Private Finished I can tell you about Leif Erikson

Rory didn't have a physical bucket list. This was the age of technology, after all. But, since becoming a hero and spending time with her team, she'd made one. From simple, everyday things like: try weed, try alcohol, have a first date. To the odd: learn if tying a cherry stem was actually possible, do one of those odd pranks in those dinosaur outfits, be part of a flash mob.

She was pretty hype going to Broen's place, not for the impending fight of 'i'm not going to kiss you' but to learn if this shit was actually possible. Okay. Fine. It was a fucking weird thing to want to learn, but someone, somewhere, at some time, had to have found it a worthwhile endeavor, or it never would have been done.

"I'm fucking ready," she said with all the intensity of someone about to head into war.

Rory huffed and sat down when Broen told her to calm down. Damn, she thought people would learn by now that she was always going to be intense, whether she was talking about kicking ass or the weather.

"Mhm," she said only vaguely listening until 'you ask a lot of goddamn questions.' "Oh, are we stating facts?"

Then she laughed. "Nah. I could not be more transparent about my intentions with you. And, excuse me, but aren't you the one who told me to spend the night? Shouldn't I be the one all 'don't catch feelings, fucker'?"

"What a surprise. It's almost like they call that friendship."

Rory was doing her best to take this seriously, but there was something hilarious about Broen being so frustrated by something so simple. She'd told him several times, hadn't she?

"Serious deja vu from this conversation. But okay, I'll bite. 1. I'm definitely weird, but everyone is. 2." She paused and made a so-so motion with her hand. "3. I do want to fuck you. I just won't. And 4. My 'end game' is to make sure you're good and you stay that way.

"Now... the cherries?"

Lorelai softened and steepled her fingers, no longer directly looking at him. Any hint of a smile was gone. She sighed. "That's one bad aspect, yes. And it's true that nothing I can do is going to change that part of you. And it wouldn't be my place to try, either.

"And I don't do things I feel are a waste of time. So no. And you, I literally pay you. If you keep trying to find a perfectly logical explanation for this, you're going to keep being confused. There isn't one."

He was speaking weirdly. His tone. And it took her looking over to realize he was knotting the cherry stems. She listened, quiet, and contemplated.

"Everyone thinks you can't be close to people, but that's not right, is it? It's that you don't want to be close to people. So you close yourself off. You don't ask questions, because then it's easier to distance yourself. And you push people away when they dig a little too deep."

And Rory stopped watching him. There was an intimacy in watching someone and she figured he wanted privacy. He was already distracting himself, and Rory herself had a tendency to do that when she didn't want people looking at her.

"I don't want to make you uncomfortable, so I won't ask. I'm not going to stop caring, but I promise I won't ask for anything you don't freely give up.

"I'm not trying to push you, Broen, if you don't want to talk about something just say so, and I won't push the issue. I'm not ever going to trick you or try to force you to do anything. I'm an intense motherfucker-- pretty much always — but I do care. And I care enough to listen when you tell me 'no.'"