A/N: The new chapter of "We Three Hearts" is now available!

April 28th 2020

Chapter 119
Their Transformation Into the Night

"Oh, hey there," Maya smiled as she returned from the bathroom, where she had transformed back to a not so nightmare-like state, to find Lucas changed out of his own costume. "I know you," she teased.

"I know you, too," he smiled back.

"Yeah, you better," she hummed, drawn to his arms and a lingering kiss. It was after midnight now, November 1st… Nine years had now passed from the day they had shared the first of these, standing on a sidewalk on their way to school. The way he held her now, there would be much more than kissing in the time to come, they both knew it, both yearned for it. In Maya's case, it was a strong temptation to simply set aside the first phase of her anniversary plans, but she needed to keep steady. This fire in them could be tamed, if for a little while… She mumbled something, which got lost in their kiss but not so far as to go unheard.

"What's that?" Lucas asked, before reclaiming her lips.

"Anniversary," she finally managed to say, putting a hand to his chest, which finally got his attention.

"It is, yeah," he breathed, looking back at her with all that love in his eyes which only served to wobble her resolve to not just drag him to the bed right then and there.

"And it starts right now," Maya informed him. His eyebrow took a lift which felt almost like an echo of her own. "You might want to dress a bit warmer, it's getting cold out there."

"We're going somewhere?" Lucas was intrigued now.

"Somewhere, yeah," Maya smiled.

"What about Sam?"

"He's aware, and he'll be fine. Now, get ready, we don't want to be late." Looking at the clock, with the delay of her makeup removal, it was entirely possible, but she wasn't going to let it happen.

For about as long as they had been together, they'd had their 'assignments.' She would do Halloween, and he would do the anniversary. She had gotten to the point where she could do Halloween in her sleep, but the day that came after, that was new. Lucas had done this for her, for them, time and time again, and she would just look forward to the day the more it approached every year. Now that it was in her hands to put together this two-person celebration, she had wanted to make damn sure it would be a good and memorable one.

Nine years was a solid number, but it wasn't any sort of milestone like the next year's would be, but even then… It had made her realize how this would be their last dating anniversary before they were married. What would happen after that? They would have a brand new day to celebrate, in July, but even then… The whole spookversary/anniversary combo had become such a part of their lives that she couldn't imagine doing it anymore, and she was confident enough in the belief that Lucas would feel the same way, especially with number ten just around the corner, one year from now.

She wanted to get this one right. Sure, Lucas would take any scenario wherein she was somewhere and he was in that same place with her, no fuss, no frills. He loved her, and he wanted to be with her, and that was enough. That was every day. This day was about taking things to another level, something special for them to not just be in the same place physically but also in this same bond to their world, and their time together, so they might stop for a beat and say 'hey, look at us, all those years, and we're still here, and I love you as much as I did then, love you even more than that because of all these new memories we've made together since I fell for you and you fell for me.'

Figuring out what they would do had started out a lot like when she'd be trying to write a song from scratch, no inspiration already tickling at the back of her mind, just this blank page demanding content. It took several days after they had decided to switch roles before she even had anything. And then one Saturday afternoon, she'd been hanging out with Riley and Rosa at their apartment, and she'd let it slip that she was meant to be figuring this thing out. For a while, her friends and bandmates had tossed ideas at her, starting at a fairly reasonable place before sinking deeper and deeper into madness. Maya had tried to pull it all back in, to find a way to explain what she was trying to do, and in doing so…

"I need to make a call," she'd declared, dashing off with her phone. Much as she'd presumed it would all be more than fine, she'd worried just a bit that she'd be asking too much.

"Where are we going?" Lucas asked, when they had finished getting ready and gone down to the car. They'd checked on Sam, finding he was asleep already.

"First things first," Maya came around and held up a rolled scarf. He frowned for a moment, not following, before it all came together.

"Is this to get me back for the night I proposed?" he asked as she moved around him to fasten the makeshift blindfold over his eyes.

"Just sharing the experience," Maya told him with a singsong turn in her voice which just made him chuckle.

"Alright, fine, just… yeah, okay…" he felt around as she helped him get into the passenger seat.

"Hands in," she warned, and he did as told, hearing the door close next to him.

She talked to him the whole way, and if he ever tried to figure out where they were going he quickly lost track. The night's party had been eventful enough that they had plenty to talk about, and they hadn't even made it all the way through by the time they came to a stop.

"Are we… wherever we are?" Lucas asked.

"Obviously," Maya chuckled.

"Maya…"

"You can take off the blindfold now. If I take you out there like this, they'll think I kidnapped you or something," she told him. Lucas swept the scarf up from over his eyes, which were hit with a sudden burst of light. Once he'd blinked the surprise away, what he'd first thought had to be something else than what was really out ahead of them, he discovered that he had seen correctly.

There was a plane, a small one, the kind that summoned the nickname 'Air Zvolensky' to mind. It was primed to go, open and waiting for its passengers.

"Wha…"

"Come on, Fly Trap, we don't want to miss our flight," Maya smirked as she finished parking and turned off the ignition. He still looked stunned as he followed, and it was so hard not to laugh.

"Where are we going? Did you… Sophie?"

"She was more than happy to assist, as was her mother," Maya told him. "As for the where, I'm not going to tell you, because surprises are nice, but I think you should be able to figure it out. This is about you and me, and big moments," she reminded him.

Lucas watched as Maya retrieved a couple of bags from the trunk before leading the way toward the plane, which they soon boarded. They were taking off shortly, with compliments from Mrs. Zvolensky. They were settled in, their seats at the ready with whatever they'd need if they chose to sleep through the flight.

"I'm working tomorrow," Lucas realized.

"No, you're not," Maya assured him. "I already cleared it with Maeve, she took care of it. We'll be back in time for your classes on Monday." It was all a bit of a whirlwind, but then of course it was. That was to be expected when Maya was making the plans… She'd thought of everything.

Between the time difference and their flight, they landed in New York at 6:30. They had slept through the flight after all, the better not to be dragging their feet through this brief escape. Lucas was met with a new surprise when they were picked up from the airport by Farkle Minkus. He drove them over to his place, where Lucas and Maya got to see Isadora as well, and also baby Ada, who was growing more and more by the day to look like her mother.

"Take this, go on and get ready," Maya instructed, back on task as anniversary director.

"At your service," Lucas smirked, tipping his head as he received the bag she handed him. As he moved to go, he stopped and turned back to her, pointing to his face. She took this to mean 'kiss me,' and he had to grin when she did. "I meant what am I doing with the beard?" he clarified, which now left her with a similar expression as he'd had a moment before.

"I… I don't know…" she admitted, with a sheepish little smile. "I am happy… whatever your face looks like, I mean, there's this right now," she reached up to touch his cheek. "And it was weird at first, with the scratching, but now I kind of got used to it, and it just… I have a lot of feelings, you know?" Lucas chuckled.

"Yeah, I know," he confirmed.

"But then there's what's under that beard, which is just… I know that face very well," she turned her smile up to him once again. "So it's really up to you, and what you feel like doing now that Halloween's over."

"Well," he thought about it for a moment. "I could keep it through the holidays…" he finally pointed out, and her eyes lit up in understanding.

"Oh, yes, let's do that," she tapped his chest with excitement, which earned her a few more scratchy kisses and made her laugh.

So, the beard stayed, and Maya and Lucas went and changed, from post-party travelers into day trip capital-D Date mode. Once they had gotten to this point, Lucas had a fairly good idea where they were headed, and as Farkle once again served as their driver he was proven correct. They walked into the diner, and one look to the side showed a reserved sign, on top of the table where they'd been sitting, ten years ago, the first time Maya had been back to New York since the move.

This was where they'd kissed for the first time.

The dating part had taken another year, but the kiss… It had now reached its 10th anniversary, its very own milestone, and they were back at the scene of it all. She'd been fourteen and he fifteen, and looking back on it from their new vantage point, it was impossible to imagine they'd been that young at the time, that so much time had passed. Lucas' eyes went to the back of Maya's head on reflex, finding the spot where she'd bumped it from looking under the table. He had come around to get a look, and they'd been there, in that booth, looking at each other…

There had been so much going through their minds at the time, this confusion of youth and feelings that were still so new. How were they supposed to even reconcile what it all meant, and then account for the underlying issues, mostly hers… But in that one moment, it had been as though the world had fallen away, and they had found a path to truth, their truth. She had taken his hands in hers, and there had been the flicker of a look in her eyes, like she was surprising herself as much as she was surprising him. The air had felt just a bit electric, and then they were leaning in to one another, and it had happened. His first, her first, which was a recipe for uncertainty and clumsiness, but they'd gotten through it respectably enough.

"Your dad's not going to pop through the door, is he?" Lucas joked, recalling Shawn's coming in just seconds after that first kiss. Maya chuckled.

"He is back in Texas, last I heard, so I think you're in the clear," she teased.

They were led to their table, which really was that… It was theirs, they had marked it, all those years ago, which had made for the whole head bump incident. Even now, they had to take a moment and confirm, discreet as possible, that the carvings were still there.

"You know if we ever caught Sam doing anything like this we'd probably yell his head off," Maya pointed out, as they had both had their look and found their initials were indeed where they had crookedly carved them.

"That's if he would ever actually do it," Lucas countered, and Maya snickered.

"Okay, good point."

"When I called to check on him earlier, he literally told me everything he did after he woke up and all the way to when he left for school," Lucas went on, which only felt her laughter.

After breakfast, they had left the diner and gone walking through the city for a while. On that day ten years ago, they had ended up in that booth after spending time in the city, and after Maya had been left to feel that she had no place left in the city that had been her home for the better part of her life. Being back here now, as she would tell Lucas while they walked, her feelings had changed. She'd been living in Texas now for a little over eleven years, which meant they were not so far away to a point where she would have been in either state for equal amounts of time, right before Texas started to take the lead and run with it. For all that, still, she couldn't exactly account for the first three or four years of her life, so really… the scales had already tipped, her life, the most significant parts of it, the ones she'd want to hold on to the most, belonged to Austin, and Houston. And now New York… She was at peace, being back here and regarding it as where she had been born, where she had been shaped as a person, the heart of her. Some of it had been bad, but not all of it, and the parts that had been bad hadn't left her with scars alone, they'd built her up, too, in ways she could now be proud of…

"I love this city," Lucas declared, when she'd said her part.

"Yeah?" she smiled at him. He nodded.

"I look around and… I see you in it, it reminds me of you."

"I feel that way about Austin and you," Maya understood, warmed by his words.

"I think…" he started, then hesitated. She gave him a look. "Maybe, in a few years, we could try just… sharing our time, between Austin and New York. Like, in the summer." Maya blinked, surprised at the suggestion, but after a few seconds… She was intrigued.

"Alright, Huckleberry, make me a pitch."

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners