A/N: Note 1! The new chapter of "We Three Hearts" is now available, on its new release day, Tuesdays!

Note 2! This is the final day of the 2019 story! And starting tomorrow, the next installment begins! Look out for "Firsts of Many"!

December 31st 2019

Chapter 365
Their Ceremony of Ten Years

"Hey, Maya?"

"I'm me again?"

"That'd be preferable."

"But the surprise…"

"… is for you, Maya. It's always been for you."

There was light at her back, she could just see it playing over his face, and reflecting on the car at their side. Behind him though, she couldn't see very much. It was late, and it was very dark, but still just that atmosphere had a feeling to it that was vaguely familiar, like she'd been here before. She was still so confused, especially for what Lucas had just told her.

"What do you…" she shook her head, blinking. Whatever they'd been playing at before, when they'd left the reception hall and she'd pretended to be his mother as he'd blindfolded her, now it felt as though they'd both been playing a different game from the other, or at least he'd gotten her to play a different game than him, so he could get them to this point, where he was quietly smiling at her and telling her that this surprise she'd been led to believe all this time had been for his mother was in fact for her. Right about then, some subconscious part of her, with its own little subconscious heart, had started to feel said heart beating very fast. "There's something behind me, isn't there?"

"There is," he nodded, looking past her, still with that smile on him, and she knew that this was something he had been looking forward to.

"Can I see it?" she whispered.

"I wouldn't have brought you here if you couldn't," he replied. "But first, you're going to need something. Don't turn around yet," he added, when she looked like she was about to turn.

"Sorry, sorry," she smiled.

He reached for her hand, pulling it up and turning it over so her palm would be out, open. He reached inside his pocket and pulled something from it. She couldn't see what it was, though it had to be small. When he set it in her palm, it felt cold, metallic… a key? He pulled his hand away and she looked to her hand. Yeah, it was a key, golden and brand new, by the look of it. There were sounds in the air, chirping, crackling sort of… outdoorsy summer sounds, a calm breeze, and a dog barking in the distance, insects buzzing… There was a split second, before she turned around, where something in her head said 'I know this place now, it's… it's…'

She was struck silent as she turned around and saw the house there. It took several beats for her to recognize it, this was… Pappy Joe's house? She sort of recognized the base of it, but it had changed, and then on top… That hadn't been there before, it…

Maya looked down to the key in her hand again, warmer now as it had sat against her skin. She realized this had to be the key to the house, of course, but after that… The house was Pappy Joe's… The little voice in her head nudged her thoughts onward. It was Lucas' house now, had been for four years now, since they'd graduated high school. She turned back to look at him.

"This is what you were doing all this time?" she asked. He nodded. "Who else…" she had to wonder, because there was no way he would have been able to do this, what little she saw here, which was already a lot to her… a brand new floor, an attic maybe?

"A lot of people…" Lucas simply said.

She looked to the house again, to the key, before finally moving toward the front steps and climbing up to the door. She could just see through the window into the lit up house as she put the key in the door and turned the lock. It clicked, and she turned the knob before pushing the door slowly open and walking inside.

Of the times they had been here, back before Pappy Joe had moved in with his son and his daughter-in-law, she had sufficient memories to still, after several years away, to conjure up an image of what the place had looked like. Like outside, she could recognize the frame of it, identify it as the same place she'd been to before, but… so much had changed. It still retained what she'd call its spirit, but it also had been given something of a new touch of life. It was also empty, the old furniture covered over was gone now, displaying an empty floor, new boards laid beneath her feet. Later, she would remember that her initial feeling upon standing inside the house for the first time had been of something like… lungs expanding, and heart lifting, and mind clearing…

"Wow…" she breathed, looking around, turning around to look to Lucas again, just as lowered himself before her, knee bent to the ground, with a new small thing in his hands. Not a key now but a box. "Wow…" she said again, this time sounding like laughter and tears, and bells… That inner heart now was beating right with her own, and she ventured it wasn't alone.

Lucas looked like his heart was ready to beat right out of his chest, too, like anticipation finally met with the anticipated. It wasn't so much that he was nervous, but he had worked toward this moment, clearly, for a long time, and now that it was here, he was remembering what he was doing it for… For the love he bore for her, which felt so much bigger than his whole body knew to contain. She recognized it as only one who felt it could recognize it in return.

"I… I don't know what to do with my hands," she heard herself admitting in a whisper. It made him laugh, and there were tears in both their eyes right then. He reached out one of his, and she gave him one of hers. There, that was something to do with one. She wrapped the other around herself, feeling sort of chilled and warmed at the same time, nervous and excited. His hand was shaking in hers, she could feel it, and she just smiled, squeezing his fingers.

"I don't remember the first time I knew this was where we were headed, you and me. I don't even remember when it became this thing like… we both knew it. We hadn't even made it to Houston yet…" he shook his head, and she shook hers, too. They were still in high school, she knew that. Easily five years, half the time they'd known one another, maybe more. "But we knew it, like we knew that there were things we needed to do before any of that."

Others of their friends hadn't waited, no, but that had been their choice, their path, and it was very right for them, but for him and her, it was this, now.

"So, then, last summer, I started to think about what was coming up. Our last year in Houston…" She chuckled, couldn't help it, and it made him laugh, too. So many times they'd played that joke, last year, last semester, last Halloween, last Christmas… "And I thought about this moment, about you and me and our future. We both knew it was coming, fine. But that only meant it had to be really special, memorable… big," his eyes moved about the room where they stood… she stood, he knelt. "I know we never said whether or not we'd take the house when my grandfather gave it to me. It was an option, but it wasn't a choice, and it doesn't even have to be the option, not if you don't want to, if you want to live somewhere else… But if you want it, this could be our home, you and me… and Sam… and whoever comes along after that…"

He looked down to the box in his hand, carefully cracked it open. Maya could see the ring inside, and even though they had been knowingly making their way to this point, every step that took them closer to it still hit home just as hard as they might have done if this was a total surprise. That ring… It wasn't like she'd been studying engagement rings, but something about it just felt old, not new, like it had been passed down… Maybe it was the box… Either way, she saw it and it forged a new supply of tears in her eyes.

It didn't take her long to decide, as far as the house went. He hadn't asked her yet, and he would have waited until she'd seen the whole place and come to a decision in her own time, but as far as she was concerned… there really was no need to think it through.

Luckily, while her bridesmaid dress didn't have pockets in the strictest sense of the term, there was a small space which, in the way the dress had been made, sort of became like a tiny pocket. She'd showed it to Lucas earlier, and they'd spent a good five minutes coming up with items she could hide in there, from silly things like candy, or a small cookie, or a spare bread roll… ("So, food, mostly.") to things somewhat more practical, like a spare pencil ("For art emergencies.") to a bit of money just in case, or…

Maya looked down to the hand she'd had wrapped around herself, where she still held the key. She looked at it, and at Lucas, before sort of purposefully slipping it inside her secret dress pocket with a smile. Lucas watched her as she did this, and it was a weight lifted off him, just as it urged him onward to say the words he'd wanted to speak to her for year upon year.

"Maya... You changed my life the day you became a part of it. You changed it, you made it better, every day since. I might not know exactly how long I've been sure of this, but I have known for a long time that I want you to be in my life, for as many days and months and years as I've got in me, to keep on making it better by being in it. I want all of it, with you, here in this house and wherever the future takes us. So, will you, finally… officially… marry me?"

She'd barely been holding on, wanting to answer him already but also wanting to let him finish saying what he had to say. When he'd finally gotten to the end, finally said those words, her knees very nearly buckled for how quickly she went to find a way and kneel with him, all the while trying not to rip her dress. But then she made it, and she kissed him, oh… like the world was about to end, except really it was only beginning. He kissed her back, all the while holding her hand, and the ring… Once they finally pulled back, for air, for speech, she looked at him, her face a burst of overwhelming joy.

"It goes both ways, you know? What you said? You have made my life… so much better than I could ever imagine… And yes… I will marry you… officially," she grinned. He nodded, crying, before pulling the ring from the box and slipping it on to her finger. He still held her hand for a beat, both of them looking at that ring… Granny Marianne's ring… It was perfect. She moved in and kissed him again, as he wrapped his arms around her, rising to his feet and bringing her along, until her feet didn't touch the ground anymore, but she held on to him and she knew he'd never let her fall.

They went on kissing, even as he did set her on her feet, kissed themselves breathless… It had finally happened… They were engaged… they were getting married! And as chaotic as the process had been, of getting to this point and pulling off the great surprise, it had turned into everything they could hope for and then some. Now, they could both bask in the reality of it, here, together, in their house…

"Look at you…" Maya laughed, brushing tears from his face with her thumbs. "I don't even want to know what I look like right now," she sniffled, dabbing at her own eyes now. "And I totally forgot before, when I was dancing with Farkle and I got all weepy over him becoming a dad," she reached inside the shoulder strap of her dress and produced a tissue. "It was for the ceremony, just in case, but I never reached for it," she explained, attempting to clean her face.

"May I?" Lucas indicated the tissue, figuring it would be easier for him, as he could see her face. She handed the tissue over and he carefully wiped away the worst of the damage.

"First my sister, now me, big day for you and messy faces," she joked.

"Happy to do it," he assured her. By the time he was done, the tissue was loaded but her face was practically devoid of any trace of makeup.

"I didn't see you with your mother before, did I?" Maya inquired. She'd just accepted the excuse before, but now that she thought about it… He shook his head. "You were supposed to dance with her…"

"I'll find another time, it's fine," he promised, but she shook her head. "You want to go back to the party?"

"Not right away, I mean…" she gestured around them. "But yeah, I mean we just got engaged. You better believe I want to dance right now," she smirked. "I will let your mother get one song out of you though," she added, with an air like 'I'm feeling generous.' Lucas smiled, looping his arms around her once again.

"Well, if it's what you want, who am I to say no?" he hummed. It was so easy for them to dip back into their back and forth, making the other smile or laugh, but then all it would take would be a moment of silence, eyes meeting, and then they would be taken once again with the jolt of remembering that they were now engaged. That jolt came with a whole lot of wanting to be near one another, and wanting to kiss, and…

"Right," she breathed. "I need to see everything, and you better believe I need to hear everything," she nodded.

"You got it," he nodded, smiling, before taking her hand and leading her into the kitchen.

There was so much for her to see and take in. Finding out that he had been at this since the end of the previous summer, starting with that unplanned camping trip with his father and grandfather, she was just amazed. Processing the extent of his work became easier as she saw more of the house and he told her about how they had changed this, fixed that, removed this, added that… And the people! He would show her things and say things like 'Bishop built that' or 'Sophie fixed that' or 'Riley applied those' and she would start to realize just how many people had known about this, had helped Lucas. She came this close to crying… again.

"Oh, Sam picked these," Lucas pointed to the kitchen tiles. Maya stared at him.

"Sam, my Sam?"

"Yeah," Lucas laughed as they moved out of the kitchen and toward the stairs. "He helped me decide on a lot of things. I figured, this was going to be his house, too, if you said yes to it, and he sees a lot of things the way you do, so I asked if he wanted to get involved, and he did. Couldn't have done it without him." Maya smiled on at the thought. At the same time, it sort of halfway opened the door to a thought, which opened the rest of the way as Lucas tapped the end of the wooden banister. "Dora carved this. I think it's one of my favorite things in here…"

"Dora!" she blurted out and he looked at her. "I was right! I'm right, aren't I?" she gestured at him.

"What?" he laughed, clueless.

"She and Sam, did they ever talk?"

"Oh…" he laughed harder now. "Yeah, all the time," he revealed. She smiled for a moment, nodding to herself with the victory of her deductive skills, but then just as soon snapped and froze where she stood.

"Oh, no…" she mumbled.

"What?" he asked, and she stared back at him with the face of someone who'd just tasted something unpleasant and knew they'd have to eat the whole thing whether they liked it or not.

"He's going to move out here, and she lives here, too, and we're going to be in charge of him, and I do not want to play the horny teenager police!" His face quickly adopted a very similar expression to hers as he was submitted to the same mental image. Her brother, his cousin… "I actually thought we'd have it easy, I mean he's fifteen and he's going to be in school with people who are literally required by law to keep their hands off him."

"Okay, okay, but it's Sam, he's a good kid, yeah? And Dora, I mean she's… she's Dora…" He sounded like all he could see was the tiny girl who used so sit on his back like he was a pony while he ran around their back yard.

"How did we get from being happy about our engagement to freaking out about teenagers all of a sudden?" she shook her head. "Let's get back to you showing me around and me being impressed and giddy and happy?"

"Yeah, let's do that," he agreed at once and they moved on up the stairs.

"Woah…" Maya pointed to the attic door as they reached the second floor.

"Not yet, saving it for the end," Lucas directed her further into the hall.

"But!" she pleaded, this close to throwing on the mighty pout face.

"Big finish," he promised, and she followed him.

"Fine, fine." All the doors to the rooms were closed, which she had to guess was for the grand purpose of swinging each one open to reveal what was inside. If she wasn't so genuinely impressed she might have called him out for being a giant nerd, before pointing out that she loved that about him.

The bathroom was a thing of beauty, and Maya just had to stare and move around in awe, like she couldn't quite believe that this was the same place she'd been to the last times she'd been here, or that it was now to be theirs. After that, they reached the first bedroom, which she soon learned was to be Sam's room, complete with his choice of wall color. Maya spotted that green paint and she looked back to Lucas like 'so that's where that came from.' He thought about the paint stain on his car seat, which had been from the day they'd painted these walls, and confirmed that this had been its source.

"I really can't wait for him to be here," Maya smiled. "Teenage hormones aside."

"Well, now that the secret keeping is finally over…"

"Killed you, huh?"

"So much…" She laughed. "Now that I'm not trying to keep you from thinking about the house anymore, I mean… The only reason why we said fourth of July weekend was for cover, so if you want us to come back to Austin sooner, we can do that. And Sam said he'd come earlier, too, if that all worked out for everyone. We could still stay with your parents, and your siblings, while we get things settled out here, and even after we're done, whatever you feel like," he explained.

"Details for another day," she slowly nodded. "But really good to know."

He showed her the other bedroom, across from what was to be their room, which for now was sort of vacant and without any sort of assigned purpose, though as they walked in neither had any doubt of what the other would think about using this room for, sometime in their future. There was little else to see in here, so they moved to the door across the hall from this one. Lucas opened it, and Maya followed him in.

Much of it, like a lot of the other rooms, was bare, but in this case there was of course the exception of the bedroom set, the ones originally made by his great grandfather for his grandmother and now beautifully restored by his aunt and his cousins. The mattress on the bed was the only object in the room that was brand new. He hadn't been sure whether or not Maya had ever actually seen inside this room, ever seen the furniture before it had been restored, and once he'd started the process of fixing up the house, naturally, he couldn't go and ask her if she had without revealing what he was up to. Watching her as she took it all in, he soon figured out she must have seen the pieces pre-restoration. She was in awe.

"So, did you actually hurt your foot the way you said or was it anything to do with all this?" Maya asked as they walked out of the room. Lucas laughed.

"Unfortunately for me, it happened exactly the way I told it. I couldn't do anything out here for a while, couldn't even come for a few weeks, and I was not happy about that. But then while I wasn't here, that's when the attic happened." He told her the whole tale, all the people who'd banded together and expanded the house the way they'd done. She was as touched to hear it as he'd been, and now he just wanted to show it to her already. "Be careful with your dress?" he begged as he opened the door and the ladder came down. She was already removing her shoes, placing them right side up.

"Yeah, not eager to expand our catalogue of bodily injuries, thanks," she joked, trying to be careful and pull the skirt of her dress out of the way without ripping or wrinkling it. He followed behind her, reaching the top to find her already looking around in awe. She'd fixated on the window in the gable almost immediately, and seeing that wonder in her eyes was one of the things he'd looked forward to the most. "That was your father's idea," he revealed. She turned to look at him.

"The window?" she asked, and he nodded. She looked back up, to the stars in the night sky, and she gave the tiniest whimper like she was about to cry all over again. It was already her favorite place, as he'd assumed it would be.

They had gone back down and locked up again, extinguishing the lights as they drove off to return to the reception hall. The ride started off quiet and peaceful, as they both reflected on what had just happened for them today. Lucas would look to her at times and find her staring at the ring on her finger, smiling to herself, which would only make him smile, too. It really couldn't have gone off any better if he'd tried…

Eventually, she'd mentioned about how bare the attic and some of the other rooms had been, and so he had explained about how he'd left some things purposefully untouched in order to confer with her in the choice of colors and patterns and whatnot. He was pretty sure her head was already swirling with color palettes as they spoke. The way things were going, maybe they'd be leaving Houston a whole lot earlier than the start of next month.

"I am not taking the ring off, so we're definitely telling our parents, yeah?" Maya breathed as they climbed out of the car, once again in the parking lot outside the reception hall.

"That'll be as good as telling the whole room once my mother sees, but I'm in if you are," Lucas nodded. This made her hesitate.

"Should we do this now though? Zay and Nadine…"

"They already know," Lucas revealed. "I ran it by them once the idea came for me to do this today. Nadine's been running interference for our escape."

"Yeah, that makes sense," Maya laughed. "Alright then…" she took a deep breath, reaching for his hand. He took hold of hers, and they headed inside.

The reception hall was not so crowded as before they left, but not so much that anyone would deem the night and the party over. It was still good and hopping, and none of their people had left. Their woman on the inside spotted them striding in and looked ready to dash over, but Maya caught her eye and lifted her left index to her lips, telling her to hold on and not say anything yet, all the while discreetly flashing her the ring on her middle finger. Nadine grinned and nodded.

The Hunter Hart and Friar families were enjoying themselves around their table, deep in conversation along with Mr. and Mrs. Matthews, leaving the dance floor to the others. They were near the side wall, which had allowed them to settle down the 'fallen warriors,' with Nellie, Gracie, MJ, Haley, and Hunter Matthews all sleeping on a bed of borrowed cushions. This left Tom and Melinda, Katy and Shawn, Cory and Topanga, and Pappy Joe and Patty, who all looked up and invited the two returnees to sit and join them.

"Did you find what Nadine was looking for?" Melinda asked her son, who now looked to Maya as though to ask 'how do you want to do this?' She gave him a smirk that read 'geronimo…' and simply held up her left hand for all to see.

There was an explosion of sound at table five.

The next few minutes were just a mess of voices and hugs as everyone reacted and stood to come and congratulate them. The first to reach either of them, to no one's surprise, had been their mothers. Melinda had been her loud, exuberant self through and through, and Lucas would not have wanted it any other way, while Katy had just grasped her baby girl's face in her hands for a moment, resisting the urge to cry which she'd finally lost by the time they'd hugged and pulled apart from one another. Then it had been the dad bros, who each fought valiantly against tears as well, but finally had to admit defeat and reach for the tissue. The crossing of the future in laws had been just as loud, as they greeted their child's soon to be spouse into their families, as though they hadn't already been there.

By the time they were able to explain how they had gone to the house, the outburst had drawn several of their friends across the room to find out what was going on. So, once again, Maya showed her ring, which led to more cheers and more hugs. Nadine had been the first to pop up, informed as she was, and she'd given her maid of honor a good squeeze, whispering at her ear that at least now they'd had themselves a bit of a test run in wedding planning. Riley was a sobbing mess when she reached her best friend, and they folded themselves to one another like they'd never let go. Maya did not go the way of the day's bride and groom in waiting. She asked right then and there and just like that, Riley was her maid of honor.

The main goal in returning to the party – other than to tell their families about their engagement – had been for Lucas and Maya to get the chance to celebrate for themselves by heading on to the dance floor and letting loose. That was exactly what they did, and there would be no one around who'd dare to come along and cut in between them. It was just exactly what they needed to put an end to their years in Houston, just dancing the night away, with a vast majority of the people they loved the most around them.

Later, when they would return to the Hunter Hart house, after all the little Hunters had been carried to their beds, after the formal wear had been replaced by sleep wear, Lucas would return to Maya's old room after brushing his teeth and find her sitting in the bay window with her sketchbook in her lap, several colored pencils bunched in one hand while she drew with the other, a look of fervent inspiration in her eyes. Lucas would step up to look over her shoulders and find a familiar scene coming together. Friends around them, dancing, the families looking on from their table on the side, and at the heart of it all, him and her, bright and colorful, dancing and looking to one another…

"For the timeline?" he guessed, and she nodded. A meeting at school, a summer Christmas, a trip to Europe, and now this… a wedding and a proposal… She scooted over, freeing a bit of space on the seat behind her, and he sat down, lifting his arm so she could lean to him as she went on drawing. It had been a crazy long day. The long awaited first day of June had not disappointed in twists and turns. But now it was over. It was now the second day of June, and there was just so much more ahead of them, as jumped headlong into summer and a new chapter in their lives.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners