We Shine Like a Burning Star by fairy_tale_echo (R)

[abby82.livejournal.com]

Fandom: GILMORE GIRLS
Pairing: Luke/Rachel, Luke/Lorelai
Length: 3039 words
Author on LJ: fairy_tale_echo 
Author Website: LJ fic tag, fairy_tale_echo at Black & White & Read 

Why this must be read: I liked Rachel, Luke's globe-trotting, photographer former girlfriend. I could see what attracted Luke to her. Aside from being beautiful she had an effortless grace about her. There was no drama with Rachel and she jelled nicely with Luke's low-key nature. I also loved that she took Luke at face value. With Luke what you see is what you got and Rachel understood that. However, despite all that, by the time Rachel made her appearance/re-appearance in Stars Hollow in late season one Luke was clearly a man with different needs. Does he welcome the familiar that is Rachel or does he wait for the possibility of Lorelai?  With this wonderful introspective fic, Luke examines his relationship with both women. First, there's Rachel, on the morning after her return. Their encounter is juxtaposed with Luke and Lorelai's first night together a few years later. The prose in this fic is beautiful and lyrical. There's a tiny amount of angst with a nice dose of luvin' thrown in for good measure.



Rachel is not everything you want, not anymore and maybe not ever. You know that with a sudden, fierce clarity, in a way you have known few things in your life.

Rachel is not a game of cards on a table-top. Rachel is not a winter's night drive, concern swallowing down a queasiness about hospitals. Rachel is not clear blue eyes and pouty, red lips, a rambling whine, an earnest plea. Rachel is not that secret piece of newspaper tucked into your wallet, folded a hundred times against the hard reality of your life, afraid to even dare to desire.

Rachel is not Lorelai.

It is that simple, that clear, that helplessly hopeless.

Rachel is not Lorelai.

It is your last lucid thought before you see stars and the burning of the Star's Hollow bonfire behind your eyes and you push up, up, up into Rachel's mouth and a blank oblivion.


We Shine Like a Burning Star by fairy_tale_echo

Comments

[aliaspiral.livejournal.com]

i am contractually obligated to love this fic, as it was written for me, but really, I LOVE THIS FIC. It's gorgeous and handles both Luke/Rachel and Luke/Lorelai in stride.