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

January 21st 2024

Chapter 21
The Season For Home

It could be near laughable to consider how they were in the midst of trying to see how they might fit a few more people into their household whenever the weekends rolled around. It was funny because of Haley Hunter, who had essentially been letting herself in to stay at her sister's house now three of the past four Fridays and leaving late Sunday afternoons to go back to Shawn and Katy's.

Each time would be more or less the same. Maya would see her as they both left school after classes were over, with the understanding as it had been since she'd started high school that they may or may not see each other over the weekend, so if they didn't then this would be goodbye until Monday. Maya would go home, reunite with Lucas, the kids…

Then right around when dinner would be nearly ready, a couple of the dogs would perk up and scamper out of the kitchen like they had picked up a familiar scent. The door would open after someone used their key, and then there would be Haley, school bag on her back and duffel bag in hand. The trick here was that with how many people living in this house were so happy to see her, the fact that she would fold herself into the household and end up staying all weekend was barely a question.

Shawn and Katy were aware, so it wasn't like she snuck out. They would joke and say that the two of them and Katy's mother would spend those childless weekends like practice for when Haley went off to college, or for going out to a bar… To look at them when they'd visit, maybe they were not so ready for that much closer moment when they'd have no more of their children at home all week long.

She'd arrived that afternoon in similar fashion as she always did, so now before dinner could be served, she had been taken up to the second floor, so they could get her settled into the guest room. With the way the three rooms up there sat in a U shape, she'd have MJ on one side, with Wyatt and Finn, and she would have Nellie and Gracie on the other, bringing the four Hunters back together under one roof, with their big sister one floor below making it so that the five of them - for the span of a weekend - were all living together. The notion was not lost on any of them, not the Friars, not the Hunters, and it informed them on the likely reason for these visits. If they'd needed a reason to let her stay - which they didn't - this would be it, no question.

"Did she like your drawings?" Lucas asked Aubrey when she returned from upstairs and merrily stuck herself to his side. She turned a merry smile and a nod up to him. The kids could note the pattern of these visits just fine, and they had prepared for it this time by decorating the room for their aunt. "What about mine?" he asked with a 'nervous' tone that made his youngest daughter laugh before giving another nod.

Oh, the kids really were so happy to have Haley there with them. She wasn't here all the time like the others, which only made it even more special. But then if that wasn't enough, this was Haley, and Aunt Haley was a superstar to them, with the work she'd done in a few movies, and the things she had been able to demonstrate for them, right before their eyes… They couldn't get enough of it.

She had unique relationships with all of her nieces and her nephew. Marianne was only five years younger than her, which made for a very different dynamic than she had with Ezra, or Aubrey… They'd been at the same school for two years, even though they'd been at opposite ends of it, grade wise, and they remembered it fondly. Whatever their bond looked like, it made for giddy excitement when she showed up on Fridays, just as it would leave them just a bit bummed out by the time she had to go. Even she wouldn't want to leave them, but she'd have to.

No one was happier to have Haley at the house than her siblings. Nellie and Gracie had moved over three years ago now, MJ was starting off his second year… Maya of course had left home before either of the younger two Hunters were born, so she'd only lived with the twins when they were no bigger than Ezra, but the four of them had spent many years together, in the home that had been her first in Austin.

Seeing them all together, sharing a home again, she could really see how much it mattered to them that they were all here now, that they got to have this. She wasn't jealous, that wasn't it at all. If anything, she was thrilled. She was thrilled for them, and for herself, too. They could see just as she did how much of a gift it was that they got to live together, all five of them together.

But she still thought of all the time they had spent apart, her here or in Houston and the rest of them back home with their parents. It was the reality that her own big girl was living now, as Ella had her own family, not here with her and Lucas and the kids…

In either situation, the young siblings never at any time made the older one feel unloved or ignored, far from that. She had so many memories of video calls with the twins when they'd been little, and then with MJ, and Haley… They had phone calls, and texts, and pictures… Not a day went by that they had zero contact. A lot of the time that flow was constant, until it felt like they might as well have been in the same room. Once she'd moved back to Austin, it had become a lot easier to just decide to go and see each other, and they did, whenever they could. Now that most of them lived in this house, it was no wonder that Haley would want to come and be with them like this.

Haley's arrival, as halfway expected as it had been, did come in the middle of something else, something that had been confirmed. It was not too big of a problem. She could be read in while Lucas was gone with Marianne to pick up a few things. He had recruited her, sneaking up with a whisper to ask if she would like to help him to go and grab dessert. Her smile was the only answer he needed.

As they got in the car and drove off, Lucas asked about her day, and Marianne was as good as loaded in for all the conversation they would need to get them to and from the bakery. They would say that she got giddier and giddier the closer they got to Halloween and to her birthday, and anyone who spent enough time around her would see it, too, undeniable once you had the thought in mind. That was the shape her anticipation took, and once you added in all the other things that could get her hyped up, like school, and home, all her people… a ride in the car just her father and her… Her energy was the most brightly infectious thing that you could find, and Lucas was feeling every bit of it. If it wasn't that they needed to get back sooner than later, he would have gladly found more and more stops for them to make, just to spend more time with his firstborn. The older she got, she never stopped becoming more fascinating to him.

"You know what I thought about today?" Marianne asked him as they waited at a red light.

"A lot of things, usually," Lucas stated, and it made her laugh in that good rolling giggle that reminded him of Maya when they'd been not much older than their pumpkin. "But specifically, I don't know. What did you think about?"

"This is going to be the last Hallowannie we do before I'm in middle school!" she told him, waving her arms around and pressing her hands together as she contemplated the change. He tried not to look too much like the nostalgic dad that he was turning into. "I had six birthdays in my school, and now I'll have a seventh, but after that…"

"Big change," he slowly nodded. She went on, clueless to his big feels.

"I know! I can't wait, being at yours and Mom's old school, where you guys met…" she smiled. Now he had to chuckle. "What?" she asked, turning a curious look to him.

"Nothing, it's nothing," he brushed it off, preferring to hear her go on about her day. She was still confused, but she humored him, slipping right back on to her train of thought, which soon veered into talk of Sullivan Stables as they happened to drive past.

She was very happy to be back with the afterschool program, and this talk threatened to take them back into 'growing up' talk, as she mentioned the fact that she would soon be leaving her yellow bandanna behind in favor of the teal of the thirteen and fourteen-year-olds. She had all of this year left before that happened, and he wanted her to enjoy this time while she had it without sounding like he was trying to hold her back. Thankfully the groups were not all that captivated her attention back at the ranch. No, she had so much more to see and do out there. She had her grandmother's series, which had always been a great source of fascination and only became more so as the years went on. She had the archive, which was always fun on the ground floor, yes, with the rotating exhibits, but then she had been growing more and more attracted to the upper level, the actual archives, where she could spend hours reading and researching whichever person, people, or subject had most recently captured her attention. And it just kept going…

Wherever she found herself, she would want to talk about her friends, and to hear her talk about them, it was easy to see how much she cared for them, just as they would know how much her friends would know, without fail, how much they mattered to her. Lucas couldn't help but credit this to her being Maya's daughter, knowing how much his wife could look at people and find what made them wonderful, all the better to bring it out of them even more. Her very best friends were those who had been with her the longest. Winnie Grayson, June Abernathy, Harper Beaumont, Mosi Okafor… Haru Matsuoka… But then even those she spent less time with, classmates, and teammates, and other kids in her group at the ranch… Not everyone was going to be great, no, but she wouldn't write anyone off without cause, wouldn't write them off at all. Anyone who told her they weren't worth her time with their actions and their words, that was where it stopped. She wasn't unkind about any of it.

The dessert was secured, no rush, no sign whatsoever that this might have been any kind of a diversion. Lucas and Marianne drove back down the road toward home, pulled into the spot where the car had been parked before they'd left, and they went up to the house, Marianne insisting on carrying the big box with the cake that she'd picked out. They went in to be treated to the usual happy cacophony of voices in the kitchen as they got ready for dinner, and they followed this over to be rejoined with the others.

"Here, let me get this in the fridge, yeah?" Gracie was nearest to Marianne and she got hold of the cake box before her niece could argue that she had a handle on it. The timing was perfect, down to the second, as only a moment later a boy stepped into view, having been kept out of sight by both MJ and Wyatt. Even if he hadn't come out for her to see, they would have had at most three more seconds before Marianne's sisters broke into an array of smiles, revealing the presence of one Haru Matsuoka, or as he was called by those closest to him…

"Wolfy?" Marianne's voice squeaked out, breath robbed away. He grinned at her with all the power of the summer's growth spurt, and she all but leapt to hug him. "What are you doing here?" she asked, showing that she really had no idea he was on his way.

"Visiting," he told her, like it was the most obvious thing. He was still holding her, as she was holding him, both of them looking like the last thing they wanted to do was let go. They might have been made to feel awkward at this if not for the way the other was doing the same thing. "And guess what," he said when they finally pulled apart. "I'm staying until after your birthday. I can do Hallowannie with you this year," he revealed, and the realization hit her with the power of a thousand squeals, though she did her very best to appear as reasonably collected as someone should be. She was practically vibrating where she stood though, and they knew what she was thinking. This was going to be the best of her birthdays so far. She was going to make absolutely sure of that.

As usual, when he was in Austin, Haru would be staying at his aunt and uncle's while they were here, and he was joined this time by his entire family, his mother and father and older sister, too. They gave him as much of the evening as they could, but they did have to come and get him eventually. This was okay for Marianne, as she only had to remind herself that her friend would be there, just a short drive away, for the next several days. After he was gone, as her bedtime neared, she looked like she was still buzzing with much too much energy to even achieve anything like sleep, and it was the funniest thing for her parents to witness.

Maya eventually decided the best way for her to let it out was to let her get into the Hex and play and sing and do whatever came to her in the moment. Marianne thought this was a brilliant idea, and that was what she did, her parents sitting by until the day caught up with her and Lucas could go along to see her back to the house and up the stairs. They could not see into her dreams, but they imagined that as soon as she was up the next morning they would find her sat at her desk, pencils flying with colors over pages to bring them to life for her to hold on to.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners