May 26th 2023

Chapter 146
We Collect Colors & Streamers

Once Maya had returned from California with the quiz teams, it had really gotten to feel as though spring had begun. Maybe it was all in their heads, a self-made perception of the world, but they could all feel it, and, for that, it made what was now coming up feel that much more important. All of a sudden, the only thing they could think of was getting everything ready for the very first Spring Festival, as would be hosted by Sullivan Stables. It really felt as though the entire family at large was getting in on it, whether it involved reaching out to people, or picking up any kind of supplies, or preparing decorations, or figuring out any and all things, all to make sure that they would make this a day of renewal, and excitement, for the young and the young at heart.

Lucas and Maya were, as one, the driving force of this effort, which was easily understandable in so many ways. Anyone who knew them at all would know that this was just the kind of thing that Maya had always thrived on, and as for Lucas, he would humbly state that, while he hadn't started out that way, coming up alongside one of his best friends, now his wife and mother to their children, he had picked up a load of new skills, among them this drive for multitasking and planning. Beyond all that though, a lot of it came down to this feeling that they had been experiencing since her return, the realization that had followed this brief separation, of how well he felt now, months after his attack. It wasn't as though he and Maya had become distant from one another, but the reality of what had happened to him had inevitably left them both with unexpected struggles and, for that, they had lost some of the things that made them feel most like the people they had always been to one another, for as many years as they had been a unit together.

Did their decision to try for another child play into this mood, or did the mood lead them into wanting to add to their family? Both sides were possible, neither one could be set aside. They had been thinking about it for some time before November, even if none of it had come to fruition. And then after November, well, it wasn't exactly the time, was it? It might have been that they would have looked at what had happened that night and the weeks that had followed and decided that they were good, more than good, with their one big girl out on her own, with a family of her own, and their six little ones at home, with baby Finn on top.

If it was only about that, they could have left it there. But it wasn't just that, it couldn't be just that. It wasn't even something they knew to put into words except that they would look to each other, and they would think of their family, and there would be one thought, almost overwhelmingly obvious to them if no one else... They wanted more. They had space in their hearts for more. Did they have space in their house, now... They weren't going to do anything unless/until they had to, but already they were twelve humans, five dogs, one bird... Four of those humans were temporary residents, sure, but there were others who were very much just waiting on one thing to join or replace them, and that was a high school diploma. One of them was all of a year and a half away from that, and unless he changed his mind, he absolutely intended to do as his siblings had done before him.

This all might have discouraged them from going forward, but it was only really a 'problem' until they came up with a solution, and they always got there in the end. Any and all obstacles they came across would sooner or later get to feel like they were letting potential arguments from other people weasel their way in and try to change their minds. This wasn't about them though; this was their family, and it was in their hands to decide whether or not it had space to grow in number or not. To them, the answer was yes… oh, absolutely yes. They had known this for a long time now, had been barred by circumstances alone. Now, everything was changing, and they couldn't have been happier.

"What's back here?" Lucas asked, a curious furrow at his brow as he stretched out his arm toward a box which he'd only spied thanks to his being laid out on the Hex floor, him, and Maya, together with little more than blankets for coverage of any kind. Just now, they were not strictly warmed by these alone.

"No, hey, no peeking," she swatted his arm down with a laugh which increased as he responded to this by closing his arms around her, holding her pressed to him.

"What are you going to do to stop me?" he grinned, a new hunger growing in his gaze which was soon mirrored in hers.

"I could think of a few things…" she whispered as she tipped her head to kiss him.

"If it's anything like that last thing you did before, you win," he breathed before kissing her again.

"What if I told you I had something in mind to make that look… chaste?" she asked, and oh, did she ever have his attention now. She laughed. "I've missed this…" she told him, more earnest than anything else now. "Pretty sure we made the triplets out here," she considered to herself, and they paused for a moment, looking at each other with a similar thought flashing across their eyes. "Maybe we need to be careful. This place is too powerful," she mock gasped.

"Yeah, we could end up with qu…" Lucas started, only to have a hand pressed over his mouth.

"Don't you finish that sentence, Huckleberry, the walls might hear you," she whispered. He spoke into her hand, which tickled and made her pull her fingers away with a laugh. "What was that?" she asked.

"I said I'd take my chances," he informed her, which made her nod appreciatively.

"I do like the way you think…"

"Do I get to know what's in the box now?" he asked as though they were exchanging secrets. She let out a sigh before moving to sit up.

"Might as well. Anyway, we really need to start thinking about getting out of here before they all come home and come looking for us."

Getting dressed again was a slow going process, in part as some items had managed to get strewn in very strange and hard to reach places, and also because the longer they remained in any state of undress made it that much more compelling for them to stay that way. Who knew, they could have been this close to making a baby, so they couldn't stop, could they? But they got there in the end, and as Lucas sat on the small couch, buttoning up final buttons, Maya pulled the box from its hiding place and wheeled over in one of the big chairs to show him.

"I've been making these for the girls. Figured that, next to my class, this would be the safest hiding place. I guess I didn't account for every possibility," she squinted at him, and Lucas chuckled before pointing to the box, asking if he could open it. He could.

There was no lack for inspiration in their house. If Maya herself didn't have an idea, all she needed to do was look at her daughters and something would come. This one, indirectly though it did, started off via Jenny Marshall and her boyfriend, Jack. The two of them had now been dating for two years, and of all the… student love stories she had followed, this one couldn't help but feel special to her. A sweeping love story was hardly the whole point of her journey up to and through transition, but there was something to be said for someone coming along and being the absolute opposite of all your deepest fears, someone who saw who you were and loved you as truly and deeply as Jack loved his Jenny, inside and out.

Maya got to see plenty of the young man, what with Jenny being part of the Hexes, and the two of them had lately been part of the preparations toward the spring festival. They were going to help run a creative corner up in the arts and crafts room above Donna's dance studio, and they had been hard at work putting together a few ideas for what the kids might do, by themselves, or with their parents… They'd shown their progress to Maya, and she had loved it all, as an art teacher as much as Jenny's former art teacher specifically. When she'd come home that day, she'd still been thinking about their project, still been inspired by it, in such a way that there could only be one solution, one way to clear her head: she had to follow it through, and it wasn't with pencils, markers, or paints. It started with flowers from her sisters' garden, their first one, back at their parents' house.

Now, hidden in that box in the studio were a whole set of flower crowns, or at least their frames. The flowers would be added so they might be worn at the festival itself. To look at each one, Lucas could see the intricacies, telltale marks of his wife's work. They were each settled with care in that box, and each one he lifted, by the colors and motifs used, was recognizable to him for their destined owners.

"I figured, this way they could have them every year for the festival. Just add new flowers, adjust the size if their heads grew, and they're good to go," Maya explained as he sat there, holding Lucy's crown, decorated in purples and blues, and teeming with butterflies, with crescent moons… It was beautiful, and he could just picture the look on her face when she'd receive it, and wear it on her head…

"Do I get one, too?" he asked, smiling. Maya smiled back at him, he suspected, amused at his current Dad face.

"You want one, huh?" she asked. He nodded, pointed to himself and then to her. She needed one, too, naturally. "I don't know if I can do that, I mean, you and hats… What if it goes invisible, too?" she asked, pressing a 'concerned' hand to her chest.

"Something you made? It wouldn't dare," he declared in rebuttal, and that made her laugh.

The crown was returned safely to the box, which was in turn set aside before Lucas held out his hand, inviting Maya to come and sit in his lap, which she did, locking her arms around his neck. He couldn't get enough of moments like these, and not just for… well… everything they'd been doing earlier. Their family had been through so much in the last year and some months, and being here now, with the woman he loved, feeling so alive, so full of that love… It felt like coming up for air after being stuck at the bottom of an ocean.

"You already know what it's going to look like, don't you?" he asked, seeing the way she was staring at his head. She grinned, turned her fingers through his hair.

"I'm getting some ideas, yeah… Maybe…" she casually told him, kept fussing at his hair until it was messy, then normal again. She could do this for so long if he let her, and he wasn't looking to get in the way of that. "It's going to be majestic."

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners