Disclaimer: This was written based on this post. I'm no good at making graphics or anything, so I wrote a drabble instead. All characters belong to the GMW writers, producers, Disney, etc.
They've been friends for a few years now, and the more time that goes by, the more comfortable she gets showing up at Riley's house after school every day. She follows her home from school, plops down in her bay window, and they do homework, they talk, they play games... they do whatever they want to.
Cory and Topanga don't mind, especially as Katy starts working later and later shifts at the diner. The idea of eight year old Maya home alone, or struggling to get her homework done with only her aging grandmother as help, doesn't sit right with them, and they're more than happy to pick up the slack.
Maya and Riley have grown up since they met; they've made it through the My Little Pony phase, the jump rope phase, the Whooooo Dunnit phase, and Maya was sure their next phase was going to be Cuddle Bunnies, based on the newest stuffed animals Riley's been accumulating.
Except it wasn't... it was princesses.
Maya sits on the couch with Riley everyday after they've finished their homework, staring at the screen and rolling her eyes. Love is for suckers; watching her dad walk out the door and never come back taught her that young. The idea of cool, independent girls dropping their lives for a boy seems ridiculous to Maya.
Especially Ariel. What the heck was Ariel thinking, giving up mermaid life for a stupid prince?
Maya's never going to meet a prince charming. She's never going to think a boy is cute, or want to kiss him, or wait for him to get down on one knee and ask her to spend the rest of her life with him. Riley, though - Riley's eating this stuff up, and Maya hopes she finds it one day.
They're sitting through the newest in Riley's connection, The Princess and the Frog, when everything changes.
"I'd rather kiss a frog than a boy," Maya points out as a knock on the door interrupts the story playing on screen. Riley's in a daze, so entranced by the story, that she hardly notices, until Cory shouts, "Riley, can you answer the door?"
Maya's pretty sure not answering the door is one of the first rules that her mom taught her, but maybe it's different when you don't live in one of the safest neighborhoods around, and you don't have parents home to protect you if it turns out to be someone creepy.
Riley flings the door open, and Maya stands up to peer past the couch and see who's standing there. Riley's throwing her arms around people calling her their favorite grand daughter, and Cory's come from the kitchen with his arms wide as a boy not much older than Maya and Riley steps in and calls loudly "My brother!"
Dark hair, striking eyes, a smile that makes her stomach feel funny... Maya's knees wobble a little and she sinks back down onto the couch.
"That's your Uncle Josh?" she whispers to Riley when her best friend comes to tug her off the couch. She's heard a lot about him before, but she imagined him being... old. Ugly, even.
Not the first boy in her life that's ever made her eyes the size of saucers from looking at him.
"I forgot they were coming today, but that's okay, Josh can watch the movie with us, right Uncle Josh?" Riley asks excitedly, scooting over and patting the spot on her other side. Maya thinks that she'd kind of like Riley to let Josh sit in the middle, but for once, she's stunned too speechless to say that.
He joins them, though, and Maya keeps casting looks at him during the movie instead of at the screen. She blushes every time, but he doesn't seem to notice.
Josh cracks jokes at all the same parts that Maya thinks are ridiculous, but he doesn't make Riley feel bad for how excited she is when they kiss at the end of the movie, either. He seems to be pretty fond of his niece, even if he's barely older than her and thinks that princess movies are just as dumb as Maya does.
Except... maybe she doesn't anymore. Maybe she wants her own princess story now, and she wants it with him.
Crushes are so confusing, Maya decides later, but after Josh leaves she jokes that she's going to be RIley's aunt someday anyway. Those princesses always end up with the first boy they see, right? Josh is the first boy Maya has ever really seen as anything more than someone with a butt she can kick or as someone gross with cooties.
"He'll be back during spring break if you want to see him again, but you have to promise I'm still your favorite Matthews," eight year old Riley begs.
"Don't worry, Riles, you'll always be my favorite," Maya promises her when they retreat to the bay window earlier, Josh's smile still burned in her brain. Her stomach does a flip-flop again at the memory, and Maya adds in a sing-songy voice, "You've got dibs on being the maid of honor at our wedding and everything."