12:35 am. Maya's art studio in a forgotten corner of the arts area of NYU. Empty pizza box besides them. Guffaws. Lots of guffaws. "Knock knock," Maya says.

"Who's there?"

"Eggplant."

"Eggplant who?"

"Aren't you glad I didn't make a stupid joke about fruit?"

"Oh no," Lucas says, grabbing his stomach. He snorts in his laughter. "That," he gasps, "was the worst one yet."

Maya smugly shrugs and declares, "I am the queen of bad knock knock jokes." They stretch out on the floor, trying to stop laughing get their breathing back in order. Lucas suddenly bolts up. "Maya, do you need-?"

"It's right here," Maya says, patting her jeans pocket. "I always have my inhaler, Sundance." *

Lucas grins. "I'm glad. Riley asks me to check up on you every now and then. She even made me carry and extra inhaler around just in case." He unclips his key ring from his belt loop to show her. "See?"

Gotta love my overprotective nutjob. Maya shrugs, shaking off her uncomfortable feelings. Even if she does have trouble trusting me. "She's very careful. Kinda balances out my own recklessness." Good thing Cowboy's never been great at picking up on sarcasm.

"You're her best friend. She just wants to take care of you," Lucas says. "By the way, how are you doing? With the trial over and everything?" He looks at her concerned, ready to pounce if she started to break down. With eight years of friendship, it's not like he hasn't done it before.

Shoot. Maya taps her fingers nervously against the floor. "Fine, I guess." She sighs. "He's out of my life, and he has a chance to put his own back together. The assault charges against me were dropped, because it really was accidental, so he'll be serving shorter time- only the charges for illegal drug possession stood. He'll serve a year and a half. Riley and I are asking around at her internship job for a counselor to help him get through life in, and eventually out, of the prison system. He'll be okay."

Lucas nods. "That's great. I'm glad Riley could be there for you at the trial. I'm only sorry I couldn't be there myself."

She's turned her back to him. "Yah. Having Riley there was wonderful." Maya's voice sours. "She's a radiant beam of light." When she realizes what she's saying, and who she's saying it to, she shakes it off and turns back to Lucas. He's staring at her with an angry glare.

"Why are you mad at her?" he asks. Maya rolls her eyes.

"Who ever said I'm mad at her? Stop making assumptions, Howdy Doody." Maya gets up and gabs the pizza box, walking to the door. "I have to throw this away," she says over her shoulder. "Be right back." The door closes.

Outside, Maya leans back against the wall and sighs. "Mr. and Mrs. Perfect," she mumbles. "And the screwed up friend." ****************************************************************

"What was that about?" Lucas wonders aloud. He stands up and paces around the room, irritated. How could she possibly be mad with Riley? Is she going into one of her "avoiding everyone" periods again? "Whoa," he suddenly pauses. He stands in front of the painting Maya had been working on before he came over with the pizza. At the first glance, it looked like a messy fusion of colors and swirly lines. If you looked very closely; however, at the bottom right corner, there was the face of a tiny gray girl, looking at the swirls, smiling. If you looked extra carefully, as Lucas did, you saw that the colorful swirls were faces- he could recognize himself, Riley, Farkle, the Matthews, and Katy and Shawn, all detailed excellently in bright colors. He turns at the sound of the door closing. "This is great," he says, forgetting he was angry. Maya nods, once.

"She's gray, but she's happy looking at her colorful friends, knowing she'll never be one of the bright ones," Maya muses.

So that's what it is, Lucas thinks. "Maya?" he says. She avoids his eyes.

"Listen, it's late," she says. "We should both be getting back to our dorms." She remains standing by Lucas, looking at her painting sadly. "It's nice, but it's not perfect."

Lucas picks up on her tone. "Maybe it doesn't need to be perfect," he gently says. She meets his eyes. "I think it's incredible already."

Maya sighs. "You're referring to myself aren't you?" she asks. "This isn't really about the painting."

"Why are you mad at Riley?" he asks.

"Is that what this is about? Riley?" she asks. She crosses her arms defiantly like she was expecting a challenge. "Look, you have every right to defend her; she is your girlfriend. But…" she stumbles. "It can be harder to be her best friend than you think."

"What?" Lucas says.

Maya shakes her head. Lucas can't believe what he hears next. "Do you really think I enjoy being Riley's 'damsel in distress'? Do you think it's fun always being the one she 'saves'? You know what that really means?" Tears are welling up in her eyes. "It means that no one trusts me to handle things on my own. People look at me like I'm this time bomb, just waiting to explode and mess everything up. Then Perfect Little Riley comes riding in to save the 'broken' girl. Whoopee. Fun." She waves her hand in front of her face. "I appreciate her and everything she's done for me. I do. I love her like a sister. But always being the one that has to be 'saved' gets really old."

She's right about the time bomb. People tended to look at Maya with a glance that said, let's just wait and see how you mess this up. Lucas had never heard her speak like this before. He takes a second to gaze stupefied at her before flicking her in the forehead. "What the-?"

"Do you know how ridiculous you sound?" he asks. "You honestly think YOU'RE the one who always needs saving? No offense Maya, but I don't think I've ever heard anything more stupid in my life." He grins. "I'll have you know that some of Riley's best qualities come from you. Don't pretend that you haven't helped her learn to appreciate her parents and Auggie instead of whining about them. Don't act like you're not the one who lets her cry and snot up your shirts. Don't try to deny that you helped her through our breakup, and that you convinced her to take another chance on dating. Thank you, by the way." He rubs his knuckles on her head, hoping he would get away with it. "Neither of you is perfect. Neither of you is a damsel in distress. You're Riley and Maya. You're friends who help each other. That's it. And no matter what any idiot has to think about you, I happen to know you are… you. Perfectly." Maya raises her eyebrow at him.

"Don't ever knuckle rub or flick my head again," she says.

"And she's back," Lucas says. "Thank goodness. Sappy Maya's no fun." He makes a gag face.

"I know. I wish I knew a certain cowboy that could rope her and tie her down," Maya jokes. She's smiling, but serious when she says, "I'm not gonna say thank you." Lucas nods. This is the way their friendship-real friendship worked. No need to feel obligated to say anything, least of all "thank you".

"You're welcome," Lucas says. "I never would've had you say it anyway." He picks up a tiny paintbrush resting in a cup of yellow on the paint dock of the easel. "May I?" he asks. He doesn't wait for her to respond. He dabs a tiny dot of bright yellow on the nose of the gray girl.

"Lucas!" Maya exclaims.

"You're turn," he says, and he dabs her on the nose. She looks at him with an exaggerated annoyed expression.

"This is an abandoned corner of the arts building," Maya warns. "If I beat you up, no one would come to help you."

"I'm so scared," he teases her. He expects her to chase him with her fists up, but she just rolls her eyes.

"Let's go," she says. "It really is late."

They gather up some of their stuff and leave the studio. The little gray girl seems to be smiling a little brighter.

AN: *This is a reference to a previous story I did.

I had to repost this; I wasn't happy with the original draft. So here it is! I will be updating with tumblr news later.