Set after Girl Meets Upstate, if you didn't see that from the summary. Slight spoilers, as it probably doesn't make sense if you haven't watched the episode.
He's waiting for her in her room.
Maya doesn't know how he had time to get there, as she'd left him and Riley, the princess and her prince to their perfect little kingdom, just minutes before, but.
There he is, his back resting on her bed, legs crossed, ferret in his arms like he does this everyday.
She kind of wants to throw up at how much she wants him to do this everyday. Scratch that, she feels the bile rising higher in her throat with every passing second.
He turns his head at the sound of her gag and... frowns.
And honestly, what the hell? She's the one who should be disappointed in him. He almost betrayed her, them, and as part of the Riley Committee, he should've known better. Hell, he should've known from the day he met her. Lucas Friar simply wasn't allowed to choose Maya Hart. It was surprising he even liked her as a friend, quite honestly.
"Shut up," She finally says, flopping down next to him. "And give me my damn ferret back."
"Language, m'lady," He retorts, his features relaxing, which, finally, and hands her Ginger "What would Riley say?"
Their faces fall simultaneously at his sentence, and Maya remembers she's mad at him.
"What the hell, Huckleberry? How could you do that?" She glares at him and tries not to think about how close they are.
"Do what?" He replies, playing innocent, but she knows.
"You can't do that with me, Lucas, I know. How could you try to choose me?" He rolls his eyes, like she's being fucking funny or idiotic.
"Because I like you, Maya Hart. I like how you make fun of me and care about me and accept me for who I am. What about your bullshit, Maya?"
Her voice is low, dangerous, when she says, "What are you talking about?"
"'I'm Maya and I don't know what I want'," Lucas mocks, eyes hardened.
"I don't know what I want!" Maya retorts, jaw clenching.
"You know you like me. You know I like you." Lucas starts, determined, but falters. "Why don't you want us?"
"It's not that easy! If it was that easy we wouldn't have been in a triangle for the better part of a year!" Maya's shouting now, and she knows the old lady Margaret upstairs with the heart problems can probably hear her. Quieter, she continues. "It's not that easy."
"Why don't you ever put yourself first?" Lucas asks, the anger from his voice bleeding away to despair. "Why is it always, Riley, Riley's family, Maya's mom, everyone else in the goddamn world, and then Maya?"
The room is silent for a long moment, and Maya gets angry, because he doesn't understand. He'll probably never understand how much Riley means to her, how Maya is unwaveringly sure that Riley saved her goddamn life that day she crawled through her window.
"If I wasn't selfish I would never have looked twice at you. If I wasn't selfish I would be trying to do something with my life and earn good money instead of focusing on art. If I wasn't selfish my mom wouldn't live with the fact that I hate how much she works even though it keeps a roof over my head! If I wasn't selfish I wouldn't wish that I had Riley's family or Riley's nice apartment or Riley's not-boyfriend!" Maya says, putting Ginger on the bed and shifting away from Lucas. Lucas retaliates by shifting closer until their legs and shoulders are pressed together almost painfully.
"Stop being a martyr." Lucas tells her plainly. "Stop self sabotaging. You're allowed to be resentful, to wish that your dad wasn't shitty and that you weren't in the familial situation you're in. You're allowed to be interested in things, in people, even if those people are the same people your best friend's interested in, you're allowed to be happy, Maya! I want you to be happy. I want you to get everything you want in life, how can you not understand that! I want to choose you." Lucas pleads, shifting away just enough to place his hands on her shoulders.
"How can I betray Riley like that?" Maya says, and she breaks.
Her sobs fill the room, and she tries her hardest to stifle them because Margaret upstairs really should be asleep by now and she doesn't want to wake her but they just keep on coming. Lucas cradles her in his arms, unsure of what to do.
"I know you want Riley to be this innocent person forever, but face it, Maya, you can't protect her from everything and you shouldn't. She got past Pluto and she got past her Spanish troubles and she's a stronger person now, and she'll keep on getting stronger with every obstacle and conflict and you have to let her." Lucas tells her softly.
"What if, when that happens, she doesn't need me anymore?" Maya asks. Lucas sighs, one hand moving to cup her face.
"She'll always need you, Maya, even if she makes a million friends, none of them, none of the rest of us, compare to you. You know that. She needs you like you need her."
They're quiet for a minute, drinking each other's words in.
"Did you know Riley's had two crushes in her life?" Maya asks, breaking their gaze and staring towards the wall opposite to her.
"Ummm, no?" Lucas replies, confused.
"In the 1st grade, she was convinced that Farkle was her soulmate for a month, and he didn't know what to tell her because he's liked both of us since we met in some weird Farkle way and she asked him to choose and he didn't. That's when Farkle started saying he loved us both the same and, when Riley stopped liking him after she saw him pick his nose once, he just continued to say that." Maya explained, tilting her head to rest on Lucas' shoulder.
"And who was her second crush?" Lucas asked, already suspecting where this particular story would go.
"You." Maya said simply, cuddling into him. "And I always kind of thought this would end the same way."
"But it didn't." Lucas states unnecessarily.
"No, it didn't." Maya replies.
After a few seconds she sits up ramrod straight and looks at Lucas.
"Can we just stop for a little while? What you're saying, what everyone's been saying, makes sense but I just want things to stop. I don't want to deal with a sad Riley even though she'll get over it, or think about how awkward our group will be, because if people start choosing sides you know Farkle, and by extension Smackle, will stick with Riley and Zay wouldn't ditch you and stay with us and it'd be complicated and I... I just want to keep getting better grades and keep focusing on my artwork and I don't want to deal with this." Maya tells him, and Lucas just wants to hide her away from the world forever.
"Okay, Maya, whatever you want. We're doing this you way, on your terms," He confirms, and Maya finally sinks against him.
"Come on, you need some rest," Lucas tells her. "I've heard you've had an interesting day. Mind telling me about it?"
He pulls her onto the bed and Maya lets him with minimal groans and complaints, smiling when he lays down next to her.
"You sure you want to hear all this Huckleberry?" Maya questions. At his nod, she continues. "Well, it started when Riley started talking about how we were identical..."
She talks until her throat gets dry, and when she's done he starts telling her stories of his time in Texas, both outlandish and true, and eventually they fall asleep together.
Both of them are just glad come morning that it isn't a school day. Because, well. How would they explain that?
I know, kinda crappy ending but it's almost midnight for me and I just wanted to post this. Leave a review on how my first foray into the lucaya fandom went! I'm morotiasblacks on tumblr, by the way.