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

January 21st 2020

Chapter 21
Their Tradition For Them

With just him and her curled up on the couch together, a movie on the screen, late on a Friday night at home, it was very easy to forget about anyone else being around and just enjoy this moment they were having together. Lucas wouldn't be thinking about how he had to work in the morning, and Maya wouldn't be thinking about what she wanted to get done on her first official weekend off now that she was out of school and had a regular Monday to Friday job. The only things that concerned them now, well… Maya was thinking about whether it would be possible for her to reach the bag of M&M's on the coffee table without having to disrupt her position at the moment, so precisely comfortable as she was, surrounded by her fiancé's arms. Lucas thought about how he could not find any other instance able to make him as contented as he was now while exerting so little effort. Here was this person, held close to him, alive with warmth and breath, and so familiar to him after all these years that it was really all he needed, him and her like this.

A turn of the head, eyes meeting, would be all the spark they'd need to forget all about that movie. She'd looked up at him, and he'd smiled, kissed her forehead, and then she'd smiled, crooking her finger to make him come closer. He'd kissed her properly, once, and she'd turned her head about, the better to do it again, and then again some more, and given all of a minute or two more they may well have gone so much further.

"Hey, guys?" Sam's voice was heard, along with steps on the stairs, and the world came back in the blink of an eye. Maya and Lucas pulled apart and sat up, trying to play it cool, especially when they saw Sam and his friends were all up there, looking down at them.

"What up…" Maya casually coughed, sneaking a look back to Lucas, who was giving a similar performance.

"Can we go to the campfire?" Sam asked, while Dora and the twins all looked like they were trying not to laugh behind him.

"Have you, uh… have you ever lit a fire?" Lucas asked, grasping on to responsibility like a lifeline.

"Our mother taught us," Deanna raised her hand while her brother nodded.

"Right, okay. I'll just go with you just in case, yeah?" Lucas turned to Maya with a tip of the head.

"Let's go," she agreed, running a hand through her hair to mask a long sigh.

They soon took off, six humans, two dogs, blankets and other supplies in hand, walking from the house and down the winding path toward the campfire site. As they went, leading the way hand in hand, Maya and Lucas could hear Sam and Dora talking to Josiah and Deanna, sharing the idea they had been turning over in their heads for weeks already, to bring a bit more to the site. As Dora had been working more and more with her mother, learning from her and improving her own wood working skills, she had been teamed up with Sam so he might draw plans for some campfire chairs they might then build together.

"We should go back to the house after the fire's lit," Lucas whispered to Maya as they walked, keeping an eye on the dogs weaving along ahead of them.

"Liking this plan so far," she whispered back, raising a smirk toward him.

"Not for that," he laughed, more so when she made a pitifully disappointed sound. "I was just thinking that it might be a good time for the junior crafters back there to make a move."

"Might be, except what about the others?" Maya nodded. Lucas turned his head, looking to the quartet following them.

"I don't know, they're not blind, maybe they'll be thinking the same thing," he whispered, looking back to her again.

"Yeah, that won't be obvious at all," Maya snorted. She didn't need to look at him to know he'd be giving her a look that boiled down to something like 'well, you have a better idea.' "So long as you and I get to go back to that couch, I'm willing to try anything," she finally settled, and he brought her hand up so he could kiss it.

They reached the site, where they watched the Schmidt twins demonstrate they did indeed know perfectly well how to get the fire going securely and with ease. So, on that note, Maya and Lucas bowed out, leaving the friends to their time by the fire. Even as they were walking back toward the house they could catch the sound of voices and laughter in the distance as the four of them sat around the dancing flames. Trix and Lou had chosen to return to the house, too, following behind their favorite humans.

"So, are we…" Maya asked, pointing to the television, where their movie remained on pause. It wasn't as though they had paid much attention after a while, as they had become entirely more interested in one another.

"We could," Lucas nodded, moving to sit in his spot as she followed and sat, turned sideways to face him, one leg bent in, the other dangling off the couch. "We could also just let it play and keep ignoring it like we did before…"

"Keep going," she nodded with an overly intrigued face he couldn't keep from grinning at.

"I'd also be happy to hear about your day," he shrugged. It had been one of those small pleasures about living together, especially now, with it being just the two of them and Sam, and with their lives seeming so different from one another's now that they weren't in school together anymore. They would get to come home and hear from the other about what they had done, how their day had gone. They hadn't really been able to do that today, with all their friends being here, and now that they had the chance to stop, to breathe and just talk…

"Right, day first, then we ignore the movie," she waved dismissively toward the screen. He nodded in agreement. "Well, my day…" she reflected, thinking back to what had come before the campfire, and the movies, the food, the friends, before band practice… "A lot of phone calls," she hummed, like that old headache was trying to reclaim its hold on her. "Like a lot. Percentage on good to bad is still being reviewed."

"But it's coming together?" Lucas asked. She'd only been at it a week, officially, but he knew her enough that was enough for the likes of her to make miracles happen.

"Getting there, yeah," she told him, showing that confidence was indeed alive and well. "Far from being done though, I mean this is… I've never done anything this massive before, and I don't want to miss any steps along the way and have the whole thing just crash on me. Just getting a team together, getting the right people, convincing them to back me up on this…" she motioned to indicate how huge her head was starting to feel, for all the things she had to juggle.

"You've got two days off now," he reminded her, lightly prodding at her bent knee. "You get to clear your head, go back in on Monday and just…" he swooped his hand in an arc like a bird taking off in flight. He could just see her thinking 'either that or crash and burn' without saying it. He reached over, hooking his finger under her chin, leaning in to kiss her. 'You got this,' it said, and she just smiled, returning the favor.

"Started writing a new song…" she revealed, soon after. "Back at the theater, when I was waiting to leave."

"You did?" he smiled, curious.

"Just parts of it so far, but I should have it almost set by next practice."

"Can I hear it?"

"You hang out with dogs too much, the puppy eyes are strong," she laughed, waving her hand his way.

"That's just my face," he shrugged, pulling another chuckle out of her.

"True," she agreed. "Come on," she stood and got a hold of his hand so he'd follow.

They went on down to the basement, where Maya pointed for Lucas to sit on the drum stool, which he did, casually prodding one of the cymbals and causing waves of sound, while she picked up her guitar and set the strap over her shoulder. When she cleared her throat, he pulled his hands back in his lap and looked up attentively, making her smile.

"It's not a lot yet," she insisted.

"That's fine. I like seeing the progress," he told her.

"Right, okay," she smiled, taking a breath as she called up the new melody in her mind.

It wasn't hard. Whenever she would get that feeling, starting her on the path of those new songs, the notes and the words would just roll ceaselessly in her head until she got them out and formed them into something cohesive. Some could all fall through in one go, some could take weeks… Those were an exercise in not losing her mind, but when they were done… They could be some of her favorites. Not all of them even ended up being performed with the band, but they existed, and she would just keep telling herself that their time would come when it was right.

She played her little bit of a song for him. She didn't have much for words just yet, and she'd just sort of half sing the ones she had, here and there. It was the first time she actually played it, after having thought about it in her office, and told the girls about it, and as she might have hoped it did seem to send her fingers flying over that guitar, expanding on what she had, like a bridge had been built and she could now travel on the next stretch of road.

"And… yeah… that's what I got," Maya breathed in when she was done, grabbing a pad and paper and scribbling down the new parts after swinging her guitar around and out of the way.

"How bored were you at work?" Lucas stood from the stool. "That was great!"

"I wasn't bored," she shrugged. "Mostly just… all phoned out… and wanting to get home already…"

"So your brain went to its happy place?" he suggested.

"Something like that," she agreed, finishing with her notes and putting those and the instrument back in their place. "How long do we wait before we get them to come back here?" she wondered, thinking of Sam and the others. She didn't even know what time it was anymore, and by the way he pulled out his phone and checked, neither did he.

"An hour?" he suggested.

"Sounds good," she nodded once she'd seen the time, too. "Now… a very important use of this time…" she sidled up to him, tracing the collar of his shirt for a moment before turning her eyes up to meet his. "How was your day?" she smiled.

"Good… Long, but the good kind," he declared, smiling back as he locked his arms around her in a slow sway like a dance without music. "I try not to play favorites but…"

"No, please, give out the medals," she incited with a smirk.

"Glad as I was to have everyone out here like that, this part right here is really just raking up all the points."

"That's just my face," she called back his earlier reply.

"Among other things," he wholeheartedly agreed, earning himself a collar tug and a kiss to make the world fade away.

Airing on the side of responsibility, they had gone back to the couch and their long abandoned movie, the better to remain aware of the time so they might go and get Sam and the others back from the campfire. When the agreed hour had elapsed, they'd slipped their shoes back on and started on the path, only to cross with the four friends making their way back together. As they would soon establish, it might have been that they would have had to go all the way to bring them back if not for the fact that Dora had dozed off and the others had decided it was time that they went back to the house.

"You okay there?" Lucas asked Sam with a smile. The boy was getting taller these days, but he was still on the leaner side, and as he walked with the sleeping Dora draped over his back like a cape, they couldn't say for sure if he would be able to make it all the way to the house like that, especially when they added stairs to the equation. The twins had helped him pick her up, and though Josiah had offered to do it, Sam had insisted he was fine. He did the same here again.

"Yeah, no problem," he nodded, his glasses one good tip down his nose away from falling off his face. Maya reached over and pushed them back up. "Thanks," Sam breathed, clearly straining even if he wouldn't admit it. Dora, for her part, had to be sound asleep to not be awakened at any time by her being jostled along like this.

They made it back to the house, like a procession or like a group off to bury a body depending on how you looked at it. When they'd gotten to the steps, Lucas had finally made the call to liberate Sam of his cousin so he could carry her upstairs in one piece. Sam, now separated from his load, stood outside for a beat, catching his breath.

"Look at you, prince charming," Maya grinned, giving her little brother a pat on the back that made him cough. "Yeah, okay, come on, we'll get you some water."

Once they'd gotten everyone squared away for the night and left them to get to sleep, both Maya and Lucas were just ready to turn in themselves. The day had really been a loaded one, by the time it had ended.

"I'm exhausted and I don't know if I can actually sleep…" Maya sighed as her head touched the pillow and she stared at the ceiling. "Do you think, just maybe, this is all that chocolate… and candy…"

"I'm not pointing fingers here, but hey…" Lucas turned to her after turning off the light. She turned as well, scooting closer until her head was on his shoulder and he could close his arms around her. "No spoon tonight?" he smiled.

"Nope. This is the cure to insomnia right here, you just watch…" she hummed.

"Hey, I trust you."

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners