Luke stared up at the sky. He wasn't normally one for stupid flowery poetry, but he was determined to have his moment with Lorelai. And it wasn't because of what Patty and Babette said, either. Well, maybe a little. The truth was that they were right: Lorelai had stolen his thunder. But, they were also wrong because Luke honestly didn't care. That split second when his brain had processed Lorelai's words had been the happiest split second of his entire life, and it didn't matter who did the asking. He wanted this 'moment' because he supposed Lorelai might want it, even though it had been her idea to go 'modern'.
He'd rushed over after ditching Kirk, and a part of Luke was afraid that the crazy moron might hatch a scheme to get the ring back if he didn't get it on Lorelai's finger soon.
Now he sat on Lorelai's front porch with the ring in his pocket, waiting for her to come out. He turned and looked back at the doorway, hearing the handle turn. She walked towards him, her face cast in shadows by the porch light he'd fixed so many countless times.
"Hey."
"Hey yourself."
Luke reached out to take her hand, hesitating only slightly at something odd in her tone of voice. "You ready?"
"I was born ready," she quipped.
Luke smiled and pulled her towards him and into the circle of his arms. She leaned against his chest, her fingers clinging to the back of his flannel. He hadn't really planned much beyond this, beyond getting her outside, with him, with the ring. Suddenly, he couldn't find the words. Luke jerked and let out a yelp as Lorelai let her hand fall to his butt and squeezed playfully.
"Hey!"
"You looked like you needed some inspiration." She met his gaze and a million decidedly Lorelai-inspired dirty thoughts raced through his mind.
"That's not very romantic, you know."
"Sure it is," she replied, slipping both hands into the back pockets of his jeans and bringing their bodies flush against each other, "and there's no way you're complaining." She waggled her eyebrows suggestively.
Luke shook his head ruefully. "No, but I'll need one of these."
He extricated her left hand from his back pocket and kissed the palm, making Lorelai shiver slightly. Never breaking eye contact, Luke slipped his hand into his pocket and pulled out the ring he'd bought from Kirk. He took a small step away from Lorelai and slowly slid the diamond onto her left ring finger. Holding her hand between the two of them, he smiled at her shyly.
"Lorelai, will you marry me?"
He watched with a mixture of anticipation and dismay as Lorelai's eyes filled with tears and she gave him a shaky smile in return. He was a little worried she hadn't even looked at the ring. Usually shiny things were good for distracting Lorelai… what if she didn't like it? Or what if this qualified as a life-changing decision and he should have asked her? Or what if Kirk was ri- "Yes."
Luke blinked and a grin slowly spread across his face. What do you know… it really did feel pretty good to ask a question 9 years in the making.