He tapped his feet nervously and watched the bouquet of flowers on his lap dance with the movement. He sat in an uncomfortable grey plastic seat at the baggage claim of the airport with Farkle sitting next to him on one side and Zay on the other. Riley sat on the other side of Farkle holding the largest, neon pink poster he had ever seen with "WELCOME HOME MAYA" written crookedly across it in blue sharpie and covered in glitter. The girl holding the sign had a smile a mile long spread across her face (and also some glitter glue) as she waited in excitement for her best friend to return.

Maya had been accepted on a full ride scholarship to go to a summer arts program in Europe to visit various museums and be taught new techniques on watercolor and acrylic painting. She had left at the very end of June and now at the beginning of August, she was on a plane ride home. They were all excited for her return, but Lucas was apprehensive. After four months of dating with Riley's blessing, they had gotten into a petty argument about something or the other and this fight was ultimately the last thing they had communicated about before her trip. On her brief calls back to the United States, she assured him that she wasn't mad about the argument any longer and he didn't need to worry. However, this didn't stop the worries from blooming in his mind.

Is she really okay about… whatever it is we were arguing about? What if she's just saying that and she's going to break up with me when she comes back? What if she found someone better than me? Oh no, she's totally breaking up with me. She didn't end the last call with 'talk to you later, Huckleberry' like she usually does, she said 'later, Hop-along'. That definitely means something's up. What am I going to do?

His paranoid mental ramblings were interrupted when Zay clapped him on the shoulder. He jumped and looked over at his long time friend who just gave him a look.

"Lucas, you wanna stop tapping your feet so hard? These chairs are connected you know."

"Yeah, I think you're making Riley nauseous." Lucas turned to Farkle who had spoken and Riley did look a little pale in the face even though her smile had not diminished. He sighed heavily and began picking at the petals of a yellow rose in the middle of his bouquet.

"Sorry, I guess I'm just a little nervous. You know we had this fight before she left—"

"And you're real scared that maybe she's still mad about it and that she'll never forgive you ever again." Lucas furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. As he glanced back and forth from Zay to Farkle who both just rolled their eyes in annoyance.

"How did you…"

"Lucas, you've been telling us about this argument for the past month. Let it go! She won't even remember you guys had a fight!" Zay exclaimed, drawing the mild attention of a few others in the airport with his extravagant gesturing.

"I mean, do you even remember what the fight was about?" Farkle reasoned. Lucas opened his mouth to answer, but closed it when no words came out. He tried to remember, but nothing came so he simply crossed his arms and mumbled like a child.

"No…"

"Well then what makes you think she does?" Zay asked, raising an eyebrow. Lucas visibly relaxed.

"Yeah, you're right aren't you? I'm probably just getting myself worked up over nothing." Riley leaned forward in her seat to get a clear look at him.

"Well, she might remember, girls have a better memory for these kinds of things than guys do, just saying." She flinched when Farkle and Zay shot her an exasperated look and Lucas' jaw stiffened. She muttered an apology and returned to her original sitting position, looking apologetic with her head down. Zay looked back to the Texan and shook his shoulder with his hand.

"Hey, don't worry about it. Maya may be a spitfire, but she likes you. Even if she does remember, she forgave you when you were on the phone with her that one time. You have nothing to worry about." They were suddenly assaulted with a loud scream from Riley. Snapping their heads to attention to make sure the brunette wasn't being kidnapped or attacked or anything, they realized that the girl had jumped up and was running at full speed towards a short blonde girl that had just rounded the corner. The two enveloped each other in a tight embrace and their squeals of delight could be heard from where they sat. Farkle sighed as he saw that Riley had forgotten her poster in her excitement and took on the responsibility of taking the sparkly poster over to where the two girls had reunited at the cost of the dark colors of his clothes being glittered. He was promptly hugged when he reached the spot and Zay stood up, offering his friend a boost.

"Well, looks like its time for you to face her. Hope she doesn't tear your heart out." Lucas rolled his eyes at he took Zay's arm and pulled himself up. He only partially disregarded Zay's implication as he still somewhat believed that she would be upset at him still for whatever argument they had had, but he shook it off and walked with his friend over to the small gathering, flowers in hand. The walk over seemed to take years and when Maya finally noticed them, she first turned her smiles to Zay. Though it wasn't that strange, Lucas couldn't help but feel a little jealous while his two friends completed their secret handshake, which ended in a welcome home hug. But the feeling was stripped away when her gazed turned on him and the smiled dropped from her face.

His grin faltered and they stared at each other for a moment. He tried to read her gaze, but it was strangely blank and that was concerning. So rather than talk or try to say anything, Lucas merely offered out to her his bouquet of flowers, attempting to say "these are for you", but all that came out was a shaky "uh… these— you…" and he winced at the sound. The blonde raised an eyebrow as she looked back and forth from the bouquet to him in a puzzled manner. He bit his lip in anticipation when she took the flowers from him, but he was surprised when she handed them off to Riley. Left with nothing to do with his hands, he patted his hands against his sides, looking for the world like a confused penguin. Finally, he broke the silence when he couldn't take her stare any longer.

"S-so… Maya?" The girl in question threw up her hands in exasperation and his eyes widened.

"Oh for the love of… Do I have to do everything?" With that, she grabbed him by the shirtfront, yanking him down to eye level with her and promptly crashed her lips into his in a forceful, longing filled kiss. As his eyes fluttered shut and he braced his hands on her hips, he could vaguely hear cheering in the background, but he didn't really care right then. She was kissing him desperately like she hadn't seen him in a decade and he couldn't complain as he returned the urgency. When she pulled away for air, she caught a glimpse of his goofy grin and laughed.

"Now that's what I call a welcome home, Huckleberry." He laughed and released her to turn to their friends who were cheering (Riley and Farkle) and hooting (Zay) loudly.

"We should go to the apartment, my dad has the car waiting and he'll want to see you too." She took Farkle's arm and led him behind her as they made their way to the automatic doors with Zay following behind. Maya held Lucas' right hand while his other held the handle of her rolling suitcase.

"So you aren't mad at me?" he asked smiling big at the prospect that he had been worried about nothing.

"Mad at you? No, of course not. I mean, maybe a little disappointed 'cause when a girl has a romantic 'sweep me off my feet kiss' fantasy bouncing around her head and an awkward penguin with flowers is what she gets, she has a right to be, right?" She replied, snickering. He couldn't help but laugh along with her.

"Yeah, I guess I was being pretty ridiculous wasn't I?" She hugged his arm tightly.

"Nothing to worry about, Sundance, I'm just happy to be home."

"I'm happy you're home too."

And it was funny, because in that moment, Lucas tried to recall what it was he was so worked up about and he hadn't the faintest idea. Because Maya was home and all was right with the world.