Author's Note (1): So this is my first Gilmore Girls fic. I haven't read much Gilmore Girls fanfic (yet!), so I apologize if this story I wrote has been done over a thousand times, but it just popped in my head while I was re-watching "Written in the Stars" one day and have found nothing like it in the fics that I have read so far. I couldn't let this story go, and so that's why we are here today. I really hope you enjoy this story. Warning: complete and total Luke x Lorelai fluff!
Author's Note (2): In my fanfics I like to make my stories blend seamlessly into the real show, so a lot of the dialogue from this episode is in the first part of this fic (with added context and Lorelai's thoughts as it is narrated from her POV). Normally, I try to keep the exact dialogue from the episode, but in this case there was one piece of dialogue that I just had to change. It's a small piece, but bonus points to whoever can find it! Please let me know if you do!
Disclaimer: I do not own Gilmore Girls.
"Well, I'm sorry Mom, but I'm in the middle of something very important."
I glanced back inside at the town meeting, but with my mother yammering at me through the cell phone, I couldn't make out anything that was being exchanged between Luke and Taylor, other than some irate hand gestures, and those were mostly coming from Luke.
"Well, this is important, too." My mother continued to fight with me. "Meet me for a coffee."
This was getting ridiculous. Here, I'd begged Luke to come to this town meeting with me – they were always so much more entertaining when he was around, since he was one of the few willing to point out Taylor's ludicrous notions – only for him to get brutally bombarded with questions and unfair judgement about his relationship with me…and I was stuck on the phone outside with my mother who was being petty about her fight with my dad.
Maybe it was from the anger I was feeling toward my beloved town for being so unfair, but my temper was thin and I snapped. At my mother.
"Mom, I can't." I took a breath. "And Rory just moved in and she's at school getting settled so if you really can't talk to one of your friends…I'm sorry but we're gonna have to finish this later."
There was hardly a pause. "Fine," she said and promptly hung up. Well, at least that meant I didn't have to be the one to hang up on her.
I hurried back inside. Luke was leaning forward in his seat and Babette was talking.
"I think that map's a little off," she said, pointing to the front of the room. For half a second, I felt relief, believing that they had moved on from the supposed "issue" of my relationship with Luke, but then Babette spoke again. "Luke would definitely take the northwest block 'cause it's near the fishing hole."
I focused my attention on the front of the room. The map Babette was talking about was front and center, arranged on an easel for all to see. It was a map of Stars Hollow with each corner of the town colored in pink or blue. I felt my eyes widen in surprise. Taylor also had on display an array of pie charts and bar graphs, all having something to do with me and Luke. I'd been thinking the town would be happy to see me and Luke finally take a step forward in our relationship, maybe a little surprised, but nothing like this sabotage. But when it came down to it, it was really none of their business and although I expected some gossip around the town, they had no right to dictate what Luke and I did with our relationship. Fortunately, Luke was just as angry as I was, and stood up just before I could, ready to put an end to this.
"Okay, that's it. I've heard enough." Luke strode to the front of the room. He seemed calm, but when he started taking down Taylor's charts, I knew he wasn't going to let them get away with this scot-free.
"This is my relationship. Mine. Not yours," said Luke. He'd grabbed all the charts at this point and turned to face the audience. "Not yours, not yours," he said to both sides of the room before looking at me, "yours," and then, pointing at Taylor, "but not yours."
I thought he was done, but he kept going, and I couldn't help but smile, admittedly fairly smitten with how vehemently he was defending our relationship.
"Mine and hers, but not yours!" He pointed at everyone in the room. "There's not going to be anymore debating about whether or not it's a good idea if we're in a relationship, 'cause we're in a relationship."
"Show 'em the horoscope," I said across the room. Maybe it was naïve, but I hoped that maybe, just maybe, if the townspeople knew the build up to this, they would understand that me and Luke weren't just some silly fling.
But, before Luke could respond, Taylor opened his big mouth again. "But in the event of a break-up – "
"There's not going to be a break-up," Luke explained. They just didn't get it.
"Well, isn't he the optimistic fellow?" Gypsy piped in. I'm sure she was just agitated about the decision on the fender bender from earlier in the meeting, but it still hurt that she would say something like that.
Luke sighed. "Fine. In case of a break-up, I'll move. I'll close up Luke's Diner. I'll go far, far away. And that way you won't have to choose, okay? Every section in town can be pink."
"Can we have your word on that?" Taylor honed in on Luke.
Even from the back of the room, I could see Luke roll his eyes. "You can have my word and a couple of middle fingers on that Taylor."
"Get that down. We have his word, and uh, leave out the part about the fingers," Taylor said.
He kept talking, but I was done listening. Instead I was watching Luke closely as he tossed the charts to the side. He stayed at the front of the room next to Taylor, surely to make him uncomfortable, but when he met eyes with me, he winked, and I'd be lying if said my heart didn't just melt right then and there.
As soon as everyone started rising, I made my way up to Luke. "Wow!"
He gave me a sheepish grin. "Yeah. You still in?" he asked, uncertain.
Oh, Luke, I thought. So I said the only thing I knew would ease his worries. "I'm all in."
He smiled, relieved, which in turn relieved me. I wanted him to know so badly that he was way more important to me than anything Taylor or anybody else had said tonight. And I could see now in his eyes that he did know.
But with that out of the way, I suddenly remembered something else. "Oh my God."
"What, what's the matter?" Luke asked.
I scrambled for my phone in my purse and pulled up Rory's number as quickly as I could. When she answered I just began to profusely apologize over and over again. I should've known better than to mention Rory to my mother on the phone earlier. She was confused, but when my mother chose that exact moment to show up at her dorm, I knew Rory understood. We hung up, and I still felt guilty, but that was a problem for later.
"Everything okay?" Luke asked, concern of his face.
"Everything's perfect." I smiled. The room was almost empty now, save for Taylor and a few stragglers. No longer caring what they thought, I grabbed Luke's hand and gave him a quick kiss. "Let's get out of here," I said.
The remaining stragglers all looked a little cowed and surprised. Apparently, they had no problem fighting a relationship they weren't even sure existed, I thought bitterly.
We turned and began to head out of Miss Patty's. I moved my hand to hold Luke's arm close to me, and just before we began to descend the stairs I turned my head to the side and made eye contact with Taylor. I sent him what I hoped was the most derisive and betrayed look. I couldn't believe what he had done tonight. I was usually fairly supportive of Taylor and his crazy plans for the town, but this was taking it too far. He would not get away with messing with the ones that I cared most about.
Focusing my attention back on Luke, I could tell he was still bothered by all this. His shoulders were tense, and he had grown quiet. Once we were out of earshot from Miss Patty's, I pulled him to a stop.
"Hey, what's wrong?" I asked him softly.
"Nothing," Luke said, trying to shrug it off. But when I just stared at him expectantly he opened up a few moments later. "It's just," he sighed. "You know that I didn't mean any of that stuff back there, right? About us breaking up? I was just trying to get Taylor to stop."
"Luke," I said, but he kept talking.
"Because I don't want to break-up. Especially not for them. They just don't understand that this thing isn't like any other relationship. Lorelai, you're way too important to me for anything like that to happen."
He was rambling now. I held up a finger to his lips and smiled. "Oh, Luke. I know. Believe me, I know. Now please try to forget about Taylor and them."
Luke let out a deep breath. "Easier said than done."
"Hmmm," I said mischievously. I reached up and kissed him. "How about now?" I asked when he pulled away.
Luke gave me one of his knowing smiles and began walking again. "Taylor who?"
We were headed towards the diner and since most of the town meeting had cleared out before we had, there were few people left on the nearby streets. We took our time, enjoying the night. It was the end of the summer, and although the days were still hot and hazy, once the sun went down, the air would cool to a comfortable temperature. It had been a long summer this year, and not just because of the seemingly hotter temperatures. Waiting for Luke to come home all summer had been nearly torture after sharing that first kiss at the Dragonfly Inn. I'd immediately known that things with Luke would be different than any other relationship I'd ever had. And even though we were only just now heading on our second date, I already knew that this was right and that I could probably do this for the rest of my life.
We were almost to the diner, and I could just make out Kirk and a few others enjoying their food. Luke had asked Caesar to close tonight. I had a feeling Caesar would start opening and closing a lot more on his own from now on.
I glanced behind me at Miss Patty's. The doors had all been closed up for the night and ahead of us we were still out of sight from the diner patrons. I pulled Luke to a stop. I still wanted to tell him something, and wanted to do so while we were alone.
"Hey, Luke." I turned to face him. "Can I tell you something?"
"Yeah, anything," he said.
I felt butterflies take flight in my stomach, but I knew without a doubt that I wanted to do this.
"Okay, well, um…" I paused and met Luke's eyes. "I love you, Luke." Luke opened his mouth to speak, but I kept talking before he could respond. "Look, I know some people might say that it's kind of early, or well, way too early, in a relationship to say that. I mean, we've only been on one date after all. But uh, the truth is I've been falling in love with you for a long time now, and so I actually don't think it's too soon for me to tell you that I love you…"
It felt so good to tell him that and was trying to figure out how I could work it into my diatribe again, but Luke took advantage of my short pause to get in a word.
"Lorelai, I am so in love with you."
My heart melted for the second time tonight. "Yeah?" I asked. Luke nodded. He pulled me into a long, languid kiss, wrapping both his arms tightly around me in that way of his that I had quickly come to love. I curled my fingers in his hair with one hand while using my other hand to grab the collar of his shirt and pull him closer to me.
When we finally pulled away from each other, both of us flushed and out of breath, I couldn't help but smile as a thought crossed my mind. Luke, recognizing the look on my face, asked me what I was thinking.
"I was just thinking that our confessing our love for each other probably wasn't the result Taylor intended from that town meeting." I giggled.
"Yeah, I'd say his plan pretty much backfired in that case," Luke agreed. He smiled softly. "Come on."
He led me to his truck parked around the corner of the diner and helped me in. Once he had settled in the driver's seat and had shifted into drive I asked him where we were going.
Luke, rested his hand on my knee and glanced over at me. "Anywhere but here," he said.
Then we began driving, and I knew it didn't at all matter where we went as long as I was with Luke, the man I loved.
Author's Note (3): Thank you for reading! It has always bothered me (and I am sure many others who ship Luke and Lorelai/Java Junkies) that we never hear Lorelai tell Luke she loves him and that the one time Luke tells Lorelai, it is completely out of character. To me, this made perfect sense for this to be the first time they told each other, and I hope you enjoyed my take on it!