Hey! Me again! Sorry about the chapters, I know that they kind of confused some of you! I can't really explain what happened (because I don't really know my self) but its all ok now so just bear with me! I am also totally sorry that I didn't update sooner! I went to Europe for two weeks and I couldn't update there. I had my friend update for me but her mom (who is REALLY strict) found out and then wouldn't let her finish typing it. I know, her mom is kinda weird like that. My friend even told me that I could write here that it was all her fault, but it's not really so just accept my apology and appreciate my newly updated chapter 3!

Chapter 3

Christmas Festivities

'Okay, clam down'. Lorelai pressed her hand over her heart as an attempt to slow her rapid heartbeat. Slowly, she opened the door. There stood Luke. Plain old Luke. To Lorelai's relief, he looked the same as he always did. Then Lorelai tried to figure out what she had expected. An elephant?

"Hi, Luke!" Lorelai grinned.

"Hi, uh, Merry Christmas!" Luke smiled back at her.

"Merry Christmas."

There was an awkward silence as the two of them stared at each other.

'Why is he looking at me like that?'

'Why can't I stop looking at her like that?'

Finally, Luke said, "So, should we get going?"

Lorelai wanted to yell 'Dirty!' but instead she nodded and said "Sure!"

They walked down the steps in silence. As they climbed into Luke's truck, Lorelai asked "So where is this thing, again?"

"Well it's, like, it's a little bit father then half way to Hartford, so it should take about 30, 40 minutes to get there." Luke gestured to the directions that Liz had given him.

"Oh, ok."

The truck pulled out of the driveway.

"Hey, um, here," Luke handed Lorelai a little white box with a red ribbon on it. Lorelai slowly took the box. She almost blushed when their hands gently brushed pass one another. Lorelai honestly didn't know what to say, so instead she made little questioning hum.

"Well, you know, I didn't want you to go completely present-less or anything on Christmas, so…"

Lorelai smiled. She opened the box. Inside was a necklace with three glimmering diamonds on it. The middle diamond was pink and the two bordering ones were white. Lorelai's jaw literally dropped. Luke could see the diamonds reflecting in her eyes, giving her eyes a more then usual sparkle.

"God, Luke, this is so beautiful…"

"Uh, yeah, well, I don't really know how to pick out jewelry, but I guess, it looked kind of Lorelai-ish."

"It's totally Lorelai-ish!" Lorelai laughed slightly, still in awe that Luke had bought her such a pretty necklace. She fastened it around her neck, and then she turned to Luke.

'Thank you so much!"

"Ah, don't mention it."

Lorelai went on smiling for another moment. Luke couldn't help but smile back. All of a sudden, a look of terror washed over Lorelai's face.

"OH MY GOD!" she yelled.

"What?" Luke slammed on the brakes, thinking there was a deer or something in the road. The scared look on her face turned into sadness,

"I'm so sorry Luke! I really must be the worst person in the world-"

"What? No, you're no-"

"I totally forgot to get you something for Christmas, I can't believe myself, I mean, I didn't even think about it. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sor-'

"Lorelai, it's ok." Luke interrupted her apologies.

"No it's not! You got me this really nice necklace and I didn't even get you a Christmas present. Um…Oh I know! We can stop on the way and I'll buy you something. You can pick it out and then I will buy it. Wait, then I wouldn't get a chance to wrap it…"

"Lorelai," Luke said firmly. "You really don't have to get me anything, ok? Your gift to me can be just coming to this stupid thing. It probably would've been pretty boring, but if you're there, it will be a little more…interesting. I mean, at least now I'll have someone to talk to.'

"Fine…but I'm still gonna buy you something." Said Lorelai.

"But-'

"Nope. I don't even want to hear it. You, mister, are going to get a gift from me whether you like it or not. It's just going to be a little late, that's all."

"Fine," Luke knew that there was no use trying to reason with Lorelai Gilmore. They were both quiet for a few seconds until Lorelai mumbled, in a kind of pouty voice "In Spain, they don't even exchange gifts January 5th, so there."

Luke had to laugh at that. "You're crazy."

"Thanks," Lorelai laughed a little bit too.

For the rest of the car ride, Luke and Lorelai were both silent. But it wasn't that 'What-should-I-say?' type of awkward silence. It was that 'I-wish-this-moment-would-never-end' type of peaceful silence.

xxx

They got to the festival at around 3:35. It was kind of out in the woods. To Luke's surprise, there were actually a lot of people there and so it was really hard to find parking. They ended up parking way in the back.

"Are you sure we'll be able to find the truck? It's far back here. We could get lost in the woods." Lorelai loved making everything so dramatic around Luke.

"We'll find it," Luke grumbled.

"But maybe we should put a big, flashing, red sign on top of it! Or you could just stand on top of, jumping up and down the whole night! Or-"

"Lorelai,'

"Fine, fine, fine," Lorelai gave up.

After they wove through the pack of cars, they came to an entrance with a large sign that said: RENISANCE CHRISTMAS FAIR.

"Renisance?" Luke exclaimed, "my sister didn't say anything about it being a renisance thing!"

"Well, I guess it is Liz and TJ, you know? They're totally into the whole medieval thing…" Lorelai suggested.

"LUKE!"

Luke and Lorelai turned to see Liz running towards them.

"Hey Luke! Merry Christmas!" Liz hugged him.

"Merry Christmas!" Luke said back.

"How are you?"

"Oh me? I'm…good."

"Uh-huh," Liz smiled. She turned to look at Lorelai. Lorelai noticed the genuine look of surprise on her face. "Lorelai! You came too!"

"Yes, I did," Lorelai smiled in response.

"Well, that's great! So…" Liz started in on her questioning voice. "Why exactly are you spending Christmas with my brother? Nothing better to do?" Of course, Liz had meant her comment as a pure joke, but she quickly realized that it hurt Lorelai, though Liz couldn't figure out why.

"Oh, well, um…" Lorelai began.

Liz desperately looked to Luke for help. Luke gave her the 'change the subject eyes'.

"Right, um, never mind," Liz glanced around, trying to think of something to say to change the dangerously awkward subject. Her eyes fell on Lorelai's diamond necklace. "Oh my gosh, Lorelai, I love you necklace! Where did you get it?"

'Oh great! An even worse topic!' Lorelai thought. "My necklace? I, uh,……" If she said Luke gave it to her, it would look suspiciously boyfriend/girlfriend-like. If she lied about it, Luke might get mad or think it weird of her.

"Liz! Luke!" TJ's voice interrupted them.

"TJ!" Luke and Liz called, happy to have a distraction.

"Hi Luke, and…" TJ looked to Lorelai "Lorelai! You too?"

"Yep!" Lorelai could tell her smile looked kind of fake. The four of them talked for a while until eventually Liz said "Well, I guess we'll see you around!" Then Liz and TJ turned and left. Luke and Liz stared in silence for a few seconds.

"I'm sorry she said that. About you not having anything better to do." Luke apologized.

"Hey don't say sorry, it's not like she could've known or anything."

"I guess," Luke quietly agreed. " You sure that you're OK with everything?"

"Yeah. It's weird, but, I'm actually totally fine." Luke didn't look to assured.

"Really!" Lorelai protested and flashed Luke her famous 'Lorelai' smile. Luke hardly had any choice but to smile back.

'Crap' Lorelai thought 'Now I'm stuck smiling at the way Luke smiles and I can't stop! Jeeze! Why does this always happen?'

Luke was thinking the exact same thing.

"So let's go!" Lorelai said, abruptly. She turned and walked away in her jumpy sort of way. Luke followed.

Though, of course, he would never admit it, Luke found medieval Christmas festivities to be fun. There were a bunch of little performances to watch, food to eat, and weird little booths to buy trinkets at. Lorelai (being Lorelai) loved every second of it. As she was practically twirling around in the mix of knights and kings and queens and castles, she spotted a face painting center.

"Oooooh, Luke!" she squealed "I wanna get my face painted!"

"Lorelai, that's for three year olds."

"Look around! There are no three year olds here! That means the painting lady has no customers. Just think of this as a charity act! Besides, I take face painting to a whole new level of cuteness. A level that a 3 year old could never accomplish!"

"Lorelai-"

"You know what your problem is? You have way too much pride." Lorelai teased.

"And you don't even have enough of it."

"And that's why I'm here today!" Lorelai said as she walked towards the booth.

"Just don't get your face painted like Spiderman or anything!" Luke called after her.

"Oh, how I wish I could promise you that." Lorelai called back, just to freak him out.

Ten minutes later, Lorelai appeared with yellow stars dotted on her cheeks like freckles. Luke couldn't believe she'd actually done it. He tried not to notice, but he did think she looked strikingly cute.

"Wow, um, stars work for you." Luke tried to sound sarcastic but his tone came out a little more complementary then he'd expected.

"I think so too. And, apparently, so does the drunken knight who practically mauled me on my way back here."

"Mauled you?" Luke raised an eyebrow.

"Kidding, Mr. Literal." Lorelai laughed.

They spotted Liz and TJ coming towards them.

"Whoa, Lorelai, why do you have stars painted on your face?" Liz asked.

"Oh well, I was attacked by a crazy king with a paintbrush." Giggled Lorelai.

Liz and TJ blinked.

"Ooookay. Apparently I can't make jokes with your family." Lorelai whispered to Luke. Luke glanced at her as if to say 'apparently'.

"So what are you two up to next?" Luke asked Liz and TJ.

"Oh we were about to go on this sleigh ride……" Before Luke could stop and think, he and Lorelai were agreeing to go on the sleigh ride too. It wasn't until they got there that they realized it was only a two person to a sleigh, sleigh ride. Luke and Lorelai climbed into the carriage behind Liz and TJ's, trying as hard as humanly possible to ignore the awkwardness of it all. They would have to ignore it, or else it would be a long sleigh ride. As it turned out, the ride was about 40 minutes through the woods. As the horse, leading Luke and Lorelai's carriage, started to move, Lorelai felt a snowflake land on her cheek.

"Snow!" Lorelai cried excitedly, "I absolutely love the snow!"

'Yeah, I know.' Luke said.

"Oh right, of course." Lorelai thought about how Luke knew all of her little joys. But, that was just because they were friends, right?

They talked normally for a bit until they both fell into silence. Up ahead of them a little, they could see Liz and TJ. Liz was hugging TJ's waist and he had his arm around her. Lorelai noticed that the couple behind them was tightly cuddled together too. She realized that Luke had seen the couples as well. Lorelai glanced over at Luke. He was staring at her form the corner of his eye. They both quickly looked away from each other. The awkward side stares kept coming back, though. There was nothing they could do. Luke kept wanting to look at Lorelai, and Lorelai (though she had no idea why) kept wanting to look at Luke.

Very slowly (and I mean VERY slowly) Luke scooted closer to Lorelai. He kind of moved his shoulder, almost as if he were offering it to her. Cautiously, Lorelai placed her head on his shoulder. Both sparks and shivers shot through each of them. The awkwardness slowly subsided and Lorelai cuddled in a little closer to Luke.

Luke let his head gently fall on top of hers as he took in the delicious scent of her hair. He had never felt more comfortable.

Lorelai closed her eyes. She enjoyed every part of this. From the cold snow falling peacefully on her face, to the warm feel of Luke's body underneath her.

Within minutes, they had fallen fast asleep.

TBC!

Wow, that was a long chapter (at least I think so)! But it was all worth it since Luke and Lorelai are so cute! And I am totally sorry about the whole Europe thing. My soccer season and my track season have both started up again so I won't have as much time as I would like to have to update but I promise that new chapters will be posted much more regularly then they have been. Thanks for reading, stay posted, and review like CRAZY! Hee hee!