At the window, Philige was so relieved, his knees felt weak. Standig had to nudge Philige to get him to move and brought him back to his room.

“So?” Standig prodded.

Philige couldn’t come up with anything to say.

“Are you still getting married?”

He nodded and broke into a smile. “Thank you, Standig.”

“Mn.”

The brothers stared at each other for a minute. “How long has Lolo been getting these nightmares for?”

“I think you’d better let her tell you about it.”

“How did you know about them if she hasn’t told anyone?”

“I’ve known for a few years that Lolo gets nightmares, I’ve seen her having them before, but I didn’t know why she gets them until Fortus told us a few days ago.”

“Years?!”

Standig nodded. “If she can’t tell you about it, it sounds like Fortus is willing to tell you everything. Or I could tell you too. But, actually, even I don’t know all of the details. Fortus knows everything only because he was there when it happened.”

Philige sighed and buried his face in his hands. “Thanks.”

“You should know, Philige,” Standig hesitated, “she loves you.”

Surprised that Standig would even mention something like that, Philige looked up. “How would you know?”

Standig shifted his weight uncomfortably. “She showed me.”

“She showed you? How? What does that even mean?”

Standig sat down on the bench next to his brother. “Remember how after the Bear Tribe exchange, I started doing all that research?”

“Yeah. Something about meditation.”

“Partner meditations.”

“That was it,” Philige remembered.

“I was studying it because of Lolo. We’ve mastered partner meditations together since then. There’s this link you can form called a ‘merging of the minds’ that allows you to show each other memories and exchange emotions. When I found out about your relationship, she showed me. More than that, actually, I’ve felt her feelings for you.” Standig swallowed hard.

Philige wasn’t sure which was more mind boggling, these partner meditations and all they could do, how he hadn't heard about any of this before, or the fact that his little brother was actually talking about feelings. “Why are you telling me this?”

“To give what I’m about to say some context,” Standig smiled sadly. “Break her heart, and we can’t be brothers anymore.”

It took a moment for Philige to register what Standig meant. “Are you in love with Lolo?”

Standig’s face fell. “I never told her. So let me amend my previous statement,” he looked Philige straight in the eyes. “Break her heart, and we can’t be brothers anymore because I’m going to steal her from you if you do.”

Philige couldn’t recover.

“You should get going,” Standig said, getting up. “Lolo will be looking for you soon.”

Lolo spent the first half of the morning working up enough courage to tell Philige about her nightmares and then wasted no time finding him before she lost her nerve again.

“Philige, I need to talk to you.” She found him in his study, mulling through some papers.

Expecting her, Philige looked up to find her a little pale. He stood up without a word to walk around his desk and hug her. He could feel her trembling. “What is it?”

She took a deep breath. “Before I can let you marry me, I need to tell you something.”

“Ok. Come, have a seat.” He walked her to the giant bench by the fireplace so he could sit next to her. “What do you need to tell me?”

She was shaking so hard, it gave her voice a vibrato. “When I was sixteen, I was assaulted.”

Philige inhaled sharply, but stayed quiet so she could continue. He wasn’t sure exactly what he had expected, but it wasn't that.

“It was during the Dragon Tribe exchange. Sattal was having Fortus tortured, and he made me kiss him to make it stop.” She should have anticipated that she would start crying, but she was unprepared. She had to look away to regain some composure. “But Sattal wouldn’t stop.” She couldn’t continue. Her tears had created a strangling sensation in her throat.

Philige hurt watching her cry and pulled her into a tight, reassuring hug. “It must have taken a lot of courage for you to tell me that. Who else knows?”

“I made Fortus promise not to talk about it, but he recently told the rest of the team. And Shanti knows because she saw me afterwards and recognized my injuries.”

“So you’ve never tried talking about it before now?”

She shook her head, twisting fabric from her shirt around her fingers.

“Thank you for telling me,” Philige said gently.

“There’s more,” Lolo said, still staring at her lap. “I still have nightmares about it and occasional panic attacks. Sometimes I cry and struggle in my sleep. Sometimes I pass out from the panic. Fortus has been helping me get through it for the last three years.”

Philige smiled and nodded. “I’ll help you from now on.”

She looked up at Philige. There was no judgement. No fear. No anger.

“We’ll get through this together, just like everything else.” Philige used his own sleeve to dab the tears off her face. “Would it be alright if I kissed you now?” She nodded, and Philige pressed his lips to her forehead. “I love you. Nothing is going to change that.”

Philige felt a little awkward camping out in Fortus’s room after suspecting him of sleeping with his fiancé just that morning. Fortus was hardly less uncomfortable.

“So, you’re getting married,” Fortus began delicately.

“Yup,” Philige nodded.

“Have you told her family yet?”

“I sent a letter to her dad this morning.”

“Just a fair warning, as someone who knows, her brothers are a little protective of her.” Fortus suddenly had a funny sense of deja vu, “and so are her friends.”

“As someone who knows, huh?” Philige smiled.

Fortus laughed. “Yeah. Lolo and I have a colorful history.”

Philige had suspected as much but never heard about this "colorful history" directly before. “What kind of history?”

Fortus suddenly felt embarrassed. “Uh.... Lolo and Standig never told you?”

“Told me what?”

“About the coup.”

“During your Lion Tribe exchange? Nothing beyond saying that it happened and you all stopped it.”

“Oh.” Fortus flushed.

“So what happened?” Philige could tell that there was a juicy story here.

Fortus found it necessary to clear his throat a few times. “You should ask Lolo about it.”

“Why can’t you just tell me?” Philige narrowed his eyes at Fortus.

“It’s a little awkward coming from me.”

“Why? Were the two of you in a relationship?”

“Of sorts,” Fortus confirmed.

“How serious were you?”

“Well, it wasn’t a real relationship, but we had to make it look like we were pretty serious,” Fortus bit his lip, thinking he’d said too much already.

“How serious was this fake relationship of yours then?” Fortus was not a squirrely person typically, so seeing him this uncomfortable was extremely entertaining to Philige.

Meanwhile, Fortus was starting to sweat under Philige’s interrogation. “It kind of won’t make any sense unless you hear the whole story. That’s why you should ask Lolo.”

“But I’m asking you.”

Trying to sound as unruffled as possible, Fortus gave Philige a nutshell version of the story. “Well, Lolo and I were assigned to spy on the coup together. We got caught, and, to get out alive, Lolo told them that we were in love, planning to elope, and that she was… erm….” He couldn’t quite finish.

“She was…?” Philige prodded.

“Pregnant. She told them that she was pregnant.”

The guys looked at each other blankly. Now Philige understood why Fortus didn’t want to be the person to tell this story. “And that you were the father?” Fortus blushed so hard, it took a lot of restraint for Philige to not laugh. “I see. So then what happened?”

Fortus was becoming desperate. “We had to sell the story.”

“Mn. And how did you do that?”

“We had to make it look like we were in a serious relationship,” he cringed.

“In other words, you had to make it look like you were sleeping together,” Philige connected for him. Another physical reaction from Fortus confirmed his assertion. “So how did you do that?”

“Wrestling match,” was all Fortus managed to choke out.

“And lots of kissing, no doubt.”

Fortus couldn’t maintain eye contact with Philige any longer and got up to pace as Philige finally released his laughter. “You’re not upset?” Had Fortus been in Philige's shoes, he would, at a minimum, be feeling jealous.

“Let me ask you something,” Philige leaned forward and smiled. “What’s your relationship with Lolo now?”

“We’re close friends, teammates, co-leaders….”

“You care a great deal about her, but there is no romantic interest,” Philige summed up. “As long as it stays that way, your history, colorful or not, doesn’t matter.”

“Right,” Fortus said and cautiously sat back down.

Philige was woken up abruptly by Fortus sometime around three in the morning. Faintly in the distance, he could hear someone crying.

“Come with me,” Fortus said, pulling Philige to his feet.

“You have incredible hearing,” Philige noted as they walked next door.

“I was already awake,” Fortus brushed him off.

Fortus opened the door to Lolo’s room. Watching Lolo struggle, Philige found himself becoming emotional. “What do I do?”

“Resist the urge to restrain her,” Fortus said. “That makes it worse. The best thing you can do is lie down next to her and put your hand on her shoulder.”

Philige hesitated.

“Do you want to do it, or do you want me to?” Fortus rolled his eyes.

“I... I’ll do it.” It felt all sorts of wrong climbing into her bed without her knowledge, but Philige followed instructions and set his hand on Lolo’s shoulder. Fortus suppressed a laugh as he watched Lolo roll into Philige to curl up against his chest, making Philige freeze from his own uneasiness.

As Lolo clung to Philige’s shirt and cried into the crook of his neck, Fortus had to coax Philige into wrapping his arms around her shoulders. “Oh, for heaven’s sake,” Fortus whispered. “You’re going to marry her, aren’t you?! Hold her!”

“You do this all the time?” Philige asked, feeling extremely uncomfortable.

“Unfortunately,” Fortus nodded.

“And doing this without her knowledge doesn’t bother you?”

“It doesn’t bother her,” Fortus shrugged. “All she knows right now is that she is terrified, and you are helping that terror go away. Comfort her!”

Philige scowled at Fortus as he shifted on the bed to find a more comfortable position in which to hold Lolo.

“Much better,” Fortus approved with an impish grin. “Well, goodnight!”

“Whoa! Wait!” Philige protested. “You’re leaving?!”

“Well, yeah,” Fortus said. “There’s not room for three on that bed.”

“I’m supposed to sleep here?!”

“Shhh!” Fortus sniggered. “Don’t wake your fiancé up.” Before Philige could protest further, Fortus walked out and shut the door.

Philige was cringing lying on the bed with Lolo without being married to her already and without her knowledge and explicit consent. On the one hand, he knew he was only there to help her with her nightmare, and Fortus had been doing this for years. On the other hand, this part wasn’t supposed to happen until they’d tied the knot. While he wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about Fortus doing this, at least Fortus didn’t have feelings for Lolo that he had to keep in check while holding her like this. However, despite his misgivings, as Lolo slowly relaxed from her nightmare, Philige found himself relaxing with her. His eyes got heavy, and the next thing he knew, he was waking-up again.

“Good morning.” Lolo’s chin was resting on her hands at his chest. She’d been waiting patiently for him to open his eyes. “I see that Fortus has already started training you.”

“What?” Philige wasn't quite awake yet.

“I had a nightmare last night, didn’t I?”

“Yeah.”

She leaned in to kiss him. “Thank you for your help.”

“You’re-you’re welcome.” As Philige continued to wake-up, he became increasingly aware of how inappropriate his current situation was.

Sensing his discomfort, Lolo smiled mischievously and kissed him again.

Now quite awake, Philige scrambled to get out of the bed and ended up falling out of it rather haphazardly onto the floor. “W-we can’t. I can’t, Lolo.”

“Can’t what?” She smiled coyly and got out of the bed to kneel on the floor next to him.

“This,” he gestured generally.

“You don’t want me to kiss you?” Lolo pouted.

“Uh. That’s not... that’s not what I meant.”

“Oh? So you do want me to kiss you.” Lolo grinned and wrapped her arms around his neck.

“But not like this,” Philige said, wide-eyed and anxious.

“No? Then how would you rather that I kiss you?” She lifted up onto her knees and kissed his forehead. “Like this?”

He shook his head.

“Then how about like this?” she asked and kissed his cheek.

“Lolo-”

“Like this?” She kissed his jawline just below his ear.

Philige shuddered as he involuntarily responded to her touch. He was losing the will to resist her.

“How about you kiss me good morning, and then you can go?” she negotiated.

“Lolo-”

“Just once.”

“You know it’s never just once,” Philige pleaded.

“Then let me do it,” she said, gently tilting his head back.

One really good kiss later, Lolo stopped teasing Philige to get up and wash her face. His heart was beating so hard, he could feel it thumping against his ribcage.

Lolo stepped behind her changing screen to put on her training clothes and whip her hair up into her usual high ponytail. “I’ve got to go,” Lolo knelt down to kiss a still dazed Philige goodbye. “I’ll see you tonight?”

“Uh, yeah. S-sure.”

She smiled and got up to leave. “I love you.” She left and shut the door behind her.

Philige started laughing from his giddiness. He could get used to this.