#so so so sick of seeing people outside in storms with debris flying around

[sunrayretriever]

hi this is a PSA from your local weather safety dog:

if i see another person seeking shelter under an overpass im going to lose my MIND!!!

and everyone in the US should know this information, no matter what state you live in. yes, they all get tornados and im sick of people (IN THE US) telling me they "dont get any where they live" or "they live in a big city so they won't get hit".

idk those seem like PRETTY big cities to me. (btw an EF1 tornado is enough to flip A MOBILE HOME, WHICH YOU SHOULD NOT BE IN DURING A TORNADO)

so um yeah! its never a bad time to read up on this stuff. and i know people have such a fear of storms and i absolutely understand (i got physically sick every time i saw a tornado picture up until age 22) but im not asking you to become obsessed with them like i am. im asking you to take some time every once in a while and think: "if a tornado hit RIGHT NOW, where do i go/where do i take my loved ones?"

sources for the first image, the second, and the third.

[the-firebird69]

There's a lot of people getting sick and the threats are going up it's time to get intense he's going to hit from all over we need to start working on it. There's also a number of things these guys doing wrong they're not really getting it

-the sun says they have the computing ability to do it then to full the sensors and then start small and it can work their way in with a network of computers and take over the ground stuff partially it's kind of happening and even without the laser light at least I have to protect with everything where it's gone and they can't use they had much faster computers in the back well the sensing is out it's still a chore cuz they do like exercises and they build new ones on board they try solid state testing and there's other infiltrators that were all intermingled that helps with that. So yes both ways are possible

John renalord looked into replacement windows and said no but since the security issue with alligators and criminals and storms and the ships can make debris fly around and they looked at and said wow that's a big business and even to put the shutters like one of those storm windows in the front door or the impact lexan with a design full view in the desert looking at it. They took a look at it and said we can't seem to get it going but they're doing their own and it says it makes a difference you can hear everything you shut the windows and you feel better you have shutters you can shut them at night takes 5 minutes and they say if you can do it from the inside would be nice unless you mean the shutter like have three latches this latch the top is going to half assed. You can make the latches automatic and the large from the inside but if someone has the code it ruins the effect and everybody does that these days but most people keep their windows closed in Florida and not tons of people have screens how did anybody actually is true to the zombie screams out these days they're putting the outside more or less it's kind of the outside so these shutters were great and they said they do that and really people don't have screens they're nice to have them but.

Now they looked at this and said it makes a difference it makes you feel better and the house is safer in a storm and it's safer during any season it's not much to do at night and not many people notice it the front yard you can put lexan over the window that shutters and not really but you can do the door how many windows in the front. There's a lot of ideas in some of them are real good but we got to move on here so we're going to publish

Thor Freya

Olympus

You see him too A lot of times the shutters are mission style they look like solid wood with a kind of an arch and they close the same way and they're almost paying the same color as the wall just a little lighter and they have their visible and the solid metal and when they're open they look nice you frame the window out you can put a flower box or two they look beautiful I left with the flower box a little lower

-there's other stuff happening for real there are giant numbers of people who are not aware of what is really happening today. Our son and daughter just came up with another idea it's a mock-up kitchen and it would be modular and a certain cabinet faces and you would make like a a cheap subframe that's metal and we can connect to it maybe like a rail system and you can change out the panels if they want to look at a different look and they're real light like panels you have in your motorhome and the doors will be hollow like hollow core doors have people might start buying the fake kitchen and there's really no rules or anything let me come out of plastic they have like a low flame spread no but it could make it that way with filler they're kind of laughing. And each kid number for the kitchen could be used and then you just put them off vacations like addendum and really with the metal frame and the way he's talking about making it you can make the whole kitchen out of it and it would be really cheap. You're like $300 for a whole whole kitchen for the size of the house in Northport that the countertops would have to be light. It's a great idea and a tool for people to sell to the builders who build a lot of houses you show up on site they have a couple models being built and you asked him if you can put in a kitchen for free and then say okay but it's just a mock-up I didn't see what he means it looks exactly the same way to see it if you want to buy it it's only a mock-up and they say what the hell is that for and it's really a good idea because the builders would do it if you can make that mock-up you can make a different type of cabinet it's inexpensive and have a full line so he's right there you make clips and reinforcing the eclipse on the clip on the face and it's durable it's like these panels they have everywhere they take a beating and the luggage steel would be fairly heavy gauge but not real heavy and the steel stronger they used to be metal is gross so we are getting to something else in a moment

We did already sign it yes

Yes they did

Hera I came up with the power where it could be like this metal frame and then he went nuts with the door and I went nuts with the facade the face another side is a face where you can use panels and clip them on and it's like permanent so they have this really cheap idea and you can raise it up with the frame and you simply put like plywood down on the bottom and you could have cabinet to drawers and everything with the frame it's just a cheap frame it's really easy to put together but everything would be supported by metal frames instead of all this wood and saves tons of time and money and the kitchen as well as modular if you break a piece or a door you order another one that comes like a day and the only thing is they're so cheap that nobody would put them in no tons of people might in apartments and condos so I'm going to check into it

Good night dear it's a great idea you guys look through the cabinets and things are bulky and they're a pain in the ass fixing them is impossible and here we have the idea

Thor Freya

[fallen-gravity]

the calm after the storm

When Ford lost everything to Bill’s betrayal; his sleep, his only friend, his sense of security, his sanity, he thought for sure that at least, at the very least, he could still find comfort in the rumble of thunder and the spark of lightning, the same way he had as a child, because they were the one thing Bill couldn’t bend and twist to his liking.

What a naïve fool he had been.

Notes: Here's my entry for Week 1 of @forduary! This year's prompts are based on fanfic and art tropes, which I think is a real cool way to handle a fandom-wide event like this! The prompt was "Hurt/Comfort", so I went with the good ol' American classic of Nightmares. I hope you enjoy!

AO3 Link

When Ford was a kid, he loved thunderstorms more than anything else.

Thunder and lightning were his siren songs. When most people would reasonably be tucked away at home with a book or spent the day in bed, Ford would hear thunder and it would be his cue to kick off his bed covers, put his shoes on, and drag Stan out of the house with him to go exploring.

Thunderstorms were one of the only guarantees that the beach would be abandoned on a summer’s afternoon. If Ford wanted to go exploring for buried treasure in the sand, a dark and stormy afternoon was always going to be his best bet. Best of all, the storm brought things from the ocean onto the shore with its ravenous winds, and lightning strikes brought sea glass, which he and Stan would sneak home in their pockets.

In his college years, when he was too busy studying for any hands-on exploration outdoors, thunder and lightning no longer excited him as much as it did when he was a child. Rather, it filled him with a sense of comfort and nostalgia. If he were working at his desk in his dorm room when it began to rain, he would gather everything together and continue to work on his bed so he could look out his window at the rain as he worked.

It would not be until his early years in Gravity Falls that the excitement from his childhood would return to him. Thunder and lightning would bring frightened anomalies to his back porch seeking refuge from the pounding rain, and all he had to do if he wanted to take notes was take a peek out his back window.

When he lost everything to Bill’s betrayal; his sleep, his only friend, his sense of security, his sanity, he thought for sure that at least, at the very least, he could still find comfort in the rumble of thunder and the spark of lightning, because they were the one thing Bill couldn’t bend and twist to his liking.

What a naïve fool Ford had been back then.

He’s hanging in shackles in the Fearamid. The stench of his own smoking skin fills his nose and waters his eyes, and if not for the chain clenched tightly around his neck he’d surely be vomiting at the sensation.

“You ready to talk now?” Bill’s shrill voice pierces through Ford’s skull.

“Never!” Ford shouts, his chains jingling as he speaks. “I’ll die before you get a single word out of me!”  He spits at Bill’s feet.

Bill squints, and for a moment Ford thinks he’s about to start shocking him again. He braces for impact, but the shock never comes.

Instead, Bill groans like he’s bored.

“You’re no fun anymore, Sixer” Bill crosses his arm. “It’s always no, I won’t reactivate the portal, and no, I won’t join you in the nightmare realm, and no, I won’t hand over the rift. I’m sick of it!”

Bill raises his hand to snap his fingers, and the color drains from Ford’s face. He does everything he can to avoid the impact of whatever Bill’s about to do to him, attempting to squirm backwards and yank his wrists loose, but he doesn’t budge so much as an inch.

Bill snaps his fingers, and Ford squeezes his eyes shut, and…

He’s being lowered to the ground.  Ford pops an eye open, just to make sure Bill’s not playing tricks on him, or that he’s shrinking, but…no, his feet really are being lowered to the ground.

Ford’s shackles disappear, and he rubs at his tender wrists. “I…” he tries to bite, but he’s too baffled to finish his sentence. “I don’t understand”

“You want to play games with me so badly, then let’s play a game” Bill’s voice becomes distorted as his feet slam to the ground so hard it cracks. Ford takes a few cautious steps backwards. Bill snaps his fingers again, and the entire interior of the Fearamid transforms into a labyrinth. “If you can find your way out of here before I catch up to you, I let you go.”

Ford swallows hard. “What’s the catch?”

“That’s just it!” Bill responds giddily. “If I catch you before you escape, you have to tell me the equation. I’m not asking anymore.”

“What…What about the kids?”

“Won’t touch a hair on their puny heads! I promise.”  Bill tips his hat towards him. Ford…seriously doubts that, but if there’s any chance he can get out of here and bring Dipper and Mabel with him to safety, he’s taking it.

“Fine!”

Bill clasps his hands together. “Perfect,” he replies, his voice dark and low. A large timer suddenly appears on the ceiling.  “And since I’m such a gracious host, I’m giving you a two minute head start.”

He snaps his fingers once more, and he sprouts four more limbs and grows about eight feet taller. “You’re gonna need it.”

Without waiting for another word, Ford blindly sprints off in a random direction. He’s read extensive papers discussing minotaurs and their labyrinths, and the common traps one could find in them, so he should be out of here in no time. Just as he’s about to round a corner, a sudden streak of lightning strikes the wall, and a large pile of debris blocks his path.

From somewhere behind him Bill lets out a sickeningly shrill laugh as Ford backtracks to go a different route. He tries running back in the direction he came in, but another lightning strike blocks that path, too.

“Time’s up!” Bill shouts, and Ford stumbles off down a random clear path. It’s not a very long one, because tween one blink and the next he’s smacking head first into Bill’s outstretched hand. The color drains from Ford’s face as he’s lifted from the ground to meet Bill’s….many, many eyes. He doesn’t say anything else, simply morphs his hand into a giant taser.

“No!” Ford attempts to squirm as Bill brings the taser closer to his neck. “No! You promised!”

“I promised you I wouldn’t touch the kids! I never said anything about you.”

“No!” Ford shouts, and just as the taser is about to come in contact with his skin, there’s a pressure on his arm, like someone’s gently pushing him.

Ford’s eyes fly open, and he nearly smashes his forehead against Mabel’s.  His heart feels like it’s pounding hundreds of miles per hour, but it begins to slow when he realizes that he’s in his own room.

“Mabel?” he grips at his chest as he sits up. “What are you doing up?” He’d hate to have been the reason she woke up in the middle of the night.

She snorts as she takes a seat beside him on his couch. “It’s nine-thirty in the morning, Grunkle Ford, I’m always up this early!”

Ford’s about to ask how that could be when it’s still so dark in his room, but a roll of thunder outside his window answers that question for him. He flinches at the sound of it, and beside him Mabel places her tiny hand on top of his.

When he turns to meet her eyes there’s a deep sadness in them that could tear his heart in two. “Are you okay, Grunkle Ford?”

There isn’t nearly enough time in the universe to answer that question truthfully. He turns his hand to interlock his fingers with hers, and he squeezes gently. “I’m fine, sweetie, don’t worry about me”

She pouts, and returns the gesture of squeezing his hand. “I heard you talking in your sleep when I walked by. I wasn’t gonna bother you, but…” she turns her gaze towards the floor. “I…heard you say Bill’s name”

As if the universe itself were listening to her speak, a streak of lightning flashes across the sky at his name. Ford winces, and his grip on Mabel’s hand briefly tightens. She frowns, and scooches closer to rest her head on his shoulder. “I’m sorry,” she murmurs, voice muffled by his turtleneck.

He knows that she still blames herself for Weirdmageddon.  She had come into the lab in the basement not too long ago and told him everything; from the argument she got into with Dipper to handing the rift over to Bill’s awaiting hands. It nearly broke his heart in two to see her so heartbroken and afraid. He’d told her that it wasn’t her fault, and that it was nearly inevitable it was going to happen eventually. She seemed to accept that, and hadn’t said anything about it to him since.

Still, he knows better than most that the guilt never truly leaves you be, and that it tends to sneak up from behind and eat you alive when you least expect it to.

“No need to be sorry, my dear” Ford replies, winding an arm around Mabel to hold her closer. “I’ve been having these sorts of nightmares since far before Weirdmageddon ever happened.”

“Then…why last night?” Mabel looks up at him, her soft brown eyes pooling with worry.

“Well, if I had to hazard a guess…” Ford taps at his chin. Before he can give it much more thought, another streak of lightning crackles outside, which makes him flinch. Mabel’s gaze switches back and forth between Ford and the window behind them, and she jumps up to her feet.

“That’s it!” she shouts, spinning towards him with a…very out of place grin plastered to her face. She takes his hands in her own. “Grunkle Ford, are you afraid of thunderstorms?”

Ford blushes so hard that his ears burn. “It…hasn’t been a fear I’ve had since childhood, but it seems like in turn of recent events…” He tugs awkwardly at the collar of his turtleneck.

“Aww, you don’t have to be so modest, Grunkle Ford! I’m not gonna judge you.” She offers a hand out to him, smiling sweetly. “As a matter of fact, I know a cure for just the thing, if you’d follow me”

A soft chuckle escapes Ford as he takes her up on her offer. He places his hand in hers, and she helps tug him to his feet. She guides him by the hand out of his room and towards the living room. Stan must still be asleep, because his recliner is unoccupied.

“Here we are!” She pats at the armrest with her free hand. “There’s a few things I need to put together, but you can sit right here while I go grab them.” She gently pats at his forearm. “You don’t need to worry your pretty little head about the rest”

…Interesting choice of words, but Ford doesn’t question them. He takes a seat in Stan’s recliner, and as soon as he kicks his feet up Mabel beams and skips off in another direction. He doesn’t have long to wonder what she could be planning, because only about a minute or two passes before a giant pile of blankets comes walking back into the room.

Mabel drops the pile in front of the recliner with a grunt. “There we go!” She grins, clasping her hands together. “This should be plenty enough for our pillow fort”

“Our…pillow fort?”

“Yeah!” she beams. “Pillow forts are like, the number one cure for everything, right behind hugs and glitter.”  She nods matter-of-factly. “It’s science! You should know, Grunkle Ford” She says, and heads towards the kitchen to grab a few chairs.

Ford can’t help but smile warmly as he stands to help her.  They gather all of the chairs from the kitchen and place them in a large circle around the recliner, spaced out just enough that there’s plenty of crawlspace between them and just close enough together to prevent the blankets from falling off. Once Mabel is satisfied with their placement, she begins placing the blankets on top of the chairs, letting the larger blankets come all the way to the floor to act as entrances to the fort. It’s a touchup of the blankets here and a small adjustment of the chair placements here, and Mabel steps back to admire their work.

“And...That should do it! I’m gonna go grab some more blankets and pillows for the inside, but you can feel free to head in without me” She beams, and she’s already off again before he can respond. Ford rolls his eyes at her fondly, and gets down onto his hands and knees to crawl inside the fort.

The change of scenery is instantaneous, in every meaning of the word. The inside of the fort is dark, save for the beams of light from the room outside seeping through the gaps of the blankets. It’s warm, from the heat trapped within each of the blankets. It’s quiet, so much so that the pounding of the rain on the windows sounds like nothing more than a muffled drizzle.  It’s comfortable, despite the only available seat being the floor itself.

It’s a sensory deprivation tank without the claustrophobia; a safe space Ford could see himself losing time to.  

“Hey!” Mabel’s cheery voice cuts smoothly through the silence.  She crawls through the blanket flap with an armful of blankets and a bowl full of fresh popcorn. “Sorry that took so long, I figured if we were gonna spend the whole afternoon in here that you were gonna want a snack” She places the bowl of popcorn on the ground between them,  and hands Ford a pillow.

Ford gently squeezes the pillow to his chest. “Mabel?”

“Yeah?”

Ford can feel the heat rising to his cheeks. “How did…how did you know?”

She cocks her head. “How’d I know what?”

“How did you know that…all of this would work?”

“Oh!” Mabel grins. “Pssh, that’s easy. Don’t tell Dipper I told you this, but he was absolutely terrified of rain when we were younger. It didn’t even have to be storming out, just as long there was rain falling from the sky. And all it took for him to calm down was tearing apart our beds and building a fort, so I figured that since you two are like, the same exact person that it would work for you too!” She gently taps at her forehead. “You two aren’t the only smart twins around here”

Ford laughs, winding an arm around her to bring her close to him. “Thank you, sweetheart. It’s working wonders”

The grin that spreads across her face could burn out the sun. She reciprocates his gesture, winding a tiny arm around him and resting her head on his chest.

Growing up, he’d been taught that there was no place for fear. Fear made you weak, and the only way to deal with it was to harshly beat it down until it was no more. You were to show fear that you were strong, and tough, and succumbing to it could only lead to your demise.

Worst of all, Ford believed it wholeheartedly. Shutting himself out from the world, sacrificing sleep, and comfort, and love, Ford truly believed he was winning his battles. There was nothing to fear if he had nothing at all.

But now, sitting in this tiny little fort made of love, listening to the rain with his great-niece by his side, he realizes that this is what he’s needed all along. You don’t defeat your fears by beating them into the ground, you defeat them with love, the love of those who care enough about you to fight by your side. And even though thunder is not tangible, something he can reach out and mold to his liking, he knows that in time, he will be back out there, learning to love the rain again with his long-lost childhood wonder.

And as he finds himself dozing off in the warmth of his niece’s arms, Ford knows that this storm will only be the first of many of its kind.

He looks forward to each of them.

[hunflowers]

Cecilia

Word Count: 8k

Requested? Nope, but you always can here :)

Mood Board

A/N: Yay, 70s! Harry is here :D I love it and I hope you do too my loves. And quick note, the song Cecilia by Simon & Garfunkel is basically the anthem of this piece, (*ahem* note the title) so maybe give it a listen while reading or before or after, whatever works! *nose boops*

Murder is the biggest extreme anyone could ever commit. It’s crazy to ever want to kill someone, to wrap your hands around someone’s throat, to stab them in the heart or the back, or maybe put a bullet between their eyes.

It’s extreme.

Yet, Y/N had every urge to murder Harry.

Her night was going just fine. It was going exactly how she wanted, and it was going to end exactly how she wanted. Danny was a super nice guy, a super handsome guy, and was exactly who she wanted between her legs in just a few hours time.

Fleetwood Mac was blaring over the speakers of the crowded club and Y/N was enjoying her third beer of the night as Danny held himself against her, placing sloppy kisses up the side of her neck while she circled her bottom against his groin. 

It was going extremely well until Danny said he was going to get himself another drink. Then the moment one body left her, another soon joined. One, that wouldn’t leave her alone.

“Harry! Back off!” Y/N groaned, pushing his hands off her hips. She noticed him earlier in the night when she and Danny walked in but she quickly avoided any contact with him the moment her eyes laid on him, praying to herself that he never spots her.

Clearly, luck wasn’t on her side when the curly-haired, green-eyed nuisance looked down at her with that infamous smirk. “You should be happy to see me. I’m here to save y’life.”

“Save my life? By cock blocking me?” She huffed, trying to step around him but was stopped when he grabbed her by the waist and turned her back to his front. The button-front of his white shirt was held together by two buttons near the bottom, his revealed chest pressed to the skin of her back as his jeans rubbed friction against the soft material of her skirt.

“He could be a serial killer for all you know. Plus, I’m practically begging you to have my cock, so what do you need his for?” He murmured into her ear, slowly starting to sway themselves to the rhythm of the song playing. Y/N could feel the growing tent in his jeans as they rocked, her breath slightly hitching in her throat when she thought about all of their past… adventures with one another. But that’s all it was; their past.

Y/N saw Harry more often than not, but the last time they had sex was well over a month ago, and she figured he’d get the hint by this point that she wasn’t interested anymore. He’s made it obvious that he wasn’t done with her, but she doesn’t settle for too long and she needs a new taste every so often. And she’s young, she doesn’t have this desire to situate herself with one man no matter how desperate he acts. 

Licking her lips and turning her head to her right to meet his eyes, their noses slightly sweep together as their breaths mingle over one another. “You’re old news, H, get real,” she hissed, her eyes raking over his features as he looks past her and into the deep crowd of the dance floor ahead of them. When she moved to remove herself from his grip, he held her back, one of his hands coming up to the back of her head and pressing his mouth down onto hers in a heated kiss.

She almost got lost in it, and almost let him have his way as she could feel her panties dampen the moment his tongue slipped past her lips. But then she heard, “Y/N?” and her mind reeled her back into reality and she pushed away from Harry in a second, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand as she looked to Danny who held a confused look in his eyes before he scoffed and turned back around.

“Wait!” She called, quickly turning around to Harry and sneering at him, “You saw him there didn’t you? Leave me the fuck alone.” And without even thinking about it she poured the remainder of her beer over his pants, dropping the bottle at his feet before running off to try and amend what she could with Danny.

When she finally pushed past the final group of bodies and made it outside into the warm Spring night air, she spotted Danny storming over to his car at the end of the parking lot, ignoring her pleas to stop walking. He looked over his shoulder one final time and shook his head before getting into his burnt orange Cadillac Eldorado and speeding off and away from her. Y/N let out a whine, stomping her platform heel into the ground.

Ever since she saw him stroll into her sociology class at the beginning of the semester she knew she wanted him. Not for long, but at least for one memorable night. Every class she noticed the way his eyes raked up the length of her legs and landed on her chest beneath the fabric of her shirts, so it was obvious he wanted her just as bad. But she had a serious roach problem, and she was moments away from snapping completely and snapping his neck.

Marching over to the nearest payphone, she called her roommate to come pick her up with a series of pleas and bargains since it was nearly one in the morning, and unfortunately for her roommate, she has an early morning Friday class. She didn’t expect to be stranded at this hour and she didn’t bring enough cash for a cab ride home. It’s not like Sarah would say no to her, but she sure as hell wasn’t happy about it either.

Sitting herself down on the curb below her, Y/N stretched out her legs in front of her, pulling a cigarette from her purse and her yellow lighter, putting the stick between her lips and inhaling the nicotine as she drew the flame against the tip. She was getting real sick of Harry thinking he could swoop in whenever he deemed necessary. Where was all this affection when they first started seeing each other? He was the one who pushed her away and turned her into who she is. He was the one that told her college and her early adulthood was about indulging in as many people as she can before she had to settle her life away. And now he changed his mind? 

Well, tough shit.

She was tempted to storm back in there and curse him out and knee him where the sun doesn’t shine, but truth be told, she wouldn’t even handle seeing his face again without seeing red or breaking down. This wasn’t the first time he crashed a date of hers, and she just couldn’t understand why he was so insistent on chasing her down. She doesn’t even understand how he always knows where she is, and if he shows up again she’s filing for a restraining order.

They met last year, right around this time when Sarah’s boyfriend, Mitch brought him over to their apartment for a little party. And before he came crashing into her life, she had herself somewhat together, in a happy relationship with her boyfriend of a few months. People like Harry that sleep around with anyone they can were never anyone she interested herself in hanging around. Then he swooped her off her feet, coaxing her to break up with her uptight boyfriend to live her free life, and eventually into his bed. 

Y/N told herself that was going to be the only time, because Harry was bad news, and everyone knew that, and she knew better than to get caught up in his messy life. But, he’s one hell of a sweet talker and whenever he was near she just knew she’d end up right back in his bed after getting out of it that same morning. Then she wanted more and he didn’t. And for some odd reason, the roles have reversed and she couldn’t be bothered to be in a relationship anymore. Especially with him.

Sucking the last bit of her remaining cigarette into her mouth, she dropped it to the street, stomping on it with her heel, picturing it to be Harry’s face instead. She’d already been out here for about fifteen minutes, and she’s surprised he hasn’t come running after her with his drenched pants. She saw his familiar light pink Plymouth sitting across the street, images of them together in the backseat flashing across her eyes before she closes her eyes and shakes her head as if rattling her brain will cause the memories to fly from her skull.

Noticing Sarah at the red light down the road, Y/N stood up, brushing the debris off her skirt and legs, crossing her arms over her chest with a pout as she sulked in tonight’s failure. When Sarah pulled up to the curb, Y/N opened the door, and as if she wasn’t being punished already, she heard Sarah say, “Hi, Harry.”

Snapping her head over her shoulder to the entrance of the bar behind her, Harry was walking out, car keys in his hand as his other ruffled his short curls. Then a petite blonde trailed after him, tripping over her own feet as a giggle left her thin lips, her nails digging into the skin of his arm as she steadied herself. Y/N’s jaw snapped shut after she realized it had dropped open at the sight, her eyebrows furrowing as she imagined stomping on Harry’s foot just like she did with the cigarette butt.

“Oh, so you get to fuck someone, but I can’t?”

“Y/N-”

“Hey, I wouldn’t waste your time on him! It’s really small, and he lasts maybe two minutes tops before he passes out,” she called to the blonde who’s smile wiped from her face in an instant. She scoffed, pushing Harry away from her before leaving his side and heading back in the busy bar. Y/N’s sure she’ll find someone else better and more suiting.

Harry looked to Y/N in disbelief and then to the spot next to him that’s now vacant, and then to Sarah who was rapidly beeping her horn to get her roommate into the car. “What the fuck was that?”

“Karma’s a bitch, asshole,” Y/N sneers, hopping into the car and telling Sarah to step on it.

What goes around, simply comes around.

❊ ❊

A week had gone by and, this time Y/N, Sarah, Mitch, and a few more friends were out. It was a celebratory night that finals week had finally been completed, and a few of them were due for graduation. 

Unfortunately for Y/N, Harry had been strung along for the night as well, but this time around, they were both ignoring each other for the sake of not being thrown out of the bar. When she saw his face pull up outside in his oh so precious car, it took everything in her to not fake an illness and go home. 

There was something about his smug face greeting her friends that had her knocking back shots of tequila quicker than she could blink. They also have some unspoken challenge going on as they continuously flirted their way around the copious amounts of young men and women, eyeing the other to see if they were watching. 

Y/N had actually noticed Danny in the crowd on the dance floor, worming her way over to him to say hello and to see if he still hated her. When she saw him in sociology the last few classes he avoided her when she sat down a few seats from him, and she couldn’t help but feel a little hurt at his now evident rejection. But, with alcohol running in both of their systems she hoped he had changed his mind even just for the one night.

Danny looked to her with a bored expression, hardly listening to a thing she had to say before interrupting her little spiel with a scoff, “Y/N, he told me everything and I don’t want to hear it.”

She froze up at that, pulling her head back in confusion as her brows scrunched together. “What do you mean, told you everything?”

“Look, I’m not a rebound okay? If you wanted to have sex because you like me, cool, I’m down; but I’m not having sex with you just to make him jealous or some shit. I got better things to do, sorry,” and then he patted her on the shoulder before walking away and out of her sight. 

Completely dumbfounded and embarrassed to have been rejected so publicly, Y/N turned on her heel and walked back to the table that her friends were sat at, a puzzled looking face nestled on her features. But, when she made eye contact with Harry who had his eyes dead set on her over the brim of his beer bottle, a little smirk peaking out and taunting her, she stomped over and slammed her hands down on the table in front of him, jolting the whole table to look at her. Harry was hardly fazed, leaning back in his chair with his arms crossed over his chest. 

“What the fuck did you tell him?” She gritted out, leaning her face close to his. 

Again, he hardly had a reaction, jutting his tongue out to lick his lips. “Tell who, what?”

Huffing at his nonchalant attitude, she pulled on the collar of his printed shirt, their noses grazing. If she weren’t so angry, she’d say this was a pretty intimate moment as they kept their eyes locked on one another, their breaths mingling together as their mouths were only centimetres apart. In all honesty, they forgot they had friends just seats apart from them ogling the situation with worry.

To them, it looked like Y/N was about to twist his head in a full one-eighty. 

“Don’t play dumb with me, Styles! You’re not my father, stop trying to act like it,” she spat, pushing him back aggressively against his chair and storming away, again. If anything, she was more mad at the fact that she let him get under her skin again. She should just go up to any guy she chooses and kiss him hard on the lips to prove a point - but instead she’s biting her lip to refrain from screaming into the night and letting the pesky tears welling up in her eyes fall onto her skin. 

The bar wasn’t too far from her apartment this time, and she’d rather walk than ruin Sarah’s night anymore than she already did because of her dramatic ways. Not that she could really drive anyway since she was just knocking back tequila not even ten minutes ago. Maybe when she’s sober she’ll grow a tougher exterior and not let Harry get to her, but as she regains her balance after stumbling in her heels, she’ll sulk and cry the whole way home, and probably as she tucks herself into her sheets.

“Y/N!” Harry called after her, but she flipped him off over her shoulder as she continued her journey down the sidewalk.

Hearing the quickening pace of footsteps behind her, Y/N wiped at her eyes quickly to remove any traces of a broken heart. Feeling a tug on her bicep, she was whipped around to face his sorrowful face, his free hand immediately coming up to wipe the tears away from her eyes that seemed to betray her. “I... I’m sorry.”

She couldn’t help but let out a small pitiful laugh at that, looking away from him and watching the cars pass them by. “Just leave me alone, Harry.”

“Y/N, hey,” he paused, cupping his face in his large palms, trying to get her to look at him. “Baby, please look at me.”

“I’m not your baby,” she hissed, turning to look at him with a scowl.

“Got ya to look at me though, didn’t it?”

It was safe to say Y/N wasn’t amused, biting the inside of her cheek hard enough to draw blood. Harry nodded, realizing now wasn’t the time for joking, looking to his feet for a split second before bringing his eyes up to look at the crescent moon above them, letting out a puff of air before speaking up again. “Let’s split. Just you and me, let me make it up to you for being an ass.”

Y/N’s eyes widen in a fit of fury, her mouth dropping open in a gasp, “I’m not having sex with you! Are you ins-”

“No! M’fucking hungry and want a real meal, not the shit this joint serves. And we need to talk, so join me?” He clarifies, dropping his hands back down to his sides and propping them on his hips as he awaits her answer.

She sucks her bottom lip into her mouth as she contemplates her choices. She really doesn’t want to be alone with him, but she’s also starving and if he’s paying then there’s no use in turning down free food. Mulling it over for a few moments, she eventually nods her head in a soft agreeance, causing a bright smile to flash across his face.

“Alright, let’s go to Debby’s, her burgers always taste better late at night.” And with that, he was tossing his arm over her shoulders and tugging her to his side as they walked in sync to Debby’s Diner a few blocks over. They both had been drinking and figured it probably wasn’t safe to drive just yet, plus it was a really nice night, and the moon looked extra bright surrounded by its little star friends.

❊ ❊

It was insanely awkward. 

Probably more awkward then when they first had sex, and even that wasn’t this bad. Maybe it’s because they’ve never really had any heart-to-heart chats and this was new territory they weren’t exactly used to. 

“Cecilia” by Simon & Garfunkel flowed through the empty diner, filling the tense air that could be cut with a knife. Y/N mindlessly hummed along, sipping on her strawberry milkshake, looking anywhere but at the man in front of her. 

“You like this song?” Harry questioned, balling the paper straw wrapper before stretching it back out and then just squishing it again. 

Licking the whip cream from the tip of her nose, Y/N nodded her head, “It’s nice.”

“It describes us.”

She looked at him confused, “Excuse me?”

“I don’t like seeing you with anyone else,” he shrugged, leaning his elbows on the metal table, tossing his straw wrapper to the side. “I’ve never felt like this about anyone, ever, and I just get so tee’d off every time I see you out with someone that isn’t me.”

“That isn’t fair, Harry, and you know it,” she scoffs, leaning back into the booth, and crossing her arms over her chest. “Where was this months ago? When I wanted to be with you?

Poking his tongue at the inside of his cheek and swiping it across his bottom lip to reach the other side, Harry let out a sigh, running his hands over his face and through his hair. He can’t exactly pinpoint when he had a change of heart, or why for that matter, but he did and that’s all that’s important. He remembers her lying beside him, fingers dancing over the skin of his chest while her one leg was hitched over his waist as her exposed breasts were pressed flush against his side. She had asked him if they could be more than just fuck buddies and he easily turned her down in a way that wasn’t too aggressive but made it known he wasn’t one for girlfriends. 

At first Y/N was okay with that, not wanting to hop into a relationship so suddenly after just leaving one, but then she wanted more. There’s something about Harry, the way he presents himself to the world, not giving a shit about anything yet at the same time being so caring towards everyone. Whenever she saw him her heart would flutter, and heat would flood her body at the thought of getting to kiss him and hold him and have sex with him whenever she wants. But, he didn’t see it that way, at least not at first, and Y/N couldn’t put herself through the heartache anymore. So, she broadened her horizons, and put Harry in her past, making him just a friend.

Then his mysterious change of heart became evident, and he’s been hellbent on getting back into her good graces. It’s clear it was sparked by jealousy, but Harry wasn’t so sure that was the only reason anymore. Desire to have her as his, to make her smile all the time, to see her pretty face everyday of his life fueled his need for her. He loathed the idea of any other guy touching her, but he reveled in the idea of her touching him, whether it be sexually or just by holding hands. 

Harry didn’t realize it at first, but when she started pushing him away and going out with different guys from her classes, he knew he was starting to fall in love with her. He grew so used to the idea of Y/N being around and not hating him that without even noticing, he was falling in love with her.

So, if he needs to actually get on his knees to beg for her, then he will.

“I’m just asking for one more chance. Let me prove to ya I’m not so bad, pet,” he spoke softly reaching out to grab ahold of her hand but she pulled her hand away from his reach, biting down on her lower lip and thinking over his words.

“You made it near impossible for me to know anyone else for your own selfish purposes, and now, what, you want to go on a date with me? Why should I?” Y/N stressed, combing her fingers through the roots of her hair, tangling the makeshift curls she spent all day perfecting.

“I know, I know and I’m sorry. It started off as jealousy, I hated knowing other guys were putting their hands on you like I did, it just didn’t sit right with me-”

“But you were allowed to go out with Cindy? And Jenny? And Katherine? You have sex with me a few times and all of a sudden I’m only allowed to be with you even after you tell me you don’t want a relationship?” She spits, tilting her head slightly and glaring daggers into the side of his face as he looked off to the side to gather his thoughts.

Y/N wanted a better answer than jealousy. She wanted a better excuse than some pitiful jealousy that made her look like a pure whore in front of every date she had been on. Harry always swooped in when her date scurried off for a bathroom break or to get drinks or a refill on popcorn, holding her close and kissing her swiftly on the lips when he knew the date would catch them. It was his go-to plan every time, and each time before they left her ass, they would spit slander at her that had her stomach sinking and her eyes brimming with pesky tears. She wanted a better excuse than stupid jealousy that had her feeling like complete and utter shit whenever she ducked under her covers and cried away her pain.

She really liked Harry. She still does, even though he doesn’t deserve that. Whenever he did crash her outings, even though it pissed her off beyond belief, she knew he was jealous and jealousy stems from him caring about her and wanting her, and that excited her, as messed up as it seems. It’s not exactly the most stable mentality, but Y/N doesn’t care about stability, she just cares for honesty. “Be straightforward for once, please. You can’t say you don’t see yourself in a relationship with anyone, then hate seeing me with other people.”

He nodded his head and took a breath before beginning, “I don’t know how to properly express my feelings. I’ve had girlfriends but I always wind up breaking their hearts and they all end up hating me, so I think I’m better off without one. You don’t deserve for me to break your heart, baby, but I’m too selfish to let y’go. So, whaddya say, just one more chance, please?”

“Newsflash, I already do hate you, you prick,” Y/N rolled her eyes, leaning forward to take another sip of her half drunken milkshake. She was even bold enough to steal one of his fries and dip it into the sugar trap, happily munching on it as she processes what he just told her. 

Harry watched her as she looked deep in thought, biting on the tip of her straw as she sucked up the remains of her pink drink. He was nervous to what she was gonna say, because he knows he’s been an asshole and most definitely doesn’t deserve her kindness and rather deserves a slap to the face. When she poured her drink over his jeans, he was surprised she didn’t kick him in the nuts too. But, deep down he was praying that she would at least give him a try, and if she still wants to kick him in the nuts, he’ll let her.

Eating one more fry, Y/N refocuses her attention back on Harry, clearing her throat to say, “So you were jealous. What exactly was it that made you jealous? Was it the idea of them touching me? Kissing me? Or, how about them fuc-”

“Okay! That’s enough!” he scowled, taking the cherry from her shake and biting down on it, removing it from the stem. Y/N laughed, brushing the crumbs from the fries off of her fingers.

Then a brief moment of silence enveloped them, before she spoke up again, “Don’t make me regret this, okay?”

“So, that’s a yes?” He smiles, relief running through his veins as his body relaxes from all of the unknown tension he put on himself.

“It’s a yes.”

❊ ❊ 

Ever since Y/N agreed to giving Harry his chance at proving he’s not a total asshole, he hasn’t left her side. He’s been showing up to her apartment, serenading her to take a drive with him every morning to go to this park just outside of the city, showering her in flowers and breakfast foods to win her over.

And when she had to go to work, he offered to drop her off and pick her up, not wanting her to take the bus like she used to. “Too many looneys out in the world, pet.”

It was just past two weeks from their night at Debby’s Diner, and with time, Y/N was starting to warm back up to him. It was a process considering how they treated each other for months on end, but everyday without fail, Y/N was glad to see him. He wasn’t trying to make passes at her, no sexual innuendos or insinuations that they should sleep together, just two people building up a friendship that had been worn down.

It was a warm Friday night, and Harry insisted they go see a movie at the newly opened drive in a few towns over. They were showcasing The Godfather, a movie on both of their lists to watch, so he figured what better time and place to go see it. For the first half of the movie they sat in a comfortable silence, eating their snacks and popcorn and sipping on their sodas, but then Y/N grew restless with this whole no talking situation, shifting her body to look at Harry rather than Marlon Brando.

Harry paused in his chewing, turning his head to look at her confusedly as she just stared at him. He felt like he had done something wrong as he slowly swallowed his candy, muttering a “What?”

“Why haven’t you tried to kiss me?”

Harry’s eyes widen at the question, his lips rolling into his mouth as his eyes blink rapidly, wondering if he heard that correctly. “Sorry?”

“It’s been over two weeks and you’ve made no moves to kiss me or to have sex, and I’m just confused,” she states, her fingers twiddling in her lap as nerves struck her.

Y/N was just simply confused. Because she’s known Harry for a while, and she knows how he works either with her or with other women. His never ending libido and flirtatious attitude was one of the strongest assets of his personality, not that it was a bad thing, but when he wasn’t acting the way he normally does, Y/N grew more and more confused. Every time he came in on one of her dates, he would kiss her and hold her, and try to get her come home with him, but now as she sits on a date with him, he’s acting like the fucking virgin Mary.

This doesn’t mean she wants him to pounce on her and rip her clothes off every moment they’re together, but there’s this recurring anxious thought flashing through her mind that maybe he doesn’t see her like that anymore. It doesn’t make sense since he won’t leave her side, but she’s wondering if there’s something wrong with her for him to not act like he usually does.

“Is it me? Be straightforward, did I do something?” She murmured, tugging on the hem of her dress that had ridden up from her moving around on the leather seat. “Because, normally by this point you’d be trying to get your hand up my skirt.”

Harry sat and looked at her for a moment, bringing his hand up to pull at his bottom lip as he thought of something to say. Then he let out a giggle that had Y/N spiraling into more confusion as he shook his head mockingly.

“Do you want me to put my hand up your skirt?” He questioned, smacking his hand down on her thigh, giving the flesh of her skin a firm squeeze that had her yelp in response. On instinct, she pushed his prying fingers away, but immediately regretted it since his touch lit a fire stirring in her belly.

“Look, bunny, the thought of fucking you has been at the front of mind ever since you showed up in that tiny little number, but I’m trying to do this right. Need to prove that I don’t want you just for y’body,” he explained, this time resting his hand gently on her exposed thigh, to which she didn’t shove away.

Y/N nodded her head slowly in understanding, pursing her lips as her eyes glanced back at the movie being showcased ahead of them. “What’s going through that head of yours?” He asked, tucking back a piece of hair that had fallen from her ponytail.

Turning her head back to face him, their faces suddenly were only inches part, their noses barely brushing together. Y/N gulped at the proximity, her eyes going back forth between his sparkling green ones, before glancing down to his pink lips that she bets taste like the buttery popcorn he was just devouring.

Without so much of a second thought, she leaned forward pressing their mouths together in a soft kiss, sparks tingling her skin as he didn’t move to break them apart. Instead, he locked one of his hands to the side of her face, pulling her in closer, moving their lips in a slow manner, taking his time to appreciate the true softness of her skin that he had taken for granted whenever they shared heated kisses.

Y/N scooted herself on her knees across the bench, landing on his lap in a straddle, wrapping her arms around his neck and shoulders, deepening the intimacy of the moment. Nothing about this moment seemed rushed, and it was probably the most tame they had ever been with one another even if their hips began rocking together to gain friction in their cores.

They could’ve stayed like that for hours, completely engulfed in the other, tongues dancing together, trails of spit keeping them connected as they would part to catch their breaths before indulging in another round of making out. Harry’s hands kept themselves nestled nicely on the curves of her ass, his fingers digging into the flesh and most likely leaving bruises in his wake. Y/N lightly tugged at the roots of his hair, pulling his head back from her to trail sloppy kisses down the length of his neck. She even was bold enough to mark his skin with a decently sized hickey; It was only payback for the countless he’s left on her multiple times before and the few he sucked this night.

Departing from his mouth, she rested her forehead on his and took in a couple deep breaths, biting on her bottom lip as she let out a breathy laugh. “That was what was going through my head.”

“Fuck, you’re out of sight, Y/N.”

❊ ❊ 

They still haven’t had sex.

Y/N was overjoyed at first that he wanted to treat her like a proper gentleman, waiting until she was comfortable around him again to make any advances. But, after they shared that kiss from a month beforehand, she was definitely worried something was wrong with him. 

They had done other things, but every time they were just moments away from actual sex, he would pull away and say it wasn’t the right time or place. It was the most extreme case of blue balls, and she doesn’t even have balls. The weird part was that she could feel how hard he would get every time, but he always kept himself at bay.

It was nice at first, but now it’s just plain cruel.

Y/N didn’t want to act desperate, but he was being the ultimate tease and she didn’t know how much longer she could take this. She almost tempted him when they went to a festival and they were both high off their minds. Yet, even under the influence he had a stronghold and resisted the flirty bat of her eyelashes and the stellar handjob he got behind someone’s Volkswagen van.

Now as she sat in his lap, surrounded by friends in her apartment since Sarah and Mitch were having another one of their little parties, she was determined to have sex. Y/N finished off the remainder of her drink, purposefully rubbing her ass against Harry’s groin as she leaned forward to place her cup on the table in front of them. A little hiss could be heard leaving his lips as his fingers dug into her waist, giving her a silent warning to not do anything she’s gonna regret.

Little did he know, that was exactly what she wanted. At this point, she didn’t even care if they fucked in front of everyone, she just really wanted him. Looking over her shoulder, she sent him an innocent look before engaging in conversation with the boy almost completely passed out beside them. And again on purpose, she shifted her body against his thigh, which then in turn pressed her butt on his growing bulge.

While she was talking to Ben - she found out his name - Harry pulled her back against his chest, his mouth pressing against the shell of her ear, warm air fanning over her skin, chills shooting down her spine. “What’re y’trying to do, bunny?”

When she ignored his question, she felt him nip at her ear with his teeth, murmuring, “Act like a tease, gonna get fucked like one,” into her hair, groping at her exposed thigh.

Cursing to herself as Ben gets up to get another drink, she turns her face to look at Harry, bringing a hand up to push a few fallen curls off his forehead. Leaning close to him, she placed a chaste kiss to the corner of his lips replying back with, “Doubt it,” in a feisty tone, bringing her head back to smile at him before getting up from his lap and sauntering off to make conversation with anyone else.

Looking over her shoulder, she watched him spread his legs, elbows leaning on them as he lit a cigarette now between his lips. He cocked his head with a raise of his eyebrow, challenging her to try anything else. He couldn’t exactly blame her for acting the way she is, because like usual, he knows he’s been an asshole and not giving her what she wants. But, in his eyes, all of this built up frustration will only enhance the experience for both of them after not fucking for months.

“What the hell is going on between you two?” Sarah whispered in Y/N’s ear, casually following her eyes to see Harry looking at the little group on the opposite side of the room.

Y/N took the cigarette from her friend’s hands, inhaling deeply and giving it back, blowing the stream of smoke from her nose as she shrugged. “Nothing. Just putting him in his place.”

“I don’t think he got the memo,” she teased back, raising her eyebrows as a gesture that he was walking over. Then without fail, Y/N felt a tug on her upper arm and her back collided with a chest. 

“Mind if I steal my girl for a second?” He asked the group to which he got shrugs in return and one person to say Think it’ll be more than a second.

Sarah waved goodbye to Y/N as she was being pulled away, doing a sign of the cross and praying hands to say she was in her prayers. Y/N rolled her eyes but mouthed a thank you anyway. Before she could comprehend, she was tugged into the bathroom, the door slamming behind her as her back was shoved against it, Harry’s hands landing on either side of her head, his face mere centimetres from hers.

Y/N smirked up at him, gently brushing her nose against his, a sinister look dancing across her eyes. “Y’know, you could’ve just taken us to my bedroom,” she hummed, dragging her finger nail down the length of his exposed chest, stopping where the first button was closed just under his butterfly tattoo on his abdomen.

“What d’ya think is gonna happen, pet?” He murmured into the skin of her neck, peppering soft kisses up until he met her jawline then worked his way back down.

“You’re gonna stop being a tease and fuck me already,” she retorted in a gasp as his one hand came up to grope at her tit in her halter top. His head came back up to level with hers, green eyes boring into hers as he tilts his head in the same challenging manner from before.

“Is that so?”

“Well, if you’re not gonna do it then I’ll get someone who will.”

Then it was like a switch was flipped in his brain, and his eyes darkened, and a devilish smile painted his face before he took her face and smashed his mouth onto hers. His hands grabbed under her thighs and hoisted her up so her legs wrapped around his waist, his front grinding on her center feverishly, both of them letting out light moans at the contact.

“We both know you’re not gonna do that,” Harry muttered between kisses, his left hand leaving her thigh and cupping her throbbing heat over her panties, his palm pressing against her clit and his fingers tapping at the pool of wetness forming on the white fabric. Y/N’s jaw slacked open, her eyes fluttering shut at the slight relief he was giving her. “No one can give it to you like I can, baby.”

Before she could utter out a response, he pushed her underwear to the side before thrusting his middle finger into her fully lubricated hole. He pumped it in slowly, teasing her walls and ignoring her pleas for more, “Admit it, no one can treat you like I can.”

Then he added his ring finger, fastening his movements against her fluttering pussy. “None of those candyasses gave it to you like I did.”

“Every time you were with them you wished it was me. C’mon, Y/N, be straightforward,” he whispered in her ear, thrusting his fingers in at a brutal force, the heel of his palm rubbing harsh circles against her bundle of nerves that had her crying out in pure ecstasy.

“Fuck... O-only you can - shit, Harry please,” she cried out, her ankles locking behind his back and pulling him impossibly closer to her body, her head knocking against the wooden door behind her.

Harry slowed his movements for a moment, bringing his other hand up to her mouth and trying to block the sounds she was emitting at an extremely high pitch. She whined into his hand, bucking her hips to build the friction back up, the familiar feeling of her high dissipating as he stilled himself. “Y/N, you’re gonna ‘ave to be quiet. Don’t want anyone hearing you. Those pretty moans are reserved for my ears only.”

Just to be sure she stayed quiet, instead of muffling her with his palm, he stuck his thumb between her lips, pressing down on her tongue and ordering her to suck. It took a lot of control to not push his jeans and briefs down his body and fuck into her the moment she started swirling her tongue around the tip of his thumb, gently sucking on it and looking at him with her innocent doe eyes. He was determined to get her to come undone now, desperate to see her face morph into one filled with pleasure as he curled his fingers against her sweet spot, thrusting against it continuously. He whispered dirty things into her ear, urging her to cum for him, saying everything she likes to hear that helps her reach her peak quicker.

Y/N’s mouth dropped open again, but this time her moans came out all gurgled and muffled as he kept his thumb right where it was. Her thighs clenched around him as she wanted to close them instinctively, her orgasm building up inside of her until he hit her g-spot one more time and then her body was shaking uncontrollably. Harry helped her to calm down, placing a kiss to her temple and slowly settling her back down on the floor, her legs wobbling a little bit before she regained her balance.

“Need to take you somewhere more private, need to hear you for what else I’m gonna do to you,” he stated before taking her hand and leading her out of the bathroom.

And that’s how they ended up in his car in a deserted parking lot, in his back seat, Y/N on all fours while he thrust into her from behind. The backseat was a bit of a tight fit for the position they were in, but neither of them really seemed to care as they were into a euphoric state of mind.

Harry’s sweaty chest was leaned over and pressing into her back, his face nestled into the crook of her neck as he tugged lightly on her hair in a makeshift ponytail wrapped around his fist. Neither of them were shy about their moans and groans, practically screaming them to the world and putting all pornstars to shame.

Aside from their sounds of pleasure, the steamy car was filled with the sound of his hips slapping against her ass and the squelch of their centers coming together. Harry also left the car radio on to ‘give a nice ambiance while I wreck your pretty little cunt.’

“What -shit, what was that you said about my dick being really small? Or me only lasting two minutes? Could you refresh my memory, bunny?” He snickered into her cheek, delivering a particularly hard thrust into her that had her knees shifting up the leather seat. 

“You’re s-so tight, squeezing down on my big cock just nice. Fit like a glove,” he egged on. He placed his left hand on the wall of his car, stabilizing his balance a little more as he wrapped his other hand around her throat and brought her to a kneel. Y/N’s own hands reached out to balance herself anywhere she could put them,

“D’ya wanna say it again?” he continued to tease, halting his movements, waiting for her to say something back.

Y/N shook her head feverishly, bringing her bottom down against his cock to continue what he paused. “N-no, m’sorry.”

Harry tsked, clicking his tongue against the roof of his mouth as he released his grip on her throat and flipped them around so she was straddling him now. “Why don’t you put some work in if you want it so bad. Use me, pet, know you can,” he stated with a smack to her bottom that echoed throughout the car.

Y/N never dropped herself down on someone quicker. In one go she sank down on him to the hilt, the tip of his bright red head hitting a spot so deep inside of her. She swiveled her hips in circles, before kneeling up again and then dropping down fully again feeling him at the very pit of her tummy. Her clit brushed against his pubic mound, the tuft of hair rubbing against her swell, urging her orgasm to arrive quicker.

And if that wasn’t enough, Harry leaned forward and took one of her nipples into his mouth, kitten licking it and gently nipping at it before sucking on it. He paid close attention to her pert tits, covering her once bare chest in various bites, all while kneading the flesh of her ass, assisting her in her movements and bringing her down on him harder and faster.

“I’m… oh, I’m so cl-close,” Y/N moaned, her head falling to the crevice of his shoulder as he pounded up into her to meet her thrusts.

“Me too, pet. Hold on a little longer f’me,” he spoke, now brutally fucking up into her to get himself to match where she is. Y/N tugged on his hair like he liked, scratching her nails into his skin and muttering words of encouragement like, “Prove to me how wrong I was… Only you can do this to me, baby.”

Then with a few more sloppy thrusts, they were both hitting their highs, cumming so hard that Harry fell limp against the seat and Y/N against him. The long wait for this was definitely worth it as both of them took in gulps of air, meeting their mouths in a lazy kiss in triumph. Despite the ache of her body, Y/N lifted herself off of Harry and landed next to him instead, her head falling against his shoulder again as her eyes fluttered close.

Now, only the hum of the radio could be heard around them, that same Simon & Garfunkel song on like it was at Debby’s all that time ago. Y/N can remember Harry saying it described them, and as she sits here, completely enamored from the man beside her, she could attest to that.

Without knowing it, Harry was looking down at Y/N, humming the tune of the song as he sat in awe of her figure completely worn out next to him.

Jubilation, she loves me again.

[newstfionline]

Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Biden’s Infrastructure Push Spurs a Flurry of Lobbying in Congress (NYT) Members of Congress have begun a frenzy of lobbying to ensure that their pet projects and policy priorities are included in President Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure and jobs plan, eager to shape what could be one of the most substantial public works investments in a generation. Officials across the country are dusting off lists of construction projects and social programs, hoping to secure their piece of a plan aimed at addressing what the administration estimates is at least $1 trillion worth of backlogged infrastructure improvements, as well as economic and racial inequities that have existed for decades. “My phone is blowing up,” Pete Buttigieg, the transportation secretary, said in an interview. Nearly every lawmaker “can point to a road or a bridge or an airport” in his or her district that is in dire need of repair.

Truck seized over ‘munitions of war,’ 5 forgotten bullets (AP) Gerardo Serrano ticked off the border crossing agents by taking some photos on his phone. So they took his pickup truck and held onto it for more than two years. Only after Serrano filed a federal lawsuit did he get back his Ford F-250. Now he wants the Supreme Court to step in and require a prompt court hearing as a matter of constitutional fairness whenever federal officials take someone’s property under civil forfeiture law. The justices could consider his case when they meet privately on Friday. It’s a corner of the larger forfeiture issue, when federal, state or local officials take someone’s property, without ever having to prove that it has been used for illicit purposes. Since 2000, governments have acquired at least $68.8 billion in forfeited property, according to the Institute for Justice, a libertarian public interest law firm that represents Serrano and tracks seizures. The group says the number “drastically underestimates forfeiture’s true scope” because not all states provide data. Serrano’s troubles stemmed from some pictures he took along the way of a long trip from his home in Tyner, Kentucky, to visit relatives, including a dying aunt, in Zaragosa, Mexico. The photo-taking attracted the attention of U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents in Eagle Pass, Texas. When Serrano refused to hand over the password to his phone, the agents went through the 2014 silver pickup truck in great detail. They justified its seizure by saying they found “munitions of war” inside—five forgotten bullets, though no gun. Told to park the truck, he said, he complained a bit before one agent reached into the pickup, opened the door, unfastened Serrano’s seat belt and yanked him out of the vehicle. “I got rights, I got constitutional rights and he snaps back at me, ‘You don’t have no rights here. I’m sick and tired of hearing about your rights.’ That took me aback,” Serrano said.

Should the U.S. boycott the 2022 Winter Olympics in China? (Washington Post) As if there aren’t enough sources of Sino-U.S. friction already, an emerging new irritant may soon outpace the rest: the growing calls for a boycott of Beijing’s 2022 Winter Olympics. The games are still 10 months away. But it’s not too early for the event to turn into a flash point. Critics of China’s ruling Communist Party—including a coalition of more than 180 human rights organizations—argue that the regime’s record of human rights abuses and geopolitical malfeasance ought to deprive it of the right to burnish its image with a spectacle like the Olympics. “Beijing won the right to host the 2022 Olympics in 2015, the same year it cracked down on lawyers and activists across China,” Chinese human rights lawyer Teng Biao wrote earlier this year. “Since then, it has detained journalists; harassed and attacked activists and dissidents even outside China’s borders; shut down nongovernmental organizations; demolished Christian churches, Tibetan temples and Muslim mosques; persecuted, sometimes to death, believers in Falun Gong; and sharply increased its control of media, the Internet, universities and publishers.” An Olympic boycott has become a popular cause among Republicans. Major sporting events—and especially international spectacles like the Olympics—always bear a political dimension.

‘Huge’ explosion rocks St. Vincent as volcano keeps erupting (AP) La Soufriere volcano fired an enormous amount of ash and hot gas early Monday in the biggest explosive eruption yet since volcanic activity began on the eastern Caribbean island of St. Vincent late last week, with officials worried about the lives of those who have refused to evacuate. Experts called it a “huge explosion” that generated pyroclastic flows down the volcano’s south and southwest flanks. “It’s destroying everything in its path,” Erouscilla Joseph, director of the University of the West Indies’ Seismic Research Center, told The Associated Press. “Anybody who would have not heeded the evacuation, they need to get out immediately.” The ongoing volcanic activity has threatened water and food supplies, with the government forced to drill for fresh water and distribute it via trucks. “We cannot put tarpaulin over a river,” said Garth Saunders, minister of the island’s water and sewer authority, referring to the impossibility of trying to protect current water sources from ongoing falling ash.

Colombia’s cartels target Europe (The Guardian) At 5 am on a chilly Tuesday morning last month, 1,600 police officers and balaclava-wearing special forces, bristling with arms and battering rams, were ordered into action around the Belgian port city of Antwerp. More than 200 addresses were raided in what was the largest police operation ever conducted in the country and potentially one of the most significant moves yet against the increasingly powerful narco-gangs of western Europe. An incredible 27 tonnes of cocaine have been seized on Antwerp’s quays, in container ships and safe houses, with an estimated value of €1.4bn (£1.2bn), and many arrests have been made. It has been hailed as a mighty blow against what Belgian federal prosecutor Frédéric Van Leeuw calls “a world where morality has totally disappeared”, but Operation Sky has also highlighted a chilling development. Europe has eclipsed the US as the Colombian cartels’ favoured market, because of higher prices and much lower risks posed by European governments in terms of interdiction, extradition and seizure of assets. Jeremy McDermott, a former British army officer who is now executive director of the thinktank InSight Crime, said a kilogram of cocaine in the US is worth up to $28,000 wholesale but that rises to $40,000 on average in Europe, and nearly $80,000 in some parts of Europe. “It is more money for less risk. I see a deliberate decision by some of the top-level Colombian traffickers, based on sources who sat in a series of meetings in 2005-6, where the business decisions were made,” McDermott said. “It is a business no-brainer.”

Conservative Ex-Banker Headed to Victory in Presidential Election in Ecuador (NYT) Guillermo Lasso, a 66-year-old conservative former banker, was set to win Ecuador’s presidential election and beat out Andrés Arauz, a 36-year-old leftist handpicked by former President Rafael Correa. With more than 94 percent of the votes counted after 10 p.m., Mr. Lasso had 52 percent compared with Mr. Arauz’s 47.32 percent, according to the Electoral Council official counting system in Ecuador. Mr. Arauz conceded defeat. The vote signaled a desire, at least among some, to shift right following years in which Mr. Correa has held sway over the country.

England reopens with pints pulled, shopping sprees and hair cuts (Reuters) People queued up outside retailers across England on Monday to release their pent-up shopping fever and some grabbed a midnight pint or even an early haircut as England’s shops, pubs, gyms and hairdressers reopened after three months of lockdown. After imposing the most onerous restrictions in Britain’s peacetime history, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the reopening was a “major step” towards freedom but urged people to behave responsibly as the coronavirus was still a threat. Getting people spending again is crucial for Britain’s recovery after official data showed that 2020 was the worst year for its economy in more than three centuries with a 9.8% decline in gross domestic product.

Tropical Cyclone Seroja flattens Australian town (Washington Post) A tropical cyclone battered Australia’s west coast Sunday night and into Monday, destroying homes and leaving thousands without electricity. Severe wind gusts of up to 105 miles per hour tore houses apart and sent debris flying all over Kalbarri, a coastal tourist town of 1,350 people in Western Australia. Authorities estimated some 70 percent of the town’s buildings were damaged. Drone footage from the scene showed dozens of homes with their roofs ripped off. Power lines were down and roads were littered with shards of metal and other debris. Cyclone Seroja made landfall as a category three storm at about 8 p.m. local time on Sunday between the towns of Kalbarri and Gregory. Cyclones of such intensity rarely travel this far south in Australia, and towns outside the cyclone belt are not usually built to withstand the devastating conditions.

Muslims navigate restrictions in the second pandemic Ramadan (AP) For Ramadan this year, Magdy Hafez has been longing to reclaim a cherished ritual: performing the nighttime group prayers called taraweeh at the mosque once again. Last year, the coronavirus upended the 68-year-old Egyptian’s routine of going to the mosque to perform those prayers, traditional during Islam’s holiest month. The pandemic had disrupted Islamic worship the world over, including in Egypt where mosques were closed to worshippers last Ramadan. Ramadan, which begins this week, comes as much of the world has been hit by an intense new coronavirus wave. For many Muslims navigating restrictions, that means hopes of a better Ramadan than last year have been dashed with the surge in infection rates though regulations vary in different countries. A time for fasting, worship and charity, Ramadan is also when people typically congregate for prayers, gather around festive meals to break their daylong fast, throng cafes and exchange visits. Once again, some countries are imposing new restrictions.

Iran blames Israel for sabotage at Natanz nuclear site (AP) Iran on Monday blamed Israel for a sabotage attack on its underground Natanz nuclear facility that damaged the centrifuges it uses to enrich uranium there, warning that it would take revenge for the assault. The comments by Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh represent the first official accusation leveled against Israel for the incident Sunday that cut power across the facility. Israel has not directly claimed responsibility for the attack. However, suspicion fell immediately on it as Israeli media widely reported that a devastating cyberattack orchestrated by Israel caused the blackout. If Israel was responsible, it would further heighten tensions between the two nations, already engaged in a shadow conflict across the wider Middle East. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who met Sunday with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, has vowed to do everything in his power to stop the nuclear deal. According to US intelligence officials, it could take more than nine months to resume enrichment in the nuclear facility.

Abductions and Torture Rattle Uganda (NYT) Armed men in white minivans without license plates picked up people off the streets or from their homes. Those snatched were taken to prisons, police stations and military barracks where they say they were hooded, drugged and beaten—some left to stand in cellars filled with water up to their chests. The fear is still so palpable in the capital, Kampala, that many others have gone into hiding or left the country. Three months after Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, won a sixth five-year term in office in the most fiercely contested election in years, his government appears to be intent on breaking the back of the political opposition. His principal challenger, Bobi Wine, a magnetic musician-turned-lawmaker who galvanized youthful crowds of supporters, is now largely confined to his house in Kampala. Mr. Wine’s party said on Friday that 623 members, supporters and elected officials have been seized from the streets and arrested in recent weeks, many of them tortured.

Prince Philip’s mourners in the South Pacific (Foreign Policy) The death of Prince Philip, the husband of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, triggered mourning rituals across the country over the weekend. The mourning is not only reserved for the United Kingdom—on one of Vanuatu’s islands, Tanna, hundreds of members of a local tribe have long venerated Prince Philip as akin to a god, and are preparing to mourn his passing. Although it’s unclear how the Prince Philip Movement began, it is believed to have taken root in the 1970s—given life by the royal couple’s visit in 1974. Key to the movement is the belief that Prince Philip is one with the tribe, and fulfilled a prophecy of a tribesman who had found a powerful wife overseas and “would return some day, either in person or in spiritual form,” Kirk Huffman, an anthropologist, told the BBC.

[shame-cubed]

i’ve been thinking way too hard about what i wanna do for the fantasy prompt for bederia week. definitely knights, totally wanna draw them as knights. bede’s a fancy ass with a white horse and gloria’s just got a hunting dog and a scrubby ole set of full plate armour. anyway the imagery got my mind spiraling into AU hell instead of sleeping because i’m deranged now apparently

buckle the fuckle up shuckle cuz i’m about to spill the brain juice all over this bitch

- Once upon a time there was a king named Rose and he was beloved by all his subjects for ruling the prosperous land of Galar with world-renowned grace and dignity. his advisor Oleana oversees his court, conducts his every word with a fist of iron and thorns, for Rose only wants the best for his people and certainly knows what he’s doing and couldn’t possibly be wrong ever

- one fateful day the kind King Rose meets a street urchin named Bede while on one of his trips into town to see a jousting competition or some shit, and in some sort of publicity stunt he takes the bread-thieving kid in to live on his vast estate and makes him a squire and trains him for battle, eventually knighting him and everyone praises Rose for his incredible generosity and compassion towards the poor

- no one is more grateful than Bede himself, his loyalty unshakable, although he rarely sees the King. He is just a very busy ruler, using the shreds of his spare time to brood atop some tower in his vast castle away from his subjects. surely it is because he is a Great King with Galar’s future in mind. Some nights Bede wistfully gazes up at the tower as it glows with an odd, beautiful light. He watches the shadow in the window that must be his King and hopes someday Rose will look down from there and shine that light on him, too

- Hop, Marnie, and Gloria were also squires who trained with Bede and became knights but did not live on the estate like he did, they go back to their little towns when they are not on duty. Most of the gym leaders are also Dukes/Duchesses/Lords under Rose who govern their respective patches of land and are high-ranking commander knights as well or whatever. I should probably research this shit. Anyway the highest ranking of them all is Leon. Rose often calls on Leon to do his dirty work, manage his armies etc. 

- Everyone respects Leon very much, except Bede, because while wandering the halls, he overheard Leon and Rose get into a disagreement. Bede thinks it treasonous for Leon to question his King and vows to be better than him and follow Rose’s orders without question. Perhaps Bede was expected to eavesdrop, for he gets his wish, Rose calls for him personally and sends him on a variety of special assignments.

- These special assignments turn out to be rather questionable, but because Bede is such a loyal knight, he enacts his duties no matter what. In the end, it is all for the prosperity of the region and the love of his King. He often runs into the other knights his age while on his missions, and Gloria in particular tells him what he’s doing just ain’t right. He tells her to fuck off and do her job, and she says her duty is to serve the people first and foremost, and Bede’s missions are not doing the people any good. He sneers at her, for his duty is to the King and therefore more important than she could ever imagine.

- Of course this is where shit hits the fan. Leon has assembled a rebel army against Rose because he’s just that charismatic, aiming to expose Rose’s crimes by breaking into his tower where he’s keeping fuck-knows-what. The rebels storm the castle but both Rose and Oleana escape through an underground passageway and his tower is empty because they knew he was coming. It’s Bede who rats Leon out, hearing of his plans through Hop or Marnie or a gym leader idk yet. Gloria and Bede cross swords on the battlefield but can’t bring themselves to kill each other because they share some kind of mutual unspoken respect from their days as squires and don’t know how to deal with it so Bede runs away.

-  Bede tries to escape with Rose and Oleana but turns out the secret passage has been blocked off. He was only ever meant to serve as a tool and a distraction and was promptly left to take the blame and die. He barely gets away from the fighting and drags his bloody body into the nearby woods where he passes the fuck out. Fairies take pity on him and bring him to the old wizard living deep in the heart of the woods. The wizard, who is Opal obviously, heals Bede who tells her his fucked-up tale of betrayal and naivety. While he’s talking, Opal sets out not 2, but 3 teacups and Bede silently wonders if she is insane.

- Cue motherfucking Gloria bustin in on this joint. She’s got a scrap of Bede’s bloody uniform in hand and her hunting dog Zammy has followed the scent, leading her to the wizard’s home. She seems relieved that he isn’t dead and Bede can’t fathom why. He calls her an idiot for caring about him after everything he’s done. Gloria agrees that she is, indeed, an idiot. Soon the idiot is distracted by the fact she is in the presence of the legendary wizard she had been told about in tales as a wee babe. She freaks out a bit, then chugs her tea to calm down.

- Gloria begs Opal to help the rebels, for Rose has gone absolutely mad, he has been dabbling in the dark arts/necromancy in his tower all along and is raising the fucking dead in droves to fight for him. Bede feels sick as he realizes it was probably part of Rose’s plan for him to get killed and become part of his undead army. He reveals that his special missions from Rose were to rob graves, gather strange artifacts, rare flora/fauna, and even some fresh human body parts. This makes Opal hum in wizened consideration. She recognizes these items as ingredients to awaken an ancient and powerful dragon which once brought vast bounties upon the land, a dragon that had been slain long ago by a pair of foolhardy princes with bad hair and would no doubt be quite angered to be disturbed from its eternal rest.

-  Opal agrees to help, for it would be a shame to watch Galar crumble to ruins. She divines Rose’s location and Gloria decides she needs to tell Leon immediately. Opal shows her the secret shortcut out of the woods and Bede tells her where his horse is hitched so she can get to the rebels faster. Gloria thanks them both and leaves her dog with Bede, telling him how to command Zammy if he needs to find her. Bede says she’s wasting time, insists he already knows how to deal with a damn dog, and yells that she better not dirty his horse as she leaves. Opal can’t believe they’re still bickering over stupid shit while the region's at stake and turns to her spellbooks. There’s a way to calm the beast in one of these dusty old tomes, so Bede better get cracking and help her out instead of staring out into the woods worriedly like a dumbass.

- Gloria gets to Leon who’s still at the castle, undead bodies slain all around him, and tells him where Rose is hiding and about his plan to resurrect a powerful dragon. Leon says he had an idea that Rose was gonna do something crazy like that but didn’t think it was actually possible and that they must make haste to stop him. They gather up the rebels and head the fuck out to confront Rose. Hop is there, always at the ready to back up his bro, and he brings his own hunting dog, Zacian. Together with Marnie and the remaining gym leaders who didn’t get fucked up in battle, they lead the charge to Rose’s secret hideout, which is the tomb of the dragon in a deep-ass crater on a mountain.

- Leon’s horse is named Charizard

- The rebels arrive and cut through the undead armies protecting the tomb. Oleana tries to stall them, and fails, but she escapes last minute to tell Rose of their arrival. Rose chides her for not being stronger, but it’s all well, for the dragon has been awakened at last. Finally the steel castles of heights beyond imagination, the vast towns of everlasting glittering lights, all these great wonders of his design which have been appearing in his dreams for many a night will be realized! This is his moment, where he will bring Galar into a shining new era advanced unlike the world has ever seen! He laughs jovially as if he had not just brought about hundreds, maybe thousands, of deaths in his pursuit of this grand future. Sickly red light pours out of his hands and fractures the earth. Debris is flying fucking everywhere as a scaly, skeletal mass of rotten flesh rises from below, bellows and shrieks in horrible pain.

- Leon and friends arrive, there’s a big scuffle with Oleana and some undead gym leaders, Gloria takes a nasty fucking hit when shockwaves from the dragon send her sword and shield flying out of her hands and an undead fuck stabs her in some weak point of her armour, unmistakably hitting some vital organs, she crumples to the ground but tries to get up anyway cuz she’s a hardy bitch. Hop notices and is pissed, calls for Zacian to protect her, and the dog brings her the discarded sword and starts snapping viciously at anyone who approaches.

- Opal, Bede, and Zammy arrive outside of the tomb in a blast of unnecessarily sparkly pink magic. Bede protects Opal as they make their way inside to join the rebels, for the wizard needs to save her strength if she’s about to subdue some ancient undead beast. Spotting Gloria hunched over coughing up blood, Bede loses it and cleans the fuck up, dispatching every undead bitch in sight-- he even manages to wound Oleana, who scrambles away to hide. Once he’s certain Opal will be fine, Bede runs over to Gloria’s side with Zammy in tow and tells her she’s stupid. Zacian growls at first but after seeing Zammy, it backs off to join its sibling alongside Hop as the non-wounded survivors regroup to close in on Rose.

- Gloria had dug her sword into the ground to keep herself upright, but as another blast of energy washes over the battlefield she loses her grip and Bede catches her. She smiles up at him because she didn’t think he cared. He cradles her in his arms, shielding her with his body and admits he couldn’t not care, she’s the only one who stuck by him even when he felt he didn’t deserve it. She confesses she loves him, and the poor guy breaks cuz no-one’s ever said that to him before. He leans down for a kiss, and apparently some of Opal’s healing magic is still in him, because their lip-lock somehow manages to heal Gloria’s injuries. I don’t care if it’s dumb I’m so weak for this shit... 

- While Rose is busy trying to control the increasingly unhinged dragon, Leon fucking stabs him in the back. Rose tries to ramble a bit with his dying breath but everyone’s just like Shut The Fuck Up. All the summoned undead fall apart, save for the giant dragon. Oleana comes out from behind her rock, freaks out, calls Leon a fool, because now there’s no way they can stop the beast from wreaking havoc without Rose’s dark magic. Opal saunters in all like, really now? And starts chanting some weird spell and sprinkling herbs everywhere or something. Magic bullshit. The dragon tries to resist the weird pulses coming from this elderly wizard bitch, and hovers low to the ground to slash at the rebels protecting her.

- Bede and Gloria finish making out and get up to join the fight. Everyone is attacking the dragon to keep it at bay, even the dogs, so Opal can pull off her fancy spell. Eventually a final flash of light appears in a blinding pulse outwards from the legendary wizard, and all the red magic holding together the pile of bones that is the undead dragon crackles and disintegrates. The skeleton crashes to the ground and dust flies everywhere, everyone looks around, all like, is it really over? They smile and celebrate when they realize, yes, the skeleton war is in fact over. 

- Opal is not looking well after using all her power like that, Bede rushes over to help her up and she pats his shoulder, saying he’s got the potential for magic in him. He’s like, what, no way, but Opal just nods all like I saw that fucking healing kiss, you’re a wizard, bitch. She grips him tightly, pours the remainder of her powers into him, and disappears into thin air. RIP.

- Leon becomes king, repairs Galar with the help of his trusted knights, Oleana goes into the dungeon to repent, Bede and Gloria get married (it’s fancy af, the dogs are flower girls) and everyone who isn’t dead lives happily ever after. The end.

WHEW, obviously I don’t have the time to flesh this out any more than what I have here, maybe in a couple months. I got too many irons in the fire rn, I just had to get this shit out of my head or it would haunt me forever. Perhaps I can finally sleep uaaagh

[marvelmymarvel]

Promote Me, Love Me

Part 2/12

Ronald Speirs x Lieutenant!Reader (Mainly)

Carwood Lipton x Lieutenant!Reader (Kinda)

Synopsis: You have one goal in this war, to rise faster in the ranks than Ronald Speirs from Dog Company. The only problem, you’re hopelessly in love with the crazy man. Will it mess up your chance to be better than the arrogant careless man, or will it make you realize that ranks aren’t everything when it comes to love? But when you find out that your best friend Carwood Lipton has been hiding feelings for you, what will you choose in the end? Speirs, Lipton, or that Golden Rank you’ve dreamt of since you were a little girl, only war will make that decision.

He was stupid. You thought as you gripped your hair angrily while pacing in the room. You had all just come back from blowing up the guns and were preparing to move north to Carentan. “He risked their LIVES, LIP” you screamed at your best friend as he just sat there listening to you. A large glass mirror was behind you and he was eyeing you like a hawk, he knew you liked to punch things. Something you and Speirs both had in common. “No one got hurt-” Lip started and you stopped and stared at him with a look that stated ‘are you kidding me’ “HE ALMOST LOST SOME OF HIS MEN” You fought back, spitting the words out like they were venom in your mouth. “AND THEY WANT TO PROMOTE HIM FOR HIS BRAVERY. AND WHAT DO I GET” you continued screaming before quieting down, holding in your anger. Lip finally got up, he touched your arm and you snapped. “NOTHING” you screamed while tturning and angrily slamming your fist into the mirror, causing it to shatter and cut your fist. You stood there angrily, your breathing was heavy as you looked at yourself in the broken glass. “He’s going to kill my men” you hissed and Lip nodded, not because you were right, but because he understood. He grabbed your wrist softly and unclenched your fist. Cuts were littered all over your knuckles as you just stared at yourself, “Let me clean you up” He whispered before wrapping an arm around your waist and dragging you away from the glass, away from your shattered dreams.

As you sat on the countertop of the bathroom, you looked around. The light made the room look dim and it was quite small, forcing Lip to stand between your legs as he tended to the cuts. He managed to remove the shards that stuck and wipe down the cuts with alcohol, causing you to hiss and grab onto his shoulder. “You should probably stop hitting things, and we won't have to do this as often.” he scolded and you just shook your head. You were childish and reckless, this type of outrage was normal. While you would never hit anyone, you would always hit something else, be it a wall, door, or mirror. If you were angry, nearby inanimate objects were in danger. “I don't have gauze, so we will need to go to Doc” Lip sighed out before stepping back for you to drop down. As you did, you walked past him, anger still bubbling under your skin. You stormed across the way, seeing Doc talking to another medic. Your stuff was slung over Lip’s shoulder as he followed closely, afraid for another poor pole’s life. “Doc” you hissed out angrily. Eugene turned and his face made you soften as you cleared your throat. “I accidentally.... punched a mirror.... can you wrap me up?” You asked sheepishly while showing him your knuckles. He grabbed your hand softly with a concerned look on his face, “What did the mirror do to you?” He asked while looking up. “It was in her way” Lip called out and you sent a glare back. “I’m gonna load these up... I’ll save you a seat” Lip stated and you nodded before following Doc into the building.

Carentan was already bloody, and it just started. “GO GO GO” You screamed to the men as they all hid in the ditches, Winters kicked one of them and you shoved another out of the ditch. Running behind Lip you stood behind the wall, another private came up and was about to tell Lip that there was one in a window when he was shot. He went down and you lunged to catch him, causing Lip to yank you back as another bullet soared towards you, clipping your arm. “FUCKERS” you screamed as you clutched the graze, “Doc is gonna hate me” you grumbled as the other men slyly pulled him out of harm's way. “Be a little more careful then” Lip hollered back as he shot at another, “This is war sweetheart” he taunted and you rolled your eyes. “THANKS, SARGE” you teased before standing and shooting at where he was shooting, but higher up. You stopped once you saw Winters run towards the window with a grenade “no way” you whispered. Winters threw it in and killed the man, you were still in shock as Lip pulled you to move. You ran behind him as he called out to Shifty, “YOU OKAY SHIFT” you barked out, he threw up his thumb and had a childish smile on his face from taking out a snipper, causing you to giggle. “Hammer those windows” Lip ordered as you both hid behind a wall. Once Shifty took out the men in the building was when you and Lip finally started to climb the steps up the building when you heard the mortars. “Lip” you whispered as he threw a grenade in. He turned and watched wide-eyed. “Shit” you whispered as you ran forward towards the bar, “THEY GOT US ZEROED” You screamed as he took off down the stairs “SPREAD IT OUT! SPREAD IT OUT!” You continued to scream out to them as you waved violently in the air for them to move around. Lip was halfway down as he began to scream “GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE. THEY GOT US ZEROED GO GO” he continued as you raced quickly down the stairs. ducking at a couple mortars that fell nearby. He pushed some soldiers to their feet as he hollered for everyone to get out of the streets “MOVE MOVE MOVE” You heard as you finally got to the ground rounding the wall you saw him not far from you. You started off towards him when the tank shell hit in front of him.

You stopped in your tracks as you shielded your eyes from the debris. Looking up cautiously you saw Lip against the wall “Lip” you whispered to yourself as you took off towards him. The smoke began to clear as you dropped down to him, “Lip” you hissed as you grabbed his face, “Lip you okay?” you stated once more as you helped him sit a little. You examined his gash and let out a sigh of relief at the fact that he was okay for the most part. “Lip” another soldier screamed out and you looked up at him as you grabbed your little towel to clean off his wound. “Hey buddy” the man stated and you noticed Lip’s eyes were pointed down low. You gulped as you both turned your heads to the sight, you were expecting his legs to be hurt, but you realized there was blood around his privates. “Oh my” you whispered before looking back up from the area in embarrassment. The soldier ripped open the fly and looked for him “You’re okay Lip, everything is right where it should be.” You shook your head at the soldier's response and grabbed Lips arm, “Okay, come on upsy-daisy” you whispered as you both helped him up. You both helped him along while he leaned mostly against you for support, “I got ya Lip” you cooed as you drug him towards the edge of town. You told the other soldier to keep going, that you’d get him to safety and he left. Ducking a couple of times at gunfire, you held your handgun close, in case someone wanted to get you too and finish him off. You managed to get him to the medic station right as it all ended. You were ushered into the building in which they were about to put up shop for the wounded, you leaned him against a table. Putting your head to his as you shook your head realizing both of you got hurt as he pulled your jacket down a little. Your dog tags clattered as he looked at your grazed wound. Hugging Lip as you heard Doc call out to you, you seemed to grip onto him for dear life. Whether it was his life or yours, he didn't know. But he held onto you the same way. You backed out of his arms as another medic started on him, “I’ll see ya around Car” you whispered before following Doc into another room. Lip watched you as Doc closed the door. 

“You know-” he stopped talking as you hissed from the stitch, he continued though as you died down “Lip likes you” Doc stated and you rolled your eyes.”He’s my best friend” you groaned out as another wave of pain flowed through your arm and upper body. Your head was thrown back as you gripped the table, “And that changes anything, how?” Doc pushed and you looked down at him, more like glared at him. You were sick and tired of people thinking you and Lip had a thing, it wasn't true... Your eyebrows creased in confusion at the statement that formed in your head as your stomach swirled, was it? “I know you like Speirs-” he started and you pushed him off, your shoulder was done but not wrapped, but you were done. “I’m done here, thanks Doc” you grumbled before storming out. 

He watched you get up and leave, realizing he pushed too far, but not chasing after you. For what he said was true. Whether you liked it or not.

You walked outside, looking at your arm you realized you would definitely need to get it wrapped. You stopped a medic, “I don't want to bother, for I can wrap it myself, but may I have gauze please” you asked politely. He simply nodded at you before handing yo the roll, you smiled and nodded as a form of thanks and walked over to the curb. Sitting down, you pulled your jacket off your arm, you struggled to get the gauze around your stitch. Getting frustrated after the third attempt, you slammed your hand into your face, groaning into it. “Need some help” you heard someone call out. Recognizing the voice you raised your head out of your hand, staring long and hard at Ron as he stood there with a cigarette in his mouth. 

Sighing, you handed the roll to him, realizing that he was only trying to help, for once. He began to wrap your shoulder as his cigarette stayed put in his mouth. Craving the taste of it, you grabbed it out of his mouth with your free hand, inhaling slowly. It tasted of tar, and another flavor, him. “Whoa there princess, did I say you could have it” He teased and you rolled your eyes. “I’m not a princess” you grumbled and he just chuckled, “You sure do look like one” he whispered while finishing up the wrap. You gasped in shock but it masked your cheeks heating up, “I do not look like a princess, I am a soldier” you muttered out quickly and he smiled at you widely. Some of the men across the way hit each other as they saw their CO actually smiling, and at a female, more importantly, AT YOU. “You are a soldier, an awesome one at that” he agreed, your head cocked in question of where this was going as he stood up. “But your as pretty as a princess, and don't you forget it” he whispered out, leaving you speechless “Keep the cigarette,” he stated before winking and walking away, leaving you dazed and confused at the whole situation. “What the fuck” you whispered to yourself before finally noticing the men who stared wide-eyed across the street, “Keep walking men” you hollered out and they scampered. You threw the cigarette on the ground, looking at it as you realized what just happened. You had a taste of Ron, and you were craving it.

Part 3

tags: 

@hell-itwasyou  @desired-love-

[amongthegentlymad]

For everyone in the path of the hurricane

PT 1. ITS COMING

-DONT DO THE STUPID listen to your local authorities and whatnot, if they say evacuate get the hell outta Dodge. secure ur property if u have to leave. unplug electronics, turn off ur breakers, bag up anything u are worried might get wet.

-make sure to fill up ur car with gas, if u can, have a full can of gas on hand also in case u need it.

-fill ur bathtubs with water (useful for emergency supply and also for flushing commodes)

-if u have a generator, test to make sure it is in good working order. make sure u have plenty of fuel.

-tie ur outside stuff down or bring it inside. if it looks like it could go flyin off in a storm it will.

-stock up on drinking water (for urself and pets)

-fill ur meds

-basic stuff to have on hand: paper plates, paper cups, plastic disposable utensils, tinfoil, first aid kit, rubbing alcohol, monies, xtra batteries, flashlights, hygiene items like pads n tampons, soap, dishwashing liquid. iodine tablets for disinfecting water, whistle, important documents in waterproof containers, insect repellent, sunscreen, non-perishable noms (canned foods, pet food, crackers, pnut butter or some kinda sandwich spread stuff that doesn’t require fridge, beans, bread, dried fruit, nuts, chocolate, etc.)

-battery operated radio if possible. also portable chargers for ur phone

-baby wipes. srsly. for keeping cool and washing urself

-battery operated fans are wonderful. 

-have a cooler of some sort around and ice, styrofoam coolers are usually pretty cheap (if you are crafty you can make ur own it also cooks food)

-how to make ur own first aid/survival kit in a prescription bottle

-check to see if you are in an area prone to flooding. u are? get out, get to higher ground. no if ands or buts.

-lower ur blinds, close curtains, stay away from windows. plywood or storm shutters r best. a lot of “ tape or don’t tape? “ concerning windows going around. use ur best judgement. if u gotta tape, tape ‘em good, x shape all the way across the windows. like this. use alligator tape. it is stronk.

-u live on the coast? head inland. get away from bodies of water. 

-have things to do on hand that don’t require electricity. playing cards, books, drawing, tabletop games. that sort of thing.

PT. 2 OH NO STORM IS HERE

-hurricanes coming in at high tide = bad news = worse flooding. listen to news. evacuate if told to evacuate.

-hurricane watch = storm coming in 36 hours or so. hurricane warning = storm coming within next 24 hours

-disconnect all ur electronic equipment if u have to leave and if power starts acting wonky.

-don’t try to drive across flooded roads. no. just no. 

-pls don’t drive in middle of storm. at all. 

-in an apartment? stay on lower levels if u can, in a bathroom or windowless hallway or closet. make sure u kno where ur building’s emergency exits are. 

-mobile homes are the worst place to be in a hurricane. please dont stay there. go to a shelter.

-keep all ur stuff together in a plastic bin in case u gotta hustle somewhere quick.

-have pets in carriers ready 2 go.

-keep ur shoes on.

-wind and rain will steadily intensify

-when the eyewall hits u, its gonna be scary. eyewall is where winds and rain are strongest. stay calm and hunker down.

-tornados can and will pop up in hurricanes. if there’s a tornado warning get in windowless bathroom or closet or cellar or basement IMMEDIATELY. cover urself with blankets or mattresses or pillows. use a bike helmet if u have one.

-it’s suddenly quiet? hooray the storm is over? NO. that is the eye passing over. DO NOT GO OUTSIDE. the wind and rain will start picking up again before u know it. OUTSIDE = NO.

-crazy stuff u might see outside during storm: debris flying through air, rain literally going sideways in one direction and then when the other half of the storm comes, going sideways in the opposite direction. this is why trees will fall. they get wrenched in one direction and then the other.

-we had a pine tree so big three people together couldn’t put their arms around it. a hurricane laid that sucker on the ground. twisted it like a dishrag

-this is probably why its not a good idea to look outside.

-dont look outside.

-stay alert but when the worst is over, try to sleep. 

PT. 3 GOODBYE STORM

-try to get in touch with loved ones and homies. see if they r ok. let them know u are ok. 

-check in with local authorities as well. report outages, flooding, anything that needs to come to their attention. listen for any warnings like contaminated water, flooding, etc. just because the storm is over doesn’t mean the dangers r gone.

-if u are in a shelter, wait until u are told its ok to go home. 

-wear ur shoes or ur wellies or boots if u go outside. use sunscreen. use insect repellent. its gonna be a mess. a hot, bug-infested, wet mess. watch where u step.

-don’t go around downed powerlines u fool. I didn’t tell u how to survive a hurricane just so u can get urself electrocuted.

-stay away from unsteady looking trees or anything that looks like it might fall on u.

-clouds will be in a swirled shape in the sky. wild, huh?

-power’s probably out. use ur generator if you need to, but sparingly. u dont kno how long ur power will be out.  pls do not take the generator inside. fumes will smother u. 

-keep ur fridge closed, open it only when absolutely necessary. same with cooler. if u have any perishables in it, probably good idea to go ahead and eat them or move them to cooler. on average, food is only good at room temp for about two hours. if it smells funky, don’t risk it. throw it out. dont make urself sick. 

-how to make a fire with batteries and steel wool (recommend using outside and please take fire safety precautions. during or after a storm if a fire starts, firefighters will most likely not be able to come help because of downed power line or flooded roads. also why it is risky using kerosene lamps, candles etc. indoors)

-u can also make a simple cooker using rolled up cardboard, a tuna can and melted wax (also use this outside)

- foil packet meals! easy to cook. chop up ur ingredients, fold up in tinfoil, cook over coals or ur cooker.

-woah its a homemade reflector oven

- stay put if u are in no immediate danger. continue to check in with loved ones and homies. remember people will do crazy and bad things in emergency situations. protect urself and those u love. be smart.

-most likely it will be boring. and hot. try to stay cool, stay safe and keep urself entertained until things are back to normal. 

-i’ve been thru several scary hurricanes. it will be ok. u can survive. pls be careful ilu

[thecoroutfitters]

Even though the stock market is soaring, our nation is in more danger than ever because of extreme natural disasters and rogue factions itching to run riot.

Now consider these problems along with the very real potential for food shortages, an escalation of the war with North Korea, and general increases in contagious diseases.

No matter how much or little prepping you have done, the fact remains something can still catch you off guard at any time. If you are in a city, and need a place to hide, it is very easy to make a bad decision.

Have a look at 10 places you might go to without thinking, and wind up with even more problems than you had before.

Open Areas Above Ground

There are many situations where you will need to get out of the building you are in as quickly as possible. If there is a fire, flood, or the building is struck by some kind of bomb, then you have to get out before the building collapses.

Once you are clear of the building, the worst thing you can do is stay out in the open, as a lot of bad things can happen:

Debris and smoke from the building can easily fly in all directions and land on you.

If you ran outside because of an earthquake, surrounding buildings may also begin to cave in and send debris in all directions.

If the situation involves several buildings, other people will also be panicking and trying to get out of the buildings as fast as possible. You can easily be stampeded or injured as people try to get away from danger as quickly as possible.

Do not make the mistake of trying to get in your car and hoping it will shelter you. A car has an even weaker frame than a building. Falling debris can easily crush it and leave you trapped inside. In addition, if there is a bad enough panic, people may literally try to tear your vehicle apart or take other actions to prevent you from leaving the scene.

After you successfully leave a building that you feel is dangerous, the best thing you can do is get underground as quickly as possible.

How To Build a Small Bunker in Your Backyard with $400

Find out in time which manhole covers in your city offer safe access tunnels or other areas to hide in. In general, service tunnels will be safer than subways or other popular public areas in situations where hostile forces are attempting to take over the city.

Upper Floors of Any Building

Unless you are dealing with a hurricane or other flood that prevents you from getting to the ground level, stay away from the upper floors of a building. The upper floors are always the weakest, and also the hardest to escape from on your own.

No matter whether you are afraid of your building being taken over by hostile forces, or you must escape a fire, once you reach the top floor, you can still wind up being trapped. If you must go to the upper floors of a building, try to have the following on hand:

A cell phone, pocket mirror, or something else you can use to signal that you need help

Heavy duty rope and hooks that you can use to attach the rope to another building. You will need to practice your skills to make it safely from one building to another.

An ax for breaking down walls or through roofs An ax can also be used for defense if nothing else is available.

Places With Easily to See Doors or Windows

The ability to get out of a building easily can also spell disaster if unwanted people can get to you and trap you in your location. If you are truly trying to hide from other people, the worst thing you can do is be anywhere near a door or window.

If there is a visible door or window that can be breached, people looking for you or anything of value will try to get in. If you have a panic room or a basement hiding place, maintain their exits without drawing unwanted attention:

Use poison ivy, nettles, and other noxious plants to cover secret entrances and exits. This includes exit points coming up from tunnels or other underground locations. Just remember to have coveralls and suitable tools for cutting the vegetation away so that you can make your escape with as little pain as possible.

Cover up a back door, side entrance, or window with faux siding. Repaint your home or take other steps to make the covering look as permanent as possible. You should still be able to knock the covering out with ease in time of need. Your goal is to make the window or exit invisible to outside observers. Even if neighbors do remember a window or door in that location, the covering will hopefully make people overlook the area since they will think it is closed off.

Try to make at least one exit tunnel in your basement or crawlway to a location at or near the boundary of your property. Be sure you know where all gas and other maintenance lines are so you do not tunnel in those areas.

Near Roadways or Other Traffic Areas

Regardless of the crisis type, people will be trying to escape in their vehicles, and the worst thing you can do is try to hide in a traffic jam or near a crowded roadway.

In these instances, road blocks, surveillance teams, and even hostile forces can see you and control you with relative ease. No matter whether you have plans to get out of the city, or you decide to stay close to home, it is never a good idea to be near roadways or heavy traffic.

If you must use roadways or be near them, you can choose one of two times:

First, if you are certain that you can get through a roadblock or other impediment with no problems, then do so when it would be normal for people like you to be passing through the area.

Second, you can try to slip through when there is a situation going on. If someone else panics or causes a disruption that leads to a grouping of people around an area away from a passage point, you can try to slip through.

Schools

One has only to look at the number of mass shootings in “gun free” school zones to know they are absolutely the most dangerous places on Earth. Aside from that, never forget that Timothy McVeigh and many others intent on mayhem these days don’t need guns to destroy schools.

People with criminal intent will go there first because they know they will have as much time as they want to carry out their sick plans before someone with a gun gets there to stop them at the scene or apprehend them later on. No matter where you go, if you are in a city and need a safe place to go, avoid schools at all cost.

While most people in the United States don’t give it much thought, schools are also likely to be the target of hostile takeover in a time of riots and other forms of severe national distress. Any criminal or terrorist will flock to a school first because it is poorly defended and helpless children in harm’s way makes for a huge media splash.

Schools are also not the best places to go in the event of a natural disaster. Even though they often have generators and the room to accommodate large numbers of people, many of these buildings are on the verge of being structurally unsound.

Check the maintenance records and needs of local schools, and you may be surprised to find out they may not hold up very well in the face of a hurricane or other severe weather condition. Without a question, if you are in an inner city area or other poor neighborhood, the schools may be in worse condition than other buildings in the area.

Hospitals

In many senses, hospitals are as dangerous as schools, and for the same reasons. Hospitals may have weak or failing building structures, and they also house vulnerable people whose condition may easily grab media attention.

While hospitals do have better security staffing than schools, it may still not be enough to overcome problems created by large numbers of people in panic mode. If the situation is bad enough, people may even try to storm the hospital to steal food, drugs, or anything else than can be of use.

At this time, we would all like to think that in time of need, hospitals will be safe from scavenging and other predatory behaviors because our culture has deeply ingrained values about the sanctity of a medical setting.

That being said, we also live in a culture of sick video games and the unhealthy crossing of many other boundaries. Do not be surprised if at some point hospitals also become prey to predation during times of crisis.

Depending on the situation, hospitals can also be places where you can catch some very dangerous diseases. Right now, hospitals do have better air filtering systems than you would find in other areas. On the other side of the equation, if the cause of the crisis is disease related, that also means people infected will go to the hospital for treatment.

As a result, if you are still healthy, going to the hospital may expose you to the disease unnecessarily.

Churches

When I was growing up, my mother always said “if you are in a bad way and have no place else to turn, go to the church”. While many of the things my mother said have withstood the test of time, I cannot help but question going to a church for safety in time of need.

As with schools, churches have become the target of lunatics and predators seeking to harm the unarmed and the vulnerable.

To add insult to injury, as our society slips closer and closer to complete mass disruption, it is possible that churches will be targeted just to kill off those who avow a specific faith. Our history as far back as time goes is one in which people are ruthlessly slaughtered for their beliefs and affiliations.

Depending on the type of crisis, going to a church for shelter may truly be the worst thing you can do. While a church may offer suitable shelter from a blizzard or other relatively short term situation, I don’t recommend it for matters where civil unrest is expected.

Above Ground Areas of Malls or Other Public Gathering Locations

Large numbers of people in malls or other large public shelters can pose a number of problems. First, under stressful situations, you never know what, when, or how a stampede will get started. As the waves of panic ripple through the crowd, it may be impossible for you to escape.

If you are dealing with any kind of hostile takeover, rest assured that occupying forces will always look to subdue the largest numbers of able bodied people as quickly as possible. This, in turn, means, they will go to the malls and other areas where large numbers of people will prevent evacuation and escape.

Needless to say, if you are concerned about air raids, bombings, or other hostile acts, the enemy will still seek to hit maximize casualties by hitting large and popular public areas.

It is important to remember that underground areas of malls may still provide a safe place to hide in the city. For example, older malls may actually have long forgotten bomb shelters in the basement, or other areas that are fortified enough to ensure some degree of safety.

Therefore, if you have malls nearby, make it a point to see if underground parking garages or other underground facilities housed in the mall may be of use in a time of need.

Temporary Camps

During crisis, there is a natural tendency for people to try and organize in order to regain stability as quickly as possible. Some say temporary camps may be useful in the first hours or days after some natural disasters.

Here are just a few problems that you might face if staying at a temporary shelter in a city for too long:

Within a fairly short period of time, criminals and other unsavory people will try to take advantage of the situation, trying to rob you or hurt you. Order can, and does, break down very quickly in temporary camps despite access to food and other basics.

As with hospitals, you may also wind up being exposed to many illnesses, which is especially important if the crisis occurs during the flu season or another time when communicable diseases are likely to spread quickly in tight quarters.

If extensive areas of the outer society collapse, you will be a sitting duck and forced to go wherever you are told to go. While this may not be a problem if it is our national guard, police, or FEMA officials directing you to a safer location, it can be a huge problem if an invading force or hostile insurgents take over the camp.

Overall, temporary camps set up for crisis management can be of help, especially if you have no bug out plans or do not know where to begin to put your life back together after a large scale crisis.

It is still worth your while to get out of the camp as quickly as possible so that you can avoid problems associated with living in such close contact with others.

Places Where You Do Not Blend in With Others

Many people believe there is safety in numbers. As long as you are wearing the same kinds of clothes and act the same as the local people, then it is possible for you to hide in plain sight even in a big city during a major crisis.

On the other hand, if you don’t fit into the local scenery, then you may become a target for just about anyone that decides they have a reason to attack you. The only way to make sure you will be safe merging into a crowd for any reason during a crisis is to practice your skills now.

Just because you live in a city, that doesn’t mean your local area cannot be hit by massive floods, fires, or hostile takeovers. In fact, if you are in a city during a major crisis, the sheer number of people trying to deal with the situation can easily work against you.

When facing these kinds of situations, you must always think objectively about possible places where you can go to be safe.

Avoiding the ten problem areas listed in this article, and you may have a better chance of survival and find a suitable shelter before it’s too late!

This article has been written by Carmela Tyrell for Survivopedia.

from Survivopedia Don't forget to visit the store and pick up some gear at The COR Outfitters. How prepared are you for emergencies? #SurvivalFirestarter #SurvivalBugOutBackpack #PrepperSurvivalPack #SHTFGear #SHTFBag

[yuki-d-raizel-blog]

Hero

Chapter 11/??

Relationship: Todoroki Shouto x Reader (Your/Name), (Full/Name)

Summit: It all begin at the Sports Festival when Shouto’s other half met Endevour by mistake. The student never thought to see his partner fight against his father just to show him that he is wrong. It started from that instant, Shouto’s new path started exactly from that moment thanks to his friends and his beloved one.

 ---

When you get in the exit of Izuku’s side, a bright and strong explosion destroys the ring and sends a powerful wind all over the stadium. You are throwed down by that enormous power and everyone is so shocked that, for now, they can only protect themselves from the wind. When the flame-wind-debris storm stops, the arena is mute, only Mic’s whisper reigns inside.

(W-what the heck was that? What the hell is wrong with your damn class? A-anyway, I can’t see anything with the smoke, who won the match?)

“Izuku!” you stand up immediately and go to check the ring, “Shouto…? Where’s Izuku?” you move a few steps forward to see better, but a greenish light caught your vision field on the right. It’s Midoriya falling heavily on the ground, <<Izuku!!>>

(M-Midoriya is out of bounds… Todoroki advanced on the third round!)

<<Oi Izuku, can you hear me?>> you kneeled next to him in the same instant he fell, <<What I’ve done…>> after another failed attempt to wake him up, <<Sorry if this hurts, I can’t think a better way to pay my sin…>> touching the earring, blue flamed wings rise, you pick up your friend gently and fly inside the stadium to go as fast as possible to Recovery Girl, even if Midnight and other heroes are shouting you to stop.

 ---

Once arrived, you kick open the door yelling and crying with the friend unconscious in your arms. The old lady stands up immediately and orders you to lay Midoriya down. Done that, you step aside to give the heroine all the space she needs to do her job.

“Oh my god, what I’ve done… Mom please help him, please! I can’t live with another sin in my heart!” <<He is gonna make it, right?>> your cracked voice is something that even Recovery Girl can’t ignore.

<<Sweetheart, I need you to get out for now, he need a surgery.>>

“Eh?” <<S-surgery?! Can I stay here, please! I’ll be mute and immobile! This is my fault, I want to do->>

<<(Y/N), do what I’ve said. When he is awake, I’ll call you in again.>>

A few security men escort you outside and stand between the door and the corridor. You sit on a chair not far from the study and rest the head on your jointed fingers, praying that Midoriya can heal fast.

“Those injuries are worse from the villains’ accident, there’s no way he recovers fast like before… There will be permanent damages...” <<…I’m the worst friend he could have… Even knowing this, mom, if you’re watching me, please help Izuku to get better. Stay by his side right now…>>

 After a long and painful hour, Recovery Girl steps out the room to call you. During the waiting, Iida and Uraraka ran to see Midoriya too, they found you sit in a chair immobile, arms on knees, jointed hands and tears fell on the floor while your dull voice was saying the same thing in loop, “please, save him.”. They tried to wake you up from that trance but that was impossible, so the bodyguards explained the situation. They added that they tried to move her, but the girl was too rigid and tense up to do it, so they left her like that. Tenya and Ochako were send back, and they did that hoping that everything is gonna be ok.

<<(Y/N), sweetheart.>> the old lady calls you touching your shoulder, making you jump, <<It’s ok, it’s me. The boy is awake, you can see him.>>

<<R-really?>> the girl is still shocked so the heroine takes her hand and leads her next to Midoriya’s bed. What she sees is the worst, his arms are blocked by the plaster clast, his leg has a cast too… Full of bandages.

<<H-hi, (Y/N)-chan…>> the boy is still numbed by the morphine.

The student sees a blond and skinny man, with blue eyes, “When he came in?” <<Excuse me sir, are you Izuku’s dad?>>

<<E-eh? No, I’m an acquittance.>> Toshinori responds but the girl bows deeply almost to break her back, <<Oi, little thing, please rai->>

<<I am so sorry, Izuku is like this because of me!>> she screams apologizing more and more, <<You can curse me, hit me, hate me, do whatever you want, I won’t complain even once!>>

<<It’s not your fault… (Y/N)-chan…>>

<<Yes, it is!>> the girl doesn’t move from that position, <<It’s because I asked you to help me, it’s because I’m not strong enough… You can’t know how frustrating is!>> her hands are bleeding again, <<I spend my entire childhood to train myself to control this quirk, to become stronger and protect the one I love and care… And what happened? My mom died and now I almost killed a dear friend! My power isn’t enough… How strong do I need to be to save someone? What else I need to sacrifice? My hands? Take them, I can fight without them. My emotions? I can seal them in a few months. My life? I would die if everyone can be saved and live happily… What do I must do…>>

<<You said your name is (Y/N), right?>> Toshinori speaks posing a hand on her head, <<Midoriya always talks about you in his letters, and what you’ve said now, I think you’ll be a wonderful heroine. I understand your pain, you’re sick of see people around you be hurt and it’s a beautiful thing that you put them before yourself, but even All Might can’t save everyone, so for now, do what you think it’s more right for your path.>>

<<….Forgive me. I swear, this will not happen again.>> Toshinori, Midoriya and Recovery Girl look at each other with a smile and reassure the girl, who finally raises the head, showing her tears, <<Izuku… Can I hug you?>>

<<S-sure…>> “I’m not used to physical contact with anyone, but I guess this time I’ll stick up with it.”

Slowly, the girl approaches the friend and gently puts her hands around his head and push it in the same way against her chest. You apologize so many time that Recovery Girl hit you with her cane to stop you. After a few checks, the heroine frees Izuku’s arms from the cast, showing a deformed hand… Your sense of guilty punches you so hard that you almost died, and become heavier when Recovery Girls scolds angrily Midoriya for being too self-destructive. In the silence, she remarks that she won’t heal wounds like those again, the boy must control his quirk, he can’t keep going like this.

<<(Y/N), could you leave us for a few minutes?>> the blonde man talks to you with a sweet voice, <<I want to talk with him about something.>>

<<Yes, of course.>> you bow and close the door gently, waiting on the same seat of before. “His hand… What I’ve done, really… An apology isn’t enough, how big is the damage I did to him? Shouto is still confused, so if in the final, he is still like that, I’m going to punch the shit out of him in front of everyone! Izuku is like that, there’s no way I can let you be stupid and insecure in front of a path that now is free of obstacles!”

 The door opens and you have the permission to go inside again. You sit quietly while Recovery Girl is changing the bandages on the green boy, when she’s done, Midoriya can leave the infirmary, and you offer volunteer to escort him to the bleacher of the Class A. The hero agrees and you move your hands under Izuku’s back and legs.

<<W-w-what?! (Y/N)-chan I can walk->>

<<Let me do this.>> she stops but doesn’t pulls back her arms, <<I feel less guilty this way, I can properly help you this time. And with that casted leg, it would be difficult to walk.>>

<<B-but your hands…>>

<<Don’t worry, everything is fine!>> she smiles and carefully lifts Izuku up, <<I’m here now!>>

The skinny man opens the door and let the students leave with those beautiful smiles on their faces. Friendship is surely a wonderful thing, god bless those two kids.

 ---

When you two are back, Kirishima and Bakugou are fighting. Focused on the match, when Ochako shouts your names, both jump. Izuku blushes so hard that his face is red as a tomato, he is a man, he can’t be in a girl’s arms, it’s the opposite! Everyone shows their concern about Midoriya’s wounds and his health, (Y/N) sits next to him and puts the blanket that was for her on his shoulders. Then, she takes his notebook and starts to write down everything her eyes and mind can decipher from the match.

<<Your hands!>> Izuku is a bit uncomfortable to see her fingers struggling to hold a single pen, but she doesn’t stop, <<(Y/N)-chan…>>

<<It doesn’t hurt, don’t worry.>> she holds the notebook and adds, <<Tell me if you want to write something else, and I’m sorry but I can’t draw, I’m really bad at it so…>>

“What I’ve done to deserve a friend like her?” Midoriya goes nearer to you and starts to talk about his thoughts and as the girl said, she is writing down every single word.

During the various fights, the two U.A. students begin their ritual: murmur strategies and logics about fighters and their quirk. These two are really alike. You’ve chosen to not see Todoroki until the last match, if you talk to him now, Midoriya’s efforts would be useless. Shouto need a last shock to move forward, and you will give it in the hardest way possible. And it’s like you thought, during his match against Iida, he hesitated again.

(Tokoyami gives up! This means, that the final round is (Y/N) versus Todoroki versus Bakugou! The most powerful students of the Class A are going to fight against each other! Now, due to these guys, we take some time to reassemble the ring in a way that these monsters can fight with their all! Thanks for your understanding! See you in an hour!)

<<(Y/N)-chan are you ok?>> Uraraka speaks worried, <<Do your best, we are cheering for you!>>

<<I might reveal another form… Shouto and Katsuki at the same time is hard, man…>> she’s completely on her strategy mode, <<I can end quickly the fight using Greed, but if I do that, I can’t achieve my goal. Lust is effective against Bakugou but not against Shouto, his ice is quite tough. Use Melancholy is too risky with this numb body, I can’t reach them. A long fight against those two is bad in these conditions, I can’t regulate the power of my quirk when my body is tired.>>

<<Her mind is amazing, how many scenarios she’s thinking right now?>> whispers Momo sees your eyes locked on the field, <<Will she be fine?>> the woman looks at the classmates, <<She’s saying that medicines are still releasing their effect, so her body can’t move like she wants. And those hands, I’m worried guys.>>

<<I don’t know.>> says Tokoyami, <<We will see if she can do the impossible. I think she can. We all saw what she can do, she defeated Bakugou once, she can do it another time.>>

<<Should I use Sloth? Nah, I can win too easily and quickly damn it! I can’t do what I want!>> the girl touches her chin to think harder, <<I can’t use Wrath and Envy either, too powerful.>>

<<Her quirk forms have the same names as the deadly sins…>> whispers Kaminari, <<Wait, she said that her quirk has seven forms, right? So, she can control the seven deadly sins?!>>

<<That’s the thing that is worrying you?!>> comments Mineta, <<This girl is saying that beating Todoroki and Bakugou is a piece of cake! It’s insane! How strong is she!?>>

<<She trained hard to be like this.>> Midoriya defends you, <<Her strength isn’t something that she was born with. She sacrificed many things to achieve it.>>

<<What do you mean?>> asks Kaminari again, supported by Tsuyu and the others.

<<She thinks her quirk is scary due to her father’s behaviors. To protect her mom, she spent the childhood to train herself and master all the forms she has. Her parents died, but she kept improving because her mother believed that she could become a hero even with a strange power.>> he says a bit proud to be her best friend.

<<Her parents died? What…? She’s so young, man…>> Kirishima looks your back and he has a new way to see you, he truly respects you and your strong desire to become a hero in the future.

<<Excuse me, fighter (Y/N), please stand ready.>> a staff member calls you, <<The room is the #2.>>

<<Ah yes, I’m coming!>> you jump on your seat, a new voice reached your ears, but when you were about to climb the stairs, you stare at Midoriya, making him uncomfortable, <<Izuku, give me your notebook please.>>

<<Y-yes!>> he observes you leaf through pages and start to write something that takes you a while to finish, “W-what she is doing?”

<<Take this as a present and an apology for before.>> she leaves the pen inside and gives back the notebook, <<Oh right, dedicate more pages for me, that is only the beginning.>>

“What?” he can’t run after you with that casted leg, so he opens the notebook and yells excited and shocked at the same time.

Curios, the other classmates approach him and see what have you wrote. After a few seconds, they realize the thing and everyone has the same reaction: pure astonishment. On the page dedicated to your quirk, you added and corrected a few things about it.

<<Read it aloud, Midoriya.>> says Ojiro because he can’t see anything.

<<She wrote… “I ranked my abilities thinking about how often I use them, so don’t worry if the numbers are disconnected.” Eh?>>

 Quirk Name: Fiery Sins

Second form, Lust: white flames that freeze anything they touch. If I let them free, that can hibernate every single object without stopping. The ice can’t be broken, no matter what happens, only I can destroy or control it.

Third form, Greed: purple flames that can steal other people strength. It can be used in three ways:

          - Method One: Convert the force in flames and use them to attack with the same power of the original owner.

          - Method Two: Inject the force in my own body to recover from tiredness or pain.

           - Method Three: simply, give the force back to the owner.

 Fifth form, Melancholy: yellow flames that can hold the electricity in the air and force it to blend with it.

Fourth form, Sloth: silver flames that reduce to stillness. I usually don’t prefer to use this form because it has a snake shape, and its effect can be removed only if I deactivate my quirk, for now. I honestly don’t know how to control the duration of this yet.

First Form, Gluttony: ??? you’re asking why I didn’t write nothing about. I very rarely use it, because every time I did it, I got sick for weeks. So, I let this form a mystery that you can solve by yourself.

 <<What?! C’mon (Y/N), you can’t do this!>> Kirishima shouts touching his red hair vigorously, <<Man, her quirk is awesome!! Midoriya, when you fainted she used a blue flames mode to fly and take you to Recovery Girl! Those wings were so cool!>>

<<Eh? Really?!>> All Might’s pupil blushes suddenly, <<Blue flames… There’s some hint for->>

<<Deku-kun.>> Uraraka indicates the other page where there’s a big exclamation point and a warning kind of thing, <<What’s this?>>

 Warning: The last ones are the most powerful and dangerous. This is a note for the future. I’m ashamed to admit it, but I can’t control myself if someone I care is involved, and I end using these abilities too much. if I lose control over myself and I use them, kill me. There’s no other way to stop me if I use these two abilities without a will. Thank you.

Sixth form, Envy: blue flames that melt everything around and carbonize everything I touch. Its temperature is higher than a normal fire and it’s very difficult to extinguished it, so I don’t use it until I must fight against a very strong enemy. If I put all my might, I can avoid to not burn anything down, but it’s so tiring for my body, so if I activate this mode, it’s destruction time.

Seventh form, Wrath: this is my most powerful and dangerous form. Black flames that destroy anything they reach, turning it into dust in a very short time, a minute is too much, so make your guess. These flames can’t be extinguished, they’re directly connected with my rage. If I’m angry, they can have burnt something down, but the fire will keep consuming the ashes. There are only two ways to stop it, calm myself down or die.

[You can delete this after you read it Izuku] This all you need to know for now, reserve more space I can do some cool shit with these powers, oh but this doesn’t mean that I’ll reveal my trump card so easily. Yes, you read well, my trump card is still hidden and I don’t have the intention to use it on this final. I need to do something, and my powers don’t allow me to do that, so I’m thinking to fight without them. It will be hard, but it’s the price for my selfishness. Visit me on the infirmary, this match will beat me up pretty bad, so I need someone to talk with. If you don’t get it why I think you’re a dangerous person yet, you know where I am.

---Continue...

Chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 21.5, 22, 22.5, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, Last Chapter

[spookyspaghettisundae]

A Time of Despair

The steel colossus landed on the street with full force. Under the velocity of its landing and its sheer weight, the bipedal vehicle shattered the asphalt, sending millions of pieces flying in all directions. The sound of the giant howling through the air and then the smashing noise of impact felt like they came delayed. As if Lito’s brain had trouble processing it. As chunks of hardened tar and concrete rained down on the burnt out vehicles littering the street, Lito finally regained his senses.

It would be ten seconds before the powered armor’s pilot registered his heat signature. The wind-up time of its rotary autocannon was another three seconds on top of that. All told, Lito had seen his childhood friend get killed within that time frame—torn apart by hundreds of kinetic projectiles being launched in a matter of seconds by these steel death machines.

He was not going to let that happen. Not now.

Lito rolled out from under one of the city car wrecks and began running. Running for his life.

The sound of hydraulics and the weight of three tons of steel stomping as the powered armor reared around.

The whir of the armor’s mounted cannon. Lito needed not look back: he knew it was already trained on him. He darted into an alleyway between two crumbling buildings.

A storm of bullets hailed down along where he had just been hurtling through. A rain of brick pieces and dust engulfed Lito. His lungs felt like they’d burst, and he exploded into a coughing fit while stumbling, tripping, and rolling behind a crushed dumpster.

The robotic sounds that emerged from the powered armor around the corner were menacing, like a primeval predator’s growls but with a metallic echo to them. They curdled Lito’s blood, and he pushed himself off the ground, stumbled again, and continued running.

No second wasted. Thundering steps that crushed the artificial stone beneath it followed.

With a loud crash, the corners of the crumbling buildings exploded from the force of the armor busting through them and into the alley. Lito tumbled through a blown out door frame, straight into another ruined edifice.

The armor emitted another sound, signaling something home to its command center. Lito desperately clutched onto the bag in his arms and struggled to get back up. But one of his feet only found traction on a loose brick, and he slipped and fell again.

Sounds. Something hollow, something metal and heavy, and then an explosion that would leave anybody’s ears ringing for minutes.

The ruin collapsed completely around Lito, and everything went dark.

The powered armor stomped around, out of sight. More signaling growls. With a loud sound of more asphalt being destroyed, and a cold fusion engine igniting jump jets, it had lifted off, and then the clap of breaking the sound barrier set in once it had flown away.

Silence.

Gravel raining down. A stifled groan in the dark.

It took minutes till Lito dared to cough. Minutes during which he felt the sting of cold sweat seeping into the cuts and bruises he had contracted from having fallen onto debris and metal scraps. After he had already taken the risk of coughing, he risked switching on a tiny flashlight.

A jagged-looking slab of concrete had fallen diagonally over him and lodged into place on top of an old fire hydrant and something unrecognizable to Lito. The duffel bag was pressed against his chest. He finally loosened his grip around it and inched towards a more comfortable corner with more breathing space.

He felt something wet on his neck and then traced it with dirty fingers to his ears.

Blood on his fingertips.

It made sense to him because his ears were still ringing and that grenade blast might as well have deafened him. Still, he laughed. It was a short-lived laugh, bridging in and out of a rasping cough, but a hearty laugh.

His fingers curled deeper into the dark green fabric of the duffel bag, knowing what was in it and that he had succeeded in obtaining it. He craned his neck back to see if there was a way out.

Lucky. There was a small sliver of light above him. Or behind him. Direction was relative, it did not matter right now. He pushed with his jack-booted feet against the rubble and inched further towards that sliver of light, till he was close enough. He then haphazardly ripped a shred of cloth off his shirt and wrapped it around the knuckles of his right hand. He took a deep breath, balled his hand into a fist, and then looked to the sliver of light before finally starting to punch away at the debris.

Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Pain. Nothing.

He sighed but was not willing to give up yet. So he punched more and then the sliver of daylight expanded into a fist-sized hole through which he saw back out into the ruined city. But then some dust trickled down, something crunched loudly, and the concrete slab fell down. Just a few centimeters. Lito gasped and then continued punching through the hole to widen it further, to hell with the risk of being crushed to death here. He had already stolen medical supplies from the compound, which everybody had said was suicide. He was going to die trying if he had already gotten this far.

Despair is a funny thing. It can cripple you with inaction, or it can fuel you to do the impossible. This is what Lito thought while he continued to punch away at the hole near his head, while the wrappings around his fist were starting to show blood seeping through from his knuckles. He alternated between knuckles and the side of his hand, best he could and as much as the narrow space he was trapped in permitted.

In a world where Lito’s people were being oppressed by a militarized state under martial law that enforced their power with steel colossi as tall as a building, it was folly to oppose the regime as a bunch of rag-tag people with nothing but small arms and determination. In a world where rebels, like him, could barely survive on the edge of civilization in small cave systems, getting food or medicine was a luxury that could only be afforded with self-sacrifice.

Lito’s little brother was sick and going to die, and the doc said that he had needed something specific to save him, some substance called DRIVE that only the compounds would have because they administered it to their powered armor pilots. It did not matter to Lito what the name of the drug was because it was not like he could have asked anybody there when he was busy stealing it, so when he had managed to infiltrate one of the state facilities on the fringe, he had had to act quickly. He had simply packed two of every drug bottle he had seen there, unable to decipher the symbols printed on them.

Out of his friends, only Adelpha had learned how to read. Her parents had taught her how to do that before they had passed away. Unfortunately, one of the steel giants had cut her down with its rotary gun on the way to the facility. Thirteen and a half seconds was all that it had taken, and an open manhole was all that had saved Lito’s life from the same fate then. He tried not to think about that now.

Finally, he had punched a hole large enough for him to squeeze through. He chuckled again, in a way that would have made anybody else question his sanity. He began pushing the bag with the supplies through the hole and stopped suddenly.

Crunch. Dust trickling down.

He pushed faster and then scrambled to push himself out. Quickly. The cleats of his boots crunched against debris as he kicked himself backwards and out into the daylight. Almost out.

Crunch.

The slab of concrete had come crashing down and Lito was outside of it. His heart was pounding again, just like when he had been hiding underneath the car wreckage from the powered armor earlier. He had made it out—almost. Only his left foot was still stuck underneath the slab of concrete.

It took seconds till his adrenaline-addled brain registered the waves of agony pulsating from his crushed extremity. That was when the tears came and he somehow managed to stifle a scream. Red in the face, he removed his belt and bit on it, hoping it would help him focus on thinking and ignore the pain. It did not help but at least he was not screaming, only emitting stifled whimpers.

He looked around and beyond the rows of apocalyptic building ruins, he could see the line of burnt out tree husks on the near horizon. The cave system started just beyond that. So close and yet so far. It would have only taken a few hours on foot. Or rather, on two feet.

Lito swallowed and trembled while he unsheathed a large hunting knife that had been strapped to his leg. He sat up and stared at his ankle, the spot where solid concrete had crushed down on his foot and his leg was trapped. He knew what he had to do, and he was going to die trying.

Despair is a funny thing indeed.

—Submitted by Wratts

[xxakatsukisbanexx]

Chapter 3 (Dreams of A Providential Soul)

Summary: He was a legend–strong, driven and commanding. It would only be right that she would share those same attributes. What are you to do when you were born with so much ambition, yet you lack the abilities that you once had–that once made you powerful. Simple. You become a legend in your own right. In which Haruno Sakura is Madara’s Reincarnation (BAMF Sakura, AU, Reincarnation)

It was almost 6 months after Sakura's birth when it happened. An explosion was the only warning that they received. It was so intense that it rattled the house. And a loud inhumane sound came after.

They both were stunned, unsure of what to do. Only Sakura's shrill cry snapped them back to reality, and so they reacted.

"Go check on Sakura!" Kizashi said as he ran outside. Mebuki was already halfway down the hall.

Kizashi was unsure of what he would see. Maybe it was an accident–a gas line explosion. Or, the pessimistic side of him thought, it could be an enemy attack. Whatever he thought could no way prepare him for what he witnessed.

He stopped short when he spotted a large figure in the center of the village. It varnished the sky like some sick demented painting from hell. Its glowing red eyes as intense and as deep as fresh blood. Its fur the same shade as copper.

It was terrifying.

Kizashi held his breath, afraid to make any sudden moves in fear that the monster would set his gaze upon him. Joined with him were countless people who ran outside to see what was happening and were just as shocked.

"Is that..." Someone trailed off.

And that was the last recognizable thing that was said before chaos ensued.

The demon open its mouth wide, its teeth so large that it could span buildings and sharp enough to cut through the toughest of metals. It let out a ear splitting roar. All the buildings in its proximity were annihilated, and they collapsed just as easily as dominoes.

Kizashi gripped his ears in agony. The ringing of the monsters cry reverberated through his head making him hazy. And he watched as people ran. He soon followed.

Kizashi raced back inside his house. He stumbled some, a little off-kiltered. But he managed to make it through the door and to his wife who was holding Sakura.

"We need to go." His voice was in a tone that Mebuki had never heard.

"What's going on?" She asked panicking as she looked at the desperate look on her husbands face.

They could hear the sounds of screams and feel the tremors. Their house shook with the vibrations.

"Now!" He didn't offer any explanation, and instead pulled them outside. Mebuki only had enough time to slip on some shoes.

The scene of terrified faces running for their life met them both. Mebuki turned to see what they were running from. Her blood ran cold as she was nearly paralyzed with fear.

A demonic beast was tearing their village apart. Debris scattered as a large tail hit a building. It continued to neighborhoods and houses. And with a powerful exhale, it tore apart the rest.

Kizashi pulled her closer as they ran away. They weren't sure where they were going, but they knew that they couldn't stay because soon the monster advance on their side of the village as well.

While they ran away, the tops of buildings were heavily occupied by shinobi. They ran towards the monster, intending on trying to drive it away. However, their fighting only seemed to aggravate it more. It thrashed violently, swinging its tails wildly and destroying even more.

A flash and an explosion happened that engulfed the monster and some people turned to see if perhaps the shinobi managed to kill it. However as the smoke cleared, both Kizashi and Mebuki felt their stomachs drop.

"What is that!" Someone yelled.

Not only was the monster still alive, but a large glowing ball formed in its mouth. With a huff, it released it in their direction.

They braced for the impact. They could feel the heat from the orb as it incinated everything in its path. But as quick as it formed, it disappeared, leaving them confused and relieved. But they couldn't brace for another earth shattering explosion from deep in the forest. Some people were blown away and Kizashi did all he could to protect his family and keep them from also being flying away.

Seconds ticked by before he moved.

"Are you okay?" He asked his wife who was tightly gripping their daughter.

"I...I think so." She shakily replied as he helped her up. Sakura continued crying, Kizashi was pretty sure that her face was turning red, but they didn't have time to comfort her.

"Come on. We can't stay here!"

Those who could were running, trampling over each other and trying to get away from the demon.

In the distance, an elderly man was also running. In his hand was a toddler and he had a tight grip on the hand of another child who looked to be about four. Kizashi saw as he was knocked down, his arms tightly grabbing onto a toddler, trying to protect it from injury. He was still holding the other child's hand, but as he saw the horde of people he tried to move the child out the way so that it wouldn't get trampled on.

Kizashi was reluctant to help them since he had his own family to protect, but he couldn't just watch as they would be inevitably injured and perhaps killed. Acting quickly Kizashi pushed people away trying to get to them, and he got their just in time to pull the man up.

"Thank you!" The man cried. Kizashi nodded to him bringing his wife closer and away from the storm of frantic people.

"Can you walk?" He hastily asked wanting to keep moving in fear of the monster sending another ball of destruction.

The man took one step forward before almost crumbling, Kizashi caught him. "I'm sorry I think I sprained my ankle." Kizashi didn't have the time to be irate and instead told the man to Grab a hold of me.

The man made a grab for the other child, however, he found that between grabbing on to his rescuer and holding his grandchild, he couldn't.

"Don't worry, I have him." Mebuki said as she walked in front of them and adjusted Sakura to one arm as she grabbed the child. The man gave her a thankful smile, and they hobbled on as quickly as they could.

At the pinnacle of the monsters roars, a building collapsed. It shot down towards them in heavy bricks and metal. Mebuki, Sakura, and the child she was holding were far enough away. But there was no way that Kizashi and the man could avoid it. He met the fearful face of his wife and willed her to turn around so that she wouldn't see him crushed as the bricks tumbled around them.

He heard the desperate screams of his wife and could only get one last look of his family before his vision went black.

Kizashi expected pain, but wasn't prepared for the bricks to be blown away. He met the dark clothing of a shinobi who stood in front of him. The shinobi then turned around and Kizashi caught the red tint to his eyes.

The crimson eyed shinobi surveyed them for any injuries. Seeing none, he moved away to other civilians. Kizashi didn't even have time to thank him before his was engulfed in a one armed hug of his wife.

"Don't you ever do that again! I thought that I was going to lose you." She cried. Kizashi placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. It was the only comfort he could give her at the moment.

Soon other shinobi appeared, the white and red fan of their clans crest sat proudly on their back. Their dark features, while normally imposing, was relieving.

"They saved us", the elder man croakily said, and Kizashi agreed. He was extremely thankful.

They had always heard stories of how unfriendly and unapproachable the Uchiha were. But they were willing to risk their lives and take the time out to protect them.

"Follow Us." The red eyed man commanded.

It was the only explanation that the civilians were offered. However, those two words were the only command that they needed. The shinobi sternly protected and guided them to the safety of the villages underground tunnels. They carried the injured and herded the children.

The tunnels were long and dark, but the Uchiha's used their fire jutsu to light a torch that was bright enough to let them see in front of them. Kizashi's shoulder was aching from the added weight of the old man, but he pushed on. The sight of his wife walking in front of him spurred him on.

When they finally arrived at the end of the caverns, Kizashi realized that they were in the hokage mountain as the windows were large enough to see the village.

They watched off in the distance as the place that they once thought as their home was being destroyed by the monster.

It trashed around, flattening what was left.

People cried, despaired over what just happened in the course of an hour.

Kizashi turned to comfort his family and found Mebuki's eyes soaked with tears. But oddly it was Sakura's reaction that impacted him more. He had expected her to still be crying like many babies there, but Sakura stayed deathly quiet.

Her eyes trained on the window with an intensity that disturbed him.

Link to Chapter 3 (ao3)

Link to Chapter 3 (ff.net)

[cathygeha]

REVIEW:

You Send Me by Jeannie Moon

Compass Cove #2 Pneumonia is not fun…it is painful and it can kill you…so Jordan Velsor is a lucky woman to have Dr. Nick Rinaldi check on her just before a big storm sets in…perhaps even more than lucky? One thing leads to another and before the two know it they are in a fake engagement that begins to feel a whole lot more real than either thought possible. Jordan wants Nick to be more open and Nick is not willing to verbalize about some of his demons so there are a few tense moments along with sadness, loss and big decisions to be made by both. I like this small town community that feels like family and know there are many more stories that can be written with the compass of Compass Cove at the center of the story. I am glad Nick finally shared with Jordan but at one point wrote “I don’t understand her leeriness” and guess that I felt she was a bit too protective and wanted more from a war veteran than perhaps she should have. Anyway, I did enjoy it and loved the couple together. I wish them happiness and much love in the future! Thank you to NetGalley and Tule Publishing for the ARC – This is my honest review. 4 Stars

Title: You Send Me

Author: Jeannie Moon

Genre: Women's Fiction

Release Date: May 29, 2018

Publisher: Tule Publishing Group

Series: Compass Cove

Format: Digital/Print

AISN: B07CGJGDPZ

 Synopsis:

 Jordan Velsor didn’t want to need anyone. After dumping her cheating fiancé, caring for her sick dad, and nearly being crushed along with her car during a violent storm, she’s pretty much at her breaking point. If anyone needs some luck, it's Jordan, but the last thing she wants is gorgeous Nick Rinaldi, her landlord’s grandson, hovering over her while she nurses a bad cold. The wounded Navy doctor seems too good to be true... which means he probably is.  Nick Rinaldi left the Navy broken and adrift, wondering if he would ever practice medicine again. When his grandparents' tenant is almost killed by a falling tree during a storm, he discovers Jordan is not only in shock, but suffering from pneumonia. Not one to miss an opportunity to play white knight, Nick arrives at her cottage to take care of her during the storm... But the lovely teacher has a fierce independent streak, and as he learns more about her, he wants to do more than merely help. 

 Can Jordan and Nick let go of their separate pasts and seize their future together?

 Available at:

 Amazon: https://amzn.to/2HzVSES

Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/2vpQ6ki

iBooks: https://apple.co/2IVOqof

   Other books in the Compass Cove series

 THE CAME YOU

Available at:  Amazon   Barnes & Noble | Kobo | iBooks

  Enter to WIN a $25 Amazon Gift Card or one of 12 print books of THEN CAME YOU or one of 5 print books of YOU SEND ME!

 http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/b050ef29525/?

You Send Me Excerpt

Copyright © 2018 Jeannie Moon

         The deep rattling cough woke her from a restless sleep. This cold was kicking her ass, but even though all she wanted to do was burrow under the covers, she was out of tissues, and the dog needed to go outside.

       Glancing out her window, the weather had worsened. She almost would have been content putting out a pad for Gertie to go inside, but her tissues and cough medicine were in the back seat of her car. She had to go out regardless.

       “Come on, Gertie, time to pee.”

       With a whimper and a moan from her spot at the other end of the couch, her little rescue buried her face in the corner. Gertie was no dummy.

       “Look, if I have to go out, so do you. Your bladder is the size of a thimble, and it’s going to get even worse later.”

       The dog sighed—sighed her annoyance at Jordan. A dog with an attitude. Didn’t it figure? Gertie practically rolled off the plush cushion and settled on her back on the blue patterned rug. Her short little legs were straight up in the air, feigning death.

       Jordan felt pretty dead herself, but they still had to go outside.

The wind howled, and all the windows in the cottage shook like it was going to lift up and fly away. Gust after gust provided a not-so-subtle reminder that the nor’easter currently blowing across Long Island was going to make all their lives miserable. This storm was brutal. It had been wreaking havoc for the last twelve hours and based on the latest weather report it had slowed down to a crawl, meaning it was going to stick around for a while.

       Grabbing the dog’s leash, Jordan gently nudged the little furry blob on the floor. Nothing. She didn’t budge. “Gertie! Come on!”

       Ninety-nine percent of the time, she loved the little mutt. This moment definitely fell into the one percent.

       After she broke her engagement, Jordan had the sudden urge to have a pet. A lot of people told her it would pass, but she knew that wasn’t the case. Jordan needed unconditional love in her home, so she kept her eyes open for the right opportunity. She couldn’t handle a puppy or a kitten, so when she wandered around a rescue fair one Sunday this past September, she found herself completely enamored with Gertie. A stubby-legged little mutt, Gertie was a tube of golden fur with a pointy snout and big, soulful brown eyes. She was about five years old, and her owner had just died, leaving the little dog all alone.

       Jordan felt a kinship with the pooch, and took her home that day.

       Lina Rinaldi, who usually frowned on her cottage tenants having pets, took to the dog right away, and Gertie loved the older woman right back.

       As Jordan stared at the lump still upside down on the floor, she was about ready to offer Mrs. Rinaldi full custody. Then a deep, rasping cough shook Jordan to the core. It racked her body violently, and pain shot around her chest. God, she felt awful.

       “Come on,” she said firmly to the pooch. “We’ll skip the leash this time. Out and in. Let’s get this over with.”

       Gertie rolled over and trotted to the front door, giving Jordan the side eye as she waited. Donning her parka and a pair of lined wellies that she pulled over her pajama pants, Jordan grabbed the remote and unlocked her car. When she opened the front door, she was hit by a blast of wind, rain, and sleet that stung her cheeks and chilled her to the bone. “Lord, it’s miserable.” Looking down at Gertie, she nodded. “Okay, let’s make this quick.”

       The two of them bolted outside, with Gertie heading for her favorite patch of grass and Jordan heading for her car. She stopped when she coughed so hard she could barely breathe. It hurt. She’d never had a chest cold that hurt so much. Finally, yanking open the door, she heard her pooch barking from the small covered porch. Jordan grabbed the bag that was filled with some basic food provisions, juice, tea, tissues, and a selection of over-the-counter cold remedies. She slammed the car door shut, and on her way back inside she noticed the whitecaps on Jennings Bay. The wind was forcing massive amounts of water into the coves and harbors around town, and she hoped the it didn’t breach the seawall surrounding the property. Jordan’s cottage was closer to Cove Road, but the Rinaldis’ big house was at risk.

       Without any further delay, Jordan made it back to the porch, feeling chilled and soaked to the bone despite all the foul weather gear she’d put on. Gertie was barking frantically, having positioned herself under the old wooden swing, and Jordan was starting to lose her patience.

       “Gertie, what the hell is the problem?”

       That’s when she heard the groan and crack. Jordan looked up just as a large section of an old oak tree, about fifty feet from the house, gave way. Throwing her body against the wall to avoid any debris, Jordan watched as the massive tree split in half and came crashing down, crushing her car in the process.

       If she had waited ten more seconds to head outside, Jordan would have been killed.

       Frozen in place for—she didn’t know how long—Jordan startled when a large, strong arm wrapped around her.

       She looked away from the wreckage in the front yard and into the gorgeous face of Nick Rinaldi.        “Damn. Are you alright?”

       Was she? She wasn’t sure. Jordan tried to answer, but she had trouble catching her breath. Sucking in air, he kept her steady when they walked into the house.

       Waiting for the dog before he closed the door, Nick sat her on the bench in the entryway. Glancing in the canvas tote from the market, his brow furrowed.

       “You’re sick? What’s wrong?”

       With a low rattling cough that had him pressing the back of his hand to her forehead, she muttered, “Chest cold.”

       Shaking his head, he helped her off with her boots and jacket. “Let’s get you settled in bed, and I’ll go get my bag. You’ve got a lot more than a chest cold.”

       “My car…”        “We can’t do anything about your car until the storm passes, so put it out of your head. It’s the last thing you need to worry about.”

       “Are you kidding? Not worry about it?” How was she supposed to get to work or see her dad? How was she supposed to do anything if she didn’t have a car? The pain in her chest wasn’t just from her cough at that moment, but at the wave of dread—helplessness—that rushed through her.

       “One thing at a time.” Nick, a former Navy doctor, was single minded. And as much as Jordan didn’t want to admit it, he was right. In this weather, there was nothing she could do.

       “Come on,” he said. “Lead the way.”

       “I’ll be fine,” she said, stopping in her tracks. Those few words taxed her already strained system. She coughed painfully into her arm while Nick guided her into her room. The coughing spell was so violent, ripping at her tender lungs, she couldn’t even object as he tucked her into bed.

       Sick as she was, Jordan wasn’t blind. Nick Rinaldi had been on her radar since he landed back in Compass Cove the previous fall. The guy was gorgeous, smart, and a gentleman to the core. But he’d settled back in with his grandparents almost six months ago, and other than a token hello, or a polite smile, he rarely spoke to her.

       Still, with his lean frame, dark hair, and kind eyes, he checked a lot of boxes.

She thought she heard him mutter something about being stubborn, but her lack of breath didn’t allow a response. If anyone was stubborn, he was. The man of mystery was a well-known do-gooder, and obviously she was his next project. There was only one problem with that. She didn’t want his help. Needing people was a slippery slope, and Jordan had no intention of heading down that way again.

  About Jeannie Moon:

 Jeannie Moon, author of fifteen novels, has always been a romantic. When she’s not spinning tales of her own, Jeannie works as a school librarian, thankful she has a job that allows her to immerse herself in books and call it work. Married to her high school sweetheart, Jeannie has three kids, three lovable dogs and a mischievous cat and lives in her hometown on Long Island, NY. If she’s more than ten miles away from salt water for any longer than a week, she gets twitchy.

 Connect with Jeannie at: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Pinterest

http://www.barclaypublicity.com/

[mikewilson13-blog]

One of the Best/Worst Days of My Life

Howdy!

Got a little story for ya, Ags...

5 years ago today was one of the best and one of the worst days of my life...

May 15th, 2013 is a day that my family and I won’t soon forget. 

A few days prior, I had returned to my hometown after finishing up my fourth year at Texas A&M University (Whoop!). I had just finished up finals following my 2nd year in the Professional Program for Accounting and had returned home to celebrate Mother’s Day and to hang for a few weeks before I started my summer IT Accounting internship.

Sometime later that evening, I had gone outside to play fetch with our dog, and decided to take off my highly coveted Aggie Ring and leave it in the house. I don’t typically wear my Aggie Ring around the house or while sleeping, so I didn’t bother to pick it back up upon returning inside the house.

The next morning, I woke up and while I was getting ready, began to search for my Aggie Ring...couldn’t find it :( 

I quickly began to search the house, no luck. 

That’s when the panic set in. I had lost (or at least misplaced) my Aggie Ring, for the first time. I was just starting to comprehend the financial implications of losing my Aggie Ring, when the sentimental implications hit me like a sack of bricks. My stomach sank...

For some context, I’m a third generation Aggie. My grandfather, Class of ‘47, and my parents, Class of 84′ and ‘87, instilled me with all the tools needed to be an Aggie from birth. I went to my first Aggie football game when I was six weeks old. I attended just about Aggie football home game (and a number of road games) from birth until I was in high school (when sports and extracurricular activities began to occupy my Saturdays). I grew up at Kyle Field and in College Station. All I’ve ever known and wanted to be was an Aggie. And yes, as you can imagine, my Aggie Ring means everything to me.

I earned my Aggie Ring on March 30th, 2012. It was one of the greatest days of my life as I had finally achieved a life-long and childhood dream. My grandpa was a huge influence on my childhood, and he taught me everything one needs to know about what it means to be an Aggie. Unfortunately, he passed away in 2004, and was at my Aggie Ring Day in spirit as my grandmother (a Red Raider, no less) presented me with my grandfather’s Aggie Ring, as I said, Class of 1947. It was a special moment and a special day for me. As you can imagine, my Aggie Ring means everything to me. But I digress...

For the next two days, my family, friends, and anybody else willing helped me relentlessly search for my Aggie Ring. I dug through the trash, searched the yard, every inch of the house, all throughout the laundry, and even checked the sink/drain...for TWO STRAIGHT DAYS...no luck.

May 15th, 2013 started out just like any other day. It was May in Texas, so it was sunny and hot. Perfect weather for one of my favorite pastimes...golf. Except for this day wasn’t just any other day...I was completely sick to my stomach. I had lost the most prized physical possession I had ever owned, and was close to giving up hope. I was trying to talk myself into accepting that I had lost it for good, and was preparing for having to replace it. This thought process made me even more sick...I couldn’t afford a new Aggie Ring at the time, and even if I could replace it, it just wouldn’t be the same. It wouldn’t be MY Aggie Ring...it would be a replacement.

I treated my youngest brother to some lunch, and we headed out to the golf course just down the street from my parents house. We played pretty well, but all I could think about was my Aggie Ring. I had prayed the previous two nights that I would find it, and I told my little brother, “I would literally do ANYTHING to find it.” Be careful what you wish for...

Towards the end of the round, we got a phone call from my parents...apparently there were some bad storms to the West that were headed our way. We had heard the rumbling of thunder off in the distance as we were finishing up our round of golf, but didn’t think much of it. Thinking back on that day, I do remember the sky had a weird tinge or coloring, but didn’t think much of it at the time.

We returned home quickly, so as to avoid worrying my mother. It was about 8 PM, and we were about to go grab some dinner. As we were headed out the door, the phone rang...it was my aunt, “There’s a bad storm West of you guys that has already produced a tornado, and its heading right for you guys.”

Quickly, we returned to the house and turned on the news. Sure enough, there was a storm about 30 minutes west of us that had just produced an EF-4 tornado, and it was heading right for our neighborhood.

We all started to panic a bit. We went out on the front porch to survey the storm, and the conditions continued to deteriorate. After about 30 minutes or so, the storm started getting really bad. We lost power. The sky was a green-turquoise color, and the storm looked mean and nasty. 

As we were standing on the front porch, the sky above us started to spin, and only moments later, the pressure in the atmosphere dropped and my mom told us all to get in the closet, immediately.

The five of us huddled in the closet. My youngest brother was probably only 11 years old at the time, so he was terrified and crying. My middle brother had been asleep at the time, so he was a bit groggy, and I could tell my parents were very uneasy. While we were in the closet, we could hear the wind begin to pickup outside. All of the sudden, it got eerily calm and then we heard it...by it, I mean a tornado. Anybody that has ever been close to enough to a tornado knows exactly what I mean...it shakes the ground, it shakes the walls, as most people describe it, it sounds like a freight train quickly approaching.

My dad, brother, and I begin to hold the door knob for fear that the door might blow open. And all at once, it happened. The freight train grew closer, it blew out all the windows of the house, you could hear debris hitting the wall and the blinds getting twisted and banging against the window frame, the sound of broken glass...and out of nowhere, it went dead silent. It lasted maybe 30 seconds, but it was pure, eerie silence. And then it all came back, the freight train, the debris flying, the glass...it sounded like a war zone outside. I half expected the rest of the house to be gone when we came out of the closet.

The entire time I was praying for the safety of my family, for the safety of my grandmother (who lived down the street), and for the safety of our neighbors. It was the longest 5-10 minutes of my life.

After the insanity stopped, we waited a few minutes to leave the closet, for fear of flying debris, hanging wires, etc. My dad was the first one out, and I was quickly behind him. We couldn’t believe what we saw...

The tornado had blown out all of the windows in our house, there were pictures frames and broken trinkets all over the house, exposed nails, pieces of wood and glass everywhere, mud slung all over the walls. As we made our way back towards my room, we noticed that the glass door to the shower in my bathroom had been ripped off and thrown up against the living room wall, my business casual clothes for my internship had been thrown out on the front lawn like rag dolls, soaked and ruined. There was mud all over my walls, and my trophies from my childhood were broken and scattered about the room.

That’s when we made it into my restroom...

The mirror had been cracked, all of the items on the counter had been strung about...the toilet paper roll was still attached to the holder, and had been strung out and wrapped around the bathroom lighting...it was dark, so we had to use the lighting on our phones, so I didn’t see it until my little brother point it out...but there it was, my Aggie Ring...sitting on the bathroom counter, perfectly untouched or unharmed, as if God himself had place it there.

I was ecstatic. I was still in shock from what I had just experienced, but I couldn’t have been happier, I had found my Aggie Ring, which I was absolutely sure I had lost.

Thank the Lord that nobody in our neighborhood was injured that day. He was most definitely watching over us that day. Call it God, call it Divine Intervention, call it whatever you’d like, something special happened that day. 

Needless to say, I don’t often take my Aggie Ring off these days (I even wear it when I play golf), and when I do, I have a special place to put it so I never have to endure losing it again. Throughout this experience, I came to truly appreciate what my Aggie Ring means to me...I don’t know if its worth suffering through a tornado to find it, but to me, its irreplaceable (and apparently indestructible). The Aggie Ring is a special and prized possession, but it is the meaning behind the Aggie Ring that truly matters.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my story - I can’t believe it has been five years already, but my Aggie Ring is as special to me today as it has ever been.

Gig ‘Em and God Bless!

Michael R. Wilson, ‘13

[thisishowyouletgoandfindyou-blog]

21 Life Changing Lessons to Learn from Brené Brown

Luminita D. Saviuc

0 Comments

29, August 2014

Life Lessons

Personal Growth

I have learned so many beautiful and life changing lessons from reading Brené Brown’s books and from watching many of her inspiring and empowering videos. And today I would like to share with you 21 of these life changing lessons trusting that they will benefit you as much as they benefited, and are still benefiting me.

Enjoy.

1. What other people think of you is none of your business.

“I carry a small sheet of paper in my wallet that has written on it the names of people whose opinions of me matter. To be on that list, you have to love me for my strengths and struggles.” ~ Brené Brown

“What’s the greater risk? Letting go of what people think – or letting go of how I feel, what I believe, and who I am?”

“Talk to yourself like you would to someone you love.”

“Daring to set boundaries is about having the courage to love ourselves, even when we risk disappointing others.”

2. Open yourself up only to those people who have earned the right to hear your story.

“If we share our shame story with the wrong person, they can easily become one more piece of flying debris in an already dangerous storm.” ~ Brené Brown

3. If you trade your authenticity for safety, you will be very unhappy.

“Authenticity is a collection of choices that we have to make every day. It’s about the choice to show up and be real. The choice to be honest. The choice to let our true selves be seen.” ~ Brené Brown

“If you trade your authenticity for safety, you may experience the following: anxiety, depression, eating disorders, addiction, rage, blame, resentment, and inexplicable grief.”

4. You are worthy of love and belonging.

“Those who have a strong sense of love and belonging have the courage to be imperfect.” ~ Brené Brown

“When you get to a place where you understand that love and belonging, your worthiness, is a birthright and not something you have to earn, anything is possible.”

“You are imperfect, you are wired for struggle, but you are worthy of love and belonging.”

“Imperfections are not inadequacies; they are reminders that we’re all in this together.”

“Shame is the most powerful, master emotion. It’s the fear that we’re not good enough.”

5. We are all different yet we are all the same.

“As unique as we all are, an awful lot of us want the same things. We want to shake up our current less-than-fulfilling lives. We want to be happier, more loving, forgiving and connected with the people around us.”

6. Happiness is right in front of you.

“I don’t have to chase extraordinary moments to find happiness – it’s right in front of me if I’m paying attention and practicing gratitude.”

“Want to be happy? Stop trying to be perfect.”

7. Embracing your vulnerabilities is risky but not nearly as dangerous as giving up on love, belonging and joy.

“Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it. Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky but not nearly as dangerous as giving up on love and belonging and joy—the experiences that make us the most vulnerable. Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.” ~  Brené Brown

“We are sick and tired of being sick and tired.. Definition of courage: Tell your story with all your heart.”

“You either walk inside your story and own it or you stand outside your story & hustle for your worthiness.”

“Men walk this tightrope where any sign of weakness illicits shame, and so they’re afraid to make themselves vulnerable for fear of looking weak.”

“Vulnerability is not weakness. And that myth is profoundly dangerous.”

“Vulnerability is about showing up and being seen. It’s tough to do that when we’re terrified about what people might see or think.”

“Vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage. Truth and courage aren’t always comfortable, but they’re never weakness.”

“Vulnerability is the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, courage, empathy, and creativity. It is the source of hope, empathy, accountability, and authenticity. If we want greater clarity in our purpose or deeper and more meaningful spiritual lives, vulnerability is the path.”

“Through my research, I found that vulnerability is the glue that holds relationships together. It’s the magic sauce.”

“Waking up every day and loving someone who may or may not love us back, whose safety we can’t ensure, who may stay in our lives or may leave without a moment’s notice, who may be loyal to the day they die or betray us tomorrow – that’s vulnerability.”

8. Good marriages are when you can go home and know that your vulnerability will be honored as courage, not as weakness.

“The best marriages are the ones where we can go out in the world and really put ourselves out there. A lot of times we’ll fail, and sometimes we’ll pull it off. But good marriages are when you can go home and know that your vulnerability will be honored as courage, and that you’ll find support.” ~  Brené Brown

9. Be the adult  you want your children to be.

“First and foremost, we need to be the adults we want our children to be. We should watch our own gossiping and anger. We should model the kindness we want to see.”

“We have to be women we want our daughters to be.”

“We cannot give our children what we don’t have.”

10. The dark does not destroy the light; it defines it.

“The dark does not destroy the light; it defines it. It’s our fear of the dark that casts our joy into the shadows.”

11. Perfectionism it’s often the path to depression, anxiety, addiction, and life paralysis.

“Understanding the difference between healthy striving and perfectionism is critical to laying down the shield and picking up your life. Research shows that perfectionism hampers success. In fact, it’s often the path to depression, anxiety, addiction, and life paralysis.” ~  Brené Brown

“Healthy striving is self-focused: “How can I improve?” Perfectionism is other-focused: “What will they think?”

“Why, when we know that there’s no such thing as perfect, do most of us spend an incredible amount of time and energy trying to be everything to everyone? Is it that we really admire perfection? No – the truth is that we are actually drawn to people who are real and down-to-earth. We love authenticity and we know that life is messy and imperfect.”

12. Our sense of belonging can never be greater than our level of self-acceptance.

“The truth is: Belonging starts with self-acceptance. Your level of belonging, in fact, can never be greater than your level of self-acceptance, because believing that you’re enough is what gives you the courage to be authentic, vulnerable and imperfect.” ~  Brené Brown

13. Love is not something we give or get; it is something that we nurture and grow.

“We cultivate love when we allow our most vulnerable and powerful selves to be deeply seen and known, and when we honor the spiritual connection that grows from that offering with trust, respect, kindness and affection. Love is not something we give or get; it is something that we nurture and grow, a connection that can only be cultivated between two people when it exists within each one of them – we can only love others as much as we love ourselves. Shame, blame, disrespect, betrayal, and the withholding of affection damage the roots from which love grows. Love can only survive these injuries if they are acknowledged, healed and rare.”

14. When you numb the painful emotions, you numb the positive emotions as well.

“We cannot selectively numb emotions, when we numb the painful emotions, we also numb the positive emotions.” ~  Brené Brown

15. Faith is a place of mystery.

“Faith is a place of mystery, where we find the courage to believe in what we cannot see and the strength to let go of our fear of uncertainty.”

16. Nostalgia is a dangerous form of comparison.

“Nostalgia is also a dangerous form of comparison. Think about how often we compare our lives to a memory that nostalgia has so completely edited that it never really existed.”

17. You might have 1 million friends on facebook but that doesn’t mean that those people are really your friend.

“Social media has given us this idea that we should all have a posse of friends when in reality, if we have one or two really good friends, we are lucky.” ~ Brené Brown

18. Practicing spirituality brings a sense of perspective, meaning and purpose to our lives.

“Spirituality is recognizing and celebrating that we are all inextricably connected to each other by a power greater than all of us, and that our connection to that power and to one another is grounded in love and compassion. Practicing spirituality brings a sense of perspective, meaning and purpose to our lives.” ~ Brené Brown

19. There is no innovation and creativity without failure.

“There is no innovation and creativity without failure. Period.” ~ Brené Brown

“Talk about your failures without apologizing.”

20. We judge others because we judge ourselves.

“We judge people in areas where we’re vulnerable to shame, especially picking folks who are doing worse than we’re doing.” ~ Brené Brown

21. The opposite of scarcity is not abundance. It’s enough. I’m enough.

“For me, the opposite of scarcity is not abundance. It’s enough. I’m enough. My kids are enough.”

[cathygeha]

Have you Pre-ordered YOU SEND ME yet?

 In YOU SEND ME, Jordan and Nick must let go or their separate pasts in order to seize their future together in this charming fake engagement romance.  Fans of Susan Wiggs and RaeAnne Thayne have fallen in love with the Compass Cove series from International Bestselling Author, Jeannie Moon.

 Pre-order YOU SEND ME and add it to your TBR pile on Goodreads! Then keep reading to get a sneak peek and to enter the giveaway for a $25 Amazon gift card or books from Jeannie Moon!  

 Title: You Send Me

Author: Jeannie Moon

Genre: Women's Fiction

Release Date: May 29, 2018

Publisher: Tule Publishing Group

Series: Compass Cove

Format: Digital/Print

AISN: B07CGJGDPZ

 Synopsis:

 Jordan Velsor didn’t want to need anyone. After dumping her cheating fiancé, caring for her sick dad, and nearly being crushed along with her car during a violent storm, she’s pretty much at her breaking point. If anyone needs some luck, it's Jordan, but the last thing she wants is gorgeous Nick Rinaldi, her landlord’s grandson, hovering over her while she nurses a bad cold. The wounded Navy doctor seems too good to be true... which means he probably is.  Nick Rinaldi left the Navy broken and adrift, wondering if he would ever practice medicine again. When his grandparents' tenant is almost killed by a falling tree during a storm, he discovers Jordan is not only in shock, but suffering from pneumonia. Not one to miss an opportunity to play white knight, Nick arrives at her cottage to take care of her during the storm... But the lovely teacher has a fierce independent streak, and as he learns more about her, he wants to do more than merely help. 

 Can Jordan and Nick let go of their separate pasts and seize their future together?

 Available at:

 Amazon: https://amzn.to/2HzVSES

Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/2vpQ6ki

iBooks: https://apple.co/2IVOqof

   Other books in the Compass Cove series

 THE CAME YOU

Available at:  Amazon   Barnes & Noble | Kobo | iBooks

  Enter to WIN a $25 Amazon Gift Card or one of 12 print books of THEN CAME YOU or one of 5 print books of YOU SEND ME!

 http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/b050ef29525/?

You Send Me Excerpt

Copyright © 2018 Jeannie Moon

         The deep rattling cough woke her from a restless sleep. This cold was kicking her ass, but even though all she wanted to do was burrow under the covers, she was out of tissues, and the dog needed to go outside.

       Glancing out her window, the weather had worsened. She almost would have been content putting out a pad for Gertie to go inside, but her tissues and cough medicine were in the back seat of her car. She had to go out regardless.

       “Come on, Gertie, time to pee.”

       With a whimper and a moan from her spot at the other end of the couch, her little rescue buried her face in the corner. Gertie was no dummy.

       “Look, if I have to go out, so do you. Your bladder is the size of a thimble, and it’s going to get even worse later.”

       The dog sighed—sighed her annoyance at Jordan. A dog with an attitude. Didn’t it figure? Gertie practically rolled off the plush cushion and settled on her back on the blue patterned rug. Her short little legs were straight up in the air, feigning death.

       Jordan felt pretty dead herself, but they still had to go outside.

The wind howled, and all the windows in the cottage shook like it was going to lift up and fly away. Gust after gust provided a not-so-subtle reminder that the nor’easter currently blowing across Long Island was going to make all their lives miserable. This storm was brutal. It had been wreaking havoc for the last twelve hours and based on the latest weather report it had slowed down to a crawl, meaning it was going to stick around for a while.

       Grabbing the dog’s leash, Jordan gently nudged the little furry blob on the floor. Nothing. She didn’t budge. “Gertie! Come on!”

       Ninety-nine percent of the time, she loved the little mutt. This moment definitely fell into the one percent.

       After she broke her engagement, Jordan had the sudden urge to have a pet. A lot of people told her it would pass, but she knew that wasn’t the case. Jordan needed unconditional love in her home, so she kept her eyes open for the right opportunity. She couldn’t handle a puppy or a kitten, so when she wandered around a rescue fair one Sunday this past September, she found herself completely enamored with Gertie. A stubby-legged little mutt, Gertie was a tube of golden fur with a pointy snout and big, soulful brown eyes. She was about five years old, and her owner had just died, leaving the little dog all alone.

       Jordan felt a kinship with the pooch, and took her home that day.

       Lina Rinaldi, who usually frowned on her cottage tenants having pets, took to the dog right away, and Gertie loved the older woman right back.

       As Jordan stared at the lump still upside down on the floor, she was about ready to offer Mrs. Rinaldi full custody. Then a deep, rasping cough shook Jordan to the core. It racked her body violently, and pain shot around her chest. God, she felt awful.

       “Come on,” she said firmly to the pooch. “We’ll skip the leash this time. Out and in. Let’s get this over with.”

       Gertie rolled over and trotted to the front door, giving Jordan the side eye as she waited. Donning her parka and a pair of lined wellies that she pulled over her pajama pants, Jordan grabbed the remote and unlocked her car. When she opened the front door, she was hit by a blast of wind, rain, and sleet that stung her cheeks and chilled her to the bone. “Lord, it’s miserable.” Looking down at Gertie, she nodded. “Okay, let’s make this quick.”

       The two of them bolted outside, with Gertie heading for her favorite patch of grass and Jordan heading for her car. She stopped when she coughed so hard she could barely breathe. It hurt. She’d never had a chest cold that hurt so much. Finally, yanking open the door, she heard her pooch barking from the small covered porch. Jordan grabbed the bag that was filled with some basic food provisions, juice, tea, tissues, and a selection of over-the-counter cold remedies. She slammed the car door shut, and on her way back inside she noticed the whitecaps on Jennings Bay. The wind was forcing massive amounts of water into the coves and harbors around town, and she hoped the it didn’t breach the seawall surrounding the property. Jordan’s cottage was closer to Cove Road, but the Rinaldis’ big house was at risk.

       Without any further delay, Jordan made it back to the porch, feeling chilled and soaked to the bone despite all the foul weather gear she’d put on. Gertie was barking frantically, having positioned herself under the old wooden swing, and Jordan was starting to lose her patience.

       “Gertie, what the hell is the problem?”

       That’s when she heard the groan and crack. Jordan looked up just as a large section of an old oak tree, about fifty feet from the house, gave way. Throwing her body against the wall to avoid any debris, Jordan watched as the massive tree split in half and came crashing down, crushing her car in the process.

       If she had waited ten more seconds to head outside, Jordan would have been killed.

       Frozen in place for—she didn’t know how long—Jordan startled when a large, strong arm wrapped around her.

       She looked away from the wreckage in the front yard and into the gorgeous face of Nick Rinaldi.        “Damn. Are you alright?”

       Was she? She wasn’t sure. Jordan tried to answer, but she had trouble catching her breath. Sucking in air, he kept her steady when they walked into the house.

       Waiting for the dog before he closed the door, Nick sat her on the bench in the entryway. Glancing in the canvas tote from the market, his brow furrowed.

       “You’re sick? What’s wrong?”

       With a low rattling cough that had him pressing the back of his hand to her forehead, she muttered, “Chest cold.”

       Shaking his head, he helped her off with her boots and jacket. “Let’s get you settled in bed, and I’ll go get my bag. You’ve got a lot more than a chest cold.”

       “My car…”        “We can’t do anything about your car until the storm passes, so put it out of your head. It’s the last thing you need to worry about.”

       “Are you kidding? Not worry about it?” How was she supposed to get to work or see her dad? How was she supposed to do anything if she didn’t have a car? The pain in her chest wasn’t just from her cough at that moment, but at the wave of dread—helplessness—that rushed through her.

       “One thing at a time.” Nick, a former Navy doctor, was single minded. And as much as Jordan didn’t want to admit it, he was right. In this weather, there was nothing she could do.

       “Come on,” he said. “Lead the way.”

       “I’ll be fine,” she said, stopping in her tracks. Those few words taxed her already strained system. She coughed painfully into her arm while Nick guided her into her room. The coughing spell was so violent, ripping at her tender lungs, she couldn’t even object as he tucked her into bed.

       Sick as she was, Jordan wasn’t blind. Nick Rinaldi had been on her radar since he landed back in Compass Cove the previous fall. The guy was gorgeous, smart, and a gentleman to the core. But he’d settled back in with his grandparents almost six months ago, and other than a token hello, or a polite smile, he rarely spoke to her.

       Still, with his lean frame, dark hair, and kind eyes, he checked a lot of boxes.

She thought she heard him mutter something about being stubborn, but her lack of breath didn’t allow a response. If anyone was stubborn, he was. The man of mystery was a well-known do-gooder, and obviously she was his next project. There was only one problem with that. She didn’t want his help. Needing people was a slippery slope, and Jordan had no intention of heading down that way again.

  About Jeannie Moon:

 Jeannie Moon, author of fifteen novels, has always been a romantic. When she’s not spinning tales of her own, Jeannie works as a school librarian, thankful she has a job that allows her to immerse herself in books and call it work. Married to her high school sweetheart, Jeannie has three kids, three lovable dogs and a mischievous cat and lives in her hometown on Long Island, NY. If she’s more than ten miles away from salt water for any longer than a week, she gets twitchy.

 Connect with Jeannie at: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Pinterest

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