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

January 28th 2020

Chapter 28
Their Haunting in the Future

While not all guests had lasted as long as some others, the party had lingered well into the early hours, so that by the time that everyone who didn't live here had gone away. And by the time the three of them that did live here had removed sufficient hair and makeup and costumes to once more be human and head to bed, it was easily coming on four in the morning. They had fallen asleep in that way where it felt like you might have passed out more than fallen asleep.

Whether or not it could be called as much, seeing as it was in fact 'a few hours later,' the next morning finally began sometime shortly after ten. It started, as some rare mornings did, with Lucas awakening first. And on those mornings, his favorite use of that time was very simply to playfully attempt to see if Maya was awake yet or not. His techniques ranged anywhere from a kiss behind the ear, to tracing lines along her arm, or her leg… And if he was feeling particularly enamored, as he would undoubtedly be, on the morning of their anniversary…

"Awake… I'm awake…" she spoke, leaning into his touch. "You keep that up and this will be a good morning, yes, it will…"

It was a great morning.

"I don't know what you have planned for today," Maya breathed, fingers laced with his as he kept her close, both of them still at a loss for breath, hearts drumming.

"But you'd be okay with staying here?" he guessed, smiling against her shoulder.

"Inexpensive, a big hit every time, I'm just saying…" she shook her head with a grin.

"We're so lucky your brother doesn't come in unless we say he can," Lucas pointed out, which made her laugh as she turned about.

"Do you really want me to be thinking about my brother right now?" she asked, holding his gaze and drawing what felt like hearts on his chest, just over his actual heart.

"Now that you mention it…" he agreed.

"Good answer," she whispered, kissing him.

"There is something else I would like for you – and me – to be thinking about right now," Lucas declared. Maya looked at him, intrigued. He turned his head to the small box on her night stand, where her engagement ring could be seen. The wedding…

"Bold of you to assume I don't think about that every chance I get," she smirked as she turned back to look at him.

"I'm sure you have a massive sketchbook full of ideas," he nodded, trailing his hands along her back.

"Of course," she confirmed.

"But I haven't had the privilege of seeing it, which is just…" he gave a dramatic sigh which got her laughing and got him a few more kisses for his troubles.

"I mean it's mostly just a lot of random doodles, it's not like I've been looking at wedding dresses so much that I've started drawing one for myself or anything…"

"Oh, you so did."

"Oh, I so did. Not that I can show you, because… you know…" she gestured.

"Bad luck, got it," he nodded. "Wait, so are you actually going to…"

"I don't know," she shrugged. "It's one thing for me to draw it, it's a whole other thing to have it made, because I really don't have those kinds of sewing skills, not to mention the materials…"

"Okay, but why couldn't you? What about… What about the theater, don't they have anyone there in… costumes… who could help with that?" The way she looked at him now, it was as though he'd reached up and pulled the little chain on the lightbulb over her head.

"Oh…" she breathed. "Ooh…"

"That's starting to sound like…" he teased her, and she smacked him. "Sorry," he laughed.

"No, don't you apologize, that's actually…" Her gaze was so far away, like she might as well have had her secret wedding sketchbook in front of her, pencils flying… After a few silent beats she shook her head and looked back at him. "I am putting a pin in that," she informed him. "Because if I fall down that rabbit hole right now you will not see me again today. I will just… I'll get back to it tomorrow… Yup…" she nodded to herself.

"The struggle?" he smiled.

"So real, why did you do that now?" she let her head fall back to his chest with a thump. Lucas laughed, locking his arms around her.

"We already knew my timing sucked, look at those Christmas albums."

"Oh, come on!" she cried out, voice muffled and tickling at his skin.

"Sorry, sorry, forget I said anything," he insisted, though he was just laughing out now.

They had finally been coaxed out of bed after Sam had come knocking at their door, asking if he could start breakfast for them. By all accounts, it was nearly lunch time now, but if they had the choice, then breakfast food always, always won, especially if it came from Ma Maggie's. So, before their live-in chef could get anything started, they told him to get ready, and twenty minutes later they were driving off to their favorite restaurant.

After their late breakfast, Sam had left his sister and her fiancé to go and hang out with his friends. He specifically asked if he could sleep at the twins' place that night, which they took as code for 'I know it's your anniversary, and I don't need to know anything else.' Once he was gone, Maya turned to Lucas, curious to know what would come next.

"Alright, well, technically speaking, I planned things out for this morning and tonight, but the part in between's kind of a wild card. I wanted to leave it up to you. Just because I do the planning, it shouldn't have to mean that you don't get to do something you want to do on our an…"

"Can we put Christmas lights on the house?" she cut in at once. He blinked. She grinned.

"Today?" Back in Houston, it had depended on the year exactly when they'd start decorating, but they tended to wait closer to mid-November, or early December… It was the first day of November, the day after Halloween… and their house still looked like the zombie apocalypse had just rode them down. It was going to be a lot of work, just to get them back to what the house was supposed to look like, and after that… "We're going to need help…"

A few phone calls later, they were headed back to the house. Even as they were just starting to pick up and either put away or throw away the elements of their Halloween décor, their helpers arrived, in the form of Zay, Nadine, Riley, Dylan, and Rosa. They made relatively quick work of the whole thing, and just like that they were gone again, leaving just him and her and their continued gratitude for having the likes of them in their lives.

Still, it was nearly five by the time Maya and Lucas ended up outside, staring up at their house and thinking about how they might add lights to it. If they were going to follow through with his plans, they were going to have to go shower and get ready to leave… pretty much right that second. He pointed this out to her, and he could see the debate happening on her face. She didn't want to wreck his plans, but she also kind of wanted to do this…

"If we stay here and we get those lights up, will that make you happy?" he asked, requiring only the truth. Maya gave a firm nod. "Then, what else do I need?" he shrugged. "That's kind of all I ever want in life." And there was that smile on her face again, showing him that he was indeed making her very happy in that moment. "Right, so… We're going to need lights, and we're going to need hooks…"

"Hey, first things first," she held up her hand, walking herself to stand face to face with him before very deliberately raising her arms to join her hands at the back of his neck.

"That is the first step," he agreed, linking his hands together to lift her up. After a quick cry of surprise, she laughed and kissed him.

They got in the car and drove off in search of a lot of lights and a lot of hooks. Lucas was very familiar with the dimensions of the house, thanks to all the work he'd done to fix it up before the proposal. He had a good feeling that Maya had a good idea of what she saw the house looking like by the time they were done, and really he trusted her judgement in all this, so while she looked through the aisles and found what she needed, he worked through the few cancellations required to change the outlook of their anniversary evening. It wouldn't be that complicated. He had decided to aim for something somewhere in the middle between elaborate and simple.

The way he saw it, this being their first anniversary back in Austin, it was about finding the sort of… foundation for this and the years to come. They were no longer high school students, or college students living out of home… Alright, well, he was still in school, but even then… They had left home, and they'd had their transition period, and now they were here, in the home where they planned to stay, for years to come, the house where they would be newlyweds, the house where they hoped to be parents someday, raising their family… In time, Maya would be an art teacher, and he would be a veterinarian. This was their life, and this was their first year in it.

Maybe for that, putting up the Christmas lights was actually a perfect symbol. They were starting another tradition, as they'd done the day before, with the trick or treaters, and the party… Although if we put up the lights on November 1st again next year, maybe we need to rethink just how much work we'll put on the house for Halloween and how much time it'll take to put back to normal.

Lucas: Hey, I need to ask for a big favor, can you help me out real quick?

"What do you think? Do we want one of these?" Maya asked and he looked up from his phone even as he slipped it back in his pocket. She was holding up a box with some kind of light projector.

"Uh… Where would we put it?" he asked, coming to get a closer look.

"What were you up to back there?" she curiously asked, smiling.

"Spoilers," he shook his head at her and focused on the box.

"You with your big sleeves full of secrets," Maya 'scolded' him. "Maybe we should wait until next year for this thing," she turned back to the projector. "This is already going to cost a lot…"

"Consider it a redirected anniversary fund," he took the box from her and set it in their basket.

"There's a fund?" she chuckled.

"I've said too much already," he 'gasped.'

"Okay, but really, I still think we should wait. We need room to grow, you know? I'm not aiming to get us on one of those shows with the houses that have so many lights my dad goes 'Can you imagine their electric bill?' every time. Every time."

"Fine," Lucas agreed. "But for the record…"

"The record has been recorded, and it will be acknowledged in due time," she whispered before putting the projector back.

With the car loaded, they were soon on their way back home with a ridiculous amount of lights. Even as they went, Maya was already drawing plans, with notes of how many bulbs they had in each color, the length of the cords… The notebook and pencil had been stashed in the glove compartment years ago, for what he called 'girlfriend creativity emergencies.' It was going to be dark when they even got around to start getting everything up, but they didn't worry. It wouldn't be their first time putting up Christmas lights in the dark, as they'd done back in Houston two years ago.

"Please be careful!" Maya called as she watched Lucas climb up to hang the lights in what they'd both decided to be the most perilous area of the roof. "If you fall and break your neck…"

"I get the picture," he promised. "I'm not planning to make our anniversary that memorable."

"Yeah, like 'hey, remember the one where you died? Oh, wait, you can't…'"

He didn't fall, and by the time he came back down and stood with her again, they looked satisfied. They weren't done, and they hadn't turned the lights on yet, but everything they saw looked good so far… And now that they'd finished that part, the rest felt easier, which made it go faster.

"Oh, I really want to turn them on now," Maya breathed, looking so giddy that it made Lucas laugh. "But, well… What's the situation with dinner?" she asked, with as good as a halo over her head.

"Actually…" he pulled his phone from his pocket and turned to look at the road beyond the house. "I think I may have broken my timing curse."

"Wh…" she turned around to see what he was looking at. She didn't recognize the car coming along, or… Wait, no, she did, that was… "Fidelio?" she ran toward the man just getting out of his car, and he was ready for the catch, hugging his former co-worker.

"You be careful now, I might take you back with me," the man laughed.

"Yeah, I've heard," Maya laughed, too. "What are you doing here?"

"Special delivery," he reached into his car and pulled out a couple large bags identified as coming from Isabel's restaurant. "Wasn't about to send anyone else." Maya turned back to look at Lucas, guessing this was what he'd been up to on his phone earlier. "And Isabel says happy anniversary, it's on the house."

"Well, since you literally drove two hours for this, which is… kind of nuts and I love you so much… You deserve a prize." She turned around. "Huckleberry, the lights!" she called, loudly and dramatically.

And the lights came on.

"I tell you… As first ones go, we did pretty well…" Maya declared, as she and Lucas went into the house for dinner shortly after.

"Next year will be even better."

"I can't wait to see it."

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners