The following Saturday was ten days before Christmas, but holiday preparations weren't the only thing on our minds that afternoon. Gwen had taken the little kids next door so we--the teens, Halley, and I--could get busy working on our bags for those experiencing homelessness.

Nate offered the term as an alternative to "homeless people" as we were putting the items together. "I dunno, it's a way to separate the person from their current living arrangements," he mused, adding half a dozen bottles of shampoo and conditioner to each pile. Full size ones were often deemed too much extra weight when you traveled with all your belongings. 

The living room was strewn with the makings of fifty piles, to start. We had enough to make 250 but no room to do so all at once. Halley sat near enough to me to touch easily, which worked for me, because her hair was down and I couldn't keep my hands off it. Me and my apparent hair fetish . . . but only when it came to one person.

I took a handful of it now, tugging gently, our love language. She reached back and took my hand, kissing the back of it with that sweet smile before letting go. It still made my heart do loops. Especially when I looked around at all that had been accomplished for our important project.

We had convinced one of the big chain outdoors shops to donate a small tent for every winter-proof sleeping bag we purchased, on the condition we mentioned them if any news channels became interested. They had also had "Courtesy of Martinez's Sporting Goods" professionally emblazoned on each one to further advertise their generosity. The tents were waterproof and popped up quickly, easily collapsing with one pull of the rope.

We'd cleaned out the inventory of a small, local business for the warm clothing we needed in various sizes, and the owners had been ecstatic. Especially as it was right before Christmas. They had shared with excitement the extravagant gifts they had planned for their loved ones that year.

One of the local laundromats had started offering gift cards, so we'd purchased a ton of those in ten-dollar increments; each person received three. Cash was too precious to be spent on washing clothing and this provided an alternative. Sure, some of them would be traded or sold, but that was up to the person who received them. It's not like we were giving the stuff away with conditions or something.

The medium-sized, many-pocketed suitcases we were using to store everything were on wheels and had extendable handles, which the tent and sleeping bag could be attached to with the included bungee cords. Between Halley and Nate, they'd thought of everything.

Charlotte doled out new packages of socks, ten pairs in each. "That reminds me, you need some of these," she told Joey with a poke to his side. Rain hit the windows as the wind shifted and howled through the eaves. The Christmas tree sat cozily in the corner, the colorful lights glowing among the carefully hung ornaments. 

"My socks are fine," he said, poking her in return.

"Boy please," Nate chimed in, pointing at my brother's socked foot, complete with a little hole above his pinky toe. "Don't even." He folded a navy blue Hanes sweatshirt and set it on top of one pile, patting it primly.

"Thank you," Charlotte said, and he tipped his blue beret at her with a wink.

"Sure, gang up on me," Joey muttered, fixing the sock so the hole didn't show. He realized his mistake and looked up again. "Not literally-" he started to add, but it was too late. The two of them were dogpiling him in what quickly turned into a tickle war.

Halley scooted backward to sit next to me, grinning at their antics. Her arm went around my shoulders and she drew me closer for a kiss, her chapstick giving it a vanilla hint. "Hi," she said, kissing my neck under my earlobe, which immediately put into mind thoughts of bed.

"Mercy!" my brother's muffled voice came from beneath the other two. Char rolled off him, smoothing down her short pink hair, but Nate sat on his back cross-legged and began pretending to file his nails. "You guyyys," Joey protested half-heartedly.

Halley's hand moved to the sweet spot between my shoulder and neck and she began massaging with her thumb. "Mmph," I said, in instant bliss. 

Joey half turned suddenly under the other boy and got in some revenge tickling before Nate even knew what hit him. "Lottie! Help me," he gasped through his laughter, trying to squirm away from the relentless fingers. 

"This again?" she said with interest, adding her weight to the pile and her hands to the battle. "Always on top," she added with satisfaction at her position when she stopped to let them catch their breath.

"Queen," Nate said, collapsing and breathing hard. "Trouble-making queen," he added in a stage whisper.

"Facts," Joey backed him up, moving so his weight was mostly on the floor instead of the other boy. He reached to fix Nate's beret.

Both of Halley's hands were on my shoulders now and I wouldn't have moved for anything. I could feel her amusement at them and shared in it. "Whatever you do, don't stop doing that," I requested, feeling the natural tension in my upper body dissipating. In answer she landed another kiss on my neck.

We heard the front door open and Gwen appeared, her blue raincoat dripping."Oh my God, you guys should get a room," she said, appraising the older teens with a smirk.

"We have a room," Joey said tartly, somewhat muffled. 

"Touché," she admitted. "We're doing tie-dye and we need plastic bags, don't mind me." She disappeared into the kitchen.

"Take some of that fudge, too. Please, save me from myself." Nate had made it the day before and it was so good I couldn't stay away from it. 

"Thanks, bye!" The front door banged shut again.

Char squeezed Joey's side as Nate managed to unearth himself. "Lordy," he said, shaking his head and readjusting his hat with a wary look at Charlotte. "Let a man catch his breath."

"For real, trouble-maker," Joey said, moving away too and making the sign of the cross at his girlfriend when she feinted toward him with her fingers wiggling. "We surrender," he said hastily as Nate feigned hiding behind him. "We surrender!"

"That's right, you'd better," she said, her chin going up. "Also, I'm starving, we need pizza." She stretched before taking out her phone. "These bags are ready to be packed up and stored in Leif's room."

"Why are you looking at me?" Joey asked somewhat indignantly, straightening his shirt.

"That 'me' should be an 'us'," Nate pointed out, zipping a duffel. 

"He is not wrong," Charlotte said, scrolling down her phone. "Get to it. I'll order the food."

"Mmm, bossy," Nate murmured loud enough for her to hear, and she threw a pillow at him. 

Deep, rolling thunder grew louder before crashing through the house with a boom that we could feel in our bones. "Holy shit," I said, rising along with Halley to go to the big window. I loved thunderstorms. 

"Get the lights so we can see the lightning when it comes again," Char directed, and Joey did so before the three of them joined us to look outside. 

The cat door slapped open to emit Poe, closely followed by his meowing cat. The bird shook the water from his feathers in a cascade of droplets, then flapped up to his perch above the door and croaked a hello. He didn't love the rain.

PK, on the other hand, didn't mind it. He shook his paws one by one before running to us, purring madly. "Hi, you goofy cat," Halley said, petting him. He meowed again and ran off to the kitchen to gobble down his food. 

Lightning lit up the back yard, a bolt of it visible against the darkening sky for a moment, making us all exclaim. The crow squawked at us. "I've never seen that before," I said, somewhat in awe as the thunder followed almost immediately, vibrating through us.  

"I've only seen it in Arizona a few times, heat lightning; it went from cloud to cloud and once it was pink and purple," Halley said, standing behind me with her arms around my waist and her chin on my head. As always, we fit together like puzzle pieces. "What's on head radio?"

I tuned in. Thunder, lightning and thunder. "Imagine Dragons, appropriately enough," I told her. 

"Of course," she said.

The five of us stood together, watching and waiting expectantly. Halley's phone dinged with a text notification but she ignored it, and then the sky brightened with the next flash, closely chased by the loudest thunder yet. 

"This is so much better than being alone at my mom's," Nate said whole-heartedly, crowded between Char and Joey. 

"Agreed," she said, kissing his cheek, her arm looped around his neck.

"Agreed," my brother imitated in a high-pitched voice, doing the same from his side and sneaking a peak at her to see what she was going to do.

"Bold of you to assume I won't tickle you some more," she retorted cheerfully, proving it, causing them to fall into a pile again.

I only heard the latter because my beautiful girlfriend was kissing me again and it was understandably hard to focus on anything but her body and lips against mine.

a/n thank you so much for sticking with this, I hope you are all safe and well <3