Gilmore Girls Be Mine

**A/N: Takes place S2. Dedicated to all those girls out there who want their own Luke for Valentine's Day, but just haven't found him yet. Prompt response for Stella. I don't own Gilmore Girls, I don't own Valentine's Day, but I do own the present listed at the end of the chapter.**

"Coffee," Lorelai groaned as she seated herself at the counter.

Luke didn't bother looking up from the cash register. "You sound happy," he said sarcastically.

She put her head on the counter and whimpered slightly. "I don't have a Valentine. You may think the holiday's stupid, but I happen to care very much about it. It does a lot for a woman's self esteem to have a Valentine."

"You don't need an ego boost," Luke grumbled.

Lorelai sat up and rolled her eyes. "Yes, because I have a mirror that tells me that I'm the fairest one of all, any time I need it. Not even Kirk wants to be my Valentine, and I was extremely desperate."

"Would you really want Kirk to be your Valentine anyway?"

Lorelai sighed and put her chin in her hands. "You're right," she agreed. "I'm in mourning, notice the all black attire?"

"I just thought you were going to rob someone," Luke countered, pouring Lorelai her coffee.

Taking a long sip of coffee, and putting it back on the counter, she shook her head. "You know, I'm already in a bad mood this morning, and I've never realized the lack of sunshine you spread to everyone until just now."

"Well, then, I wasn't doing such a great job, then, was I?"

Lorelai gasped. "Wow, you're firing your words like weapons, aren't you? I'm commiserating with you, this was supposed to be amusing for you."

"And somehow, it's not," he said, disappearing into the kitchen.

She lifted the cover off of the tray of donuts and grabbed three of them. Wrapping two up in napkins and taking a huge bite out of the third, she placed some money on the counter and left. Luke emerged from the kitchen to find only the half full cup of coffee and some change on the counter.

_If she wasn't drinking the whole coffee, she must be really bent out of shape about this Valentine's Day crap,_ he thought to himself, collecting the change and dropping it into the cash register.

The morning went smoothly and lunch rolled around. Luke was busy manning tables until Lorelai made her second appearance of the day, sitting at the counter yet again. "Are you adverse to the idea of taking a table now?" he asked.

Lorelai looked at her watch. "You know, it's 1:00, and last time I checked, I'm still all by myself, Valentine-less, so why take up a whole table?" she said sarcastically, throwing her hands in the air.

"Fine, what can I get you?" he asked, not wanting to press her further. She obviously woke up on the wrong side of the bed, as rare as it was, and aggravating her for his own amusement wasn't going to be to his benefit.

"Cheeseburger with extra cheese, extra burger, and chili fries," she said.

"How do I make extra burger? A double cheeseburger?" Luke asked.

"Way to go, Scooby, how 'bout a Scooby Snack?"

Luke rolled his eyes. "Coming right up," he said, his tone unchanged.

The fact that she didn't have a Valentine didn't give her the right to come into the diner, making him more miserable than he already was. He hated the lovey-doveyness of the holiday. If people really loved each other, why did February 14th be the day that they were required to show it? Why not in May, or August, or any other day of the year?

But who was he to judge? He didn't have a Valentine either. Not that he was really looking for one, but he, too, was single on a couples' holiday. Regardless, her whining was getting annoying. While she complained about her lack of Valentine's Day happiness, she was slowly bringing him down with her.

And he didn't think it was humanly possible.

As he placed the cheeseburger in front of her and watched her shovel it down, he kept hearing her complaints in his head. Why the heck was she getting to him? Valentine's Day always had been, and always would be, stupid.

"Thanks for the burger, Luke," Lorelai said. "Sorry I was being so grumpy, I just… hate being alone on Valentine's Day. I'll try to put on my happy face for dinner tonight."

Luke nodded. "It's okay. I'm not much of a Valentine's Day fan myself, so it's not like you were ruining my day."

She sighed. "See you later?"

"I'll be here," he said.

The dinner shift was slow. Luke knew it would happen. Every couple in town opted for the romantic restaurants with names that Luke couldn't pronounce. He thought about closing the diner early, but his thoughts went to Lorelai and the beating he would take for his actions.

And suddenly, he got an idea.

Lorelai pushed the door open for dinner, obviously not noticing the "closed" sign. Luke stood at the counter, crossing his arms. "We're closed," he pointed out.

She looked up at him, dressed in a nice black dress top and blue jeans, and her jaw dropped. "You are such a liar. You DO have a date. You have a date, Michel has a date, Kirk even has a date, which I found out in the last twenty minutes. Why? Why? What kind of planet shifting, solar eclipse happening caused this?"

Luke walked out from behind the counter. "That's it," he huffed, grabbing Lorelai's hand.

"What are you doing?" she shrieked.

"Follow me. Don't ask why, just come on," he instructed.

"Seriously, this has to be some sort of Twilight Zone occurrence. What makes you…"

She stopped short, standing in the doorway to Luke's apartment. She looked at the candles on the table and the wine chiller staring her in the face.

"You've been complaining about your dateless Valentine's Day from the moment you walked into the diner. Frankly, I'm a little sick of it, so now I'm going to give you the best damn Valentine's Day you've ever had so you'll stop complaining," Luke insisted, walking to the table.

He watched as Lorelai smiled for the first time that day. "You know, that is really sweet of you, you didn't have to do this."

"If it meant you shutting up, I would have had to."

"Thank you," she said, practically speechless.

He cleared his throat. "Uh, you're welcome."

She looked at her toes. "No one's ever, uh, been forced to be my Valentine before, I'll take it off my list of things to do."

"No one forced me, Lorelai," Luke said.

"Really? Are you sure? Because, really, I was such a jerk to you today. I haven't been that mean to anyone in a long time. Probably since ninth grade Physical Science when I stuck a 'Kick Me' sign to Melissa Wells' back. And I mean, that was bad, but this was…"

Luke leaned in and kissed her, suddenly breaking up her rambling. He pulled away and watched her turn three different shades of red before she composed herself and tried to say something.

"I… uh… weren't you supposed to get me a teddy bear with one of those… hearts he holds that says 'Be Mine' on it first?" she teased.

He walked over to the table and handed her the teddy bear that was sitting by her plate. "I guess I forgot that part," he stammered.

She smiled, shaking her head, and leaned in for another kiss.

And as she pulled him closer, Luke realized that maybe Valentine's Day wasn't so terrible after all.


End file.

Gilmore Girls, Humor, Romance