Yay, more canon repair fic! To start with, as someone who's absolutely shite at titles, I really like this title. Simple but effective, and absolutely representative. Shiny.

Secondly, I enjoyed the style - it feels very deliberate somehow, like it's got a kind of beat to it, like clockwork. Especially the night part, with the flash-like glimpses of developments throughout the night.

Thirdly (don't ask me why I'm numbering, lol), and kind of related to the two above, it's really cool how the Pandora theme continues in the narration itself... how you kind of peel back, one by one, the layers of the issues that are clearly festering and need to be addressed - it's like they're being opened layer by layer, like unwrapping a parcel, until we get to the heart of the matter, which, again with the title and the theme... I don't know if that was planned that way, but it's very cool! (I hope that made sense, lol.)

Fourthly (might as well carry on!), YAY for the addressing of the said issues! Loved how the parcel brought it all back to the surface, and how it's just SITTING there for most of the story, waiting to burst open. It really draws you into the characters, both dreading that opening and needing it to happen.

Fifthly, Flo made me LOL. Bursting in all oblivious and babbling and DUDES WHY HAS NO ONE OPENED THAT PRESENT, and then all "okaaaaaay, I'm outta here." Hahahah, so in character. It reminded me of his "begone, foul thing" dramatic gesture at Marc's hockey book in 998. Wonderful!

Sixthly, the description of that night made me all wibbly, in a fabulous way. Roman being cold and curled up all tiny and there being that invisible barrier in the bed... I think everyone who's ever gone to bed with someone you love without having sorted out a fight knows what that invisible barrier feels like and how desolate it can be. That really moved me. And then the precisely timed drifting back towards each other, connecting in small ways, was lovely, including the oh-so-in-character awakening and using sex as an excuse not to talk.

Seventhly, YAY FOR TALKING THINGS OUT! And acknowledgement that All Was Not Well even before Marc! <333

Eighthly, this is absolutely my favourite bit:

“Careful,” Deniz says, the word sounding like it had been dragged out of him unwillingly. “You wouldn’t want to damage something.”

Roman swallows, wondering if something isn’t already irretrievably damaged.

Oh, SNAP. Just perfect.

Great job, Mystery Author!!!