Title: Run, Run, Run
Category: Television Shows » Girl Meets World
Author: And The Moment's Gone
Language: English, Rating: Rated: T
Words: 2,777
Warnings/Spoilers: The kids are in High School, Josh is at NYU, Cory still lives in denial.

Summary: [Companion piece to Sooner or Later]

Official Disclaimer: All Girl Meets World characters and plots belong to Disney Channel, Marc Jacobs, and April Kelly, I do not hold stock either the company or the people. Maya Hart, Lucas Friar and any other character featured are NOT mine. The title comes from the Kelly Clarkson song Run, Run, Run and I don't own that either.

It came as no surprise to anyone that Maya and Riley claimed the room that they had spent the night in when they made it back to the hotel hours later. Maya's reasoning was the fact that their stuff was already in it, and there was no reason why the girls should have to carry their stuff across the hall when it was easier for Farkle to just change locations.

It had absolutely no relation to the fact that Maya wasn't sure how she would be able to sleep in the room that she and Lucas had defiled.

Twice.

Nope, not at all.

Lucas and Farkle took it in stride, though; dragging Farkle's overnight bag to the room before returning to collect the girls for dinner. Topanga was going to be at another mixer for the evening, so they were handed cash and instructed to not go crazy.

The Omni's in house restaurant was immediately vetoed, by Maya when she realized that the cheapest item on the menu was a grilled cheese and short rib panini and that a cheeseburger was sixteen dollars. Both Farkle and Riley offered to cover her, after all, it was their fault that she was there. But before she could argue, Lucas solved the issue by finding them a burger tap house literally on the other side of the street that would suit all tastes.

He also served as the distraction when Farkle paid the bill for the entire table before the heading back to their rooms.

And yes, his arm still stung from where Maya hit him when she realized it.

It wasn't until hours later after Riley and Maya had kicked them out of their room a second time – this one due more to the fact that Farkle was trying to quiz them all on German terms – that their conversation on the way to the campus seemed to rear its head again.

"I don't even know how it happened." Lucas grabbed the pillow that was about to fall on the floor, accidently bumping his German text off the bed instead.

"You don't have to explain anything to me." Farkle shook his head as he slid his Forensic Science textbook back into his satchel. "What you and Maya do is none of my business." He kicked his shoes off, lining them up against the wall by his nightstand and double-checked the alarm on his phone.

There was a moment when Lucas couldn't hide his confusion. "'None of your business'?" He asked as he pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it in the general direction of his suitcase. "Who the hell are you, and what have you done with Farkle?"

"I'm still Farkle," the younger man turned then, shaking his head. "I also know that you and Maya have been dancing around each since the fiasco that was the eighth grade."

Was that really how everyone saw the last year of middle school? Lucas supposed that there were, at least, a handful of good memories. He couldn't think of any at the moment, but there were probably some. Then the rest of what Farkle said caught up with him. "There has been no dancing."

"You beat the shit out of her first real boyfriend." Farkle rolled his eyes when Lucas started to protest that Kelly Sullivan deserved it for the way he treated their friend. "You've also made sure to remind every new suitor that she's had that you beat the shit out of Kelly Sullivan."

"Do you realize you're only talking about me here?" Lucas crossed his arms against his chest. "And I would have done the same for Riley if she'd been in the same position." He slowly realized that that should have been his first point. Locking eyes with Farkle, Lucas was suddenly very aware that he should have lead with the Riley thing.

"Of course, I'm only talking about you here. You're the one that I'm talking to." This was probably not the best conversation to have at eleven o'clock at night. But since Lucas didn't seem to understand that for once in his young life, Farkle Minkus was going to reserve judgment on the actions of two of his best friends, they really didn't have a choice. "You like Maya," he said simply. "It may not be the all-consuming romantic love that you think love should be, but you like her." When Lucas huffed again, Farkle reached for his bottle of water. "And we're not going to discuss sexual attraction," his scrunched his nose at the thought. "You're a seventeen-year-old boy, if you weren't sexually attracted to Maya Hart, we'd have to have your head examined."

Lucas had never been a fan of what Zay referred to as 'the kiss and tell'. The thought of him and Farkle actually talking about him having sex with Maya was probably the most uncomfortable part of the entire conversation.

Seeming to sense his friend's train of thought, Farkle laughed. "I mean hell; I'm sexually attracted to Maya Hart." He paused for a moment, possibly rethinking his bluntness or willingness to admit that particular sentence. Smackle was well aware. Amazingly enough, she seemed more threatened by Riley than Maya. Not that now was the time for him to be thinking about this. "She's Maya."

That didn't make it much better, but Lucas shook it off. Farkle's brain to mouth filter worked in mysterious ways. The blonde also wasn't about to tell his friend that he'd said that bit about Smackle aloud as well.

"The point I'm trying to make is that this is nothing new to me," turning on the queen sized bed, Farkle pulled his pillow underneath him, so he was both facing Lucas and propped up. "You and Maya have had this strange attraction thing going for as long as I've known you, and after you two had some drunken shenanigans at Caitlin's party, you finally have the chance to see where it could go, and you're taking it." It was succinct and to the point, and Farkle nodded to himself. "And while you seem to think that I don't understand that you're doing it on her terms – which means no labels and ignoring any attachments that come with it – I see it for what it is."

Well, damn.

Lucas shook his head, still trying to come to terms that Farkle seemed to have a better handle on his current situation than he did. "And you have nothing to say about any part of it?"

The younger boy just shrugged. "Are you planning on cheating on her?" He took a sip of his water and replaced the cap. Lucas's jaw slacked and Farkle's head shook slightly. "Are you suddenly going to start treating her badly, or ignoring her, or acting like her only reason for being is to satisfy you?"

"NO." Lucas didn't know if he was offended that those questions were voiced or not. Was that really what Farkle expected of him? "None of that."

Again, Farkle shrugged, putting the water bottle back on the end table. "Then I have nothing to say."

And for him, it really was that easy.

Half an hour later, after the conversation was abandoned in favor of The Sandman Overture and Sports Center, Farkle spared a look over to the other bed. While his posture announced that Lucas was engrossed in the latest college basketball scores, his tapping foot, and well-worried lip said that he hadn't heard a word that Matt Barrie or Cari Champion had said.

"You're thinking kind of hard over there." Farkle watched as Lucas just sort of nodded. "I mean, Texas Tech just bit it hard against Sam Houston and you haven't said a thing."

Lucas just nodded.

"Fifty-six to seventy-one."

His mouth opened, maybe to agree, before the words caught up with him and Lucas stuttered. "What?" He reached for the remote as if he could somehow rewind the television to double check for himself.

Farkle closed the graphic novel and turned to his friend. "You've been watching the scores for the last half an hour, did any of them stick?"

He didn't want to admit that his best friend was right. Dropping the remote back to the bed, Lucas shook his head. "Why don't you have a problem with this?"

Farkle sighed, hoisting himself up on the bed, pulling his legs underneath him. "Do you want me to have a problem with this?" Lucas seemed to nod and shake his head all at the same time. "I'm sure I can come up with something."

He didn't have to.

Before Lucas could tell him that it was entirely possible that he was just looking for someone to tell him that this entire idea was ridiculous, the television was drowned out by the sound of a sloppy staccato playing on the hotel door.

They shared a look.

"Riley or Maya?" Lucas shifted on the bed, moving the remote to the night stand.

The knock sounded again, this time a touch softer, and Farkle smiled. "Maya." He decided, pointing to the door. "She's not sleeping in here."

Lucas nodded. He didn't need to be told that. Although that did mean that if Maya was at the door, it was a good chance Riley was asleep. "You may have to tell her that, though." The knock happened a third time, and Lucas rolled his eyes as he picked up the pace to the door.

It was entirely possible that he forgot that he wasn't wearing a shirt.

It was amazing how fast he realized it, though, when Maya's eyes raked over his chest. The blonde recovered quickly, though, raising the hands that she had made into a platform, book laying flat on top of them. "Please, sir," her lip jutted out and she batted her eyes. "I want some more."

"Have you ever actually read Oliver Twist?" But Lucas couldn't hide his smile, and he pulled the door wider to allow her entrance.

Throwing herself on the bed Farkle was sitting up on, and still giggling about Lucas's lack of shirt, she shook her head. "Considering my English class is reading Rebecca, I don't think it matters too much."

Taking the book from her, Farkle laughed. "I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace," he threw a look at Lucas, who was in the process of retrieving his t-shirt from his suitcase. "Against happiness, against all discouragement that could be."

"Pretty sure that's not either book either." Lucas dropped himself onto his own bed, reaching for the remote, this time to hit the mute button. "Riley asleep?"

"Passed out in the middle of braiding her own hair." She retrieved the book from her friend's hand. "I finished it for her, in case either of you was interested." They weren't, but Lucas smiled at the mental image of Maya finishing whatever it was that Riley was doing to her head before tucking the brunette into her bed. "Turns out, there isn't anything good on T.V. after midnight."

Farkle nodded to Sports Center, almost in agreement. "So you've decided to do schoolwork?" The copy of Rebecca was referenced again, as Farkle readjusted himself to make more room for Maya on the bed.

"I've got a handful of questions that I need to answer and there's supposed to be a test or something on Monday." Maya shook her head, "This seemed like as good a time as any." When Farkle lounged back onto his pillows, Maya rolled over onto her stomach, earning a shake of the head from the man on the other bed. "What?" Lucas rolled his eyes and smiled back at him. "I can be a good student when the occasion calls for it." Another eye roll, this time her own, and she pulled the bookmark from its place. "And this isn't the worst book ever written."

They all remembered freshman literature and composition, and the poor old Mrs. Wilson who tried to force them to read Cold Sassy Tree. Maya still maintained that she should have bought her own copy, just so she would have had the privilege to burn it when the semester was over. Then again, she'd also felt that way about Anna Karenina. She'd barely made it through two out of the three modern versions that they'd found on Netflix. The third was Russian with subtitles, so she really didn't think it counted.

"Glad to see you're enjoying du Maurier." Farkle reached for his graphic novel again, smile in place. He was trying to debate with himself on whether he should kick Maya off his bed now because they all knew that she was bound to pass out sooner or later, or just wait until Lucas needed to carry her back across the hall.

At least she was using her room key as one of her book marks.

Made it easier to find.

When Lucas stretched out again, Farkle decided that if he did it now, he could pretend that he didn't notice when Maya fell asleep. Lucas seemed much less antsy with the blonde in the room. "This bed's mine," he kicked the covers a bit further down the bed, purposely hitting Maya's knee.

She was going to argue it; they all could see it. But then her eyes caught Lucas's over the top of her book and quickly looked away. That meant that he and Farkle had had their conversation. It was a shame the same couldn't be said for her and Riley.

"I don't need you passing out and kicking me anyway, Minkus." Maya pulled herself off of the coverlet, thankful that she had decided to wear her leggings across the hall rather than the sweat shorts that she had been wearing when Riley had passed out. Which sort of reminded her that she needed to see if there was a gym in this place. While she didn't exactly need the exercise the same way Lucas and Riley did, resuming her jogs with her best friend when they got back to the city was going to be a bitch if she didn't at least put in some time on a treadmill this weekend.

She took three steps forward and laughed when Lucas scooted himself towards the middle of the bed to make room for her. He held the arm with the remote up, nodding to the space open on the bed. If that hadn't been where Maya was already planning on dropping – a familiar position she had adopted months ago since it was both comfortable and warm – she might have called him on it.

Instead Maya just kicked her slippers off and slid onto the bed, turning a bit so she could still see Farkle clearly.

"Minkus said you're not sleeping in here." Lucas managed to catch the actual score of the Texas – Sam Houston game, before looking down at the blonde.

For half a second, Farkle actually looked shocked that Lucas had put it so bluntly. "Like I'd want to anyway." She flipped to the next page in her book and bit her lip. "Boys have cooties."

The sentence was so absurd that Farkle didn't even bother to cover the laugh that sprung up. Even if he hadn't been aware of what had happened in the bed the two of them were lying on, he knew enough about Maya's high school proclivities to call bull.

The room fell quiet again, the muted sounds of the television taking over as everyone fell back into their individual rhythm.

It took a total of fifteen minutes for Lucas to notice that Maya had passed out.

Another three for him to get Farkle's attention and alert him of the development.

The younger man just smiled, reaching for his phone and sending a quick text message to Riley's phone before setting an earlier alarm. "I'm not sure which one of us is more whipped," he commented off-handedly, dropping his graphic novel onto the end table and turning off the light on his side.

Lucas shifted carefully, making sure to pull the cover up over Maya's legs. "They've just had more time to train you." He set the timer on the television, allowing the NCAA highlights to lull him.

Before either boy actually drifted off, though, Lucas coughed. "Thanks, for earlier." He took a quick breath, not knowing whether or not Farkle was actually going to answer. "I'm not sure what I was expecting."

"I'm sure whatever it is, you'll get it with Zay." Farkle sat up long enough to turn off the light on Lucas's side of the table as well before flipping to his other side and passing out.