Oh, dear, I feel bad now! But I really do appreciate your reading (and rereading) and commenting. :) The original is very poetic and lovely, and I feel I took the premise in a rather harsh direction. So I'm especially happy that you found it subtle, because I did also want to bring across the relationship via the story rather than all-of-a-piece. I'm not sure that's coherent... But thank you very, very much! *hugs*