fandom: girl meets world
ship: riley matthews x lucas friar
word count: 3,729
summary: lucas keeps looking for excuses to talk to riley, who’s working as a elf at the santa claus display at the mall.
notes: so this is just a lil something that i was thinking about earlier today and i thought it would be fun to write, so viola!! basically it’s just a fluffy lil one shot where lucas thinks riley is adorable when he meets her while she’s working at the mall as an elf for santa, and he keeps looking for an excuse to talk her, which eventually works out in his favor. it’s an au where they’ve never met before and i think it came out pretty cute so let me know what you think!!! enjoy y’all!!
There were truly a million other places that Lucas would rather be only a week before Christmas, then the mall. There were crowds the size of Texas (trust him, he would know), and it seemed as though everyone had completely forgotten their manners and didn’t mind pushing their way through masses of people just to get the best deal on something. The whole atmosphere was really not Lucas’ scene, but he really didn’t have much of a choice. Because, he was being a good big brother, and taking his younger sister to see Santa Claus.
His mom had been working most of the week, taking on more hours so she could insure that she would have the entire holiday week off, and his dad was in Texas until the 23rd, when it would be too late to go. It’s not that Lucas minded, he loved his sister and would do basically anything for her, it’s just, there were so many people, it had taken him nearly fifteen minutes to find a parking spot, and Lucas was a little overwhelmed.
Gripping his hand a little tighter on Lucy’s hand, he could see the Santa Claus display just up ahead and he breathed a sigh of relief. There looked to be a pretty long line, but Lucas hardly cared at this point, they had walked almost the entire length of the mall and he would happy to be standing in one place. Lucy was practically bouncing with excitement and the whole sight brought a smile to Lucas’ face.
Once they were secured in line and the friendly elf at the end of the line had taken his photo money, Lucas scanned the display and was pretty impressed. There was a tree and a large chair for Santa to sit in. Candy canes were around the perimeter and there were fake presents littering the red and green floor. Mall Santa was currently talking to a group of younger boys and Lucas could see a women behind the camera, but it was the elf that was at the front of the line that really caught Lucas’ eye.
She was dressed head to toe in a green dress with red striped tights and a green and red pointed hat resting on top of her head. Her long brown hair was cascading down her shoulders and she had a bright smile that made Lucas weak in the knees. He could have stood there and stared at her all day long, and he probably would have if Lucy hadn’t tugged on his arm to get his attention.
“Lukey, how much longer are we going to be standing here?”
“Shouldn’t be too much longer, bug. We’re getting pretty close to the front.” That seemed to satisfy her, as she nodded and began swaying in space, bringing a smile to Lucas’ face. It didn’t take them long to move their way to the front of the line and by the time they got there, Lucy was practically buzzing with anticipation and Lucas was now face to face with the cute elf.
“Why hello there!” She greeted cheerily, looking at both Lucas and Lucy with a wide smile on her face. Lucas couldn’t help but smile back at her, his heart racing slightly in his chest. She was even prettier in person and for a moment, Lucas forgot why they were even there to begin with.
“Hi, are you an elf?” Lucy asked, looking up at the girl with a curious look on her face. The girl smiled down at Lucas’ sister and then looked at Lucas with a smirk on her face.
“That I am, my name is Elf Riley, what’s your name?” This time, the girl, Riley, knelt to the ground so she could look Lucy in the face.
“My name is Lucy and this is my brother Lukey.” Lucy said, flashing her brother a cheeky grin, causing him to go red in the face.
“Well it’s very nice to meet you Lucy, it looks like it’s your turn to meet Santa Claus, so let’s go.” Taking Lucy by the hand, and leading Lucas’ younger sister to Santa, he smiled at the sight. Moving towards the camera, he was surprised when Riley stood next to him.
“Your sister is so cute, Lukey.” She raised her eyebrow at him slightly, a smirk on her face. Lucas blushed red, he loved his sister but she had a knack for introducing him to people as Lukey, when in reality she was the only one who was allowed to call him that.
“It’s Lucas, actually.” He said, and she smiled at him. At that moment, he was fairly certain that Riley was the cutest girl he had seen in his entire life, and the elf costume was definitely making her even more adorable.
“Nice to meet you Lucas.” Was all that Riley had the chance to say before Lucy was crawling off of Santa’s lap and running into Lucas’ arms. He turned to say goodbye, but Riley was already at the front of the line again, bringing the next kid to Santa.
“Come on Lukey, we need to get home and show mama my picture.” Snapping his attention away from Riley, Lucas smiled at his sister and carried her off the set. As he grabbed her (very adorable) picture with Santa, he cast one last look at Riley, who was still smiling at everyone in line, before grabbing his sister’s hand and leading them back through the crowd.
…
A couple days later, Lucas found himself back at the mall, only this time he had his best friend Zay by his side as opposed to his sister. Both of them were in desperate need of some last minute shopping and neither one of them were in a hurry to return back to their houses so they were ambling slowly from store to store, sometimes buying something but mainly just looking at everything before moving on to the next store.
When they reached the large Santa display in the middle of the mall, Lucas didn’t pay it half a mind, until he noticed a very familiar elf standing at the front of the line, her million watt smile on full display. This time, she had on a green and red jumpsuit type thing, with a pair of reindeer antlers resting on her head, and Lucas couldn’t help the grin that found itself on his face as he looked at her.
“What the hell are you smiling at?” Zay asked, trying to follow Lucas’ eyes, confusion written all over his face.
“Nothing, wanna get our picture taken with Santa?” Lucas asked. He knew that it sounded ridiculous, but now that he was here, he really wanted to talk to Riley again and considering he had no idea how long she had to be here, and all he knew about her was that her name was Riley and she worked as a mall elf, standing in the line would be his only opportunity to talk to her.
“Dude, what the hell? Get our picture taken with Santa Claus? Have you been spending too much time with your sister, because we’re 18 Luke, not five.” Lucas knew that Zay had a point and he really didn’t want to get his picture taken with Santa, but he knew that Zay would make fun of him even more if he found out the true reason that Lucas wanted to stand in that line.
“Come on man, our moms would love it. When was the last time you had your picture taken with Santa, it’ll be nostalgic.” Lucas smiled, but so far Zay didn’t look like he was budging on the subject. “Fine. I’ll buy you whatever you want for Christmas and you can pick out the next five movies that we go to.”
A small smile spread on Zay’s face and Lucas knew that he had gotten his friend to agree, so he paid the first elf and got into line, Zay right behind him. The line wasn’t nearly as long as it had been the other day and it wasn’t long before Zay and Lucas were at the front of the line.
“Lucas! I wasn’t expecting to see you here again.” Riley smiled brightly at him and Lucas couldn’t help but grin at the fact that she remembered him. He could feel Zay’s eyes on him thought and knew that Zay had realized why they had just stood in that line for 20 minutes. “Did you not bring your sister back with you?” She cocked her head to the side slightly, her face frowning in confusion.
“Oh no, just my buddy Zay here, we’re taking a pic for our moms. Thought they’d think it was cute.” Zay gave a small, albit forced smile and waved slightly. Riley smiled at him briefly before looking back at Lucas.
“Yeah, that’s why we’re here.” Zay muttered under his breath and Lucas sent his elbow into Zay’s side, the other boy gasping when it made contact, Lucas not taking his eyes off Riley as he did so. She merely nodded, looking confused once more, before snapping out of it.
“Well, it’s your turn, don’t forget to smile!” She said, clapping her hands together and gesturing up the display. As they stood on either side of the Santa chair, Lucas could feel Zay looking at him out of the corner of his eye, but ignored it, so he could smile at the camera. Hey, why waste a perfectly good picture, that his mom probably would really love if he put it in her stocking or something.
“Dude, I can’t believe you have a crush on a mall elf.” Zay said as soon as they were stepping off the display. Lucas groaned, rubbing his hand behind his neck.
“I don’t have a crush on her, I barely know her.” Lucas weakly defended, not looking Zay in the eye and instead focusing on the ground.
“Yeah sure, that’s why we stood in that line for nearly a half an hour, so you can talk to some girl you barely know and we could get our picture taken for Santa Claus, tell that lie to someone who will believe you.” Zay joked, tapping Lucas’ arm lightly. Lucas merely rolled his eyes, thanking the guy who handed them their developed photos.
“I wasn’t wrong though, my mom is really gonna love this picture.” Lucas said with a smile, which caused Zay to glare at him, shoving him off slightly as they walked away from the display.
“Shut the hell up, man.”
…
It was two days before Christmas and Lucas once again found himself wandering the mall, not really sure exactly what it was he was looking for. He needed one more present for his mom and there didn’t really seem to be anything that was catching his attention. He had kinda given up at this point and was seriously considering just buying her a gift card of something, because he was seriously running out of ideas.
Before long he found himself outside of the Bath and Body Works store, not really sure what exactly he would be looking for if he went in, knowing he would be far too overwhelmed to make any kind of decision. With a sigh, he looked to his left and locked eyes with the prominent Santa display, his mind immediately flashing to Riley. He had been thinking about her a lot since he was here with Zay and now that he was here, he was desperate to talk to her again. Although, he didn’t know if he had any reason to go and stand in the line again.
Sighing slightly, he shook his head and noticed a boy, probably about ten years old, sitting on a bench near the display by himself, a gameboy in his hand. Smirking, Lucas began hatching a plan before making his way over to the boy.
“Hey, cool game boy.” He saida, taking a seat on the bench. The boy looked at him, his curly hair bouncing on his head, his brown eyes bright as he smiled.
“Thanks, my wife never lets me play, always telling me I should pay more attention to her, so whenever I’m alone I like to get some time in.” Lucas furrowed his eyebrows together, his wife, this kid couldn’t be more than ten and he had a wife? Lucas chose to ignore that comment though, shaking his head slightly.
“Look, kid. I need to ask you a favor.” With those words, the kid powered off his device and pocketed it, turning his full attention to Lucas.
“What’s the favor and what’s in it for me?” Lucas admired that the kid wanted immediately to know what he would get out of it and chuckled slightly. “Also, I don’t know you, and I’m not supposed to talk to strangers.”
“I get that, but it’s not that big a deal really. I need you to stand in line with me and get your picture taken with Santa.” Lucas knew he sounded crazy, but he also knew that if he had a kid with him, it would be far less weird that he was standing in line to meet Santa for the third time in one week.
“Why do you need me?” Crossing his arms across his chest, Lucas knew this kid was gonna drive him a hard bargain, but he something told him that it would be worth it.
“Listen, see that girl, the elf at the front of the line, I kind of have a big crush on her and I wanna talk to her, but I’ve already met Santa with my sister, and my friend, so I really can’t go up there by myself. I need you to pretend to be my cousin or something, please?” The kid smirked slightly, his eyes following Lucas’ to look at Riley.
“Fine. But you need to buy me pizza afterwards.” Lucas nodded, that didn’t seem like such a bad idea.
“No problem kid, where are your parents?” Lucas finally realized that this kid was alone on a bench in the middle of the mall, and he really didn’t want anyone to think he was committing a kidnapping or anything.
“At home, I’m waiting for my sister to get off work, but she’s not done for another two hours, so I got plenty of time.” Nodding again, Lucas stood from the bench, the kid following him and together they made their way over the Santa display.
Paying the fee, the two stood in line and Lucas could feel his nerves bouncing around his veins as they got closer and closer to the front of the line. Riley was wearing what looked to be green and red overalls, a red nose on her face and her hair in braids down her shoulders. How she managed to look so cute in every single elf costume, Lucas really didn’t understand. When Lucas got the front of the line, he could see Riley’s eyes widen when she realized who he was and her mouth fell open a little bit when she saw who was standing next to him.
“Hello there.” Riley said, biting her lip lightly and looking between Lucas and the kid. Lucas smiled, his palms sweating, he was a lot more nervous than he had been the last two times. “What’s going on here…?” Her voice trailed off slightly and Lucas cleared his throat nervously.
“Oh I’m just here with my cousin eh...Matthew, his mom and dad are staying with us for Christmas and I volunteered to bring him, he’s never met Santa before.” Lucas applauded himself a little for that one, that was a pretty impressive story to pull out of thin air, although, he wished he had asked the kid’s name beforehand.
Luckily there seemed to be no objection from either party, even though Riley’s mouth was open slightly in surprise, but the kid had a smile on his face and before anyone could say anything, it was their turn. Lucas watched as his cousin for hire got his picture taken with Santa and he could feel Riley’s eyes on him.
“If I didn’t know any better, I would say you were following me.” She commented lightly, crossing her arms across her chest.
“Nope, just a guy trying to bring some holiday cheer to his friends and family.” He said with a small smirk, as nervous as he was, he didn’t want it to be too obvious what he was doing.
“Well, you’re a Christmas miracle worker it looks like.” She said with a grin, looking between Lucas and the kid with a unreadable look on her face. Before he could say anything, the kid was bounding back over to him and Riley sent them a small smile. “I’ll see you round, Lucas. And it was lovely to meet you, Matthew.” She said the kid’s name with a small smirk, but Lucas was too focused on her words to look too into it. See you round? Did she plan on seeing him later?
“Come on bro, you promised me pizza, didn’t you?” The kid was tugging on Lucas’ arm and Lucas nodded, leading the kid off the display and towards the food court.
Riley’s words echoed in Lucas’ head as he bought him and the kid each a slice of pizza, setting it down on the table in front of him.
“Thanks for that dude, I hope we don’t keep your sister waiting and she’s ok with me doing this.” Lucas really hoped that no one came out of this thinking he was some sort of creep or something.
“I think she’ll be just fine with it, she’s pretty understanding like that.” The kid said with a small smirk and while Lucas didn’t really get it, he shrugged it off, enjoying his pizza.
Lucas offered to kill time with the kid while he waited for his sister, and it turns out that the dude was actually pretty cool for a ten year old. His name was Auggie, and he had been married to some chick named Ava for like 50 years or something, which caused Lucas to chuckle, and he really wanted to be a spy when he grew up, and he got all of his practice from spying on his sister. The kid was pretty funny and definitely kept Lucas entertained.
After about an hour, it was time for Auggie to meet his sister and Lucas waited with him, not feeling super comfortable with leaving a ten year old unattended in a mall, especially since it was getting kind of late. However, Lucas was confused when Riley came towards them, her elf costume replaced with a pair of overalls and red and green striped shirt, and a smirk playing on her lips.
“Riley!” Auggie ran from Lucas, wrapping his arms around Riley’s waist, leaving Lucas baffled. “I know that you told me never to talk to strangers, but when Lucas told me he was gonna use me to talk to you, I knew you would be ok with it.”
So, Riley was Auggie’s sister, it all made sense now, no wonder she had looked at him so strangely when he had tried to pass the kid off as his cousin. His face blushed with embarrassment and he really wanted the ground to open up and swallow him whole, but Riley smiled at him and took a few steps closer.
“Thank you for watching my brother.” She said with a small tilt of her head, ruffling her brother’s curls.
“It was no problem, he’s a funny kid and I owed him for letting me use him.” Lucas said with a nervous laugh.
“I gotta say, it’s pretty cute that you used my brother to try and talk to me.” She giggled softly, her face reddening as her lower lip folded between her teeth. Lucas couldn’t help but smile at her.
“I thought it would be creepy if I stood in that line by myself, I guess I just got lucky that he was your brother and he thought it was cute or something.” Riley smiled again, looking down at her brother, who was looking between the two of them with a small grin on his face.
“Yeah Riley, I had no idea that this was the same Lucas that you were talking to Maya about how cute he was until we were in line, but boy am I glad that I helped him out.” Now it was Riley’s turn to blush and Lucas couldn’t help but smirk at her. She thought he was cute? Now he didn’t feel quite as weird.
“You weren’t kidding about spying, where you?” Lucas asked and Auggie grinned proudly.
“I’m a super, super spy.”
“Thank you so much for that Auggie.” Riley gave her brother a pointed glance between directing her attention back to Lucas. “Thank you again for watching my brother, and thank you for getting your picture taken so many times with Santa, I think you were our most valuable costumer.” She joked and Lucas shook his head slightly, a grin on his lips.
“Like I said, it was no problem really.” They looked at each other for a moment, both of them with small smiles on their faces, unable to tear their eyes away from each other. “Hey, so I know the next couple days might be a little busy, but do you want to maybe go out or something after Christmas is over?”
The small smile on her face grew into a wide grin and she cast a look at her brother, who raised his eyebrow. Looking back at Lucas, he could see her trying to hold back and he knew she might have been slightly more enthusiastic if they weren’t in public.
“I would love to Lucas.”
They exchanged numbers and Lucas couldn’t keep the smile off his face, giving Auggie a fist bump, promising to hang out with him sometime before he went back to school and shaking Riley’s hand, promising to call her in the days following Christmas, making plans to grab dinner or a movie before New Years. And when they parted ways, he looked back more than once to smile at her, and every single day she was turning back too.
so i appreciate all my followers here and all the mutuals i've made but tbqh i've decided to quite this fandom. i'm just gonna continue to enjoy my delinquents au, rl, zm, and the parts of gmw i do like on my other blog @grantgustn but i'm not going to be too heavily invested in this fandom anymore. if you need me you can find me there. i'm tried of seeing people hate on my fav characters foe no reason in this fandom, erasing the important for smackle and fs and what not. pick apart my fav characters for tripping or sleeping at 2 am but letting bs that their fav do slide and start bullying people for disagreeing with them. i'll still blog gmw on gg and abt the cast - maybe even gif it every now and again but for the most part i'm done with it. anyways this post is gonna be queued and pop up here and there. but adios! it's been not that lit fam.
