A little holiday LL fluff! :) Never too much of that. Enjoy! Please review if you'd like! You know I love it!
Disclaimer: They're not mine.
It's funny. There's something about snow at night. No matter how dark it is outside, whenever it snows it seems that the moon always reflects a little brighter, therefore illuminating the night that much more. Lorelai smiled as she walked down the streets of Stars Hollow. It was almost 8 and she was headed towards Luke's for their own Thanksgiving dinner. This year had been different. Rory was going to have to be at school during her Thanksgiving break because of an intern project she has been working on. So this year, there was none of that 4-meals kind of thing. The single most solitary dinner she was having was with Luke.
He offered to do everything. From making the turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy to lighting his own candles that he had packed away in the back of his closet. Whenever she'd mention bringing something, he always responded with a 'no, I've got it taken care of.' He tried closing the diner for the day, just so he could spend time with her, but there were still people who had no where to go for Thanksgiving. Like Kirk for example. After years and years of living with his mother, he never once ate at home on Thanksgiving. Whether there was something about the food that Luke makes on Thanksgiving, or that his mother like's her 'alone time' on the holidays, you could always run into Kirk at the diner eating courses over and over again.
So he decided closing early would work. He closed the diner at 6:30, and told Lorelai to come around 7:45 but she was running a little late. Partially because she decided to walk instead of drive, and partially because she figured it'd only be polite to give said extra time to get ready. After all, if she was the one planning the dinner, she'd probably need the extra time, so, why not?
The forecast said nothing about snow. All they mentioned was that the first snow would probably be in a few weeks; not to expect any on Thanksgiving. So nothing prepared Lorelai for the snowfall the night before Thanksgiving-Eve. It was Wednesday morning when she woke up and looked out the window. Luke had already left her house, for he slept over the night before. She woke up to a note on the side of her bed that said: "Open your blinds. You'll be surprised. Love, Luke." She got up, expecting to see, I don't know…maybe Luke fixing the porch, or Luke fixing the light in her car, but most certainly not the inch or so of snow that sat crisp along the lawn. There was no sight of Luke, but his presence certainly existed while she held the note close to her heart. Sure there wasn't much snow on the ground, but it was something, and something's better than nothing at all.
It hadn't snowed at all during the day but again towards the night, it snowed a few more inches. And by this morning, there was still a few inches; about one extra than the night before lying through town. She didn't care how much she got, though. It was just the fact that it had actually snowed. Sadly, but true, Rory wasn't there to experience their annual walk in the snow at midnight with coffee and donuts.
As she approached the diner door, she smiled at the darkness inside. She glanced at the 'Closed' sign on the door, and walked in. She quietly headed up the diner steps that led to his apartment door and knocked faintly. Something about being loud seemed to ruin the stillness through out the hall. After a few moments, he opened the door for her, smiling.
"Hey." He said, opening the door for her to come in.
"Hey." She took a second and inhaled the smell of the room and looked at the food set around the table. "Wow. Luke, everything smells and looks great."
"You look great." He said leaning in and giving her a quick kiss. "You don't smell bad, either."
She smiled and intertwined her fingers with his while walking to the table. "Here." She said, handing him a bouquet of flowers like she did every year.
"Thanks. Set them over there for a moment." He said gesturing towards the counter.
She set them down on the counter and looked over the table, food everywhere. There were two plate settings, food surrounding them, with two lit candles in the center of it all.
"Here, let me take your coat." He said, helping her out of her coat.
"Thanks. So, wow. Looks like you out did yourself, mister."
"Well, special things call for special people."
He looked over at her. Did he actually make her blush? Ms-I'm-never-embarrassed, herself.
"You're too sweet to me."
"You deserve it. So, ready to eat?"
"Only if you are."
"Here, sit down. I'll be right back." He pulled her seat out for her and ran towards the closet looking for something. After a few moments, he came back to the table with a vase holding the flowers she brought him. He set them on the counter and turned to ask if she wanted wine. She said yes, and he poured two glasses of wine, and gave Lorelai hers, and sat the other one across from her, next to his plate. He grabbed the flowers and set them down in the center of the table.
"Luke! When did you get a vase?"
"Last year. After you brought the flowers, I got the vase since you've always told me too. I figured you'd bring flowers to the diner when you and Rory came by this year. But, I guess things have changed." He said smiling.
"For the better."
"For the better." He repeated.
"Cheers to that."
They tapped their glasses together.
As they finished their food, Lorelai leaned over the put her fingers in Luke's unfinished mashed potatoes eating whatever he had left.
"That's attractive."
"View from the top, baby." She said glancing down at her low cut shirt in front of him.
"No, I mean you eating with your fingers."
"Here have some." She shoved her finger in his mouth, while he rolled his eyes.
"I…am…stuffed." Lorelai said, slouching in her seat. She lifted her shirt up a little, patting her stomach.
"How did you do 4 of these things last year?"
"Well, let's see. We'd start with the Kim's and they served us and their 75 Korean family member's tofurkey. So that was the whole, 'oh Mrs. Kim, this looks delicious,' put it in your mouth, spit it right out, sort of thing which only made me more hungry. Then, we'd go to Sookie's, and lately Jackson does the whole deep-frying the Turkey sort of thing which is not as pleasant as it looks. And then we came here," she said smiling a bit, "and that was truthfully the only good food of the day. That's pretty much all we'd really eat. We've only gone to my parents that one time, and I was upset about something, so I didn't even eat there, leaving only one perspective place we eat at…the diner."
"Well, there's my answer."
"Yep—oh no, you know what we forgot to do." She asked Luke who was putting their dishes into the sink. He took her hand and led her to the couch where Lorelai sat close to him, hands together, head on his chest.
"No, what?"
"We forgot to say what we're thankful for which defeats the whole purpose of Thanksgiving, you know."
"Go ahead, what are you thankful for?"
"Well," she thought, "I'm thankful that my coffee addiction still stands strong. That the Inn is doing great, that Rory is doing great…what else." She said with a small smile on the corner of her lips.
"That's a lot to be thankful for. I don't think you need much more."
"Yeah well," she leaned up and looked at him. "I'm really just thankful for you." She kissed him lightly, keeping her face close to his.
He kissed her again, wrapping his arms around waist.
"Likewise."
"Good." She said, kissing him again. "Are you thankful for anything else?"
"Just…you."
"My, my. Look how things have changed."
"They sure have."
"Did you ever imagine, a year ago, that we'd be together…and I mean, 'together-together' on Thanksgiving the following year?"
"I never would have believed it."
"Yeah well, some things are too good to be true."
"They certainly are." He said lowering her on top of him as he leaned against the arm rest of his couch, kissing her passionately. "But this is true."
They lied very close to each other, under the blankets on Luke's bed.
"I swear. I think I burned off all those calories I just ate."
"Ah jeez."
"Hey, hey! Consider yourself lucky mister. If it weren't for that I would have been bugging you to go jogging with me to work off all the food I just consumed."
"Since when do you go jogging?"
"Psh, all the time babe."
"Right, sorry. Must have slipped my mind."
She ran her fingers across his bare chest, leaning up and kissing him slightly on the cheek. He ran his hand up and down her side trying to warm her up even more.
"Hey." She whispered.
"What?"
"Go get dressed."
"Uh…" He gestured his hands to the two of them.
"Come on go get dressed." She said sitting up.
"Why?"
"Look outside."
He looked outside and it was snowing again.
"It's almost midnight."
She glanced at the clock. "Perfect. Let's go."
She got up and put a pair of Luke's sweat pants on and walked to his closet grabbing his flannel shirt. She buttoned it up and put on his huge boots.
"What do you expect me to wear?"
"You have more than one pair of boots. Here, wear these." She kicked his other boots over to him. He apprehensively got up and got dressed for her.
They walked down the steps, hand in hand, and out the door towards the gazebo. They walked around it a few times, not talking at all, just enjoying the snow.
She stopped by the steps of the gazebo and leaned up to him. She stood on her tip-toes, and wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly. He secured his arms around her waist and returned the hug.
"Snow's magical." She whispered into his neck.
"That's what you say. Every year, every time it snows. You always walk to the diner and come up to me tell--"
"Hey you." She put her finger on his lips. "Shut up and kiss me."
He smiled and obeyed her command.
"Happy Thanksgiving, Luke." She said pulling away.
"Happy Thanksgiving, Lorelai."
Things have certainly changed.
Please review! Let me know what you think! Hope you liked it.
