September 15th 2020

Chapter 259
Their Help to Sing

Soon after breakfast was through, everyone else cleared out, headed for riding lessons, and swimming lessons. This left only the duo bound for the Hex, them and their young guest. For Maya and Ree, this was getting to be something they did regularly enough that they would just walk in and start to get ready. MJ had only been here a few times, and he would just sit or stand around, listening to his sister as she played and sang. Today, with the two of them moving around as they did, he must have gotten the sense of this being something else than what he'd seen. He just sort of stood there, like he wasn't sure what to do with himself.

"Come on," Maya turned back to him as she stepped into the booth with Ree. He scurried in at once and again came to a stop, looked at his sister for guidance. "You sit wherever you want, okay? We're just rehearsing right now," she told him, planting her hand on top of his head. After a beat, he went and sat on the small stool behind the keyboard. "Good, okay," Maya smiled, shutting the booth door before picking up her guitar and sitting as well.

Finally, the rehearsal began. They were set to record three songs today, which would likely mean another late night for the two of them, maybe not so for their guest, who would have to go to bed long before they were through. It was great to have him here, Maya found. He was very respectful of the need to stay quiet, even when they weren't yet recording. As silent as he was, he listened with great attention and awe, watched them both as their hands played over their instruments. As they would run through those same songs more than once, he would start to sway along to the music after a while, which had the two singers smiling.

When they then moved on to recording, Maya took MJ out of the booth with her, and he sat down next to her at the console. She tried to tell him a bit of what she was doing, what this button or that button did, and he listened with marked curiosity. They didn't make it too far by the time lunch rolled around, but they ordered pizza, eating back in the Hex with the door open. MJ sat on the ground with his plate on the floor, his pizza cut in bits he then speared and chewed. Maya loved to see him like this, carefree again.

He was back at her side when the recording resumed and the afternoon just flew on by. They were looking to have themselves another meal in the studio, until Lucas came along and 'lightly insisted' for them to come into the house to eat with everyone else, which they eventually did.

"We're going back now?" MJ turned to his big sister after dessert was over and the table was being cleared away. It made Ree laugh, even as she rose to lead the way and the boy followed.

As motivated as he was to be there with them, to see the day through, time and youth caught up with him. He was dozing off on his chair as evening started, and Maya picked him up and kept him in her lap as the session carried on. In no time, he was asleep against her and she held him in place with one arm as her other hand adjusted one thing or another over the console when needed. At one point, Sam came along, asking if she wanted him to take MJ up into the house, but she decided to keep him.

"He misses your parents a lot?" Ree asked as she came from the booth and sat in the empty chair next to her. Maya swivelled toward her, looking down to the sleeping MJ.

"He does, but… it's more than that, I…" Maya hesitated a moment, unsure whether it would be right to unload this on her, but then Ree had always been so open, and they'd spoken about plenty of things over the time they'd known one another, and honestly there was always this ease in speaking to her, like an old friend. "He had a difficult week at school, with his friend. He was called… a bad word…" she shook her head to herself, refusing to even say it in reference. "A hurtful word, about his… his sexuality." She just had to laugh about that part, a wholly mirthless one. "He's only six."

"Oh, the little dear," Ree sighed, as the day and MJ's presence in the studio took a new perspective.

"He didn't know what it meant. His friend didn't know what it meant, but he heard it from his brother, who's only nine, and I don't know where he heard it, but he did, and it came all the way down to my kid brother. I had to tell him and now… I don't know… I think he's still figuring things out for himself. In the meantime, our parents are coming back in a week, I still haven't told them a thing, didn't want to ruin things for my mother… It's just a mess here, and she's been waiting for an opportunity like this… for as long as I can remember, growing up back in New York."

"There is little they could do out there," Ree pointed out. "As far as I can see, you are doing everything for your brother and your sisters that your Mom and Dad would do if they were here with them." Maya looked to her sleeping brother, brushed at his hair.

"Lucas says the same thing."

"Smart man, that husband of yours," Ree smiled. "Good thing he's coming with us, summer after next, I usually need a pep talk or two after a while, being on tour. And this one will be a good one, won't it?"

Maya chuckled, gladly turning her thoughts away from the Winger brothers over to her touring this album of theirs, with Ree, the summer after Lucas graduated. The details were still coming together in some parts, but they had something like a frame in place, enabling them to go on and fill it, all the while knowing the start and end of it. Maya's sole requests had felt like big ones to her, to make it so that, however many cities and countries they travelled to, they would do it all in the summer, meaning that they would start as early as the day after she finished what would be her second year teaching, and they would end no later than four days before she started her third. As terrified as she'd been to present this to her, Ree had accepted it easily. She knew this would likely mean more shows with less time in between, but she was up for it. If anything, she was pumped up at the thought of that bit of whirlwind. Maya also wanted to try and be able to be with her siblings at their birthdays, like Haley in July, and the twins in August, but once they knew more about all the dates, they would figure that part out.

The tour continued to be a secret, and a difficult one to keep at that. It would have to continue to be a secret for a while more. Though some people were aware that a new album was in the works, it wasn't widely publicized yet. Once that happened, then they could look to give word about the tour, too.

Somehow, Maya kept MJ with her, sleeping, all the way through to the end of the session, at which point she saw Ree off to her car and wished her well until the next session, likely to take place sometime in the summer.

"Let me know how it goes with him?" Ree asked, looking to the sleeping boy as she was pulling her car door open.

"I will," Maya promised, smiling. Ree reached out, set her hand to MJ's back for a moment, nodding to his sister, and she climbed into the driver's seat. Maya stepped back and watched her drive off. Feeling him stir in her arms, she looked down to find her brother's eyes were open. "The car woke you up?" she guessed, and he gave a sleepy nod. "Go back to sleep," Maya whispered, kissing his temple and rubbing his back as she carried him back to the house.

"Want… play music…" MJ mumbled.

"You want me to play you some music or you want to play music?" Maya inquired.

"Both," MJ decided, making her smirk.

"What do you want to play?"

"Piano," he replied, playing his small fingers at her shoulder.

"Really? You who sits at the keyboard all the time? I'm shocked," she joked. "I think we can make that happen, yeah?" she asked, coming on to the porch and sitting on one of the chairs with her brother. "In the weekends, when the twins are at the ranch, and Haley is at the pool, you can come here, and I will help you," she decided even as she made the offer. After the drums, she had picked up the keys, too, and while she was hardly a virtuoso as of yet, she could absolutely get her six-year-old brother started. "Does that sound good?"

"Yeah," MJ nodded.

"Good, but I'll ask you again in the morning in case you don't remember any of this by then, okay?" Maya looked down, finding he had already fallen back to sleep. "Definitely going to have to repeat that," she told herself, breathing out, before reaching her hand back to rap at the window. A few seconds later, the door opened and Lucas stepped out. "Be a dear and carry this sack of potatoes upstairs for me, will you?" she asked, in her best drawl.

"Don't go anywhere, sweetheart," he smirked, responding in kind as he lifted MJ from her arms. He headed into the house with him, returning two minutes later with a couple of bottles.

"Read my mind," Maya reached out for one. Lucas sat next to her, and for a minute they enjoyed the quiet of the night. "Everyone else get to bed okay?"

"Yeah," Lucas confirmed. "The twins worked their storytelling mojo on Haley. There were costumes involved. It was like a theater in there, with the four of us…"

"The four of you?" she sat up, with instantly gleeful curiosity. Lucas nodded. "You and Sam…"

"Played a couple of grumpy monsters," he mimed. Maya bit back the urge to laugh, but then he kept gesticulating, and then she just burst out into giggles. "It was a big hit, pretty sure we'll be called for an encore tomorrow night. MJ needs to see the big show."

"Ooh," Maya sat up, raising her hand. "Please, can I get a part?"

"I don't know, you might have to audition," Lucas teased, getting a gasp of 'insult' in reply. "Hey, I'm sorry, the director is very demanding."

"The director is eight years old, I'm assuming?" Maya asked.

"Going on forty-five," Lucas nodded.

"I can sweet talk her. I'm her big sister, she loves me, and I know what candies she likes," Maya sat back, taking a sip of her drink.

"You know what everybody likes," he shook his head.

"It's good information to have," she grinned.

When they finally headed back into the house and made their way up to head to bed, Maya briefly checked in on the trio across the hall, finding them all sound asleep before turning over to hers and Lucas' room, finding not one but two occupants in the bed, as Una had climbed up and laid down with the sleeping Haley. She accepted Lucas' summons to climb down again without a sound, after which she walked into the hall and laid to sleep next to the door across the way, where she'd spent all her nights at the Friar house. They were nearly halfway through this time together, before Katy and Shawn returned, and something told Maya and Lucas the house would feel empty without their little guests.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners