Summary: Three times that Riley wears Farkle's orange turtleneck

The first time he sees her wear it, he was being bullied.

He had been stripped of his self-esteem, forced into feeling ashamed and made to hide from his favorite classes and people. The day after the first note of hatred arrived at his door, he had thrown almost all of the turtlenecks away. The orange one he kept, he didn't know why at the time, but he kept it because it felt like it was right. Like it was meant to be. So he stuffed the other turtlenecks into a box, closed it and then stuffed it in the back of his closet.

When he goes to school he feels naked. He's not literally naked, of course, but he feels as if he is because there's no fabric around his neck. There's no comfort of bright colors around his torso and there isn't any room for him to be himself. In a way, he feels worse not being himself than when he was told how bad being himself was. He admits, he misses the turtlenecks.

Going home was rough as well. He loved the turtleneck because there wasn't any reason to spend extra money on scarfs. The transition from winter to spring had never been described as easy in his book, and without a scarf or turtleneck, he worries about frostbite.

It's a completely irrational thing to worry about, he tells himself. Unless he's submerging his head under snow from an unreasonable amount of time than there is no good explanation for his small anxiety about frostbite. He hasn't even been outside for three minutes. Definitely not enough time to get frostbite on his neck of all places.

He should've left sooner (he'll tell himself later when this is all over that it was a good thing he had left when he did).

"Farkle!" a voice calls.

He knows that voice so well. He knows it like he knows the sound of sirens in New York or the sound of car horns during a traffic jam. The airy tone, the excitement that never seems to leave the voice, it's Riley. He knows it without even turning around. And he debates not turning around in the first place. But he can't let her down, never can. So he turns around and meets her brown, doe eyes and musters up the realest, fake-smile he can give. From the look in her eyes, she doesn't even buy it for a second.

When he scans her body he can feel the unnecessary jealousy creep in. She's all bundled up in her nice coat and scarf and boots. And in his rush to find something to wear that didn't include turtlenecks that morning, he barely had a coat, but there she is, the embodiment of perfect. All clad in her thick peacoat that she had found on a whim at a thrift shop in Greenwich Village and knit scarf that he is almost certain she knitted.

It's involuntary, but he shivers while he waits for her to finally catch up with him. The frown on her face that had appeared there when he offered up his fake smile, grows into a frown and furrowed brow when she sees him shiver. He immediately regrets letting the shiver be noticeable.

She reaches him and narrows her eyes as she pulls her coat tighter around herself. "You weren't in class." He's almost about to speak when she beats him to it. "'You weren't in any class actually. And you're in all of my classes."

There's a silent question tagged onto the end of her words. One that is demanding for his explanation. He ignores it and risks shrugging. Riley may be sweet but she doesn't like vague answers, and Farkle knows this perfectly well.

He shivers again and without hesitation Riley takes her scarf off her bundled neck and moves forward to wrap it around his. The tip of her boots are less than an inch away from his worn-out sneakers and she's just a little bit taller than him but he doesn't mind. She stretches it out beforehand, giving each end of the scarf a little tug before folding it in half to find the middle and draping it around the back of his neck.

He's about to say that he can do it himself, fueled by the words he received yesterday about not being useful and being babied, but he can't bring himself to do so, not with Riley, never with Riley. So he lets her wrap the scarf around his neck, her cold fingers ever so slightly grazing his bare neck when she's not careful enough. He's not sure how she's done it but it is perfectly wrapped so that his neck is fully covered.

He braces himself for the question that is yet to come.

"Where's your turtleneck?" she asks, her voice is incredibly quiet and he can barely hear her after she took a step back, but he's been anticipating the question so the answer comes easily.

"I've decided that I don't like them," he shrugs in response. Her brows knit together again and he wonders how her face doesn't end up stuck like that.

"But why?"

Her voice is laced with something that he assumes is sadness but it's gone and masked by curiosity and he can't hold onto the tone before focusing on how to answer, which is with a shrug.

Before she can speak, she hears Maya call out her name and he realizes that she has to leave now and walk home with Maya. He also realizes he doesn't want her to go, he doesn't tell her that though. Why would he?

Maya's approaching them now, her plaid jacket barely clinging to her as she bounds her way down the stairs and towards them. He notices Riley taking another step away but he tells himself that he shouldn't care. Like Billy said, no one should.

They're talking but he doesn't really hear it, too focused on other things to really understand the words they speak. But suddenly Maya's demanding that they should go home and Riley, the people pleaser she is, agrees.

Maya has already walked past Farkle with a 'goodbye' but Riley has stayed in her spot, staring at Farkle, analyzing his actions.

"What?" he asks. It comes out slightly harsher than he meant it to and he sees her flinch a bit for which he already feels sorry for.

She bites her lip, he's worried that it might be too hard and that her lip will split open but she stops before he can warn her to lighten up. "It's just that-" her voice cuts off for a moment and she presses her lips together. He knows she wants to say something important but then she shakes her head so it's almost unnoticeable and continues on, "It's just that, I like your turtlenecks. The orange one brings out your eyes."

He's absolutely sure they're both staring right now but he honestly doesn't care and if they weren't in front of the school and if she didn't have a huge crush on his best friend and if he didn't have his self-esteem ripped into shreds, then maybe he would've kissed her. But probably not.

She mutters a goodbye and blushes before running up to join Maya.

It's after she leaves that he realizes he still is wearing her scarf.

Despite Riley and all, he doesn't go back to class the next day. He has a webcam that attends for him and he hides out with Janitor Harley because at least he lets him take color-coded notes in peace.

He doesn't expect her or any of them to come barging in demanding who said those things. He doesn't feel better when Riley hugs him and he doesn't feel better when Maya tries to go beat up whoever hurt him (though he does appreciate the gesture).

It's after all of it that he feels better.

oOo

The four of them are getting ready for the awards night. They're all at his house and he's pulling down the box of turtlenecks and Maya and Lucas are cheering and blowing party blowers, but Riley is sitting on his bed, doing homework and smiling all while it's happening. He glances over at her multiple times but she's color-coding her notes and is so focused on reading that she doesn't notice.

"We should wear your turtlenecks," Lucas suggests and everyone agrees, even Maya.

He passes them out, mostly dumping the box and then letting Lucas and Maya choose. Riley has closed her books and is just watching them as Lucas and Maya fight over who wants what color so before Farkle can let them fully decided he grabs the orange one.

He jumps on the bed so that he's sitting on Riley's right side and when she looks at him he hands her the orange turtleneck and smirks. She rolls her eyes but says thank you and slips it on over her shirt. He smiles dumbly, the sight of Riley in a bright orange turtleneck just makes him do that. And she goofily poses before almost falling off the bed from their laughter.

They're both gasping for air, their sides hurting from laughing so much but when she falls off the bed he's quick to grab onto her waist and pull her back up. She has to admit, she didn't exactly expect him to be strong enough and quick enough to both catch her and pull her back up but she isn't exactly not liking it so there's that.

When she's gained her balance and the both of them are safely on the bed they make eye contact, silently challenging the other to let go first. That's when they realize that Farkle's hands are still on her waist and hers is still on his chest from when he pulled her up and she needed to stabilize herself and then Riley is jumping away from him so fast that he could be a little hurt, he isn't though.

oOo

They meet up before the awards after they all had gone home to officially change and had properly worn their turtlenecks. He sees Riley first, she's there early since her father needs to help set up and is still reading, although now it's her romance YA novels that she loves. He doesn't even need to call out her name because as soon as he turns the corner she looks up and smiles brightly, waving and then running to him. She stops a foot away and twirls.

"What do you think?" she smiles, confidently. Twirling one more time before stopping and just opting for bouncing up and down.

"You look beautiful," he blurts and he watches as she blushes.

She really does, he thinks. And as the others arrive and the ceremony begins, he realizes one thing only: he really loves seeing her in his orange turtleneck.


The second time he sees her in his orange turtle neck he still hasn't given her scarf back. She hasn't asked for it back either and although he doesn't need it anymore since he started wearing his turtlenecks again, he still uses it when it gets unbearably cold. Whenever he wears it around her she always blushes just the tiniest bit before smirking and continuing with whatever she was doing.

They're not twelve anymore (for Lucas's case he's not thirteen anymore) but instead are sixteen and seventeen. Lucas and Maya are the oldest of the group, with Farkle next and the Riley, the baby. Maya still treats her as if she is one and she insists that everyone else should do it too but Farkle never listens. She doesn't need to be coddled. No one ever realizes that she can hear what everyone is saying about her, bad news, or about anyone else. That is, no one except Farkle.

She's sixteen when she realizes that Lucas isn't all he's cracked up to be. She started to know this when he had lied to her about his age but it's becoming more frequent now. Small things like lying about what he's doing or why he's done something has caused distrust between the two but it has managed to bond Maya and him a little. He's dating a cheerleader now and Riley has to admit, she doesn't feel any jealousy or longing whenever he kisses her.

So it's not because of Lucas that she ends up in Farkle's fire escape at one in the morning. She's in Farkle's fire escape because her parents were fighting. And they never fight.

There are tears running down her face and it's winter so her hair is caked with snow and is practically frozen. She's not sure why she automatically goes to Farkle instead of Maya. But she does because she needs someone who will listen to her rant instead of telling her to sleep.

When he hears her three light knocks against his window he's pretty sure that it's a robber. But then he wonders why a robber would knock at his window and he gets the feeling that something is terribly wrong. He finds out he was right when he sees Riley huddled outside his window crying and shivering and rocking back and forth as if that will warm her up.

It doesn't take him long to unlock the window and lift her in. She's already in a ball so it's not that hard and he might not be as muscled as Lucas but he is stronger than people give him credit for and it's pretty easy to lift Riley.

He leaves her curled up on the floor for a second while he runs to get different pair of clothes for her and a towel and blanket. She hasn't moved an inch when he comes back. He knows she won't move for anything so he does something he knows he shouldn't probably do but she might get hypothermia if she stays in those clothes so he slowly strips her of her wet ones.

"Riley, trust me here, okay?" he asks. He doesn't want to do this without letting her know what he's about to do. And he's sure as hell not doing it without her consent but she gives a nod and looks into his eyes and he gulps before starting to move his hands.

He starts with her sweater that she's wearing. It's not exactly thick and he knows that from the material and the snow that is layered on top of it that it will shrink if he throws it in the dryer so he sets it aside. She's wearing a tank top underneath it and although he's scared he knows that without taking it off she'll be colder even with the dry clothes he's picked out so he slips his hands under her tank top and slowly rolls it up, desperately trying not to pay attention to her bare skin. He's a gentleman and he's not going to let his hormones get the best of him, so he averts his eyes making them stay on her face instead of her body and slides the orange turtleneck on her without ever letting his eyes leave her face.

She's still awake, he knows because as soon as he slipped the shirt on she smiles and attempts to snuggle up in it. He smiles back and hands her his sweatpants, a silent offering. She nods and takes them and he turns around so that she can change into those.

When she's done he wants to laugh, her hair is soaked and she's wearing an orange turtleneck, that doesn't fits him anymore but definitely fits her since she hasn't grown all that much anyway, and sweatpants that he got from the high school. He hands her his towel and she smiles in gratitude and dries off her hair the best she can.

Farkle knows that he should really be getting his parents up and telling them that Riley is over but he can't bring himself to leave the small sixteen year old here alone when she's still crying. So he grabs her hand and brings her to his bed and tells her to sleep there and he'll sleep on the couch in his living room but when he tries to move away she grabs his wrist and all but begs him to stay. He does.

It's 2:30 in the morning when she finally says her first word to him. She's claimed the left side of the bed and is curled up in blankets on blankets and is turned on her side so she can face him. The room is dark and neither of them can see the other but just knowing the other is there is comfort enough.

"My parents were fighting." Her voice is so quiet it's almost inaudible. It's also raspy from crying and nasally from her stuffy nose.

"Parents fight," he states simply, recalling the yelling that went on earlier that night in his house. It's normal for him, but it's not for Riley.

"I wasn't even supposed to be home. Auggie was at Ava's and I was at Maya's but I forgot something and went back to go get it and they were yelling and screaming and then I heard a door slam and my father grumbling. I think he's sleeping on the couch."

That was never a good sign. But Farkle's seen her parents, they were going to be fine. "Parents fight, it doesn't mean it's over." He can see her nod just barely under the light that's coming from the window. And then it hits him, "Wait, you said you were at Maya's?"

"Yeah."

"Why didn't you go back there?"

She pauses, uncertain. Why didn't she go back to Maya? It's Maya. Her closest friend, her confidant. But she looks at Farkle and all that he's done for her. Not just tonight but ever since they were tiny, and she doesn't know how to describe it. She just needed him.

"She's not you."

oOo

Riley's plan was originally to stay at Farkle's long enough to vent about what had happened and then leave and go back to Maya's apartment. She was just going to drop by and tell him how she was feeling so that Maya didn't get the brunt of her problems the next day. But then he gave her his orange turtleneck that she had practically fallen in love with and a pair of sweatpants that, she had to admit, weren't the softest, but was without a doubt the most comforting pair she had ever worn. And then she had gotten into his bed, innocently of course, and had fallen asleep.

Maya however had no clue of this plan. She didn't even know why Riley would ever go to Farkle's house on her own anyway. So when she woke up and Riley wasn't there, her first thought was that she was at home. She wasn't. And then she checked Lucas's, they hadn't talked to each other in a while and had grown apart, and he had no clue where she was either. Farkle was her last thought but she went anyway to look for Riley for good measure.

She had expected him to freak and check everywhere that she had and then do some nerdy thing that would reveal her location. Instead she got a sight that almost knocked her off the fire escape.

Her three knocks on the window didn't do anything to wake what she presumed was the one sleeping body. She would've kept knocking but she stood up instead to see if she could tell if Farkle was just ignoring her or was actually asleep. Instead of one body she saw two. And one was Riley Matthews.

She was tucked into Farkle's side so that while he lay on his back, she was turned towards him. His arm was looped around her as to make sure she was always there and her arm was reached around his torso so that her hand ended at his waist to where, Maya saw, her grip had wrinkled Farkle's shirt.

Her clothes were in still wet piles on the floor and she was still wrapped in Farkle's clothes. The sight made Maya smile involuntarily. She had assumed that Riley was still hung up on Lucas from her crush in middle school, but her being in Farkle's bed, wrapped in his arms, told a completely different story. One that made sense now that she actually thought about it.

Now, Maya had two options. She could leave and just text Riley, or she could call Farkle's cell, which she knew was always on and was always loud. The mischievous side of her won, and she called Farkle's cell and watched in amusement as the two jumped apart from each other with Riley blushing and Farkle smirking slightly, before running a hand through his hair and then picking up his phone.

"Hello?" he asked from the other side of window. Riley had laid back down and snuggled up in Farkle's sheets before falling asleep again while he still sat upright.

"Farkle," Maya greeted. "Have you seen Riley? She wasn't at my house this morning."

From outside the window, Maya watched Farkle as he smiled and looked at Riley, running a hand lightly through her hair. "Yeah, she's at my apartment."

"I know," Maya smirked and enjoyed seeing Farkle's eyes widen and him jump off the bed in surprise.

"What?"

"Window."

Farkle turned to see Maya waving smugly at his window, the same one Riley had been lifted through. He turned to make sure Riley was still asleep and when he was able to confirm that she was, he ran to the window to open it and let Maya through.

Maya landed on the floor with a little bit of a thump and took a seat at Farkle's desk, swiftly picking up his stress ball and laying her feet on his desktop.

"So Farkle, what are your intentions with my best friend?" Maya asked, happy that she had the upper hand here while Farkle still managed to be slightly flustered.

"She came here last night, soaking wet. I gave her my clothes and let her sleep in my bed."

Maya nodded, she believed him but decided to keep pushing to annoy him. "So nothing happened?" she asked, wiggling her eyebrows.

Farkle blushed but shook his head.

"And you don't like Riley at all?"

His eyes narrowed, "Of course I like Riley. She's my best friend, I like her the way you like her."

Maya nodded, "I mean yeah. But," she paused movie closer to Farkle. He had grown since they were in middle schools so now he towered over Maya, tall and lanky. " you like her in a different way. Don't you, Robot?"

He was about to answer when Riley intervened, finally waking up. "Maya?"

"Yeah," she answered, not wavering her piercing gaze on Farkle.

Suddenly, Riley sprung up, scrambling out of bed and running to the two figures that were talking in the middle of the room. "Maya! Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. I was going to come back from my house but-"

"Don't worry about it. Looks like Farkle took good care of you," the words sounded harsh on paper but there was no bite in them. She gestured to Riley's outfit.

Riley blushed and crossed her arms over her stomach, hugging herself tighter. "He did, didn't he?" she smiled, looking at Farkle, who smiled back.

"Well, I'm going to go get food from your kitchen," Maya said excusing herself from the room after about of minute of staring between the two brunettes.

"You feeling any better?" he asked as he started to pick up her slightly damp clothes. "Sorry they didn't dry all the way."

"It's okay, I'll just go home in this," she said gesturing to her outfit and making a pose. They both died laughing in about two seconds from her posing.

"You'll get weird looks."

"How do you know?"

"'Cause I do."

Riley made a noise that resembled a cough. "Then I'm definitely going to wear it."

"Why would you knowingly suggest yourself to that?"

"'Cause you do," she shrugged. He was about to reply when she grabbed his hand, linking her fingers with his. They both almost jumped away from the shock that seemed to go through both of them but Riley held on. "Come on, I need breakfast."

"You need to change."

"I like how I look in your turtleneck."

Farkle smiled as she pulled him down the hallway and into the kitchen where Maya was snacking on cereal.

"Yeah, I do too."


The third time that Farkle saw Riley in his turtleneck she was studying with him.

"Why are you wearing that?" he asks her. It's borderline summer now so the fact that she's wearing his turtleneck is a little weird to put it lightly.

"I was cold," Riley shrugs in answer. She's not really paying attention in the first place. They have to prepare for their chemistry final and although it is her favorite subject, they're juniors and she wants to do particularly well on it.

"And you decided that you'll wear my turtleneck instead of, I don't know, a sweater? One of the hoodies that are hanging quite literally right there?"

They're in her room and he is right, there are sweaters strewn everywhere and she could've definitely just thrown one on but instead she opted for his orange turtleneck that she ended up taking home when she stayed over his apartment that one awful night.

She shrugs, slightly exasperated at this point, "It was just there."

He doesn't push it farther, for now.

They keep studying, occasionally asking questions and making remarks and at one point Riley gets up to get a snack from the kitchen. This eventually turns into a game of, who can hit the other person with more pretzels without the other realizing it until after they've hit them (just for the record, Riley wins).

It's almost ten when they've finished their notes and are started to call it a night. The books are mostly packed up and she's saying goodbye and he's already down the firescape when she realizes that he left his pencil case. It's a split second decision, but there really wasn't any decision at all. She was always going to rush down to give it to him.

The most reasonable decision would be to go down the stairs, but Riley had never thought quite reasonably and so she goes down the fire escape, tripping on the way down and landing on the concrete below. It wasn't a long fall, but it was enough to cause some minor bruising and just a couple scratches.

"Agh!" she screams. It's loud enough to capture the attention of some of the passers but it's also loud enough for Farkle to turn around and catch the end of the her falling. When she sees him she scrambles up and rushes up to him smiling, breathless, but smiling. "You forgot this."

He looks at her bewildered, but so utterly in love. "You could've just given it to me tomorrow before homeroom," he suggests. She blushes but shrugs in response. He takes her hand that has a couple scratches there on the palm of it. "Maybe then you would've not gotten so hurt." She shrugs again in response, still trying to get her breath back to normal.

"It's okay, I'm okay." He nods unconvinced and then takes a couple steps back from her so that they're separated by a couple feet.

"Walk to me," he orders simply. She shrugs like it's no big deal but as she takes her first step she winces and by the second her legs give out for a second. Farkle's there to catch her though. "You're not okay," he laughs.

"Sure I am," she smiles back.

He takes her hand and guides it so it drapes around his shoulders and loops his other arm around her waist so it takes a lot of the pressure off her walking. "Come on, I'm helping you back upstairs."

She fights him back on it though, "That's redundant, I can just walk up and save you the trip."

"Well I just saved you from tripping," he smiles at his awful joke and when he looks at her she's smiling too. "So I think we're even."

"That is most definitely not how it works," she argues. But they're still walking in despite her protests.

They eventually make it to the door of the Matthews' apartment and instead of going in they just stand there talking. Her arm is no longer around his shoulder and his arm is no longer around her waist but she's leaning against the doorframe and he's standing awkwardly with his hands shoved in his front pockets.

He's made another awful joke but she's still doubling over laughing and she accidently stands up so that her balance is lost. Farkle quickly cuts in, grabbing her waist again like he did when she almost fell off his bed in middle school. Except this time he doesn't let go of her waist and she links her arms around his neck. They stand there like that for a second before he leans down and she musters up all the courage she has and stands on her tip toes so that he doesn't have to lean all the way, and they kiss.

It's not long but it's sweet and simple and not too overwhelming. They've both kissed other people before. Riley kissed Lucas multiple times when they had that weird dating thing and Farkle has had his fair share of girlfriends. But this kiss means something so much more.

When they break apart, they both immediately touch their foreheads to each other before reaching up again to kiss one more time before she heads inside. Farkle thinks at this moment that maybe that orange turtleneck is something like good luck.

He's halfway down the halls when she opens the apartment door and rushes towards him, crushing her mouth into his.

"I forgot to ask you. Date? Tomorrow?"

Her voice is seemingly breathless but Farkle understands quite clearly.

"Topanga's?"

She stands on her tiptoes and kisses him one final time for the night.

"It's a date."