his eyes or from his nose to his chin, and he thought that Ross looked almost young and innocent that way. Of all of his friends, Ross was the most interesting without trying.
Shaking off a feeling welling up inside himself, Joey went to the bathroom and took one of those plastic cups from the sink basin, filling it with water and then leaving it next to Ross' bed for him to find when he woke up. Knowing that his friend would be in a sugar coma for hours, and wake up not a pound heavier, Joey decided to take a walk.
Joey liked Stars Hollow at night. He had been here nearly a week now, a chance meeting with Ross a day or so ago setting the rest of his break in motion. Well, technically, it was more than a break, Joey admitted to himself guiltily. It had been more than a break for some time. Joey was out of his element these days, out of his game. Ever since he had left New York with his soap, he had just been out of touch with who he was.
Seeing Ross and how good his life was now, he was helping to host a convention nearby for starters, made Joey jealous. Joey was jealous of Ross. Saying that out loud as he walked, the grass fresh with dew and moonlight, felt like a relief. He could name it, identify it. The way that Ross embraced life, didn't question feeling, ate too many maple fudge slices until he hit a drunken sugar high...Joey couldn't do that. Joey also couldn't move on from what had been.
Sure, with encouragement, he could fake learning how to play a guitar or try and convince a casting agent that he was uncircumcised or even let a girl pee on him to help get rid of a jellyfish sting, but not alone. Left to his own devices, and without a cover like John Adams or Drake Remoray, he was nothing.
Actors, he began to quip, are either the best of humanity or the worst. We're the emotion, the victors, the conquerors. Why then did Joey feel like such a loser these days? He had his choice of roles and walk-ons, but they just did nothing for him. But he did his best to hide it when he guest spotted on ANTM and such.
Joey's mind called attention to the fact that he was headed back toward Luke's Diner, where that guy in the backwards baseball cap made great pasta. It was unexpected in a little sleepy place like this, someone who came close enough to his mama's recipe to make him wish he were home. But he could never go back to New York. No, he had burned enough bridges there. Everywhere he'd look, he'd expect 5 faces but they'd never be there: all gone, all different, all changed.
The light was still on above the diner, but the door was locked. Tapping on the door, Joey noticed the guy in the backwards baseball cap was wiping the last two glasses clean with a dish towel. He made his way to the door while slinging the towel over his shoulder.
Luke blinked at Joey, one hand referencing the overturned chairs. “Sorry, we're closed.”
Joey responded through the glass door. “Look, I just need a place where I can get some black coffee or something. None of that Starbucks stuff, real coffee. Can you tell me where I can get that at this hour?”
Joey thought Luke was gonna hit him with the glare he received and he was taken aback by the thought that this guy might like the cream that Starbucks baristas called “coffee.” Instead, Luke opened the door with a loud clink of the lock. Sticking his head out, he addressed Joey.
“Look, I normally don't do this, so don't get in the habit of asking. If word gets around town that I've gone soft, people might wanna come in at all hours and I like some time off at night.”
Joey nodded, throwing up a hand as if he were being sworn into silence. “Hey, I can understand. Just looking for some coffee. And maybe some pie.”
Luke rolled his eyes as he pulled away from the door. Joey slid in behind him and Luke looked around as though by closing the door and locking it again, people wouldn't be able to see inside. “Can't say I've got any pie left. Lane took the last piece with her. But I can do a fresh pot of Folgers.”
Joey snorted gratefully, liking the sound of anyone who would take the last piece of pie, which he had forced himself to become accustomed to not doing since he had noticed his waist line beginning to expand. Something about what one of Chandler's kids had said to Uncle Joey....well, he didn't like to think about it. “Trust me, I'll make the coffee tip worth it enough then.”
Luke started fiddling around with the coffee pot just out of Joey's view, though whether it was the recipe or just because the coffee pot was around the corner was never clear. “Don't worry about.” Luke thought again and then stuck his head around the corner. “That doesn't mean I'm not gonna take your money. Had a long day and believe me, I'm gonna bilge you for some real coffee. But that doesn't mean I need a big tip.”
Joey's brow furrowed. “So...this isn't your diner? You're not Luke?”
Luke came back out with a clean white coffee cup and a bowl of Sweet n Low. Joey immediately felt guilty that he was dirtying another dish, especially if this guy wasn't the owner. “Didn't say that. I actually am Luke, or Baseball Hat guy if any of my exes are around.”
“I don't get it then. Why not make somebody else stay late and clean glasses?”
Luke rummaged around behind the counter for his own lopsided glazed mug in an odd oatmeal color. Some kid had made it for him, a girl if the handwriting of Luke wasn't mistaken. If he had looked at the bottom, he would have seen RG written there. “People in this town talk twice as much as they need to listen and listen half as much as they should. God, it is late. I'm talking like her now.”
Joey nodded conspiratorially as the scent of fresh coffee started to waft around the corner. “You've got a her too? Just let me know if I'm getting too personal.”
Luke merely shrugged as he poured the coffee since it had finished brewing. “Every guy with a few miles on him has a couple of those.”
Joey murmured in ascent. “Here, here. Just thank God for good coffee.”
“I'll drink to that,” Luke finished warmly as he clinked his coffee cup against Joey's. “So, you must be a tourist? We get those from New York quite a bit.”
Joey shook his head. “Nah. Haven't been a New Yorker in a long time. I'm just taking a rest. Stars Hollow just seems built for it.”
“Well, thats what Taylor and his gang want you to think. Me? I leave the atmosphere alone and let my food do the talking.”
Joey took a long sip of the hot brew with a slurp of approval. “As well you should. Only my mama and one of my sisters does al dente as good as yours.”
Luke nodded in thanks. “I'll take that as a complement, but I won't take credit for it completely. There's this one place....nah, never mind. You wouldn't be interested.”
Joey got off his stool quickly. “If it's food, I'm in.”
