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

October 7th 2020

Chapter 281
Their Vacation With Home

July 11th 2028 – Honolulu, Hawaii

Their last morning in Hawaii was the first they spent with this kind of quiet. There was still the ambient sound from beyond their open windows, but without the addition of the whispering little spies up above, it felt closer to total peace than anything they had so far encountered.

"I don't want to get up yet… or maybe ever," Maya breathed, so at ease in her husband's arms. By the way he trailed kisses along the flowered branch along her shoulder, she imagined he felt the same. As completely relaxed as they were right here and now, they knew that the next several hours, preparing to leave and then heading on to two flights before heading home… all of that would make this feeling right here feel like a distant enough memory as to have been in another lifetime.

"You know, our bed back home may not be this big, but it's still pretty good," Lucas told her, dipping his head over her shoulder so he might kiss her cheek and make her laugh. "I have a feeling that as soon as you lie on it again, you'll forget all about this one."

"Maybe… probably… But can we still stay here?" Maya asked, with a borderline pitiful voice.

"I think I might have something to do about that," Lucas told her.

Soon after, the two of them sat up on their bed with the breakfast trays he'd had sent up. He'd let Sam know to tell the others that they weren't going to come down to the dining room, promising that nothing was wrong, far from it. If any of them could actually see the contented little smile on Maya's face as she sat there and munched on her food, they'd have to understand why this had been the way to go.

"Where are you going?" Maya asked when Lucas got up. He'd just finished his breakfast.

"Figured I'd start going around the room, picking up our things, and the twins' things."

"I can help you with that," she moved to rise, but he stalled her.

"No, hey, take your time," he insisted. "Enjoy… all this," he gestured around the bed.

"Okay, but you know that half the fun is when you're here with me, too," she pointed out with a smile as she settled back down.

"I won't be far," he smiled back.

As much as she could have truly spent all day in this bed, Maya eventually had no choice but to get up again, to get dressed for the day and pitch in with the last of the packing. The twins made an appearance, when Katy and Shawn came to get the girls' bags, and they dashed up to say goodbye to their loft. Soon, the group was gathered in the lobby, the bags were packed in the rentals, and they were leaving the hotel for good. The drive to the airport was a bittersweet one. They were happy to be going home, they were. But they could also have done with another week here, maybe two other weeks, maybe more.

The first flight, even though it was the longer of the two, seemed to go by in the blink of an eye. Suddenly they were in Los Angeles, and they were parting ways with nearly half of their group, including Sam, off for a few weeks at his parents' house with his siblings.

"Let me know if you need us to send you anything while you're out there, okay?" Maya tried not to squeeze her little brother so hard as she hugged him, even though she would miss having him around so much. He looked like he was feeling some of that, too.

"I will," he nodded. "I'll be back soon, you know?"

"I know," she smiled, the better not to tip over the edge into crying. Could she help it if she had gotten used to having him live with them these past three years? With a sigh, she stepped back, giving Lucas the chance to say goodbye, too.

"Don't worry, I'll sort that out," he tipped his head back to Maya, who gave an 'affronted' look while Sam smirked. "Get back soon, little brother," Lucas told Sam, who responded by hugging him.

After the rest of them, there was just one person left to exchange goodbyes with, and it was Cecilia. Everyone did their best to step away and give them some privacy. There was still something hard to explain about those two, since yesterday morning's apparent reconciliation. No one dared to say a word of any kind which might allude to the argument and the aftermath, not to Sam and Cecilia, not to one another. For what little was seen of their exchange in the airport however, the impression it left was one that suggested a split might have occurred, all under the agreement that they would hold a civilized front for the sake of everyone enjoying the rest of their holiday.

"What are you two doing now?" Lucas asked Nellie and Gracie, as they settled in their seats between him and Maya, hunched over a small book. The girls looked up as one, a matching set of innocent blue eyes. Gracie held up the book for him to see, and Lucas chuckled, turning to Maya, who had been holding Haley while her parents dug through their carry on for one of her toys to keep her busy during the flight.

"What?" she asked, looking down now to realize the book was a sort of beginners' guide to ASL. She sighed. "Okay, okay, we'll show you," she told them, and her sisters grinned. "But you have to practice a lot, yeah?"

"We will," Nellie told her as both she and Gracie nodded.

And for the whole of the flight back to Austin, Maya and Lucas gave the twins their first sign language lesson. They started them off on the alphabet, which seemed as good of a place as any. They couldn't say whether they were the best suited to teach them this, but once they were home they would see if maybe Kayla or Dora could lend them a hand.

Stepping out of the airport back in Texas, it was as ever the strangest feeling, like they remembered coming here to fly away as though it had happened a minute ago. They went off their own ways, the Hunters, the elder Friars… As with their departure day, Maya and Lucas had one stop to make on the way, to drop off Cecilia at home before they could carry on to their own. She was quiet in the backseat, giving off the impression of either dozing off or doing all she could to keep anyone from talking to her. Maya and Lucas let her be, taking her lead as well once they reached her house and got her bags out to carry them in for her.

"Thank you for inviting me to come this week," she told them. "It really meant a lot to me, and I'm not sure I said it before."

"It was our pleasure," Maya promised her, smiling. She could just see it, under the girl's gaze. The trip had made her so happy, but at the same time… "And hey, if you want to join us for dinner sometime, even if Sam's not around…"

"I'll keep that in mind," Cecilia nodded. Now her look said that she needed them to leave, soon, so she wouldn't cry in front of them. It was stronger than her this time, Maya couldn't turn a blind eye, and she hugged what was becoming clearer and clearer was her brother's ex-girlfriend. It was right there in the way almost trembled as she was held.

It was not how any of them would have liked to see this week come to an end, and as they climbed back in their car and started for home, Lucas and Maya were left with an uncomfortable silence. After a few minutes, Maya pulled out her sketchbook, turning the pages, over sketches, and one, two, three… six songs. She found a blank page, and with a deep breath she started to write again. She couldn't let the bad outweigh all that good. That was the part she pooled into this seventh song. All the good of the past seven days. As they pulled up to their house, their wonderful home, she smiled. By the Lights… That was what this one would be called.

X

July 14th 2028 – The Friar house on the lane

"How did it go? Did she like the songs you picked?" Lucas asked, tipping his head back over the couch when he heard the door.

"Loved them," Maya reported with a smile as she leaned to kiss him before standing back with yawn, rubbing at her eyes. Lucas motioned for her to come around and join him, which she did with just a dash of exaggerated dragging of her feet. "When did the guys leave?"

"About an hour ago," Lucas replied, looking at the time. While he usually had at least Sam to count on when Maya was off on one of her sessions, their brotherly tenant was still in Tucson, so it had become guys' night, with Dylan, and Zay, and Asher and Ray, and Will, and Bishop, and Lion. "Dylan kept wanting to make sure that we would be there tomorrow to go and check out the new venue."

"Yeah, I finally checked my phone after seeing Ree off to her car, and I had like thirty-seven messages from Riley, freaking out about not getting it all handled in time. If it doesn't pan out there, any chance the ranch is free that day?"

By some chance – if they could call it that – the crisis had not happened until after everyone was back from vacation, and so Maya and Lucas were able to hurry over at their friends' call when their wedding venue all of a sudden fell through, almost literally, after some major water damage forced them to shut down for repairs. Maya had practically needed to spend the night over at her best friend's house, to keep her from spiraling over her wedding being ruined, too.

"I asked Juliet about it, she said she'd have to check some things and to keep her informed if Dylan and Riley couldn't find another place, but we can't say for sure yet," Lucas reported. Maya naturally looked discouraged at this, which was always the ideal recipe to make ideas come from her good Huckleberry husband.

He considered things for a moment, resting his chin to the top of her head, resting against his chest. This aimed his line of sight at the window looking out to the lane, and though it was pitch black dark outside by now, it eventually dawned on him that out that window, out past the lane, was the Oswalds' land, the site of their Halloween maze. That was the thing that kept spinning through his mind, over and over, even as he was trying to come up with a solution, for their friends, and their wedding…

"We can have it here," he heard himself say out loud. Maya made a questioning noise before slowly sitting up again to look at him.

"Have what h… Wait, the wedding?" she asked. He sat up, too.

"Yeah," he nodded, the idea piecing itself together almost faster than he could relay it. "We can ask the Oswalds if we can use their land again. That'd be big enough, wouldn't it?" There was no point in going up to the window to have a look, as they'd barely be able to see as far as their own mailbox, but if they closed their eyes and conjured up the image in their heads, thought about the size of the maze for instance… That might actually be perfect.

"You have to go and see them first thing in the morning," Maya declared.

"Done," Lucas nodded at once.

"What about the wait staff, and everything else that would have come from the venue?"

"We'll figure it out," he cranked up on his confidence. It was sort of contagious.

"Okay, but we can't tell them until we know for sure, right?"

"Definitely, yeah." After a beat, letting it all sink in, Maya reclaimed her resting position, and Lucas submitted to it gladly, holding her in his arms.

"Do you ever close your eyes and imagine we're back at the hotel, in that bed, or on the balcony?" Maya hummed.

"Sometimes, yeah. You?"

"I'm there right now," she reported, reaching up blindly. "Close your eyes, come with me."

"Don't poke me," he smiled, dodging those fingers before they could find an unpleasant target.

"Sorry, sorry," she laughed lightly. "Are they closed?"

"Both of them, safe and sound, yes." The way she trailed her fingers along his arm, it almost felt like a wave, like the wind… It felt like they were back in Hawaii. "We're just going to fall asleep, you know that, right?" he breathed.

"Wouldn't be a bad thing, would it?" she mumbled, sounding very much like she already had one foot out the door and would be asleep in a matter of seconds. Then again, she had a point. It might not be so bad. It was not a giant bed, but it was him and her, and they were very comfortable on this couch. About as soon as he admitted that to himself, it felt as though he'd been much closer to sleep than he'd realized, too. Maya's question was never answered, nor was she aware of it. They slept along, all through the night, with no one there to notice but the dogs, who would only ever take it in stride and fall asleep on the ground at their feet.

In their dreams, they were back there, all of them. In their dreams, it wasn't just those who had really been there. Their friends were here, so many of them. Even more of their families were with them, all of them happy, all of them at peace. There was no sadness here, no problems, just a sunny beach, an island so different from what they had here at home. In the morning, when they would wake, they would leave that other place, but then they would be returning here, and that was kind of a paradise in its own way, wasn't it? It was real, and even though not all of it was perfect, it came very close to it.

And it had something no vacation spot could have. It was home, and home was more than a house, it was a city, and people that felt very much your own, whether you knew them or not. That was the treat they could never see, whenever they lamented having to see a vacation end. Leaving meant returning, and returning meant all of this, all of home.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners