A/N: I wrote this half asleep last night and gave it the once over this morning after I woke up. I'm still not one hundred percent satisfied, but holiday fics have a schedule to keep.
They never really did Valentine's Day. During their first as a couple, they were on a break of sorts. The next year was their double date weekend with Rory and Logan in Martha's Vineyard, and while the first part of the weekend was good, it ended in disaster. The year after that, there was Christopher. When the next February rolled around, they were together and happy, but so exhausted from back-to-back crises at both the diner and the inn that they didn't have the energy to devote to making a production of Valentine's Day. That's how their tradition developed.
On the morning of February fourteenth, Lorelai would walk into the diner and order heart-shaped pancakes covered in strawberries and whipped cream. She would receive somewhat heart-shaped pancakes and a bottle of strawberry syrup. (Luke got better at non-round pancakes every year, but it still wasn't his forte.) Lorelai would finish her breakfast, give Luke a kiss goodbye, and they would each go about their days. In the evening, Luke would make them some kind of pasta for dinner and Lorelai would bring out two slices of Weston's raspberry cheesecake for dessert. They would cuddle on the couch watching a movie, and then head upstairs for... bed. No date night clothes, no gifts. It was their tradition and it worked.
Until Lorelai had to mess it up.
She still didn't know what had come over her. One minute she was idly flipping through the candy display at the supermarket in Hartford, the next she had put a heart-shaped box on the conveyor belt. It didn't matter that it screamed Luke to her, they had a tradition and this was messing with it. There's no telling what the consequences might be!
Maybe that was a little dramatic, but it didn't change the fact that she'd never gotten him a Valentine's gift and the only one he'd given her was a necklace originally purchased by Logan for Rory. (Luke had confessed to that during one of their "honesty talks" when they first got back together.) This was uncharted territory and they didn't always have the best track record on that front.
Slightly nervous on the morning of February fourteenth, Lorelai walked into the diner and over to Luke standing at the register making change for Reverend Skinner. He acknowledged her with a nod while he finished counting, only turning to her fully after he'd handed over the few bills. He was stopped from moving towards her by her outstretched hand holding a candy box.
"I know we don't usually do gifts, and don't think that this means you have to go out and get me something, unless you really want to, and I don't mean that wink-wink, nudge-nudge kind of way. I just saw this and thought of you and decided to get it for you." She took a deep breath and grinned. "Happy Valentine's Day."
Luke took the box carefully, smiling slightly when he saw the design. The box was covered in a red and black flannel pattern, with the words Be My Mountain Man written in white. He leaned over the register to kiss Lorelai, then reached under the counter for something. "Happy Valentine's Day," he said, handing it to her.
The box was red and heart-shaped, with a black and white drawing of a couple embracing. Next to them, a single sentence.
There's no one else I'd rather spend this annual obligation with.
"Luke, you ol' softy," Lorelai teased.
"Saw it, thought of you, all that stuff you just spewed thirty seconds ago." He shrugged, but returned the kiss she pulled him into. When they pulled apart, he ignored the catcalls from Miss Patty, who had just walked in, and nodded to the counter. "Sit down, what'll you have?"
"Um, heart-shaped pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream," she replied. "And a vat of coffee."
"How about pancakes in whatever shape they're in, with strawberry syrup and a cup of coffee?" Luke said as he poured said cup.
Lorelai sighed dramatically. "I suppose."
Rolling his eyes, Luke returned the coffee pot to the machine. "Chicken fettuccine tonight?"
"It's a date," Lorelai said, smiling at him over the rim of her cup.
A/N: Both of these candy boxes are real. I ran across the plaid one in Wal-Mart, and the other I found from someecards on Amazon.