Title: Now or Never, Forever
Rating: PG/K+
Originally posted: 14th March 2018
Originally written for: baylishmaylie
Characters/Pairings: Luke/Lorelai
Notes: Treat for HetSwap 2018 at Dreamwidth and AO3.

When she rushed into the diner talking about eloping, Luke had been stunned. Of course he loved Lorelai and of course he still wanted to marry her, but quite honestly, he had no clue when it all became such a desperate rush. It was only as she ranted and raved about purple wallpaper and Anna and everything else that he started to realise there really hadn't been any real rush at all.

"I asked you to marry me and you said yes," she reminded him.

Luke shook his head, fighting a maelstrom of memories. There in the diner, right behind where they were standing now, she had asked him and he had said yes. It was a year ago. One whole year. If not for what had happened first with her daughter and then with his, they would be man and wife by now. It just would've happened. Not that he could blame Rory or April, and he was sure Lorelai wasn't trying to either, she just wanted to be married to him.

Luke opened his mouth to argue with her before realising what a fool he would be if he did.

"Say something!" Lorelai urged him, proving he had been silent too long.

"Okay," he forced out.

"Okay?" she echoed. "Okay, yes? It that what okay means?" she checked, looking kind of manic still, and yet as beautiful as Luke had ever seen her at the same time.

"Yes. Okay as in yes, let's... let's get married," he agreed, nodding his head, a smile bursting forth on his lips at the same moment that Lorelai laughed.

"Oh my God!" she gasped, throwing herself forward into his arms. "Thank you, thank you," she told him, kissing his neck, his face, his lips. "Er, you need keys, a jacket maybe? Um, my car or your truck?"

"I have the keys, I'm not cold. Get in the truck," he told her quickly.

Momentum carried them, a wave of euphoria and sudden certainty that this was what they were supposed to do. Luke recalled belatedly that the diner was still open and full of customers, but one glance at Lorelai and he didn't care. All they had to do was wake up Reverend Skinner, grab a couple of witnesses.

"Rory," he said suddenly. "We can't-"

"She's at Logan's, but we can go grab her?" Lorelai smiled.

"Then let's go."

"Yeah, let's go," she agreed, grinning wide. "Happy future, here we come!"