3xc3ll3nt! = Excellent!
So is this where the Piro/Kimiko story jumps the shark?

Piro speaks:
No worries, this isn't an accusation, it's a worry based on previous experience with other stories. I feel your pain, i know of plenty of stories that were crushingly dissapointing the way things turned out once the big "R" started. It's one of the reasons i'm particularly focused on avoiding the problem.
i'm not answering this out of some sense of rightious indignant ire, i think it's a valid question based on the history of such stories in media - but i would like to point out something i've said many times in the past, which i hope will releive some worries that MT will start being less endearing or something after a certain stage of one of these relationships is met. It's happened to a lot of good shows, but i don't intend to let that happen to MT. Far from it.
To me, one of the most annoying things about most stories that have any romantic or relationship elements as a focus of the story is that they tend to 'end' when the two protagonists admit they like each other. Feh. It seems to me that in real life, that's when things just start to get interesting.
The point where two characters admit to themselves as well as each other that they want to be with each other is not the point where a big door opens and they walk into that exclusive (and supposedly very boring) VIP Club known as 'in a relationship'. Uhm, if you've never been in a relationship, it's easy to put it on one of these kinds of pedestals, but in reality even good relationships can follow a very fascinating path.
Time will tell of course. the story could start sucking tomorrow. It could start sucking in a few months. Hell, many say it has been sucking for years, or always sucked, or sucked even before i even started it. I dunno, it's hard to keep a handle on what people really thing - determining the 'mean suck' for your work is an impossible task. I've been accused of Jumping the shark several times in the past and i think i've proven that MT hasn't really jumped any big sharks yet. Sure, it's not perfect, but by the true implications of the term, i don't think it's lost it yet. Gimmie time, i'll ruin it before the end, i'm sure. :)