Maya would have been lying if she said the knock on the window didn't put the fear of God in her. Her mom was working late and her ferret was not a deterrent to serial killers. But she was Maya Hart, and less than five seconds later she was spinning around towards the window with an expression that would put the fear of God in whatever degenerate had wandered onto her fire escape.

She felt her eyes narrowed and her eyebrows knit together when she saw who was outside her window. She stomped over to open it with one ink-stained hand.

'What?' She snapped, glaring at the intruder.

'That's, um, kind of like hi but different,'

'What do you want, Lucas?' Maya sneered, to which the boy just winced, like he was actually in agony. It made Maya feel marginally better, but not much.

'Is it later yet?' He asked, referring to her promise that she'd deal with him later.

'If later means I have to talk to you, then no, it's not later.' She replied with a huff.

Riley was forgiven. She understood why Maya had gotten upset, and maybe she didn't completely agree, but that was okay, because they were sisters not clones. And Maya had no doubt when the time came, Riley would stand up for her, as she continued to do for Riley.

And she was kinda over it, because everyone was insecure about something. Her being short didn't make her any less fierce. She was an Amazon warrior, even if she was smaller than most.

But Lucas had still said it. And it was loud, and public, and it was wrong. Beause sure, she teased him about being Texan, but he wasn't embarrassed about that, he loved his Texan roots. Maya didn't exactly love only reaching his shoulder. After all the time she had spent compensating for her size with her attitude (so what if she had a Napoleon complex?) he'd gone and ruined it with four words. She had never felt so inadequate.

'Maya,' he said now, sliding into her room like he owned the window. she considered trying to throw him out, but that would probably only showcase that she couldn't, and give rise to more teasing. She hated being so insecure around him.

'I just...' He started, looking at her like she was supposed to know what he meant.

'I can't read your mind, you know. You want to say something, say it.' She said, even though she'd have bet her meagre life savings on the next words to come out of his mouth. She didn't know how she knew, she just did. But he still had to say it.

'I know it's late, and you don't want me here, but I just came to say I'm sorry. I'm sorry that you fought with Riley over what I said, I didn't mean to cause that. And I'm sorry for what I said,' he said, looking sombre and suitably chastised.

'Go on,' she said, putting her hands on her hips. When he looked up at her, she jutted her chin forward. 'I know you're not finished. You've got something that say that's going to make the whole apology pointless, but you look like you're gonna burst open and splatter my room with a mix of fruit roll-ups, fried steak, and your Lonestar State underwear. Which I know you have, don't lie.'

Lucas opened his mouth and closed it again, then took a deep breath before speaking. 'I'm not saying I'm not sorry for what I said, because I am. Don't think I wouldn't take it back if I could. But I want you to know I didn't mean it as a bad thing,'

Maya rolled her eyes. 'Right. Because mocking someone about something you know they're not comfortable with isn't going to make them feel like you meant it as an insult?' Maya quipped. 'Would you insult Farkle's turtlenecks? Or the fact that Riley never made it through Girl Scouts because she couldn't get her Gardening badge?'

'Riley's bad at gardening?'

Thank you, Friar. That is so totally the point.

Maya shrugged. 'She couldn't bring herself to pull out the weeds. She said it wasn't fair to kill them when they were just trying to live too.' She said. 'But that's not the point.'

'I didn't know,' Lucas said, something grave about his voice. He wasn't looking at her anymore, and Maya couldn't help but wonder why he was so torn up over this.

'Why would you? Riley doesn't really like to talk about Girl Scouts-'

'I meant,' said Lucas, shaking his head, 'that I didn't know that you didn't like that you're...um, that you're, uh...vertically...'

'If you say challenged, I will maim you.'

'I didn't know you didn't like being short,' he managed to say, glancing up from his shoes to check she wasn't coming towards him with a heavy object.

Maya scoffed. 'Who likes being short? You think I wear those monster heels for fun? Newsflash, they make it hard to walk over subway grates, and they hurt. But I do it so I don't have to look up at everybody all the time. So I don't feel so...' She glanced away from Lucas to say the last word. 'Small.'

'I didn't know, Maya,' he said quietly.

'Of course you didn't. Why would you?' She said sardonically. 'I'm Maya Hart, you don't look me in the eyes, I can handle anything. I don't get hurt,'

'It doesn't seem like you do,' Lucas admitted, which surprised Maya enough to look up.

'What do you mean?'

'Just that, you know, you're Maya.' Lucas shrugged, looking even less comfortable. 'You talk to strangers on the subway, you jump on my back to stop me doing stupid stuff, you fight for your friends, you ask people on dates even though you don't want to go, you find a horse to rent in New York City, and manage to get it to a second floor apartment...I never thought something that insignificant could matter to you,'

Maya felt her lips purse. She wanted to smile for some reason. Oh, who was she kidding, she knew the reason. Lucas Friar, the guy who needed help to ask a girl on a date, and who in a few months would realize he'd forgotten to ask his unofficial girlfriend to the semi-formal (Yes, Riley was already talking about it), actually remembered things about her. More than that, he admired things about her. And it was that she liked him or anything, but he was a good guy, like, on Riley level of good, and he thought she was doing something right. That probably shouldn't have mattered to her, but it did.

'I don't want it to,' she said with a shrug. 'But I don't necessarily appreciate it being brought up.'

'Well, I'm sorry about that,' he said again.

'It's okay. Just don't do it again.'

Oh, but Friar wasn't done. 'I really didn't mean it as a bad thing,' he insisted. 'I mean, I like that you're short. No, not like, that I wouldn't like you if you were taller. You'd still be the same person, and I'd like you the same. I just mean you look good, as you are. You're...' he trailed off as Maya became increasingly confused. 'Proportional. You are super proportional. Crazy proportional, really.'

'And you're just crazy.' Maya said, and Lucas laughed. When the laughter died out, Maya didn't quite know what do with herself, or the cowboy in her bedroom. 'We good?'

'If you say so,'

'I say you gotta go, Lucas,' Maya said with a chuckle, ushering him towards the window.

He smiled at her again, and Maya fleetingly admitted she'd have forgiven him for chopping off her short legs with a smile like that. But that thought was fleeting, and silent. It was only when Lucas was half way out of the window that he paused.

'Wait a second,' he said with a frown, 'you keep calling me Lucas,'

'So?'

'So,' Lucas said incredulously. 'Where's the Huckleberry? The Ranger Rick? The Sundance?'

'Nuh-uh,' Maya said, shaking her head. 'Never again. That's what caused all of this, so I'm not doing it anymore.'

'Maya,' Lucas said with an eye roll, slipping back through the window so that he was sitting on the windowsill. Something about the way he was looking at her compelled Maya to sit down beside him, looking up at him with a quizzical expression. 'When I called you that, it wasn't my way of telling you to stop calling me names. I could have asked you to stop a long time ago,'

Maya nodded. 'But you let me,' she said with a small smile that she didn't consciously allow.

'Yeah,' said Lucas, smiling back. 'I let you.'

Just then, a car honked on the street below. One of those prolonged Hey-idiot-get-out-of-the-road honks. It made Lucas jump.

'I gotta go,' he said, nodding out to the fire escape. 'My mom is waiting,'

'Your mom drove you here?' Lucas nodded. 'This late? That was nice of her,'

'Not really,' Lucas said with a chuckle. 'I told her what happened, an she'd grabbed my coat before I'd even finished talking. I didn't really have a choice in the matter.'

Maya laughed. 'I always knew she raised you right,'

'Was that a compliment?' Lucas asked in shock.

'Yeah,' Maya said easily. 'To your mom. Now get out of my room. If my mom comes home and finds you in here you'll be a short stack of bones,'

'Night, Maya.'

Maya moved to let Lucas have the whole window to scoot his freak body back onto the fire escape, lingering to shut it when he started to crawl back towards the stairs.

It was pure curiosity, and maybe a tiny bit of masochism, that made her stick her head out into the cold night air just as Lucas' boots clanged on the metal steps.

'Hey Huckleberry?' She called, which made him turn around with a megawatt smile. 'Why do you let me?'

Lucas stopped moving, the shock on his face eminent. He didn't say anything, just looked straight at Maya with an open mouth. He closed it quickly, and drew his bottom lip between his teeth for a good half a minute, until he opened it again, ready to speak.

'You know what?' Maya said with a laugh, 'it doesn't matter. I'm just glad you do. Night, Sundance.'

She closed her window with a thud and drew the curtains, clutching them tightly. A gulp didn't quite quell the apprehensive nausea, but it would have to do.

And then, just in case the fool came back, Maya leaned over to her bedside table and turned out the light.