Delightful! Like others above, I really enjoyed watching myself be won over to this pairing, which is so plausible in the way it sets up Dudley and Firenze as similarly strong and cocky and honor-bound. In the best Beholder tradition, I nodded my way all the way along, because of *course* the pairing makes sense.
I said something to TRS last week about how important it was for me to see non-human entities in this fest, and how I wished we saw more. I suspect many of us empathize with characters who aren't conventionally attractive, and we're seeing some representation of ourselves here, but the non-human characters have this squick factor that makes us *stretch* morally and emotionally. They stand for all those things we dismiss as too different to merit love, until we discover otherwise. Enjoyed! M.