A/N: Hello! This is my second fic for GMW, again it's Joshaya because I love Joshaya, and I think more Joshaya stories should be out there. It's a one-shot again and I hope you all enjoy!
Marry Me
Summary: The six "I do's" before you find your way to him, and he to you.
Lucas
"Why'd you even RSVP yes? You should have just made an excuse," Josh says taking a swig of his whiskey as they sat on the stools of the hotel bar.
Maya puts her finger to her glossy pink lips, telling her date to hush. "I didn't bring you here to lecture me. You're here to keep me distracted."
"No, that's the vodka's job," he corrects, sliding a shot glass of colorless liquid down her side. "I'm just saying, it's never a good idea to say yes to an invitation to your ex-boyfriend's wedding."
It takes her a second to down the shot, blanching at the strong taste it left in her tongue. "He's also my friend," she argues, letting her index finger trace the opening of the shot glass absently. "Plus, Riley, Zay, and everyone else came. It would be weird if I didn't. I don't want it to be weird again between him and me."
That was the first honest thing Josh's heard from her the whole day. She had been nervous to attend his wedding, even though they've ended things ages ago, if only because she's reminded of the reason they broke it off in the first place. And her friends will be busy celebrating his new life with his wife, and every now and then look at her to check if she's okay. That's why she's brought him, to keep her from looking like the girl who didn't marry the groom.
Then again, a little spirits to get into the festive mood couldn't hurt, right?
So he lets her take a shot. And another. And the third one she almost spits out because he makes a joke that she wouldn't normally find funny (delivery was always a problem for Josh) except that she's tipsy.
"Okay, I think that's enough pre-gaming." He signals the bartender for the bill. "Let's save you some sobriety in time for the reception, where the booze is actually free. Yeah?"
"Boing," she slurs, lazily getting off the bar stool, giving his date another once over (the first one was when he came to pick her up earlier that day). "Have I told you how hot you look in a tux?"
He looks at her with an amused grin at how she still uses that nickname she gave him a long time ago. Tipsy Maya is generous at compliments.
"Aha," he says, tipping her nose with his index finger. "I always knew you had a thing for me. Tell me, how many times have you imagined me naked?"
She sticks her tongue out like a four-year-old child who accidentally said something she shouldn't have, but at her state he can't tell whether she's blushing because of the alcohol or because of his joke. "I've seen you naked, asshole." He feigns offense by covering his body with his arms. "Plus, my old crush for you was never a secret."
He laughs bemused by the beautiful blonde in front of him. "Okay, little ferret. Time to get to the chapel."
She sighs, her long lashes fluttering with the movement of her eyes. Delicate and newly manicured fingers twirl strands of blonde locks that frame her face, checking if the pins are still in place in her casual side braid that forms into a bun at the back.
"Do I look pretty?" she asks him as she stands straight.
"Gorgeous."
"Perfect," she smiles.
Smackle
This is her third trip down the elevator to fetch something blue for the mortified and panicking bride-to-be, and she can tell you right now that she's never agreeing to be a bridesmaid again if she has to find a way to "make the yellow tulips white." Of all the people she thought would turn into a bridezilla, Isadora Smackle was not one of them. And yet here she is.
Heels clatter when she walks down marble floors, and she makes a turn down one hallway, and the sight she catches makes her blanch.
"Oh my god, Matthews," she calls out, and the man in a suit, locking lips with a woman he's had pinned against the wall turns to face her, hair tousled and lips stained. "Get a room."
Embarrassed but clearly not regretful, he grins to her, and she rolls her eyes. "Hey, Maya. You've met Rose, right?" he asks. Rose was Smackle's cousin whom Riley set up with Josh a month or so ago. She shyly wipes the smudged lipstick, hiding an impish grin that matched his.
"Yeah, yeah. But will you two lovebirds stop grossing hallway passersby out?" she says as she continues to walk past them. "Especially those whose boyfriends couldn't make it to the wedding."
She hears Josh laugh behind her. "You want me to call Harvey and tell him you miss him?"
"Tell him he's not getting any for a week!" she shouts back, making Josh's date gasps at the insinuation of the joke.
"Poor guy." She hears him snicker. "I told you before you'd never find a better wedding date than me."
Auggie & Ava
His face shows utter disgust at the beautiful plate in front of him.
She frowns seeing his reaction, "It tastes good, you know."
"It's not lamb."
"It's just as expensive."
"I told him to get lamb."
"I pretty sure it was her decision on what goes into the menu, and what the bride says goes."
"Not even married yet and she's already bossing him around," he grimaces. "Outlook bad."
She slaps him on the arm, and her blue eyes shoots daggers at his. "Stop it, half the guests here are hers."
He sighs as he continues to look at his plate. "I told him he's still too young," he says, barely a whisper.
She hears him clear as day though. "You—what?" she gasps, pulling him to stand up, ignoring curious looks from their friends at the table as she takes him to a quiet side of the ballroom, her green fringe sequin dress reflecting lights as they walked. "Is that why there were three hours unaccounted for when we couldn't find Auggie?"
"He asked me last night," he explains, shrugging at the implication that it was his fault. "I simply told him what I thought."
"The night before he was getting married?" the annoyance in her tone was starting to escalate.
"I don't know what you're getting so worked up for!" Josh huffs in equal frustration. "We're still here, aren't we? With that thing they call steak."
Maya grits her teeth, crossing her arms, and he's sure she might combust anytime now. "You, Joshua Matthews, do not deserve to get what you want."
"I didn't tell him not to get married, okay" he defends, running a hand through neatly gelled hair. "He's nineteen, so I told him I thought he was too young."
Eyes narrow at his explanation. "Cory and Topanga got married around the same age, and that turned out great."
Frustrated, his hands fly to his face, the palms rubbing his eyes. "That was a generation ago!" he exclaims, his voice a little muffled by his arms before he lets them fall to his sides. "Now, people are more fickle-minded. They leave when things are bad, they leave when things are good and sometimes they leave even when you think things are going great. People leave, Maya. So yeah, I guess I didn't get what I want."
He doesn't know when her face started to soften, but there it was again—the same look he's been getting for the past month. But maybe, he thinks, it was his fault for falling into the trap, whether Maya intended it or not.
"I know people leave, Josh," she says, her voice tender, and she doesn't see how he notices the fingers of her left hand fiddling a silver band with a precious stone on her ring finger. "But you shouldn't project your own heartbreak to your friends, especially those who are getting married. More especially if it's the night before their wedding!"
"Auggie is family, Maya," he corrects. "I'd only ever want what's best for him."
It takes a moment for Maya to get over the weight of his words. She knows his heart is in the right place, it usually always is. But, right now, his heart is broken too, so she knows it can't be spewing out relationship advice for those others who are about to make the biggest commitment of their lives (even if they're both just nineteen).
"Still," she says, finally thinking of something to say. "Stop trying to break people up."
"That was never my intention."
"I never said it was," Maya says holding his gaze.
"So when are you going to tell everyone about that ring on your finger?" he asks, suddenly changing the topic to something else that she, based on her surprised reaction, was not prepared to talk about.
"What—How?"
"It's not that hard to spot that diamond ring on you finger that you've been fiddling with," he responds to her surprise, and the way she looks at her ring makes him think she actually forgot about it. "Although, I guess the diamond's too small for other people to notice—Hey!"
She slaps him in the arm. "It's not about the size—"
"Oh, sometimes it really is," Josh teases impishly.
"It was last night," she says ignoring his innuendo. "We just didn't want to steal their thunder."
"Or you're embarrassed about the size—Ow!" He rubs the arm she's hit more than three times that night. "I'm gonna have to warn your fiancée about that hitting problem of yours. Us guys we gotta stick together"
She crosses her arms, eyes brows furrowed at she glares at the brunette. "I'm so glad Ava didn't pick lamb."
"Have a I told you? Dancing With The Stars just called," he grins and she's confused when he gives her a once over from head to toe. "They want their costume back."
Mouth agape at the comment, she fails to lay another slap on his arm when he immediately makes a run for it back to their table.
"How rude."
Zay
The first time he gets to talk to her that day was at the hallway.
He's been so busy that day practicing a dance number that Zay had him, Lucas and Farkle, along with some of his fraternity brothers from college, perform with the groom during the reception as a surprise for his bride. The boys spent all morning before the ceremony rehearsing secretly (it was so hard to keep a secret from Riley who kept on snooping around). He didn't catch her around during the ceremony either and he even wonders if she attended. And right after that he had to rehearse again. He doesn't even know anymore how the groom convinced him to join them in the performance, but he's sure it had something to do with free tickets he's now sure isn't worth it.
When he rushes into the reception hall to grab the groom's older sister for some choreography assistance, he bumps into a head full of blonde in the hallway. "Sorry," he says offering his hand to help her get up. "That was my bad."
"It's okay," was all she says in response, along with a small smile that he was unsure he noticed. In his rush to get to the reception hall, he also almost misses the puffiness around her eyes, or the pinkness of her nose almost the same shade of her blush. In his rush, he just waves her goodbye, giving himself a mental note to ask her about it later.
But he doesn't see her later in the reception, before or after his performance. So he instantly regrets not asking her if she was okay.
He sneaks out after the dance number, figuring he wouldn't be needed anymore (not that he cared at that moment), and he makes his way to a familiar apartment. He makes a stop, though, because he knows she loves tacos (she's made many a fuss about her Mexican favorite for him to know this would at least make her feel a little bit better).
When he arrived at her studio apartment, he sees the lights are still on, so, he tells himself, at least he wouldn't be waking her up. He rings the doorbell, and he's unsure she'd actually open it until she does.
There was Maya Hart, in her pajamas and tear stained face, her golden hair put up in a messy high bun, a stark contrast to how she looked a few hours earlier. She raises an eyebrow at the sight of him in her doorstep.
"You look…"
"Gorgeous?" she offers.
He bites his lower lip. "I wouldn't go that far."
"You're mean."
He grins because at least she still has a sense of humor. "I've come bearing gifts," he says as he holds up a paper bag with a familiar logo she would notice right away.
Sighing, she steps aside giving him space to enter her apartment. They make their way to her small couch, she sits on it while he sat on the floor where he begins to take out the tacos from the bag on her coffee table.
"You left," he says, more of a statement than anything, his back still turned to her as he prepares the food.
"I know."
"You wanna talk about it?"
"Nope," Maya says dryly.
He turns to see her sat on the couch, her legs pulled up to her chest, which any psychiatrist would analyze to mean that she's put up her walls. So he hands her a taco, and she reaches for it with her right hand, and that's when he noticed it.
She takes the taco from him, but when she does he doesn't let go of her. Maya gives him a suspicious look but his eyes were elsewhere, and when she follows his gaze she realizes that he's staring at the spot where a ring used to be. When she looks up again to meet his gaze, he can see the sadness in her eyes and the pain that's been welling up inside of her.
Knowing that the taco might spill, he takes it out of her grip with his free hand, the other never letting go of hers. His thumb caresses the back of her hand while his eyes observe her expressions.
Smiling weakly she says, "I thought he'd be the one to stay."
Farkle
"You think I'm joking."
"Well, you can't be serious."
"I thought I used to be your dreamboat?"
She laughs at the reminder. "First of all it was Smackle who called you that. Second, that was way back in high school."
"So you don't like me anymore?"
"Josh, I'm not going out with you," she says. "It will be a whole lot of messy and complicated."
"So you do like me?"
She groans at his insistence, blushing a little even. "What do you want me to say?"
"Say you'll go out with me."
"No," she says crossing her arms, smiling as if she's won over him.
He sighs as he gets up and takes his jacket from the back of the chair. "Then I guess you leave me with no choice."
"Wait—Where are you—No, Josh!"
"Hello, everyone—Is this thing on? Okay, it is, thanks—Don't worry, Farkle, I'm not hijacking your wedding…Okay, maybe a little. But hear me out—And congratulations, by the way. Hello, everyone. I'm Joshua Matthews, friend of the groom. If I could get your attention, there's something I would like to say. You see, there's this girl I like, and I can't seem to get her attention. She thinks I'm a joke. Boo, I know right, I mean look at me," he jokes which make the audience laugh but makes a certain blonde haired girl sink into her seat. "She's over there at that table—no, not that, to the right—there! No, not her, she's my niece—yes her, the one that's trying to hide her face in her phone. Thanks for the spotlight, whoever you are."
"Oh god—" Maya grumbles.
"Is he—" starts Riley.
"He is," finishes Lucas.
"Can the ground just eat me up now?"
"You see, we've known each other for the better part of our entire lives, but she lived hers and I lived mine. Funny thing though, you know, all roads seem to lead back to her. I know, I know, I'm sweet, thank you for your 'awws'. But see I like her, and I want her in my life, and I hope life knows what it's doing because I have this whole speech prepared on how to convince her, and it's gonna he a whole lot of embarrassing from here on out. So…"
"Shit—"
"Here it goes…"
Riley
"Hey, gorgeous. I finally have you all to myself," he whispers in her ear as he wraps his arms around her waist from behind her. "Is the maid of honor finally done with all her duties?"
She smiles when she feels his arms tighten around her. "I would have been able to finish faster if you helped me."
"And get in the way of Riley's bridal wrath?" he jokes. "No, thank you."
"Will you dance with me?" she asks.
"Always."
He leads her to the dance floor where the other guests, as well as the bride and groom are dancing slowly to flow of the song. She wraps her arms around his neck, and he circles around her waist, and he lets her rest her hear on his shoulder as they listen to each other's steady breathing.
"Wanna know a secret?" he whispers.
The feel of his breath on her skin sends shivers through her body. "What?" she asks, voice hitched.
"I think I've loved you all my life."
She smiles as she buries her face in his neck,
"Wanna know another secret?"
"How many secrets are there?"
"Just this one last," he smiles, and she looks up at him, her blue eyes digging deep into his, and she's seen nothing more beautiful than his shade of blue, while he's seen nothing more beautiful than her. "I want to marry you."
"Is this a proposal?" she asks, eyebrow raised.
"Are you going to say yes?"
They're still swaying to the music, but otherwise oblivious to the rest of the world inside that room. She thinks she can stay in this moment for the rest of her life, and wonders what took them so long to get to where they were. But she doesn't regret any moment of it—to being her crush, and then a buffer, and then a friend, to someone she can rely on no matter what, to what they were now. Maybe the long road was worth it after all.
"Are you going to run away?"
"And miss out on a lifetime with you? Would never dream of it."
She pretends to think about it for a moment. "Then ask again."
He stops their dancing so they can stay still, and he's smiling, happier than he's been in a very long time. "Marry me?"
And she smiles back, because now she's finally found someone who wouldn't leave—rather, she's found the one person who stayed. "Of course."
END
So I hope you liked this little tribute. Please leave share with me your thoughts on this fic. Should I start a chaptered story? (Although I'm still in the process of finishing another in another fandom) I have some ideas and some rough drafts written but let's see. Maybe if you have one-shot requests too I can come up with something? It's just that one-shots are easier to commit to than chaptered stories.