She was beautiful, like fire was beautiful. Mesmerizing and just as able to burn you to ashes as she was to save you from the cold. Her lips were consistently stained the color of blood to go with the dark circles under her eyes that she tried to hide with makeup.
He watched her silently as she crawls through his bedroom window. He'd told her several times that she could just come through the front door, that his mom wouldn't mind because she loved that Maya visited so often, but she always chose to climb the trellis instead.
The smell of paint clung to the oversized t-shirt he'd let her borrow, three years ago, and her fingertips smelled of her favorite brand of cigarette's. She braced herself for his normal rant "Smoking kills, Maya." But all he could focus on was the purple bruising on her left cheek that she had obviously tried to cover with makeup, and the cut in her lip that by the looks of it the blood had only recently begun to clot on.
"Well Sundance, I'm glad to see you're up late on a school night!" She smirked and leaned over to shut the window. "This is a rare occurrence you-"
"Who?" He asked calmly, cutting off her sentence
"Who what?" For a split second her eyes pleaded with him not to continue, but it was gone in the next instance. Unfortunately for her, Lucas Friar didn't play games when it came to Maya Hart's safety.
"Who the hell hit you, Maya?" He pointed at her face, and internally flinched when she took a step back from him.
"No one, Huckleberry. I ran into-" She began what he assumed was going to be a bullshit excuse with which she would try to make him laugh and distract him from the emptiness in her eyes and the badly covered bruising.
"Don't you lie to me, Maya. Not to me." He interrupted her again. She sighed, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath
"You remember that guy who moved in across the hall, and you warned me not to talk to him because he was bad news? Well for once you get to say I told you so, because apparently his mamma never taught him the meaning of the word no. " She laughed awkwardly, absentmindedly brushing her fingers across her cheek. There was a moment of complete silence as Lucas stared at her in shock.
"I'm going to make him wish he was never born." He growled, turning towards his bedroom door, and immediately stopping in his tracks at the feeling of two arms wrapping themselves around his middle.
"Stay." She whispered "Please."
His breath hitched as he felt her lay her forehead on the middle of his back.
"I'm alright, Lucas. I didn't let him get away without giving him my own little present." He could feel the giant smirk on her lips through his shirt.
"That's my girl." He turned around, she kept her arms wrapped around him. He brushed his fingers gently across her cheek "We should get some ice on that." He smiled gently at her.
"Eh." She waved the offer off. "It'll be a great battle scar." She smiled and poked his cheek.
"Riley will want to know what happened." He reminded her, playfully batting away her finger
"Fine, we'll ice it tomorrow." She pushed him towards the bed "But tonight I'm tired. I don't know if I told you this, but I totally kicked some creep's ass." She flopped onto the mattress.
"Did you now?" He walked to the bathroom to grab a wet washcloth to wash her makeup off with.
"Yeah it was pretty badass." She curled up next to him, as he crawled under the covers with her.
"Of course it was, it was you." He smiled and wrapped his arms around her waist. She'd gained some much needed healthy weight over the past couple years since he wouldn't let her sleep unless she consumed at least one helping of each of the homemade dishes his momma made every night.
They lay there, wrapped around each other in the darkness, every inch of their bodies pressed as closely together as they physically could be.
"Lucas?" He barely heard her she was so quiet.
"Yeah?" He lifted his head a little.
"…Thanks." She turned over to face him, still wrapped in his arms.
"For what?" He asked, confused because he hadn't really done anything.
"…For wanting to protect me, for wanting to take care of me, for making me eat regularly, for pretending not to notice when I cry, for believing in my art so strongly, for making me laugh, for letting me call you those nicknames, for…for everything I guess." She stared at him for a moment, and then slid one hand onto his cheek and the other through his hair.
"Maya?" He stared at her, startled for a second and then relaxed into her touch. They touched each other all the time.
"Ranger Rick?" She smiled at him gently, and then leaned forward slowly.
The press of her lips on his was like coming out of the cold rain and curling up next to a blazing fire. His body knew hers so well by now that it relaxed easily into the bend of hers. Every movement she made he automatically followed. They were completely in rhythm with each other, and it felt completely right.
It wasn't shocking that Maya had kissed him, it was natural. Their bodies should always be near each other, always be touching if possible, and kissing was just a new way for them to be close, the next step they would obviously progress to. He didn't need to tell her he loved her, because she knew. And he knew she loved him back. It was written on every inch of her skin, it ran through every vein of her body, and sparkled back at him through the blue of her eyes.
"Lucas?" She whispered after pulling away.
"I know." He kissed her again.
She was beautiful, like fire.
And he was mesmerized.