As Riley and her family made their way into Farkle's apartment for the holiday party, she scanned the crowd for Lucas and his parents. Or Maya. Or both.

Auggie nudged Riley and pointed towards the large window, where Farkle and Isadora were sitting, Isadora's arm linked into her boyfriend's. They were alone at the window, and seemed to be talking about something, but Riley could see the smile on Farkle's face and knew that whatever it was, they were having a good time.

She jumped as she felt a poke at her back and spun around to see Maya. She smiled widely. 'Hi! How are you? Where are your parents? Where's-'

'Whoa, slow down!' Maya signed silently, laughing a little. 'I'm good, my parents are over there talking with Farkle's mom, and Lucas isn't here yet, as far as I know.'

Riley giggled at Maya knowing what she was about to sign even though she hadn't done it.

Maya nodded at Auggie, standing by Riley, and he nodded back, signing, 'Hey Maya, what's up?'

'Not much. There's food over-'

Auggie spotted the food before Maya could finish, and was gone in a second, and Maya and Riley grinned to each other.

'Boys.' Riley shook her head.

Maya rolled her eyes.

'So how was your date?' Riley asked as her parents left to go say hi to Farkle's parents or something. 'It was too late for me to come over when you got home.'

'It was great, I think,' Maya signed, suddenly a little insecure. 'I had fun. I don't know how Josh really felt, but I think he had fun.'

'I'm sure he did,' Riley assured her. 'He went back to Philly a little while ago, to see my grandparents for Christmas, so we didn't get to talk yet. But I'm sure if he thought it had gone badly he would have said something. And besides,' she added, 'he likes you and you really like him. Nothing can be bad about that.'

'True,' Maya agreed. She looked past Riley, over her shoulder, and Riley turned to see Isadora coming towards them and saying something to Maya.

"Good, thanks," Maya said and signed, and Isadora smiled at Riley.

'Hey, how are you?' She signed silently, and Riley smiled.

'Good. You?'

'Good,' Isadora agreed. "Can you interpret?" She said aloud to Maya, and Maya nodded, beginning to sign. "Farkle and I were just talking and his parents said that everyone could sleep over on New Year's Eve, as long as the girls sleep in the guest rooms and the boys in Farkle's room. They do not want anyone trying to get home after midnight in the New Year's chaos after the ball drops."

'Cool,' Riley signed, as Maya voiced her words. 'As long as Farkle's parents are cool with it, I'm sure mine will be.'

"And mine," Maya agreed, signing as well as speaking.

"Alright, I will tell Farkle," Isadora assured them. She looked over Maya's shoulder and nodded to Riley. 'Lucas is here.'

Riley's eyes lit up as she spied her boyfriend, and as Lucas's eyes met hers, Maya was sure she could hear the angels singing like in a movie.

She frowned. Never mind; it was the Christmas music playing over the speaker. Gloo-oooo-o-oooo-o-oooo-oria.

"Hey," Lucas said and signed, hugging Riley as he greeted the three girls. "How's it going?"

"It is going well," Isadora replied, Maya still interpreting. "I should go back to Farkle, I will talk to you guys later."

'Bye,' Riley signed, and Isadora waved back, heading off into the crowd to find her boyfriend.

Lucas held out an arm for Riley, signing and saying, "Come on. I want you to meet my parents."

Maya could read the slightly nervous look in Riley's eyes, and she smiled a little. 'You'll be fine. They'll love you,' she signed quickly and silently, hoping that Lucas still couldn't read signs that fast yet.

'Thanks for the vote of confidence,' Riley smiled, squeezing her hand before taking Lucas's arm and following him through the crowd of friends, family, and business associates.

The woman's hair was the same sandy blonde as her son's, and she had a smile that seemed to light up her eyes as she spotted Riley and Lucas coming towards them. She grabbed the arm of the man next to her and said something to him excitedly, motioning to them. The man looked towards Riley and Lucas too.

"Mom, Dad," Lucas said and signed slowly, "this is my girlfriend, Riley." He fingerspelled her name and then made her name sign, two r's making a smile on his face, and Lucas's mom smiled.

"Hi Riley," she said and signed, using Riley's name sign, and Riley's eyes widened, seriously startled that Lucas's mom would sign at her. "My name is E-m-m-a." Her fingerspelling was choppy and slow, but the fact that she could spell out her own name in sign language was way more than Riley had been expecting. "Nice to meet you!"

'Nice to meet you too,' Riley signed back, still a little shocked, but in a good way. 'Thank you for signing to me, I didn't know you knew sign language.'

Emma smiled, as Lucas spoke Riley's words for her. "I took an ASL class in college, so I remember some basics, but that's about the extent of it." She signed only a few of the words in this sentence - 'ASL', 'class', and 'remember', to be specific - so Lucas began to interpret the conversation for Riley as best he could.

'It's more than Lucas knew when we met,' Riley signed very slowly, knowing that Lucas was doing his best to interpret, but had only been signing a few months.

"That's true," Emma smiled, laughing a little as she watched her son. "He has come a long way though."

'He has,' Riley agreed, reaching out to squeeze her boyfriend's hand when he finished signing her words.

Across the room, Maya sat next to Zay, sharing a plate of cookies as they watched Riley and Lucas with Lucas's parents.

"He's doin' ok," Zay mused, munching on a tree-shaped sugar cookie with green frosting. "All things considered."

Maya shook her head when he offered her a star-shaped cookie. "I'm trying to focus." She squinted, trying to read Riley and Lucas's signs from the side and between the people walking in her line of vision.

"What are they saying?" Zay asked, his mouth full as he bit off one side of the rejected star cookie.

"Lucas's dad is telling Riley that he works for a law firm." She leaned her head over to see Riley's hands. "Riley says her mom is also a lawyer."

"Seems like a slow conversation," Zay said, knocking Maya's shoulder with his own. "Think you oughta get over there and help out?"

Maya didn't take her eyes off of them. "No, I want to see if he can interpret a full conversation for her. It would be a big step in their relationship."

"Aren't you putting a lot on him?" Zay pointed out sympathetically. "I mean, he only started signing a few months ago."

"He's doing great, Zay," Maya pushed off his worries (the ones she was having herself, too). "He understands a lot - more than you."

Zay frowned, offended. "I understand, I just get-"

"Lazy?" Maya suggested, raising an eyebrow.

"It's exhausting to sign and talk at the same time!" Zay complained. "I dunno how ya do it."

"She's my best friend," Maya said quietly, finally accepting a cookie from the plate. "I'd spend a thousand years signing if it meant she could understand everything around us."

A/N: Sorry for the long wait. I got seriously blocked here and also on Nodus Tollens (I've been struggling to write anything on Nodus Tollens despite how much time I spend trying).

To the guest who told me to stop wasting my time writing To Write Love on her Hart instead of my other ones: creative writing is not like a time limit where you have to choose which stories to focus your time on. I can only write stories I'm not blocked on, and trust me, when I'm not blocked on them I do write them. If I'm blocked on Nodus Tollens or Anecdoche, it won't do me any good to spend time on them because I won't be able to write them anyways - I'm a writer, not a computer. Often, focusing on another story will actually help me to get past a block on the first story, and then I can move back to that one - e.g. I wrote a chapter on TWLOHH and was able to get past a block on Anecdoche.

Also, I don't write solely for internet fans and my main focus is not making you happy. While I love feedback, which is why I share my stories on this site, I am writing for myself because I have fun with it, and I don't gain anything from posting it - I post stories just so you can read it.

Other readers like To Write Love on her Hart, and I like to write it. Maybe start remembering that I am a human and that other people exist?

I am trying to get back to Nodus Tollens and I'm working on another Anecdoche bit, but no chapters I force out will be good or make any sense. So please. Be nice and be patient. Nasty reviews don't make things better for anyone - especially me.

Kisses,

C