The Divines Above

Riley stared at the strangers, who were still gaping at her and honestly it's a bit intimidating, before averting her gaze towards the hand that was still holding on to her wrist. Honestly, she liked the warm feeling shooting through her arm and the fuzzy feeling on the spot where the blonde's pale hand is grabbing her wrist. The blue eyes that were staring at her blinked, then looked down on her own hand. The blonde suddenly released Riley's wrist then blushed upon realising that she had been caught staring -Riley immediately missing the warmth- then stuffed her hands into her own jacket pockets.

Riley then realised that it wasn't fair that these strangers and the very beautiful blonde in front of her knows her name but she doesn't. Riley, upon registering that fact, began to subconsciously pout with her eyebrows furrowed then stared at the strangers with a serious expression although her going to be new friends thought that she looked more adorable than intimidating.

"Hang on," Riley caught the attention of the people in front of her, "You know? It's kinda not fair that you guys know my name but I don't know yours." She finished with a huff. The brunette didn't expect the next reaction from the strangers -NEW FRIENDS!- who were listening intentively. They snickered, it looked like they were trying very hard not to cry and laugh at the same time and they look relieved.

Riley stared at them in confusion, scrambling her own mind for answers on why they might be on the verge of crying and bursting from laughing. They took a moment, the one with swept up hair was hunched over, panting and trying to get air back into his lungs. The dark-skinned boy was wiping a fake tear from his eye as if a tear had escaped from his eye.

Riley huffed and crossed her arms in an attempt to appear indimidating but the blonde in front of her gave her an amused and a....longing? stare. The brunette sighed hopelessly, knowing that her attempt at scaring her new friends? was a failure.

It took the strangers a moment to compose themselves then finally, the blonde cleared her throat and began to speak.

"Name's Maya." she pointed to herself. "That one with glasses is Smackle."

"Greetings." Smackle nodded towards Riley.

Maya then pointed her thumb towards the one with swept up hair, "That's Farkle and next to him is Lucas." They waved then the blonde leaned towards Riley and whispered in her ear, "I call him Huckleberry or Ranger Rick." The brunette giggled at that with a slight blush in her face due to the close proximity of the two.

Maya leaned back away from the blushing brunette and pointed at the dark-skinned boy, "That, is-"

"Zay, m'lady." he bowed like a gentleman and grinned goofily at Riley. She placed her hand over her mouth to hide her amusement. Maya narrowed her eyes at Zay for his actions but the boy just grinned back at her.

Riley smiled so bright that it could compete with the sun, her eyes shone as brightly and that made Maya's heart ache so much that it was getting very difficult to breath, because that simple action reminded her of her Riley. The blonde released a shaky breath and blinked a few times as she realised that the brunette put out a hand in front of her, she assumed that she wanted a handshake so Maya did that and accepted the handshake.

"Hey Maya, nice to meet you," Riley beamed, she turned towards the others and waved while still holding her hand, "And nice to meet you guys as well." Maya's heart pounded against her chest at the soft voice, the soft voice she knows too well. Maya noticed that she was staring and, 'Oh god, its probably creeping her out.' She panicked and she panicked a bit more when she just realised that their hands were still clutching each other.

Riley released the handshake, 'Wish we could have kept it longe- WAIT WHAT?!' Riley slightly shook her head, she didn't want to fall in love fast again, but she just did and holy hell did this one feel good. She thought deeper. She doesn't want another repeat of the Charles incid- no. No no no, she should stop thinking about it, it's all in the past, it won't come back.

The brunette in front of Maya began to shake as she looked down on the ground as if she was deep in thought, the blonde reached out slowly while the others stared on with concern etched in their faces, clearly noticing that Riley had begun to shake as well. Maya carefully touched Riley's arm but the brunette's reaction was surprising. She flinched visibly at the touch and the blonde quickly retracted her hand as if it burned her, Maya was beginning to feel guilty because she thought that she caused her to flinch.

Riley blinked back tears as she looked up, only to become aware that she was still standing in front of her newfound friends, she looked at Maya and her face has guilt written all over it, clearly from thinking that she caused Riley to flinch. The brunette started to explain quickly so that she could erase the guilty look on the blonde's face.

"Sorry about that, it's not your fault, really." Maya felt relieved that she wasn't the cause to the brunette's noticable pain, but she was still very worried that Riley was in pain in the first place. Riley continued what she said. "Wish we met up in better circumstances, I really have to go though." She began to run towards the exit but not before getting some last words in.

"Hopefully we'll meet each other again!" Then she's up and out of the subway.

Maya continued to stare at the exit. She sighed softly, ran her pale hand through her hair then spun around to face the others.

All of them need to talk to each other on what the hell just happened.

During the small walk back their home, Maya had fallen a step behind and kept glancing towards her hands, where there was warmth buzzing, just there. She kept thinking back on how Riley's voice sounded exactly like her Riley. How it sounded, the way her eyes lit up, the beaming smile, her hand movements and even her small giggle. Maya thinks that this is it, this is what spirit Riley told her about meeting again, and dear god did she feel alive again. Then, then Maya panics. What if she can't protect this one either? what if she dies again? what if she's not into girls? what if she doesn't want to love Maya?

The blonde gets irritated at her mind, she breathes in and out, in and out. Inhale, exhale. This is what her friends always tell her, she panics then she thinks too much. She doesn't disagree though, thinking is for Farkle and Smackle respectively. Maya then starts to have an another thought, 'why did Riley begin to shake as if she was afraid? Did something happen to her in the past? Whoever hurt her will p-'

"Hey Maya! You gonna come in or are you gonna keep balling your fist 'till it bleeds?"

She glanced up and saw Zay by the doorway to their house, holding the door open like the gentleman he is. As Maya walked to the door, she gazed around the front lawn, reminding herself that she needs to paint the fence soon. She shakes her head as she remembers the day Zay, Farkle and Lucas threw paint balloons at each other for fun until they were hit by the thought that the fence was in an array of colours and the blonde would kill them all if she found out. She's never seen them so panicked over something so small.

'Riley would definitely have enjoyed the colours...' Her small smile dropped as she thought of the brunette.

Maya enters the house through the doorway, she hears Zay close the door before walking ahead of her towards the living room, or in this case, the meeting room. As she says meeting room in her head, she swears she just heard thunder from somewhere.

Maya hung up her jacket on a nearby coat rack and followed Zay into the meeting room. The rest were already discussing about the event that just happened. Lucas, Zay and Farkle were arguing about how Riley's death -Maya winced at that- and the age of the Riley they met today didn't correlate, didn't match up. Smackle sat beside Farkle, her eyes trained on the floor, her face scrunched up in concentration.

The blonde sat on a single sofa while the boys continued to argue.

"How is it that Riley Matthews' age doesn't match up with Riley, goddess of nature's death, huh?" The god of knowledge exclaimed, throwing up his arms in frustration. Farkle always depended on logic, scientific facts what humans would call it.

"Farkle! It doesn't make sense that this Riley looks exactly the same as our Riley," Lucas reasoned out, Zay nodded agreeing with what the god of war said.

"I'm going to agree with Lucas here, she looks like our Riley."

During this whole discourse, Maya stared at the hands on her lap, still thinking about the buzzing warmth on the hand she grabbed Riley's wrist with. She wonders if the brunette had felt it too.

"What about you Maya?" The mentioned blonde looked up to find the three boys staring at her. "What do you think about this?" Farkle gestured his arms around as if he was pointing to the whole world.

Smackle was still gazing at the floor, still thinking, she probably blocked out everyone. Silence filled the room, the air so thick you could almost cut it with a knife. Then.

"She sounded....like our Riley, she acted like our Riley and she..." The blonde swallowed, "She felt like my Riley." She whispered all of that softly, however the others heard it clearly.

The others remained silent at Maya's words, clearly she missed her best friend, her soulmate, her beloved. She felt conflicted, it should be obvious that the person was Riley, the Riley. At the same time, Farkle's words also made sense.

"Maybe it's possible." everyone whipped their heads towards the previously silent girl. Smackle gazed away from the floor and stared at everyone else, one by one. She slowly stood up while the others sat back down on their respective places. Smackle began to pace back and forth slowly in the middle of the room, mumbling to herself.

"There have been myths that when a god knows they will die, where they get that knowledge from? I don't know." The goddess of intelligence started to explain. "The god can then choose to start their next reincarnation soon or leave it until they 'die'."

"There might be a possibility that Riley knew when she would have died and decided to choose her next reicarnation earlier."

"But...where did she get the information from?" Farkle asked, impressed at the pacing girl.

"I...Not even I know."

Smackle sat back down, she finished explaining on what was on her mind a few moments ago. They all sat in silence, absorbing what was said.

After the meeting, they all went to their rooms, except for Maya. The blonde simply sat there in the same spot on the sofa even after the others departed. By thirty minutes she moved towards her art room, opened the door and closed it gently while keeping a firm grip on the doorknob.

She turned around and came face to face with a rather large painting of Riley twirling a maple leaf within her hands, close to it was a painting of peaches and next to that one was a painting of Riley planting an apple tree near the forest. The brunette looked happy while planting the tree, even if her hands were coated with dirt and grime.

Maya couldn't take it anymore, she collapsed in front of the door and sobbed. She sobbed and cried, she let her tears fall on her arms. Her heart had been ripped in two since Riley's funeral in 'Haven'. Seeing her spirit and her reincarnation today on the 4th death anniversary was too much for the blonde. All she wanted- no, all she needed was Riley, her Riley to come back to her again.

Tears trailed down her cheeks as she thought about the lack of warmth within her heart and her frame trembled, but as she thought back on a chance to spend time with Riley again, she calmed down. The blonde wiped at her tears, she wanted to get to know this Riley, become friends with her and possibly closer, protect her from whatever was bothering her earlier and...and enjoy her time with her. Hopefully Riley would also enjoy it and stay with her and accept her. Maya tried to fight back her sleepiness, but her eyes slowly shut and her quiet even breaths could be heard throughout the room.

This might be the first time Maya had slept the whole night peacefully, even if she was on the floor.