Nyawwww! I saw this nominated for a DiversiFICation Award and followed the link, and I'm so glad I did. Crying Rodney and his peeing cat are forever frozen into my mind, and this is a good thing, because it's ridiculous and adorable, just like Rodney's best moments in canon. And I like that neither of them (er, Rodney and Radek, now, not Rodney and Albert) are twittery nervous teenagers, but they're both exactly what they are: stubborn middle-aged men who are used to being alone and running their own lives, and are willing but cautious about moving a carefully ordered professional friendship onto new and risky footing. The care they take getting into the relationship doesn't have that hokey, made-up-for-plot-drama feel, but really seems about being adults who are old enough not to tumble into things and dyed-in-the-wool rationalists who know that love is disconcertingly irrational, but that it's a cold world without it. Really lovely story, thank you for writing it.