mistletoe (rilaya fanfic)
A/N: Here's a fluffy Christmas one shot for everyone! Featuring a clueless Maya and a lovesick Riley.
It was Christmas Eve at the Matthews residence and Riley and Maya were cuddling in bed, having their annual Christmas movie binge watching night.
The blonde haired girl nestled into Riley's neck and hummed in content when her friend stroked her hair. Maya has had feelings for Riley for as long as she can remember but she's never been brave enough to act on it.
"Hey Maya?" Riley asked softly, drifting her attention away from the flashy Christmas movie.
Maya looked up at her fondly. "Yeah?" She smiled. She could feel Riley's legs slowly untangle themselves from her own. Maya frowned to herself at the action and missed the warmth that Riley's body emitted.
The brunette pushed herself up on her elbows and sat up properly. "Have you ever kissed someone?"
Maya shook her head quickly. This question definitely came out of nowhere, she thought. "I haven't. If I ever kissed somebody, you would've the first person I told Riley."
Her best friend nodded in acknowledgment in silence. Riley's gaze was focused on the blank wall in front of her.
Reaching out to grab Riley's hand under the sheets, Maya intertwined their fingers and squeezed her hand tightly. "Who's got you thinking about kissing? Does somebody miss their cowboy? We can always FaceTime Lucas!" Maya offered in a fake tone. It killed her inside when she had to pretend to support whatever was going on between Lucas and Riley.
The taller girl chuckled softly but shook her head. "No, I don't like Lucas anymore, Maya."
"Oh." She replied, not knowing what to do with this new information.
"Yeah," Riley repeated. "It's just, um-" Maya slowly rubbed her thumb across Riley's palm to calm her down. "-my parents decided to put mistletoe up this year and I don't know what I'm going to do if I end up under the mistletoe with someone and I'm horrible at kissing."
The blonde held back a laugh at her friend's innocence. "You're being silly, Riles. You've kissed Lucas before, haven't you?"
"I guess-" Riley shrugged. "But I never told you how I really felt about it."
"Well, how did you feel about it then?" Maya pressed.
Her best friend shook her head in disapproval. "I hated it, Maya." She admitted. Maya jumped back a little, shocked by what she was hearing.
"What?!" Maya asked. "You told me it was perfect?"
"That's what I tried to convince myself. But I know now that I can't lie to myself about something that I don't feel. It was all wrong Maya, I didn't like how rough and thin his lips were or how his hair was too short for me to run my fingers through, or how hard her biceps were when I rested my hands on them. I didn't like any of it. It repulsed me."
Maya was shocked, to say the least. "Wow."
Riley nodded, slightly out of breath and tried to avoid any eye contact with Maya in case she made her feelings any more obvious.
"So what you're saying is that you want to be under the mistletoe with a boy who has soft, plump lips, long hair, and noodles for arms?" Maya asked, stroking her chin slightly. She was so oblivious sometimes.
Riley wanted to hit her arm so bad but her best friend looked too adorable with her thinking face that she couldn't even manage to look away from Maya's beautiful face.
"No." Riley breathed out. It's now or never. She told herself. "I want to be under the mistletoe who has all of those features and I know they would never judge me if I was a bad kisser or not."
Riley could almost see the imaginary gears turning in her best friend's mind as she tried to think of who best fit the description. "Oh! I know!" Maya said excitedly, like she had a eureka moment.
The brunette winced slightly and prepared for rejection. "You want to be under the mistletoe with coconut hair Farkle! He always used chapstick, had long hair and his arms couldn't not be more noodle like." Maya shuddered, thinking back to the time Farkle posed in her bathing suit in front of the grade 7 art class.
"All we need to do now is find a time machine I guess..." Maya trailed off. "I'll text Smackle!" The blonde reached for her phone in her back pocket, only to have it slapped out of her hand by Riley.
"It's not Farkle! How clueless can you be?!" Riley exclaimed.
Maya sighed heavily. "You're really killing me, Riles. I've exhausted just about all of my resources." She complained, pointing to her brain and knocking it. A hollow sound rang throughout Riley's room. "It's empty now! Look what you did."
Growing tired of this guessing game, Riley jumped up from her bed and pulled Maya with her by their still intertwined hands. "Where are we going?" The blonde questioned.
"Shut up." Riley replied in a deadpan tone and dragged her to the doorway in the kitchen where the mistletoe hung.
"Damn, okay." Maya muttered to herself.
When the duo were standing together under the mistletoe Maya only got more confused (if that was even possible).
"Peaches?" Riley whispered.
Maya nodded in response, maintaining her eye contact with Riley.
"Do you understand now?" Riley asked, speaking very slowly.
"Yes. You want me to role-play as Charlie so that you can prepare for your actual kiss with him." Maya answered. "Here I'll start, I've inherited a lot of my Mother's acting talent if I do say so myself." She gleamed proudly, puffing up her chest.
"Are you kidding me?!" Riley yelled, not believing who she was dealing with.
Maya was in the middle of practicing her lines when something unsuspected happened. "Hey Riley, my name's Charlie Gardener, cheese soufflé!" She acted out poorly with a squeaky voice to mimic Charlie's eagerness.
"Did you know that mistletoe is the perfect Christmas decoration?" Maya continued acting, trying her very best Charlie impression. "In fact, mmph-!"
The blonde was cut off by a very soft pair of lips attaching to hers, kissing her slowly, as if to test the waters. Maya immediately melted into the kiss, because how could she not? She sighed contently and wrapped her arms around Riley's waist to pull her closer.
When one of Riley's hand started to thread itself through Maya's long blonde locks, while the other trailed down to rest on her shoulder, Maya finally understood.
Long hair, soft lips, small biceps and someone who would never judge Riley for being a bad kisser.
Maya smiled slightly into the kiss, because Riley was the perfect kisser, how could she even be worried about such a thing? Granted, this was Maya's first kiss but at that moment she knew that there was no one else in the world she would rather be kissing than the pretty girl in front of her.
Little did they know, as the two girls kissed passionately in the doorway of the kitchen, they unknowingly gathered an audience. Topanga, Corey and Auggie walked into the kitchen to prepare dinner and were heart-warmed to see what was happening in the doorway.
The three Matthews clutched both of their hands to their chests and pouted at the adorable display of affection. "Aww!" They collectively whined together.
Immediately, Riley pulled away from the kiss and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. It was completely useless since her lips were already kiss swollen nonetheless. How long had they been kissing for? Riley doesn't know, and quite frankly, she doesn't care either.
"Uhh hi!" Maya smiled and waved innocently at Riley's parents and her little brother as if she wasn't just making out with their daughter and big sister right in front of their faces.
Topanga recognized their embarrassment and decided it would be best to let the girls figure out their feelings on their own. "Oh, carry on! We were just uh, making dinner, that's all." She laughed nervously. The two boys nodded in agreement, being useless as always.
The couple blushed a dark shade of red and nodded. Riley grabbed Maya's hand in silence and led them back to her bedroom and shut her door.
"Will you be my girlfriend?" Maya interrupted excitedly, before the brunette could even debrief what just happened.