A/N: This starts out all light and cheery but quickly escalates into
something veddy veddy bad! In this chapter Mia and Sirius' relationship is
defined more and his family life is again a problem. Damn that family!
Well, thank you for all the reviews! I haven't been acknowledging you guys as I should so here's a thanks to everyone that has reviewed! If you're not on it, get on the bandwagon right quick:
Thank you to:
Nocturnal007
Amber Spirit
EVILMWHAA HA HA HA HAA
teknocat
Star of the Muses
professor-fidget
bboo (unsigned)
HeavenlyDevilish
BlackWiltedRose
fiery-skies
Doodleflip
Z
A huge thank you to all who reviewed and made me very happy these last seven chapters!
---
"Christmas! Christmas! Christmas time is here," chanted Sirius excitedly. He had been bouncing around the Common Room in this manner for some time. In fact, it had been since two days ago when classes had let out.
Mia kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you for sharing that. As if we were too daft not to hear it the other seven thousand times you've said it."
"Quite right," chuckled Remus, not bothering to look up from the book he was curled up in.
Sirius pouted for a moment at the insult, but the holiday cheer (and not to mention sugar) quickly perked him back up. "Is everyone staying for the holidays?"
"Sirius," Remus said exasperatedly, "We've already told you this about a million times."
"Told me what?" Sirius looked confused. "Oh yeah! So who's staying?"
"I am," said James, who was currently sprawled out on one of the large sofas. Though it was large, it was not long enough to hold his long frame and he overlapped it by quite a bit, much to the consternation of Lily, who was currently pinned under his legs.
"Me too," she said, resigned to the fact that she was stuck under his legs.
"Yowch!" James yelped a moment later. Everyone looked on. They knew this should be good-- Lily had resorted to pulling out every individual hair on his leg, one by one.
"What?" She asked innocently.
"So mind not pulling the leg hairs?"
"Yes."
"What? Yes to what?"
"James," she said slowly, as if talking to a four year old on crack, " 'yes' was the answer to your question."
James did not seem satisfied with that answer, but merely rolled his eyes and attacked Lily with his toes.
"Will you two stop flirting?" Remus glared at the two moodily. "I'm trying to read. Something you obviously don't do James, from your abysmal grades!"
"You're just jealous because you're too shy to ask Amber out," laughed Mia. She added, "Yeah, I'm staying. And so is Amber."
"Me too," said Remus sulkily, hiding behind his book to disguise the red rising on his face.
"Me too," piped up Peter, but as usual, no one paid him any mind.
"Great! The whole gang's going to be here! Pity there's not a ball this year. Oh well!" Nothing could make Sirius sad during the holidays.
After a brief monologue on the wonders of the Christmas tree (care of Sirius), the room was silent except for the crackling of the fire and James' toes.
"That's disgusting," sniffed Lily, wrinkling her nose in disgust.
"I'm bored," whined James, pointedly ignoring the girl he had plastered to the couch.
"Shut it James," said Lily as Mia said, "We could continue on truth or dare!"
"You called me James!" James exulted as Remus said, "that could be fun."
Peter giggled as Lily slapped James' leg as Sirius said, "Remus just wants to play it because he never got Amber's lap dance!"
Remus did not dignify that comment, but did manage to turn bright red (again) and glare.
"What? It's true," said Sirius innocently.
"Well we obviously need to do something," Mia mused.
"Ah! She's got an idea!" (Around the holidays all of Sirius' sentences ended in exclamation points.)
"Yeah, I do actually. I say we go down to the Quiddich Pitch and go have a game."
"Mia! I hate heights!" Lily indeed looked quite frightened at the mere thought of it.
Mia dismissed her comment. "Whatever, you could be one of those stupid peppy Muggle cheerleaders while the rest of us have some fun."
"I'm in," chorused Sirius and James.
Remus stood up. "Shall we go?"
...............
A mere ten minutes later the six friends had arrived. Lily had been forced into coming and was now hitched over the shoulder of James Potter, screaming her head off. Sirius had thought this a grand idea and swept Mia up, who just giggled and half heartedly beat his back as they made their way down to the pitch.
Remus had thought it wise not to carry Peter.
Anyway, it was only half past five, but it was already nearly dark. And cold.
"Very cold," commented Peter intelligently.
"No? Really?" Sirius sneered at Peter and smacked him with his broom.
"Ow!"
"Come on guys, let's play," James suggested.
With that Remus, James, Sirius, and Mia had mounted their brooms and flew up, whooping and yelling as they felt the cool night air rush over their bodies.
Lily and Peter (who had decided he did not want to die quite yet) took their seats in the relative safety of the Gryffindor bleachers and watched the other four.
"Any one got any balls?" James looked dismayed; he couldn't believe he had forgotten to bring any other equiptment.
"I've got some!" Joyfully shouted Sirius. Remus rolled his eyes.
Would this kid never grow up?
"I haven't," managed a giggling Mia.
"Oh well, looks like we'll just have to fly a bit. No play." Everyone could hear the disappointment in his voice.
"Oh cheer up James! We'll play tag," Mia suggested.
"YEAH!" Sirius was excited.
Still.
"Okay. Not it!" Mia called quickly.
"Not it!" Sirius was bucking his broom around so much the other five feared for his life.
"Not it!"
"Fine, I guess I'm it," pouted James. "Ready or not, here I come!"
With that he shot off towards the nearest person—Remus.
"Oh no you don't," roared Remus as he shot off displaying his infrequent grin. He skillfully dodged the Gryffindor chaser and flew off to hide behind Sirius.
"Hey! Not fair!" Sirius shot off, leaving Remus in the open.
James, without hesitation, shot headlong into Remus—but hit only air. "GRR!" He shouted, having been eluded by Remus for a second time.
"You suck James," laughed Mia, so far unmoving.
"Oh, you asked for it," muttered James. He shot off.
Mia saw him coming in slow motion; she should have been able to dodge him easily. But before she could even think of moving, before James could touch her, a tremendous force hit her square in the chest.
Before she could even react, she felt herself falling. She could hear nothing but the wind rushing by her ears and the faint sound of a high pitched wail from the direction of the bleachers.
And suddenly it stopped.
Funny. This feeling, that is, she thought to herself. I'm all tingly. And very tired. Why was she so tired? And look! There's a boy. A boy... Sirius!
Finally she recognized the boy. And the feeling.
Pain.
"Help," she was able to mutter before she completely blacked out.
Sirius had landed as soon as he could, and Remus and James were not far behind. He bent down and checked her pulse and breathing as he wiped the hair away from her sweaty face.
"Oh Merlin! I knew Quiddich was dangerous! Is she hurt? Oh Mia," moaned Lily as she reached the group. Peter came up to the group, panting and clearly winded.
"B-but I- I never- I di- didn't touch h-her!" James babbled behind the two. Sirius hardly seemed to noticed as he peered concernedly into her face.
"I know it wasn't you James," he dismissed, "You didn't even touch her. Besides, I'm pretty sure it was a spell."
Lily put a comforting hand around his shoulders and in return he buried his head in her shoulder. Normally this would have been a big deal, but there was a crisis to deal with.
Remus nodded his head in agreement, too in shock to realize Sirius wouldn't be able to see him. "We've got to get her to the infirmary," he said logically.
"Good thinking." Sirius conjured up a stretcher and, gingerly picking Mia up and putting her on the stretcher, took it towards the school, careful not to jostle her in the process.
"Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas, Ring the Hogwart's bells..." A ghost mournfully sang as they passed by the entrance to the kitchens.
"Shut it," snapped Sirius, finally out of his holiday spirits.
"Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas, Cast a Christmas spell." The ghost continued its mournful singing, apparently not hearing Sirius. And instead of carrying on the way it had come, it began trailing along with the singing, "Ding dong, ding dong, ding dong..."
They sped up and were finally able to get away from it.
"What do you think happened?" Asked Lily gotten inside and past the ghost. It had seemed almost taboo to talk outside.
"I bet you anything it was my mum," Sirius said darkly, not bothering to hide the contempt in his voice.
"Really?" Lily looked surprised as she led James down the hall by his hand. He was still too shaken from the event to be of any help.
"Normally I would thin the best of people, Lily, but I'm fairly sure he's right." Remus laid a hand on Mia's shoulder as he spoke. "I mean, obviously she was very upset the night of Regulus' birthday."
"She wanted to get rid of any threat to the Black lineage," Sirius growled.
"Why didn't she just k-kill you, Sirius?"
"Because, my dearest Lily," he said sarcastically, "I'm too important for their cause to kill me. They still hold the foolish notion that I could be swayed by power."
"But power is important," Peter finally managed to squeak.
Sirius whirled on him. "Worth the destruction of the world as we know it? What, are you suggesting that I join this dark lord?"
Peter's watery eyes widened as he feigned shock. "Of course not. I was just saying..."
Before Sirius could get anything more than a decent glare thrown at Peter they had reached the infirmary.
"Madame Pomfrey!" Sirius raised his voice as loud as he dared. The young plump witch was a Nazi (if they knew who they were) and kicked out anything that made noise louder than a mouse.
"What is it? Have you boys gotten into a fight again?" She asked irritably as she strode over to them. "Oh, oh dear," she breathed as she caught sight of Mia. "Out! Everyone out!"
"Please, ma'am, can I stay? She needs someone," pleaded Sirius.
"Oh fine," she said, softening at the look in his eyes. "You can tell me what happened. But the rest of you- out!"
The four remaining friends shuffled slowly out of the room, throwing soft words of encouragement to their two friends.
After relating the story to Madame Pomfrey she nodded brusquely.
"Of course, it seems that someone hit her with a Pugnatem Curse. And you're sure you have no idea who?"
Sirius shook his head guiltily. He was not ready to say anything, yet.
"Now I have the reverse to this curse. As you probably know, the Pugnatem Curse is liked a magical punch to the person on the receiving end. It also takes a great amount of energy from the receiver. This potion will immediately revive her, but she will be very tired. I will leave it up to you to get her to eat this chocolate. And no pranking," she finished sternly.
"Thank you," Sirius said, grateful that she trusted him enough to do this himself. Now he felt bad about lying...
Quickly Mia was forced to drink the potion. As soon as Madame Pomfrey was satisfied she was awake, she bustled out of the room, leaving the two alone.
"Sirius?" Mia opened her eyes slowly. It took her a while to focus on the earnest face looming above her.
"Great! You're awake. You've got to eat this chocolate. You've been hit by a Pugnatem Curse-"
"What?" She cried. "By who?"
"I don't know," Sirius said softly. Reluctantly he added, "I thought it might be my mother."
Mia nodded thoughtfully and, very carefully, sat herself upright in the bed. "That would make sense. She does rather hate me."
"Glad to see you're taking this so calmly! You nearly gave me a heart attack when you fell! Nearly fifty feet, I would say!" He was greatly shocked to see tears running down her face. "What? What's wrong? I'm sorry!"
She shook her head and smiled through her tears. "Nothing's wrong. You're just so- so wonderful! For taking care of me and all." She reached down and gently cupped his face. "Sirius, I love you."
Sirius looked shocked. He squatted silently on the floor for a moment, then finally grabbed her hand and said awkwardly, "I- I really like you too."
Mia wrenched her hand out of his. "I should have expected that one, Black," she said bitterly, "I knew it was too good to be true."
"What? I- I really do l- lo-l." But he couldn't bring himself to say it.
"Why did you even bother?" She struggled to restraint the tears that were pouring down her cheeks, but to no avail.
"I'm sorry," he said in a very small voice. "I just can't."
"WHY? TELL ME THAT B:ACK! WHY?"
In the back of Sirius' mind he vaguely wondered why Madame Pomfrey hadn't returned at the sound of her patient screaming.
"WHY?"
"I- I don't know how," he finally spat out, feeling his cheeks burning with shame.
Surprisingly, Mia burst out laughing. "Black, that's the most pathetic excuse I've ever heard."
The look on Sirius' face was enough to halt her laughter. "I'd bet you'd be laughing if you were in my place. For my whole life my parents alternately told me that they loved me or that I was a failure. From what I've known of it, love is a stupid and false pretense. It's not real. Not in my life, anyway."
"It's true in my life," she said, gently rubbing his back, "and I'm in your life Sirius, and it's a part of you. All of your friends have love, and they're sharing it with you. All you need to do is accept it and it will be a part of you." She took a deep breath. "I don't care if you tell me you love me." She paused. "Well, yes I do. It hurts. But I understand if you can't say it. I just want you to know that if you could ever love me the feeling is mutual."
---
A/N: Aww, can you feel the love tonight? Anyway, that was fairly long and I'm actually pleased with the outcome. (Approximately 2500 words! Go me!) Yeah, well, as usual R&R.
Well, thank you for all the reviews! I haven't been acknowledging you guys as I should so here's a thanks to everyone that has reviewed! If you're not on it, get on the bandwagon right quick:
Thank you to:
Nocturnal007
Amber Spirit
EVILMWHAA HA HA HA HAA
teknocat
Star of the Muses
professor-fidget
bboo (unsigned)
HeavenlyDevilish
BlackWiltedRose
fiery-skies
Doodleflip
Z
A huge thank you to all who reviewed and made me very happy these last seven chapters!
---
"Christmas! Christmas! Christmas time is here," chanted Sirius excitedly. He had been bouncing around the Common Room in this manner for some time. In fact, it had been since two days ago when classes had let out.
Mia kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you for sharing that. As if we were too daft not to hear it the other seven thousand times you've said it."
"Quite right," chuckled Remus, not bothering to look up from the book he was curled up in.
Sirius pouted for a moment at the insult, but the holiday cheer (and not to mention sugar) quickly perked him back up. "Is everyone staying for the holidays?"
"Sirius," Remus said exasperatedly, "We've already told you this about a million times."
"Told me what?" Sirius looked confused. "Oh yeah! So who's staying?"
"I am," said James, who was currently sprawled out on one of the large sofas. Though it was large, it was not long enough to hold his long frame and he overlapped it by quite a bit, much to the consternation of Lily, who was currently pinned under his legs.
"Me too," she said, resigned to the fact that she was stuck under his legs.
"Yowch!" James yelped a moment later. Everyone looked on. They knew this should be good-- Lily had resorted to pulling out every individual hair on his leg, one by one.
"What?" She asked innocently.
"So mind not pulling the leg hairs?"
"Yes."
"What? Yes to what?"
"James," she said slowly, as if talking to a four year old on crack, " 'yes' was the answer to your question."
James did not seem satisfied with that answer, but merely rolled his eyes and attacked Lily with his toes.
"Will you two stop flirting?" Remus glared at the two moodily. "I'm trying to read. Something you obviously don't do James, from your abysmal grades!"
"You're just jealous because you're too shy to ask Amber out," laughed Mia. She added, "Yeah, I'm staying. And so is Amber."
"Me too," said Remus sulkily, hiding behind his book to disguise the red rising on his face.
"Me too," piped up Peter, but as usual, no one paid him any mind.
"Great! The whole gang's going to be here! Pity there's not a ball this year. Oh well!" Nothing could make Sirius sad during the holidays.
After a brief monologue on the wonders of the Christmas tree (care of Sirius), the room was silent except for the crackling of the fire and James' toes.
"That's disgusting," sniffed Lily, wrinkling her nose in disgust.
"I'm bored," whined James, pointedly ignoring the girl he had plastered to the couch.
"Shut it James," said Lily as Mia said, "We could continue on truth or dare!"
"You called me James!" James exulted as Remus said, "that could be fun."
Peter giggled as Lily slapped James' leg as Sirius said, "Remus just wants to play it because he never got Amber's lap dance!"
Remus did not dignify that comment, but did manage to turn bright red (again) and glare.
"What? It's true," said Sirius innocently.
"Well we obviously need to do something," Mia mused.
"Ah! She's got an idea!" (Around the holidays all of Sirius' sentences ended in exclamation points.)
"Yeah, I do actually. I say we go down to the Quiddich Pitch and go have a game."
"Mia! I hate heights!" Lily indeed looked quite frightened at the mere thought of it.
Mia dismissed her comment. "Whatever, you could be one of those stupid peppy Muggle cheerleaders while the rest of us have some fun."
"I'm in," chorused Sirius and James.
Remus stood up. "Shall we go?"
...............
A mere ten minutes later the six friends had arrived. Lily had been forced into coming and was now hitched over the shoulder of James Potter, screaming her head off. Sirius had thought this a grand idea and swept Mia up, who just giggled and half heartedly beat his back as they made their way down to the pitch.
Remus had thought it wise not to carry Peter.
Anyway, it was only half past five, but it was already nearly dark. And cold.
"Very cold," commented Peter intelligently.
"No? Really?" Sirius sneered at Peter and smacked him with his broom.
"Ow!"
"Come on guys, let's play," James suggested.
With that Remus, James, Sirius, and Mia had mounted their brooms and flew up, whooping and yelling as they felt the cool night air rush over their bodies.
Lily and Peter (who had decided he did not want to die quite yet) took their seats in the relative safety of the Gryffindor bleachers and watched the other four.
"Any one got any balls?" James looked dismayed; he couldn't believe he had forgotten to bring any other equiptment.
"I've got some!" Joyfully shouted Sirius. Remus rolled his eyes.
Would this kid never grow up?
"I haven't," managed a giggling Mia.
"Oh well, looks like we'll just have to fly a bit. No play." Everyone could hear the disappointment in his voice.
"Oh cheer up James! We'll play tag," Mia suggested.
"YEAH!" Sirius was excited.
Still.
"Okay. Not it!" Mia called quickly.
"Not it!" Sirius was bucking his broom around so much the other five feared for his life.
"Not it!"
"Fine, I guess I'm it," pouted James. "Ready or not, here I come!"
With that he shot off towards the nearest person—Remus.
"Oh no you don't," roared Remus as he shot off displaying his infrequent grin. He skillfully dodged the Gryffindor chaser and flew off to hide behind Sirius.
"Hey! Not fair!" Sirius shot off, leaving Remus in the open.
James, without hesitation, shot headlong into Remus—but hit only air. "GRR!" He shouted, having been eluded by Remus for a second time.
"You suck James," laughed Mia, so far unmoving.
"Oh, you asked for it," muttered James. He shot off.
Mia saw him coming in slow motion; she should have been able to dodge him easily. But before she could even think of moving, before James could touch her, a tremendous force hit her square in the chest.
Before she could even react, she felt herself falling. She could hear nothing but the wind rushing by her ears and the faint sound of a high pitched wail from the direction of the bleachers.
And suddenly it stopped.
Funny. This feeling, that is, she thought to herself. I'm all tingly. And very tired. Why was she so tired? And look! There's a boy. A boy... Sirius!
Finally she recognized the boy. And the feeling.
Pain.
"Help," she was able to mutter before she completely blacked out.
Sirius had landed as soon as he could, and Remus and James were not far behind. He bent down and checked her pulse and breathing as he wiped the hair away from her sweaty face.
"Oh Merlin! I knew Quiddich was dangerous! Is she hurt? Oh Mia," moaned Lily as she reached the group. Peter came up to the group, panting and clearly winded.
"B-but I- I never- I di- didn't touch h-her!" James babbled behind the two. Sirius hardly seemed to noticed as he peered concernedly into her face.
"I know it wasn't you James," he dismissed, "You didn't even touch her. Besides, I'm pretty sure it was a spell."
Lily put a comforting hand around his shoulders and in return he buried his head in her shoulder. Normally this would have been a big deal, but there was a crisis to deal with.
Remus nodded his head in agreement, too in shock to realize Sirius wouldn't be able to see him. "We've got to get her to the infirmary," he said logically.
"Good thinking." Sirius conjured up a stretcher and, gingerly picking Mia up and putting her on the stretcher, took it towards the school, careful not to jostle her in the process.
"Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas, Ring the Hogwart's bells..." A ghost mournfully sang as they passed by the entrance to the kitchens.
"Shut it," snapped Sirius, finally out of his holiday spirits.
"Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas, Cast a Christmas spell." The ghost continued its mournful singing, apparently not hearing Sirius. And instead of carrying on the way it had come, it began trailing along with the singing, "Ding dong, ding dong, ding dong..."
They sped up and were finally able to get away from it.
"What do you think happened?" Asked Lily gotten inside and past the ghost. It had seemed almost taboo to talk outside.
"I bet you anything it was my mum," Sirius said darkly, not bothering to hide the contempt in his voice.
"Really?" Lily looked surprised as she led James down the hall by his hand. He was still too shaken from the event to be of any help.
"Normally I would thin the best of people, Lily, but I'm fairly sure he's right." Remus laid a hand on Mia's shoulder as he spoke. "I mean, obviously she was very upset the night of Regulus' birthday."
"She wanted to get rid of any threat to the Black lineage," Sirius growled.
"Why didn't she just k-kill you, Sirius?"
"Because, my dearest Lily," he said sarcastically, "I'm too important for their cause to kill me. They still hold the foolish notion that I could be swayed by power."
"But power is important," Peter finally managed to squeak.
Sirius whirled on him. "Worth the destruction of the world as we know it? What, are you suggesting that I join this dark lord?"
Peter's watery eyes widened as he feigned shock. "Of course not. I was just saying..."
Before Sirius could get anything more than a decent glare thrown at Peter they had reached the infirmary.
"Madame Pomfrey!" Sirius raised his voice as loud as he dared. The young plump witch was a Nazi (if they knew who they were) and kicked out anything that made noise louder than a mouse.
"What is it? Have you boys gotten into a fight again?" She asked irritably as she strode over to them. "Oh, oh dear," she breathed as she caught sight of Mia. "Out! Everyone out!"
"Please, ma'am, can I stay? She needs someone," pleaded Sirius.
"Oh fine," she said, softening at the look in his eyes. "You can tell me what happened. But the rest of you- out!"
The four remaining friends shuffled slowly out of the room, throwing soft words of encouragement to their two friends.
After relating the story to Madame Pomfrey she nodded brusquely.
"Of course, it seems that someone hit her with a Pugnatem Curse. And you're sure you have no idea who?"
Sirius shook his head guiltily. He was not ready to say anything, yet.
"Now I have the reverse to this curse. As you probably know, the Pugnatem Curse is liked a magical punch to the person on the receiving end. It also takes a great amount of energy from the receiver. This potion will immediately revive her, but she will be very tired. I will leave it up to you to get her to eat this chocolate. And no pranking," she finished sternly.
"Thank you," Sirius said, grateful that she trusted him enough to do this himself. Now he felt bad about lying...
Quickly Mia was forced to drink the potion. As soon as Madame Pomfrey was satisfied she was awake, she bustled out of the room, leaving the two alone.
"Sirius?" Mia opened her eyes slowly. It took her a while to focus on the earnest face looming above her.
"Great! You're awake. You've got to eat this chocolate. You've been hit by a Pugnatem Curse-"
"What?" She cried. "By who?"
"I don't know," Sirius said softly. Reluctantly he added, "I thought it might be my mother."
Mia nodded thoughtfully and, very carefully, sat herself upright in the bed. "That would make sense. She does rather hate me."
"Glad to see you're taking this so calmly! You nearly gave me a heart attack when you fell! Nearly fifty feet, I would say!" He was greatly shocked to see tears running down her face. "What? What's wrong? I'm sorry!"
She shook her head and smiled through her tears. "Nothing's wrong. You're just so- so wonderful! For taking care of me and all." She reached down and gently cupped his face. "Sirius, I love you."
Sirius looked shocked. He squatted silently on the floor for a moment, then finally grabbed her hand and said awkwardly, "I- I really like you too."
Mia wrenched her hand out of his. "I should have expected that one, Black," she said bitterly, "I knew it was too good to be true."
"What? I- I really do l- lo-l." But he couldn't bring himself to say it.
"Why did you even bother?" She struggled to restraint the tears that were pouring down her cheeks, but to no avail.
"I'm sorry," he said in a very small voice. "I just can't."
"WHY? TELL ME THAT B:ACK! WHY?"
In the back of Sirius' mind he vaguely wondered why Madame Pomfrey hadn't returned at the sound of her patient screaming.
"WHY?"
"I- I don't know how," he finally spat out, feeling his cheeks burning with shame.
Surprisingly, Mia burst out laughing. "Black, that's the most pathetic excuse I've ever heard."
The look on Sirius' face was enough to halt her laughter. "I'd bet you'd be laughing if you were in my place. For my whole life my parents alternately told me that they loved me or that I was a failure. From what I've known of it, love is a stupid and false pretense. It's not real. Not in my life, anyway."
"It's true in my life," she said, gently rubbing his back, "and I'm in your life Sirius, and it's a part of you. All of your friends have love, and they're sharing it with you. All you need to do is accept it and it will be a part of you." She took a deep breath. "I don't care if you tell me you love me." She paused. "Well, yes I do. It hurts. But I understand if you can't say it. I just want you to know that if you could ever love me the feeling is mutual."
---
A/N: Aww, can you feel the love tonight? Anyway, that was fairly long and I'm actually pleased with the outcome. (Approximately 2500 words! Go me!) Yeah, well, as usual R&R.