Maya was sitting in the bay window, scrolling through her phone while not really looking at anything. She had been there for an hour, but Riley hadn't gotten home yet.

At 10pm on the dot, Riley entered her bedroom through the door and set her bag down on her desk, took her coat off, and jumped when she noticed Maya. 'You scared me!'

'Sorry,' Maya signed apologetically (with a little smile). 'I wanted to talk to you.'

'How long have you been here?' Riley asked, coming to sit down next to Maya without changing out of her fancy dress.

'Not long,' Maya lied. 'How was your date?'

'Amazing,' Riley beamed. 'It was perfect and the restaurant was beautiful and he signed to me the whole time without talking and he gave me this necklace-'

Maya smiled, watching as Riley continued on, gushing about her boyfriend. She was happy for Riley, and she wanted to wait until she was done telling her about her date, but Maya also wanted to talk to her.

'-and we shared a dessert and he walked me home and kissed me on the cheek before I went inside,' Riley finished, sighing contentedly. 'It was perfect, Maya.'

'I'm so glad you had fun,' Maya signed, her own smile wide at seeing her best friend so happy.

'We're going to Farkle's Christmas party on Tuesday, together,' Riley told her. 'Lucas's parents will be there, and my family.'

'Farkle told me to invite my mom and Shawn too,' Maya informed her. Josh was leaving Tuesday morning, so he wouldn't be able to come as her date.

'How was your night?' Riley asked.

Maya hesitated, unsure what to sign. Now that Riley had finally asked her, her mind went blank.

'Hello,' Riley waved a hand in front of Maya's face. 'Earth to Maya?'

'Sorry, I just,' Maya decided to just rip the bandage off. 'Josh asked me to go on a real date with him.'

Riley smiled. 'I'm happy for you Maya. Are you excited.'

'Really excited,' Maya signed back. 'And nervous.'

'Nervous?' Riley laughed teasingly. 'You've been waiting for this for years!'

'Exactly,' Maya signed. 'What if it's not like I imagined?'

Riley paused, chewing her lip as her eyes flicked to the other side of the room. Finally, she signed, 'You like him and he likes you. There shouldn't be any pressure; just hang out like normal - except now, you're just a little more than friends.'

'You always know just what to say,' Maya smiled at her best friend. 'It really means so much to me that you're okay with this.'

'I want you to be happy,' Riley shrugged. 'I just…' She sighed. 'I wish you had told me sooner. I don't like when we keep secrets from each other.'

'I don't either,' Maya agreed.

'So let's not keep secrets,' Riley suggested with a small smile, linking her arm into Maya's.

'Agreed,' Maya smiled. 'Hey, by the way, can I borrow some of your makeup tomorrow?'

'Absolutely,' Riley grinned. 'You didn't think I would miss helping you get ready for your first date with your dream boy, did you?'

'What should I wear?' Maya signed thoughtfully to Riley, and Riley came to join her at her closet.

'What kind of vibe are you going for?' She questioned.

'He said casual, we're just doing dinner and a movie, but it's a date, Riley,' Maya sighed, 'I want it to be special.'

'So how about regular jeans but nice shirt?' Riley suggested, pawing through her hanging clothes. She pulled out a pale blouse with an embroidered off-the-shoulder neckline. (2x14)

Maya smiled, taking it from her. 'It's perfect,' she signed, and Riley grinned.

'What can I say, I'm a miracle worker,' she signed playfully.

As Maya changed into her date outfit, Riley opened her makeup bag and searched through it for her mascara and lip gloss, and handed them to her friend.

'You definitely don't need full face and concealer; this should be good,' she signed.

'Thanks.'

The girls picked out some jewelry as well, and as Riley was clasping the necklace around Maya's neck, Maya heard a knock at the door, and she turned towards it.

Noticing, Riley signed, 'You hear something?'

'I think Josh is here,' Maya signed.

Riley's face lit up. 'I'll stay here and leave after you go, so Josh doesn't see me,' she suggested, and Maya smiled gratefully, hugging her best friend.

'I'll see you later,' she signed nervously, and Riley giggled as Maya left the room.

Moving towards her bag on Maya's bed, she pulled out her phone and smiled as she noticed a text message from Lucas.

Want to go on a walk with me?

He met her outside Maya's apartment building and offered his arm out to hers to hold, and Riley smiled softly, placing her palm on his forearm as they walked down the street,

"I wanted to talk with you about the Christmas party," Lucas began, signing with one hand as Riley turned her face towards him.

'What about it?'

"My parents will be there, and they want to meet you," Lucas confessed.

'Is that a problem?' Riley asked, her eyebrows creasing.

"Not at all," Lucas assured her. "I just want you to know what to expect."

'And what should I expect?' Riley clarified.

"My dad's name is John," Lucas began, fingerspelling the name. "He's a good man and he's polite, but he's not going to be over-friendly. Just know that if it seems like he doesn't like you, it's just his personality."

Riley nodded to show she understood.

"My mom's name is Emma," Lucas continued. "And she's the best woman I know, and she's super friendly - you don't need to worry about her at all. She also took an introductory course in ASL in college, so she might know some basics, but probably not enough to have a full conversation. My dad doesn't know anything. But I'll be there the whole time with you to translate if you want, and I'll make sure we've got paper and pencils to write stuff down."

'How very accommodating of you,' Riley signed teasingly.

Lucas's eyebrows furrowed. "I didn't get that last word," he said and signed. "What's the meaning?"

'Sorry,' Riley blushed, 'sometimes I forget how new you are to ASL. That's the sign for accommodate,' she fingerspelled the word and then repeated the sign.

"Accommodate," Lucas repeated, mimicking the sign she made.

'Thank you for making sure I'll be able to communicate with your family,' Riley smiled up at him. 'It means everything to me.'

"Of course," Lucas assured her.

'Maya will be there too, so she can interpret for me if I need her to,' Riley reminded him, and Lucas nodded.

"So, changing the subject, I have a question," Lucas began, signing. "Why do you wear hearing aids? I was doing some reading about Deaf people-"

'You were reading about Deaf people?" Riley signed, beaming. The fact that he was studying up on her experiences, trying to know more about her culture, was amazing to Riley - that he cared that much. Add to that him learning to sign and practicing so much that he was mostly fluent in a matter of months, and the feeling of love was almost too much for Riley to bear.

She stopped her thoughts in their tracks, and rewound. She loved Lucas. It wasn't just that she liked him or had a crush on him; she was in love with Lucas.

She had never thought she would feel this way. This feeling of wanting to spend as much time as possible with him, being so comfortable around him, feeling the love from him - in his actions. Riley Matthews was in love with Lucas Friar.

"Riley?" Lucas waved his hand in front of her face, and she came back to the real world, shaken from her thoughts.

'Sorry, zoned out. You had a question?' She asked, blushing.

"I wanted to know why you wear a hearing aid," Lucas said and signed. "Because I was doing research and some Deaf people wear hearing aids and some don't, and it depends on how deaf they are."

'Okay, so,' Riley started, signing slowly in the hopes that he would catch the whole explanation, 'deafness has a range, usually by percentage. It goes from just a little bit of hearing loss - although we don't like that term, I'll explain that later - to profoundly deaf. People with some amount of deafness can sometimes understand speaking with a hearing aid. But, even if they can't understand speaking, hearing aids can sometimes help with ambient noise, which is good for like,' Riley waved her fingers, trying to think of the word, 'awareness of what's going on around you. I wear mine for two reasons: first off, with a hearing aid, I can hear a little bit of loud ambient noise in my left ear, like… a police siren. I can hear a police siren if it's close enough. Or a fire alarm. REALLY loud stuff. I'm told I could probably hear a gun going off but I've never been close enough to a gun to see if it's true.' Riley paused. 'Are you understanding all of this?'

Lucas nodded. "You can hear some really loud noises, which helps you know what's going on."

Riley nodded. 'The second reason I wear them is for hearing people to see that I'm Deaf. Deafness is invisible, so hearing people don't always understand, and seeing a hearing aid gives them a clue. Those are just my main reasons, though. There are lots of other reasons people wear hearing aids, even peer pressure from hearing people.'

"And do you ever talk?" Lucas asked cautiously. He had learned that some Deaf people talked and some didn't, and it could be a sensitive choice. He didn't want to offend her.

'I can talk,' Riley admitted. 'My dad made me go to speech therapy from preschool until I was ten, that's when my mom finally convinced him to stop making me go. I hated it because I didn't understand a lot of what the lady was saying and it was just frustrating for everyone. But yeah,' Riley nodded, 'I can talk. I just talk when I absolutely need to, like in an emergency with hearing people. I don't like it though.'

Lucas nodded to show he understood. "I don't care if you talk or not," he clarified. "Your signing is beautiful."

Riley beamed. 'Maya told me about how people say their voices are beautiful.'

"That's exactly what I mean," Lucas agreed, dropping into silent signing. 'Your signing is your way of talking, and it's beautiful and expressive and more amazing than anyone I've ever met.'

'I love you,' Riley confessed.

Lucas smiled. 'I love you too.'

A/N: I'm very sorry for such a long wait. Hopefully the long chapter will make up for it. (I intended it to be 2 chapters but realized that they would be too short separately, so I combined).

I've been trying to sit down and write for a few months, but I just haven't had the motivation. I fell into a really deep depressive episode as my sister went to college and I was kind of left alone missing our mom. Still climbing my way out of it.

Over the summer I worked on bits of chapters here and there but never finished them. That's why I posted several chapters to several different stories today - they all happened to be finished at the same time.

I posted chapters on Anecdoche, Nodus Tollens, To Write Love On Her Hart, and Petrichor. I'm also in the works for a The Original's fanfic (I got inspired by Elijah's nobleness and protectiveness and couldn't help but write something out). So if you're a fan of TO, go check that out. If not, enjoy my GMW updates :)

I've also got ideas for an Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D story and maybe a Criminal Minds story, but those are just floating on my fanfiction ideas document, so don't expect them. My main priority right now is Anecdoche and Nodus Tollens.

Please review :) Feedback means everything to me - even a single word makes a difference, trust me!

Kisses,

C