AN: Thank you all for the fabulous reviews, favorites and follows! I'm honestly blown away by how many of you enjoyed this! I hope this story continues to entertain you!

If I rated it by chapters instead of stories, last chapter would be K and this would be K+ or T so keep that in mind. I'm moving fast! Also I think I'm going to update once a week, probably Friday afternoons so you can get your GMW feels before watching a new episode Friday nights.

Keep up following, reviewing and rating!

After Lucas got over the shock of seeing the new Riley Matthews, he and the gang headed back downstairs. He was introduced to Riley's grandparents, Alan and Amy. They were both very nice and reminded him of Cory and Topanga. He had his first real conversation with Shawn and found the thing he loved most about Katy was that she was okay with him always going on the road for his job. He found out from Katy that she hated pretending to put on a brave face for him whenever he would leave. He had an interesting conversation with Riley's Uncle Eric about politics but it seemed that Eric only knew about people issues. He was also introduced to Jack, the good looking man next to Eric, who also happened to be Eric's best friend and Shawn's half-brother. There's something about those Matthews and Hunters. The tall red headed woman who was helping Topanga in the kitchen was named Rachel and she went to Pennbrook with the gang back in the day and roomed with everybody except for Cory and Shawn. Lucas probably had the best conversation with Riley's Uncle Josh, even though that itself was pretty vague. Nonetheless, Lucas enjoyed his time at the Matthews' residence.

Thankfully, everybody had made arrangements of their own for the night. Amy and Alan were going to stay with a friend in town, Jack, Eric and Rachel were going to stay at Shawn, Katy and Maya's apartment and Josh would stay at his place. That meant that Lucas could sleep on the Matthews' couch. It wasn't the best place but he had slept in worse. He remembered when he was about ten years old, he got locked out of the house because he snuck out to see the horses and had to spend the night in the barn with just a few stacks of hay to keep him warm. Yes, the couch was far better.

The only problem was Lucas hadn't quite adjusted to the night life of New York again. Luckily, Greenwich Village wasn't a very loud part of town but it was still much louder than Texas. He also didn't typically fall asleep until around midnight at the earliest anyway. He was studying with medical students after all. It was impossible to come back to his dorm with absolutely no work to do.

He sighed as he turned over on the couch, facing the back. He doubted this would help him since it was a tad suffocating but at least he could block out the New York night life a little better. After laying there for what felt like an hour he huffed loudly as he turned around again.

"Can't sleep?"

Lucas jumped as he heard the voice. He looked to the dining room table to see Riley sitting there eating the milk and cookies Cory and Topanga had left for Santa. Riley and Auggie had stopped believing in Santa Claus a long time ago but it was still fun for the parents to do and Riley wasn't going to complain about getting a midnight snack.

"Hi," She said as if she just saw him in the halls of John Quincy Adams Middle School and not like she had just startled him half to death.

"Hey," He said as he smiled at the familiarity of this exchange. No matter what changed, they could at least always have this.

"Do you want a cookie?" She asked as she picked one up from the tray after finishing the one that was in her hand.

"Sure," he said as he stood up from the couch and took a seat across from her at the table. Lucas hadn't been able to talk to Riley at all since their first look at each other since Riley's mother and come and informed the bunch that dinner was ready. Then, Lucas had been swarmed with conversation after conversation from everybody in the family and Riley also seemed preoccupied, but she didn't seem to miss the looks he shot at her. She merely smirked back.

"So how's Texas?" She asked.

"Pretty good," He responded. "I feel like a bit of a traitor to be honest."

"Why's that?"

"Well, I grew up a Longhorn fan. You know, University of Texas? And they are pretty big rivals with A&M."

"Oh, really?" She asked as she took another bit of the cookie.

"Yeah," He said. "It's like when the Knicks play the Celtics."

"Oh," Riley shuddered. "That's bad."

"Yeah," he said with a chuckle. Riley was by no means an ESPN insider but she knew more about sports than any girl he had ever met.

"What about New York? How's the family?"

"We're doing pretty good." Riley said. "Mom's still a partner at Elliot- Brown and doing well. She's on fire now actually. She won three court cases in the past day! And dad's still teaching middle school. He has Auggie in his class now. He keeps texting me telling me how awful class is and I tell him he'll live. But dad's actually up for a job at the high school now so maybe that will make more money. But Auggie's going to be so upset."

Lucas couldn't help but chuckle at that. He liked Mr. Matthews but welcomed change and having the same history teacher for more than two years was too comfortable for him.

"So are you still studying to be a vet?" She asked.

"Yeah," Lucas responded. "It's a lot of fun but a lot of work."

"Tell me about it." Riley said.

"Oh, really? Get that much work being an elementary education major?" He teased.

"I actually switched majors about two weeks into school." Riley said.

"Oh, really?" Lucas asked, intrigued. "What to?"

"Pre-law," Riley said.

Pre- law? Lucas had never pegged Riley as a pre- law type. Although her mother was a lawyer so he couldn't be to surprised.

"How did you get into law?" He asked.

"I had some free time so I thought I'd come here. It was either that or spend all the money I don't have. Well, I ran into my mom and she was leaving for court and dragged me along with her so I thought I'd give the court room a shot. It was amazing! She stopped an innocent man from going to jail! It just made me think I want to do that too, you know? I mean knowing all the trouble Maya gets into, and I've always defended her but I've never been able to defend her in front of any real authority. I don't want to have to defend Maya in court but if I have to, nobody knows her better than me."

Lucas couldn't believe the person he was talking to. The Riley Matthews he knew was smart but in a very naive way. This Riley Matthews was very intelligent and sophisticated and even funny. How could she make the court room sound funny? He would never know but she did.

"Anyway, that's why I'm awake because I'm usually awake working at this time."

"Yeah, me too." Lucas said. "That and all those horns and sirens outside are driving me insane."

"Oh, come on," Riley said. "It hasn't been that long, has it country boy?"

"Oh, god." Lucas sighed. "Maya is enough, not you too?"

Riley laughed quietly. "I'm not going to call you Huckleberry or Bucky McBoing Boing or Ranger Rick if that's what you're worried about."

Lucas sighed in relief. "Okay, good."

Riley laughed again. Even her laugh sounded different. It didn't sound like she was copying anybody she had heard in her life or on TV. It just sounded like her. It was beautiful.

There was that word again.

Beautiful.

They just stared at each other for a bit and finished off the last bit of the cookies before Lucas finally broke the ice.

"You've changed." He said simply.

"Oh, you mean my hair?" Riley asked as she reached up to her shoulders to grab at the ends. "Yeah, Mom and Dad said I couldn't dye my hair until I left the house. Not after that incident where I tried to be a nerd in seventh grade."

Lucas chuckled at the memory but that wasn't quite what he was going for. Yes, her hair was different and it too was beautiful but he was trying to convey a bigger message.

"No, I mean you. You've changed."

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Riley asked, suddenly looking small for the first time that night.

"It's a great thing," Lucas said as Riley lifted her head. "I mean you were great before but… I guess what I'm trying to say is change isn't always bad."

"Yeah." Riley agreed. "I'm beginning to find that out myself."

Lucas didn't know what she meant by that, but she smiled at him so he smiled back. Once Riley had finished the last of her cookie and Lucas the last of his, they each let out of yawn then chuckled.

"I think I'm going to go to bed," Riley said before staring off in the corner. Lucas looked after her but didn't see what she was looking at.

"What?" He asked. Riley then stood up and walked to the entrance of the hall. For a moment, Lucas thought she was going to ignore him and go back to her room. She stopped right at the doorway and simply pointed up before raising an eyebrow.

"That wasn't there this evening." She said. Lucas finally saw what she was pointing at.

Mistletoe.

Did she want him to kiss her? Is that what she was trying to say? Was she assuming he put it up there before he fell asleep? He certainly didn't. In fact he didn't see anybody back there since…

"Farkle."

"Maya."

They both said their best friend's names at the same time.

"I knew this was a scheme." Lucas muttered, but Riley heard him.

"Yeah, I thought they were acting suspicious before you came." Riley said. "I guess the king has been fouled."

Lucas sighed and was about to say good night until Riley said something to him.

"You know, I would hate to lose my scheming title to a scheme that didn't even work."

"W-what are you saying?" Lucas said as he felt his heartbeat start to race.

"I'm saying you are a law abiding citizen and I'm studying to be a lawyer and it's my job to enforce the law. It is a Christmas law, you know."

Lucas didn't know what to say. It was pretty clear what she wanted but he didn't want any complicated feelings with one of his best friends. He didn't want some random kiss to be the cause of years of friendship unfolding.

"This-this wouldn't, you know, be the start of anything?" He asked.

"No," Riley said instantly. "This is just me closing a chapter of my life."

"You're closing your chapter on me?" Lucas asked.

"No," She instantly said again. "I'm closing the chapter of my crush on you."

Lucas' eyes widened. She was ready to move on? He guessed he should have seen this coming. They didn't live in the same state at all anymore. Nowhere close. Even if he was sure he wanted a relationship with her, it would be unfair to ask for one long distance. She needed to move on from him and he knew that but he couldn't help but feel a little pang in his heart when he thought about it.

"Okay," Lucas said as he stepped under the mistletoe. He looked up to see she was mere inches from him. He could feel her rapid and random breaths on his cheek. Surprisingly enough, Riley was the one to make the first move by placing her hands on his chest, rising to her tiptoes and kissing his right cheek. He stopped breathing then. It was glorious. He felt like somebody had set fire to his cheek then mashed a large ice cube to the side. He touched it gently with his own hand to make sure it was real. Once he felt that it was, he figured he should make the next move.

Riley kept her hands on his chest while he let his encircle around her waist, resting just above her hips. He pulled her in a little closer to him and gently placed his lips on her forehead. He closed his eyes as he felt her soft skin with his lips and also felt her take in a breath that she didn't let out until he pulled away, seconds later. He then closed the distance between them and pressed their foreheads and noses together. He could feel Riley's unsteady and now heavy breathing against him and he was sure she could feel his too. He moved his left hand up from her waist to caress her cheek then moved down so he was cupping her neck. Her arms moved around to his back. He was going in to kiss her when she spoke.

"How was that, country boy?" it was a soft whisper that sent chills down his spine that he was sure she could feel.

"Amazing." He said before he could stop himself. "How about you, city girl?"

He felt her smile before she answered.

"Perfect."

That was the breaking point. He closed the small space between her lips and his. It was incredible. A fireworks show started dancing in his head as he kissed her. He had been kissed plenty before, but never like this. There was passion, there was heat, there was caring, there was love and there was even a little bit of innocence.

He felt her tongue demand entry and didn't deny it. The fireworks in his head were now bursting every split second, one right after the other. He had never felt like this before and if he were being honest, he didn't want to stop. He didn't need food or water, just Riley. If by some unfortunate incident he was killed right now, he would die happy. He wanted to stay here all night.

Her hands were everywhere, all over his back and his chest and his had moved into her hair, grabbing it as if it were the only thing keeping him upright but she didn't seem to mind. He could never have predicted what she was going to do next. Never in a million years did he think Riley Matthews would do this to him or any guy. But the next thing he knew, he felt her hips buck into his. He could not suppress a moan as she did this and he was pretty sure she could now tell he was enjoying this very much. He also figured out only a little bit after that, that he was going to have to be the one to stop this. He didn't want to but as much as some of him wanted to spend the night with Riley, he knew he couldn't. Slowly, he ended the kiss pulling back. He didn't even open his eyes and he dove back in for a quick peck. Once he opened them, he saw her staring up at him with those big brown doe eyes and puffy red lips. He could tell she wanted more but knew it was time to call it a night.

Riley must have caught on because she smiled softly at him and dropped her hands.

"Good night," She said. "And Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas, Riley," Lucas said as she went back to her room.

Lucas Friar would have fallen asleep with a smile in his face if he didn't know one thing.

Riley Matthews' crush on him was over and his crush on her had only just begun.

Riley Matthews went to sleep that night knowing one this for sure; it wasn't going to be easy to get over Lucas Friar.