I don't own GMW.

"What are you even doing?" Riley was choking on her own laughter and just barely managed to get the words out as Farkle continued to flail about, pretending to dance.

"I'm dancing. Duh!" He'd brought her back to his place after their emotional talk in the park. He'd felt as though he didn't want to be around other people after that and he got the impression that Riley wasn't feeling particularly social right about then either. They'd gotten some Chinese takeout on their way back, and had since watched a movie and started a dance party. Riley was now laughing while laying on the floor.

"That is not dancing, Farkle." He laughed with her and fell down beside her, and the two looked up at his ceiling, gazing at the stars they found there.

"I'm studying astronomy. I think I'm going to try to be science teacher like my dad." Farkle looked over at the brunette and the sudden information. Throughout the date, she'd slowly become more and more like the Riley that he remembered and less like the nervous, quiet Riley she'd been when he picked her up.

"I'm studying art. I'm trying to find a better way to preserve and view really old works. After that, I want to help find a better way to identify when and who did what paintings." She turned to look at him and found his grey eyes already gazing at her.

"I never would've pegged you for an art guy, Farkle." It felt good to smile and to mean it. She couldn't clearly remember the last time she'd felt this relaxed and happy.

"Neither would I, but here we are." He attempted a shrug in his lateral state, but it only served to crumple up his shirt even more.

"Here we are." It felt like he was going to kiss her, and she didn't know how she felt about that. On the one hand, she definitely loved being with Farkle. He made her laugh and he seemed to accept her as she was just as he always had. He made her feel happy and safe, but what if she wasn't IN love with him. What if she just loved him as a friend? Would it screw up their friendship for her to not realize how she felt only after he'd kissed her? They've already gone on a date-

"Hey!" He clapped in front of her face and she blinked, returning to the present. "Where'd you go? What were you thinking about?"

"Nothing. Do you have a favorite artist?" She smiled at him again, but it wasn't a genuine smile. She'd gotten into her head now, and there was no turning back. He studied her face and looked as though he was thinking hard about something.

"No. You were thinking about something. I think you should tell me what you were thinking about, unless you're really uncomfortable doing that." Worry was flooding through his eyes and she was immediately worried. She hated upsetting him.

"It's really nothing, Farkle."

"Hey, don't do that. We talked about you pushing me out. Something's bothering you, and I don't think you should say that it's nothing because it's clearly not nothing." He reached forward to stroke the side of her face.

"I just… I was just thinking about how I felt about you, Farkle. That's all." She turned so that she was looking at the stars again instead of his face.

"Oh," Well, that hadn't been what he'd thought she'd say. He wasn't sure what she'd say, but it hadn't been that. "How do you feel about me?"

"I'm not sure, Farkle. I feel good things. All good things. I'm just… You don't want to hear all this." She brought her hands up to her face, covering it.

"That's where you're wrong, Riles. I want to hear about everything you think about." He'd read a few articles about anxiety since so many college students seemed to be developing it, and he wanted to be able to help someone through it if he was ever put in a position to help someone. Talking it out was found to help quite a few people who got trapped in a loop of anxious thinking, and it looked like Riley might've found herself in a loop.

She looked at him out of the corner of her eye and found a smiling, positive Farkle face looking back at her, so she took a deep breath. "I'm just not sure. You make me feel happy and safe and good which I haven't felt in a while and that's got to mean something, right? But what if I only love you as a friend and I'm not IN love with you, you know romantically? Am I screwing our whole relationship up right now? And then I thought about what if you kissed me, and what if that's how I found out how I felt about you, and wouldn't that just be awful? Waiting until you've already kissed me to find out if I want to kiss you back or not? I think that would just be the worst, and then I got to thinking about how we've only gone on like half a date, since this date hasn't ended yet and wouldn't that be rushing things to kiss in the middle of the first date? But plenty of people kiss when they've haven't even gone a date and would it really be rushing it? We've known each other for like 12 years. That's like half my life so really you would've waited 12 years for a kiss, but I guess Maya would say that we've already kissed. Except I didn't really kiss you back and it was weird and kinda sucked, and I'm not so sure that I count that as my first kiss. Anyways, the whole point of this was my wondering if I loved you platonically or romantically and how do I find out which way I love you and how do I not hurt you? Yeah. I think that's all." She'd been gesturing around while she spoke and now that she appeared to be done, her arms fell down to be back by her sides.

"Riley Matthews, you have an incredible, vast and complex mind. You thought of all that in a minute?" At first, he'd been worried about what she would say about him, but somewhere near the middle he had just fallen in awe of everything she was listing off.

"Uh… yes?" She looked over at him and found him still smiling over at her, seemingly amazed. She'd expected him to be upset about it or something.

"Well, first things first, you don't need to worry about me and what I think and feel, OK? It's important that you figure out what you feel regardless of how I feel. Worry about you, and then when you have you figured out or mostly figured out then you can worry about me. You can help me if you need help too. Secondly, Riley, I've loved you since the first grade. We've been friends for this long, and we'll keep being friends no matter what. You're too important to me to give up on. We can take this as slow as you need. If you want to stop, you just tell me and we will. This is your relationship too." The two shared a smile as he reached over for her hand. She happily intertwined their fingers as they both looked back up at the stars. "Do you have any constellations memorized?"

"Yeah. You've got one of my favorites up here." He wiggled around so that their heads were closer together.

"Show me." She obliged and lifted her finger to point off to the right a little bit. "See that one over there? It's a little brighter than the rest and it's next to the milky way."

"Yeah, I see it."

"That's Vega, or the Weaver Girl. That star over across the way is Altair, the herder." He followed her finger as she pointed to different places on his ceiling.

"What's their story?"

"Well, there have been a few different variations, but the main points are the same. It's an old Chinese legend. One day, a long time ago, a beautiful Weaver Girl and a strong Herder fell deeply in love with each other. For debated reasons, the girl's parents didn't approve of the match and conspired to tear the couple apart. One night, they created a river between the two lovers, making sure that the girl and the herder were on separate sides."

"Why is it that parents never approve of true love in all these old stories?" She laughed at his strange, yet valid question.

"I guess because marrying for love is a relatively new concept. A lot of cultures had arranged marriages to benefit both or one family socially, politically, or economically. Somehow, all these people in legends fell in love with someone who would not benefit the family in one of these ways. Anyways, the Weaver Girl and the Herder were separated and both wept and were very sad."

"They didn't build a bridge?" Farkle, ever the pragmatist, was confused by this turn of events.

"I'm getting to that. Hold on. Since neither of them knew how to build a bridge or had the materials to do so, it seemed that they would be separated for eternity. However, the crows took pity on them and for one night a year they would fly together so tightly that they formed a bridge and united the two lovers. The end."

"That's it? They're deeply in love and they only get one night out of the whole year together? That is so not enough time to do anything."

"Just what do you think they're doing in that night, Farkle Minkus?" She propped herself up on her elbows to better look at the genius and watch the blush spread across his cheeks as he caught her meaning.

"I meant more along the lines of talking and catching each other up on what happened the past year. We've talked all night before, and we talk all the time." He pulled himself up into a seated position as well.

"You're right, and you bring up a point I think about all the time. How big was the river? Sure, they can't get to each other, but is it so big that they can't even see or talk to each other? That's a really big river, and then how many crows does it take to bridge the two together? I need this legend to have more details." He laughed at her as she checked her phone. What she found was not encouraging. It was 3 am and she had 10 missed calls from her mother and 14 unread texts between her father and Auggie. How had she missed all of that?

"What's wrong?"

"It's 3. I need to get home, Farkle." She looked up at him with those big brown eyes of hers as he scrambled to check his own phone. Why hadn't his parents told him that it was so late? Surely, they didn't expect her to spend the night over at their place.

"Mom?" He looked up and found that she had gotten up and was holding the phone to her ear. "No, I'm fine. I'm sorry. I didn't hear my phone going off. I'm really sorry. No, I'm still with Farkle. He didn't know how late it had gotten either. We're just at his place. We watched a movie or two and then had a dance party. C'mon, Mom, you know Farkle. Nothing bad happened. Yeah, I'm coming home now." She looked back over at him with an exasperated smile painted across her face. He smiled back and motioned her towards the door, leading her out of his house and into the New York night. "I promise. I'm moving right now. I'll be home soon. I'm sorry for making you worry. Why you're worried, I don't know. It's just Farkle, Mom. Mom. Mom! Topanga Matthews! I'm shocked at you. Alright, goodbye. I love you." She gave an eye roll and he smirked in recognition. Mothers.

Once she had gotten back to her apartment alright and her mother had run a full check over her daughter, Riley flopped down on her bed. One of the first things she did, once there, was pull out her phone to text Maya. She hadn't told the blonde about the date because she was unsure of how she would take it, but now she had to tell her. She just didn't know what exactly to tell her. She was just working out what exactly she wanted to say when she heard footsteps out on the fire escape.

No way, she thought as she made her way over to the bay window only to see Farkle appear once more.

"What are you doing here?" He clambered inside her room with a nervous smile on his face.

"I just wanted to… to try something. You tell me to stop whenever you want, OK?" She raised an inquisitive eyebrow at him before nodding. Slowly, he walked closer to her until they were practically touching noses, and then he brought his hands up to her face, running a thumb across her cheekbones before finally tilting his head and closing the distance between them. She'd known what he was going to do as soon as he'd moved closer, but she hadn't stopped him. She'd thought about it, and she'd almost said it when he held her face and she realized he was breathing irregularly, but she didn't. She couldn't. She wanted to know. She wanted to know what it would be like to kiss Farkle Minkus. And then Farkle Minkus was kissing her. And then she was kissing him back. It felt like everything was exploding yet everything was completely still. She couldn't think while his lips were so soft and doing that wonderful thing they were doing. He made a surprised little sound when her arms went around him and she began to deepen the kiss, but just as quickly his arms were encircling her and they were both lost to the kiss. Kissing Riley Matthews was everything he had thought it might be, but ten times better. Sometime later when they pulled apart and their foreheads were pressed together and Farkle's hands were tangled up in Riley's hair, she came to a realization.

"You, Farkle Minkus, are my best friend and I love kissing you. What are you doing tomorrow afternoon?"

The only thing she sent to Maya later that night was, "I just made out with Farkle Minkus."

The next morning she saw Maya had texted her back. All it said was "about time."

I don't think I'm going to do the epilogue I thought I might. Long story short, in my AU, they get married. It's beautiful and they love each other a whole bunch. Hope you enjoyed.