I can't believe no one else has reviewed this! It certainly deserves more attention: in my opinion it could be rated T and then it wouldn't get hidden by the censors. Something to think about.

As for the story itself, it's an absolutely beautiful protrayal of the Giles/Ethan relationship. I usually find stories that try to excuse Ethan's bad behavior unbelievable at best, but I completely bought your explanations. I also appreciate that you didn't make theirs into a fairy-tale relationship, that there's a fair amount of unpleasantness and even abuse (at least to begin with) in addition to the very real tenderness. And it's so sad! I hope some day those two get more time together.

You did swith tenses in a couple of places, and while it makes sense to have the present in present-tense and the past in past-tense, it wasn't consistant. That's a small complaint, however, and this is a very good story that deserves more reviews!