"Oh, come on, you have to take this with you."
Riley hops off Lucas's bed, photo in her fingers as she wanders over to him. They've been cooped up in his bedroom for more than a couple of hours, meticulously going through all of his things to decide which items he's going to put in her room for the remainder of their time in the city. Sure, college is calling their names and they may be thousands of miles apart in just a few months, but while he's here he's going to be spending far more time at her place than anywhere else.
Offering him a drawer in her bedroom and practically inviting him to move in seemed a little crazy when she first thought about it, but in the end she's glad she did. It feels right, and she knows it's not like his parents are likely to care much. She has to wonder if his father will even notice he's gone.
On the other hand, she does worry about how she's going to top it as far as birthday gifts. But she'll consider it a challenge.
Lucas takes the photo from her hands, examining it critically before making a face and humming disagreement. "I don't know."
"What? Come on," she argues, nudging his side before leaning into him to gaze at the photo as well. "It's like, the one personal item you have in this minimalist hellhole—your words, not mine. Wouldn't you want to take it with you?"
"Riley, you already have a million photos of the six of us in your room."
"Yeah, but I don't have this one." She takes the photo back from him, admiring it with a smile. It's one of the polaroid pictures she took of them when they went to the beach in the middle of this past summer, taken with the ancient camera of Shawn's that Maya gave her when they made up at the end of junior year. Of all the pictures she took that day she let each of them take one to keep for themselves. The one Lucas chose to keep is one of her favorites—all of them chasing each other down the boardwalk, silhouettes against the setting sun.
Lucas laughs, propping his hands on his hips and raising his eyebrows at her. "So this isn't about what I want to put in your room. This is just you completing your collection."
"No, no," she says, shaking her head and stepping closer to him. She wraps her arms around him and presses her cheek against his chest, smiling when he instinctively hugs her back and props his chin on her head. "I just think that if you leave this here you'll regret it. It doesn't deserve to sit on your wall all alone for so much time."
"Maybe."
She presses a kiss to his t-shirt before tilting her head back to make eye contact with him. "Besides, I'm already getting what I want put into our room. I couldn't ask for much more than what I'm already getting."
"Very smooth," he says in amusement. He accepts a kiss from her, humming thoughtfully and smiling against her lips. "Say that again."
"What? That I'm getting what I want? Don't flatter yourself too much."
"No, no, not that part," he says, reaching down to take her hands and placing a kiss against her forehead. "Our room. I like the sound of that."
Riley grins, gently leading him back towards his bed. "Our room."
"Our room," he repeats back, landing on his side as Riley tugs him down onto the mattress next to her. She can't help but giggle as he adjusts and situates half on top of her, giving her a long kiss.
When they break for breath, Riley exhales and bumps their noses together, fingers fiddling idly with the front of his shirt. "At the risk of speaking too soon, I would say it's a good thing you like the sound of it. Because I'm thinking you're gonna have to get used to it."
Lucas smiles. "Already done."
"Is that the last box?"
Riley scans the room, making a show of getting a thorough look around and lifting a pillow off the couch to check for good measure. She makes eye contact with Lucas standing in the small kitchen, having just emptied the last of the dishes out of what she's pretty sure is the last of their things to unpack. He's watching her with wide eyes, waiting for her approval.
She breaks into a grin, giving him a double thumbs-up. "All unpacked!"
"Yes!" Lucas cheers, dropping the empty cardboard box on the ground and kicking it towards the trash can before jumping down the half-step that separates the two rooms to greet her. She meets him halfway and claps her hands against his in a double high-five, keeping their hands linked together as she crashes into him affectionately. "And Cory and Topanga said we'd need them."
"Well, they were helpful for the first ten or so boxes. Until mom started dictating where everything needed to go and dad kept dropping things—,"
"They tried their best," Lucas offers, freeing one hand from hers to wrap his arm around her shoulders and hold her to him.
Riley was very grateful to her parents for making the trip out to help them move in. Cory had been shocked enough when she told him she wanted to move to California with Lucas while he was at Davis for graduate school, so she's glad he came around and managed to lend a hand in getting them set up. She's an adult now and everything, ready to make the world hers—but having a little help from her parents isn't something she's above taking advantage of.
It feels a little surreal, standing with Lucas in the middle of their first ever apartment together. Weird to think that everything around them is something they have together, something they share. And that whatever comes in the future, this is their place to regroup and face it together.
Their apartment. She likes the sound of that.
Riley wanders away first, keeping their pinkies linked as she leads the way towards the couch and plops onto it. She exhales a dramatic sigh as he collapses down next to her, both of them absorbing the reality of what they've just done and admiring their handiwork to get there.
"Isn't it crazy that we're going to get like, mail for each other now?" Riley leans her head back against the couch cushions, eyes widening. "Like, we have the same legal address."
"It's a shame we all operate by cell phones and don't have a landline," he adds. "We could take each other's calls, too."
"Now when people flirt with me I can tell them I'm already shacked up. I've always wanted to use that phrase. It sounds so blasé and yet so very dramatic."
"Wait, wait, who's flirting with you?"
"Doesn't matter," Riley says pointedly, turning her head sharply to lock eyes with him and pressing a quick kiss to his nose. "I'm shacked up."
He can't help but smile at her, elbowing her playfully. She leans her head against his shoulder, playing with his fingers as he takes another look around. "It's so weird that everything is so new. I mean, not new, but new for us. We have to break everything in. Like we'll have to break that stovetop in when we cook dinner tonight."
Riley nods. "And the shower when we get up in the morning."
"And the dishwasher. Although, I think we're pretty lucky to have a dishwasher."
She nods again, starting to ride a different train of thought now that they're alone and the dust has settled and the place feels more like their own. The way she sees it, they've got time to kill before dinner and they're in their own world now and Lucas is here with her. He's so very familiar in this new place and so very pretty as he always is.
And so very kissable.
"You know," she says with a sigh, trying not to come off mischievous as she leans forward to press a kiss to his cheek. "There are other parts of this very new apartment that we haven't gotten to break in yet."
"Yeah, isn't that what we were just discussing?"
She hums an affirmation, pressing another kiss just below his earlobe. "We haven't talked about our room much."
"Our room," he repeats slowly, tilting his head to lock eyes with her. "Still like the sound of that."
"Me too," she admits. She leans forward to kiss him, drawing it out a bit before pulling back and raising her eyebrows at him. "Now please understand what I'm trying to say here."
Lucas is obviously still lingering on the kiss, squinting slightly and glancing down at her lips as he catches up with the conversation. Finally, a knowing smirk ghosts over his face.
"Riley," he says cautiously, licking his lips and lifting his gaze to meet her eyes.
"Lucas." She smiles against his lips as he leans forward to kiss her back, breaking into giggles as he adjusts to press a couple of kisses to her jawline. "Please, do me a favor and take me to our room before I lose it."
"If you say so," he says gladly.
Riley wraps her arms around his neck as he does his best to scoop her up from her spot on the couch, both of them cracking up as they stumble their way through their new apartment to their very own room. No parents or friends to stress over.
No one but her and him and all the new things to break in together.
"Lucas, have you seen Judy?"
Riley darts out of the hall and scoots around the boxes stacked what feels like a mile high, already frazzled with how much left there is to unpack. It makes sense, considering how much distance there is between California and New York and how much they had to bring back with them—how much new stuff there is to bring back with them—but it doesn't make the thought of it any less daunting.
She finds Lucas on the floor in the living room surrounded by boxes, picking through the contents and trying to sort them into piles. Judging from the amount of kitchen supplies in the pile to his right, she figures he's going by room.
"Whoa, whoa," he says at the look on her face, a particular mixture of nerves and exhaustion. "What's going on? What's up?"
"I can't find Judy," she exhales, pushing some fly-aways that managed to escape her ponytail out of her face and trying not to cry. If she cries she'll make this whole situation worse and that's the last thing she needs. "I can't find Judy and you know that Josie can't sleep without Judy and all I can think is what if we left her in California? What if we left Judy in California and she never sleeps again?"
"Okay, okay," Lucas says soothingly, scrambling to his feet and holding out his arms to calm her down. "We didn't leave Judy. I know where she is. Take a deep breath, okay?"
"Don't tell me to breathe," Riley snaps moodily. "Just show me the sheep."
Lucas gestures her forward and steps around the maze of boxes, finding one on top of the stack by the front door. He gives her a pointed look before taking out his Swiss army knife to cut open the box marked Fragile. Once he gently pries it open and digs around a bit, he reaches in and produces a small, plush stuffed sheep from its depths.
"I put it in here specifically so that it would be treated with the utmost care and we wouldn't lose it," he explains, holding up the sheep and lightly bopping Riley on the nose with it. "See? Bah."
"Did you just bah at me? I thought I was tired."
"Here you go." He places the sheep securely in her hands, patting them with his own comfortingly. "Go give it to her. Everything is fine. Please, breathe."
"I'll think about it."
"You know," Lucas calls after her as she jogs back to the hall. "I can't believe you convinced our child to name their toy sheep Judy. Like, that's just mean."
"Bah," Riley says back, blowing him a kiss before disappearing out of sight and into the right-hand bedroom.
She automatically walks a little more softly as she enters the room, the atmosphere much more peaceful than the rest of the apartment and the only dim light coming from the bunny nightlight plugged into the outlet in the corner. Approaching the two cribs tucked against the far wall, Riley offers a smile and gently places the stuffed sheep into the tiny hands of Josie Grace.
"There you go," she says soothingly, stroking her cheek and casting a glance at the other twin, Violet, resting in the crib beside them. "Everything is fine. Now, please, sleep like your sister. Sleep. Please sleep."
"Very convincing argument," Lucas says in a whisper from the doorway. Riley glares at him over her shoulder and he grins in an effort to hold back a laugh, wandering over to join her. "Look at her, she's practically asleep. She can't even keep her eyes open."
"She's not the only one," Riley mutters, a little envious of her children snoozing away. Very happy that they don't have to deal with all the nonsense of moving all the way across the country like she does.
Even in her frazzled state, she can't help but smile when she feels Lucas wrap an arm around her waist and pull her to him. She's particularly appreciative as he gives her something to fall back on. She figures if she passes out from exhaustion, he'll be ready to catch her.
He presses a kiss to her temple, nuzzling his head against hers affectionately. She smiles wider, placing her hands on his arms. "Sorry I named the sheep Judy."
"I guess I can forgive you."
They're silent for a few moments, watching the twins breathe as they sleep soundly. Riley thinks maybe it would be worth it to remember how to every once and a while. Things are hectic now, but Lucas is with her and they'll figure it out together.
"Isn't it crazy?"
"What?"
Lucas shrugs, searching for the words. "That they exist. You know, that we like, made them. And they're here and breathe and… exist."
"Eloquent," Riley teases, tilting her head to look him in the eyes.
Lucas makes a face at her, giving her a quick kiss. "I think they're the greatest things in the world. That have ever existed or will ever exist."
"Me too."
"I'm very glad that they're our family," he concludes, tightening his grip around her and pressing into her hair.
Our family. She likes the sound of that.
"Analyn is here! We're gonna go meet her!"
Riley barely has time to process the words before both girls dart past her towards the front door, Violet leading the way in her Little League uniform and Josie skipping along behind her in a desperate attempt to keep up. They stop when they get to the door, spinning around to face their parents.
"You know, Analyn," Violet explains further, pouting a bit. "That best friend you're going to make us leave when we move away."
Josie Grace looks appalled at the amount of sass her sister is putting out towards their parents, but Riley merely rolls her eyes. "We will not be going that far away. Nothing is even going to change. Have a good practice."
"And tell Farkle thanks for driving this week!" Lucas calls after them.
Violet continues to pout as she storms out the door, Josie Grace giving them an apologetic look and conflicted wave of her hands before jogging after her sister. Lucas shakes his head as he goes back to looking through papers, a smile on his face at their shenanigans.
"What are you smiling about?" Riley teases, kicking lightly at him under the kitchen table.
Lucas raises his hands in surrender, pressing his pen to his lips. "Nothing, nothing."
"Speaking of moving," she prompts, changing subject and glancing at the spreadsheets laid out on the table in front of him. "How's the budget looking?"
"You want optimism, or do you want honesty?"
"That bad, huh?"
Lucas sighs, dropping the pen and rubbing his temple. "I just don't see how it's going to work based on what we've looked into and what we can afford. Adding another room definitely adds on to the price. And finding a place that isn't too far from where are now is hard enough."
"Especially within a manageable price range," Riley adds. She frowns at the weary expression on his face, wishing she could make it go away. "Adulthood sucks."
"You're telling me."
"We should just go back in time," she says dramatically, gesticulating into the open air to emphasize the point. "Take back the three kids, the apartments, the marriage and all that nonsense. Go back to seventh grade. Get my dad to put some convoluted lesson on the chalkboard."
Lucas gives her a look, smirking lightly at her tone. "You know I wouldn't change anything. Not for the world."
She smiles back, crossing her arms on the table in front of her. "Good. Me neither."
A moment silence passes between them. Lucas drops his gaze to the floor, twiddling his thumbs nervously. "Maybe we don't need to move."
"Huh?" Riley widens her eyes at him. "Are you serious?"
"I don't know," he says defensively, getting to his feet and pacing a bit. "Like, yeah, we have J.J. now. But we have three rooms, and we're lucky enough to have that. I'm sure we could find somewhere with four rooms so that everyone could have their own space and all that, but—,"
Riley watches him intently as he wanders into the living room, hesitating as he takes in the space. It's weird that they've been there for almost eight years. That him standing in that room feels so familiar to her.
"I kind of like where we are," he says softly, glancing at the window looking out at the city. "I like that we're an even distance from the practice and the school. I like that the twins love to play on the balcony outside their window and that their best friend lives just down the street. I like that we know our neighbors. I like that even when one of us has to work late or an emergency comes up and you pick up the kids from school I don't have to worry about you because we live in a place that feels safe, and feels familiar."
Riley climbs to her feet as Lucas collapses into the couch, slouching against the cushions and staring at his hands. She settles down next to him, propping her elbow on his shoulder as she pushes some hair from his forehead affectionately.
"We could live somewhere else," he murmurs. "But I like where we are. It feels like ours. It feels like home."
For as long as she can remember, home has always been wherever the other is for the both of them. Home wasn't a place, it was a person, and it's been so long since she's thought of a physical space actually representing that feeling again. But she knows he's right. This apartment, this pocket in the middle of the city does feel like home because it is the two of them. It's the place they built together.
Our home. Riley loves the sound of that.
"Then we won't move," she declares.
Lucas gazes at her, obviously surprised by her change of attitude. "What?"
"You're right," she begins, touching his face tenderly. It's a little wild to think about how many years she's loved this face. "We don't need some bigger space when we're perfectly fine with what we have now. I guess I just got so caught up in thinking about what we could do that it became what we should do in my head, but you're right. I don't want to go anywhere else. This is home."
The smile that blooms across his face is so worth the decision to stay. He leans forward to kiss her, still causing her stomach to flip in the same predictable way it has since they were in middle school.
"Do you think not moving will be exciting enough to soften the blow of telling the twins they have to share a room?"
Lucas cracks up. "No, not at all."
"Figures."
She leans into him and rests her head against his shoulder, eyes scanning the apartment around them. Admiring their handiwork, the home they've put together all on their own.