𝑳𝑶𝒀𝑨𝑳𝑻𝒀 - 𝐜𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐨𝐥𝐨 { ✓ }

• 52

"you two seem ... strange." chris notes, looking between cora and lorelai. "what's going on?"

"nothing!" lai says quickly.

"you're-"

nick interrupts chris' reply as he and kent return with the presents. there are gift bags hanging from their arms and boxes stacked to their chins.

"you've got tons of friends, mae." nick says, struggling to walk straight.

mae goes over to him and takes a few gifts. before she can even take two steps forward, chris takes the gifts from her. "you're not allowed to carry anything on your own birthday."

"y'know, i could get used to this princess treatment." mae says, resting her arms behind her head and allowing chris to carry all the boxes for her.

"hopefully not too used to it." chris tells her with a smile.

nick watches their interaction with a puzzled look on his face. kent analyzes them and immediately puts the pieces together but doesn't dare to say anything.

meanwhile, cora and lai are far too worried about their own problems to notice the random chemistry between chris and mae.

"which gift would you like to open first, princess?"chris asks, bowing down to her sarcastically.

mae grins, looking at the stack of gifts. she grabs the largest one — a big bag with the words 'ITS A BOY' inscribed on the front with balloons and cake as the background.

she pulls the tissue paper out of the bag and sees a shirt in the bottom of the bag. she grabs the shirt, discarding the bag. she holds it up in front of her to look at it.

it's a white shirt with the words : I ❤️ KENT on the front of it. she flips it over and his face is plastered onto the back.

"i had it custom-made." kent tells her with a proud smile. "and i better see you wearing it daily."

mae laughs, "i'll never take it off."

"that's unsanitary." nick tells her making a face of disgust. "you'll have to wash it."

"it's a figure of speech, genius."

mae grabs another gift, this one being a medium-sized box. again, the wrapping paper isn't fitting for the occasion. this one is decorated for valentine's day. little pink hearts and red stars are on the sides.

she rips the paper and sees a shoe-box. she opens the box and there's another box. mae rolls her eyes, opening that one. and the next one. and the next one. and a couple more after that.

eventually, she opens a small box and doesn't see another one inside. instead, there's a gift card. she picks up the card. it's a 5-dollar discount at dollar tree.

"that was from me." matt tells her. "i forgot to buy you something expensive so i had to work with what i had. i put it all together this morning."

"i appreciate the five dollars, matt." mae tells him with a chuckle. she sets the gift card on top of the folded shirt with kent's face.

she opens a few more gifts, saying thank you to the people who bought them for her.

then she gets to another large bag. it's plain pink with white stripes. on the string handle, there's a tag ranging from it with lorelai's name written in neat cursive.

she peeks into the bag and sees a small, stuffed bear poking through the tissue paper. she removes the paper and grabs the bear.

it's a plain beige bear. it's fur is soft and long.

"cora told me that you liked stuffed toys." lorelai tells her with a small smile. "if you don't like it, i'll buy something else."

"no, i love it." mae tells her, adding the bear to her pile of gifts.

she opens more and more gifts. nick got her a bunch of candy and a pair of pants she'd been wanting for a long time.

cora got her something small, but symbolic. it was a bracelet with the names of two TV show characters that they bonded over as kids — which is what made them become such good friends in the first place.

then, she got to a small box.

it was messily wrapped in pale orange paper and a heart was drawn on the top in black sharpie. she carefully unwraps the gift.

the box is made of dark grey velvet. it's clearly jewelry inside.

she opens the lid and sees a pendent of two interlocked hearts. they're both made of silver, the outlines of their shape connected at the point.

"you can't get rid of me now." he tells her, coming up and gently taking the gift from her hands. he removes the necklace from its box and wraps his arms around her neck.

his hands tickle her skin and she refrains from instinctively smacking him off of her. she smiles at him as he clasps the chain around her neck.

"i'm serious when i say, i'll never take it off." mae tells him, leaning her face up to his. "hopefully it's more sanitary than the shirt."

ₓ˚. ୭ ˚○◦˚.˚◦○˚ ୧.˚ₓ
a/n : i hate writing relationships after they're together because i always feel like any sort of affection they show is cringey and gross
also my favorite gift was BY FAR kent's 🤭