While I find the emotional "highs" I get from your stories to be incredibly (almost inconceivably) varied, by far the most pervasive and important one (to me) is hope; hope that things will work out, and, generally, not suck for everyone. Maybe this is why I can't even fathom wanting to see Randy and Ryan break up. Maybe I'm also a "hopeless romantic" .But I know its why I come back to these stories.
Also, many of these relationships have gone way too far for the main character to ever convince me that 'someone else' could replicate or exceed the love that exists there.
As for Chris....he's...kind of a prick. Yeah, I know, the early prickishness was emotional misguidance, and the later prickishness was (probably justified) anger. But I could simply never believe that he was better for Derrick than Tanner. And for one closet gay to blackmail another in any situation is....pure evil. Makes me question whether true love was ever really there.
So...that's my wishful thinking on the subject.
