Silent Waltz     by Hikari-chan

Disclaimer: I own my Sailormoon tapes, my Gundam Wing posters, and that nice metal shield my muses gave me as an early Christmas present.

AN: *coughs* I don´t even know what to say, except maybe asking nicely that you don´t kill me. Yes, I know it´s been forever and a decade, but hey, it´s here now, right? *looks at unhappy readers and sweatdrops* Christmas motivates me. It should come around something like 6 times a year.

Bluejello: Well, maybe everyone picked them up and I just didn´t know. ^^;;;; I mean, if people don´t mention it or ask about it, I assume they didn´t pick it up. . . .

lilmakochan: I can´t wait till the end either. >.< Granted, not for the same reason as you, but at least the end is something I look forward to writing.

Heart Soul: O.o *is speechless* Keep reading. That´s all I can say.

Celestial Dreamblaze: I´m guilty of using clichés ^^;;; but I hate overused plot elements. I´m glad you agree that it´s better that Mamoru doesn´t have an infatuation with Usagi.

Everyone else: *glomps* I love you guys. Sometimes, I wish there was enough space to address you all specifically (and not go over 3 pages of AN´s). Your continued support has both surprised and motivated me. Merry early Christmas! Hope you guys get everything you want!

Warnings: transitional chapter, Mamoru is still OOC (but you´ll get some insight), and Heero´s OOC too. ^^;;;;

On with it. . . .

************************************

Chapter 11 – Coming Clean

************************************

Usagi tried to snuggle deeper into the warmth around her as the bright, unmerciful rays of the morning sun attacked her eyelids. She buried her face into the pillow beside her and let out a whimper.

"It´s too early," she muttered under her breath, refusing to open her eyes.

"It´ll be too late if you don´t get up and go back to your room now," her pillow replied, making Usagi snap her eyes open.

She breathed a sigh of relief when she met Heero´s amused gaze. Apparently, he had been watching her while she rolled around in the bed, mumbling to herself. Realizing that, Usagi had the decency to blush.

The night before, she had refused to leave him, afraid that everything he had said and promised her was a dream. He had, of course, made her go back to her room so that her father didn´t think they were doing something they weren´t supposed to. Thankfully, the other occupants of the house seemed to have sensed their need to have a talk with each other, and no one had checked up on either him or Usagi. A little bit past midnight, she had snuck back to his room and found him looking into the night sky, again. This time, however, he couldn´t make her go back to her own bed, and she had ended up falling asleep in his arms.

Usagi yawned, stretching her arms. "How long have you been awake?" she asked Heero sleepily.

"Just a couple minutes longer than you," he replied. Then, sitting up, he glanced at the clock sitting on his night-table. "Seven-thirty," he reported to her.

"Okay, okay, I get it," Usagi answered, taking the subtle hint for her to leave his room. She jumped out of the bed and walked around to his side. "I´ll see you at breakfast?"

Heero nodded, and grabbing her chin, he gave her a quick kiss before he released her. "I love you," he murmured, brushing a strand of her blond hair out of her eyes.

Usagi felt her heart soar, and grinning back happily, she pecked him on the lips again. "I love you too," she responded before sauntering away to the bedroom door. Gingerly opening it and peering into the hallway, she made sure no one was within watching distance before she dashed across the hall and down three doors to her own room. She closed the door behind her and sighed in happiness. She always felt like this, all light-headed and blissfully content, every time he admitted that to her, which really wasn´t too often. Not that she minded. It just made the times when he actually told her more precious.

*Flashback*

He smiled a little to himself as he watched the sun set over the horizon. However, it wasn´t the painted picture of dusk that made him so happy. He glanced down at the tiny girl in his embrace who had her head resting on his shoulder. Much as he tried to keep up the walls of ice around his frozen heart, they hadn´t been able to hold up against her warmth and radiance. Over the few months that they had known each other, she had slowly gone from his student to the only thing that mattered in the world to him. Yet, he didn´t understand why she was so important, why she was able to evoke such protective and caring instincts in him.

"Heero," her musical voice whispered, breaking him out of his train of thoughts.

"Yea?" he replied, tightening his hold around her waist.

"If I told you something about the way I feel, would you laugh at me?" she asked. "I mean, I know that you said I had to control my emotions, but-"

"That´s only in a fight," he interrupted. "Don´t stop feeling otherwise. The only way to live your life to the fullest is by living according to your emotions. Don´t throw them away. Don´t do what I did."

She turned to face him, and reaching up, she slowly cupped his face in her small hands. "Maybe you lost your emotions sometime in the past, but you have them now, right?" she said. "I know you feel. I´ve seen you smile, frown, be angry."

"Yes, I suppose," he muttered, "I´m learning."

And he was right. He was learning to be human again, slowing shedding the mold of the Perfect Soldier. Through her, he was seeing the world from a normal person´s point of view, living the life of someone who hadn´t been scarred by the war. Of course, some habits would never break, such as carrying a gun around. His gun was like a millionaire´s wallet. Even if he was standing next to the world´s best pickpocket, he´d know the millisecond his gun was missing. However, Usagi had shown him some other aspects of life. They had tried everything from eating ice-cream to bungee jumping. And even though he found ice-cream the most interesting food he had come across, (and bungee jumping rather. . .unexciting), he was still slowly blending in with society. Not only that, but he had found that he had growing feelings for the pipsqueak of a girl, who had improved greatly in self-defense since day one.

He watched with keen eyes as she fidgeted with strands of her hair, her cheeks flushing. She dared to glance up momentarily at him, and suddenly found herself caught in the intense blue of his eyes.

"You look nervous," he suddenly spoke, breaking the silence. "What´s wrong?"

She didn´t answer, instead wondering if there was a way to get an answer without saying anything. Unconsciously, she let her tongue wet her lips, and she noticed that his attention jumped to her quick, pink tongue that appeared as quickly as it disappeared. Her heart suddenly pounded against her chest at least ten times faster, and she knew that she just got the answer to the questions she had asked earlier.

Without a word, she slowly closed the distance between their faces, which were already only inches apart. She let her eyelids flutter close as her lips brushed briefly against his warm ones. She was about to pull away to see his reaction when all of sudden, she found herself pinned to his hard chest, one of his strong arms around her waist and the other holding her head still. His lips applied pressure to hers, silently asking for permission. She let her slender arms snake up around his neck to pull him closer before complying. As he explored her sweet mouth, Usagi felt like she had just gone to heaven. God, how many times had she dreamed this moment up? She could only wish that it would never end as she returned the passion.

Heero, for his part, had no idea what was going on. Her lips were as soft as the ripe skin of a peach, and once they had brushed his, his body had tingled all over, and his natural instinct had told him right away not to let her get away. And he hadn´t. He didn´t know what had possessed him to do this, but whichever part of his brain that was, it was now laughing in glee as he kissed the small girl hungrily, almost as though he wanted to devour her. As his common sense slowly kicked in, he gently broke the earth-shattering kiss, blinking to focus his eyes so that he could see the girl whose breathing had become laboured.

Usagi smiled dreamily up at him. "We have to do that again," she whispered, making him smirk at her.

Just as he was about to fulfill her request, she found the courage to confess what had been troubling her all afternoon today, and the day before, and the week before. "I love you, Heero," she murmured softly.

Heero froze, his Prussian blue eyes staring intently into hers. "What?" he finally managed to choke out.

Fear flashed into her eyes, and suddenly, she didn´t know where she had found the bravery to admit that. But it was too late now. By the lost look in his eyes, she knew that he had heard her. What she didn´t know was the reason he was so confused. Taking a deep breath, she repeated timidly, "I love you, Heero."

"You love me?" Heero echoed. "I. . .don´t understand."

Usagi frowned. He looked genuinely confused, and she was no longer afraid. "What do you mean?"

Heero furrowed his brow. What is love? He had never experienced it, never felt it, never known it. In theory, it was a strong feeling of liking someone, but to what extent? "I don´t know understand what love is," he answered Usagi.

The aforementioned girl blinked, then let a slow smile cross her face. She wanted to laugh, she really did. Here she was, admitting that she loved him and afraid that he didn´t feel the same way when the poor boy didn´t even know what "I love you" meant.

"It´s a feeling," she explained gently. "A feeling that´s stronger than anything in the world. It´s something that you feel when you like someone, but it´s so much more than that at the same time. You want to protect them, care for them, spend time with them. You want them to be happy and if-"

"If they´re not, then you´re mad at the person who made them unhappy. If they´re sad, you want to kill the person who hurt them. You just want to see them smile, and you want to spend forever with them. The only person that matters in the world is them," Heero finished for her, leaving her openly gaping at him. "Is that right?"

"Yes, yes, that´s right," Usagi stuttered. "But, how did you. . .?"

"Then, I understand now," Heero muttered to himself. "I understand why you´re so important to me."

"Why?" Usagi asked, her voice so soft that it was barely even a whisper.

Heero turned to look at her, his eyes piercing her as though he was looking right into her soul. "Because I love you too."

*End Flashback*

No, Heero was definitely not vocal about his feelings for her, but actions spoke louder than words. And she knew that both of them would go to hell and back for the other. Humming happily to herself, Usagi dressed in an white sundress with patterns of cherry blossoms on it. She quickly ran out of the room, and almost fell down when she ran smack into Heero.

"Someone´s in a hurry," he commented, taking in her appearance, which was flawless, at least, to him it was.

Usagi flushed. "Well, I knew how fast you get ready, and I didn´t want you to face the wolves alone," she huffed, straightening up and smoothing out her dress.

He raised an eyebrow. "Why do you think I didn´t go down to breakfast by myself?" he asked dryly.

Usagi replied by smacking him in the arm and sticking out her tongue. Heero watched, amused, as she turned her back on him and hurried down the stairs. As soon as she disappeared, he allowed his hands to clench tightly into fists. He cursed mentally, wishing this could last, but he knew that even wishful thinking had its limits. As soon as breakfast was over, he needed to go make plans for the next step, whatever that was going to be. With his more or less selfish decision, the situation had become much more complicated. He had to stop Mamoru, and he had to do it quickly, before Mamoru figured out his plan. Plus, however he went about this, he couldn´t let Usagi know he was going to do it, because she would insist she help. And he refused to let her become anymore involved than she already had.

~*~*~*~*~

"No, Dad, we haven´t slept together," Usagi replied flatly to her father´s untactful questions as she stabbed the sausage in her plate with her silver fork.

"But he kissed you," Kenji stated rather than asked. He was hoping for a negative answer, and didn´t get what he expected as his daughter nodded.

The rest of the group, including Lady Une, watched, interested, as the man turned five different shades of red while glaring at Heero, who was calmly sipping his morning coffee as though he wasn´t the centre of attention of eight different pairs of eyes, not including the maids´. Usagi, for her part, was pondering what colour her father´s face might turn next if she was to go over and feed Heero his breakfast. She let out a mental giggle at the thought.

"I´ll shoot him!" Kenji bellowed, making everyone but Heero and Usagi wince.

Said couple merely gave him identical looks of amusement, then decided wisely to say nothing. This, however, only made Kenji fume more.

"Of all the impolite, impertinent, insolent, disrespectful-" he ranted on.

"Dad," Usagi interrupted, setting down her fork on her plate, "if you don´t like the way we´ve handled it, then I´m willing to listen to a suggestion. I love him; he loves me. Now, what do we do?"

Kenji alternated between spluttering and glaring. Finally, looking as though he was on the verge of hyperventilating, he managed to choke out, "How did this happen?"

Usagi and Heero exchanged a look with each other. No way were they going to tell the entire story. Duo and Minako would no doubt have a field day, and both were them would get shot with Kenji´s trusty shotgun, Heero for teaching her, and Usagi for begging him to teach.

Noticing the uncomfortable silence, Usagi cleared her throat. She gave Heero a glance, and seeing the slight nod from him, she started to tell of how they met, then skipped over the entire part about him training her, merely concluding lamely that they had become friends and then fallen in love. It took her a total of ten minutes to tell, and from the looks on the other occupants of the room´s faces, they didn´t buy any of it.

"Usagi," Wufei began flatly, "this is Yuy we´re talking about. I don´t think we´re going to believe that he saw you, then decided to be friends."

Usagi shrugged. "I´m insistent on some things," she defended.

Ikuko and Minako slowly nodded. Usagi could be very stubborn on some issues, and if she had made up her mind to become Heero´s friend once upon a time, then she probably did do everything in her power to make it happen. Of course, that didn´t mean that her mother and her cousin believed the overly simple story entirely. There were definitely missing pieces, which the two knew that Usagi wouldn´t tell everyone here and now. They´ll just have to get her alone afterwards.

"Do you want to take a walk with me, Heero?" Usagi asked, getting and smiling brightly at him.

Heero shook his head. "You go ahead," he murmured. "Lady Une wants to talk to me."

Une blinked and stared at Heero. She had not said anything to him since their brief encounter yesterday afternoon. Granted, she did want to talk to him, but she had not requested his presence in a meeting with her. So, either Heero was psychic, or he was looking for an excuse.

Usagi nodded. Reading along what she thought was Heero´s current train of thought, she knew that he had to explain to the Preventers leader about his decision. She just hoped he wouldn´t get into too much trouble. "Then I´ll see you later in the afternoon," she decided. "Just as well, I know Minako and Mom are dying to ask questions."

"Usagi!" came the shocking replies from both women.

Usagi laughed, then motioned for them to follow her. "Show me the roses, Minako. You told me once that they were really beautiful," she remembered with a grin. At the time, she had been too distressed over Heero´s treatment of her to notice, but now, she wanted to enjoy her surroundings to their fullest.

Quatre smiled and followed them out, signaling Rashid and the Maganacs to follow him. Their mission was not over yet, and he had no plans to repeat the catastrophe that happened the last time the two girls were unmonitored. He would, of course, give them their privacy, but he could still keep an eye on them.

As soon as they were out of earshot, Une began to open her mouth to question Heero, but Kenji, having regained his senses after his daughter´s explanation, beat her to it. He stood up and glared at all the occupants around the table. "You and you," he pointed to Heero and Duo, "are coming with me. I need to talk to both of you."

Duo winced. "This is your fault, Heero," he muttered. "How´d I get dragged into this?"

"Hn," was Heero brilliant reply.

The two boys followed Kenji into a separate room. It just happened to be the sitting room where Kenji had first met them. He remained silent for the first couple of minutes, trying to organize his thoughts.

"First, who are you?" he began, turning to face them and trying his best not to glare. He wanted to understand the situation, not provoke them into defending themselves.

Heero and Duo exchanged a look, then the ex-pilot of Deathscythe gave a sigh. He knew this would come out sooner or later, and if he wanted to be in a permanent relationship with Minako, then it would have to be now. If he lied to Minako´s uncle now, the elder man would not trust him again. Besides, he was the top secret weapon creator for the Preventers. His instincts told him it would be fine. Heero gave him a slight nod of approval, obviously agreeing with his thoughts that they should come clean now.

"People call me Duo Maxwell, and we know him," he paused, pointing at his best friend, "as Heero Yuy."

If Kenji noticed that Duo didn´t use "my name is," then he gave no sign he had. "I know that already. What I mean is-" He stopped suddenly, seeing the hand that Duo held up for silence. He wasn´t done yet.

"And we are the former pilots of the Gundams Deathscythe and Wing," he finished solemnly, "alias 02 and 01."

Kenji stared. It was the only way to describe what he was doing. He stared at the two boys in front of him, whose actions at the base suddenly made much more sense to him. It was also blindingly obvious now why Une had chosen them as his daughter and niece´s bodyguards and claimed them as the best there were.

"I know you probably don´t approve of us being close to Minako and Usagi," Duo continued quickly, deciding to take advantage of Kenji´s momentary shock, "but I promise that we´ll leave them out of anything relating to our pasts. We don´t have any intention of hurting them and we definitely don´t want to go back to being Gundam pilots with the world in peace."

Duo paused, examining Kenji´s face thoughtfully. This was probably one of the few times in life when he was so completely serious and formal. He waited for a reply, the yelling and screaming and threatening that he expected would come from Kenji´s mouth now that their pasts have been revealed to him.

"Do they know? I mean, do Usagi and Minako know about this?" Kenji asked calmly instead, much to Duo´s obvious surprise.

"No," Duo drawled, looking anywhere but at Kenji. "I haven´t told Minako. I´m afraid of what she´ll think of me," he admitted softly, "and also because she might be in more danger if she knew. We have too many enemies."

Kenji looked expectantly at Heero, who stared back. "She knows," was all he said.

"And she doesn´t care," Kenji finished for him. "My daughter would never judge you because of what you did in the past."

Heero looked away. "I never understood how she could find it in her heart to not only forgive me for the deaths I caused, but also to. . . ." he trailed off.

"To love you," Kenji murmured. He stared at the boy in front of him. He had heard many things about 01, the Perfect Soldier, pilot of Wing Gundam, not only during the war, but also after. There were facts, of course, but there were also many rumors. He had always thought 01 would be cold, emotionless, heartless. Yet, the boy in front him was not so. He may appear that way, but Kenji now knew that beneath the surface was someone who loved his daughter so much, he would forgo everything he had, everything he was, for her.

"I don´t know why either of them love you two suicidal, crazy, impertinent, rebellious boys either, but knowing the two of them, I can´t do anything about it. I only want them to be taken care of," Kenji grudgingly stated.

Heero and Duo blinked simultaneously. They both knew that this was the closest to an approval they would ever get from the older man in front of them.

"She will be taken care of," Heero replied quietly. "Even if I have to give up my life to make sure she lives."

"Same with Minako," Duo added, not to be outdone. "I swear to the Shinigami that I´ll always, always protect her."

Kenji nodded. He believed Heero, and strangely enough, he believed Duo as well. "Duo, you need to tell my niece. If I know her as well as I think I do, then she´ll forgive you, just like Usagi did," he assured him. "If she finds out on her own, then she´ll hate you, no matter what reason you had for keeping it from her."

Duo nodded, then turned to Heero as though a sudden thought had just struck him. "Out of curiosity, how much does Usagi know?" he asked.

"Everything," Heero replied. "even about you and the others being pilots."

Duo winced, then turned back to Kenji. "I´ll tell her sometime today," he promised. "Since Usagi seems to forgive all of us, I think Minako would at least forgive me."

"If someone wanted to target you, it wouldn´t matter whether Minako knows or not. They´ll use her to get to you anyway. If she knows, then at least, she´ll be careful," Heero told him.

"That´s the reason you told my daughter," Kenji realized.

"No, that´s the excuse I gave myself for telling her," Heero answered. "I told her because of what you said earlier."

Kenji crossed his arms. "It doesn´t matter now. But I will give the two of you a warning before you run off thinking you´re free of me forever. If either of you ever hurt Usagi or Minako in anyway," he paused, glaring at the two ex-Gundam pilots, "I will shoot you and send you to hell."

~*~*~*~*~

Une paced back and forth in the briefing room, trying to piece together what she wanted to say to the so-called Perfect Soldier, who was sitting in one of the chairs, calming tying away on his laptop computer. Finally, she decided to just be blunt about what she needed to know.

"Did you know what you were doing back there?" she asked, narrowing her eyes at him.

"I don´t think I could misunderstand ‘I want the cannon plans or this girl dies´," Heero replied, back to his monotone.

"You exchanged the whole world for one girl!" Une stated in exasperation.

"And?" Heero continued placidly.

"How? Why? I trusted you with the mission," Une tried to reason.

"No, you trusted us with the mission," Heero corrected. "I made the decision, but no one stopped me."

"They wouldn´t dare," Une replied. "Why didn´t you tell me you love her before?"

"Why would I?" Heero retorted. "It´s a personal matter."

"Personal feelings get in the way," Une said. "I thought you knew that."

"I do," Heero said, standing up and obviously fed up with the conversation. "Do you honestly think I´m stupid?"

"At this point, I think that your emotions are blinding you," Une answered. "You need to realize that the world has millions of people. Your personal feelings just traded away all their lives for one person. The Preventers exist to prevent war, and your actions may very well lead to the beginning of one."

"It won´t," Heero responded calmly, snapping shut his laptop. "The man who made the deal wants to settle personal issues with me. Usagi was targeted because of my relation to her, and for no other reason."

Une shook her head. "The fact remains that he now has a cannon that has the potential to destroy the world," she stated. "Seeing so many personal issues of yours are involved with this, I´m afraid I´ll have to take you off this matter and leave it in the others´ hands. It will do no good for your personal feelings to cause a failure again."

"The only failure in this mission was my failure to prevent Usagi from being kidnapped the first time," Heero replied, then added before Une could say anything, "and I don´t think that´s your decision to make, frankly speaking. Chiba Mamoru wants to deal with me, and if he thinks destroying the Preventers is the only way to get to me, then that´s what he´ll do."

Picking up the laptop and walking to the door of the room, he muttered to himself under his breath, "He´ll have to break the code on the disc first."

~*~*~*~*~

Building process instructions access. . .denied.

Materials needed access. . .denied.

Blueprints in-depth analysis. . .denied.

Growling, Mamoru slammed his fist onto the desk of the base´s control room. He had been outsmarted by the Perfect Soldier, and he was not at all pleased about it. The blueprints showed up, as did all kinds of other information, but all the instructions for building, all the necessary materials, and everything he needed to actually build the cannon were blocked off with a complicated code, one he knew was courtesy of Heero Yuy. Heero had obviously counted on the fact that Mamoru would not check everything before letting them out, and he had been right. Mamoru had not even bother to look for those until a day later, and it was too late.

He swore and drank a long sip of the red wine in his glass. He should have known. He should have known that J´s Perfect Soldier wouldn´t hand over something like this so easily and willingly. Yet, the girl must have meant a lot to him if the basic blueprints had gotten to his hands in the first place. The old Heero, the one he knew from their training days, would not allow him even a glimpse of them.

*Flashback*

He couldn´t help it. He stared in shock at the man that was the closest to a father he had, then at the boy who had been his competition since the day Dr. J had returned with him after a bombing incident.

"Stop gaping, Mamoru," Dr. J ordered the sixteen year old teen with a clank of his mechanical claws. "It´s not becoming."

Young Mamoru turned to look at him. "But I thought I was supposed to pilot Wing. I practiced in it! Everyday I trained!" he protested.

"There will only be one of you who´s going to pilot Wing, and that´s going to be Heero," Dr. J replied coldly, looking down at the robot-like fourteen year old beside him. "I would kick you out if it weren´t for the fact that you know the secret about Operation Meteor," he continued. "You showed too much emotion, too much uncontrolled rage. You have your own opinions and that won´t do. I failed in making a Perfect Soldier out of you."

"No! I can be like him!" Mamoru exclaimed, pointing to Heero, who was staring at him blankly and quietly, without even a glint of acknowledgement.

"Heero is perfect," Dr. J responded, dismissing Mamoru´s comment. "The moment I saw him after that bombing mission, I knew he would be perfect for the job. He has no emotion, no wish, no will. You, on the other hand, have too much ambition, too much eagerness to please, not enough competence for being a pilot."

Mamoru bit back the harsh tears that threatened to fall. He would not show any weakness. The only reason he wanted to please so much was because he wanted to make Dr. J happy. J was his father, and with sadistic amusement, Mamoru suddenly realized that he loved the old, crazy professor. He loved him like a son would love a father, but obviously, J had never seen him as that. The moment he had brought Heero back, he had decided that the younger boy would be a better candidate, seeing that he was brought up by a famous assassin, and Mamoru had been tossed aside, neglected, for the past five years. He had tried his hardest, but in the end, it all came to nothing.

Love was an illusion indeed. It did nothing but hurt. It didn´t exist. He didn´t love J. He hated the old man for treating him like an object, an experiment. And as he looked up and met Heero´s empty eyes, he knew that he hated the boy too. He hated this boy who waltzed into his life one day and turned everything he knew around. He hated this boy who excelled in the fighting arts, and especially at electronics and software. He hated this boy who was going to be the pilot of Wing in his place.

He hated Heero Yuy for taking his identity, everything that he was.

Icily, he bit out in monotone, "Very well, I shall be gone as soon as possible, whenever you deem it best."

Dr. J gave a nod, but Heero barely showed that he realized Mamoru had spoken. The dark-haired teen stalked out of the room, slamming the door shut behind him. One day, he would make J pay for his decision. And one day, he would make J´s Perfect Soldier pay for taking everything from him.

*End Flashback*

It was too bad the fool of a scientist had died before he could carry out the plan. But his Perfect Soldier had lived, and Mamoru would take out every bit of his vengeance on him. Yes, he couldn´t sit and be angry, then Heero would win because of this code.

Mamoru smiled to himself, deciding to put all his effort into breaking this code of his rival´s. Mamoru knew that the Perfect soldier knows of his own skills with a keyboard. It was only going to be a matter of days before he broke through this code.

The only thing Heero was buying with this little obstacle of his. . .was time.

****************************************

End of Chapter 11.

AN: Ugh! Finally done! I´ll make this really quick before I run off to work on the next chapter of LMB. Just a quick note about where we are in the story. There´s about 2-3 chapters (and possibly an epilogue) left. I hope the rest will be satisfying too. *sigh* Review please! And a very Merry Christmas to you all.