Nightfall. Hugo was in lab late at night working on something that involved the totems.

Varian walked right in.

"Don't you know about invasion of privacy?" Hugo whisper-shouted.

"N-no. N-never occurred to me," Varian stammered, his face as red as a tomato.

"Look at you. You're even a mess," Hugo said with a light chuckle.

Varian bit his lip. "Not funny, Hugo," he said.

Hugo laughed. "But it is," Hugo said. "You can't deny it."

He paused. "I've heard about your crush, Varian," Hugo said.

"M-m-me? A crush? Wh-who told you that?" Varian stammered.

"I know all," Hugo said.

"You do now?" Varian asked. "This is gonna be a frickin' interesting ride."

Hugo sighed. "When I was little, I never knew my parents. You could say I was an orphan, 'cause I was. That was when Donella took me in,"

"How come I've only just met you?" Varian asked. "And I'm already getting butterflies?"

"Well, you see, Varian, this was right after Donella took the wrong path," Hugo said, setting down the totems in shame. "She took me in and raised me as a follower. She ordered me to follow you and your friends to the Enchanted Library, where I would've eventually stolen your totems."

Hugo chuckled. "But I was stupid – really fuckin' stupid. I took the totems for my own benefit that I never even stopped to think about what I would do in that situation."

He took Varian's hands in his, both boys blushing like crazy. When Hugo leaned in to kiss Varian, Varian fainted in a bisexual panic.

"There was this girl who often made me blush back home," Varian said, smiling while still blushing uncontrollably.

"Where are you from?" Hugo asked, scooting closer.

A panic came over Varian. "Too close! Too close! Shit, too frickin' close!"

Hugo chuckled. "OK. I'll give you some space, you gay disaster," he said.

Varian blushed, biting his lip. "I'm not a gay disaster!"

Hugo chuckled once more. "I can tell. Tell me more about this girl you had a crush on."

"Promise to take it seriously this time?" Varian asked.

"Yeah, yeah. Serious," Hugo replied sarcastically. "Totally."

"I'm from Corona," Varian replied. "The girl who caught my eye wasn't Rapunzel, the Crown Princess, but her badass lady-in-waiting, Cassandra. Cass is beautiful, cunning, and totally cute when she's frustrated."

"Crush on Cassandra, eh? I guess you two tied the knot," Hugo laughed.

"No! I'm only 18, you frickin' idiot!" Varian shouted.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Slow down, Varian!" Hugo said. "Chill! It's only a joke!"

"Yeah, yeah," Varian said.

"So why did you come all this way?" Hugo asked.

"Why don't you just frickin' apologise already?" Varian shouted.

Varian slowly backed away. "I-I'm so sorry. I-I didn't mean to yell at you."

"It's OK," Hugo replied.

Varian sighed, telling him the whole story.

"I'm sorry about your mom," Hugo said. "And I'm sorry about the way we started off on the wrong foot. Let's try this again." He held out his hand. "I'm Hugo," Hugo said.

Varian reluctantly grabbed Hugo's hand and shook it. His mind went blank for a moment. "I-I'm Varian," he said. He began to blush uncontrollably once again as he backed away. Eventually, he fell backwards.

"Varian, are you OK?" Hugo said, holding out his hand to help him up.

Varian quickly regained consciousness. "Me? Varian?" He chuckled nervously. "Who's Varian? I don't know anybody named Varian."

"You've hit your head," Hugo said. "It's an effect of the feelings you're developing."

Varian sat back up. "Hit my head? Hugo, do you know how ridiculous you just sounded?"

"No, but I know how ridiculous you just sounded," Hugo replied with a genuine smile.

He helped Varian up, the two once again looking away from each other with their flushed faces.

"Goodnight," Hugo finally said.

"Goodnight," Varian said. "Get some sleep."

Hugo smiled. "I will. Thank you."

After Varian left his laboratory, he cleaned up what he was working on and headed to bed.

Tomorrow morning I'll tell him, Hugo thought.

He closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.