October 2nd 2020

Chapter 276
Their Vacation With Landing

July 14th 2028 – The Hex

"Do you want the demo, or…"

"No, no, go ahead, please," Ree laughed, almost nudging Maya into the booth so she might pick up her guitar.

"Okay," she smiled. "Both of them or just the first?"

"Let's begin with the first, that's generally the way to go. Be honest now, when you say both, did you actually write only the two?"

"I'm not even going to ask how you figured that one out," Maya smiled just a bit sheepish.

"How many did you write out there?" Ree asked, and Maya bowed her head a moment before holding up all of the fingers of her right hand and two of the left. Now Ree laughed that much more. "What did you do, one a day?"

"Pretty much, yeah. I wasn't trying to, they just happened," Maya admitted.

"And what about these other songs, do I get to hear them, too?"

"If you want to, I'd be happy to. I figured I might hold on to them for my band, or for any future contracted… match-ups."

"I won't be greedy, I trust you if you say these two are the ones for me. You've never led me wrong, but it doesn't change that I have been a fan of any song you've created," Ree pointed out, pressing a hand to her heart.

Maya needed a moment to collect herself at this, at hearing one of her idols declare herself a fan of hers, of her work. Finally, she sat up on her stool, preparing to since the first of her songs and feeling herself immediately plunged back into this week of inspiration and family thrills.

X

July 5th 2028 – Honolulu, Hawaii

It never got any less amazing to experience this one moment right here, no matter how many places they had gone to in their lives. They would walk into an airport, in their hometown, and for a while they would be in what felt like an insular little world, preparing to depart, and then boarding a plane, taking them to another airport. And as similar or different as it could be to the one they'd left from, it was still an airport, still part of that transitional world. But then… then they would step outside, in a brand new city, or state, or sometimes country, continent, and… that would be the point where it all really felt like they had gone away from the place they called home.

Each place had its own vibe, yes, but this one, oh… Lucas couldn't explain it, and as he'd turned his head to look to his wife, he could just see it in her eyes, how much she felt it, too. Quite possibly, she had to be picturing something she'd want to put to paper later, or maybe even a melody to immortalize in some way. She'd brought one of her guitars along, and even as the case hung at her back, she looked so ready to pull it down and take out her instrument.

As great of a feeling as it was for them, it was that much more amusing to witness the kids' reactions. They had never seen anything like this, none of them. It truly was a whole other world for them to discover. Maya had been carrying a still sleeping Haley on and off since they'd come off the plane, when they exited the airport, and for seeing how the others had reacted as much as to not deprive her of that same moment, she'd carefully awakened her young sister. It would be something Maya would forever remember, the awed look on her face as she looked around, and turned back to her big sister, and looked around again, and turned to Maya once more, over and over, like she couldn't quite believe what she was seeing and wanted to make sure that she was really seeing it.

The ride of wonders continued, as they made their way to the hotel. With the sheer size of their group, eight adults, six teens, and six kids, so twenty in total, they'd ended up renting one car and two minivans, and as they had the car and Lucas' parents as their co-passengers, they couldn't say just how it had all gone for the kids, but going off their non-stop chatter as they rejoined, the fascination had not ceased in the slightest. It only became more so once they actually walked into the hotel lobby.

"Would it be too big of a dream to maybe want one of these trips at least once a year?" Maya asked Lucas once they were on their own for the first time since they'd woken up that day, back in Austin.

Alright, they weren't completely on their own. In order to lighten some of the load for Katy and Shawn, they had offered to take the twins with them in their room, but at the moment Nellie and Gracie were exploring their area of the room, which was up a flight of stairs. Maya and Lucas could hear them chattering to one another, laughing, as though this factor alone was enough to make this the best trip ever.

"I don't see why it should be too big," Lucas smiled back at her. Although I'm not sure what it would mean for… next summer," he signed. Maya resisted the urge to laugh over his tactic, instead utilising it as well.

"I'm sure that we can find some part of the tour where we'd have days free before and after. We could make a vacation of it and they could all come to see the concert."

"Can you show us how to do that?" They looked up at the sound of Nellie's voice calling from above and found her and Gracie peering over the railing.

"Don't stand too close to that," Maya told them, and they backed away before coming down the stairs to join them. "How do you like your little hideaway?" she asked her sisters with a smile.

"It's amazing," Nellie excitedly reported.

"The bed is so big, we could all fit in there, us four, and MJ, and Haley," Gracie added.

"That is a lot of people," Lucas nodded slowly.

"That is a lot stinky feet," Maya scrunched up her face, for the sole reason of making the girls laugh, which worked. "Anyway, you should enjoy that big bed to yourselves while you can. You're not going to get something like that back home." This made sense enough for them, and they dropped the subject. Once they did, Gracie did not take long to display some of her increasingly familiar observational skills.

"You didn't answer the question," she told her big sister and brother-in-law.

"Which one?" Lucas asked.

"About the hand talking," Nellie told him, giving as close of an approximation as she could of what she imagined the language to look like. "We want to know how to do it, too."

"Why, so you can spy on us?" Maya teased.

"You only do that when there's things you don't want us to know about," Gracie told her, and Maya almost lost it at the look Lucas gave her, a slightly exaggerated 'oh no, they're on to us.'

"Cut it out," she signed, which instantly got her 'busted' by the girls. "We can see about doing anything like that once we're back home, okay? We're on vacation now, we're in a really nice hotel, and you're here busting us about sign language when you could be checking out what else this room has. Did you see the view from the balcony yet?" The twins looked to one another for a moment before dashing to the double doors.

"What do you think, should we have gone in for the six and under division of the Hunters?" Lucas whispered, and Maya snorted.

"If we had them, we definitely couldn't have that," she pointed to the loft where the twins would sleep. "And we wouldn't have our giant bed to ourselves," she added, pointing back to said bed, which after an early departure and two flights looked beyond cozy and just downright empowered with hypnotic skills. "Not that it'll be good for much more than sleeping with those two up there," she let her hands drop back down and gave an apologetic smile.

"Yeah, we'll see about that," he stepped up to her, putting his arms around her as she carried a smile and an intrigued noise up into a kiss, which lasted all of three seconds before their names were called by the twins and they had to stop.

"See?" Maya whispered. Lucas replied with an ever more confident look, and she just smiled, leading him across the room, to where they found Nellie and Gracie, standing out on the balcony and taking in the view.

"It's beautiful, right?" Nellie asked with a beaming smile. There was no doubt about that, it was really something.

"You're going to draw that, right?" Gracie asked, pointing all around them.

"Can't you see her fingers are already twitching?" Lucas tipped his head to his wife.

"I'd argue, but you're not wrong," Maya readily admitted.

"Can we be in the drawing?" Nellie asked.

"What, like a portrait?" Maya asked back, and the twins nodded. "Uh, well," she checked the time. Most of the day had disappeared into even getting here, and now settling into their rooms. They were supposed to meet everyone in the lobby in less than an hour. Maya pointed this out, saying that she could start, sure, but she'd have to stop and start again after dinner, by which time they might just want to relax… or go to bed early. "I can take a picture of you guys out there and go from that."

This was an instantly acceptable compromise, so they spent several minutes coming up with the best pose. They tried this way and that, sitting, standing, facing one way, facing the other… before finally landing on one the twins agreed upon.

"Sorry that I left you to unpack on your own," Maya told Lucas as they got off the elevator and watched the girls dash off to rejoin their parents and younger siblings.

"I was happy to do it," he promised her, leaning to kiss the side of her head. "Anyway, it kept them entertained."

Dinner was, as expected, a crowded affair. Having one large table felt just a bit unmanageable, so instead they had two tables of ten, one behind the other. Several times throughout the time they spent in the dining room, some of the group would scamper around to find and talk to someone who was too far from them, which led to the occasional swap of seats and plates. Their server handled these changes like it was a daily thing for her, which it could easily have been.

As expected, the long day had worn out several of them, and so dinner was followed by everyone returning to their rooms and wishing one another good night until the morning. Back in their room, Maya and Lucas had to carry the sleeping twins up to their bed, getting them changed and tucked in before returning below for a bit of quiet television and sketching.

"Thought you said you were stopping for the night," Lucas told Maya when, after they'd climbed into their own big bed, he watched her grab her sketchbook from the night stand.

"Oh, I did, this isn't the portrait, I just…" she shook her head to herself.

"Melody?" Lucas guessed, recognizing that look on her face now.

"And then some," she nodded.

"Right. Don't stay up all night? Or if you do, wake me up? I'd love to hear what you come up with." This made her smile, and she tapped her shoulder for him to lean in and rest there with her. He fell asleep this way, and once she'd set her book aside, a song just about completed, she settled down and joined him, falling fast asleep and into dreams.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners