Oh, it makes me proud and soar to have sparked such a dead-on bit of writing.
I really like that you used the opportunity to compare Auron's possession by Yojimbo to Jecht's by Sin.
I enjoy that you keep your Auron systematic and focused, even in his quiet angsting. And the exchange between Braska and him is heartbreaking. The fire pulsed like a hearbeat, oooh.
I can't wait to see the next.
One tiny typo nitpick: "Hers was too." I think you forgot the apostrophe?
Author's response
I'm so glad this seems to be working for everybody -- both those who want the romance, and those who are pragmatic enough to realize that poor Auron is a rather repressed and no-nonsense fellow as much as he can be. Nitpick of your nitpick: nope, I didn't! I am an official member of the Apostrophe Protection Society, and I may screw up subordinate clauses out the wazoo, but I am very careful in the care and feeding of apostrophes! :) Quick mini-lesson, because it just happens to be an obscure thing I know well: his, hers, its, theirs, your, and our are possessive forms of pronouns which should not have an apostrophe. The spelling of these forms is enough to indicate that they are possessive. An apostrophe is only used in contractions to indicate dropped letters (don't = "do not", it's = "it is") or with normal nouns -- not pronouns -- to form a possessive (Auron's, dog's). For possessive nouns, if the noun ends in an s, then stick the apostrophe after the s (butterflies', Quistis').