A/N1: One day behind, hoping to catch up asap. Working Saturdays now, not helping...

A/N2: The new chapter of "We Three Hearts" is now available!


July 22nd 2023

Chapter 203
We Light the Memories

"You're not fooling anyone, Friar," she heard at her ear, and her face betrayed her with a twitch of a smile. It could have been the brush of his beard, just barely coming in as he was finally starting to grow it in again, at her shoulder, or the breath that chased from it, tickling at her skin. If she had to admit it though, she'd say that a lot of it went to something she couldn't even see or feel. She could just imagine the smile on his face so well that it defeated any and all defenses she might have had in her. Plus, it was after midnight, and if before midnight had been Halloween, then today, this day in its very, very small hours, was November 1st. And for the two of them, there were few days as important as this one.

"Who said I was trying to fool anyone, Friar?" she replied, and it was all her husband needed in order to plant one kiss and several more along with it on her shoulder, and then her neck, and finally her lips, trailing as she turned to their source. "Hey," she smiled back at him as his face swam over hers. "Middle of the night, huh?" she asked him.

"Would you believe me if I said that all I was after right now was a bit of exactly this?" he asked back. She made as though she was thinking, for all of three seconds, before giving a firm nod.

"Yes, I would, actually."

"Huckleberry?" he guessed.

"Hat and all, that's you," she confirmed, and he tipped his head to kiss her again, and again, until they just drifted back to sleep, the two spoons facing one another.

When they woke again, it was time to slip into parent mode, putting a pause on anniversary mode… mostly. The girls knew about this day and its importance, of course. How could they not? So, they welcomed their parents on this morning with flowers and excitement. As much as they all had plenty to look forward to in going to their respective schools, they also gave off the impression that they would have done anything in order to stay and spend the day with their parents, even though the two of them were also off to do their own things, one at school and the other at the ranch…

Eventually, after some coaxing and the promise of their all going out somewhere special for dinner that night, the sisters were packed off to preschool, and first grade, and fourth grade. They spent the entire ride being uncharacteristically quiet, which their parents eventually realized was their way of granting them the space… the better to observe them in their anniversary. It felt a lot like having six pairs of eyes trained on you, waiting for you to kiss your loved one, which was as awkward as it was amusing.

Knowing all this, Maya might have felt guilty for the way things turned out and how it hadn't happened earlier, when they hadn't dropped the kids off yet, but then what were they going to do, just pull them out of class? Certainly not for this… Some might have said especially not for this. The turn happened even as she was on her way to work, through a text that she received from Alistair Song. The vice-principal informed her that classes had been cancelled for the day. He didn't exactly give definitive explanations as to why, only that all signs pointed to their being open again the next day.

Maya could have spent a long time stuck in this moment, wondering why this was happening to unexpectedly and why she couldn't seem to get a definitive answer from the vice-principal. Her brain would not have struggled in the slightest to come up with some working theories, and it would all have spiraled that way, on, and on… But no. No, today was her anniversary, and she had been handed this opportunity, so she was not going to get lost in Davenport land, not today. Would she regret later? Possibly. But she'd made her choice, and she saw none better than this one: She was going to kidnap her husband.

She drove out to Sullivan Stables, wishing she might have been able to get to him before he made it to work but also deciding that it was the best possible scenario, as it tipped them into the sweet spot for the kind of silliness that would make this day what she hoped to make it. She would have paid good money to see it all from his perspective as she made very certain to let him see her as she snuck around toward him. His befuddled look was enough to nearly make her break character several times over.

But finally the goal was achieved, and she snatched him away from his day of work, to join her as she no longer had hers.

"So, what's going on?" he asked, in a tone that stated plainly his willingness to follow along, coupled with curiosity born of cluelessness.

"What's going on is that it's our anniversary... one of the two... and even though we are both adults, and parents, and have about a million reasons to be responsible all the time..."

"We're not being responsible today?" he guessed, grinning.

"For the next several hours, let's say," she shrugged.

"Good, I can work with that," he slowly nodded, getting an approving tip of the head from her. "I think we might need supplies," he pointed off to the store up ahead, and she tipped her head again before redirecting them to head into the parking lot.

Embracing the spirit of the day in much the same way with little to no consultation, they were soon in possession of plenty of snacks that would have made their teenaged selves very happy. They didn't get caught up on the reality that this was all over twenty years ago, more than half their lifetime ago, because at least it meant that they had been together longer than they had not.

They had already gone digging into some of their purchases by the time they arrived home, and they could thank the sugar and the music both for their giddy mood, especially as it transitioned very easily in a whole other mood.

"I swear, sometimes I can't believe we were that young back then," Lucas reflected as Maya looked at him, paused from a good bit of kissing, laid out on the couch.

"I spend my days with kids as young as we were, I can believe it," she countered, and her grin brought one out of him, too. "And I can't speak for all of them, but there are a lot of things that you and I could be doing right now that..."

They heard the 'warning' at the same time, causing her to stop talking and for him to get quieter than he already was, if this was possible. Someone was coming up, and Maya stretched up to see through the window.

"Ow!"

"Sorry, sorry!" she came back down before looking at him. "Grab everything, we gotta hide," she told him and moved to rise. He followed at once and they collected their bounty with haste . While she took a moment to straighten up the couch one handed, he looked and saw two brunettes coming to the door. The twins were home.

It was a wonder that neither Nellie nor Gracie spotted them. Maya and Lucas just managed to get in the closet before the sisters walked into the house. Standing as still as they could, they listened and did their best not to let anything they held crinkle or fall. There was some breath of relief in the understanding that their lodgers were only coming to grab something before heading back to school to work on a project in the library. As soon as they'd been heard reaching the top of the stairs, Maya and Lucas hurried to set down their loads, making the rest of the wait easier.

When they heard steps coming back down, they tensed together, Lucas putting his arms around his wife as Maya held a hand over the doorknob, unsure what she intended to do. Finally, they heard the twins leave, heard the car pull away, falling to silence… They were gone, but still the pair in the closet waited silently, hearts beating fast.

"You know what I just remembered?" Lucas asked.

"Car's outside?" Maya guessed. She felt him bow his head to the top of hers and she snorted, which made him laugh along with her as they relaxed together and she turned to face him, still in his arms. "You know, this is actually kind of… fun… interesting…" she stated, holding his gaze, and she only had to look into his eyes to know that he was understanding exactly what she was getting at.

"What if somebody else shows up?" he asked, raising his brow as she might, which only made her draw nearer to him and him to her.

"I'd say let's be quick, but I really don't want this to be that…" she hummed before he caught her in a new kiss.

"I can do not quick," he promised, and that was all she needed to hear.

Of all the things they had woken up that morning thinking might happen on this day, their time in the closet was absolutely not anything they would have imagined happening. But it did, and by the time they finally emerged from the enclosed space, it was only with the outlook of another go, this time from the comfort of their bed. Between the closet and their room, they had both absolutely held up their ends of the 'not quick' arrangement, leaving them spent in the best way they would ever want to be.

"That one is definitely going on the list," Maya breathed. Off Lucas' confused noise – or maybe his catching his breath, she raised her head to look at him. "I'm sure you have one, too. In here, maybe?" she lightly poked at the side of his head.

"A list?" he asked, and she just kept looking at him until he'd piece everything together. "A list…" he matched her stare, and she smirked. There it is. "You got one of those? Is it… Is it on paper?" he asked, like he was considering lowering his voice, not to be heard.

"I might," she innocently suggested, which was very oddly achieved, seeing as what he was seeing just now was nowhere near innocence. "Not that I need it. I have a very good memory," she informed him, and he breathed deep, imagining what she was thinking of right then, which times she was remembering, the locations, the… "Do you need a minute there, Huckleberry?"

"Depends…" he replied.

"Depends on what?" she asked, before letting out a squeal as he rolled them over, the better to look down at her now.

"Do you want to hear what's on my list?" he asked, and she cackled victoriously.

"I knew you'd have one…" she told him before he kissed her, and let him tell her all about what he remembered the most, when he thought of him and her…

It was really not the easiest thing to do for them go and collect themselves and make themselves presentable for school pick-ups as though they had both spent the day at work and not at home, but they pulled it off in the end. They collected six daughters from their days, immediately diving into story time of what they had all gotten to see and do and learn. For Maya and Lucas, even though the day had taken some detours toward a couple of lists, there had still been space for remembering, and to now find themselves with all these stories out of their daughters, it felt like the perfect balance to what had come before. They had their two anniversaries for just this reason, didn't they? To them, it wasn't just that they had gotten married, one day in July, and vowed to be together forever. There was also this day in November, the one where they had made a turn together, the day their forever had truly begun. And from that day, from all the years that had followed, they had been gifted with seven wonderful girls, whether they had created every last one or not.

For that, once they had their six from school, they made their way home to change and found their seventh waiting, there with her husband and her two daughters. They were all going to have a great family dinner, the dozen of them together.

"I'm so happy you're here tonight," Lucas informed his older granddaughter as they waited for their table. Tori looked up at him, staring back at him with those eyes that she and her little sister had inherited from their mother.

"Me, too, Pappy Luke," she told him, and he put his arm around her, leaned to kiss the top of her head.

Her little sister just now was in the arms of Marianne Friar, as usual surrounded by her younger sisters so that they could admire their little niece the way they always did. It was hard to believe that Sunny was very soon going to be three months old, but then they remembered the tiny thing that she'd been when she'd first been born and then… well, she had grown, hadn't she? And that was another thing that felt important for Maya and Lucas to see and think about on this day. Sure, they hadn't exactly come by grandparenthood in the… expected way, or time, but they had come by it, and looking at their eldest, with her growing family, there was no denying that she was part of them, as were her husband and their girls. It made them think of a time in the future where any of their younger girls would have families of their own, too, and as much as it left them with a strange little pinch to the heart to think of them being big, of them not being little anymore, they would see Ella, with Taylor, with Tori and Sunny, and they wouldn't be scared, not in the slightest. All they saw were avenues for their love to grow, and to be shared with many more people.

"What do you have there, Cub?" Maya asked when Kacey appeared at her side. The six-year-old had something behind her back and would not hold it up just yet. She had to locate her father and wave him over. When he came, she presented him and her mother with an envelope.

"I won," she informed them with a smile, which they knew to mean that there had been this task to accomplish, presenting them with the envelope, and they'd pulled from their name box to find out who'd get to do it. That was their new thing now, and their parents were very proud of them for the initiative.

For that, today, they were handed a card, a gift for their anniversary, which they had all worked on together. They could figure out exactly which of their daughters had done which parts, and that knowledge alone could have been enough, but they took the card, and they thanked all their daughters in turn for being such a great part of what had made the last decade and some being as wonderful as they had been.

TO BE CONTINUED


See you tomorrow! - mooners