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

May 12th 2020

Chapter 133
Their Cheers of Midnight

"You know, I've been thinking about getting a new tattoo," Maya declared, waiting for a moment to see if…

"Mm?" Lucas mumbled at her back and she smiled.

"Good, you're awake," she turned herself around to look at him. "Morning." He leaned his face into her hand as she cupped his cheek, a light prickle of his shortened beard.

"What was that about a tattoo? Were you just seeing if I was up?" he yawned.

"Maybe a little, but it wasn't a lie either," Maya shrugged, looking to her arm, where her birds and her clock were staring back at her. "I mean, I have one that was for both of us, and one from the Houston house…"

"Same," Lucas nodded, holding up his own arm.

"Sometimes I just think about what I might get that was just mine. Then again, knowing myself, it'd end up having to do with people, too. I've got my friends, I've got you… After that there's…"

"Your other family," Lucas guessed, which made her smile.

"Like I said, still thinking for now, and I was checking if you were awake, too."

"Confirmed," he chuckled. "Come here," he leaned in closer, even as she did, until they were as close as they were bound to get, She didn't have to be convinced for a good morning kiss, and when they'd pulled back to look into one another's face again, he could whisper the thing that would be on her mind, because she really couldn't help herself tracking these steps. Today was the last day of their last unmarried year… It got her laughing.

"You know what I'm realizing?" she asked him.

"What are you realizing?" he asked back.

"We didn't do this last year."

"Do what?" Lucas wondered.

"The last unmarried something-something… Up until Sophie, we were supposed to be married this year, and that didn't change until last March, so all those days the year before, they were supposed to be the ones, but… they weren't, not in the end. It's not like I could have known, but…"

"I see what you mean, yeah," Lucas let the thought settle in. She was right, they really hadn't done any of that the year before. "So, what do you think it means? Do you think it means something?"

"What, that some part of our subconscious knew we weren't going to be getting married this year?" she laughed. "No, I don't know, it's just… It's funny, I guess."

"Well, now it's… you don't believe in jinxes, do you?" he paused. She shook her head. "Well, now it's definitely happening for real," he finished his sentence and was rewarded with a grin.

Whatever may or may not have happened in the moments to follow was left never to be known, as there was a knock at their bedroom door.

"You guys up?" Sam asked. Lucas looked to Maya with a tip of the head she interpreted as 'I don't know, are we?' She smiled, kissing him once more before sitting up.

"We're coming, we're coming, keep your pants on," Maya called to him, catching Lucas as he bit back a laugh. "Don't even," Maya pointed at him as they got up.

"Archer got out, I can't find him," Sam's voice informed them, from out in the hall, and they looked to one another before Lucas went and opened the door. Sam stood there, in his PJs still but with his boots on, suggesting he'd just come back from outside.

"Are you sure? You know he likes to go to sleep in random places, and he's as hard to wake up as you are," Maya pointed out.

"If he's in the house, he's really well hidden, because I looked everywhere," Sam shook his head, walking in now to crouch and look under the bed.

"Hey, hey, I'll look in here, you two go check the rest," Maya pulled him back up.

"Okay…" Sam didn't resist in any way. He really loved that pup…

"How would he have even gotten out?" Lucas asked, following his brother.

"I don't know, maybe he slipped by when we came back last night."

"No, he was here, I checked on the three of them before I went up to bed. The doors, the windows, nothing was open. I'm telling you, he's still in here."

Sam didn't look convinced, so Lucas humored him and they went out, walking around the house, and further up the lane… Lucas told Sam a story he'd heard from Missy Sanderson, about how about four years prior, her own dog Coraline had gotten lost on New Year's Eve, too. She had been spooked by the burst of fireworks. The morning of January 1st, Missy had been a total wreck, and though she'd been told to wait, that her father and grandfather would go searching for the dog, she'd eventually gone to find her dog on her own.

"She found her near the water, like one more minute and she could have been washed away, and then when Missy went to get her, she was the one who fell in. They were both fine, but she was soaked through, by the time she walked back home it was even worse. Got grounded so bad," Lucas chuckled, the way one only could when they knew there was no danger anymore.

"What if Archer went to the water?" Sam was not so comforted by this story. He started to run in that direction, and Lucas had to follow. He stopped again when he caught the sound of Maya's call on the wind. He turned to look toward the house and breathed.

"Sam, Sam!" he called after the boy, catching up to him and stopping him. "Look," he pointed to where Maya stood on the porch, a fluffy pup in her arms. They jogged back home, and as they approached Maya set Archer on the ground. True to his name, he shot off like an arrow, striking true as he found his favorite boy and was picked up again, the better for giving kisses.

"Hey, boy!" Sam was very nearly crying, hugging the growing dog. "Where were you? I… Do I smell bacon?" he blinked.

"Yeah, you do, and so did he," Maya grinned. "I figured there was one sure way to get him to show himself if he was in the house, which he was. Not sure where exactly, just that I made it, and all of a sudden there he was, sitting like the good boy he is, waiting for his treat. His big sisters were also very intrigued," she informed them.

With the small crisis averted, the trio was finally able to sit and have a proper breakfast. Archer didn't leave Sam's side, to the point where Maya and Lucas both expected him to finally go and sit on the floor with him. He was headed to the Cassidy house for the countdown to the new year, him and Cecilia both, and now he wanted to bring Archer with him, which he ended up doing.

"Can't blame him for being afraid to lose anyone else," Lucas turned to Maya as they went on upstairs to get ready after they'd seen Sam and the dog off. They were staying at Dora's until morning.

"Is it weird I want to bring Trix and Lou with us now?" was Maya's response.

This year, they were headed to Diana Zvolensky's house for their New Year's Eve festivities. Sophie's mother always gave these great big parties on December 31st, though they didn't always attend, what with any number of other places and people to see. But this year she had all but insisted, and for how complicated of a year it had been, with what had happened to Sophie and the long and ongoing road of her recovery, they couldn't think of anywhere else they'd be.

It would also be Sophie and Chiara's second wedding anniversary, which made the day extra special every time it came around.

"It doesn't feel like it's just been two years, does it?" Maya commented as she and Lucas walked up to the house from the car.

"No, much longer, definitely," he agreed, thinking about the day they'd driven back to Austin, days before the New Year, their last one before graduation. All of a sudden, as they had arrived, they had been informed that their friends and roommate had not only gotten engaged but also decided to have the wedding in a few days' time. And they had done it, and it had been very beautiful. He told Maya as much. "I can't wait to have memories of ours," he added, which made her smile.

"Lucas Friar, the day you and I get married, I might not stop drawing for days… songs will be composed, to make people cry and swoon…" she informed him with confidence.

"I will keep you furnished with all the material you need," he countered, with equal confidence and adoration.

With this being Mrs. Zvolensky's party first and foremost, they walked into the house to find it crowded with any number of strangers. Luckily, they didn't have to search very long to find their people. The rule of the game generally went that they would find each other in Sophie's old room, which was in fact still her room. It wasn't as though her mother lacked for space that she needed the room back so badly once her only child and the only other occupant vacated the premises. The place as a whole could feel as though it was on the excessive side, a feeling championed by Sophie herself. It was and always would be too big.

"I tried to talk her into moving, getting a smaller house, even just one that feels too big for one person, not one that feels too big for like five or six. She won't do it," Sophie had told them, the last time the subject had come up.

"Here I thought it was about to be 2027, feels a lot more like vintage 2020 if you ask me," Maya walked into the room that day to find they were the last to arrive. The room was packed with Sophie, Chiara, Asher, Ray, Riley, Dylan, Rosa, Nadine, Zay, and Rebecca either sitting on the bed, on the ground, or just sort of standing around. The arriving pair worked its way through every one of them, a hug here, a fist bump there, before landing with the lady of the room herself.

"Wasn't a half-bad year, was it? I became a basketball hero, started senior year, and I met her… sort of," Sophie counted off, turning a smile to her wife, who nodded in full agreement. "It's like a time capsule, but with secret hiding places for the things I didn't want my mother to find, back when I thought she didn't know I liked girls." It had been and remained one of their favorite stories within the group, Sophie's going with her courage in both hands to come out to her mother, only to have this revelation met with a casual counter revelation that her mother had guessed as much a long time ago and had since been waiting for her to let her in on it. For all the troubles the two of them had had, with Sophie's choice to become a cop, this had never been an issue between them.

"Hey, I don't mind the blast from the past," Lucas told her with a smile.

"Wait until you see how much my dance moves have improved lately," Sophie smiled back.

The group now completed, they had ventured out into the party proper, before they reverted any further into adolescent mode.

"By the way, we told them," Nadine told Maya as they reached the bottom of the stairs.

"Told…" Maya turned to her.

"Me and Zay, the trying…" Nadine quietly explained.

"Oh! Okay…"

"Didn't have much of a choice, Zay got a bit… Zay-like… when we got here and Sophie offered me a drink and then…"

"Wait," Maya caught hold of her arm so she'd stop and look at her.

"Oh, we don't know for sure yet," Nadine volunteered a small smile. "We tried to stop somewhere and get a test on the way here, but everything was either closed or didn't have anything, so we just came anyway, and tomorrow we'll just have to find a way… Either that or I bribe one of the nurses at the hospital to run it for me," she joked, though the small glint of hope in the back of her eyes just made Maya smile. For their sake, she would cross her fingers that this similar bit of holiday maybe baby would turn out a whole other way for Nadine and Zay than it had done for Lucas and her.

"You call me as soon as you know," Maya gave her friend's hand a good squeeze, sharing in her giddiness.

When she found her way over to Lucas again, she could tell he had been given the rundown by Zay as well, about how his push back on the offered drink had forced him and Nadine not only the fact that they had been trying for a baby for some time now, but also that they just might have finally succeeded. According to Lucas, his best friend was trying very hard not to jump to conclusions and declare it a fact, but it was almost stronger than him.

"I don't know about you, but I am already liking this new year and it hasn't even started yet," Maya breathed, as she and Lucas walked out into the yard along with several others of the guests as midnight approached, the better to see the fireworks. "Nadine and Zay getting a baby…"

"Maybe…" Lucas had to insist.

"Hope," Maya pointed at him. "And Asher and Ray get to move into their house, my mom has her new play, Sophie is getting better and better, and then… what's the other thing again?" she pondered, turning to him to coax out the smirk he was trying to hold in. "What is it, Dockleberry?"

"Well, I mean, I heard this thing about a wedding…" he finally played along.

"You know what, I heard that, too," she 'gasped,' as he locked his arms around her from behind and she leaned to him.

"Going to make it the very best, as soon as it starts," he vowed, kissing her shoulder.

"Yeah?" she turned her head to him.

"Any second now," he kissed her, pressing his lips to her forehead, and her nose, and then held to her lips, even as everyone around them started to count down the final seconds. To them, it felt like leaving one world behind, and leaping boldly into the next. "Happy New Year…"

"Happy Best Year…"

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners