A/N: Merry Christmas Eve! Thus begins the final/supersized week of 2019's story!

December 24th 2019

Chapter 358
Their Ceremony of Waking

For nearly four years now, Lucas had woken up with Maya at his side. As sights to start out the day, he had to say, he couldn't find any better. On the morning of June 1st however, what he woke up to was the snoring of Isaiah Babineaux.

Zay and Nadine were holding to the tradition of not seeing one another before the wedding, which made it so that Nadine spent the night at the Hunter Hart house with Maya, while Lucas stayed at Babineaux house with Zay. The girls might have stayed at the Zhu house, but after everything that had gone down the day before, Nadine had needed to get away, to clear her head, so Maya had taken her back to her parents' house.

Their mission was simple: they needed to get their friends to the altar, both of them with little on their minds but the fact that they were about to marry the one they loved. No parental interference, nothing to bring stress, or doubt, or any other emotion that would get in the way of this day which was meant to be their day, the culmination of years and years.

If Zay was in any way troubled by some thought or another on the night leading to and the morning of his wedding, it didn't show. He was sleeping like a rock, and snoring as loudly as ever. Lucas sat up from his sleeping bag on the ground, fishing around until he got his phone and earbuds. He had to crank up the music loud to cover the noise, which was much more than he would have wanted, this early in the morning and barely awake, but it was either that or being driven mad by his best friend to the point where he might not be able to be his best man today.

Lucas: Morning?

Maya: Oh, is that what that is?

When she'd replied, just seconds after he'd hit send, he had to imagine she had been sitting out there, in the midst of writing to him, too, and she'd cleared out whatever she'd put down in order to respond to him. It made him smile, one of many things… Today… maybe half a day…

Maya: Is he snoring?

Lucas: Louder than a rocket.

A moment later, a call was coming in, and then there was her face on his screen, and his smile doubled. From what he could tell, she was sitting up in her bed. She waved at him, then turned her phone so he could see that, next to her, she had Nadine, but also what he had to guess to be Gracie, curled up under the arm of the bride-to-be, both of them sleeping. Maya set the phone in her lap, propped up so he could still see her.

"Her alarm is supposed to ring in a few minutes, then she'll get up," she signed. "How's it going over there?" Lucas looked back to the bed. Now with the call going, he no longer had the music to isolate him, so he got up and carefully moved out of the room. He ended up sitting in the stairs leading down, setting his phone against the wall and turning to face it.

"I had to take his phone away from him," Lucas whispered.

"From Zay?"

"Yeah. He kept trying to call or write to her. He'd told me he'd probably do that, so I had to prevent him from doing it, no matter what. But then with what happened yesterday with her grandmother…" She gave a sad nod, looking to the side.

"I think if I hadn't brought her here last night, she would have cried herself to sleep. She loves her grandmother very much. It's always so much worse when it comes from someone you love."

"Yeah, I bet," Lucas replied, just as sad.

He remembered when Nadine had told them that she liked girls as well as boys. They'd all been eleven or twelve, and to them already exploring the concept of girls, and feelings for girls, was something of a rocky territory. But Nadine, she'd always exuded such confidence, such wisdom. She knew who she was, and there would never be any kind of apology for it, because there didn't need to be. She was their friend, and this was who she was, and they'd all taken the news in stride. But her grandmother…

"She came to visit, here in Austin, the summer before you moved out here, and Nadine was upset because her parents had begged her not to say anything about her sexuality, that it would just not be something her grandmother would be able to accept. It was the first time she realized not everyone would be okay with it, I think."

"Yeah, she told me about that before," Maya replied. It didn't mean that Nadine had ever liked the idea of lying to her grandmother, but she had done it, because of the love she had for her. She'd told Maya how, if she didn't tell her, she would never have to know for certain whether she would turn on her. She felt almost selfish for it, but it was all she could do to get by. And now… now she'd seen exactly what that reaction would be like, and it had fissured her heart, in ways that just couldn't be mended.

"So, how's she doing now?" Lucas whispered. "Did she sleep all night?"

"As far as I know, yes. If she woke up, then I was asleep at the time."

"And when did your small visitor come along?" he asked, smiling. Maya had to work not to chuckle and risk waking the pair next to her.

"Oh, she spent the night. She's like Trix, you know? She goes where she feels that she is needed."

"Like a security blanket in the shape of a girl," Lucas nodded.

"Exactly," Maya smiled, looking to the side, to her sleeping sister. "They're all excited that I'm here. I had to explain that it wasn't for good yet, but that it would be soon."

"Just one more month," Lucas whispered, and Maya signed the same in return.

That was the time frame they had established, thanks so Sophie and Chiara and the 'request' they had put to their soon to be former roommates. They wanted everyone to stick around at least until the fourth of July, which would be a celebration of their national holiday and a proper send-off of the five of them moving out and back to Austin. This kept the prospect of leaving Houston and settling in anywhere back here just far enough away that, hopefully, it would keep the thought of Pappy Joe's old house out of Maya's mind for a while. Of course, after tonight, she would know the whole truth, including the bit of misdirection they had orchestrated in order to maintain the surprise. Lucas wasn't sure if this would alter their plans in any way, if they would still do the whole fourth of July thing or if they would move back here early.

They would have the house out there, yes, but Maya had expressed a desire to spend time at her parents' house, with her siblings, and this was unlikely to change. This wasn't a bad thing in any way. Actually, it was kind of an ideal choice. It would mean that they could continue working on the house, doing all those things Lucas had not done yet, like the more decorative choices he'd waited to do with her. It would be much easier to get some work done without having the constraint of distance, and school, and work, and they could get it all done in a few weeks' time, all the while spending time with the little Hunters.

He must have gotten distracted, because at one point he caught Maya's waving her hand at the screen like she was trying to get his attention back. He blinked and quietly apologized.

"What were you smiling about?" she asked.

"Oh, I was just thinking about today, you in that bridesmaid dress…" he swiftly deflected away from the notion that he might have been smiling about something else, like the prospect of proposing to her that night, and them finishing up the house together… His answer was hardly farfetched, was it? She'd been getting a kick out of teasing him about the dress for the last few weeks, since she'd gotten it. According to her, it was so good that he would either cry, or faint, or smile until his face cracked in two.

"It is going to be so good," Maya signed, putting on such a confident smirk that he had to bite back a laugh. "It falls right in that space where it will look phenomenal to you but also won't upstage Nadine's dress for everyone else."

"You just love to torture me, don't you?" Lucas breathed out. He was in no way opposed to letting his mind wander into whatever kind of dress she might end up wearing. It was a really good place to be at.

"You talk like I'm the only one who's going to make any effect on someone. Last I heard, you were going to be there, too," she smiled.

"And I… make an effect on you?" he asked, finding it hard again not to laugh at the exaggerated sort of reaction she gave him, like she was about to pass out.

"It's worse now, because you weren't here with me last night. I'm so sad…" she 'sighed.'

"I'm just going to do something about that then, won't I?" he asked, all the while feeling his plan for that night falling further and further into place. And because today was the day, finally, part of him wondered if he might not be able to lock things into motion now, but he decided to hang on, to continue on the way he'd been going, leaving no room for any possibility that things might fall apart, so close to the finish line. "So… Calm before the storm, yeah?"

"I am enjoying it while I can," Maya nodded. "The moment Nadine wakes up, it's all going to start and it won't stop until they say 'I do.'"

"Same here," he confirmed. Soon, they would be dealing with breakfast, and showers, and clothes, and hair, and makeup… Several of their guests, the non-local kind… or soon to be local again, in some cases… hadn't arrived yet and were supposed to arrive this morning, though he couldn't say at which point exactly, whether they'd have to be picked up… That would likely be one of his tasks if they did, best man and all. "So," he looked at her, wishing they could enjoy this calm beat together instead of across a couple of screens, "What are you looking forward to the most today?"

"Besides you in that suit?" she grinned.

"Yeah, besides that," he pulled back his own laugh… again.

"I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone again," Maya told him, and really, he wasn't surprised. The question kind of went without saying, didn't it?

Their calm was broken with the sound of a doorbell. It came from Lucas' side of the call, but it was like the sound of the pistol at the start of a race on both sides. On his side, it brought forth Mrs. Babineaux, emerging from her room and clapping her hands together like she absolutely intended to wake up everyone.

"Breakfast in twenty minutes!" she called. "Morning, Lucas," she passed by him and started down the stairs.

At the same time as Lucas heard that bell, Maya had heard it, too, gasping, and she'd been trying to either mute the call or end it all together, but already it had gotten her bed companions stirring. When Zay's mother's voice had started its call, it was too late. Gracie jumped awake, rolling over and taking hold of her sister, while Nadine bolted up and on to her feet, blinking and disoriented for a moment.

"Wha… Where… Huh?"

"No need to sign now," Maya sighed, turning to her phone. "Later," she waved at him and ended the call as he waved back. "Hey, Mouse Mouse, why don't you go see if the others are up, okay?" she looked down to her sister. Gracie gave a nod, and Maya sent her off with a quick kiss to the top of the head before getting up, too. "Now, you," she moved up to Nadine, taking hold of her shoulders. "Deep breaths, let's go," she led by example, and Nadine finally imitated her. "Before we go anywhere, or do anything, I want you to put one thing inside your head, just one. Today, Nadine Zhu, you are marrying the man you love. Whatever does or doesn't happen, that is the only thing you need to think about, okay? If anything goes wrong, you tell me, and I will fix it, okay?"

"Okay," Nadine quietly replied.

"Good… Happy wedding day…" Maya beamed, hugging her friend and former bandmate.

"What would I do without you?" Nadine asked with a chuckle.

"I dread to even consider it. Now wait here a second," she bolted over to her closet, reaching to the shelf and pulling down what could only be described as a crown of flowers. They weren't real flowers, or artificial ones, just paper cut and folded and assembled this way, and fastened together. She came back over and placed it on to Nadine's head with a smile. "Just a little something to set you apart, until you get all done up like the bride you are."

"When did you…" Nadine went on laughing, reaching up to gingerly touch her crown.

"Last night, after you went to sleep," Maya told her. She could have added that she wanted to ensure she felt the cheer of the day even before it all started, so she wouldn't focus on the grandma situation and all the other stressful elements, but bringing it up would only have made things worse, wouldn't it?

"I love it, thank you," Nadine hugged her again, and it did feel to Maya here that her friend felt a bit lighter, and stronger all the same.

As they went down the stairs and toward the kitchen, they were joined on the steps by Nellie, Gracie, and MJ, who all admired the paper flowers like they could have been genuine flowers. They all wanted to touch it, which they did, carefully. The three of them continued down the stairs when they heard their father saying that breakfast was almost ready, just as Katy came along with the eleven-month-old Haley, who saw her big sister and treated her to a 'Ya!' worthy of the twins.

"Hey, 4H!" Maya smiled, climbing back up a few stairs until she could scoop the small girl in her arms and give her many a good morning kiss. She couldn't wait to get to spend so much more time with her. Her youngest sibling, on both sides, was growing up so fast already, and Maya just wanted to get to spend more and more time with her. In a month's time, that would actually get to happen, and even though Haley was much too young to grasp this, somewhere deep down Maya felt like she did know.

It was a good thing that Nadine was here with them this morning and not home with her parents. Going off how stressed she had been in dealing with her wedding plans both before and since her return to Austin, she would have likely started off this morning up to her knees in a nervous state, and she would only have felt all of it rise, and rise, and rise. Instead, she was here, with Maya and her parents and her little siblings, and everything was calm and happy. The twins would be swapping bits of their breakfast, as they often did, even though they were eating the same things and trading the same things, as though all they really cared about was the fact that they'd given something to their sister. MJ would be prodding his placemat, which was covered in colorful fruits, one of this one, two of that one, three, four, up to ten. Sometimes he would call up the colors, sometimes the fruit, and today he would go 'one… one, two… one, two, three…'

"Maya, can you feed her so she doesn't smash all of it over her face again?" Shawn asked as she came in with the small girl in her arms.

"Yeah, sure," Maya chuckled. "You do that, too, huh?" she looked to Haley, who spotted her bowl on the table and pointed at it.

"We have to be out there in two hours for hair and makeup," Nadine reminded Maya as she sat at the table, looking like she wanted to just go there already, in the event that about two dozen things would happen and prevent them from arriving on time.

"Yeah, we'll be there," Maya nodded calmly. "Now eat," she instructed. Nadine sighed, pulling up her plate. She looked two seconds away from claiming not to be hungry, and then she caught the scent of Shawn's omelet and took up her fork at once. Shawn saw this and threw his wife and daughter a confident smirk. Katy indulged him with a tap on the arm while Maya tried not to roll her eyes even as she smiled and went about feeding her baby sister.

Breakfast was also happening back at the Babineaux house. After his call with Maya had been so abruptly interrupted, Lucas had made his way back to Zay's room, finding the groom to be was currently sitting up in his bed, rubbing sleep out of his eyes but looking this close to dropping back to the mattress for another round of sleep. Lucas went up to the bed and gave him a finger snap to the ear, as they would do when they were kids.

"Ow! Hey!" Zay dodged in case he got another one. "What are you…" Somehow the sight of Lucas standing in his old room this early in the morning finally snapped him back to reality: he was getting married today. "What time is it?" Zay asked, looking around in a slight panic.

"Breakfast time, come on, before your mom summons you a second time," Lucas chuckled. He remembered from many years of friendship and sleepovers that if Mrs. Babineaux called for you, you had better get a move on, or else the second time would not be fun.

"Can't a man take just… five minutes… when he's about to get married?" Zay asked, in a brief moment of rebellion. Lucas didn't say a word, only looked at him. "It was worth a shot," he sighed, tossing the sheets aside and getting out of bed. "You didn't happen to check in with Maya this morning, did you?" he asked as they headed down the stairs toward the kitchen.

"Not yet, no," Lucas lied. If he said yes, he'd be falling right into the trap he knew was being set for him, where Zay would want to know if she'd said anything about how Nadine was doing.

They'd tried so hard not to tell him about the grandmother thing, but the guy had a sixth sense when it came to Nadine, and he just knew that something was going on. When Lucas had finally told him what Maya had told him, Zay had been instantly furious at the old woman, and he was just ready to head out to go and find Nadine, to be with her. Lucas had reminded him that they had agreed not to see one another until the wedding, and Zay didn't care, only saw his present goal. So, Lucas had needed to physically hold him back, lifting him right off the ground until he promised he would stay, showing that his fingers weren't crossed or anything. A promise was a promise, no matter how much he hated to make it.

The doorbell which had sent everyone into motion earlier, as it turned out, had not been the first, only the first one Lucas had heard. When they'd arrived downstairs, Lucas and Zay had discovered that the kitchen was already hosting a number of the Babineaux family members. Aunts, uncles, cousins… They kept on arriving and filling up the kitchen, like this was a practice run for the usual end of summer party, only here and mostly in the kitchen. Zay was getting so many hugs, and handshakes, and questions, and might not have managed to eat a bite of his breakfast while it was still hot, if not for GiGi's intervention, telling everyone to leave him be.

Of course, now that everyone else had let him be, she was free to inquire from her great grandson. She asked him if he was nervous, excited… When Zay expressed concern for Nadine, it didn't take long that GiGi had gotten him to explain what was happening on the Zhu side, with Nadine's grandmother and what she'd learned and how she'd reacted. There was a brief moment of realizing they had now revealed something that Nadine may not have wanted them to. She never hid it, no, but with some people, as they had been made aware, she preferred to keep some parts of herself… well, to herself.

GiGi had declared that it was despicable, and they looked to one another for a beat, before GiGi went on and they figured out she was talking about the grandmother and not Nadine's bisexuality. If they hadn't already loved GiGi more than most humans out in the world, this would have knocked her over the threshold and then some. Later, Zay would joke that he would just love to see his great grandmother give that stern talk to Nadine's grandmother.

"She won't be able to play the age card with her," Zay laughed.

They were on their way to the airport now, just the two of them, to pick up their friends from New York. They'd needed to borrow Zay's aunt's van, and they would have to drop off the girls on the way, so there was no time to lose.

"Alright, so if you need me to create an excuse at some point today, to send you and Maya somewhere, you just give me one of these." Zay pointed to his ring finger with a nod.

"Are you serious?" Lucas laughed.

"What?" Zay complained.

"What is that supposed to look like coming from me?"

"Uh, 'congrats on your wedding, best friend?'" he shrugged, as though this was obvious.

"I am not doing that," Lucas shook his head.

"Alright, well, then we need to find another signal, so you can go with her and do what you gotta do, and then I get to be your best man. What are you thinking, like next summer?"

"How about we worry about getting you married first before you start planning anything for me?" Lucas told him. Zay gave him a look. "Yes, you get to be best man, that's not even a question."

"Hey, I asked you!"

"I haven't even asked her!"

"Please, that's formalities, she'll say yes, you'll be engaged, boom, best man Zay," he tapped his chest. Lucas laughed. "What?"

"Just missed you, man," Lucas shook his head. Zay smiled.

"Missed you, too," he tipped his head. They were silent for a few seconds. "So, like, after the cake, yeah?"

"I don't think I would even be able to convince Maya to follow me if it meant she missed the cake. We tested those for you, remember? She said she had dreams about that cake for weeks after. Cake first, proposal after. And no weird hand signals."

"Spoil my fun…"

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners