At six Lorelai was running through the door, shedding clothes as she rushed to the shower. A hair clip landed on the floor as she hopped the steps two at a time (she had already lost her shoes) while cursing Michel for not being able to allow her to leave at a decent time for once. It had taken the promise of staying an extra two hours tomorrow to buy her tonight's freedom.

'Crap, 20 minutes left and no time to dry my hair.' She ran back through the hallways looking for the hair clip again and threw her hair back into it. She felt like a high schooler again, going out on a date and not caring about anything else other than the state of her hair and if her eyeliner is running, or if the guy she's with has fallen victim to the hair flip yet. Lorelai even took time to locate her special smelling shower gel.

After setting a new personal record she scrambled out of her bathroom in her towel and to her makeup stand. After combing out her hair and applying the basics to make her eyes stand out, along with a little lip gloss (adding to the teenager feel), she stood up and groaned.

"What am I going to wear?"

At six Luke was busy wiping down tables inbetween refilling coffee cups and passing out bills. At six-ten he put his apron away and went upstairs. At six-twenty he exited the shower and put on his jeans, a long sleeved black shirt, rolled up the sleeves, and put his cap on. By six-thirty he was pacing and checking his watch to see if it was late enough to leave yet. Finally he gave up and resigned himself to a fate of looking for keys and oven-warmed socks as he left his apartment.

The truck pulled into the parking lot near the back. Lots of walking distance, but less chance of getting hit by a horrible parker. Luke turned to Lorelai who gazed out at the scene in wonder, "An amusement park?"

"Yeah well I couldn't exactly go for the pre-described night; I need to have some secrets in this relationship." Luke looked beyond his passenger at the scenery. An arcade stood off to the side along with mini-golf that preceded the main area. There were the standard thrill rides as well as the normal things that could be found at a county fair, but it also had a water park and huge slides. The neon lights blinked and Luke wondered absently if it was possible to get a seizure from staring at them for too long. "Do you like it?"

"Like it? This is unbelievable! How come you didn't tell me to bring a swimsuit?" She turned back to him and gave him the 'serious' stare.

"That could've given it away, or you would have never shut up about asking me where we were going and why you would need it." He got out and went to her door, practically pulling her out. "You can stare later, or buy a postcard with the picture on it."

Lorelai grinned as they walked arm and arm to the entrance. "So where should we go first?"

An hour later they were seated on a table eating a late dinner. Lorelai had convinced him to go on all the thrill rides first so that they could eat without worrying about getting sick. They hadn't actually hit too many, seeing as how the waiting in line took what seemed forever, and Luke was constantly skeptical about the safety concerning some of the bigger rides. She had convinced him to go on just because of all the people that went before them and came out safe. In her purse Lorelai held a picture of them going through the tunnel of one of the roller coasters. The light captured them just as they had looked at each other, both smiling and breathless from the exhileration. Each of their outside hands were holding on to the bar while they grasped each other's inside hands tightly, not once letting go from the moment that Luke had grabbed Lorelai's hand and admitted to being slightly "freaked" at really high heights just before the big drop.

Lorelai muched on her pizza as Luke pulled pieces away from his giant pretzel to eat. She had laughed when he had bought it, arguing that the point of going to these places was to eat as much disgusting food as possible since one couldn't find that much grease on any normal amount of food in real life. He had argued back that she was prime for a heart attack and that someone needed to be healthy to drive her to the hospital when it happened.

She took his hand after they were finished and lead him around, trying to find something interesting to do. Lorelai made him stop at the cotton-candy stand and even managed to get him to try a bite, albeit a small one. "You know, when Rory was little I took her to this carnival and bought her cotton-candy, but this clown bumped into her and she dropped it. She was really upset because I couldn't get her another one so I chased the guy down and stole his wig until he bought her another one."

"Which I'm sure he did, although smarter men wouldn't have allowed you to spoil her that early on. I'm guessing she got sick."

"We pulled over about 5 times on the way back to the Independance Inn." At that point Luke refused to eat anymore of the fluffy sugar, and Lorelai continued to turn her mouth a nice shade of purple from the mixing blue and pink. She then made it a point to get one kiss out of him, just so she could laugh after using her toungue to turn his a different color.

Lorelai wanted to see and do almost everything. The outing had been a great move on Luke's part due to the amount of fun that never really stopped when at a place like the one they were at. It was a chance for both of them to really relax and forget that they lived in a town of nut jobs that relied on gossip to survive.

Finally they managed to hit the arcade, where it was proven that neither of them could really dance as evidenced by one round on the Dance Dance Revolution machine. At some point they would both say that the game had been set on Master, but then who could challenge them?

Lorelai excused herself to the ladies' room and Luke continued to wander, looking for games that seemed interesting. He stopped when he saw one of those claw machines that held mystery eggs, the unknown calling to him. After paying the requisite fifty cents he managed to grab and egg on his last try. When he pulled it out and opened it he was rewarded with a shiny, brand new, never been worn plastic ring, complete with its own fake diamond. He laughed to himself before pocketing the ring and tossing the egg in the nearby garbage.

Now there was a game he could get into. Luke walked over and staked his claim at the air hockey table and waited for Lorelai to return.

"Just face it, you're stuck with it." Lorelai climbed the steps to the house and turned back to Luke who was carrying a large hot pink flamingo. "If you would've played the game, then I would have been more than happy to accept the stuffed bird, but since I played the game and won, you have to keep it."

"Who made these rules again?"

"Duh, they're the international laws of dating. Whenever playing a carnival game, the winner must give their date the stuffed object won."

Luke stopped at the top of the steps and shook his head, "There has to be a dirty in there somewhere."

Lorelai grabbed one of the birds wings and pretended to flap it, "You should name it and start a collection. Ooh! Give it to Rory and tell her to have it keep Colonel Plucker company."

"But then what if Colonel Plucker gets jealous?"

"Hmm, good point. . . Send it to TJ, but make sure you're there when he gets it." She smiled and tilted her head, giving him a chaste kiss, "Thanks for tonight."

Luke kissed her again before turning and leaning the bird against the porch. He took both of her hands in his, "Hey I know that you were the one that proposed, but I am the man, and as the man I have certain obligations to fufill." He rubbed her ring finger lightly with his thumb so she would get where he was going at before he pulled his hand away and began to dig in his pocket.

"Luke, you know you don't have to-"

"I know. But I want to give you this anyway since it probably won't fit me," he grinned as he pulled the ring out of his pocket. Lorelai took one look at it before they promptly began laughing. Luke calmed down enough to grab her hand and put it on her finger. "Really, I don't have a ring now, but I do have this. But I promise to get you the real thing."

Lorelai felt her heartstrings tug. She knew that she would never be able to talk him out of it and this was incredibly sweet. "Well I guess I'll just have to wear this until then," she said softly before kissing him again, wrapping her arms around his neck. She squeaked slightly when she was lifted off the ground a couple of inches by his tight arms around her middle. "Luke," she whispered in between kisses.

"What?"

"Babette is staring. . . I think we better get inside and lock the door. . ."

They both bolted into the house and made sure the lock was in place. Luke ran to the kitchen and jammed the chair into the back porch door seeing as how he hadn't had time to fix it yet after his last break in. Through the window he could see Babette talking on the phone excitedly, "Well I think it's safe to say that the town knows. You want coffee?"

"Definately." Lorelai went to check the answering machine. "So, who do you want to bet is going to call here first?"