Author's Note:

Hey everybody! This is my first published fanfiction and I am so excited! Please forgive any mistakes in grammar and spelling that I have made. I spell-checked and grammar-checked to the best of my ability, but I don't have a beta for this story (I don't really know how to get one).

Anyway, I hope you like the story. I was so inspired to write a Joshaya story after seeing Girl Meets Ski Lodge (both parts), so I did. And here it is. This is a multi-chapter fic, so I will be uploading more chapters later and hopefully finishing it by the end of September.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Girl Meets World or any of the characters, nor do I own Disney's Tangled, which I referenced. Don't sue me.

Chapter One.

Maya inspected the diamond ring on her left hand, leaving her work on the dining room table, forgotten for the moment.

It definitely had not been a cheap purchase. There were almost too many diamonds to count, and the band was made of fourteen-karat white gold (her fiancé had been sure to tell her this).

Many people-too many, in Maya's opinion-had told her that her fiancé, Jordan, wasn't the right person for her, and that she shouldn't have said yes. But Maya didn't really care what other people told her.

After all, Jordan was the only person Maya had ever dated that cared enough about her to keep their relationship going for more than two months.

That is, except for Joshua Matthews. Yes, the boy who promised her 'Someday' and never followed through on that promise. Maya hadn't seen Josh since Riley and Lucas's wedding, which was three years ago now. Before that, she hadn't seen him since he kissed her at her high school graduation, which was two years before that.

The point was, she had moved on. After eight years of waiting, she'd finally given up any false hope that she would be with Josh. She chose to settle down, maybe have a few kids.

She turned away from her ring and from any thoughts of Josh and went back to her work. She was still in college at the moment, attending the New York School of Art, but she also helped her mom at Topanga's to earn some money.

It was nearly one in the morning when she finally finished, and right as she was about to go to her bedroom to get ready, a loud, frantic knocking on the front door startled her out of her skin.

Maya froze where she was standing. She didn't know who would come knocking at her door in the middle of the night.

Any other time she would've considered it Riley, as she and her husband lived on the top floor of the same apartment complex that Maya did, but they were gone on vacation and weren't due back for another week or so.

The person, whoever it was, started knocking again, and Maya realized that she couldn't stand there all night.

Besides, would a burglar/murderer knock?

Just in case, Maya decided to take a frying pan from the kitchen with her to answer the door. If Rapunzel from Tangled could knock out a bad guy with a frying pan, then so could she.

Maya made her way over to the front door slowly, holding her weapon above her head like a baseball bat. She put her hand on the doorknob and turned it cautiously, opening the door slowly.

The person on the other side of the door was not a burglar, nor were they a murderer. It wasn't Riley, either, or Lucas. The person on the other side of the door was the last person she expected to see at her house at one in the morning on a Tuesday.

It was Joshua Matthews, standing there with an amused smile on his face, asking her why she was about to attack him with a frying pan.

Maya set the frying pan on the small table by the door. "I thought someone was here to kill me," she said, still not quite believing her eyes.

"Well," Josh said, "I'm sorry I scared you."

Maya gave him a brief, close-lipped smile, not meeting his eyes. Instead her eyes focused on the large thing he was pulling behind him.

"Josh," she said.

"Maya," he said back.

"Why do you have a suitcase?" she asked.

He smiled sheepishly at her.

"Why are you here, Josh?" she questioned.

He took a deep breath. "Look, Maya, if it's not too much to ask, I need a place to stay."

Too much to ask? Maya thought to herself, Of course it's too much to ask.

She didn't say that out loud. Instead, she opened the door wider and asked, "For how long?"

Josh shot her a grateful smile and stepped inside her apartment. "Thank you so much, Maya," he said. "It'll only be for a few weeks, just until I can find a place of my own. I promise."

Maya sighed. If only his promises meant anything.

"The couch is a hide-a-bed," Maya said. "I'll get you some sheets and a blanket, but I don't know if I have an extra pillow. I'll go look."

She retreated to the linen closet in the hallway by the bathroom, grabbing a set of sheets and a nice fuzzy blanket. She found an extra pillow stuffed on the very top shelf, and had to struggle for a minute or two to reach it.

Finally she went back into the living room, where she found Josh already unfolding the bed.

"Alright, I've got some sheets, a blanket, and I found a pillow," Maya said, holding these items out for him to take. "The bathroom is down the hall, and so is my bedroom. I have to go to school early in the morning, so I'll probably be gone by the time you get up."

Josh nodded. "Okay."

He took the bedding from her, his hands brushing over hers in the process.

She withdrew her hands instantly, as if he'd shocked her. "I-um...goodnight Josh," she said, turning away.

"Goodnight Maya," Josh replied.

Maya walked back to her bedroom as fast as she could without seeming rude, and went immediately to the master bathroom to splash some cold water on her face.

Get a grip, Maya! she commanded herself as she dried her face. You know what he did to you. You should no longer be affected by him like that.

She went back into her bedroom, grabbing one of Jordan's t-shirts and some old bike shorts to sleep in.

By the time she was in her bed, turning off her bedside lamp, she had formed a few rules that would have to be set while Josh was staying here.

Just in case.

Maya woke up at six o'clock sharp the next morning, going into the kitchen with the sole purpose of getting a cup of coffee and then retreating to her bedroom to get ready for the morning quietly so she didn't disturb Josh.

What she didn't expect was to find pancakes on the table, her coffee already waiting for her, and Josh standing in the kitchen with one of her aprons tied around his waist.

"Good morning," he said, smiling widely at her.

"'Morning," she replied, smiling back.

She noticed as she sat down that her four-person table was set for two.

"Are you going to eat?" she asked, knowing that it would be polite to wait for him if he was.

"Yes, but go ahead and eat without me," he said, then gestured to the stove. "I just have to finish these last few pancakes."

Maya nodded, taking one of them from the top of the small stack and drowning it in syrup.

"Oh, and I assumed your coffee is the same as it was in high school," he told her. "Was I right?"

She nodded, not really wanting to talk about anything high school related.

"Did you sleep alright?" she asked, changing the subject. "Jordan never stops telling me how uncomfortable that couch is."

"I slept fine," Josh said. "Who's Jordan? Do you go to school with her?"

Maya sighed. She hadn't wanted to talk about this with Josh quite yet, but it was inevitable-especially since her ring was in full view for everyone to see.

"Jordan is my fiancé," she said, holding up her left hand and pointing to the ring. "He sleeps on the couch whenever he comes to visit me, a demand made by Cory Matthews and Shawn Hunter."

Josh smiled absentmindedly at her little joke.

Suddenly the room grew silent, and Maya immediately felt uncomfortable.

"I should go get ready," Maya said.

Josh just nodded, turning back to the pancakes.

Maya left her pancake half-eaten on the table.

She had no idea what to say to him now. What was she supposed to say? 'I'm sorry for getting engaged?' 'I'm sorry I didn't wait ten years for 'Someday' to come?'

She just didn't know.

Maya got home from school around two in the afternoon later that same day.

She found Josh lounging on the couch, flipping through the channels on her old TV, looking bored out of his mind.

"Hey Josh," she greeted, hanging her keys on the hook by the door.

"Hey," he said, changing to another channel.

"You look extremely bored," Maya commented as she made her way over to her refrigerator for a bottle of water.

"Well, I can't exactly go anywhere, can I?" Josh asked.

"Why not?" Maya wondered, going over to sit on the couch with him.

"I don't have keys," Josh pointed out, changing the channel again. "So I couldn't get back in if I went out."

"Oh right," Maya said. "Well, you could've just asked."

"What?"

Maya stood up. "You could've asked for keys," she clarified. "I do have an extra, and I've never known what to do with it."

She went over to the hook by the door and grabbed a key that was attached to a keychain that said 'I Love New York'. Then she sat back down next to Josh.

"Really?" Josh asked. "You're giving me a key to your apartment?"

"Well, I expect to get it back once you move out," Maya said. "But yes, I'm giving you a key. I don't want you to be holed up in here all day with nothing to do."

"Thanks, Maya." He said, reaching for the key.

Maya held it out of his reach. "But there are rules that come with this key."

"Rules?" Josh asked. "What kind of rules?"

"Well, for starters, I don't want you bringing anyone here unless you tell me about it first," Maya said. "Also, if you must come back really late, don't wake me up unless there's an emergency."

Josh nodded, and reached for the keys again.

Maya held them out of his reach again. "One more thing: if Jordan comes over for any reason, you cannot be in the apartment."

Josh frowned. "Why not?"

"He's a protective person, and he'll freak out on me if he knew you were staying here," Maya explained.

"Why would he do that?" Josh asked.

Maya sighed. "Can you just do what I say?"

"I guess," he answered.

Maya placed the key in his hand, praying that he would follow all the rules that she had set.

Author's Note #2

Thank you so much for reading! Feel free to leave me a review, because I'd love to hear from you. Like the story? Tell me! Don't like the story? Tell me!

Regarding when the next update will be: I don't know. I'm aiming for sometime next week. I don't have a set schedule, and this story is only semi-prewritten. Also, I have school and volleyball to deal with, so I don't know how much time I'll have to write. The good thing is this isn't going to be too long. I'm thinking about six or seven chapters.

Alrighty, now time to say goodbye! Until next time!

~SmartyPants210