#knowbyhart

“maya, it’ll be ready in 15 minutes...you know I can see you stealing spoonfuls of it behind my back, right?” the country boy shakes his head, smiling. it felt good to be cooking again, to be making his mother’s recipe for gumbo. lucas used to cook a lot back home in texas; his mom had taught him all he knows, ever since he was a young lad. her explanation had been that every future husband should know how to cook at least a handful of meals for his partner. a healthy relationship included equality — she didn’t believe in the wife doing all the cooking and cleaning.

“I’m glad you like my mama’s recipe, though. she started teaching me how to cook when I was 10 years old. after I learned my first recipe, she encouraged me to cook one meal a week. I loved it so much I starting cooking two and three dinners a week.” as lucas shared his story, he happily stirred the gumbo, adding a few last minute spices into the pot.

“alright, you’ve been quite patient,” he teases her. I’ll let you taste one bite before I serve it, just to make sure it’s to your liking.” and with that, he scoops up some of the steaming gumbo on a wooden spoon and holds it out to her to try. “make sure to blow on it. don’t want you to burn your tongue.”

@knowbyhart​

      “Mayaaa!” Arms open automatically to allow her best friend into a hug. Riley needs the reassurance right now. She hasn’t seen her best friend in days--possibly hours--and with an alleged supervillain in town creating more supervillains to run amok and spread chaos, she needs her more than ever.

it’s been a week since the fall ball, or more specifically...it’s been a week since the closet, an event in its own right, and a week since marinette kissed him for the first time. but not the last time, he’s only slightly ashamed to admit. yes, of course, she’s his girlfriend, there’s nothing strictly wrong with it. and josh hadn’t even been as explicit as maya was during their closet conversation, because he was being careful about protecting the legitimacy of his relationship. but maya...she laid it all out on the line, and when she asked him to one day do the same, he hadn’t been given the chance to respond. and no matter how much he tells himself that she’s literally somebody else’s girlfriend, it still feels like a betrayal, knowing where her heart and future supposedly lies. so they haven’t really spoken since then, for numerous reasons, and when they do speak, it’s primarily through their phones. which he argues, to himself, if for the best. clearly he has amazing self-control and would never do anything if physically with maya, but it’s easier this way. it’s easier for him, anyways.

      it’s been long enough since everything that had gone down between them that riley had begun to regret her absence from her friend more than the pain that caused it in the first place. with some necessary distance to gather her own feelings and understand them, the sight of the other girl doesn’t bring a pang to her heart. instead, she’s excited to share the current events of her life as they always used to.

     “hey, maya...do you know what’s coming up?”

@knowbyhart

     riley has been doing a great job of avoiding maya all night--determined that her not-so-requited feelings and the strange note on which they’d ended their last conversation shouldn’t ruin her happiness forever. even if she's torn and rejected, she can go to a dance with her other friends and have a good night and not break down at the sight of maya hart and lucas friar wrapped in one another’s arms. of course, to do that she has to force herself to look away every time she accidentally gets too close to the new couple and catches sight of them with their faces together.

     but she can’t help herself at one point in the night, from happening to see her best friend exit a small side room designated as a coat closet for the night. she would have averted her gaze after a moment if maya wasn’t followed out by none other than josh. what was maya doing alone with josh when she had clearly and publicly chosen lucas over anyone else? innocent private closet chat or not, riley can not be the judge from her position. but what innocent talk couldn’t be held in front of maya’s boyfriend?