Vignette Three – Storm

Author's Note: One of the problems with writing about a show that is ongoing is that we receive information about the characters as the seasons progress. Anyone trying to stick to canon will tell you how difficult it is to navigate through information from the show that directly contradicts one's story.

That being said, I'm going on the assumption that Lucas has no siblings. Unless there's something I've missed on the show. If so, please let me know!

Also, I'm using these vignettes as a workshop for a longer story later but I want to know what people liked. So PLEASE drop a review and tell me what you enjoyed! 3

"Daddy, nothing is going to happen. Would you relax? If you and mom want to call me every 30 minutes then by all means," a slightly frustrated Riley Matthews tells her father over the phone. She is sitting in a cramp train with a storm progressing outside. Her father is understandably upset that she has left their apartment during what could possibly be one of the worst storms in New York City history. But she had to, there was no other choice.

"Look, mom said it was fine and she trusts me and you need to do the same. Everything is going to be fine. Anyway, I'm sure if you were in my situation, you wouldn't think twice about doing the same thing," she argues. When her father goes silent, she knows she has won. Reluctantly, he tells her that she can go but that he's going to call every hour on the dot for as long as they have cellphone service. Riley nearly tears up at her father's concern and understanding. "I love you, daddy. Tell mommy and Auggie I love them too. Please be safe during the storm," she says before ending the call.

Without her father as a distraction, she goes back to thinking about the reason she leaves home in the middle of a storm.

Oddly, the storm outside parallels the perfect storm of events that lead Riley to sit in a train.

Over the last week, the flu had been going around Abigail Adams High School. Many of her classes had been about 20% less populated than usual. People were dropping like flies, including Maya, Farkle, Zay, and Smackle. All four of them had been out since the middle of the week.

She and Lucas somehow made it through the week without even a single symptom. His parents were relieved, not only because their son was fine but also due to the fact that their anniversary Eurotrip happened to fall on that weekend. They left him on Friday morning with a kiss on his sleeping brow and a generous amount of spending money.

Friday started out fine: Lucas met her at school and they spent the day together. They carried hand sanitizer and avoided touching doorknobs and most surfaces. Everything was going well until Zay's science teacher asked Lucas if he could drop off Zay's homework to him. Without hesitation, Lucas accepted the task.

Although Lucas spent about two hours playing video games with his highly contagious friend, he didn't catch the flu. He even had dinner with Zay's family who were all just as sick.

He did, however, get a fever from walking home in the rain for nearly an hour. Why did he walk in the rain? He lost his subway card and couldn't afford to get a new one because he left the money his parents gave him at home.

So Lucas Friar, a normally robust 17-year-old boy, came down with a fever, which was caused by a storm that began to brew over New York City that Friday afternoon.

And his parents were gone.

And he wouldn't admit he was sick until Riley forced him to video chat with her so that she can access him visually. As she expected, he was sweating like he was in a sauna instead of a posh New York City condominium. His eyes were red-rimmed and his lips were chapped.

As soon as she hung up, she was packing a bag filled with clothes, hygiene products, a flashlight, extra batteries, and an array of food. She was preparing to cook him a large pot of her grandmother's chicken soup, which had magical properties that could cure any sickness. Well, most sicknesses.

So Riley Matthews sits in a cramp train in the middle of the night in order to save her boyfriend in distress.

When she arrives at his place, she sees that she hasn't come a moment too soon. He answers the door wrapped in a large comforter over his head. He smiles weakly at her through the hole in the blanket he leaves for his face. "I hate that you came here in the middle of the night during a storm but I'm also really glad you're here, Riley," he croaks.

Before saying a single word, she smiles toothily at him and slowly pulls out her phone to take a picture of him to send to all their friends and family. When he gives an embarrassed groan, she giggles, puts her phone away, and wraps her arms around his overly warm body. Looking up at him with her head on his chest, she says, "I'm really happy I'm here despite the circumstances."

The moment he lets her in, she springs in to action. First, she makes him sit on the couch and gives him the task of keeping an eye on the weather on TV. This task, of course, is a ruse to keep him occupied as she goes to work on her grandmother's soup.

After she gets the broth going and it begins to simmer, she returns to her charge. His eyes are closed and he shivers under his one-person blanket fort. She touches his face and wakes him up gently, "Lucas, your clothes are soaked and you really need to change out of them. I'm going to give you some medicine but I need to know if you ate something. I don't want you taking pills on an empty stomach, honey."

He gives her the best half smile he could muster and says, "You called me honey. Have I ever told you that I secretly love it when you call me honey?"

Riley giggles and replies, "Well, I wouldn't know that, now would I? Especially, since you secretly love it."

"Riley, please don't tell Zay I said that. He's gonna tease me for days," he pouts. Like a cat, he rubs his face into her palm and closes his eyes. Riley is starting to realize that Lucas isn't entirely himself. Or rather he is himself but without inhibitions. She plans on taking advantage of this more malleable Lucas but first things first.

"Lucas, did you eat yet?"

"I ate at Zay's a few hours ago but threw it all up. The food was good when I ate it but it didn't taste very good when I vomited it."

Riley wrinkles her nose at his description but laughs and shakes her head at the absurdity of his train of thought. "The food will be ready in another 30 minutes and you're going to change out of what you're wearing. Do you want me choose something or you can go to your room?" she asks.

In reply, he raises himself up and walks to his room on the second floor. His footsteps are uneasy, so Riley follows after him to make sure he doesn't fall or bump into anything valuable. When he gets to his room, he drops the blanket and reveals that he's wearing plaid pajama bottoms and a soaked shirt. As if forgetting that she's in the room, he forgoes modesty and takes off his shirt.

While Riley has seen him shirtless, she has never seen him half-naked in a bedroom. She starts thinking that this is exactly the situation her father is worried about it. She knows she should look away and give him privacy but her boyfriend's back muscles deserve to be studied for a second.

Lucas finds a t-shirt and turns to her to change. Because his muscles feel so weak, he's slow to raising his arms and putting on his shirt. For him, this situation is a struggle and further proof that he's sick. For her, she's being treated to an exclusive show starring his six-pack abs. Nervously says, "Uh, Lucas, I'll be in the kitchen. See you!" She runs out of the room and straight to the kitchen.

No one should be that sick and still look amazing. NO ONE.

While the food finishes cooking, Lucas is on the couch eating a popsicle. Riley finds the image of her sports star boyfriend who was as strong as a horse and didn't work at it sitting on his couch in his jammies just watching cartoons. She snaps another picture as evidence and sends it again to friends and family.

"Rileyyyy! Is it finished yet?" he calls from the living room as she stirs the pot.

"Sorry, honey, just a few more minutes!"

"Like how many more minutes? Is it going to be much longer?" he whines. Before she could get irritated with him for trying to rush her, he adds, "I miss you. Forget the soup if it's going to keep you away too long. You've been gone for too long."

Riley puts a fist to her mouth to keep from squealing with joy and grabs the counter to keep from swooning. Lucas is usually a pretty attentive boyfriend, but being sick is making him an extra mushy attentive boyfriend.

"Lucas, I'll be there in a bit. I just want to be sure all the chicken has been cooked through. Why don't you choose a movie for us to watch? We may lose power or Internet, we should make the most of it!"

He's silent for a moment to consider her suggestion then replies, "Okay, just try not to take long." Even if she doesn't see it, she can tell he's pouting.

Smiling to herself, she stirs the soup a few more times before deciding it's adequately finished. She spoons the soup into two bowls, giving him more broth than food knowing that his stomach would be too weak for too many solids. She garnishes the soup with a sprig of rosemary from Lucas' mom collection. Grabbing two Tylenol and a large glass of water, she adds them to the tray she brings to the living room.

When Riley arrives in the living room, Lucas is still looking for a movie on various streaming services. He turns to her with a smile and watches as she carefully places the tray of food on the coffee table. Lucas quickly chooses Beauty and Beast and starts it.

They sit on the floor beside the coffee and prepare to eat. Riley turns to him curiously and asks, "Why did you choose this one?" He usually opts for action or superhero movies.

"Well, I know it's one of your favorites and I think it matches the weather right now," he explains. "They all get caught up inside the castle because of a storm. Belle comes to save the beast and takes care of him, kinda like what you're doing right now."

"Aw Lucas, you're so corny when you're sick. I love it," Riley gushes. She leans forward and kisses the corner of his lips. Turning her attention back to the soup, she says, "Well, I hope you like this. My grandmother taught me how to make it. You'll take some medicine after."

Lucas takes a spoonful, blows on it, and slowly brings it to his mouth. When the healing warmth of the broth spreads through his body, he says, "Riley, I think this is just what I needed. Soup, some medicine, and you. But especially the last one. Thank you so much, sweetheart."

Riley smiles and blushes at him. "Isn't this part of caring about someone? Making sure their needs are taken care of?" she replies simply.

They continue to watch the film and when Riley sees that Lucas is done eating, she prompts him to take the medicine. After about 30 minutes, the pills begin to make him drowsy and he moves to the couch.

"Riley, can you sit up here with me?"

With her attention focused on the TV, she wordlessly acquiesces and sits one end of the couch. As soon as she's settled, Lucas takes one of the pillows he brought from his room and places it on Riley's lap. Before she should protest, he puts his head down and snuggles against her lap.

"I see what you did there, Friar. You wanted me to be your pillow!"

Smiling mischievously at her, he says, "Yes, ma'am. The best kind of pillow for a sick young man on the mend." Feeling satisfied with himself, he returns his attention to the screen. Shaking her head at him, she does the same. As if by instinct, she gently runs her fingers through his hair and lightly scratches his scalp. Before long, the action puts him to sleep.

When the film ends, Riley yawns. She looks at the clock on her phone and it tells her it's about one in the morning. She carefully raises Lucas' pillow so that she can slip out and gently places it back down to the couch. The movement wakes him and he blinks at her groggily, "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to brush my teeth and go to sleep. You rest, I'll be near by," she answers.

Scrunching his brows, he asks, "Where are you going to sleep?"

"I was gonna sleep in your bed since you've set up camp here."

Sitting up quickly, which causes his head to spin momentarily, he says, "Well, then, I'm going to sleep there too."

"Then I'm sleeping here," she replies in amusement.

"Then I'm sleeping here too."

"Then I'm sleeping there."

"Then I'm sleeping there too!"

Squinting her eyes at him in mock suspicion and folding her arms, she says, "Lucas Friar, did you get yourself sick on purpose so that I would somehow end up in your bed?"

Throwing his head back and laughing, he retorts sarcastically, "Oh yes, I also made it stormy outside so that I could set the mood for the seduction! You caught me!"

She giggles and thinks on the situation. He's genuinely sick and nothing would or could happen, she thinks to herself. She also trusts him and knows he would never disrespect her. She also trusts herself. She's her mother's daughter and knows how to set limits in a relationship. After a few more moments of consideration, she stretches her hand out to him as a sign of relenting.

He happily takes her hand and lets her to lead him to his bedroom. Although he can barely keeps his eyes open, his dazed brain registers the significance of this situation. Riley Matthews, the girl who always makes an appearance in his best dreams, is trusting him and going to sleep in bed with him at the place where he usually has said dreams. His heart speeds up at the realization and his affection for his girlfriend grows exponentially.

While Riley goes to the restroom to do her nightly ablutions, he pulls out a fresh comforter from his closet for her. He gets into bed and tries to stay awake to wait for her. Due to his fever, however, he knocks out before she finishes. When she returns to his bedroom, she gets under the blanket he leaves out for her. Turning herbody towards Lucas, she studies his face.

He is beautiful, to be sure, but she knows that's not the only reason she feels deeply for him. She has seen so many cute boys but she has never felt for them the she feels for Lucas. A pretty face means nothing without a good heart. His kindness, loyalty, fortitude, and gentleness make her heart do somersaults, not his face. While the rest of her body responds to him physically, it's what he does and says that really makes her swoon. He's always trying to take care of her even in the littlest ways and she rarely gets to return the favor. She hates that she's sick, but she's glad that she's able to show him how much she cares. She hopes that over the course of their relationship that they will have more opportunities to take care of one another like this.

Scooting a little closer to him in bed, she whispers softly, "Lucas Friar, I love you and will always take care of you."

Although Lucas is asleep and unable to respond, his body seems to react to her confession because his arms reach out to her and pull her close. Turning over, she allows him to spoon with layers of blankets between them.

The storm with its lightning and thunder does nothing to disrupt the peaceful world they create. They sleep soundly and deeply in the comfort of each other's arms. When Lucas' fever breaks and he wakes, he is slightly surprised to find himself clutching his girlfriend. Instead of releasing her, however, he decides to go back to sleep so that he would have an excuse to hold her like this for a little longer.