Disclaimer: I don't even own the DVDs, so it's highly unlikely that I own the real thing.

A/N: I'm sorry I took so long in updating. blush This thing called real life sucks. But I'm here now and I hope y'all are too.

Thanks again to everyone for reviewing! You guys are the bestest. :D Special thanks to Pam for your kind words! You rock. And Anne, I'm here ;)

So this is probably the fluffiest and most important chapter of the story. I hope it's as good as all the other LL fics out there that inspired me to write my own fluff.

Luke rang Lorelai's doorbell promptly at 8:00 that night. He felt really uncomfortable and completely ridiculous in that suit. He wondered for the millionth time how on earth he had ended up in that situation. It involved the words "I could go with you", but he couldn't imagine how did those words manage to come out of his mouth, because he knew that he would never have agreed voluntarily to go to an event like that one. Then again, it hadn't been just any woman the one that had been dumped the same day of the dance. If it would have been so, Luke would just have felt sorry for her, whoever she was, and left it at that. However, it had been Lorelai, and Luke knew that when it came to her, he could end up doing the most unexpected and unpredictable things, just because she asked him to do them. Or sometimes not even because she asked. What else could he do? She hypnotized him and took away from him all the free will that he could possibly have.

While he was lost in these thoughts, Rory opened the door. She was already dressed up and looked like she was ready to go, but Lorelai was nowhere to be seen.

"Hi, Luke", she said brightly. "Wow, you do look great on a suit"

"Don't even mention it", Luke answered gruffly and stepped inside the house. "Is your mom ready?" he asked, walking into the living room and standing by the stairs that led to the second floor.

"Um, well, she. . . she. . . she's on her way" Rory stammered. She had just checked on her mother about five minutes earlier and she hadn't even put on her dress.

Luke understood. "She won't be ready anytime soon, won't she?"

"Pretty much, yeah", Rory nodded and smiled. "But don't worry. Maybe if I tell her that you are here, she'll hurry up". She climbed a coupled of stairs and called her mother. "Mom! Luke's here!"

"Tell him he has to wait! I'm a lady, I can take all the time I want!", came Lorelai's muffled voice.

"Sorry, no such luck", Rory said compassionately.

"Here, let me try". Luke walked closer to the stairs. "Lorelai, I will deny you one cup of coffee for every extra minute you take in coming down here, starting now!"

Lorelai was silent for a minute and then came again her muffled answer. "I'll be right down!"

Rory smiled. "Wow, you sure know how to deal with her"

"Yeah, well, I've had lots of years of practice." They fell silent for a moment, which Luke used to straighten his shirt, coat and tie for the millionth time that night. Boy, he had never felt so uncomfortable and out of place in his entire life.

"Luke, relax, you look great, I promise", Rory said, seeing his discomfort.

"It's not just the suit", he said wearily.

"Then, what is it?"

"I am going to appear in a suit in a Stars Hollow public event, where people are actually going to see me wearing a suit. People like Kirk, Taylor or Miss Patty, who are completely convinced that I would never ever participate in an event like this, let alone show up wearing a suit because that is what I've been telling them for years. And now I am actually going to, not only participate in a town event doing more than just selling coffee, but I am also going to participate wearing a suit, and that is something they are not going to let me forget for the rest of my life, which God is going to make a very long time just to torture me!"

"But then why did you agree to go with my mom to the dance? I mean, if it made you feel really uncomfortable to go, then you could just have told her no. Believe me, she would have understood and asked somebody else, it wouldn't have been that big a deal"

Luke looked down, embarrassed. "Actually, your mom didn't ask me to go to the dance with her. I offered myself to go with her"

"What?", said Rory, completely surprised. She didn't see that one coming. Luke agreeing to go to a dance out of his own free will? Then again, Rory thought, it was her mother they were talking about. Luke could never say no to her.

"Yeah, well, she. . . she was really upset because she really wanted to go and now she couldn't, and I thought 'Hey, I have nothing better to do and Lorelai needs a date', so I offered myself. I didn't think at the moment of all the consequences. If I had, I wouldn't be here"

Rory smiled at him. "You really love her, don't you?"

Luke froze. Had she really asked him what he thought she'd asked him? What was he going to say? He definitely could not tell the truth. Rory was going to tell Lorelai and things between them would get awkward. And, obviously Lorelai didn't love him back, so it wasn't worth taking the chance.

He instead decided to change the subject. "How much longer do you think your mother will take?"

Rory smiled. She didn't even have to ask, she knew perfectly well that Luke loved her mother. She saw it in the way he looked at her and in the way he caved for every little thing she asked him to do, even if he didn't want to. She also knew that her mother had feelings for him too, but she hadn't realized it yet, and so she thought that this dance could be the perfect excuse for the feelings of the two of them to finally go out to the surface.

Right at that moment, Lorelai appeared at the top of the stairs. "Here I am!", she exclaimed. She started coming down the stairs, not looking at Luke or at Rory because she was very busy looking down at her shoes and trying to walk on them without tumbling down the stairs. "Rory, why the hell did you let me buy these horribly uncomfortable shoes? I mean, who on their right mind would buy them? One can barely walk, for God's sake!"

"If I remember correctly, you begged me to let you buy those shoes because you said you were meant to be together and that your life didn't make sense until that precise moment when you saw those shoes", Rory said, matter-of-factly. "You wouldn't take no for an answer so I decided to let you learn the hard way."

Lorelai looked at Rory warily. "Are you sure you are my daughter? Aren't you her evil twin sister?"

"If I were, where would the real Rory be?"

"Taking a very difficult and important exam at Yale because the evil twin sister forced Rory to take it pretending to be her and now she is here having fun while my dearest daughter is trapped in an exam room"

"Oh, so I have an evil twin sister that I don't know about and that goes to Yale too?"

"Yeah, sorry to break the news like that to you, honey, but I kicked her out of the house the moment she told me Emily Gilmore was her role model"

"You are not making any sense, those shoes do have a negative effect on you"

"Oh, yeah? Well this is all your fault. . ."

As the two Gilmore girls had this completely pointless conversation, Luke had stopped dead in his tracks. When he first heard Lorelai's voice at the top of the stairs, he looked up, planning to just give her a quick look and then turn back to fussing with the sleeves of his shirt. However, what he saw made it impossible for him to look back down. Lorelai looked stunning. Beautiful. She was wearing a long, red dress, a bit tight so that it brought out her perfect curves and with a little opening at the side, showing now and then her gorgeous legs. The two strips of her dress met at the back of her neck, so her back was completely bare. Her hair was curly, but her curls were not anywhere, like they usually were; they were beautifully done and arranged. He was totally speechless. He tried very hard to stop his eyes from lingering too long on her legs or on her cleavage, and while he was at it, Lorelai was already standing on the bottom step of the staircase, smiling at him. God, that smile. It looked even better on her tonight, it made her entire face glow. He had never thought she could be so beautiful.

Lorelai was also checking Luke out. She never thought the day would come when she would see him wearing a suit, freshly shaven, no baseball cap and smelling like cologne. No, wait, she had seen him before like that, on Rory's graduation, and she was pretty sure that on other occasions too. Yet, it seemed like tonight it was the first time she really noticed him, how great he looked, how handsome he was. She was seeing him with other eyes, as a man, a man in whom she might be interested in, not just a friend. She was surprised at herself for having this kind of thoughts. I mean, he was Luke. Luke! The crazy diner man who always wore plaid shirts and a backwards baseball cap and whom she loved to tease and drive crazy. However, she found herself pondering whether those fights and arguments they constantly had were actually a form of flirting that they both did without even noticing.

They both fell silent for a moment, taking in each and every one of the other's features, noticing how great the other one looked. Rory sensed the tension and decided it was best to leave them alone.

"Um, Mom, I'm going to go to my room to, uh, finish my makeup", she said, which was complete rubbish, because she had already been done with it like an hour earlier. Anyway, she had serious doubts whether neither of them had listened to a word she had said.

Lorelai decided it was time to break the silence. "Hey, Luke"

Luke miraculously managed to find his voice: "Lorelai, you. . . you look very. . . beautiful", he blurted out, before he could stop himself. Uh-oh, he had said too much. He had to fix that last sentence. "I mean, beautiful in the sense that. ."

"Thank you", Lorelai cut him off, still smiling. "You look great too. I never thought the day would come in which I'd see you wearing a suit and no baseball cap. This is truly a Kodak moment, and that's why I brought my camera!" she smiled mischievously and took out her left hand, which, Luke hadn't noticed it before, was holding the camera.

He regained his senses immediately. "Oh, come on!"

"It's not that bad, it's just one picture. Besides, everyone is going to see you anyway, so what's the big deal?", she raised the camera to her face, and before he could say anything, she took a picture of him. She looked back at the camera to see how the photo had come out. "Wow", she laughed. "This is not one of your best poises"

"Can we go now?", he asked, exasperated. Lorelai had a way of getting to his nerves, no matter how beautiful she was.

"Not just yet, mister, we first have to practice."

"Practice. . ."

"Dancing, of course"

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me!"

"Hey! If I remember correctly, you offered yourself to go with me to the dance, which implies not only actually showing up at the dance but also doing the other things that people do at a dance, besides sitting down, eating and drinking. The most important of these things is, of course, dancing. Now, I know you probably are thinking right at this moment 'What is she thinking about? Is she crazy? Why are we going to do this at a dance?' but the truth is, Luke, that, believe or not, at a dance, people dance. I know it sounds unbelievable at this point, but trust me, you'll get over it."

"If I agree to practice dancing with you, will you shut up?"

"See? That was the whole point, to wear you out with my incoherent babbling. So, let's get to it"

Lorelai left her camera and her purse in the coffee table and took two steps closer to Luke, but he stayed where he was. The feeling of Lorelai that close to him and looking that good made him too nervous to move, whether backwards or forwards.

"Geez, don't look so frightened, I don't bite, in case you were wondering", she took another step closer to Luke, making his knees weaken. When she put her left arm on his shoulder, his heart was beating so fast that he was afraid she would feel it.

"OK, now give me your right hand". Luke raised his right hand. "Ooops, sorry, wrong hand. Give me your left hand". Luke raised his left hand instead and Lorelai held it with her right hand. It felt soft at Luke's touch. He had never held her hand like that before and he had to fight the urge to caress it softly with his thumb.

"OK, now put your right hand on my back", Luke placed his right hand immediately below her shoulder. The feeling of her soft, bare skin below his hand sent chills down his spine. Lorelai smirked. "No, Luke, lower". Luke lowered his hand about a millimetre. "Luke, I'm serious, your hand has to be lower"

"How much lower?", he asked, annoyed.

"Just lower. You'll know when to stop", she smiled mischievously again.

Luke had no choice but to do as he was told, otherwise they were going to stay there forever. He slowly slid his hand downwards along her back, not leaving it at any point, until he finally stopped and left it at a point in her low back.

Luke hadn't thought about what that simple action could cause in him. He just thought he would do it that way so that he accidentally didn't place it where he wasn't supposed to. However, as he slid his hand along Lorelai's back, he felt all the blood in his body rush up to his head and his breathing became heavier. He swallowed hard to stabilize himself so that Lorelai wouldn't notice. Once he had finished, he wanted desperately to do it again, to slide his hand along her back and her arms and her face over and over again, to pull her closer to him and kiss her with all the strength and passion he had stored in him throughout the years. Fighting this desire wasn't very easy for him. However, he tried his best to keep his cool.

Lorelai too, although Luke wouldn't have imagined it, had experimented similar sensations while Luke was running his hand down her back. Her heart suddenly started beating very fast and she felt as though Luke's hand was burning any part of her skin that it touched. This was unbelievable. How could she be feeling this? It was just Luke's hand, no big deal. And yet, she found herself almost wanting him to continue, to keep touching and caressing her. She was totally overwhelmed by these thoughts and fought desperately to drive them away from her so that Luke wouldn't notice the big effect his hand on her back had had in her.

They both fell silent for a moment again, trying to regain control of their feelings and emotions.

"OK, OK, that's good, that's. . . that's fine", Lorelai stammered. "We're done with the first part now, getting the positions right, and since I think we've mastered it, we should move on to the next part of the dancing lesson"

"Which is. . ."

"Actually moving. Now, I know that you are completely ignorant to everything that concerns dancing and that's why I am going to lead"

"Lead?"

"Just follow me and relax"

Lorelai started moving, first to the right and then to the left. She didn't just stay in the same place, she lead Luke across her living room, first slowly, then faster, twirling around the room. Luke at first had trouble knowing which way Lorelai was going to go next, but then he fell in the rhythm and it became easier to follow her lead. He was actually enjoying it, it wasn't as lame as he had always thought dancing would be. Besides, with a teacher like her, how could he not like it.

Without previous warning, Lorelai let go of his neck and stayed just holding his left hand in her right hand. Luke looked at her questioningly, but she just smiled and turned herself around under his and her arm and then returned to her previous position, just holding his hand.

"What are you doing?", Luke asked her.

"We have to be creative, not just go left, right, left, right the whole night. Besides, don't tell me you have never seen a man turn a woman around like this. It's classic"

"Well, I'm sorry but, like you said, I am completely ignorant to everything that concerns dancing"

"OK, well, now that you know how it's done, let's do it again"

"The whole thing?", he asked, truly worried. As much as he enjoyed it, he felt like an idiot dancing around Lorelai's living room to no music at all.

"No, silly, just the turning around thing". She hadn't let Luke's hand go at any point during this small conversation, so now she just raised both their hands again and turned herself around once more like she had done before. When she finished, they just stood there silently, like that, holding hands, looking at each other. They couldn't find words to express how they were feeling, but they didn't have to either. To be standing there silently, hand in hand, was more than enough. Luke then took the initiative. He raised his arm and turned Lorelai around a third time. He didn't know why he did it, it just seemed right. In a normal situation, he wouldn't have had the nerve to even get as close to her as he had been that night, let alone touch her, but tonight, he felt that there was a special connection between them, that they had crossed the barrier of being friends to being something more. He didn't know exactly what, but it felt very good.

"Wow", she smiled. "It seems like you got it"

"Yeah, well, perhaps I am not as ignorant as you thought I was."

"Nah, I doubt it."

"So, can we go now, or you still want to practice some more eccentric dance moves?"

"Uh, let's see, I do have lots in mind that I want to try but I think I have put you through enough tonight, so I'll just forget about them and try them at the dance, because when we get there, my friend, you are not going to get away from me."

"Thank you, that is very considerate of you", he said, sarcastically.

"Aren't I always?", she smirked. She finally let go of Luke's hand and went to the coffee table to get her purse.

"OK, we're read. . .". She wasn't able to finish this sentence because, when she was approaching Luke, her heel decided it was a great time to break. Lorelai lost her balance completely and stumbled forwards, towards Luke, unable to get hold of the couch or of anything to regain her balance. She instead crashed into him and made him fall flat on his bottom on the floor, with her sideways on his lap.

This was probably the closest Luke had ever been to Lorelai yet. He recognized the familiar fast heartbeat that started every time she touched him, smiled at him, or even when he smelled a glimpse of her perfume, starting again at that moment. He thought he'd be able to handle it by now, but he wasn't. Every time was the same. This time, however, it was worse than before and he became afraid that Lorelai would notice it. He thought it was harder because he knew that if he leaned forward a few centimetres, very, very few, he would be able to kiss her and he would be in heaven. He knew it, and this just made it harder for him to even breathe. However, just like many times that night, he used every ounce of strength and self control in his body to keep his cool, so that Lorelai wouldn't notice.

"Ooops, um, sorry about that", she chuckled, a bit embarrassed. "I kind of lost my balance and then. . . Oh my God!" she suddenly shouted, looking down at her shoe. She hadn't realized that her heel had broken, and she noticed it just then. "My heel broke!"

"Didn't you realize that was the reason you fell in the first place?", Luke said, not being able to hide a smile. These things had a way of only happening to Lorelai and he just loved what they did to her. Not in a bad way, of course. She just looked so cute when she desperately needed someone's help, especially his.

"Well, I'm very sorry, mister, but I am not as observative as you are."

"Very true", Luke muttered, but intending for her to hear.

Lorelai smacked him playfully on the arm. "What am I going to do now? Can you fix it?", she asked him hopefully.

"Yes, I think I can"

"Very well then, fix it", she dangled the broken heel in front of his eyes.

"You do realize that it is kind of impossible given the fact that you are on top of me". Not that he minded, of course. Lorelai opened her mouth to say something, but Luke interrupted her. "Don't say 'dirty'!".

"I wasn't going to say anything", she said, in a mock innocent voice.

"Oh, yes you were"

"How do you know? Are you suddenly a mind reader? Oh my God!", she suddenly covered her forehead with both her hands. "You are reading all my thoughts right now! Close your eyes! Close your eyes!", she added in an exaggerated panicky voice.

"Of course I'm not a mind reader!", Luke scowled, but he couldn't help smiling in his insides. "You just had that twinkle in your eyes"

"What twinkle?"

"That twinkle you get whenever you are going to say something that is going to annoy the person you are going to say it to"

Lorelai suddenly smiled mischievously. Luke's insides churned. "Oh, so I annoy you?"

"You most certainly do"

"But you like it when I annoy you, don't you?"

"No, I don't"

"Yes you do, yes you do", she sang. She suddenly started tickling Luke's stomach. She didn't know why she did it, she was just in the whole "annoying mood" and she thought it was safe to play along with it. Besides, she really loved to annoy Luke.

Luke didn't fall behind. "Oh yeah?", he smiled and started tickling her stomach too, but a little more carefully than Lorelai was tickling him because he was afraid he would go into a forbidden zone, which would end that lovely tickling/flirting session they were having.

Lorelai started laughing even harder. Apparently, she resisted less the tickles than he did. She was laughing so hard that she eventually lost her balance for the second time that night (imagine that, second time, and she hadn't even had anything to drink) and fell backwards on the floor. She just laid there on her back, smiling, panting for breath, ignoring the fact that her dress was getting all wrinkled. She had enjoyed that tiny moment with Luke so much, she'd rather have it again than having her dress all pretty.

Luke sat there, next to her, smiling and panting too. He wished it would have lasted longer, that he would have had Lorelai in his arms and in his lap, so close to him, for so much longer. He looked back at her. She was smiling and staring at the ceiling, but she must have felt his eyes on her, for she immediately lowered her eyes to him.

"Wow, that was fun", she said. "Although you shouldn't get all cocky about this. Just because I fell and I'm lying here on the floor and you are sitting there, doesn't mean I didn't win."

"Oh yeah?", he smiled. He crawled up to where she was and then laid down on his stomach, on top of her. He softly grabbed her wrists and pinned them to the floor. "Who wins now?". He was shocked at himself. Where had he gotten the nerve to place himself on top of her like that? Never, in his right mind, he would have considered doing that, no matter how much he wanted to. The thing was, he wasn't in his right mind at that moment. He was never in his right mind when he was around Lorelai. The only thing he was thinking about at that moment was how much he wished to feel her body against his one more time and he saw that he could do it, so why shouldn't he?

Lorelai was a bit surprised by this sudden gesture. Luke was never that aggressive. He only got into those physical struggles with her because she started them and gave him no other choice. This time, she hadn't started anything. She had the previous struggle, but she had ended it by falling on her back. However, she didn't mind that much that Luke was on top of her. As a matter of fact, she kind of liked it. The feeling of his body against hers warmed her up from the tips of her toes to every hair in her head. Plus he smelled so good, so why complain?

"Hey!", she exclaimed. "That's abuse! You think you can take advantage of me because I'm a lady, well let me tell you something, big boy, I am much stronger than you think I am"

"I'm finding that hard to believe"

Lorelai tried to move her hands towards Luke, to start tickling him again, but he was obviously much more stronger than her and pinned her wrists back to the floor.

"Not fair!", Lorelai laughed.

"Nothing in life is fair"

"No, not even the way I'm going to kick your ass when you finally let go of me"

"We don't know when that could be"

"What? You are taking me hostage now? I don't think so, baby"

They wrestled some more and then laughed again at their silly game. They looked at each other during these laughs and Luke's heart flipped when this happened. He was now officially as close as he could possibly be to Lorelai. He could feel her body rising up and down softly with her breathing underneath him, which made him shiver inside. He could smell her delicious perfume. They just stayed there silently, slowly letting their breathing get back to normal and smiling shyly at each other.

"Luke?", Lorelai asked, breaking the silence yet again. "Why are you suddenly so quiet?"

Uh-oh, he had given himself away. He'd better come up with a very good cover story. "No, nothing, I was just thinking". Great cover story, Luke.

"Thinking? About what?", she asked, curious. What could possibly be occupying Luke's mind that much that made him drift away almost in the middle of their struggle?

"Uh, you know, nothing really", he felt his face redden. He just hoped it wasn't too obvious.

He couldn't bear it anymore. He wanted to kiss her. He wanted to kiss her so badly. At that point, he didn't care that what he was going to do was probably wrong and that it might bring fatal consequences to it. The sole thought of her lips and the way they might feel in his was enough to erase all these worries from his head. He slowly reached out his left hand and gently moved a strand of her hair to the back of her ear and softly brushed his thumb against her cheek. He then slowly, very, very slowly, leaned his face forward and gently brushed his lips against hers.

Luke could have sworn he felt sparks ignite all throughout his body and he felt himself melt. God, Lorelai's lips felt so soft and tasted delicious. They were like some intoxicating drug that he wanted to taste over and over again. He even forgot his own name. All he could think about was that he was finally kissing Lorelai. That the dream he had secretly had for the past years was finally coming true. He couldn't believe his luck. And the weirdest thing of all was that Lorelai hadn't driven him away, like he thought she would. In fact, she had kissed him back and made no movement to make their mouths part.

Lorelai found herself wishing that Luke would kiss her, now that he was so close to her. She didn't know why, it wasn't even right. She was still technically dating Jason. But still, as the night had gone on, she had started to feel more and more attracted to Luke. She began to realize that she loved everything about him: the way her coffee addiction annoyed him, the way he seemed to do things for her that he would never do for anybody else, the way he cared so much about Rory. With that realization finally in her brain, she stopped thinking and just let herself get lost in the immensity of the feelings she was experiencing at that moment, which were nothing like she had ever felt before. This was different. She could feel it in the way Luke's lips gently, almost shyly, caressed her own. She felt true love in them. She started to think that that was what she felt for him too.

They broke apart at the same time, keeping their eyes closed, still lost in the rush of emotions they had just experienced. Luke's face was still very close to Lorelai's. That kiss had been too short for him, but then again, he could have stayed with his lips glued to Lorelai's the whole night and it would never have been too long. He suddenly felt the need to do it again. Her lips were like a drug and he was completely addicted to it. Lorelai hadn't seemed to mind before, so he didn't think she would mind a second kiss. So he leaned forward and kissed her again.

This time it was a much deeper, stronger and passionate kiss, not only on his part. Lorelai was also pressing harder. She loved the way Luke's lips felt and was willing to explore his mouth a bit further, since she too thought the previous kiss had been too short. She slowly slid her right hand upwards along his arm and his shoulder, until she finally reached his face, and started caressing his cheek. Then she continued to slide her hand towards the back of his neck and began running her hands through his hair. She couldn't believe how comfortable and how great it felt to be there, in Luke's arms, although he was the last person in whose arms she would have thought she would end up. No doubts about it, she thought, she was completely in love with him. How could it have taken her 4 years to realize that?

Luke was in heaven. This was more than he would ever have imagined. Please, don't let this be a dream, let it be real, he pleaded in his thoughts. As soon as he felt Lorelai's hands roaming through his body, he also felt the need to touch and caress her. He slid his left hand along her right side and then lifted her body gently so that he could run his fingers along her bare low back. Her soft skin and her delicious lips were driving him crazy. A moment later he started running out of breath and, as much as he regretted doing it, he had to break apart. Lorelai did the same and they both laid down there, panting for breath, their arms still around each other and with no desire to let go.

However, Lorelai needed to clarify their situation. "Luke?", she asked, softly. "What was that?"