Work Text:
[.......]
It goes like this, Maya Hunter is getting married in six months. And its not to him.
Lucas isn't ready.
He can feel time slip away, like a ticking time bomb, counting down the days, hours, minutes, and seconds before his heart implodes.
He just wants it to stop. If only for a day. Lucas needs to hear someone congratulate Maya, and not have it sound like an apology. Like a missed opportunity.
Maya flicked her paintbrush in her hand, her left ring finger noticeably naked as she painted, biting her lip with an expression of intense concentration. Riley sat at the kitchen table, thumbing through a bridal magazine.
Maya’s kid sister, Penny, is on the computer, fiddling around with her older sister’s music playlist. A soft voice spills from the speakers, along with the rhythmic strum of a guitar.
It's different from what Maya usually listens to. Nothing at all similar to The Beatles, or Guns N Roses.
Riley’s voice fractures the calm quiet, “Do you want a ballroom gown or a trumpet?”
Maya frowned, her hand stilling in her confusion, “Like the instrument?”
Farkle scoffed from his spot next to Lucas on the the couch, “Like a wedding dress silhouette, Maya.”
“We’re talking about a shadow?” Maya squinted her eyes, “why does my wedding dress need a shadow!”
Zay chuckled, amused by her distress. As Smackle studied Maya like she was a rare specimen, “I’m not one to place belief in false stereotypes. But are all blondes like this?”
Riley grinned, her eyes darting to meet her best friend’s offended expression “Nope. Just Maya.”
Maya glared, but her expression was devoid of any real anger. “Keep talking, honey. ‘Cause I gots the paint.”
Riley's grin vanished so quickly it was almost comical, “You win.”
Maya smirked, “I always do.”
Smackle’s brows furrowed with utter confusion, “I know I've gotten better at understanding human interaction. But if we're speaking in the literal sense, didn't you lose when it came to the triangle?”
The paintbrush slipped from Maya's grasp, clattering to the ground, and splattering paint along the apartment's floor board's.
Zay groaned, looking at his girlfriend with fond aggravation, “Smackle!”
The room went silent, even the music seemed to lower until it was nothing but a dull whisper. Identical looks of cringey disbelief crossed the group's faces. That is everyone's face, except Maya's, who looked as if all the air had been crushed from her lungs.
To this day it was still a sore subject. It always would be.
Lucas took note of the way Penny was watching her sister with wide eyed curiosity. She stumbled too Maya's side, throwing her arms around her waist.The crown of the little girl’s sandy blonde head barely reaching her middle.
Maya's gaze was vacant, but that didn't stop her arms from moving to return the hug. Lucas's heart broke at the sight.
She was so unbelievably strong. Providing love, and comfort even when she wasn't quite up to it. Maya seemed half there, and half somewhere else.
Her gaze raw, and vulnerable. He didn't know how she did it. How she could hide herself from so many, but not the ones who knew her well, who knew her best.
Penny adored Maya, had been her shadow since the moment she could crawl. Always wanting to follow her, to be beside her, to be apart of her world.
Lucas could relate. All too easily. All too painfully.
The only difference was, Maya returned her sister's affections tenfold. If Maya was Penny's first best friend, then Penny was Maya's whole world.
She had captured Maya's heart from inside her mother's womb. It was all she could talk about, once she found out she was going to be having a sibling.
Maya still carried around a picture of her mother's first ultrasound. Penny couldn't have been bigger than a peanut.
The silence dragged on awkward, and sad. Lucas tore himself out of his own thoughts, and found that his hand had drifted to rub at the faint ache in his chest.
He swallowed, before moving his hand away, and standing up, “Well that's one way to kill a night. I think it's about time to go.”
Zay was already up and out of his seat, collecting him, and Smackle’s coats. Riley looked ready to protest, but he shook his head at her, and she sagged with defeat.
Farkle stood up, striding toward Riley and extending his hand, “Let's go home.”
A soft smile broke out on her face as she entwined their hands, “You're my home.”
Lucas rolled his eyes as he walked toward the door, and opened it. Ignoring the rough pang in his chest, as he leaned against the door.
Two by two, his friends left. Leaving only Maya , and Penny still embracing each other in the middle of her living room.
***
They put Penny to bed early that night. The sweet little girl was full of questions.
Thankfully, Lucas manages to distract her, by telling her the story of a rebel princess, and a dimwitted jester.
She likes it. A little too much. Especially the part where the princess traded in her pretty slippers, for magical combat boots.
Then again, she was Maya's sister. There was bound to be a little of that wild within her as well.
Lucas can't help but smile, wondering briefly what Maya’s kids would be like. There was no doubt she would be an amazing mother to her children. Just not the mother to his.
Nope, that honor fell upon Josh Matthews.
Lucas’ heart flinched away from the thought.
***
They are in the living room, when he taps the keyboard, and music once again flows from the speakers.
Maya is quiet, worrying her bottom lip harshly. Lucas wishes he had the words to fix it. To make it right. But he doesn't. He may never have the words.
Something reckless, and gentle, and tender expands inside his chest. And for a moment he abandons all pretense, every well mannered thought, all his loyal intentions, slip away.
For once he is completely selfish. Completely him, “Dance with me?”
Maya's head snaps up, “what!”
He walks toward her, closing the distance between them. The one he has ached to close for so long.
He held out his hand, “Please?”
Maya is biting her lip even harder, as her eyes shift from his gaze to his hand, and back again, she sounds reluctant when she says, “Lucas…”
His hand remains in the air, looking pleadingly into her ocean blues, “Will you just humor me?”
Finally, Maya sighs. Bypassing his hand, to reach behind his head, and hang her wrapped arms along the nape of his neck, “Oh, please, Huckleberry, you don't have one humorous bone in your body.”
They don't move. Maya can't look at him as she stares off to the side. Lucas nudges his forehead against hers. Drawing her attention back to him.
“Are you here with me?”
Maya burrows her face into his chest, and mumbles something like, “More than I should be.”
He laughs, perhaps his first real one in a long time, “what was that?”
“Hmmh, Nothing.” She shifts, grumbling into his shoulder.
He nods, dubious. But content enough to let it go, and just hold her, even though she wasn't his. Even though she would never be, “Just dance with me and pretend the rest of the world doesn't exist. Just you and me.”
His chest tightens, as he pulls her into him, and slowly spins her out.