It took what, to Emilio, seemed like ages for Tobi's siblings to agree on a date they could all visit the church. Emilio had been counting down the days since Tobi had first texted him the date. Tobi was finally letting him in. Maybe, after this, Tobi would be ready to talk about the scar, too. Their relationship could only improve.

Emilio checked his phone. There was a new text from Tobi saying he'd be there soon. It was from a few minutes ago.

The doorbell rang.

Emilio nearly leapt from where he was sitting.

Tobi smiled when Emilio answered the door.

"Give me a minute. I'm going to go to the bathroom and then we can leave," Emilio said.

Tobi nodded, in no rush to see his family again. He sat down on the couch and noticed a purple notebook. Grinning, he opened it and read through the pages. He was a little surprised to see that pages had been added. Emilio had written about their dates and little facts about Tobi he'd learned.

"Fond of antique porcelain dolls" stood out to Tobi.

He found Emilio's recounts and reactions to the dates endearing.

Tobi frowned slightly when he came across a page that had nothing to do with their dates. Instead, it was about Tobi's family.

Where did he get this information? Tobi wondered.

He heard a door open and footsteps, and quickly shut the notebook, placing it back where he'd found it. After seeing that page, he had the feeling that Emilio hadn't intended for him to be reading the notebook again.

"Ready?" he asked brightly as Emilio entered the room, not wanting to give away what he'd just seen.

Emilio adjusted his glasses and nodded, offering Tobi his hand.

They made their way to Tobi's car in silence, Tobi's mind racing the entire time. Where did Emilio find that? How much did he know? Tobi hadn't had time to read the whole page and had no idea if there was more. Would what Emilio knew affect anything later that day? What if things didn't go well because of it?

Emilio took notice of Tobi's mood. "Are you okay?"

Tobi snapped out of his thoughts. "I'm fine. I'm just not really looking forward to seeing everyone today."

"I can say I'm on call and pretend to have to go if you ever want to leave," Emilio offered.

Tobi smiled. "I might take you up on that."

Emilio looked out the window at all the trees passing. They had been driving for a while. "Is it much farther?" he asked.

"Not much. It's just very in the middle of nowhere."

"Was it fun having all these woods to play in?"

Tobi gave a small smile. "We played wolf pack and other things. Sometimes I would go get myself lost on purpose, just to enjoy the serenity and quiet. It was scary at night, though." Emilio expected that to be the end, but then Tobi mumbled so quietly he almost didn't hear, "I would sleepwalk to this one clearing all the time."

"You sleepwalk?" Emilio asked.

"Only at the church. And only when I forget to lock the door."

The car turned down a partially hidden road. After a few more minutes of driving, they came upon a large building with several cars in the front. Tobi parked but retained in the car, gripping the steering wheel tightly. Emilio placed his hand on Tobi's. Tobi sucked in a breath, then slowly exhaled. He turned and pulled Emilio in for a kiss before getting out of the car.

Heads turned as Tobi and Emilio walked through the front door.

"Took you long enough!" Wolfe exclaimed. "Now who did you want us to meet?"

"This is my good friend, Emilio," Tobi said, gesturing to Emilio.

The octuplets exchanged a meaningful glance, but didn't voice what they were thinking. Instead, they stood and introduced themselves.

"It's nice to finally formally meet," Mattias said, shaking Emilio's hand.

"It's Mattias, right?" Emilio asked.

"You know each other?" another of Tobi's brothers, Axel, asked.

"Kind of," Mattias said. "He was one of Tobi's nurses when we were in the hospital. Speaking of the fire, you two should go see the new kitchen."

"Did anything change?" Tobi asked.

"A little bit," Wolfe said. "You might as well give Emilio a full tour while you're at it.

Tobi and Emilio followed Mattias to the kitchen and dining room. It was mostly the same, if a few less candles.

"Wow," Emilio said. "What all caught fire?"

"This room is where it started and it spread to the kitchen. I don't know if it spread more or not."

"It didn't spread a lot more, thankfully," Mattias said. "Shall we give you the tour?"

Emilio nodded. "That would be nice."

Emilio was led through the halls of the church as Tobi and Mattias pointed out different rooms.

"This one is— was mine," Tobi said, pointing to a bedroom.

Emilio poked his head in. There were two beds at opposite ends of the room and some dressers for clothes. Otherwise it was relatively empty.

Tobi took the lead to continue walking down the hall and Mattias lagged behind to talk to Emilio.

"It's a really good sign that you're here," he said quietly. "He was very on the fence about it all, but if everything goes well today, this will probably get him to open up much more."

"That's reassuring," Emilio sighed. "That's what I was hoping."

They passed by a door that neither brother mentioned. Emilio was suddenly very curious. "What's that room?"

Mattias and Tobi turned to look. Tobi cringed when he recognized the door Emilio pointed to.

"It's not important," he said.

Mattias nodded in agreement. "There isn't anything in there."

Emilio doubted that. When Mattias and Tobi had turned to continue down the hall, he opened the door.

It was a small room, about the size of a closet. There was no light. The walls were covered floor-to-ceiling in wooden crosses.

"What the hell?"

"I said it wasn't important," Tobi snapped, grabbing Emilio by the back of his shirt and dragging him away from the room. The look on his face was unreadable. Mattias looked worried.

"Tobi, what was that?"

"Nothing. Just storage for extra crosses."

Emilio looked at Mattias to confirm the story, but Mattias said nothing and looked away.

Emilio decided not to pry. "Right. That makes sense."

Tobi's grip on Emilio eased as they left the room behind.

When they got back to the living room, Emilio was introduced to more of Tobi's siblings. Things got hushed as a man with long gray hair and glasses entered the room.

"Tobias, who is this?"

"Father, this is—"

"Emilio Murkmere," Emilio introduced. "Tobias's boyfriend."

A/N Happy Wednesday! I have my AP Music Theory exam today so I got to stay home from school and work more on the book! Wish me luck, y'all, because lord knows if I'm going to pass or not. Chapter title from "(Wilson) Expensive Mistakes" by Fall Out Boy. Now that classes are slowing down and it's mainly just review, I should have more time to get things out, so expect longer chapters assuming I don't procrastinate (I will). Don't forget to comment and vote!