Work Text:
1.
“Hey, Lucas!"
Lucas looks up from where he was tying his shoe, shaking the sweaty hair out of his eyes as he gets up from the sticky hallway floor. Richard, a teammate on the football team that Lucas hasn’t really gotten much of a chance to interact with, stops at Lucas’ side and pats him hard on the shoulder, jolting the shoulder pads underneath Lucas football uniform in his eagerness.
"Good job at practice today!” Richard says with a grin as he adjusts the football helmet under his arm. Lucas grins back and shrugs bashfully, shoving the wet hair out of his face with a hand as he nods at his teammate in acknowledgement.
“Thanks! You too, Richard."
Richard laughs and waves a hand vaguely in Lucas direction as he shakes his head.
"Rick is fine. We’ve been playing on the same team for over two years, you’ve seen my butt more than my girlfriend probably has, and I just tackled you to the ground about half hour ago. I think we’re on nickname basis."
Lucas laughs and shrugs as he nods in agreement. "Can’t argue with that."
Rick just grins in response and starts walking, urging Lucas to come with him with a wave of his hand. "Speaking of girlfriends…”
Lucas’ lips twitch. “That was an awkward segue…”
“Oh, I know.” Rick says under his breath and Lucas laughs and looks to Rick in amusement as the boy seems to pause uncomfortably before sighing.
“You know my twin right?” Richard asks and Lucas nods.
“Yeah, Rachel. She’s in Yearbook with Riley. Bio with Farkle.” Lucas recites easily and Rick nods emphatically before nudging Lucas with his shoulder and raising a hinting brow.
“She’s into you.” Rick says, raising his brows likes this is a secret.
It’s not.
Rachel King has been eyeing Lucas up and down since he set foot in this school. She was one of those popular girls who seemed to think that she could get anything she wanted with a snap of her fingers. Which she probably could. Lucas didn’t think that there was anything wrong with that. Women that driven shouldn’t be criticized for it, and Rachel seemed to be very nice when she wasn’t looking at Lucas like he was the last glass of water in the Sahara desert. The only issue that Lucas had with Rachel, which wasn’t really an issue at all, was that she wasn’t going to get what she wanted this time. Lucas wasn’t being stubborn, he was being factual.
She wasn’t going to get Lucas.
Rick rubs the back of his neck uncomfortably, fingers scratching into the scalp of his brown hair and Lucas feels his lips twitch, but clamps down on the urge to laugh. Rick fidgets for another few moments before seeming to get frustrated, throwing his hands up in the air with a grimace.
“So?” Rick asks impatiently and Lucas just cocks his head in mock confusion.
“So what?” Lucas asks and Rick’s eye twitches. Lucas’ lips are trembling with the effort it’s taking him not to laugh right not but Rick doesn’t seem to notice in his frustration.
“Are you interested in her? Do you want to go out with her? Will you free me from the obligation of having to ask these awkward questions?” Rick asks and Lucas sputters out the laugh he’s been holding in, stopping by a set of lockers to lean against them as he snorts in amusement. Rick wrinkles his nose as he pauses in front of Lucas.
Lucas laughs until his stomach starts to ache a little, wiping a stray tear from the corner of his eye as he says,“No, Rick, I’m not interested.”
Rick frowns.
“Look, I’m not trying to assume anything…” Rick starts and Lucas raises a brow. “Okay, well I will be assuming whether I say that or not, I know but…If you’re not interested in Rach because of her gender…that’s okay.”
Lucas raises his brow higher. “Because I’m not into your sister I must be gay?”
“No! Of course not it’s just-” Rick grimaces. “You haven’t dated anyone since you got here, you’re captain of the football team, you never talk about girls, and you just don’t seem like you’re interested in the whole dating thing- wait.”
Rick looks as if a light bulb has gone off in his mind, mouth dropping into a small ‘o’.
“Are you Aromantic?” He asks quietly, and Lucas’ amusement must not show obviously on his face because Rick leans in and begins to whisper in hushed tones. “Lucas if you are that’s okay. My Uncle is the same way! It’s not anything to be ashamed of or anything! Oh my god, I’m so sorry I pressured you, if you don’t want to be in a relationship you do not have to be-”
“Rick, Rick, Rick!” Lucas says as he grips Rick but the shoulders, and Rick’s mouth clicks shut, his guilt written all over his freckle face and Lucas smiles kindly as he sighs. “I’m not Aro or gay, and you didn’t offend me or anything, trust me. I just have a girlfriend already. Who I’ve actually been dating since before freshman year.”
Rick blinks. Once. Twice. “…I’m sorry, what?”
Lucas snorts taking his hands off of Rick’s shoulders and crossing his arms as he shrugs. “Yup.”
Rick looks at Lucas strangely, glancing him up and down. “Is she a teacher?”
Lucas sputters another laugh, pushing off the lockers behind him and beginning to restart his trek to the locker rooms, “What?”
Rick follows close behind,brows furrowed as he squints at Lucas’ face. “A college student? Someone’s mom?”
“Well this is a conversation that is getting weird…” Lucas says under his breath, turning to look behind him at the sound of his name. He looks back to see Zay, finally on his way after finishing the drills he was forced to do. Coach has a very blatant issue with talking out of turn but Zay well, sometimes he can’t help himself.
“I’m just wondering what would make Lucas ‘Boy Next Door’ Friar hide his relationship.” Rick says in confusion and Lucas frowns.
“We weren’t hiding. We’re just kind of…private I guess?” Lucas says with a shrug at Rick’s skeptical look.
“Lucas I’ve known you for over two years and I just found out that you’ve been in a relationship longer than our high school life.”
Lucas pauses. He runs that sentence over in his mind for a moment before wincing because-
Yeah that sounds bad.
“I swear, we weren’t hiding. I love her. I’d never hide her away.” Lucas says honestly and Rick blinks in surprise just as Zay finally approaches.
“Sup Ricky.” Zay says with a nod at Rick before giving Lucas a slight side eye. “Friar.”
Lucas laughs, his nose wrinkling with the gesture. “You still mad at me?”
“Damn straight.” Zay mumbles, walking forward towards the crossroads that leads to the locker rooms. Lucas follows behind him with a playful grin, gently shoving his friend in the shoulder.
“We apologized.” Lucas says and Zay just turns to glare at him, looking him up and down with contempt.
“ ‘Sorry’s can’t help me un-see what I saw now can they?” Zay says irritably, and Lucas grins and shakes his head, stopping in front of the class at the center of the crossroad to look through the window into the class inside. He doesn’t have to work much to spot a blonde head of hair smack dab in the middle of the classroom, and it’s not a minute after he spots Maya that his smile softens ever so slightly, lips twisting into a fond expression.
“Zay, do you know about this mystery girlfriend?” Rick asks and Zay looks over to him with a mix of incredulity, confusion, and residue irritation, and snorts loudly.
“Mystery? It’s not much of a ‘mystery’ once you walk in on the two of them sucking face in your tent, on your sleeping bag, when all you wanted was marshmallows and maybe some peace of mind!” Zay snaps, and Lucas rolls his eyes as Rick’s just about pop out of his head. “Trust me, by then the ‘mystery’ is dead. There’s no ‘mystery’ to speak of. I do not need or desire any more information, in fact, I unsubscribe from this ‘mystery’, please take me off the viewing list. ”
“We thought it was my tent.” Lucas repeats for the umpteenth time, glancing at Zay briefly before letting his eyes trail back to Maya,looking over her tired expression as she writes notes, smiling slightly as she yawns widely. Zay huffs.
“That does not make it okay!”
Maya must sense that Lucas is looking at her because she blinks up from her notes and looks out the class window. Her eyes find him with no effort at all, and she blinks once before smirking at him. Before Lucas even has the chance to smile back Maya is looking him straight in the eye, her blue ones twinkling in amusement as she slowly gives him the finger with both hands. Lucas’ eyebrow jumps up briefly in surprise before he huffs a laugh, shaking his head in a cross between mirth and fondness.
"Well, it looks like somebody doesn’t like you.” Rick says as he looks Maya over in surprise and Lucas’ grin only widens.
“That’s my girlfriend.” Lucas says brightly, waving at Maya cheerfully before smoothly transitioning the same hand into a gesture matching Maya’s. Maya grins in response, putting a hand over her heart in a mockingly touched gesture. Rick looks between Maya and Lucas for a confused moment, brows furrowed but Zay only shakes his head, patting Rick gently on the shoulder.
“Don’t try to understand it Ricky. You’ll only hurt yourself.” Zay says as he begins to lead a bewildered Rick away. “This might seem strange to you but believe me when I say that they’ve been like this since middle school and the only thing that has really changed is their parental guidance rating.”
Lucas is not really paying all that much attention as he is distracted by Mr. Mathews coming up to Maya seat and crouching beside her to look at Lucas outside the window. He waves at the frowning teacher and grins as he sees the man say something to Maya that makes her throw her hands up in defeat.
“Hey, I think Mr. Mathews just gave Maya detention!” Lucas says giddily, and Zay shoots Lucas a odd look from where he’s still leading a confused Rick down the hall.
“Y'all are weird.”
.
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2.
“So, I hear that somebody got detention.”
Maya looks up from her sketch with a roll of her eyes, looking to Sharron as she sits down in the stool next to her, her purple hair swishing back and forth along her back as she scoots the chair forward. “How do you know that already?”
“News travels fast.” Sharron says with a flippant wave of her hand, picking up her sketchbook smoothly and starting to sketch without even a single glance at Ms. Cavalares. Maya glances at the teacher and is not surprised to see that the woman has not noticed that Sharron was late. Sharron has seemed to seamlessly master the act of slipping into classrooms unnoticed since she got to this school, always able to integrate herself into class without disruption. It’s one of the things that Maya admires her for, along with her tattoos and purple hair and comic book drawing style. Maya is cool sure, but Sharron is arguably as cool. No cooler. Just equally cool. “I also may or may not have hacked into the school’s security camera system to spy on you.”
Maya’s head snaps to Sharron quicker than anything but Sharron is just calmly drawing away, making Ella, their model for the day, into a cartoon character with flames for hair.
Sharron may be slightly cooler.
“You spy on me?” Maya asks with narrowed eyes and Sharron smirks without taking her eyes off her sketchpad, shading in parts of Ella’s neck with the side f her pencil.
“Only when I miss you.” Sharron says with a shrug, and Maya snorts.
“This is not a healthy relationship.” She says jokingly, and Sharron laughs.
“Probably not.” Sharron admits and Maya is still smiling when she goes back to her sketch, her pencil gently shading in gleam in Lucas’ green eyes. Sure she could be drawing Ella. Well, actually she should be drawing Ella. But she wasn’t. She was drawing Lucas.
Again.
It’s not like Ella was boring, with her bright red hair, her dark skin tone and her full lips, not to mention her septum piercing. Ella was incredibly interesting to draw and incredibly interesting to look at, it’s just that Maya kind of preferred to draw Lucas. Drawing Lucas was a bad habit that she picked up sometimes around middle school. She did it when she was bored, or nervous, or thoughtful, or just thinking about him (which was an embarrassingly large amount of time, something Huckleberry could never know for the sake of Maya’s dignity). It was a bad habit that she blamed him for completely, and after seeing him earlier today in his football uniform all covered in sweat and grinning at her like an idiot, she had slipped back into the habit with ease, not even glancing at Ella before she started drawing Lucas exactly as he was earlier today.
“Speaking of unhealthy relationships…” Sharron says pointedly and Maya blinks up, looking at Sharron only to see her staring rather obviously at Maya’s sketch of Lucas. Maya’s eyebrows slowly raise on her forehead, eyes widening.
“Excuse me?” Maya asks, and her voice has a slight edge to it that Sharron seems to ignore as she sighs impatiently.
Maya’s seen unhealthy. She has heard horror stories of unhealthy.
She and Hopalong are not unhealthy.
“Babe, do you really think that it’s best for you to draw him all the time?” Sharron says lowly, not looking at Maya at all as she sketches, eyes glancing up once or twice to make sure no one’s listening. Maya opens her mouth to reply, something scalding on the tip of her tongue (because he’s her boyfriend and she will draw him if she damn well wants to) but before she can get a word in edge wise Sharron is continuing. “I wasn’t going to say anything about it because your business is your business, love, but…Well I heard today that he has a girlfriend.”
Maya blinks. She pauses, runs what Sharron just said over in her mind a couple of times before cocking her head. Sharron looks up to Maya and must mistake her confusion for shock because she just clucks her tongue and raises a hand to gently squeeze Maya’s upper arm.
“Oh, babe. I knew you wouldn’t’ve heard about this, you really pay no attention to the gossip.” Sharron says sympathetically and Maya’s brows slowly start to furrow. “There’s a lot of rumors kind of flying around about it, but the facts are that he has a girlfriend and he loves her. Apparently they’re private and weird but like, he loves her. Like a lot. Like really, really.”
Maya has opened her mouth but no words have come out in her bewilderment, and Sharron looks to her with so much empathy that Maya doesn’t really know what to do.
“Maya I’m telling this to you like this not to be cruel. I’m telling you this this way because I love you and well…you love him…” Sharron breathes softly and Maya’s eyebrows start to inch up towards her hairline. Sharron’s brows furrow. “Why are you so surprised? Maya you’ve been drawing his face at least once a week ever since I got to this school. I mean, I know you’re friends with him but I swear you know every inch of of that boy’s face like the back of your hand and that’s not friendly. Hell, you draw him from memory alone and you always get the shade of his eyes right and-”
Sharron cuts herself off and sighs sharply, gripping the top of her sketchbook with with lead smudged hands.
“I just don’t want you to get hurt. I know you care about him but dealing with a boy with a girlfriend? Not worth it.” Sharron says softly, and Maya feels like her entire being has softened into a combination of fondness and guilt because Sharron has obviously thought about this a lot and really seems to care about the whole thing and Maya’s kind of a bit of a dick.
“Sharr…” Maya starts but before she can say anything more Sharron is cutting her off with a hand held up in a stop gesture.
“Nope, say no more. This moment is already gushy enough as it is. No chick flick moments, remember? That’s my one rule of friendship Maya and I’m sticking to it, dammit.” Sharron says halfheartedly and Maya’s lips twitch upwards into a small smile without her permission. “Okay, so my advice? The best way to get over somebody is to get under somebody else. It might be hard now babe, but trust me, it’ll make you stop thinking about him! Now I’m going to say a name and I want you to say yes or no and we’ll work from there okay?”
“Sharron-” Maya tries again but Sharron merely flips her dark purple hair of her shoulder elegantly.
“Nope babe, I don’t count we’re already married remember?” Sharron says and Maya sputters out a laugh that makes Sharron grin in response. “Okay, let’s start. Demetri.”
“Sharron-”
“Nope, no, I am not having that, Maya, no ifs or buts. Yes or no?” Sharron says firmly, studying Maya from the corner of her eye. Maya sighs and rolls her eyes, opening her mouth to retort but pausing at the fierce glare that Sharron gives her.
Maya winces.
“No.” She says carefully, and Sharron nods.
“Why?” She says curiously, and Maya wrinkles her nose.
“He uses too much hair gel.”
“Fair. Keagan?”
“No.”
“Quoi?”
“I can’t take him seriously with that name.” Maya says honestly and Sharron’s lips curve into a grin.
“Kevin.”
“He smells weird and I’m pretty sure I saw him picking his nose the other day.”
“So, in other words, no?” Sharron asks playfully and Maya shoots her a deadpan look that she cackles at. “Okay, okay. Alex.”
Maya pauses, looking at her friend strangely. “Alex Piper?”
“Yup.” Sharron says with a nod as she starts carefully drawing singed flowers in the flames of Ella’s hair.
“You think Alex would date me?” Maya asks softly, and Sharron looks up at her seriously, eyes warm.
“I think anyone who wouldn’t date you is a moron. You’re gorgeous and funny and smart as hell. Take it from someone who bats for the other team and would totally scoop you up if you showed even the slightest inclination to lesbianism,” Sharron jokes brightly, and Maya feels herself start to smile gently. “Maya Hart you are a catch. And Alex ‘My-Face-is-More-Symmetrical-Than-a-Perfect-Sphere-Oh-and-Also-I-Play-Drums-in-A-Band-That’s-Semi-Famous-in-Other-News-Look-At-My-Cheekbones’ Piper, would be lucky to even be graced by your presence, let alone date you. And Lucas ‘Local-Mr.Perfect-Captain-Slash-Quarterback-of-The-Football-Team-Also-Honor-Roll-Representative’ Friar does not know what he’s missing by passing you up. He’s an idiot. I officially hate him on your behalf.”
Maya rolls her eyes affectionately as Sharron erases one of the slightly wiggling flowers out of Ella’s hair and replaces it with a perfect one.
“So, it’s decided? We’re going for the musician? I say that you can get him to ask you to prom in less than two weeks. Or you could ask him. Or hey, skip prom and make out!” Sharron suggests and Maya chortles.
“I don’t think I’m going for Alex.” Maya says and Sharron blinks, turning to Maya to regard her oddly.
“Maya. Have you seen his face? Plus he’s actually not an asshole, and he plays drums, what reason could you have for turning him down?” Sharron asks in frustration and Maya shrugs casually, idly drawing in a drop of sweat dripping from Lucas’ brow.
“Well, I’m kind of seeing somebody…” Maya says and Sharron looks completely perplexed.
“You are? Who?” Sharron asks and Maya says nothing, just holds up her sketched portrait of Lucas in his football uniform, his lips stretched into a fond smile, and his middle finger up on his left hand as he stands framed by a window pane. Sharron’s face flips through several emotions, first confusion, then worry, then more confusion before realization and- “Are you fucking serious?”
.
.
Lucas’ lips twitch as he hears the door open downstairs, several barks starting up in reaction to it, but he doesn’t move, keeping his hands under his head and his eyes closed as he lays back on his bed. He hears the sound of a bag dropping down followed by heavy footsteps all along the downstairs floor, and a loud curse that must be caused by Maya stubbing her toe on something. Lucas feels his lips stretch into an even bigger smile at Maya’s colorful language, and he’s just managing to fold his lips over it by the time he hears Maya’s footsteps racing up the stairs. Maya slams the door open without care, and the door hasn’t even hit the wall behind it before Lucas is gasping with the impact of the weight of his small girlfriend suddenly jumping on him, eyes flying open in surprise.
“I’d like inform you that your house is a safety hazard and that I almost died. I could sue you.” Maya says with a raised brow as she takes a bite of a poptart, and Lucas groans, rubbing at the spot where her elbow impacted his ribs.
“Your a safety hazard. I could sue you for bodily injury, Maya your elbows, gosh, lemme-” And Lucas takes both of Maya’s wrists and positions them how he wants them, which just happens to be around his neck. Maya lies flush against him but her head still barely reaches his chin, and she leans her own chin against his chest just to look up at him and Lucas feels his love for her fill him up to the brim. He kisses the bridge of her nose gently and Maya wrinkles it in response, her lips turning up into a reluctant smile.
“Gross, Huckleberry. Keep it in your pants.” Maya says in reply and Lucas rolls his eyes, laughing.
“Will we ever be cute?” Lucas asks rhetorically but Maya scoffs.
“Not as long as I’m half of this relationship.” She sasses and Lucas grins.
“So, basically, never?” Lucas says easily, and Maya narrows her eyes slightly at him, lips curving into a slightly wider smile.
“You’re such a sap, Sundance.” Maya says teasingly.
Lucas raises a brow. “We made out in a tent last weekend and our best friend caught us, a gave you the finger in the middle of your history class today, and our last date was basically us eating burritos and watching cartoons in your living room. I am probably the least romantic boyfriend on the entirety of this planet and yet I’m a sap for thinking we’re going to be together forever?”
“You got it Ranger Rick.” Maya says easily and Lucas rolls his eyes as he grins. Maya takes a hand away from his neck to take a bite of the poptart in her hand, and Lucas can feel the crumbs and jam on the nape of his neck but he can’t find it in him to really care. He shifts his jaw in thought for a moment, watching as Maya takes an enormous bite of the poptart about three inches from his face, licking some jam off her palm with a pink tongue.
“You ever wish I was?” Lucas asks softly and Maya looks confused for a moment. Lucas winces. “Romantic I mean. Gushy. Hand holding in public, two week anniversaries, holding your books, the whole nine?”
Maya’s brow furrows and she huffs out a laugh, dropping the poptart onto Lucas’ bed without care so she can hold his face between both of her hands. “Remember when you dated Riley?”
“I don’t like where this is going.” Lucas says instantly and Maya snickers as she continues.
“And before you took her on a horse ride around the school and asked her father permission to date her and held her hand the whole way home?” Maya asks and Lucas panics for a moment because does Maya want that, god, this whole time has Maya wanted that romance while Lucas just bought her pizza and kissed whenever he could-
“Hey, look at me. Listen to me.”
And Lucas does, without hesitation, looks deep into Maya’s blue eyes and feels his panic recede a bit.
“That wasn’t you. That was Prince Charming, trying to do everything he should do to get the girl, trying to be everything he should be.” Maya rubs her sticky thumbs along Lucas’ cheekbones and Lucas feels his tension slip away, feels his heart sync with hers. “But you aren’t that Lucas. And that’s okay. Because I want you.”
Lucas’ lips are curling into a slightly awed smile, eyes flicking over Maya’s face while she speaks.
“I want…” Maya seems to think for a moment before she looks at the abandoned desert on the bed and lights up. “Poptarts instead of Godiva. I want going to the pound with you ‘just to look’ and always ending up bringing home a flock of unwanted animals to just give away at school. I want…my usual piggy back rides all through the halls whenever you lose a bet, and I want to make out with you in a tent and freak out Zay. I want us holding hands to be special, like it always is because we only do it when we really need to. I want you to kiss me on the nose like the dork you are. I want you to flip me off because I will always flip you off. I want to kick your ass at COD, and to take naps between studying, and to freaking just be with you all the time you freaking Huckleberry.”
Maya huffs and squeezes Lucas’ face between her hands, looking directly into his eyes as she speaks. “Because I signed up to be with you Lucas. Not Prince Charming. Not The Romance Guru. You.”
Maya lets go of his face Lucas’ grin could light up a dark tunnel. Maya’s smile in response is only slightly reluctant even as she rolls her eyes at Lucas snaking his arms around her, pulling her close and kissing her sticky lips. She tastes like poptarts and Maya and their lips stick together with jam and it’s perfect because it’s them. After Lucas pulls away Maya smiles and goes for the rest of the left over poptart, almost getting the rest of the pastry to her mouth before Lucas dives in eats the rest of it right out of her hand. And Maya allows him to get away with it with only a halfhearted huff or exasperation, and lets him kiss the middle of her palm without protest. Lucas grins happily.“And you say I’m the romantic one…”
“Oh, you want romance? You ain’t seen nothing yet.” Maya pulls a hand back to reach into the back pocket of her jeans, pulling out a folded square of paper. Lucas takes it curiously, unfolding it until it’s whole again glancing over the picture before bursting out laughing. “You like it? I drew it in detention.”
“Why are you like this?” Lucas sputters out between fits of laughter and Maya’s grin is smug if anything. “What compelled you to draw me on top of a triceratops?”
“Mostly because I wanted to hear you say triceratops.” Maya says playfully and Lucas’ grin widens to something goofy as he raises a flirtatious brow.
“Oh yeah?” He asks through chuckles and Maya nods.
“I like a guy who knows his dinosaurs.” She says, feigning solemnness, and Lucas hums.
“Well then I’m the guy for you.”
Maya’s smile turns slightly soft, and she wrinkles her nose affectionately at him. “ Good. Because apparently the news on the streets is that I have a crush on you.”
“Don’t you?” Lucas asks teasingly and Maya snorts.
“Don’t flatter yourself, Huckleberry.”
“Well, if we’re making confessions here, apparently I’m gay.” Lucas says with a smile and Maya looks positively delighted.
“Thanks for the heads up!” Maya says brightly and Lucas laughs.
“No problem Short Stack! Anything else you want to share?”
“Well, I’m married to Sharron.”
“Gosh, how are we going to tell Riley.”
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