So this is my first purely Larkle fic, and I'll admit, I'm a little nervous about how it turned out. I'm not sure that I captured all the characters right (which has been a pretty common feeling with everything GMW I've written so far). But anyway, here this fic is. In particular with this fic, I would really appreciate some constructive feedback and opinions on how well the characters were represented. (P.S. this was unbeta-ed, so sorry for any errors I might have missed). All disclaimers aside, I hope y'all enjoy this story :)
Farkle took a deep breath as he clambered onto the landing outside the bay window in Riley's room. He was in desperate need of—advice—and Riley and Maya were the only ones he trusted to give him good advice.
"Ladies," Farkle greeted them quietly and hesitantly.
"Farkle," they returned his greeting in unison. He crawled through the window on his hands and knees and gingerly sat down, fiddling with his hands nervously as he tried to figure out how to broach the subject with them.
"So Farkle, what brings you to our bay window?" Riley asked.
"I—I need your help," Farkle mumbled. The words felt like acid coming out of his mouth; Farkle didn't ask for help. He never needed it, except that in this instance he did, considering his knowledge of social matters was almost negligible.
"What's this, the great Farkle Minkus has come to us in need of our help?" Maya teased, fake astonishment lacing her tone.
"Maya, you're going to scare him away!" Riley exclaimed, smacking her arm.
"Farkle needs our help. Tell me you're not relishing that at least a little bit," Maya argued.
"I wasn't going to tell him that," Riley whispered harshly, leaning into Maya's ear. "There, I admitted it, you happy?"
"Uh, yup."
"What can we do for you Farkle?" Riley said, turning back to Farkle when her side conversation with Maya was finished.
"Well—" Farkle paused before rattling off his explanation of situation at record speed. "The Buggy Awards are tomorrow night and there's someone I really want to ask to go as my date but I don't know if I should ask them because if I do it might make things weird and I don't want to make things weird with them but I still want to ask them but I don't know if I should so I thought that you might be able to tell me what to do," Farkle rambled, spitting out all the words in one breath.
"Woah, woah Farkle, slow down," Maya urged. "You're talking too fast, even for you."
"No, no I got it Maya," Riley waved her off. "So, who do you want to ask?"
"L-Lucas," Farkle stuttered quietly.
"So let me make sure I understand, you want Huckleberry to be your date to the Buggy Awards?" Maya questioned. At this point, Farkle didn't trust his words, so he simply nodded in agreement.
"Aww," Riley and Maya cooed. Farkle looked at them, confusion written all over his features. He expected them to react—well any way other than the way they did.
"I'm confused, I thought you both liked Lucas," Farkle replied weakly.
"We do," Maya stated.
"But he doesn't like us," Riley explained.
"At least, not like that," Maya continued.
"Turns out he always liked someone else," Riley shrugged.
"Oh," Farkle responded, his face falling. He already liked someone else.
"It's you, dumbo!" Maya exclaimed, narrowing her eyes on Farkle.
"Are you playing a joke on me this seems like a joke it's totally a joke hahaha so funny guys but okay I figured it out joke's over you can stop messing with me now," Farkle babbled nervously. It just wasn't even remotely possible that Lucas could be—
"Why would we mess with you like that, Farkle?" Riley inquired softly. "You're our friend. We would never do something that mean to you."
"Well—"
"Yes Maya, we all know you've thought about it," Riley said, rolling her eyes. "But we also know you'd never go through with it."
Farkle didn't catch much of that exchange though. Once it was clear they weren't messing with him, his heart started racing at lightning speed. Lucas actually liked him!
"Farkle? Earth to Farkle," Maya spoke, snapping her fingers in front of Farkle's face. "I think I broke Farkle," Maya remarked as she turned back to Riley.
"You just told Farkle his crush likes him, how is he supposed to react?" Riley challenged.
"I don't know!" Maya replied. "I just wasn't expecting—that."
They both stared at Farkle for a minute, and after seemingly forever, he broke out from his spell.
"What am I supposed to do now?" Farkle blurted out.
"You ask him, duh," Maya directed.
"But how?" Farkle exclaimed, sounding fully panicked.
"Ask her, she's the schemer," Maya responded, gesturing towards Riley.
"Hehehe," Riley giggled, the wheels in her head already turning.
A closet. Of all the places Riley could've had him hide, he was in Janitor Harley's supply closet. Simple as it was, Farkle had to admit it was a brilliant plan. When he didn't show up for class, there was no doubt that Lucas would come looking for him. This was the place he always hid out, and this would be the first place Lucas would check out. It was just—the symbolism of hiding out in a closet. So he could ask a boy to be his date to the Buggy Awards.
Speaking of asking, the part of the plan to get Lucas in the closet with him was brilliant. After that, it was up to Farkle's brain to carry out the rest of the plan, and that was where Farkle wasn't sure things would work out correctly. He didn't have the slightest clue of what to do and there was a good chance he might say the completely wrong thing.
"What's going on Farkle?" Lucas questioned as he burst into the room and broke Farkle's chain of thought. "Why aren't you in class? Is something wrong? Is someone bullying you again?"
"No no it's not that I'm not being bullied nothing's wrong not really unless you count being really nervous a problem because I don't think I've ever been more nervous in my life I've never had to do something like this before," Farkle blithered as he started to hyperventilate, feeling like he might pass out at any second.
"Hold up," Lucas cut him off. "You need to sit down buddy before you pass out."
"Yeah okay," Farkle replied in a daze as Lucas grabbed his shoulders and guided him to the desk in the room.
"What's making you so nervous?" Lucas asked once Farkle had a minute to settle down.
"There's something I want to ask you but I'm really freaked out that it's going to go wrong even though Riley and Maya assured me it wouldn't but no matter what I do I still can't stop myself from getting worked up and—"
"Farkle," Lucas said softly, grabbing Farkle's hand. "Just ask me, it's going to be fine."
Farkle took a few deep breaths, looking into Lucas' green eyes, trying to find some calming energy.
"WillyougowithmetotheBuggyAwardstonight?" Farkle asked after a moment, the phrase coming out in such a rush that it seemed as if it was one word.
"Why are you asking me?" Lucas replied, his eyes scrunching up in confusion. "Shouldn't you be asking Riley or Maya?"
"I didn't ask them because I don't want either of them as my date," Farkle answered, his head dropping towards his chest as he nervously fiddled with his hands.
"You want me to be your date?" Lucas repeated slowly. Farkle nodded weakly, having suddenly lost his voice to the lump in his throat. "As just your best friend?" Lucas continued. This time, Farkle shook his head. "Okay, wait, then I'm confused. What do you want this to be?"
Farkle sighed; Lucas was supposed to be smart. How was he not getting this? Farkle still didn't trust his voice to speak, but there was something he could still do to get his point across. It was risky, but hell, it's not like this whole endeavor wasn't risky to begin with. So Farkle stood up, grabbing Lucas by his biceps, and quickly leaned in before Lucas could react, pressing their lips together for a brief second.
"Oh," Lucas mumbled, his eyes going wide with realization. "Oh! So like a date-date?"
Farkle nodded rapidly.
"Yes," Lucas said, flashing his blinding smile. "Yes, I'll be your date."
Next thing Farkle knew, his head was buried in Lucas' chest, Lucas' arms around him, holding his weight up. Farkle repositioned himself, getting his feet steady underneath him before looking up at Lucas.
"Wha—what happened?" Farkle groaned in confusion.
"I'm pretty sure you fainted," Lucas replied, his body gently shaking from stifled laughter.
"Oops."
"Come on buddy, let's get back to class," Lucas chuckled, throwing his arm around Farkle's shoulder, just like he always did.
"Soooooo, how did it go?" Riley asked, bounding up to Farkle's locker with Maya once school was over.
"He said yes," Farkle answered quietly, a dark blush on his cheeks and shy smile on his lips.
"I told you he would say yes," Maya chided.
"What did you tell who what?" Lucas inquired, strolling up to where they were standing.
"Nothing at all, Huckleberry," Maya replied with a mischievous smirk.
"Anyway," Riley interjected quickly, grabbing Maya by the arm and yanking her away. "We better get going."
"You two have fun!" Maya called out, giving them a wink before turning and following Riley.
"What was that about?" Lucas wondered, squinting at the girls as they disappeared out the doors of the school and out of sight.
"I kinda asked them to help me," Farkle said, biting his lip nervously. "You know, with asking you out."
"Oh. They didn't—"
"Maya definitely did," Farkle giggled, knowing exactly what Lucas was thinking about.
"Maya?!" Lucas said with astonishment. "I thought for sure it would've been Riley."
"I would've thought so too, but hey, you learn new things every day!" Farkle grinned as he slammed his locker shut.
"Well now I know who not to go to when I need a secret kept," Lucas shook his head, falling in step beside Farkle as they left school. Farkle laughed, awkwardly shoving his hands into his pockets, since he didn't know what to do with them otherwise. They walked, mostly in comfortable silence. When they reached the point where they normally went separate ways, Lucas stopped.
"I would uh, just come back home with you, but I probably should be wearing something nicer than this," he remarked with a slight chortle. Farkle glanced at Lucas' outfit: a flannel shirt with blue jeans. He definitely looked cute, but then again, Lucas looked cute in everything, it was that next to Farkle's black suit, he might look a touch underdressed.
"Okay," Farkle replied flatly, trying to control his voice and hide how ill at ease he felt. Lucas seemed relaxed and comfortable, and Farkle didn't want to make Lucas feel awkward just because he felt awkward.
"What time do you want me to come over?"
"Oh um," Farkle stammered. He swore he had this planned out, but Lucas was looking at him with his bright smile and those soft, expressive eyes and it was like his mind stopped working.
"Would seven be early enough?" Lucas suggested gently.
"Seven? Y-yeah," Farkle stuttered.
"Sounds great. See you then!" Lucas said eagerly, wrapping his arms around Farkle and giving him a hug. "Relax Farkle," he added, whispering in his ear. "It's just me."
Farkle nodded as he pulled away and Lucas grinned, waving over his shoulder as he turned to walk away. Once Farkle gained full control of his legs again, he sprinted off to his house, heart beating out of his chest. Farkle ignored his mom when he busted through the door, instead going straight to his room.
"What did you get yourself into Farkle," he muttered to himself.
Seven crept up on Farkle. He was in the bathroom, still fussing with his hair and tie when the doorbell rang.
"Farkle, Lucas is here!" his mom shouted from the living room. Farkle was still wholly unsatisfied with how he looked, but he was out of time. He forced himself to tear his eyes away from the mirror, shuffling out to where Lucas was waiting for him.
"Hey Farkle!" Lucas said, grinning at him broadly and rendering him completely incapable of thought and speech again. His mom chuckled, muttering something under her breath about "young love."
"You look great buddy," Lucas added when it was clear Farkle wasn't going to say anything in response to his greeting.
"Y-you l-look…wow," Farkle replied.
"Thanks," Lucas blushed, reaching out and grabbing Farkle's hand that was hanging limply at his side and leading him out the door.
"So, you never told me what these awards are about," Lucas pointed out when they were outside the community center where the ceremony was being held.
"Oh, they're scientific achievement awards. (A/N: I didn't remember exactly off the top of my head and I was too lazy to look it up, so sorry if I'm wrong) They're fun to be nominated for, but I've never won one. Smackle always beats me," Farkle shrugged.
"Well, I'm going to call that this is your year."
"I doubt it."
"Who knows, maybe I'll be your good luck charm!" Lucas suggested.
"You don't need to be that," Farkle shook his head to disagree. "You're going to be there with me, you don't need to do anything else."
"I'll still have my fingers crossed that you win," Lucas grinned, leaning over and giving Farkle a peck on the cheek before they walking inside. Farkle blushed; no matter what happened inside, he had already won because he had Lucas.