A/N: [January 2004] Did some editing and realized this had some definite point of view problems. I'm going to leave it the way it is because I intended for it to read this way when I wrote it, however I wouldn't write like this now.

[March 2003] Well, it's been on my hard drive for 5 years now. It was actually supposed to be submitted to a zine at one time but that project folded so it's just sat around gathering cobwebs since. That's actually not such a bad thing. I've learned a great deal about grammar and writing in general over the past few years so when I dusted off this story there were a lot of improvements to make.

I've gone back over this and edited/rewritten as best I could so hopefully it's a great deal more readable now. I couldn't do anything about the overall maudlin tone or the chick-flickness of the whole thing, but I think I was kind of aiming in that general direction anyway when I originally wrote this. I try not to be such a girl when I write, but sometimes you just can't help these things.

Thanks go to Penny and Alex M for looking this over for me. It definitely takes another set of eyes to make sure a story is readable, so thank you. Any remaining mistakes are my bad, not theirs.

There are 3 other stories in this series. As I write this, the sequel to this one plus the forth, concluding story have been written. I'm going to give it a shot on the third one as soon as I can.

On a separate note: I've developed, over the years, what could almost be called a moral objection to "song fic." At its worst it's terrible writing, but even at its best it usually raises questions about the author's alleged musical tastes. Unfortunately I didn't have these objections when I wrote this or planned out the three sequels to follow, so I went the route of so many other authors and used a pop song to express the mood of the story. Fortunately I had enough good sense to refrain from inserting lyrics into the storyline or having the characters sing to each other, but I still quoted lyrics at the end of each story in this series. Apologies in advance for those who will groan and roll their eyes at my musical taste. (And considering that I have Neil Diamond and Nine Inch Nails on the same compilation CD, I'll leave it to you to decide if I have any taste at all.)

August 1998: This is a major departure from the light-hearted sexually-explicit fluff I was posting. Humor is easy for me to write but this is what I prefer to do (which is, of course, why I'm not as good at it). I tried to keep the emotion-sharing male-bonding crap down to a minimum but I don't think I succeeded very well. Sorry. I'm using "Iris" because except for two modern references the song fits this story perfectly.

Pairing(s): Joxer/Strife

Warnings: R for violence, language, and innuendo. If you don't like Strife or if guys doing the lean-on-me thing isn't your idea of a good time then this really isn't something you're going to like. No sex but some m/m suggestiveness.

Broken