I don't own the GMW characters.
Also, I just want to say thank you to Jess, who left a guest review on my other fic, The one where Farkle sort of (not really) saves the Friars, : Thank you so much for your kind and encouraging words! I'm glad you liked it, and I hope you like this one too!
Happy holidays, everyone! Hope you enjoy this!
*Set between Christmas and New Year's, sophomore year
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They're fighting, their voices raised so loud that she can hear them through the closed door of her room all the way on the other side of the apartment.
It's infinitely worse than anything she remembers hearing as a child, somehow even worse than the silence and the muffled sobs of her mother crying in her bedroom after her father had left them.
She doesn't know what they're fighting about. She doesn't want to know. She can barely think past the growing ball of anxiety in the pit of her stomach that seems to be taking over her body and mind.
It's too much. She can't stay in the apartment anymore — doesn't want to be there when her stepfather leaves and won't come back. So she flings down the sketchbook she's been doodling in — her quick, rough sketch of horses galloping across an idyllic field covered by dark, deeply etched, jagged slashes of pencil marks — grabs her coat and a scarf to shield against the biting cold, and climbs out of her window.
Lucas thinks he imagined it when he hears a knock on his window. It's nearly midnight, snowing, and bitterly cold outside; no one in their right mind would be wandering about outdoors. But he gets up from his bed and checks anyway, and has a moment of panic when he sees Maya on his fire escape outside.
"Maya, what's wrong? What are you doing here?" His tone is urgent as he opens the window and steps back to let her in.
Maya shrugs. "Nothing's wrong," she says, as he bolts the window shut against the cold again. She takes off her scarf and coat, and dumps them over the back of his chair. "I was getting bored, so I came to see what you were doing."
It's usually Lucas who goes to Maya's window, especially this late at night. It's something he's done all too frequently these past few months. He hasn't had a proper night's sleep ever since his parents' divorce, but Maya has helped ease the confusion and pain (and the nagging doubt that maybe, somehow, he's the reason they decided to separate, that's he's responsible for his mother crying herself to sleep every night for weeks after it happened). Maya's the only one he's been able to talk to about it; he hasn't even told Zay much beyond the fact that his parents aren't together anymore.
It's strange how emotional upheaval in his life has brought her back to him, that she was the one he turned to when it felt like he was barely keeping his sanity. It's the only good thing that's come out of the divorce. Nearly a year after the ski lodge trip and his break up with Riley soon after, he and Maya are close friends once again, closer even than before, in fact.
That's how he knows she's not telling the truth, that something isn't right.
"I was just…. reading," He gestures to the comic book lying facedown on his bed. He's lying too. He'd been going through the pictures on his phone, pictures of their group of friends, but it's Maya his eyes lingered on. He'd been wondering whether — given how close they've become — Maya maybe kind of knows how he feels about her, and that she likes him back too, the way she did once before, the way he's always done. He supposes the accurate term for it would be "pining".
Maya simply nods and glances away. She barely makes eye contact, her eyes darting around his room as if she's seeing it for the first time.
Lucas tries again. "Maya, is everything okay?"
"Yes, why wouldn't it be?" She looks at him like he's daft. "Do you want to go for a walk, Huckleberry?"
He registers the use of the treasured nickname — Maya stopped calling him nicknames for a while when they became distant from each other, but she's been doing it more often now that they're close friends again — even as his eyebrows rise in disbelief, both at her crazy suggestion and the fact that she thinks it'll deflect his attention from whatever's going on with her. "Now? It's below zero, and freezing out there, and you want to go for a walk now?"
"Fine," she shrugs again. "What do you want to do then? We could watch a few episodes of The Walking Dead or something."
But she's already walked away even before she finishes her sentence, wandering aimlessly around his room. She stops and stares at the pictures of their friends that he's tacked up on his board.
She seems restless and antsy, and Lucas knows something's very wrong. Maya never behaves like this. He goes up behind her, and turns her around to face him. "Maya?"
To his surprise, after a pause, Maya moves forward, towards him, wraps her arms around his waist, and presses her face to his chest. His arms go around her automatically even as he tries to understand her muffled words over the pounding of his heart in his ears. He hasn't been this close to Maya, her front pressed to his like this… well, ever. He gulps nervously.
"Mom and Shawn are fighting," Maya mumbles into his chest. "I don't know what it's about, but it sounds real bad."
Lucas understands immediately. "Maya—"
"I don't want to be there when he leaves us too."
He hugs her tightly, hating that she sounds sad and defeated. "That's not going to happen—"
"That's what happened before," Maya counters wanly. "I told her the Gimbo the Elf routine was crazy. He put up with it last year, but—"
"Maya." His tone is forceful enough to make her tense in his arms, but that's how he knows she's listening. "Shawn isn't Kermit, and he's not going to leave you guys, least of all for a crazy, funny Gimbo the Elf routine."
"I can't see my mom go through that again," she says quietly, and Lucas's heart twists, because as much as this is killing her, Maya is, as usual, thinking of someone else's pain first.
"She won't. And neither will you, because that's not what's going to happen. He loves you both."
He feels a pang when he thinks of his own father, and how his parents aren't together anymore because they'd been fighting too, for a long time. But he pushes the thought aside and focuses on Maya.
She's silent, so he continues. "Maya, people who love each other sometimes fight about stuff. No family lives without disagreeing on something or the other every now and then. You've had fights with your mom before, you've fought with Shawn before. Hell, even Shawn and your mom have argued before."
"Not like this." Maya sounds young and vulnerable as she presses her face deeper to his chest.
He touches her cheek to raise her face so he can look at her. "Sometimes, people get upset with each other when they're talking about something that's important to them," he says gently. "Just because they're fighting, that doesn't mean they're not going to sort out the matter, or that Shawn's going to leave just because your mom disagrees with him."
She regards him quietly, and he realizes with relief that she's less worried now after his reassurance. He knows he hasn't done much, but he's glad he can be there for her the way she was his rock during his parents' separation.
They stare into each other's eyes, and something shifts subtly. Suddenly, he's aware that neither of them is thinking about Shawn and Katy's fight anymore.
Moments like these have been happening increasingly frequently over the past few months. They'd be sitting next to each other, talking while they worked on homework or some assignment. Then suddenly, everything around them would fade when they'd find themselves with their faces close, staring into each other's eyes, the air around them charged with expectation and anticipation. Until something or someone would interrupt them (usually Farkle, who's interrupted them so many times that Lucas has begun to wonder if he's doing it on purpose).
Lucas swallows and takes a deep breath, steeling himself to do what he's been wanting to do for ages and ages: he bends his head closer to Maya, who stays as she is in the circle of his arms, looking up at him, lips slightly parted, frozen.
Their lips are bare millimetres apart when the loud shrill of a ringtone cuts through the air. They jerk apart as if someone's dumped scalding water on them.
Lucas leaps to answer the phone without looking at who's calling. "Hello?"
There's a second's silence, then a loud angry voice bellows from the other end, "Who is this?"
Lucas jerks the phone back from his ear and realizes it's not his, it's Maya's. "This is Lucas," he manages without stammering, though it nearly comes out garbled in his rush to assure Shawn. "Maya's here—"
Shawn is still yelling at the other end when Lucas hands Maya her phone.
It takes Maya a few minutes to calm Shawn down. "I'm okay, Shawn, I'm at Lucas's house," she says, wanting to assure him she's alright.
"You left without telling us you were going out at this time of the night," Shawn is calmer now that he knows where she is and that she's safe. "I called Cory, thinking you'd be with Riley, but he said you weren't there either. Your mom and I were worried sick, Maya."
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you worry," Maya says, contrite. "I'll come home right now—"
"No, you wait there," Shawn tells her firmly. "We're coming to pick you up."
"Shawn, there's no need," she protests, "I'm barely a couple of blocks away!"
But, "We'll be there in ten," Shawn says, and ends the call.
Mrs. Friar isn't as surprised to see Maya emerge from her son's room as Maya imagined she'd be. She throws Lucas a stern look when he tells her Maya's parents will be here soon to take her home, to which he ducks his head sheepishly, sure she's going to put him in the shed.
It turns out Shawn is the only parent who's surprised that Maya turned to Lucas instead of Riley when she was upset and needed comfort. He's also the only one who didn't know about Lucas's frequent late night visits. "You knew a teenage boy was sneaking into Maya's room at night, and you let him stay?"
"You knew?" Maya asks both the mothers as, sitting beside her on the living room couch, Lucas gulps, sure his hours are numbered and he's living out his last day on the planet.
"Of course I knew," Katy says, rolling her eyes, exasperated. "I'm your mother, Maya. I may be lenient with things other parents are stricter about, but that doesn't mean I don't know what's going on."
"You let a teenage boy with teenage thoughts stay in our daughter's room?" Shawn repeats, still upset no one else believes teenage boys are a menace to his daughter.
Maya's heart leaps at the words "our daughter".
"I was a teenage boy once, Katy, I know exactly what's going on in his head!"
Shawn's glaring at Lucas, and Maya's gaping at him, at the knowledge that he cares this much about her, that he thinks of her as his daughter (forgetting that he's told her this before).
"I raised my boy with manners, so he better not have done anything inappropriate," Lillian Friar says. She raises an interrogatory eyebrow at Lucas. "Have you, son?"
"N-no, of course not!" Lucas stammers, red-faced. "I'd never!"
"Shawn, I trust the boy," Katy says, laying a hand on his arm. "He's one of Maya's best friends. He cares about her, and helps her with her schoolwork. He's good for her."
Shawn's still glaring at him, so Lucas puts on his best innocent Lucas-the-Good/St. Huckleberry-the-Perfect face, because he's sure Shawn can read his mind and knows his feelings for Maya aren't anywhere in the vicinity of platonic.
"The divorce has been hard on both of us," Lillian says quietly, "And Maya's the only one Lucas has talked to about it. I know she's really helped him get through it, Mr. Hunter. She's helped us both."
"I know you've both been going through a difficult time," Katy squeezes Lillian's arm. "And I'd never want Maya to not be there for her friends. That's why I didn't say anything, Shawn."
After a pause, Shawn sighs and nods, well aware that difficult fathers are a touchy subject, and friends and family often mean the same people in his book. "Fine, I'll trust you," he reluctantly concedes to Lucas, "and I already do trust you," he says to Maya. "You're close friends, so you both don't need to sneak around. None of us have a problem with you spending time together. But—" he frowns, "—that still doesn't excuse why you left home without informing either of us this late at night," he tells Maya crossly.
"It's not like you, baby girl," Katy adds. "If you wanted to come and see Lucas, why didn't you just let us know?"
Maya lowers her eyes, and mumbles something.
"What?"
"Because you were fighting!" Maya yells. "I was upset, okay? You were fighting, and I was scared you'd—" She cuts herself off miserably.
"You thought that because we were fighting, I was going to walk out, didn't you?" Shawn asks quietly.
Maya looks away. Katy, Shawn, and Lillian all sigh.
Lucas puts his arm around Maya's shoulder in comfort and support, but hurriedly removes it when Shawn shoots him a glare.
"Maya," Shawn crouches on the floor before where she's sitting on the couch, "Just because Katy and I disagreed over something doesn't mean I'm going to do something stupid and drastic like leaving you. I love her and I love you, and I'd be the last person ever to abandon my family. You know that."
Maya nods, a little shamefaced, because she does know that. She knows his history, knows he'll never do that to her. He promised to always be there for her even before he married her mother.
Shawn pats her head and she smiles at him, feeling much lighter and reassured.
"So," Katy says now that Shawn and Maya both look a little happier, "You left because you thought Shawn was going to leave because we were fighting, and came here, not knowing this was the reason we were fighting?"
Maya's forehead crinkles in confusion. "You were fighting about Huckleberry?"
Shawn rolls his eyes at the nickname that's obviously not just a nickname anymore, while Lillian suppresses a smile. Katy just looks amused.
"Well, yes, Huckleberry was part of the reason. But were fighting about you."
"Me?"
Katy slants her eyes at her husband mischievously. "You heard Shawn, he has very strong views about what teenage boys really want to do when they're alone with young teenage girls."
Lucas mentally groans, conscious of Maya, Shawn and his mother's eyes on him. He's positive his face is flaming red and fervently wishes he was invisible.
"And he was, I believe, questioning my parenting skills—"
"I wasn't questioning them!"
"—when I happen to have raised my daughter by myself for most of her life," Katy finishes.
"She's my daughter too," Shawn says sulkily.
Katy laughs. "Yes, she is. And you and your daughter have caused enough trouble for one night. I'm sorry, Lillian," she adds, turning to Lucas's mom.
Lillian waves away her apology. "I'm just glad Maya's safe, and that everything's turned out okay."
Lucas watches, bemused, as his mother and Maya's mom agree on a quick lunch date sometime soon, before Ms. Hart herds Maya and Shawn out. He and Maya can barely say bye to each other properly, thanks to Shawn — deliberately, Lucas is sure — inserting himself between them.
His mom shuts the door behind them, and then turns to him, an eyebrow raised in question.
Lucas scratches the back of his neck. "So, uh, you knew huh?" He mentally kicks himself the second the words are out of his mouth, because way to go incriminating yourself by reminding your mother you'd sneaked out in the first place.
"Why do you think I let you get away with it, Huckleberry?" Lillian grins when Lucas blushes furiously and ducks his head. "It's a wonder you've been keeping your grades up. You can't be getting much schoolwork done around her, seeing how you keep making cow eyes at her."
"Mama," he protests, cringing because dear lord, he probably does make cow eyes at her.
"Get yourself to bed," she says, reaching up and ruffling his hair. She kisses his cheek and pushes him in the direction of his room. "Oh, and Lucas?"
He looks back from the door of his bedroom. "You're not getting off so easy, Bucky. You're grounded."
At least, Lucas thinks when he sees the message from Maya on his phone ten minutes later, he's not the only one.
For the first time in her life, Maya's not upset about being grounded. Granted, she's pretty much confined to her home until school starts again, but she'll be seeing her friends for New Year's in a couple of days, and they're always group chatting and video calling each other for her to miss them too much. Besides, it really is way too cold to venture outdoors.
She feels much calmer now. The momentary blind panic that set in when she heard her parents fighting is gone, replaced by the comforting knowledge that Shawn's not going anywhere. She feels a bit silly for jumping to conclusions and just assuming the worst when it comes to Shawn's presence in her and her mother's life. But then Shawn and her mother have only been married for a year, while Maya has lived with the experience of her biological father's abandonment for most of her life, so she figures her fears of Shawn walking out on them are not entirely unfounded.
Her thoughts turn to Lucas and Lillian, who have both endured so much over the past few months since Lucas's father officially separated from Mrs. Friar. She feels a bit guilty about going to Lucas with her worries when she knows he's just beginning to come to terms with his own situation — Maya has seen his struggle firsthand, has been there for most of it. But she acted without thinking, and her instincts led her to the one person she knew would understand.
Ever since she's known him, she and Lucas have had some sort of unspoken understanding of each other's thoughts and feelings, well, at least in most cases. Over the years, he's increasingly been the one person she can turn to when things become too much, too dark. He's become her refuge, her sanctuary.
Maya sighs as she turns in bed, flopping onto her stomach under the covers. She's not unaware of how Lucas feels about her — she'd have to be utterly dense and clueless not to see the way his eyes light up when she's around, or the way his fingers linger longer than they should when they brush against hers. The way he never lets her walk home alone, especially late at night. The way he always gets her favourite dessert from the school cafeteria and splits it with her, happy to let her have the bigger portion. The way he buys her books he thinks she'll like, and reads them too, so that she can discuss them with him later (she's become quite an avid reader, thanks to Shawn's influence).
The way he's just always there for her.
It's not like Maya wants to discourage Lucas's behaviour; her feelings for him are nowhere near platonic either. But she's being cautious. It's taken them a while to overcome the distance and awkwardness that formed between them after the trip to the ski lodge last year, and Maya's afraid of doing anything to hurt their friendship, deep as it is.
Then again, she's sure something would have happened today if it wasn't for Shawn's ill-timed phone call.
Maya sighs and presses her face into her pillow when she finds herself blushing and smiling at the thought of finally kissing Lucas. Oh well, she thinks as she begins to drift off to sleep, there's still New Year's, and the school dance, and their upcoming class trip… plenty of opportunities to let something happen between her and Huckleberry… only if no one interrupts them!
Thank you for reading! Please leave a review, I'd love to hear what you thought about it.