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ooooooh my fucking god, poor Detective - finally they're getting to grow into a genuine & healthy relationship with Flea and past the unhealthy coping mechanism with Ted ... only for Detective to not only get sucked into a repeating nightmare of the worst day of their life, but then have Ted find out about their fucked up feelings. Goddamn. You are a devious motherfucker in the best way. I mean, I should've seen it coming - how could you let a story beat that juicy go untapped - but I totally fucking didn't and you got me good! That's going to be one fucking awful dinner with the in-laws - can't wait to see it!
And having mentioned that genuine & healthy relationship with Flea - goddamn. Goddamn goddamn. His domestic fucking ass talking about laundry pre-bone got me good. Just the simple joy of loving and being loved - of people carving out a life together... and Detective showing Flea their drawings and it's just all of Flea?! Loved how you revisted that later in Flea's POV - but I especially enjoyed the restraint with which you described the Detective's perception of Flea's reaction when they showed him. You're really, really good at letting the audience do the feeling - you don't tell us where the characters are at emotionally, but instead guide us to it in a way that leads us to connection & empathy. That's my pretentious way of putting it, anyway. But it's something I'm always itching for in writing and you're really, really good at it.
On a less pretentious note - I also loved Tabby trying to warn Flea something was wrong. In a world with demons walking about in it, cats truly would be supernatural geiger counters. As someone who also has a dumbass cat that loves my partner more than me, loving the representation here.
So excited for the next chapter & to see where this all goes! And then reread it all over again once it's done!