Disclaimer: I don't think Paramount will want any of this, anytime soon.
Do you? Me neither. What's theirs is theirs. What's mine is mine to
share.

                       A Light in the Darkness
Catherine Allan

  Odo felt miserable, and things were only getting worse. He needed, as
the humans put it, to work it off his chest; but he couldn't talk to
anyone.
  He sighed, sitting on the Promenade watching everyone who enjoyed
their life stroll by. Even the morose ones were happy in comparisson to
him.
  Who *could* he talk to? Sisko was busy, and may force him off duty for
such a revelation. Dax was the station gossip, and there was no point
telling her anything he didn't want everyone to know. Julian was off
somewhere with female trouble of his own making. O'Brien - he had his
own troubles, too. That left Quark, who Odo would not turn to on pain of
death; Garak, who may or may not care; and Nerys, who was the source of
his pain.
  Odo was vaguely aware she'd just sat opposite him, and nodded a
greeting her way.
  "Is it that bad?" Nerys asked. Obviously, some of his pain must have
shown in his face.
  Odo gave up. If he couldn't talk to his first and truest friend - who
could he talk to? "I'm beginning to think so."
  She smiled a comforting smile, "I'm sort of glad. Now I get to help
you for a change. What's the problem?"
  "I - I'm in love with someone..." his words stopped there, torn from
him. It was the closest he could get, without answering a direct
question, to the truth. "She's involved in another relationship right
now... a bad one. I know for a fact that the man she's seeing is -
intimate; with others. I can't tell her and confess my feelings. It
looks like - I engineered it; and it would hurt her..."
  "Ouch." Nerys held his hand, soothing him with her soft touch; nearly
more than he could bear. "Tell you what, you tell me who it is, and I'll
go knock some sense into them."
  "It wouldn't work," Odo summarised, mentally picturing Kira trying to
roughouse with herself. "Even if she did break up her current
relationship, she'd just go after the next handsome face to pass by." He
aired a sigh, looking away from her, at their hands, "I'm too ugly..."
  "You are *not*," Nerys objected, squeezing his hands in hers, "don't
you talk about yourself like that, or I'll - I'll have to knock some
sense into you!"
  He dared look at her freindly, smiling face, "Would *you* be willing to
be seen with me? As more than a freind?"
  She nearly laughed, "Of course I would - if you asked. I just thought
you had an objection to all these 'humanoid mating rituals'."
  "Let's just say I wouldn't object if yo-- *she* were participating
with me." He tried to see if she'd caught his stumble, but couldn't make
himself look up as far as her eyes.
  One of Nerys' hands let go of his to curl into a fist. "I heard that,
Constable."
  Odo shut his eyes with a sigh of regret. "Now you hate me," he
whispered, waiting for the blow to come, to sever them forever.
  He nearly flinched when her gentle hand caressed his face. "How could
I hate you?"
  Odo looked again at her, seeing tears beginning a slow journey down
her face. His fingers twitched, wanting to wipe them away, and afraid to
move. "I was - afraid. If I told you, our friendship--" His throat
refused to work, and he was left staring at her, trembling with anxiety.
  Her smile was a welcome indicator of her mood, "What a co-
incidence..." Nerys sobbed, laughing at the same time, "I was afraid of
loving you for exactly the same reason."
  They didn't have to be afraid, anymore.

END.