Wanting It
Part 2
Here's the next part. I actually finished this one before the first part, lol, so I put them both up at the same time. Might take me a while for part 3 to come to me. This part was a result of being bored in class. So glad I'm paying for these college courses where I start writing parts of fanfics in the middle of lectures.
Disclaimer: Still not mine, sadly.
She burst down the stairs to the diner and looked around. No Luke anywhere, damnit. Caesar, of course, pouring coffee at the table next to the window, but no Luke. She frowned and glanced around, her eyes landing on the storeroom. Without hesitation she marched in.
There he was, unpacking a box of pickles as if nothing special was going on. She had had enough trouble getting dressed so she could march down the stairs.
"What's this?" she asked, holding out the black velvet box. Somehow her noisy entrance hadn't startled him. He had been expecting her, of course. He turned to face her slowly and crossed his arms across his chest.
"You tell me."
"Luuuke," she whined. She looked like she was about to cry from anticipation. "What is this?" she asked again softly.
"My answer," he said simply.
"Your answer," she repeated softly.
"You know, when you propose, you're supposed to have a ring. Hate to be critical, but…"
She laughed at this and looked down at the box in her hand. "Oh. Sorry."
They stared at each other for a long moment.
"You have an answer now?"
"Yes."
"This is your answer?"
"Yes.
"Your answer is yes?"
"Yes."
"You're saying yes, you want to marry me?"
He grinned this time. "Yes."
She grinned back at him and let out an excited squeal before throwing her arms tightly around his neck. She moved to kiss him, but he stopped her, and she looked at him, confused. He took the box from her hand and popped it open and pulled the ring out.
She watched him intently as he prepared to put the ring on her finger. "I think I'm going to cry," she said softly, wiping her eyes and sniffling.
"I think you already are," he told her gently. "Now you were the one who proposed so I won't steal your moment by asking again," he told her. "And besides, you told me I wasn't allowed to."
She laughed through the tears that were threatening to fall. "Marry me?" she asked it for him.
He chuckled. "Yes," he told her, sliding the ring on her finger.
She grinned and looked down at it happily. "It's beautiful."
"It was my mother's," he told her.
"Oh, Luke," she said softly, moving her hand to admire the ring.
"Fits?" he asked her.
"Perfectly," she said.
"Good," he smiled and she threw her arms around him and attempted to kiss him again and this time he didn't try to stop her. He was vaguely aware that they were violating a lot of health codes, but he couldn't really bring himself to care as Lorelai's lips attacked his again and again.
"Luke!" Caesar's voice called.
Luke and Lorelai pulled apart and shared a disappointed, guilty and yet happy smile.
"Coming!" Luke called to Caesar. "This is why you don't do things like this at work," he told Lorelai.
She laughed. "Go. We'll celebrate later. And celebrate, and celebrate," she said in a low voice, giving him a grin. "And then celebrate some more."
He flashed her another smile. "You bet we will." He started to head out the door when she stopped him, grabbing his arm.
"Should I go out there?"
"Unless you want to live in here the rest of your life."
"No," she waved her left hand at him. "Should I go out there?"
"Oh," he realized.
"Once the right person sees, it's as good as announced."
"Well, they are going to find out one day," he reasoned.
"Alright," she agreed, "here we go." She gave him a push towards the door and followed him out into the diner. They both stopped when they noticed Patty.
"It's out," he told her in a whisper before sliding behind the counter. She followed him on the other side of the counter. "Coffee?" he asked.
"Please," she said as a peaceful feeling washed over her. Coffee. Luke. Luke's coffee. For the rest of her life.
She watched as he filled a to go cup with coffee, then watched her left hand as she grasped it around the cup, the ring sparkling.
"See you later," she told him softly before leaning across the counter to kiss him. She turned to leave and noticed Patty staring.
"Lorelai," she greeted smugly, a smile on her lips and a knowing look on her face.
"Patty," she replied, giving her a purposeful wave with her left hand. Boy was it awkward to wave with her left hand.
Then she slipped out the door a second later, taking her first sip of Luke's coffee as prepared by her fiancée.
They day drew on, and Lorelai found herself at Doose's on a run to pick up carrots and tomatoes. Apparently, Jackson was a little sleep deprived these days (two kids under the age of two could do that to you, she supposed) and had been messing up the produce orders.
"And Caroline Smith bought a new car," she heard Babette's voice on the opposite aisle as she looked through the vegetables.
"You don't say. That woman just goes through cars like I go through men," Patty's voice responded. Both the women laughed and Lorelai shook her head in amusement.
"Arnold Martin was out on the town with another woman," Babette added. "Sexy little number."
"Oh, have you heard?" Patty asked suddenly. "Lorelai's got a sparkly little ring on her left hand." Lorelai rolled her eyes, but smiled at being the topic of gossip. She also found it amusing how 'sexy little number' immediately reminded Patty of her. Maybe the ring on her finger was the sexy little number? Lorelai wasn't sure, and she wasn't sure she wanted to know which one Patty thought was sexy anyway.
Babette gasped. "No kiddin'!"
"I saw it myself this morning. You know how it is. When a single woman of marriageable age who is in a relationship walks in, you have to check her left hand. That's how you get the news first. So I glanced at Lorelai's today, and low and behold, there it was."
"About time," Babette added. "Wonder why Luke backed out of his deal with Taylor, then?" she added.
Lorelai frowned and moved so she could hear them better.
"Yeah, that was strange. He went through all that trouble to secure the Twickham house, he competed for it against Kirk, then he just gave it up? I it was Luke's dream to own that house if he ever had a family."
"You shoulda seen him!" Babette added, apparently the witness to this gossip. "He just ran out there to Taylor and told him to forget about the house, he didn't want it anymore. As if Lorelai had told him she didn't want to marry him or she didn't want the house or she didn't want kids or a family or somethin'. I mean, he had that house and he just gave it up! He knew Kirk would go after it the minute he let go of it, he musta been sure about what he was doing."
Lorelai's mouth dropped open as she tried to take all of this in. She put the bag of carrots down and hurried out of the store, careful to make sure neither Patty or Babette saw her sneak out.
She stopped outside and glanced towards Luke's. Then she turned the other way and noticed Kirk standing in the town square. She marched over to him.
"Kirk."
"Oh, hi Lorelai," he said.
"Hey, can I ask you something?"
"Sure. I might not have an answer, though."
"That's okay. I think you will. Is it true that you were competing with Luke to buy the Twickham House?"
Kirk looked afraid suddenly. "Are you going to yell at me like Luke did?"
"No, no, I just wanted to be sure. That you were competing with Luke to buy the house."
"Yes, that's pretty much what happened. Luke won, though. I offered more money, but we went to those damn town elders and they took Luke's side."
"You went to the town elders!" she asked. "You and Luke?"
He nodded. "Yeah. Met them in the steam room. Luke wouldn't even take his clothes off, either. And still, the elders chose him to buy the house! Personally, I think they had a little too much steam in there, it was clouding their judgment, making them dizzy." He paused. "Congratulations, about the house though."
Kirk apparently didn't know Luke had given it up yet.
She frowned. "Yeah, yeah. Thanks," she called, wandering off.
She wasn't sure what to do. She completely realized that Luke had been buying a house without talking to her about it first. Which was not good, at all. He hadn't even thought about the fact that she might not want to move. So if she went to Luke's, she might yell at him.
She also realized his intentions behind the buying of the house, and she was pretty sure she knew why he gave it up.
Had it really been something he wanted so badly?
And then she saw him. Taylor. Standing outside the Soda Shoppe. Without thinking, she went up to him.
"Lorelai," he greeted.
"I need the house."
"What house?" he asked her.
"The Twickham house."
Taylor put his head in his hands and groaned as if he couldn't believe it. "God. Not you, too. I swear, you and Luke are going to be the death of me. I was just about to call Kirk and tell him the house is his if he signs the papers."
"I know he gave it up, but can you just please, please, not give it to Kirk yet?"
"Lorelai, I can't do that. I already waited a few days in case Luke was diagnosed with some crazy mental disease and wanted it back once he returned to normal. But I don't think that's the case, I think he was in his right mind. Luke said—"
"I know, I know what he said and I know why he said it. It's all my fault and I didn't even realize what I was doing. I upset him by accident and that's why he changed his mind. I didn't even realize… I didn't know that... well, basically, I'm an idiot," she said. "Please."
"You want to buy it?" he asked her.
"No. No, I don't have money to buy it," she told him.
"Well then I can't do anything. Kirk is willing to put up a nice amount of money for the house. Even more money than Luke. And so—"
She shook her head. "No. You owe him! You owe me!"
"What?"
"He has done so many things for this town and you know it. He may be grumpy and he may not be the easiest person to have as your landlord, but he has put in his fair share of time into this town. And so have I! All those festivals, costumes for plays, sets for plays—at a school neither one of us have a kid at, by the way. I've gone to town meetings and made costumes and ornaments and decorations. Rory's put her fair share of time into this town, too, and I think that I should get some kind of credit for her efforts, too, because, hey, she's my kid. You even discussed our relationship at a town meeting! Just, please, do us both a favor in return for everything we've ever done and put up with."
"Lorelai, look, it's a matter of—"
"The ribbons!" she told him. "You owe us for that."
"For what?"
"The ribbons."
"What ribbons?"
"You know what ribbons!" she shouted. "Your stupid blue and pink ribbons that broke us up. You owe us for that."
"My ribbons didn't break you two up. The ribbons were a result of the break up."
"No, no, no. The ribbons did it. We weren't broken up when you started with the ribbons. Luke and I wouldn't have broken up if I hadn't pushed him to talk when he wasn't ready. And I wouldn't have pushed him to talk if the ribbons hadn't freaked me out!"
Taylor sighed. "What do you want me to do?"
"Tomorrow. Just, wait until after tomorrow before you do anything. If Luke doesn't want to change his mind about the house after tomorrow, then go ahead and offer it to Kirk. Just, please, hold off until after tomorrow."
Taylor sighed. "Fine. What's one more day?"
"Thank you!" she said, hurrying off again.
"But I don't want to hear one more peep about the ribbons!"
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"I think I just did something completely insane," Lorelai said when Sookie opened her door.
"What? What did you do?" Sookie asked, gesturing for Lorelai to come in.
"Luke bought the Twickham house," she told Sookie.
"He what!"
"He bought it. He wanted it, he apparently always dreamed of having that house if he had a family, he fought Kirk for it, and he bought it."
"You didn't kill Luke, did you?"
Lorelai looked at her. "What?"
"You said you did something completely insane…"
"No, I didn't kill him, Sookie."
"Then what did you do?"
"I was in Doose's and I heard Patty and Babette talking. They said that Luke backed out of the deal with the house. That he went up to Taylor and told him to forget about the house as if I told him something to make him back out. As if I told him I didn't want the house, or to marry him, or kids."
Sookie frowned. "So he doesn't have the house?"
"He backed out because of me and my mulling nonsense. What I said at the inn, about considering the job offer. When we were arguing about it he suddenly blurted out 'what about the kids?'"
"What kids?"
"That's what I said. 'What kids?' And then he got this weird look on his face, grabbed the key from my hand and went up to go fix the window in room three."
"Did you follow him?"
"No. You know how Luke gets, you can't push him when he doesn't want to talk. He came out later, fixed the banister, and then he kissed me and left. Then Rory dropped the dropping out of Yale bomb on me and I forgot about Luke and his freak out."
"So this relates to the house because…"
"He was talking about our kids," she said. "He thought that I was just going to leave him and that I didn't want all the things he wanted. That I wouldn't want to have a family with him or be here with him," she said softly. "It killed me, Sookie. It killed me to think that for a few days I had made Luke think that. It broke my heart. Because I do want all those things with him. I can't believe I didn't see why he was freaking out. I'm so dense sometimes, I swear."
"So where does the insane thing come in?"
"I went to Taylor and begged him not to give the house to Kirk."
"The Twickham house?"
She nodded. "Yes. Is that completely insane or what? Luke does this huge thing without me. He doesn't consult me, he doesn't even know if I'm up for this. Doesn't say one word about it to me. And granted, I haven't talked to him yet so I know nothing for a fact, but shouldn't I be mad about this?"
"Well…"
"But I mean, I can see his intentions behind this. It was a huge gesture, and you know that's how Luke does things. He lets his actions speak. He bought me a house. For us, and our family. That says a lot in Luke speak."
Sookie grinned. "It is kind of romantic."
"I'm confused. Should I be touched? Angry? I don't know."
"You gotta go with your gut feeling," she said. "And if that's to make sure that Kirk doesn't get that house, well, then, I think you know where you stand."
She sighed. "You're right."
"Have you talked to Luke?"
"No, I was so confused at first, you know? I was surprised and I didn't know if I should be mad or what. I was on edge and if I had gone to the diner I would have yelled at him, I'm sure. Even if I hadn't intended to. And," she waved her left hand at her, "I didn't want to do that on the day we officially got engaged."
Sookie squealed. "Oh my God! How could you not have shown me that the minute you got here!" Lorelai laughed and let Sookie examine her hand. "It's beautiful!"
Lorelai smiled. "I know."
"Oh, you two are going to be so happy!"
Lorelai smiled again. "I know."
"When did this happen?"
"This morning."
Sookie sighed. "Ah, I feel like it's the end of a fairytale. Finally, Luke and Lorelai got it together and got engaged."
Lorelai laughed. "Oh please."
"So what are you going to do about the house?"
"Hey, if Luke thinks he can surprise me with things like that, I can have my fun, too."
Sookie laughed. "Seems fair to me."
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Lorelai was perched on the arm of Luke's couch, waiting for him to come upstairs from the diner. He had been arguing with Kirk over the total of Kirk's bill, again, and Lorelai had decided to avoid the situation all together, afraid Kirk would say something to her about her earlier conversation with him. So she went upstairs. Is this how Luke has been sneaking around the past few weeks? she wondered.
She was so into her thoughts that she hadn't heard Luke come in. She jumped when he spoke to her.
"Lorelai."
"Oh, God!" she screamed, putting her hand over her heart. "You scared me."
He laughed. "Sorry. Heaven forbid I come into my apartment, where you are waiting for me and say something to you."
She laughed. "Shut up."
He walked up to her and brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes. She had never taken Luke for a brush-your-hair-out-of-your-face kind of guy, but she had to admit that she loved it when he did it. Oh, who was she kidding? She loved it whenever Luke touched her. Anywhere. Dirty, she thought and a giggle escaped.
Luke narrowed his eyes at her. "What?"
She smiled. "Nothing, just thinking." She paused and held up her left hand so he could see it. "What do you think?"
"Of your hand?"
"I've been staring at it all day. You know, grab a paper, glance at my hand. Take a sip of coffee, glance at my hand. Put my fingers on the keyboard, glance at my hand. Hand a guest a room key, glance at my hand."
He took her hand and kissed her finger. "I'm a fan of the ring."
She giggled. "I hope so. I know you love looking at it, seeing me grab a cup of coffee and you think 'that ring is so sexy. I put that ring there. That ring means she's mine forever.'"
He smirked. "The 'mine forever' part sometimes scares me."
She shook her head. "You're losing points with me fast."
"Really. Well, I think I can gain them back."
"Oh you do, do you?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.
"Mmhmm," he said, moving towards her and kissing her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and gasped as he pushed her back off the arm of the couch and onto the couch cushions, him falling on top of her.
"Sheesh, Luke, try to kill me," she laughed.
"Killing you not helping with the points?" he asked.
She laughed heartily. "No, not so much." He kissed her and she moaned against his lips. "Doing better."
"Thought so," he mumbled against her lips, moving his line of kisses down to her chest and then up her neck to her ear.
"Luke," she said. "I have a surprise for you."
He stopped kissing her momentarily and looked at her. "Is this a trick?"
She shook her head, her arms still wrapped around his neck. "No. Surprise. Tomorrow. Come to the inn."
"Can't you just bring it to me?"
"No, it's kind of big. We have to go to it."
"And it's at the inn?"
"No. Just meet me there and I'll take you to it."
He shrugged. "Alright, fine. I'll meet you at the inn sometime tomorrow."
"Good." She tilted her head up to kiss him again, running her tongue over his bottom lip. "Luke?"
"What?" he asked, pausing to look in her eyes.
"I'm so sorry."
"For what?" he asked softly, concern in his eyes at her sad tone.
"I've been horrible lately," she said, "the job offer and the 'mulling' and making you think that I didn't want the things you wanted. Letting you think I was going to take that job and leave you and… I didn't mean to make you think that. I didn't mean to make you think I would ever put a job above our relationship, especially if the job would put our relationship in jeopardy."
"Lorelai—" he said seriously, trying to shift to move off of her but she kept her arms securely around his neck. "Listen, you don't ever give up an opportunity, an amazing job, anything you want to do, because of me."
"No, no, Luke," she said. "I didn't. I never wanted that job. I never wanted to leave my inn or you. I liked them sending me free stuff and the fact that someone wanted me for something. I liked being important."
"You're sure that you really don't want that job?"
She nodded. "I already turned it down," she added. "Yesterday." He raised his eyebrows in surprise. "We're both really independent, you know that?" she said. She could tell he was confused at her sudden topic change. "It's always been that way. Because of this we have a lack of communication at times. Remember Nicole, Jason?" she said, feeling him stiffen at the mention of Nicole. "But you know, I realized that it's not my life anymore. It's our life now. You and me, we share a life, Luke. I mean, it will happen officially when we get married, but it's been unofficial for a while. Not telling you about things that are going to affect our life is wrong," she said. "I should have told you that I went to a meeting with Mike Armstrong, I should have been clear that I wasn't going to take that job. I just assumed you knew these things, because that's how we operate. I have to tell you things… I can't be independent anymore. I have to tell you when," she took a deep breath, "when I think for a night that I might be pregnant with your child, even if it turned out that I wasn't."
"What?" he asked her, his eyes widening in surprise.
"A few weeks ago I thought I was pregnant. As a result of our little limo night escapades. I wasn't, I'm not, and since I wasn't and since it passed so quickly, I didn't tell you. I should have. You need to know that kind of stuff."
"You're not," he confirmed. "You're sure?"
She nodded. "Yeah, sure."
"Lorelai—"
"I just… I want this to work. I love you so much and I don't want to have stupid little problems, dumb fights, just because we don't tell each other things. I don't want to end up in trouble twenty years from now because we didn't tell each other something today. I mean, you're my best friend. I can talk to you about anything. Talking is a strength of mine as you well know. I should utilize all this."
He nodded. "Okay, then I—"
She stopped him. "No."
"What?"
"This is going to sound so hypocritical, but don't tell me."
"You're really losing me here."
"I know what you're going to say. I think. And because of that, just wait until after tomorrow. You'll see, trust me. And if you still feel you have things to tell me after tomorrow, then by all means, tell me. But just wait."
He looked at her. "But I really don't think you know what—"
"Luke, trust me. Please."
He sighed. "Okay, alright."
"Now," she said, grinning at him. "Even though I'm preaching the talking tonight, let's stop for a while," she said, pulling him down to her and taking over his lips with her own.
"I love you," he whispered in her ear.
She grinned and kissed him softly. "I love you too," she replied.
"Forever," he told her.
"What?" she asked breathlessly as he trailed kisses across her chest and around the edge of her shirt.
"You're mine. Forever."
She smiled. "Mmhmm. Forever." And with that she leaned up to kiss him again.
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To Be Continued… again. ;)
I'll bring Rory (and Richard and Emily and maybe Logan) back into it soon. Just need to get this important Luke and Lorelai stuff figured out. ;) I wanted to have them go longer before getting engaged but I just couldn't do it. :P So there you have it. Part 3 coming soon, hopefully!
