A/N: Hey guys! So, when I was planning for this year, I had to count in that we'd have an extra day due to leap year. Usually, I have 51 week blocks of 7 days, and then the 52nd week has 8 days with double sized chapters. Leap year could not have happened at a better time, as it means we get two super sized weeks, one at the end of the year like usual, and then another one, starting tomorrow for the wedding! :D It will also mean that the week blocks, after this and for the rest of the year will run from Thursdays to Wednesdays (instead of Wednesdays to Tuesdays), and also the chapters of We Three Hearts will go up on Wednesdays instead of Tuesdays... after today. That also means:

The new chapter of We Three Hearts is now available! :)

June 23rd 2020

Chapter 175
Their Night With Midnight

The walk from their house to the Sanderson farm and vice versa, at a regular pace, took all of three minutes. When they left the farm that evening, knowing what awaited them at the other end, Maya and Lucas decided collectively to just… take their time. There was no rush, was there? It was a beautiful night, the sun just beginning to set. It wasn't too hot, the breeze was good, and they had each other's hand in theirs. Why would they want this moment to end before it had to?

"Donut?" Maya asked, holding up the plastic container. He looked at the box, then at the house in the distance, and back at her.

"Yeah, okay," he replied, in a tone that said 'these are our donuts, let's eat them before we get over there.' Maya cracked the box open, happy to comply. They each took one of the little fried balls and did a half sort of 'cheers' before biting in. They had been a bit warm when Kai handed them over, now they were cold, but they did not mind at all. They were as delicious as they remembered them being back when Kai's older brother and sister would bring them to share with their respective basketball teams.

"I don't think we'll be able to do like Missy's parents did on the night before their wedding, but I need you to do something," Maya told Lucas as they ate and slowly walked.

"Name it."

"Write to me when we hit midnight?" she asked, which made him smile.

"I can do that, yeah," he agreed at once. "Probably would have done it even if you hadn't asked."

"Probably?"

"Definitely."

"Same." They both grabbed another donut and munched along. "What do you think we would have done? If there had been no puppies… or donuts… If we had stayed home all day…"

"Well," Lucas considered this for a few moments, taking a third donut when she held up the box to him. "Before the doorbell rang, we were having breakfast, and we were discussing Evil Maya…"

"Almost forgot about her," Maya laughed.

"I didn't," Lucas smirked, which got him a shoulder bump and nearly made him drop his half-eaten donut ball fall from his hand.

"So you're saying we would have talked about her some more."

"We could have made up a whole world for her. Lackeys, an arch-nemesis…"

"Always need one of those," Maya agreed.

"Come up with a few catchphrases, a tragic backstory to explain how she became evil…"

"Poor Evil Maya…"

"It would have turned into a whole comic book," Lucas laughed.

"We'd need Sam for that, he's the expert," Maya reminded him.

"Right, so maybe we would have stopped there." She gave him a look like 'what about after that?' He had to think again, which made several more of the donuts disappear between them. "Well, you would have probably teased me for a while, knowing how bad I want to see your dress."

"I can still do that," Maya's eyes widened at the possibility.

"No, no," he swung his arm around her, pulling her closer in step with him and making her laugh. "No, please," he leaned to kiss the top of her head as they went. "We're nearly there, I can take it."

"I don't think you can," the challenged, looking up at him.

There was a sharp whistle from up ahead, followed by a great bit of dog barking, and they looked toward the house to see their friends standing outside and watching their approach.

"Enough with the snail's pace already!" Asher shouted. "Let's go!"

"Knock it off!" Maya shouted back before bursting out laughing. "Here, last ones," she told Lucas, and they each took two donuts, emptying out the box.

"Oh, they've released the hounds…" Lucas nodded ahead, and they walked as Trix, Lou, and Archer all came dashing up the lane toward them. After having been surrounded by Coraline and her ever growing litter all day, they were incredibly happy to be reunited with their own dogs again, a feeling they guessed was mutual, going by the way their trio hauled their way to the two of them. Maya and Lucas both crouched to catch the dogs as they gained on them. In no time, they were having the remnants of Mrs. Avelino's donuts licked from their faces.

"Okay, okay, that's fair, take it easy," Maya giggled. "Missed you guys, too. What are they going to do when we're gone for two weeks?" she wondered aloud.

"They'll be with Coraline and the puppies back there, they'll be fine," Lucas assured her.

Maya, Lucas, and the dogs now trotting along at their feet finally reached the mailbox and turned up the path to the house, where Sophie, Chiara, Asher, and Ray waited for them.

"What were you eating?" Chiara asked.

"Donuts that Kai brought," Lucas replied, which made Sophie and Asher react about the same as he and Maya had done upon receiving the box. They had been on those teams with Keilani and Kamani, they knew what these donutes tasted like.

"No sharing?" Sophie asked, attempting to sound pitiful and coming off ravenous instead.

"They were a wedding present," Maya informed her, happy to toss her bride powers around while she could. It worked, to some degree at least.

"Well now you go up and pack your bag, Miss Bride, come on, off you go," Sophie shooed her toward the door.

At least she'd had time to think about all the things she would need to bring or want to bring, in the time since she'd decided she would be the one to go away for the night, so making a bag wasn't so difficult. Her mother had the dress by now, she'd picked it up from where it had been hidden at the theater all this time and texted to confirm it had been brought back, secure and undisturbed. Now she just needed… everything else.

"I'm having very intense emotions at the thought of what will happen the next time I see you." Maya smiled, turning from where she'd been packing her bag to find Lucas leaning against the door frame to their room. "Maybe the whole night apart thing had other uses than good luck and… virtue…"

"I'm starting to come around to that, too," Maya nodded. "Hey, one thing though?" she asked, and he nodded, walking toward her. "As much as I've loved having it, as much as I've gotten used to the scratching, maybe for tomorrow…"

"Bye bye beard?" Lucas guessed, laughing.

"If that's alright with you," she grinned.

"Consider it done," he promised. Truth be told, he'd been thinking the same thing, too.

"Okay, well while it's still there, let me just…" she reached up her hands, cupping his face and that neatly maintained beard he'd been rocking now for near on a year. Much as it made sense to remove it, she really would miss it now that she'd gotten used to it like this.

What started out as just touching his face soon turned to a kiss, one innocent one, and then another, and then one that drew on. By the time Chiara came to check on them and insisted for them to stop, they were tangled up on the bed, still fully clothed but easily on the verge of changing that if no one had shown up in the next minute.

"Hey, it's an emotional day, alright?" Maya breathed, as Lucas was decidedly nudged out of the room by their Italian friend and she was pointed back to her half packed bag.

Meanwhile, Lucas made his way back downstairs, absently scratching at his beard. Sophie looked at him as he went by, like she knew exactly what her wife had interrupted upstairs. Luckily, he was saved from any interrogation.

"So nine puppies, huh?" Asher asked, as he and Ray picked up after the group's lazy dinner around the coffee table.

"Yeah, would have expected maybe five or six, but she got nine, all of them alive. Did you show them the pictures?" Lucas turned back to Sophie.

"Of course I did," she nodded, sounding like she was giving him a pass, just this once. "We all came this close to heading up to the farm with you a bunch of times."

"If they're not going to keep them all, we've been talking about dogs for once we move in to the house," Ray revealed.

"I don't think Missy's made up her mind yet," Lucas told him. Knowing her, it would be a difficult thing to see even one of those puppies go elsewhere, and to top it off, she would dread the thought of parting the brothers and sisters, even though it would be complicated to expect anyone to take nine dogs at once. She might not even want to part with a single one either, not when it meant taking them from their mother. Whatever choice she made, if it involved parting with any of the dogs, it would hit her hard, that was just who she was…

"Alright, alright, let's get this show on the road," Maya declared as she came down the stairs, bag over her shoulder and Chiara on her heels. "Can I at least say good night?"

"If you take too long, I'm getting the hose," Sophie 'glared' at her and Maya 'gasped.' As her friendly kidnappers took her bag and headed to their car, Maya turned back to Lucas, paused, looked to Asher and Ray. After a moment the guys walked off into the kitchen to give them privacy.

"This is the weirdest feeling," Lucas smiled, putting his arms around his fiancée.

"I know what you mean. You haven't explained it but I know," Maya closed the embrace, leaning her head to his chest, her ear over his heart.

"I'm sleeping on the couch tonight," he told her.

"What for?"

"You're not going to be in our bed tonight, so why should I? I'll sleep on the couch, and that way the next time either of us is in that bed…"

"You make an excellent point," Maya smiled, looking back up at him. He kissed her, lightly this time, tender. This was it. She was going away now, and the next time they saw each other… He would be standing up there, waiting for her, and she would come along, in her infamous dress, and they would say their vows, and they would be married. "I love you so much. Every day it's like you or the universe finds another way to remind me how much. Today it was a lot of tiny puppies."

"That's definitely not an every day event," he concurred, making her laugh as he smiled down at her, took in the whole of that bright face of hers and feeling like his heart might never know rest. Her hand was right there, right over his heart, she had to be feeling it beating. He pressed his hand over hers. "I love you so much," he echoed her words, with his own meaning behind them. "And I can't wait to see you again." It was stronger than either of them, they kissed again, let it linger about as long as they felt they could before anyone had the chance to force them apart.

"Close your eyes," Maya told him. "That way, you won't see me walk away. You'll just see me walk toward you." He smiled, doing as he was told. He felt her arms release, and he had to do the same. He felt in both those releases a desire to just keep hanging on instead. But then they were no longer touching, and he heard her steps, heard them grow lesser, and lesser. He heard the car door, heard the car drive away, listened until he couldn't hear it anymore, and he opened his eyes again.

"You guys are really over the top sometimes, you know that?" Asher's voice broke the silence and Lucas startled, turning to him.

"Can't help it sometimes, can we?" he shrugged. "I remember a lot of days of you telling me how much you missed him when he was in New York and you were still here," Lucas added, pointing to Ray, who turned a grin to his fiancé. They were getting married just next month, in August.

"This I gotta hear," Ray told Asher, who gave a mildly accusing look to Lucas for selling him out.

"You walked into that one, dude," Lucas shook his head and laughed, while Ray played up his curiosity, capturing Asher and demanding to hear those poor, poor laments of some seven years prior.

Over at the Zvolensky house, Maya arrived with Sophie and Chiara to find that they had the place to themselves. Diana Zvolensky was away on business and she couldn't make it to the wedding, though she'd apologized by promising a few added perks on their French honeymoon. She'd already seen to it that their flight was upgraded to first class.

As had been suggested earlier, the trio had gone and changed into their swimsuits, heading down to the indoor pool in the basement where they happily splashed away for a while. Maya recounted the day's adventures, and Sophie and Chiara dodged any questions regarding the wedding preparations. She was meant to be relaxing, not thinking about the wedding, which would definitely keep her awake.

"I am glad we did not wait when we were getting married," Chiara reflected, watching from the edge of the pool as Maya lazily floated along on her back, staring at the ceiling. "I would have gone mad." Sophie's laughter echoed off the walls. "Then again, I would have liked the anticipation, too."

"It's a little early for a vow renewal, but someday, I just might propose to you again, make you wait a year or two," Sophie told her.

"I can't wait for two years, Sofia…" Chiara replied at once, sending a jet of water her way with her foot, which quickly resulted in her being pulled back into the pool.

Soon, it was nearing midnight, and while the primary reason for her finally retreating to her room was that she needed to be up early in the morning, Maya also knew there would be a message waiting for her any minute now. Changed into her PJs, with her long hair still damp and running down her back in waves, she heard the chime and picked up her phone at once. The clock said 0:00. July 2nd 2027.

Lucas: Zero days. We're counting upward from now on.

Maya could not contain her smile. Climbing into bed, she exchanged a few messages with her husband to be, before the swimming and the coziness of the bed and the sheets did their work and she drifted off to sleep, dreaming of watercolors and pastries and the man she loved.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners