SPN Fic: The Path We Choose- (9/?)
Thursday, May 17th, 2012 01:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tenoko1Title: The Path We Choose
Author: Tenoko1
Rating: PG-13
Warning: Takes place after Season five with references through Season seven. It's unbeta'd as well.
Pairings: Dean/Castiel, Sam/Sarah, slight Cas/Meg
Disclaimer: Do not own
Summary: They’d tried to defy Chuck’s prophecies before and failed, but Dean wouldn’t be a Winchester if he was just willing to accept God’s Word as final answer.
Notes: Comments are much love.
Podfic Master Post
One l Two l Three l Four l Five l Six l Seven l Eight
Chapter Nine
When he came downstairs from his shower, Dean made a show of himself, wearing only a pair of jeans as he walked back and forth across Bobby’s study like he was a model on a run way, pausing when he got to each end of the room to strike a pose and turn. Bobby was still asleep since it was so early, but the rest had all adjusted to Sam’s rehab schedule and were awake.
“Eh? Eh?” He grinned wildly at his brother, who was chuckling in amusement and shaking his head. “I look good right? Look at this body! I wanna fall in love with myself I’m so hot.”
Rolling his eyes, Sam said, “You’re a sexy beast, Dean. Now put a shirt on.” He faltered, frowning and doing a double take at his brother. “When did you get that?”
“Get what?” questioned Dean, looking down at himself for bruises or something he hadn’t been aware of.
“On your shoulder, the ring of text.” Dean frowned and looked at his left shoulder. “Other one. In Cas’s handprint.”
At this, the angel looked up from where he’d already returned to his book, inquiring as though he’d been called by name, then serious as his gaze fell on Dean’s shoulder. The hunter looked down at his arm with a frown, at the elegant script written in a perfect circle.
“I don’t remember getting that done,” he stated suspiciously. Castiel was reading his book again, while Sam rose to his feet to inspect the tattoo more closely. “How long has that even been there?”
Sam arched a brow. “You don’t know? Dude, do you look in the mirror when you take a shower?”
Dean rolled his eyes. “It’s still covered in steam and I’m completely dressed before I leave the bathroom. Besides, how often does a person look at their shoulder? Seriously.”
Conceding the point, Sam gave a one sided shrug. “It looks like it’s in Enochian, actually. Except for being written in a circle like that. Enochian is non-flourish. How drunk did you get to get a tattoo and you don’t even remember it? Was it after I died or something? Lisa says you did a mess of drinking back then.”
The elder Winchester shook his head before pulling on a shirt and running his hands over his still damp hair. “Nah, I would have noticed it before then. Besides, I haven’t drank in months.”
Sam’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “You what?”
Dean shrugged. “Yeah. I felt so bad acting a fool like that and drinking so much, especially with Ben in the house, I gave it up. It’s not like it was helping and I was totally a bad example for a kid.” He swatted at his brother. “Stop looking so shocked. I can be a responsible adult. Oh, hey look, you’re not-so-naughty nurse is here for your training. Go get ‘em tiger.”
Sam didn’t have to be told twice, just rolled his eyes and waved his brother off, before hurrying out the front door to meet Sarah for their bike ride. Dean waited for several moments before pivoting around to face his best friend, hands on his hips.
“Okay. Spill. I’m already sure I won’t like it, but tell me anyway.” The other man lifted his gaze inquiringly, but with a blank expression like he wasn’t sure what Dean was talking about. Scoffing, Dean rolled his eyes. “Dude. It’s in your language. You can translate. Not to mention, you went five shades of red the moment you saw it, and I could practically feel your heart start pounding, which would been kinda funny if it weren’t making me so nervous that what’s written on my arm is something seriously bad. So what is it?”
Cas shifted his gaze back down to his book. “It is nothing bad or of any real consequence, just a phrase.”
Crossing the room, Dean plucked the book easily from Cas’s hands, which he shouldn’t have been able to do given the angel’s strength. The other man rose quickly, avoiding looking at him. Dean grabbed his wrist, keeping him from brushing past him, which left them both in each other’s personal space. While it did not have Cas looming over Dean like when he was in his female body, Dean noted he was still more hyperly aware of the angel’s body suddenly. He had to swallow thickly to be able to speak.
“What does it say, Cas?”
Blue gaze flicking to Dean’s arm, the burn mark and tattoo hidden by the sleeve of Dean’s shirt, the angel sighed in defeat, sliding a hand up the hunter’s arm to push the fabric back. Dean fought back a shiver of delight that ripped all the way through him at the sensation, the urge to let his eyes slide shut.
The angel regarded the writing for a moment, then admitted, “It says ‘The angel of Thursday’.”
Dean frowned at him. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
Sighing again, Cas stepped away, refusing to look at Dean. The hunter fought reaching out to grab him again, missing that touch. “It does make sense.” He turned, forcing himself to meet his friend’s gaze. “That is the translation of my name.”
For a moment, Dean forgot to breath. They just stared at each other, not moving.
Then, “Are you telling me I have ‘Property of Castiel’ tattooed on my arm?”
“You are my parabatai,” ventured the angel cautiously, as if that made it better.
“Cas!” exclaimed Dean. “Dude! People are already asking me if you and I are romantically involved and cracking jokes about us being friends! This is fuel to the fire! Why would you do this?”
“I did not do it intentionally,” argued the angel, defensive. “I can only assume it’s a result of making you my parabatai. The warning is there for angels to see, but where human eyes cannot, I did not realize there would be a physical one as well. We are a first for me, Dean, forgive me if I am no on expert on this.”
“So are we married now?” demanded the other man.
“No!” snapped Cas angrily. “Why do you keep asking me that? Worse still, in that tone? As though you would sooner die than be devoted to an angel? To me?”
“Because you’re a guy, Cas!”
“I am not!”
“So, what, you’re a chick?”
“I am an angel! We are gender neutral and completely indifferent to sexual orientation! Why does the shape of my vessel matter so much to you? When you were female it made no difference to me other than sometimes I forgot about the change and it caught me off guard, or the curiosity of watching the way you moved differently and adapted to your surroundings in one body as opposed to the other, but you were still you regardless of what you looked like! Why are you ashamed to be associated with me because my vessel is male?”
Dean blinked with a start, staring at his friend. “Whoa. Cas, dude, I’m not ashamed of you. I couldn’t be damn prouder to call myself your friend, okay?” The angel glowered furiously at him, and Dean wondered exactly how close he was to getting smited. “I just… There’s a huge cultural difference going on here, okay? To you, gender doesn’t matter, but to humans, gender having a huge priority to us is how we’re raised. Gender and relationships are the cause for a lot of strife and division, even as children it can be the source of ridicule, in which case, even as adults it incites jokes, ridicule, and teasing.
‘You and I are both guys, regardless of you being an angel with the power to body jump. When people see us, they see guys. Not everyone is accepting to two guys being in a close relationship, it makes people uncomfortable, makes some angry, but it goes back to the way we are raised. Angels are all born with a sort of equality about them, some are ranked higher than others, but you are all equals separated by nothing. Humans are the exact opposite. We’re separated from each other by everything, and especially by appearances. It doesn’t matter to you, but it’s apart of our mindset.”
“So you are embarrassed having my name on your arm because it will bring ridicule, is what you are saying?”
“Can you honestly say it won’t? Even if it’s meant harmlessly?”
“I cannot remove the mark, Dean.”
The hunter shook his head. “I’m not worried about that, Cas. I’m not ashamed of you, and you asked for my permission first and I said ‘yes’. As long as it’s not tattooed on my forehead, we’re okay. It’s just weird. Part of my brain is freaking out because it knows I am going to get mocked for this. For two, this runs a high risk of making me look weak to others now, like saying I’m the girl, the submissive one, the weak one, the one who has to be protected in the relationship. Not to mention, but do we really need to give your siblings another reason to be pissed off at either of us? Seriously? Forget me for a second, think how this could come back to bite you.” His eyes played over the other man’s face. “Does this make sense to you?”
“Yes.”
Dean nodded, glancing down to regard his arm again. “It’s not a big deal, really, I guess I was hoping for a heads up or something, but I get this is new to you, too, and at least it looks kinda cool.” He glanced up to see the reserved expression still on the angel’s face. “It’s really cool, actually,” he amended. “I officially have a partner in crime who has my back in any situation. You and I? We are badasses, is what it says.” A relieved sigh escaped him as the rest of the tension left Castiel’s body. “Do you have a mark on you?”
The angel blinked, looking down at himself. “I do not know. I’ve never had reason to examine my vessel’s body.”
Dean hooked his thumb over his shoulder. “Well… go to the bathroom and check or something.”
“And if there isn’t?”
Stumped, the hunter considered this for a moment. “If not, well then, I guess we can get you a tattoo if you want.” He folded his arms. “Sam and I talked about throwing the idea at you, getting you an anti-possession tat as a sort of ‘welcome to the family’ thing, but the opportunity never really came up. If there isn’t a mark, and you want one, we’ll get you one, no big deal.” He shrugged.
--
“So explain what you meant about the world ending,” stated Dean from his position under the Impala changing the oil. He glanced over to watch Gabbie’s foot bounce where she sat on a crate. Sam’s feet were near the porch stairs, and angle his head though he might, Dean didn’t see Cas’s shoes even though he knew he was there somewhere. “You dropped the bomb then poofed out last time. We still have other people we need to inform, y’know, along with details like ‘how’ and ‘how to avoid’.”
“Not to mention,” interjected Sam, “we’ve already saved the world and stopped the Big Bad multiple times. Don’t we get a pass on saving the world this time?”
“Yeah,” Dean agreed. “What’s so great about the Winchesters people keep coming to us with their problems?”
“Well you are the only ones that have ‘saving the world’ tucked under your belt, now aren’t you?” she argued. She’d magicked herself a cherry Popsicle and was happily licking and sucking away at it. Dean had noticed that earlier. Where her father had a penchant for anything sweet, she liked anything cherry. “Besides, I never do anything for free. If you want me to tell you something, you have to tell me something first.”
“Shoot,” he told her.
“What’s the glowing mark and tattoo on your arm and chest mean?”
“You can’t read it?” Dean knew the glow what something only angels could see, centered over his heart and where the sigil was actually located. Hell if he knew what it looked like though. “You’re an archangel, aren’t you?”
“Half archangel.”
“You found out what it means?” questioned Sam, moving closer to the car. Dean glanced around real quick for the sight of Cas’s shoes, but still didn’t see them, instead he reached for the tray he had nearby and exchanged one tool for another.
“Of course I know what it means, Sam. It’s on my arm and I agreed to having it there. Says I’m Cas’s work wife.” He was pretty sure from the sounds that followed that both Gabbie and Sam choked on whatever they’d been eating or drinking that moment. It made him smirk. “It basically says I’ve got an angel watching my back, that he’s a ‘smite first, don’t even bother with questions’ kind of guy, and that it’s in your best interest to not even mess with me unless you want to see the wrath of God put to shame. But in Enochian, so it’s written in, like, shorthand or something.”
He felt Cas’s amusement wash over him and knew without a doubt the angel was definitely standing somewhere near by. The amusement was mixed with a sense of pride and affection, too, which only made Dean feel the same way in return, like they were having some secret bonding moment even with others nearby. Maybe that was part of what made him feel more affection towards the angel was that he could express what he thought or felt without actually having to express anything, they both just sort of knew.
“Since I can’t inscribe a rune in Cas’s ribs like he can mine, we thought about just writing ‘Dean was here’ in permanent marker somewhere on him. What do you think, Sam? Somewhere on his arm like mine? Stamping it to his forehead might make him look a little silly, so don’t even suggest it, and nowhere obscene either. He’s an angel, remember.”
“Where we have our tattoos would be a good spot, I guess,” suggested Sam, clearly not sure if he was being messed with, but deciding to go with it anyway. “We’d talked about getting him his own anyway.”
“Pretty much everyone we meet and become friends with needs to start getting these tattoos and charms, man,” griped Dean as he thought about it. “That way they can’t be used against us. God knows I got Lisa her own and made certain Ben had protectives until he’s old enough to get a tat.” Dean frowned when he felt Cas flare with annoyance, though he wasn’t sure why. It wasn’t like someone else had shown up. “So, Gabbie! World ending? You were filling us in on it?”
She was a fidgetter. Constantly moving some part of her body, usually her feet. Dean couldn’t help but wonder if that was something she’d inherited from her father as well. God only knew who her mother was, and he certainly wasn’t going to ask. Way it sounded, she was conceived out of necessity rather than love, not to mention, all the info he had on her he’d learned from Becky, so he wasn’t going to go asking about things she hadn’t even told him.
She clicked her heels together, then bounced the one foot. “Well, I don’t actually know any specifics. I’ve just seen the signs. God’s chosen people have vanished off the face of the earth without a trace. That’s a bad sign.”
“So, what? He just leaves the rest of us here without a clue and hopes for the best? Why does he never stop the Big Bad himself? He is God, I would point out.”
“I’ve never met my grandfather, so I really couldn’t say.” And again, the weirdness that they all saw each other like actual family was just bizarre. God was God, an entity in Dean’s mind that was more like the massive monument of Abraham Lincoln, but not like an actual living, breathing person. To the angels, he was their father, their figurehead, the one that guided their massively large and hugely screwed up family and kept order. Gabriel had a child and raised that child with the common family archetype, his father was her grandfather. “My dad use to explain it to me that Grandpa likes for his kids to do things for themselves. If he took care of everything and always made everything right, it makes people spoiled. When the world is in danger and he does nothing, it’s because he wants us to fight for it, because it should matter to us rather than just to him.”
Sliding out from under the car, Dean shoved himself to his feet, knocking dust and dirt away. “Just because I can see where that makes some kind of sense, doesn’t mean I have to like it any.” Snatching up a rag, he tried to wipe away the grease and oil smeared across his hands. There would be more later regardless.
“Grandpa probably doesn’t like that everyone thinks they’re entitled to Him just making everything right in their lives, either. You have to meet Him halfway on things.”
An affectionate smile graced Castiel’s lips as he regarded Gabbie, their eyes meeting. “He’ll provide the resources and tools, but we must fight the battle.”
A crooked smile and she shrugged. “Hey, He could leave us empty handed, but He never does.”
The way they smiled at each other was like watching a sudden kinsmanship blossom. In that moment, they connected, as angels, as siblings, as family. It was sweet, actually, making Dean happy for Cas. If anyone deserved friends and family who would do right by him, or just goodness in general, it was Castiel.
“That doesn’t really help us out any though,” pointed out Sam. He scratched his head and made a helpless gesture. “Something bad prompted God to remove the prophets from the playing field. Okay. What? When will the threat be here? How much time does that leave us to assemble and outfit the warriors?”
“I might have a tiny bit of information on one of those at least,” a voice offered. They all turned to regard Crowley. He stood a distance away, hands in the pockets of his expensive and personally tailored suit. “Rumors, really.”
The Winchesters met gazes then flicked their attention back to the King of Hell. “Okay. What do you know and how much will it cost us?”
The demon shrugged lazily. “If you take care of the problem, I say it’s an even transaction. If you don’t, we’ll all be dead anyway and there will be no reason to worry about an unpaid invoice.”
“Cheery,” quipped Dean. “What is it?”
Angling his head, he let his gaze travel over each person before finally coming full circle to land on Dean. “What do you know about Purgatory?”
Yes, that is much like finding out a nightmare is reality. Déjà vu to the fullest and just as much fear that everything is going to blowup in your face and destroy everything you hold dear. He looked at Cas in a panic, the angel stared back, brows knitting in confusion. He knew Dean was suddenly afraid, but did not know why. Dean wasn’t afraid. Dean was ready to freak out in full on panic.
“Purgatory is the place where souls gather, it’s where the earliest forms of creatures like werewolves, vampires, etc. their alphas, their originals, along with things called Leviathans,” He swallowed thickly, hearing the way his voice cracked as he answered. “All the really bad stuff, the things that make up our nightmares, the things that make Hell look like a child’s playground…They’re all in Purgatory.”
Sam looked at him in true surprise. “Wow, Dean. Where did you learn that?”
He didn’t look away from the King of Hell. “I read it in a book.”
Crowley winked at him. “And a gold star for the elder brother here. Very good.” He sauntered forward, hands clasped together as he mulled over his words like a man attempting a business venture. “Word is… there’s a sort of leak in the wall that keeps them all locked up. Things are getting out. One here. One there. Nasty little buggers, the lot of them. And that’s just the monsters, that’s not including the threat of all those souls unleashed, what would happen if they fell into the wrong hands, how much power that could grant, the risk that would be taken in trying to harness that power.” His gaze flicked up to regard each of them seriously as he spoke. “If that wall breaks, and all those monsters and souls are unleashed… your little angel apocalypse is going to look like tea and cookies by comparison. They will destroy this world, Heaven, and Hell, and I don’t even know what will become of them after that because even when everything else is destroyed, they will still continue to exist, creating their very own Hell dimension.”
“How do we fix the wall?” demanded Sam. Bobby had come out and stood on the porch next to Castiel, everyone wearing matching grim expressions. “How do we keep them from getting free?”
Clicking his tongue, Crowley rolled his shoulders and slid his hands into his pockets again with a shrug. “Couldn’t say.”
Dean choked. “C-couldn’t say?” He surged forward an angry step. “You show up, tell us everything is about to burn to the ground, and then that you don’t even know how to fix it?”
The older man eyed him with disinterest, brow arching slightly. “I told you: I’ve only heard rumors. Perhaps I’ve come across a beastie or two, apparently from Purgatory, but good luck getting them to talk on how they cross over and where.”
Then he was gone and Dean was throwing a wrench furiously at empty air. Head angled to the side, Gabriella pursed her lips, popsicle forgotten and dripping by her foot.
“Well,” she said, straightening and rising quickly to her feet. “I guess that’s my cue.”
Then she was gone, too.
“Wha-? Wait! Gabbie!” yelled Sam, then angrily, “Gabriella!”
Grumbling, Bobby adjusted his cap, shaking his head and turning to go back inside. “Like father, like daughter. We’ve got work to do, boys.”
Wearing his patented bitch face, Sam looked ready to punch something, the muscle in his jaw twitching as he clenched his teeth and shifted with restless energy, hand clenching and unclenching by his side.
As they turned to go inside, Dean grabbed Cas by the elbow, pulling him back as the angel glanced at him curiously. Dean was already dragging him away, growling, “I need to speak to you. Now.”
“Wha-? Dean!” exclaimed Sam, indignant.
“We’ll be there in a minute!” he snapped back, not even sparing his brother a glance as he hauled the angel away.
They were on the other side of the salvage yard and surrounded by corroded and ruined cars before either one of them spoke.
“Dean,” ventured Cas softly. “What’s wrong? You’re in a panic.”
The hunter had already released him and now paced furiously, fingers raking through his hair and then gripping his head.
“I can’t do this. I can’t.” He looked up at his friend beseechingly, with the desperation of a man facing the impossible, the inconceivably cruel. “I cannot go through this, Cas, it’ll kill me.”
The angel shook his head, frowning and brows knitting together as he tried to ascertain what he’d missed that had Dean so afraid. “I don’t understand, Dean. You aren’t making sense.” He shook his head. “Fighting another apocalypse? Is that what you are afraid of? Dean, you have done it before, you have allies-“
“No, dude! It isn’t that. Screw the apocalypse!” he yelled. He turned demandingly to the angel. “Do you know what I know about purgatory? About alphas? About all the damn souls IN purgatory and what happens if someone absorbs them? About who tries to harness that power?” he surged forward to grab the front of Cas’s jacket. “It’s bad freaking news, that’s what I know! You and I end up no longer being friends in the middle of it, in fact, you turn into the bad guy!”
The angel was shaking his head in confused denial. “Dean, I-“
“In your desperation to save the world, you join forces with Crowley to tap into Purgatory and withdraw all the souls, splitting the power fifty-fifty in order to keep another threat from absorbing that power. You lie to me, consort with Crowley, then double-cross him and absorb all the souls in yourself even though I beg you not to. I beg you, and you do it anyway! Then those souls have you tripping on power and you turn around and totally put Lucifer to shame by declaring yourself the new God and that everyone submit to your power and show their love for you! Hell, we even try to stop you using an angel blade and it doesn’t do a damn thing, you just go around smiting the unjust and slaying angels like some kind of wrathful force until the Leviathans totally take over your body, and…” Anger and panic gave way to fear and grief, his eyes pricking as he recalled the images of his friend during his fall and then death.
Dean shoved away from Castiel, wiping a hand over his face and trying hard to compose himself, tilting his head back to stare at the sky and blinking back the moisture he refused to allow to fall.
“In your desperation for time to open the door and absorb the souls, you break my brother's mind, promising you’ll fix it later, so damn confident that what you are doing is right, regardless of who you were hurting in the process. But you don’t fix him, Sam’s mind is suddenly Lucifer’s playground, and he’s Sam’s constant companion. As if that weren’t bad enough, you come to your senses too late, man.” He swallowed the lump in his throat, blinking back more tears, and shaking his head. “You die, Cas. Horribly.” He turned to look at the angel, shaking his head stubbornly again. “I can’t go through that. I won’t. I can’t watch my baby brother suffer any more than he already has, and I definitely can’t watch you go dark side and then die because we couldn’t save you. I’ve lost too much; I can’t lose you, too, Cas. I just can’t. It would destroy me.”
“Dean…”
“Dude, why the hell do you think I was so freaked out when I originally called you? You thought I was tripping on acid asking about the war in heaven that wasn’t, but if monsters from purgatory are slipping through into our world and the dam is threatening to break then those books aren’t all garbage, at least parts of it are true and we have a big fucking problem on our hands and-“
His words were cut off as Cas stepped forward and wrapped his arms around him with a soft sound Dean took to be soothing. He hugged the angel back tightly, brain still in full panic mode because even having read the books, he still had no freaking clue how to face down the problem in front of them. This was impossible. They were going to die and he was going to have to watch as he lost every member of his family one at a time, and he knew he couldn’t handle that.
He could feel the way Castiel willed him to be calm, soothing sensations washing over him he fought fiercely against. He didn’t want to be calm, he wanted to be freaked out and angry, it seemed like a better tool to use against what they were facing rather than calm and collected demeanor. But his parabatai wrapped all around him, the flutter of wings filling his ears as those black wings reared and cocooned around them, sheltering them.
“Dean, I will never betray you,” whispered the angel. The hunter squeezed his eyes shut, knowing he was losing what control he had. “I will always protect you and your brother to the best of my ability until I am no longer able. We are family now. Family is everything, and not something you walk out on.”
Releasing him enough to pull back and look at the angel, Dean shook his head, hearing the tears in his own voice. “I can’t go through this,” he repeated. “I can’t.”
Blue eyes searching his face, Cas raised his hands to cup Dean’s jaw in his hands, stopping the blatant denial. A shadow of a smile tugged at the corner of the angel’s mouth. “You won’t have to go through it alone.”
Faaabbbb stuff
Date: 2012-05-18 11:09 pm (UTC)I'll admit in the early chapters I was skeptical and didn't really know what to make of where this was going, and your summary was pretty vague and wasn't giving me any clues either! I was missing out chunks of writing in a bid to find something that appealed to me and somewhere along the way I just sunk into the story and was reading every word!
I love the way you write Cas and Dean, I love the way you incorporate all the characters and I really love how the characters I would usually find annoying or irritating don't bug me at all! Even though you've dredged Sarah up from season 1 and we know hardly anything about her character she makes a lovely addition to the story!
I also congratulate you on the technical accuracy of your writing. I have an annoying talent for catching grammar/spelling errors etc and they usually chip away at my mood as well as a story's impact. It's great to know that the writer is paying just as much/more attention to detail than you - and I can relax and just enjoy your story for what it is.
I love how you mix the awkwardness with the serious tender moments between Cas and Dean. You get the tone spot on for each scene and can swap over no problemo. And you make me laugh! My favourite bit is a while back when Cas and Dean were making tea, and Cas takes off his coat and tie causing Dean to blush and 'shove' the apron at Cas before focusing on the cooking! I laughed out loud then - your word choice was fab.
Referring to this chapter specifically, I loved the Dean/Cas moments. Their fight was great (or not great, depending on how you want to look at it) and I liked how Cas had to have a mini-explosion and then Dean explained everything to him - n'aww! I loved the last scene too - the hug especially! There's just something about angel wings... so damn epic! It was very cute :) On another note, I'm interested to see if you follow up on the whole tattoo thing. But I'll leave that in your hands ;)
Great story - sorry for not commenting on any of the other chapters, hope this ramble makes up for it! It's fair to say I am eagerly awaiting the next chapter :) Keep up the great work!
Hayley x
Re: Faaabbbb stuff
Date: 2012-05-23 08:45 pm (UTC)Grammar mistakes bug me as well, so I try very hard to catch them, rereading the chapter multiple times.
Glad you are enjoying the pacing of the story as well, like with the relationship development. I fight very hard making it go slow. ^_^