3 Nights 3 Dates x4 Girls! Huh! Chapter 26, a rosario + vampire fanfic

Chapter 26

Part I (The Resolution, Long Overdue….)

CRACK!

She fell back onto her rear, her head turned at an extreme angle and her cheek burning and with a red handprint across it. She looked up at him with an immediate unbridled rage, but her bottom lip was bitten hard, evidence of her holding down a physical violence. Her eyes filled with tears, and one drop rolled down the side of her face.

Her expression changed slowly from one of anger to disbelief. How… how could he…? When she looked up at his face, though, the answer was branded in his eyes. Her face suddenly went completely slack as she lost herself in panic. He… he couldn't possibly know… could he? It... it's impossible! But, then… why…? Why would he hit me like that…? Why is he… looking at me like that…? She almost missed him begin to speak, but when she saw his lips moving, she brought herself back and into the present moment.

"Kurumu…. Why… why? Why would you… what possibly could have made you want to…?" Tsukune dropped his head and clenched down on his jaw, his shoulders shuddering with repressed sobs.

Kurumu looked at him, flabbergasted, and felt like she was watching as a train headlight was bearing down on her. The inevitability of the moment was lost on her; she had never imagined that when she next saw Tsukune he would be asking this of her. She suddenly felt hands on her upper arms, roughly pulling her to her feet. She was too dazed to struggle, and soon she was looking at Tsukune's sorrow-twisted face. She realized with a start that Tsukune had begun freely weeping. She lifted a hand to his face, but he grabbed her wrist and wrenched it back and to her side. "Tsukune…," she softly whimpered.

He looked at her desperately, then suddenly and violently pulled her into a crushing hug. He pulled her face into his chest, and she could feel his sobs. "Kurumu…. Don't you… don't you know how much I love you? Do you think I would… ever… be okay with you doing something like that…? So… so then… why would you take on so much? Why would you surrender yourself to so painful an existence? Why would you… take away a memory like that from me?"

That last statement was too much for Kurumu to take quietly. She struggled for a brief moment before she managed to wrench herself free of Tsukune's grip. She folded her arms in front of her, as if to steady herself. "You're asking me that…? That?! What is it that you said to me, Tsukune…? When I… offered myself to you…? That you… that you couldn't? You… you were the one who rejected me. You knew how I would feel, and you turned me away, anyway! You betrayed me first! And now you're here, asking me something like that…." She wrapped her arms around herself, gripping her upper arms. "All I wanted… Tsukune…. All I wanted… was to have you in my arms… to myself… just that one time…. Even if it was only for one night… you are all I wanted, Tsukune!"

Tsukune shuddered, watching as Kurumu's countenance shattered before him, and as she started choking out sobs. He remembered very easily how he had brushed her aside…. How he had been so eager to start the next date, to try and clear his head of that afternoon. The memory of his actions with Yukari, and with Moka and Mizore, broke the surface in his mind. At the thought, he couldn't help but feel a nagging in the back of his head…. Did he owe… this… to Kurumu?

Trapped in his own mind, he yelled and tried to pull away, but it was as if his body was on autopilot. He stepped forward, and with Kurumu's face still buried in her hands, Tsukune reached up and enveloped her in his arms. She jumped slightly at his sudden touch, and lifted her face to look at his eyes, and she gasped at his tender expression. "Tsukune-?" She didn't have a chance to continue, as he leaned in and kissed her. The kiss seemed to last forever, and Tsukune finally pulled back, breaking their lip contact. As a tear rolled down Kurumu's cheek, her mouth kept forming the breathless word, his name. He put his forehead to hers.

"Kurumu…. I'm so… I'm so sorry…. Sorry I hurt you…. Sorry I didn't give you what you wanted… what you needed…." As he spoke, his lips moved to her neck, and he planted kisses lightly on the sensitive skin there. She breathed a thick, moist gasp into the air, and her hands clutched at the back of Tsukune's shirt. His mouth travelled downwards, leaving a trail of kisses that left lingering tingling sensations. When his lips finally found the crook of where her neck met her shoulder, she grabbed the hair at the back of Tsukune's head and squeezed tight. She pressed his face against her, but finally swallowed and pushed him back by his chest. He looked at her quizzically.

She looked up at him, eyes shining. "Tsukune…. What… what are we…? I don't know what to think anymore…. Does you being here mean that you're choosing me? Are you here for…? I don't think I can take it if you tell me no one more time…."

Tsukune still could barely believe the words as he said them. "Kurumu…. I'm here because… I still don't know just yet. I haven't decided… even now, when I thought by now I'd have a better idea…. I still need time to sort out my own feelings. I've tried to make the past weeks about you four girls, and not about me…. And, despite those best intentions, if that's what they are, I've hurt you all…. But, I feel like… like you're the one who's taken the worst of it all…. And, maybe it's because of the decision you made, but I'm the one who put you in that position…. I didn't think about what you wanted… what you were feeling, until it was too late…. And because of that, you had to suffer so much…. I knew something was bothering you, but I wouldn't let myself linger on thinking about it…. I was so selfish, so foolish. I'm just so sorry, Kurumu…. And, there's something that I didn't get to do… something that I want to…." He let his voice trail off. His hands ran down Kurumu's sides, down to her waist. Before they knew it, his hands had slid up and underneath Kurumu's shirt, and came to rest on the creamy skin of her midsection.

He moved in to kiss her….

She turned her head at the last minute, leaving Tsukune with just her cheek to meet his lips. He slowly drew his head back, and looked at her. She looked up at him with obviously conflicting emotions. Tsukune could see a desire burning in her eyes, could see passion lurking behind the calm front she struggled to maintain. She smiled a sad smile and shook her head. "Tsukune-kun…. I'm sorry. I – I can't, now…. I need… I need some time alone."

He struggled not to let an expression of… disappointment?... show up on his face. He nodded, smiled gently, nodded his understanding, and bid Kurumu good night. He walked to the door, leaving her standing there in the middle of her room and trying so desperately to stop herself from stopping him and pulling him into her bed. He walked out into the surprisingly chilly night air, stuffed his hands into his pockets, and walked to his dorm building with his head bowed.

(Later that evening….)

Tsukune looked helplessly up at the roof of his dorm room. Sleep was proving an evasive creature; he'd been tossing and turning for hours. His thoughts kept returning to Kurumu, of words he'd left unsaid, of actions left done only in his imagination and waking dreams. He felt like… if he didn't do this one thing… he might never know for sure. And now he wondered how, all this time, Kurumu had dealt with his rejecting her advances. Was this the uncertain sensation he'd been damning her to for so long now? Her gentle dismissal of his advance had… not necessarily shocked him… but still left him with a sense of awe and… quiet frustration. He lifted his arms in a deep stretch, and cursed when his hands knocked against his radio, bringing it to life. As its internal circuits fired up and the music started quietly filling the room, though, he allowed himself a small sigh and found himself falling into the music and lyrics….

Waking up without you
It doesn't feel right
To sleep with only memories
Is harder every night
And sometimes I think I can feel you
Breathing on my neck

Tonight I'm reaching out to the stars
I think that he owes me a favor
It doesn't matter where you are
I'll hold you again

I wish I could hear your voice
Don't leave me alone in this bed
I wish I could touch you once more
Don't leave me alone in this bed
Not tonight, not tomorrow

I've got the feeling
That this will never cease
Living in these pictures
It never comes with ease
I swear if I could make this right
You'd be back by now

Tonight I'm screaming out to the stars
He knows he owes me a favor
It doesn't matter where you are
You'll be mine again

I wish I could hear your voice
Don't leave me alone in this bed
I wish I could touch you once more
Don't leave me alone in this bed

Don't leave me alone in this bed
Don't leave me alone, don't leave me alone…
Don't leave me alone in this bed

"Okay."

Tsukune's eyes suddenly snapped open. He had been on the brink of sleep, and her voice had shocked him into wakefulness. He looked up, and noticed with a start that Kurumu was sitting on his windowsill, looking at him with a delicate expression, leaning back against the frame of the open window with one leg dangling over the precipice outside. She looked at him, her expression meaningful and open, and Tsukune couldn't help but feel a lump form in his throat at the sensuality he could see in that expression. "K-Kurumu-chan…? W-wha-?"

Kurumu narrowed her eyes and smiled. "Tsukune…. Say it."

Tsukune swallowed, tried to steady his breathing. It was easier wished than done. Kurumu was dressed in a practically backless tank-top and a miniskirt, not leaving much to the imagination. Her wings and tail were exposed, and while they were usually an unsettling reminder of who and what she was, Tsukune could somehow not help but find it alluring in the pale cold moonlight. Finally, he managed to catch his breath, and smiled up at her. Moving to the edge of the bed and pulling the comforter aside, he looked her straight in the eyes. "Kurumu…. Tonight… I want you… to spend the night with me."

She closed her eyes, and looked as if she were savoring some delicious bite of food. Tsukune didn't say anything; he realized she must have waited almost two years to hear him say that…. While he'd been so torn up over wanting to say it for just the last two hours. Finally, she opened her eyes and smiled the brightest smile he'd seen on her face; he was stunned at how beautiful it made her look. She crawled down from the window and onto his bed mattress. On her knees in front of him, she grabbed the bottom of her tank-top and, as Tsukune watched transfixed, pulled it up and over her head, fully exposing her upper body to him. His breath caught in his throat, and he could only look at her face as she blushed at him, looking as if she were awaiting his approval. Finally, he shook his head and smiled. "Kurumu…. You're so beautiful." He sat up and maneuvered himself over to her, and they embraced and kissed, finally falling back with her on top of him, and the young lovers moaned together, as one…. On Tsukune's alarm clock, the time ticked over from 11:59PM to 12:00AM. His third date day with Mizore was officially over.

(The next morning….)

His eyes slowly opened. He sat up, and quickly realized he was in bed alone. He looked over to where the mattress was still indented where Kurumu had been sleeping, where they had…. He noticed a folded slip of paper on the pillow they'd shared, and he picked it up, unfolded it, and read it, then smiled sadly. He re-read it, this time aloud: "Tsukune-kun…. Now we both have a memory, of one perfect night. I'll be waiting for your decision…. I love you. Your Kurumu."

Part II (Girl Talk)

Two days had passed since Tsukune's final date day with Mizore, and his late-night tryst with Kurumu. Four young women sat together on the roof of the main school building, enjoying the feeling of the sun-kissed concrete beneath them. They were each recounting their dates with Tsukune. Now that the competition was over, none of them saw the need to hide anything anymore. They thoughtfully omitted the more intimate details of certain events, but each could see where it had led. The stories each had lent to some shared laughter as the girls imagined Tsukune's chronic awkwardness in different situations, and at how endearing it also made him to each of them.

As Mizore's tale finally concluded, though, each girl seemed much more somber, as if hearing all the other girls' retellings of their experiences had cast fresh doubts in their mind about their chances of eventually being chosen by Tsukune. They were all quiet and introspective, and the heavy atmosphere was just about too much for Yukari to handle.

She tried to re-break the ice. "Well, I don't know about you three, but…. No matter who Tsukune-kun picks at this point… I feel like I really got to see a very different side of him. It was like rediscovering everything that made me care about him so much…. It's just hard to think about how much things will change when it's all finally over and Tsukune-kun picks one of us to be his girlfriend."

She was worried that no one had even heard her, but Moka, in typical fashion, did her best to not let anyone feel alienated. "Yeah, you're right, Yukari-chan…. I feel that way, too. I'll always treasure the memories I made with Tsukune-kun, no matter what happens…. And it's not like we're not still going to be friends!" She beamed a smile at Yukari, then Kurumu and Mizore.

Kurumu crossed her arms and smirked. "Ha, right. That's just because you feel so confident that Tsukune-kun will pick you, Moka-chan…. We'll see if you're singing to the same tune when he tells you all that he's making me his girlfriend!"

Mizore turned her nose up and gave Kurumu a sidelong glance. "Yeah, right... You're putting on an awfully good show there, Kurumu-chan…. But we both know Tsukune-kun is going to choose quality over quantity, and side with me. You just be sure to respect his decision when he and I walk off into the sunset hand-in-hand."

Kurumu fumed. "Oh, come off it, you frosted floozy! Tsukune-kun is going to pick me, and that's all there is to it!" She seemed to think about something for a moment. "…And just what do you mean, 'quality over quantity'? Quantity of what?"

Mizore sneered, "Quantity of fat cells in your chest, that's what. And you have some nerve calling me floozy, you hot-headed sex addict."

"Takes one to know one, you baby-crazy stalker psycho!" Kurumu fired back.

Even though to an outsider it would have sounded like the same-old, same-old from the two, Yukari could easily tell that the argument was only half-hearted. She put two-and-two together and realized they were doing it for her sake. She smiled sadly. "It's okay, you guys…. You don't have to put on a big production for my sake…. I've already made peace with the fact that Tsukune-kun isn't going to be choosing me…. He'd be crazy to, anyway…." The three others grew quiet, giving Yukari unsure looks. She chuckled. "I mean, I practically told him not to choose me the whole time…. Really, at this point…. I'm just… just scared that when he finally makes his decision, that…. That things won't ever be able to go back to the way they were before."

Moka piped up. "But… but, Yukari-chan…! Why are you being so fatalistic? We're still friends! We still care about each other… right? I mean… all joking aside, I might need some time alone to get over it if Tsukune-kun didn't pick me, and I'm sure you all would feel the same way…! But, I wouldn't harbor any resentment for whomever Tsukune-kun did pick. I think that, as best friends, it's our responsibility to pull together and support Tsukune-kun's final decision…."

Kurumu scowled. "I can't agree with you on that, Moka-chan…. I've been runner-up to you from the beginning, and I never gave up then…. What makes you think I'd give up now? It's Tsukune-kun choosing a girlfriend, not a wife." The edge left her voice, and she spoke quietly, "I'll keep trying… to win his affection for the rest of my life…. Until he finally acknowledges me as his true soul mate…. I won't just give up on my Mate of Fate so easily…. Not for anything."

Yukari felt torn above all else. She couldn't stand the sense of discord that prevailed among the four of them. She realized that, no, things would never be the same…. Stupid Tsukune and his stupid plan…! She couldn't help but feel helpless, and so very alone…. Not only was she almost certain to lose Tsukune to one of her best friends, but the resultant fallout would almost definitely spell certain doom for their fellowship. How would they hang out together if Tsukune and whomever he chose were holding hands or being romantic in front of the other three? Fighting back desperate tears, she said in a surprisingly steady voice, "You know…. It's not unheard of in the monster realm for a man to take multiple wives…! What would you all do if… if Tsukune-kun said that he couldn't pick just one of us, and wanted to make us all his girlfriend?"

While Moka's heart went out to Yukari in her predicament, she couldn't help the expression of distaste that spread across her face at the mention of the idea. For once, her thoughts lined up perfectly with her inner self's. "No; I couldn't accept that."

Yukari couldn't contain herself. "But why?!"

Kurumu surprised them both. "I love Tsukune-kun. If he picked me, I'd want to monopolize all of his time…. I'd want to spend as much time alone with him as I could, doing things for him, having him appreciate me, and treat me to things, while giving him all my heart in everything I said and did…. There's no way I can seriously consider doing that while at the same time splitting his time and attention with even one of you three, let alone all of you…."

Mizore made an ambiguously noncommittal sound, but her facial expression seemed to indicate she agreed with Kurumu. Yukari noticed with a helpless finality that Moka was nodding resolutely, showing her agreement, as well…. Her face fell, and she just looked at her hands on her knees as they clenched into trembling fists.

Mizore looked up and noted the sun's position. "It's getting late in the day…. I have prearrangements that I need to keep to…." She stretched, ignoring Kurumu's grumblings that the only arrangements she'd likely made were to be hidden behind a tree or in a dumpster while spying on Tsukune. It took a monumental effort of willpower not to freeze the succubus where she stood, but Mizore managed, inexplicably. She gave the other three girls her usual flat gaze. "I don't think I really want to meet up with you for a while…. It's nothing personal, but I don't feel like it's good for us to linger on this while it's still unresolved. I think it's best not to see each other until Tsukune-kun has finally made his decision, and we've all had time to accept it and move on." She fixed Yukari with a slightly warmer expression. "Like you said, Yukari-chan…. I don't want to lose my friends, either…. It took me a long time to make any friends, and you're all very important to me…. Some more than others." She looked at Kurumu with a gently sarcastic expression, who responded with a smoldering gaze of her own. "If Tsukune-kun picks me, I'd be very happy…." She blushed. "Very. But if it came down to choosing between a life with Tsukune-kun, and my friendships with you…. Well…. I wouldn't be happy about it, but I wouldn't need to think twice to choose Tsukune-kun. If he didn't choose me, I'll admit I'd be heartbroken. But, in time, I could come to accept it, and would want to stay friends with you all." She broke her icy countenance with one bright smile. "That's just who I am." She turned and walked away, and to the fire escape ladder. She said over her shoulder, "See you," and disappeared shortly thereafter.

Kurumu left, echoing Mizore's sentiment about the four of them not meeting up until after Tsukune's decision, but not about accepting his decision should it not be her. She let her earlier statements stand as they were.

Moka left a while after Kurumu, putting a hand on Yukari's shoulder as a way of letting the young witch know she wasn't alone. That brief solace disappeared quickly after she was gone, though, and Yukari spent the remainder of the day sitting on that roof, her eyes swimming in unshed tears as she searched for a resolution with all her intellectual might; an answer that would continue to elude her long after.

I don't know what I've done
Or if I like what I've begun
But something told me to run
And honey, you know me it's all or none
There were sounds in my head
Of little voices whispering
That I should go, and this should end
Oh and I found myself listening

'Cause I don't know who I am
Who I am without you
All I know is that I should
And I don't know if I could stand
Another hand upon you
All I know is that I should
'Cause she will love you more than I could
She who dares to stand where I stood

See I thought love was black and white
That it was wrong or it was right
But you ain't leaving without a fight
And I think I am just as torn inside

And I won't be far from where you are
If ever you should call
You mean more to me than anyone
I ever loved at all
But you taught me how to trust myself
And so I say to you
This is what I have to do

She who dares to stand where I stood

Part III (The Epiphany, The Heartache, The Decision….)

It had been two weeks since the girls' last impromptu meeting. Tsukune was holed up in his room, where he had spent the majority of his time lately, working on his homework when he was able to pull his head out of the clouds long enough to focus on it. He was working on a particularly technical physics problem. As he spoke aloud, he unconsciously pressed the eraser end of his mechanical pencil on the surface of his desk, oblivious as the exposed graphite grew to over two inches long, then fell out. "So, by ignoring the tendency of the subatomic particle to act as a particle per se, and instead focusing on its tendency to act as a wave…. By carefully applying Schrodinger's equation… extrapolating that data to solve for the unknown…." He moved his pencil to make marks on his paper, and groaned when the useless plastic tip merely scratched lamely across his paper, creating a small tear. "…Damn it. What's wrong with me…?"

He leaned back in his chair, smiling mirthlessly. "Well, that's a pretty rhetorical question, isn't it? The better question is what isn't wrong with me? It's been over two weeks since my last date, and I still can't bring myself to make the stupid decision…. All I've been thinking about is…."

He shot straight up in his seat.

What…? He'd been thinking about what this whole time? He shook his head sharply, slapped himself across the face. No, not what… but whom? Of whom had he been thinking this whole time? Kei's words were like another slap in the face, this one less literal, but much more striking. "You'll find yourself realizing that you've been thinking about her constantly, even without realizing it…. You won't know when it started, you won't know for how long it's been going on. But it'll be there all the same. She will have pervaded every single thought that enters your mind."

He pulled out a clean sheet of paper, reinserted the graphite tip into his pencil, clicked the eraser to engage it, and started writing out familiar kanji symbols. As he wrote, though, his mind wandered. Akashiya Moka. Kurono Kurumu. Shirayuki Mizore. Sendo Yukari. I swear I've been thinking about all of them…. But…. But…! His hand had stopped writing, and when he looked down at the paper to observe his handiwork, his eyes widened and he dropped his pencil. He had written the same name four times. He lowered his face into his trembling hands, breathed deep. He couldn't stop his sudden shaking. "I've… I've been doing it all this time and haven't noticed it…. The person… the person I… love…. The person I love is…!"

A loud cracking sound shot through the heavy air in the room, drawing his attention away from the mental image of her face and to its source. He stood up shakily and walked over to the endtable by his bed, picked up the picture frame. Down the center of the protective glass lens was a neat jagged crack. He barely noticed it. His eyes couldn't be pulled away from… her face. He finally managed to make his eyes move, to take in the sight of the other girls' faces. He spoke in an unsteady voice, paraphrasing Kei's quote, "Every time I saw another face… hers was superimposed over it." True to form, he couldn't look at the other girls' faces without his eyes returning, inexorably, to one face. Those features, that he realized now had been burned into his memory, into his dreams, into every waking thought he had.

Shaking uncontrollably, he put the picture frame down, and on second thought, flipped it down on its face. He stood there looking at it for several minutes, his mouth working but no sound coming out. He realized that panic was setting in his chest now. He could feel his pulse quickening, his breath shortening. He looked over at the mirror, and was shocked at the image looking back at him. He looked horrible.

His hair was disheveled and dirty; he hadn't bathed in days. His eyes had large purple bags under them from a severe lack of sleep. His frame was gaunt, almost haunting; he rarely ate anymore. Still, despite all of that, he could see a new light shining in his eyes. A new determined expression on his face. He looked back at the picture frame and resigned himself again to his panicked sorrow. What if she said no? What if she couldn't reciprocate his love?

He sat down on the bed, looking at the floor. Well, while that was an unlikely scenario, wasn't the one in which he would lose the other three still a very real danger? "Maybe… maybe I should call this whole thing off…." He closed his eyes. "They'd understand, right? We still have one last semester of classes…. I could tell them that I'm just not ready…. I thought I'd be… I really did…. But…." His eyes flinched as she again entered and dominated his thoughts. His heart clenched, seeming to rebel against his body in protest of his proposed solution.

When he regained his breath, he nodded. "Okay…." He said it again, his voice gaining a steely firm quality. "Okay." He stood up and looked at the overturned picture frame one last time. Then, he turned and looked at himself in the mirror. He already looked better, but he would still need a shower. He raised his arm over his head and gave an experimental sniff, and recoiled with his nose wrinkled in reaction. A long one. He chanced one final glance at his mirror's reflection, and saw that he seemed to have regained some life. His face showed a new determination, and seemed to have a happily peaceful undertone to it. "Okay…. It's time." He grabbed a fresh towel from his linen closet, and walked into the bathroom. As he closed the door behind him, the sun peaked out between a pair of clouds, and a strong beam of light poured in through his partially open window shades. It kissed the picture frame briefly, then faded away as suddenly as it had appeared.

-Well, that's Chapter 26. It's really been quite a long time coming…. I'm not sure how I feel about this chapter. I'm worried that, for the amount of time it took me to really put shape to it in my mind and get it out, it's a little… underwhelming. But, I'm still oddly proud of it, in a kind of arm's-length, detached kind of way. I have a hard time relating to this chapter, for some reason. But, I realize that, if I were reading this story from an outsider's perspective, I would be (overall) satisfied with it. I do want to apologize for how long it's taken me to get this out to you guys…. I know several people are waiting for me to finish this, for a number of reasons, and I feel like I've been just kind of dragging you along for the ride, kind of how Tsukune has been feeling about the girls…. I hope you can forgive me, and that you'll enjoy the finished product here. All this time has been good for one thing, though…. It's given me tons of time to figure out how the final chapter, Chapter 27, will go, so it will be a much faster process to write and publish it, as the idea is pretty much solidified in my mind. This chapter felt like a really pivotal point in the story, because of how it really starts to bring everything to one final conclusive end. I'm really terrible at endings for the most part (mostly because the vast majority of my stories tend to die mid-way through them…), so this was the most difficult chapter for me to write. I wanted to briefly re-touch upon Kurumu's and Yukari's characters, in different ways according to their personalities. Kurumu is, and always will be, Kurumu, so her part was fairly easy. Yukari, however, is a little tougher to delve into. She's really at that cusp of womanhood, and is in a very formative period in her life. For all her intelligence and self-professed maturity, she's still very much a little girl, and is still coming to grips with who she is, who she wants to be, and obsessed with both worlds of a woman and a girl, in the form of her budding relationship with Tsukune and her close friendships with Mizore, Kurumu, and Moka. I wanted to explore that, and refocus a part of this chapter on her a bit…. Probably mostly because of the fact that since the last two arcs, most people have written off Kurumu and Yukari, and have said that it looks like Tsukune just HAS to choose either Mizore or Moka…. I want to keep this anybody's game, and hopefully I've accomplished that, albeit in a pretty fumbling manner…. Anyway, I feel like I'm doing a movie interview, lol…. So, I'll kill this here…. The next chapter… I'm not sure how long it will be, per se, but I did want it to be a separate chapter, all on its own. It is coming very soon, worry not. I hope you enjoy. I have been deeply honored to have all of you read my story, give me your insight, advice, and encouragement. I'm proud to be associated with all of you. Thanks so much for reading. This one's for you guys.-