in which lucas and maya have been together for six years and still aren't married

"You look beautiful," Lucas whispered to her, placing a soft kiss on her cheek as gentle as possible so he wouldn't ruin her makeup.

"You don't look so bad yourself," Maya smirked, smiling up at him. He offered her his arm and she held onto it with one hand while holding onto her bouquet of carefully picked white roses with the other. They waited out in the corridor of the church until they heard the violinist began to play the song that signaled them to start walking in. Maya took a deep breath and walked in with Lucas, trying not to look at all the people there staring immediately at them as they came in.

When they reached the preacher Maya moved over to the left side of the small stage and Lucas went to the right. They both gave each other small smiles before turning to look at Farkle walking up towards them, looking as happy as they'd ever seen him before. Shortly after, all the guests that were sitting down stood up as Mr. Matthews walked in with Riley on his arm.

Maya teared up at the sight of her best friend looking like the princess she always wanted to be. Even though she was the maid of honor, Riley had refused to let her or anyone else see her that day and now she understood why. She wore a long satin wedding gown with a train that looked like it went on for miles and her hair was held up by a veil to completely show her face, glowing with happiness and excitement. It didn't seem like something Riley would pick out which added to the surprise factor, but she looked beautiful nonetheless.

Mr. Matthews gave her a kiss on the cheek and shook Farkle's hand, pulling him in to whisper a reminder that if he hurt her he and Shawn had no trouble going back to the shovel store. It was meant to be quiet but Maya and Lucas both heard and burst out laughing at Farkle's scared expression, earning a dangerous glance from Riley that quieted them down. Riley joined Farkle and after their wedding vows, exchange of rings and a kiss that would go down in history books (even more important than Belgium 1831), they were announced as the new Mr. and Mrs. Minkus.

Riley had really outdone herself with the wedding. Each table was covered with white table cloth and had beautiful pink roses for the centerpieces. Starry lights in the trees and above the dance floor gave the New York City rooftop where they were having the reception a special romantic twinkle.

Lucas and Maya sat with Zay and his current girlfriend at one of the tables, watching as Riley and Farkle shared their first dance to the wedding band's rendition of The Temptation's "My Girl", their "song" since they had danced to it at senior prom. Maya rested her head on Lucas shoulder and intertwined their hands as they saw their best friends dancing, feeling incredibly overjoyed to see Riley get the happy ending she deserved and always wanted.

"So when are you two getting married," Zay asked abruptly once the dance had stopped. Maya picked up her head to stare at him while Lucas gritted his teeth at what he had just said.

"Oh they're not married? But I thought you said they've been together for six years," his date asked, dumbly twisting her hair around her finger.

"I'm gonna go see if Riley needs my help with anything," Maya said quietly, getting up from her seat and rushing over to the other side of the room where the bride was talking with some of her family members.

"Really dude," Lucas said, obviously annoyed and upset.

"What did I say?!"

It wasn't the first time that other people had brought up marriage to Lucas and Maya. They had after all been together since their senior year of high school and had become inseparable ever since. Marriage technically did make sense considering they had been living together for two years, and although Lucas still had two years left of veterinary school, Maya had two stable jobs as a middle school art teacher and an independent seller of her own artwork. They'd talked about getting married before but whenever someone else brought it up to Maya she got really tense and awkward. He remembered the first time someone talked to them about marriage.

It had been during Christmas dinner at the Matthew's residence, a tradition that had started during high school and was still continuing throughout college. Lucas and Maya had just recently gotten a nice little studio apartment in Manhattan, equal distance from the university and institute that they were attending. It was smaller than they would have liked but Maya had managed to convince the landlord to cut the rental price in half and there really was no beating that kind of negotiation in New York. After some painting and redecorating they were finally proud of their new little home and were excited to announce the news of their "living-together-ness" at dinner.

They walked into the apartment that seemed to be getting tinier as the years went by and more people gathered inside. Riley had greeted them first, gushing about her semester in Spain while Farkle followed close by, who had come from Yale to surprise them. They asked Lucas and Maya what was new with them but they decided to keep quiet about it, waiting until everyone was seated at the dinner table to share the exciting news. When the time finally came and it was their turn talk, huge smiles broke onto their faces.

"Lucas and I got an apartment together," Maya shared, reaching over to Lucas's hand and giving it a tight squeeze.

The rest of the table began to react with small applause and bursts of "Congratulations", all of them sounding reassuring until one particular phrase caught Maya and Lucas's attention.

"Where's the ring," Katy said, standing up and going across the table to her daughter, taking her hand off of Lucas and looking at it all over as if she could possibly be hiding something.

"I'm sorry, the what," Maya said, pulling her hand away from her.

"Well, you are moving in because you got engaged right," asked Topanga, raising an eyebrow.

"No, it just seemed like the appropriate step to take considering we're almost done with school and have been together so long," Lucas replied, gulping as he realized how intensely Cory and Shawn were looking at him.

"So that seems like the right step, but proposing doesn't? Do you not take your relationship seriously," Shawn question defensively.

"It's not like that. It's just that-."

"Then what is it like," Cory intervened, cracking his knuckles.

And before they knew it the entire table had broken up into a heated argument about whether or not a proposal should have been made first. Riley, Farkle and Josh tried amicably to assure the adults that the world was different and things like this happened all the time while the adults tried to push the importance of an actual symbol of commitment to a relationship before moving in. Maya got up from her seat, storming off into Riley's bedroom while Lucas tried to follow close behind. He watched from the doorway as she sat at the bay window, head pressed against the glass and arms crossed as tears began to form in her eyes.

"Maya," Lucas said, pulling her away from the window and onto his lap. She readjusted herself so that her arms were around his shoulders and buried her face into his neck.

"I just don't understand why everyone always tries to define what our relationship should be," she said in between cries, "This is one of the few things in my life that I have control over and that makes me happy. Why do people insist on taking that away?"

"Hey," he whispered, taking her chin into the palm of his hand and wiping away a tear with his thumb, "No one is taking me away from you. Ever."

"I know, but they're all out there saying-."

"I don't care," Lucas laughed, "They can say whatever they want. We can mess up the order of how things are supposed to go because this is our relationship. And if we're not ready to get married, we won't."

Maya gave him a small smile before pressing her lips onto his, knowing how much he hated how salty her lips tasted after she had just cried, but laughing because he whispered a small "I love you" anyways. They stayed there enveloped with each other, the sound of a glass plate shattering from the kitchen bringing them back to reality and sending them rushing out of the room.

That night as Maya was laying in bed and she was smiling at the sight of Lucas asleep next to her, legs tangled together and arms around each other, she thought back to the day when she told Riley she was never going to marry Ranger Rick. The thought of it didn't seem crazy to her anymore.

"Attention non-married ladies," Riley yelled into the microphone. It was typical of her to get carried away and drunk at big parties but no one had actually imagined she would have gotten wasted at her own wedding. Several glasses of champagne and a couple shots of tequila later though there she was on stage, her hair messy and face flushed as she grabbed onto the microphone with one hand and her bouquet with the other.

"Gather around bitches! It's time to toss the bouquet and see which one of you is lucky enough to get married next like me! Except not to my Farkley-Warkley. He's mine," she hiccupped. Lucas and Zay stood at the side of the stage, laughing at everything Riley was saying while Farkle stood next to them, a slightly amused look on his face as he said to himself, "I can't believe I married her."

Riley turned her back towards the small group of women that had gathered around at the chance of becoming the next "Mrs. 'Something'", determination evident in each pair of eyes. After a small countdown from ten (minus the number six that Riley had apparently forgotten about it), she threw the pink roses over her head and into the crowd, the flowers landing perfectly into Maya's hands.

"Suck it," she gloated to the other guests as they all looked at her with annoyance and envy. Maya ran over to Lucas, wrapping her arms around him as he picked her up from the ground and spun her around.

"You proud of me," she asked teasingly, kissing him once her feet had touched the ground again.

"Hell yeah. I had made a bet with Zay to see which one of our girls would catch it. You just won me twenty dollars," he teased, slipping his arm around her waist and pulling her in for another kiss.

"Congratulations to you," she said with an eye roll. It reminded him of her reaction when they had found out they were getting paired together for their senior project.

Every senior had to do this project during the last semester where they would get pretend married and have to carry around potatoes as if they were babies and had to figure out how to make a realistic budget for everything. It was supposed to help teach them about "the real world" but all anybody really got was stress over the amount of work that was involved in the three week period.

Maya and Lucas had just officially become a couple and were still trying to transition from best friends to boyfriend/girlfriend, even though most of the time from the first day they met they acted more like a couple than just friends. So when their economics teacher announced that they had randomly been set up as partners, the entire class burst into a fit of giggles and saucy "ooo"'s. Lucas had been playing with Maya's hair like always while she had been mindlessly sketching away but when they heard their names they turned to look at each other.

"You hear that, darlin'. It looks like we're going to be married for the next three weeks," he smirked, winking as he grabbed her hand.

"Congratulations to you," she told him bluntly, trying to hide the smile that was threatening show.

The next day the entirety of the period was spent performing fake wedding ceremonies for everyone in the class. Lucas and Maya were the last pair to go, both hoping they would run out of time and wouldn't have to say the embarrassing personal wedding vows in front of their classmates. Despite being happy they were partners, they dreaded PDA and this charade of a ceremony only glorified that and even worse, was for a grade. When their teacher called on them they went to the front of the classroom and stood facing each other. Lucas suggested he would be the first to go, taking a tightly folded piece of stationary paper out to read from.

"I, Lucas Friar, promise to always be by your side for the rest of your life. I promise to let you put the TV on whatever channel you want. I promise to speak to you in French whenever you want because I know how much you like that. I promise to never tease you about any insecurity even though I promise you, you're beautiful the way you are. And no matter how tired or old or cranky I get I promise to always play our little game because it's my favorite one and I don't want to play it with anyone else."

Maya laughed a little, her eyes sparkling as she looked at him. She unfolded her piece of sketchbook paper and began to read from it.

"I, Maya Penelope Hart, promise that unlike a lot of things in my life, I will never give up on you. I promise to let you put country music on long car rides and try not to make fun of you for it. I promise to make you soup and try my best to take care of you whenever you're sick. I promise that I will try to not bring puppies home every time I see a cute one on the street. I promise to try. I will try for you. Because I enjoy our little game and don't want it to end."

The rest of the moment was a blur as Lucas ended up grabbing Maya by the waist and kissing her which led to heavy making out despite the teacher's failed attempt to grab their attention and resulted in detention after school for the remainder of the week.

The students had managed to get videos and pictures of the scenario and one very well taken shot by Farkle had remained their favorite picture of them. Maya was in a white maxi dress, her golden waves adorned by a flower crown and Lucas was wearing a white button up with his sleeves rolled up and some dark washed jeans. It was outfits that were worn on regular occasions but in the picture, it seemed liked they were dressed for so much more. Maybe it was the way the fake flowers that were temporarily taped to the chalkboard looked in the background or maybe it was the way Maya stood on her tiptoes, both hands caressing Lucas's face while he placed his hands on her hips and pressed her body against his. Whatever it was, it was something more.

The band began to play a sweet rendition of "Dream A Little Dream", the song that had been silently proclaimed as "their" song since their junior prom when they had danced to it together. The moment the song became recognizable Lucas and Maya looked at each from across the room, knowing that they had to dance to it together. Lucas walked over to Maya and took her hand, leading her away from the group and onto the dance floor. He put one hand on the small of her back and held her hand in the other while she put her remaining hand on his arm and rested her head on his chest. They swayed to then rhythm of the music, both taking small steps and just trying to focus on each other.

"Maya," Lucas spoke suddenly, stopping the movement and causing her to pick her head up to look at him. "After today, seeing our best friends get married and catching the bouquet and everything, do you think you'd like to marry me?"

He seemed nervous as he waited for her to reply. She smiled slowly up at him.

"Of course I do," she laughed before wiping her smile away and looking at him seriously, "Unless this is your way of proposing to me in which case no, you asshole, I deserve better."

"This isn't my proposal," he laughed, taking her hand and starting to dance with her again. She resumed her position again and giggled a little when Lucas placed a kiss on her head. His heart was beating fast. She could feel it and knew it was because of her.

Yeah, he was gonna marry her.

a/n: fun fact: i just really wanted to use the word "corridor" in a fic and this happened