Thanks for the reviews! I HEART all of you guys! Nothing life threatening or altering has happened in my life recently that I feel like I must post so I'll just get on with the story (most of you are thinking 'thank god!') And now our feature presentation: the next chapter!

Chapter 4

Sexy Feet

There was a blanket of snow covering Luke and Lorelai when they finally woke up. Luke came into consciousness first. The first thing he noticed was the soft, brown hair that his face was nestled in. All of a sudden, he realized whose hair it was. Lorelai's! Lorelai Gilmore was sleeping on his shoulder! She looked so peaceful, all snuggled up to him. A few snowflakes had frozen onto her long eyelashes. Luke wasn't sure if her perfect skin was sparkling or if she just had stars painted on her face.

Up ahead of them, Luke could see the festival. But something was different. No one was there. A few people were cleaning up, but other then that, the area was empty. Another thing was missing: Liz and TJ's sleigh up ahead.

"Um…Excuse me….where is everyone?" Luke asked the driver of their carriage.

"Well, we're closing up" the man answered. "The couple ahead of us asked me to take you two around the route another time…"

"Oh, right, thanks" Luke mumbled as the carriage came to a stop. As much as he hated to wake Lorelai, cuddled deeply into his arm, he could tell he couldn't persuade the already aggravated driver to do the route one more time. Luke gently leaned down until he was at her level.

"Lorelai," he gently whispered "You kind of, have to wake up."

Lorelai felt someone's warm breath on her face. She stirred. She opened her eyes and blinked a couple of times. "Hmm?" She lifted her head off Luke's shoulder. Luke had to clench his fist to keep his arm from automatically going around her and bringing her back to him. Lorelai raised her head a little more so that she could face Luke. "Did I fall asleep?" she asked, slightly embarrassed.

"Yeah. We both dd." Luke mumbled.

Lorelai looked around.

"Where are Liz and TJ? Where's everyone else?"

"Gone. They all went home."

"While we were asleep?'

"I guess so."

Luke and Lorelai climbed out of the sleigh and made their way through the empty fair ground to the parking lot.

"Now, where'd we park again?" Luke looked around. Lorelai gasped in a playful, sort of dramatic way. "We're lost!" she squealed.

"We aren't lost, Lorelai,"

"I told ya we wouldn't be able to find your truck!" Lorelai giggled uncontrollably. Luke wasn't sure why she thought this whole thing was so funny, but then again, he didn't understand any of her wild thoughts.

They wondered around the parking lot for almost 20 minutes. The entire time, Lorelai was cracking herself up with her weird jokes about lost trucks. Luke was glad it was dark outside, so Lorelai couldn't see the amused look on his face. Luke had always liked how Lorelai could disport and entertain herself for hours on end. Plus, he liked her laugh.

Finally, they came upon the truck. Or what they thought was the truck anyway. It was more like a big pile of snow then anything that resembled a truck. After they brushed a lot of the snow off, Luke still couldn't get the doors open, they were practically frozen shut. In fact, the passenger side door wouldn't open. Lorelai had to climb in through Luke's side of the truck. Once they were settled in, Luke put the keys in the ignition and turned them. The engine made a weird, grumbling sound, and then fell silent.

"Ummmm…" Luke began.

"Um?' Lorelai raised an eyebrow.

"I think the engine might be frozen."

"Frozen?" Lorelai laughed nervously.

"It's possible…." Luke sighed.

"Ok, um, so should we just wait in here until morning or something?" Lorelai suggested.

Luke was silent and just looked ahead.

"Luke?"

"The snow doesn't look like it's letting up Lorelai, if we stay here; we have a very high risk of getting snowed in and stuck in this truck. This place is kind of in the middle of no where and we did park way in the back…."

"So they might not find us?"

"I'm just saying it's a possibility."

Lorelai got out her cell phone and pressed a few buttons.

"Out of service," she whispered. They were both quiet for a moment.

"So what do we do now?" Lorelai nervously asked. "Walk back to Stars Hollow?"

"We may have to." Luke's voice was emotionless.

"Oh." Lorelai mumbled. Wondering if they should take their chances or not. Finally, Luke said "If we are going to walk back…"

"We should probably go….." Lorelai added.

"Now."

"Or else we could get stuck here."

"So we really should go."

"Now."

Still they didn't move. "Now." Lorelai quietly breathed.

"Yeah."

Luke pushed his door open and stepped out into the cold. Lorelai climbed over his seat to get out. They stood next to the car, taking in the fact that they were going to walk back to Stars Hollow. "Well, let's go." Luke said plainly. He took a step forward. "Ah, wait" Lorelai took a piece of paper out of her purse and scribbled on it 'Please call if found' then she wrote the number of Luke's diner. She placed the paper inside, on the trucks dash board.

"Oh, yeah. Good idea." Luke muttered, a little embarrassed that he hadn't thought to leave a note.

"I'm full of them" Lorelai beamed.

Luke laughed a little and then the two of them set off through the snowy parking lot. They were able to find the exit much quicker this time, which deposited them on the highway.

"If we just stay on this road, it should lead us straight home." Luke announced. Lorelai nodded in acknowledgement.

There was a minor amount of talk between the two, as they walked down the ribbon of silent highway. Mostly, they were just perplexed at the snow. It was falling heavily, true, but it also fell peacefully. There was no wind to blow it around messily, so the flakes fell in perfect straight lines. They both wondered how something that was dropping so hard could fall so daintily.

Unfortunately, peacefulness doesn't last forever.

'Ar ar arooooo!' the howl of a wolf echoed all around them. Lorelai froze. Luke, not really bothered by the noise, continued walking a little bit more, until he realized her absence next to him. He turned to look at her. She took a few steps forward to catch up to him and smiled a very nervous smile. Luke took her actions as a joke, like she thought if she acted scared, then he would get all freaked out. She couldn't fool him. He decided to play along. All of a sudden, he jumped and yelled "AHHH!"

He misjudged.

His quick movement caused her to yelp, squeeze her eyelids tightly together, grab him, and burry her terrified face into the side of his chest. Luke couldn't help but let out a small laugh. "Lorelai, it was just a joke."

She moved her face a way from him a few inches so that she could see his face.

"Luuuuke," she whined. "That was mean! I was so afraid that…."

"That, what?" Luke prompted, slightly confused.

"Um, just that…I was scared that a wolf got you or something happened to you…..and that would mean that I'd never get to see you again."

Luke felt terrible that he'd scared her so badly, but he also felt a twinge of happiness to know that she cared so much about him.

"I'm sorry'" he apologized sincerely, "but I'm not going anywhere."

Lorelai brought her large eyes up to meet Luke's. "Promise?"

"Promise." He stated.

A small sigh of relief escaped Lorelai's lips as they continued walking. It felt so natural that neither one of them fully realized that Lorelai still clung to Luke like a barnacle hugging a rock. They both simply enjoyed each others presence.

"Brrrr," Lorelai shivered a little farther down the road.

"Cold?" Luke looked down at her small body.

"No!" Lorelai declared and stuck out her lower lip. "Yes." She revised. Luke eased his arm around her and pulled her close. He quickly rubbed his arm up and down her arm, trying to create enough friction to warm her up.

"Hmm." She sighed and leaned into his body. In no time, she quickly started to feel warmer. Luke's fast motions on her arm slowly became less fast and gentler. Soon, his hand stopped moving until the point where he simply had his arm around her, his thumb gently caressing her shoulder. Lorelai felt so calm and relaxed that her feet switched into auto-drive and her eyes closed. She wasn't asleep, because her body was still moving, but she was in the next closest thing to a sleep state.

Luke led her along as the snow fell all around them. He wanted this moment to last forever. He memorized every tiny detail. Her smell. The curves of her body. How the two of them fit together like a puzzle. Her sweet breath blowing lightly on his chest. The softer then soft fabric of her coat. In fact, he was so caught up wondering how she could be so cold but her body, against his, could feel so warm to him, he hardly noticed that she was limping.

He eventually noticed that something was wrong when her steps became so uneven that she was practically falling over. He looked down and instantly knew the problem. Now Luke Danes isn't into fashion. Luke is to clothes as a nuclear holocaust is to a bunny rabbit. They're the exact opposite. (A/N: of course, we all think the lumberjack look is dead sexy, but he does where it every day.) But it doesn't take a fashion guru to hit Lorelai's problem, dead on.

She was wearing a girls' best friend/ worst nightmare.

High heels.

"Lorelai, I know whole walking thing was a little unexpected-"

"A little?"

"But why'd you wear those shoes."

"Shhhh," Lorelai still hadn't opened her eyes.

"What?" Luke asked, unsure why he was being shushed by a half asleep Lorelai.

"Maybe if you don't say anything, then I can drown out the fact that I'm wearing

'a-good-idea-at-the-time' shoes, and by doing so, it might make the pain go away." She retaliated.

After a few more steps Luke sighed "Ok, Lorelai, take off the shoes."

"Mmm-mm" No way! My feet would freeze off!" She pushed her head closer to Luke, absorbing his body warmth, and reminding him of the current weather conditions.

"Uh, I guess you could wear my shoes if you want." Luke knew it sounded weird, but it seemed better then letting her walk home in heels.

"Won't your feet freeze off?"

"Uh,no, I,um, have…hard feet." The second he said it, Luke wanted to slap himself. 'Hard feet?'

Lorelai's eye lashes slowly fluttered open now.

"Hard feet?" She tried as best as she could to keep a straight face.

"Do you want the shoes or not?"

Lorelai rotated her heel a little bit. "Anything's better then these."

Luke slipped off his shoes and Lorelai did the same. Luke picked up her shoes and placed his in front of her. Lorelai slipped her feet into Luke's lumberjack boots.

"Comfy," Lorelai said, wiggling her toes around.

Her feet slid around in his large shoes. It was hard to walk without stepping out of them, so walking took a little more concentration. His shoes felt like puffy clouds to her blistered feet.

Her eyes closed again and her head fell back onto Luke's chest. He smiled and let his arm resume its original position, protectively around her.

They continued walking back to Stars Hollow.

XXX

5:00 A.M. That was the time Luke and Lorelai returned to Stars Hollow. 5:00 A.M. Luke walked her home because he knew that if he left her and went back to his house, she would probably curl up on the sidewalk and fall asleep. Luke guided her up the stairs of her house, up to her room. He pulled back the sheets and helped her get in her bed. She pulled the covers up to her chin. Luke brushed a stray hair behind her ear.

When he was sure she was sound asleep, Luke turned and started to walk out the door. He stopped when he heard her voice call his name.

"Luke?"

"Mm-hmm?"

"This was really fun."

"Yeah. Yeah it was."

She smiled a little. "Thank you." It was the sincerest thank you that had ever passed out of her lips.

"You're welcome."

Luke stole one last glance at her before she rolled over and buried her head into the pillow.

Luke could here her muffled voice as he closed the door.

"Heh heh." She giggled. "Hard feet. That's sexy."

TBC!

So how'd you guys like chapter 4? Foot (hehe) note: No, switching shoes isn't some, crazy dating ritual in my family or anything. The story behind the shoe switch is this: I SUCK at coming up with names for chapters and I don't like just saying 'chapter1, chapter 2, chapter3 etc'. So anyways, when the shoe switch idea popped into my head, I thought 'hey, 'sexy feet' is a good chapter title. It's creative, it's funny, and it catches your attention!' and I just decided to go with it. So anyway, if you thought it was a sucky idea, mention it in a REVIEW! (I totally love reviews, even if they're mean!) Stay tuned and look for chapter 5, coming soon to a website near you!