AUTHOR'S NOTE: Christmas morning is meant to be spent all warm and snug in their bed, but that was before Lorelai smelled snow. A holiday one-shot full of Java Junkies, holidays puns, too much coffee, not enough sleep, and a Stars Hollow winter wonderland.

This is for Gilmore Girls Secret Santa and is my first attempt at GG/Java Junkies fanfic.

Merry Christmas! :)

xx Ashlee Bree

"Y'know, most sane people who are awoken by a blinking red light this early in the damn morning think one of two things: Either, I'm being arrested; or, I drank too much and am now hallucinating Christmas ghosts," Luke grumbled as he rolled onto his elbows.

Wiping a hand across his face, he rubbed at the sleep that still darkened his eyes.

"If you're a spirit—" he rolled onto his side, using his pillow as a shield to deflect that obnoxious red flashing "—tell me my penance so I can go back to fishin' sugar plums in my dreams."

"Sorry, no can do!" a female voice chirped in reply.

"Let me Scrooge it 'till at least 8 A.M., will ya? It's a holiday."

"Nope!"

"The sun's not even up yet," Luke groaned.

"You know you want to cockle-doodle-do…"

"Not today, I don't."

"Waky, waky!" the voice insisted. "I promise there's no eggs and baky..."

"Lorelai—"

"Lukeee."

He burrowed his head further beneath the pillow.

"I am the Ghost of Christmas Present," Lorelai said as she plopped down next to him on the mattress, "and I command thee to awaken!" His wife shook him, but he didn't move. "You have exactly three seconds before I roll you from this bed like a human snowball, mister. One—two—"

Perhaps if he didn't move, if he allowed his breaths to become long and slow and deep, if he added a good, hard snore or two she'd…

"Come on, Luke!" she pleaded, pouting.

Or not.

Running her fingers across his back in dancing, poking steps, she added, "Pretty, pretty pleaseee?"

Luke sighed. Removing the pillow from his face, he peered at her with one eye open.

Blink.

Blink.

Blink.

That annoying red light still swirled about the room. Around her head. From her face. More than that, Lorelai was perky—too perky.

"How much coffee have you had?" he asked, his one eye still trained on her face.

"None."

"Plus?"

"A pot-and-a-half," Lorelai shrugged indifferently.

He knew her so well.

"But lucky for you," she said with her eyebrow quirked, "it gave me the zip I need to enjoy my presents…and you."

"You do realize you could enjoy me better from bed, right?" he countered, drawing her nearer by the hand.

She lowered her face to him and smiled, caressing his hand affectionately.

"That sounds warm, wonderful, tempting—" She leaned in until her lips grazed near the stubble of his cheek, tickling his face with her warm breath and paused right before their lips met, "But I still need you out of bed…five minutes ago," she said.

With that, she clapped, bounding to her feet. "Up, up, up, up, up!"

Bouncing up-and-down, up-and-down, like an Energizer bunny with caffeine-fueled batteries, she peeled the warm blankets from Luke's body and pulled him to his feet. After beaming Merry Christmas, babe into his face, she smacked a hard kiss against his lips and shoved his ass towards the closet.

"Better dress warm, Grinch," she insisted, throwing a coat, boots, and gloves into his open, yet unsuspecting arms, "because it's cold outside. And Lorelai the Red-Nosed Gilmore," she gestured at her blinking nose, "has a snowy Christmas journey planned especially for you," she added with a wink.

Realizing he could no longer win this I want to sleep debate, he thrust his arms into a jacket and rummaged through a drawer for a pair of socks. He sighed.

"Did you just say snowy?"

"Yep!" she replied merrily.

Of course.

Snow always prompted Lorelai's excitable insanity. Luke forever marveled at her love affair with frozen precipitation, her perfect present, as she liked to call it. He didn't understand it. Callous and icy, snow didn't love you back with anything except frostbite, crappy driving conditions, and sidewalks that needed to be shoveled; but the smile it always managed to carve on her lips? That—that he savored.

And although he always griped and grumbled about it, that tireless Gilmore enthusiasm was one of the things he adored most about her (even if it meant she dragged his exhausted ass out of bed way too early on Christmas morning).

"Where's Rory?" he asked as he stumbled into boots.

"Asleep, of course."

"Okay," he began warily, his brow furrowed "so we are traipsing around at sunrise because…?"

Lorelai fixed him with a look as they exited the bedroom, assuming her best sing-songy voice, "Because above the Stars Hollow ground lies a beauuutiful mantle of white, and you and I shall explore it at first Christmas light. And then, we'll dash through it…far away…out of sight!" she explained, sprinkling her fingers through the air for emphasis.

Tightening a scarf around her neck, she sprang down the stairs as Luke trudged after her unwillingly.

"I think you've confused me with someone else. I don't dash through snow, Lorelai, I walk."

"No ice dashing for you, got it."

"I know you think snow is harmless and majestic in all its snowflake glory, but let me tell you something—" Luke continued, "it's not. Snow equals ice, and ice equals chapped skin, broken bones, concussions, and greeting the ground with a baseball slide; and anyone insane enough to dash along the streets or sidewalks in this town after a snowstorm—well—they damn-well deserve the bruised butts Winter leaves behind."

Luke crossed his arms as if in finality. Lorelai grinned wider at this for some reason, and then yanked him outside into the chilly December air.

"It's so nice that you're protective of our unbruised holiday butts," Lorelai replied, patting him on the chest, "but take heart, Frosty, because we're not dashing by foot." She simpered as she swooped her arms out in ta-da. "We're dashing by one-horse-open-sleigh!"

It wasn't until she pulled him down the stairs and stepped aside that Luke realized she wasn't joking. A red sleigh—complete with two horses dressed as reindeer (probably Cletus and Desdemona from the inn), silver bells which jingled, mistletoe that hung along the back of the seats, a thermos of his favorite peppermint tea, and a giant green quilt—waited for them in the backyard. Luke had no idea why, but when he perceived Lorelai's grand romantic gesture, stolen from one too many cliché fairy tales and countless hours of movie-watching with Rory, he surrendered. Wrapping an arm around her shoulders, they took their seats and cozied beneath the blanket.

"Who's leading?" he kissed into her hair while she flicked on the reins. They trotted away. "You…or Rudolph?"

Lorelai pfft'd,"That second-rate reindeer's got nothin' on a Gilmore."

Snow fell from the sky in thick white flakes and the sunrise blotted pinks against the eastern horizon as the sleigh carried them through town, winter hugging the Stars Hollow morning with the minty freshness of a candy cane. Christmas lights twinkled in windows, Winter Wonderland hummed from the town square speakers on repeat (a minor consequence of TJ's elfish tinkering), and Santa decorations yo-yo-yo'd instead of ho-ho-ho'd on Kirk's front lawn. Miss Patty's kiss-and-bestow wreaths lingered around every corner and spread holiday love in shades of evergreen, while dropped sugar cookies trailed the path to Doose's in trampled crumbs. Luke's heart, though he'd never admit it, grew two sizes as he rode through his quiet, quirky town with his favorite lady cuddled beside him, the warmth of Christmas cheer melting away his sleepy frown.

Yes—Luke felt happy. Almost…merry.

Some time later, Lorelai slowed them to a stop in their front yard before the chuppah.

"When I was a little girl," she said, "just call me Queen Elsa of all things frozen, I used to close my eyes and wish that, one day, I'd take a merry, married sleigh ride through the snow with the one man I truly loved. I'd wish we'd catch snowflakes on our tongues and build snowmen to life with our hands. Because, after all, being in love while in snow never keeps you cold. Burning love, am I right?"

Luke smiled as she nudged him playfully with her elbow. Flicking her blue eyes to his face, her voice suddenly dropped the goofy pretense.

"And although it took many years and many mistakes, and perhaps a couple toads and frogs along the way, I'm happy to say—" Lorelai reached out to intertwine their fingers, "—that sometimes childish dreams do come true."

"I know I talk a lot," she said, emotion brimming in her eyes, "but I don't say enough that I'm glad for the grumpy, glorious, though sometimes Grinchy, gift that is you. Merry Christmas, hun."

Luke kissed her then, his lips marking her with the soft affection he couldn't express with words. "Merry Christmas, Lorelai," he breathed in reply.

As she shifted slightly to the left, nestling into his shoulder with a sigh, Luke caught sight of two objects perched beneath the chuppah he built for her all those years ago. Snowmen. There were two. Among the sticks, carrots, rocks, flannel, and scarves Lorelai had used for their faces and accessories, they also adorned baseball caps—one pink, one blue. Before them, rested a sign:

Mr. and Mrs. Backwards Baseball Cap

In love and in snow

Just in case you didn't know.

And with that, Luke knew the truth: for while the snow would melt soon, the love inside it never could. It never would.

ADDITIONAL NOTE: It's rather mushy, but the holiday season always turns me into a sentimental sap. Thanks for reading!

Reviews would be wonderful.