MOMENTS ( rucas )

xxii. your arms around me and i'm home.

a/n: alright, day six of rucas fanfic week and here i am with another fic!! i'm very proud of myself for getting as far as i have, there are two days left and i'm very excited for them. i hope you guys have at least enjoyed these fics half as much as i have!! this fic is probably my favorite one so far, and takes place during riley and lucas' senior year of college. it's pretty fluffy and heartwarming, so i hope you guys enjoy! lemme know what you think!!

day six prompt: "hugging - just let the kids hug gosh dang it"

also ps. i changed my username bc rowan on the goldbergs is the best thing that's ever happened to me, so i needed to celebrate her.

...

"Hey, what did your mom want?"

Lucas didn't respond right away, and Riley looked up from the cereal she had been eating. She smiled when she saw Lucas standing in the doorway, a nervous look on his face. They had been woken up that morning by Lucas' phone ringing, his mom telling him that he needed to get over there. She hadn't offered much of an explanation, but Riley had still been half asleep when Lucas slipped out the door.

Truthfully, she still wasn't fully awake as he was coming back through the front door twenty minutes later.

"She wanted to give me this." Lucas said, the hesitation evident in his tone. Riley crinkled her eyebrows together as she looked at the item in his hand. Her jaw dropped when she realized exactly what the piece of paper he was gripping tightly in his fingers was.

"Is that what I think it is?" She asked, standing up from the table and rushing over to him. He nodded, the closer she was to him, the easier it was to see the nerves written all over his face. Riley could hear her heart beating in her eardrums and she assumed that if she was this nervous, it was only worse for him.

"Yep." He said simply, taking a sharp intake of breath. His breath was shaky and when he exhaled, his hand started shaking. Riley grabbed it, and dragged him over to the kitchen table, hoping that if he was sitting, she wouldn't so afraid that he was going to pass out on the spot. "I don't know if I can open this."

"What?" Riley asked, squeezing his free hand that wasn't gripping that letter so hard his knuckles were going white. "Lucas, you have to open this." She said softly, grazing the letter with her hand that wasn't holding his.

"Last time I opened a letter from them, it didn't exactly end well." Lucas said quietly. His voice was small and the sound of it broke Riley's heart. "I feel better this time around, but I can't help but be nervous." He said, giving her a forced smile.

"Do you want to open it alone?" Riley asked, moving her hand from the letter to his shoulder, rubbing it in a small, circular motion. "I can leave if you would rather be by yourself."

"No." Lucas shook his head, looking at her. "If it's good news, you're the only one I want to share it with. If it's bad news, then..." Lucas trailed off, gulping, his teeth digging into his bottom lip.

"It's going to be good news." Riley said, squeezing his shoulder. "You've worked so hard for this, you've had an almost perfect GPA all throughout college, you got amazing recommendations from your professors, your job as an RA looks amazing on your application. You're going to get in."

"Well that's what I thought last time."

"This isn't last time. Lucas, you're the best candidate for their graduate program, you're going to get in." It hurt Riley to watch Lucas not believe in himself like this, but she also would always be there to tell him otherwise. "This is going to be good news."