Chapter 3 The Secret Revealed

The next morning the others returned to help work more on the house. To Raistlin's annoyance, and Caramon's as well, Tika tagged along with the group.

"Tika, please," Caramon said, panting softly as sweat dripped from his brow while he worked steadily to build his and Raistlin's new home. "I do not want to hurt you. What can I do to make you understand that I do not want to be with you in that way, let alone marry you?"

"I get that, Caramon," the redheaded barmaid said with heated stubbornness, putting her hands on her ample hips as she watched him work. "I don't see how I could possibly miss it. What I want to know is, why? What is it about me exactly that you find so repulsive?" "What?" Caramon asked in genuine astonishment as he turned to face her finally. "You are not repulsive, Tika. You are a beautiful woman. It is just.. Just that I.."

"You what, Caramon?"

"I.. It is that.. I am in love with… I am in love with someone else. I am.. sorry, Tika, that I cannot give you what you seek. I would not be a good husband to you, not when my heart belongs to another."

"Is she from Solace?" Tika asked, demanding more information of him.

"Yes," Caramon answered her as truthfully as was possible. "Though, she hasn't lived here for a long time. She's a wanderer like me."

"But, you have decided to settle down here," Tika stated.

"Yes, Raist and I have. He's tired, and weary of the constant traveling. Truthfully, so am I."

"Then how can you be with this woman you love?" Tika asked in confusion.

"I can not."

"Then why can you not be with me?"

"Were you not listening to me at all?" Caramon asked her with a frustrated sigh, turning back to where he, Flint and Sturm were putting up the inner walls to make the rooms of the house while Tasselholf chattered on endlessly to Flint with his usual chatter. "I can not be with you when I love someone else. It would not be right. Just because I can not be with her.. it does not change the fact that I love her."

"But, I think that you could grow to love me, Caramon."

"Tika!" Caramon said, finally snapping, turning to face her fully now before continuing to speak. "You are not listening to me! I do not love you! I do not want you! I do not want to "grow to love you", even if I could, which I do not know that I could, nor do I know that I could not. The point here is, I choose not to. Why are you forcing me to be cruel about this?"

Tika's face turned even redder, her blood obviously rushing to her face with her anger. "Fine, you be that way, then," she stated coldly. "You have made your choice. Be alone forever with no one but your brother to comfort you."

And with that, she stomped off back home in the direction of Solace once more, causing Caramon to sigh in relief as she left them to their work.

Raistlin sat resting beneath his tree, glaring at Tika Waylen from beneath his deep red hood. His arms were crossed in front of him over his knees since his legs were drawn up against his slender body beneath his robes.

He reluctantly admitted to himself that it was pure; burning jealously that was causing his blood to rise, pumping so strongly through his veins as he watched the woman argue with his brother. Though about what they were speaking, he did not know. He barely noticed when Tanis sat down beside him, leaning his back up against another tree close to Raistlin's own.

"Raistlin.." the half-Elf stated quietly as he watched the same thing that the Mage was. "I need to talk with you."

"What about?" Raistlin asked him absently, obviously never taking his golden eyes from the fiery barmaid as he spoke.

"About your intentions toward Caramon. I know that you had sex with him. I saw you two last night. I have not told anyone, and, I want you to know, that I have no intention of doing so. I just want to make sure that this… Whatever it may be, is not another one of your plots to manipulate and control him. I just do not want him to be hurt. Or you, either, if this backfires on you both."

Tanis was surprised when Raistlin's head snapped toward him quickly, his hood falling back and away from his face to reveal his wild golden eyes as he finally looked away from Tika now. He felt like the Mage's eyes might burn through his skin as he looked at his face intensely, but he was shocked when Raistlin finally spoke. His voice was soft, sounding uncertain and shaken for the first time that Tanis knew of, ever.

"You thought.. think that I want to manipulate and control him with this? How could you? You- I.. It was not like.. I mean, I.. I took him into my body! He was inside of me! I gave him my innocence, everything that I had to give! If anything is going to backfire about this, it will be him leaving me to fuck Tika Waylen regardless of the Vows that we made to each other!"

"Caramon would never do that to you, Raistlin," Tanis said, watching the Mage snort quietly in response to his words as he pulled his hood back up over his face and turned his head away from him now. "It is the truth! I saw how his face looked while you two were making love together. Trust me, Raistlin. It meant just as much to him as it did to you, if not more."

"That is not possible," Raistlin said softly. "What we did… What Caramon and I.. shared together.. It meant more to me then anything that I have ever done before. He just.. He brings out the best in me, somehow.. And that is no easy thing to accomplish, considering how little good there is within me."

"Do not say that," Tanis protested, looking at him in concern. "You are a great man, Raistlin."

"I know what, and who, I am, Tanis," Raistlin said darkly. "But, just out of curiosity, why do you think that I am a "great man"? And I want the truth."

"Because if you were not one, then Caramon would not love you so much. And he does love you, Raistlin. I can see it in his face whenever he looks at you. You are clearly so much more then a brother to him. And, despite what most think of such arrangements, in your case, I do not believe it to be a bad thing."

"Caramon, I want to know what is going on between you and Raistlin," Sturm said seriously where the two men were working beside Flint. Tasselholf was chattering away to the old Dwarf once again. "You two are behaving stranger then usual around each other, and I want to know why."

The three of them had started to build more of the furniture this morning since they all had completed the house the night before.

Caramon sighed heavily, struggling with what to say to his friend as he turned to look down at the babbling Kender. "Taz, would you go and find Tanis and Raistlin? We could use their help now."

"Of course, Caramon!" Tasselholf agreed excitedly, bouncing on his feet as he answered him. "I'll find them for you!" Then he was off like a shot, his hair whipping up and down comically behind him with his bouncing steps.

"Why did you send him after them?" Flint asked him, obviously confused by their friend's actions. "We do not really need their help, though it would make the work go faster."

"Because I do not want him to know about this. At least, not yet. He will not understand the gravity of the situation, and might accidentally let it slip to someone who should not know about it."

"Let what slip?" Sturm asked him quietly, seeming to pick up on his abruptly serious mood.

"Well, it is a relatively new development, but Raist and I.. We have.."

"What is it, lad?" Flint asked gruffly, though his eyes were obviously sympathetic and concerned for him.

Caramon took in a deep, bracing breath, then said quickly in answer, "Raist and I have become lovers."

Flint blinked his eyes slowly, obviously surprised by this new information, but thinking that it explained much about the twin's behavior around each other this past week while their house was being constructed, and why Raistlin had specified only one bedroom. Only one was needed, since the brothers would clearly be sharing a bed as well as a house.

Sturm, however, seemed to take the revelation less calmly, as Caramon had known he would. His shock was plain on his face and in his wide eyes as he actually staggered, reeling back a step or two unconsciously and paling with his obvious horror. "You mean that you are fuc-"

"Do not," Caramon cut his knightly friend off, his eyes flaring with his outrage at what he had been about to say. "Do not dare to say that word in my presence. I care not that you are my friend; I will not allow you to cheapen this. The things that we have done, that Raistlin and I have shared, have all been wonderful and beautiful. This is not some heedless fling, Sturm, it is real and true. We have spoken Vows of loyalty to each other. And if I have anything to say about it, we will be together this way from now on until eternity. I love him, and he loves me."

"It does not matter that you love. Two men lying together as men and women do is wrong, Caramon."

"You do not really believe that, Sturm."

"Do not tell me what I believe! I may not be a real knight, but I do know the difference between right and wrong!"

"Fine," Caramon said in reply, his quiet voice infused with a stiffness that had not been there before. "It is wrong, but it is right for us. When I am with him, when I am.. inside him, everything feels.. perfect, like a wonderful dream. But it is not a fantasy, it is real, solid. And I have never been happier then in the time since that first night with him in our room at the inn. Raist may be my brother, but I believe that he is also my soul's mate. There is no other explanation for how well we complement each other, in every way."

"Have you told him this yet?" Flint asked, speaking up then before Sturm had a chance to do so again and make Caramon ever angrier towards his friend.

"Not yet, no," the large warrior admitted to the Dwarf. "But I intend to do so tonight."

Tasselholf wandered after he left the others, looking at every stick, rock, and tree, as Kender were known to do, as though they were the most fascinating things on the planet despite how many of them there were.

He finally located Tanis and Raistlin an hour later, though the two had not been anywhere close to that far from the clearing. The half-Elf and the Mage were walking together among the trees and flowers there, though they were not speaking now, if indeed they ever had been.

"Tanis! Raistlin!" Tasselholf called excitedly, waving his little hands above his head to get the attention of the two just incase the shouting was not enough. "Caramon sent me to tell you to come back! He wants your help with building the furniture!"

Raistlin nodded, following slowly after Tanis when he walked toward the bouncing Kender, noticing that Taz's little cheeks were flushed bright pink with eagerness and exertion.

"Come on," Tanis said to Raistlin softly. "We had better get moving, then. Who knows how long Taz doddled along the way to find us?"

"I honestly do not think that it matters," the red robed Mage rasped quietly in reply so as not to draw the giggling, skipping Kender's attention with his words. "Caramon assured me this morning that our assistance would be appreciated eventually, once they figured out what they were going to build next, but that it was not really necessary if we had something else to do. Or if we were too tired after all the work we did yesterday to finish the house and some of the furniture. Though, I do think that last bit was meant mostly for me. Ever since we became more then just brothers, he has become even more protective and conscious of my well being. I suppose that I should have expected such from him."

Tanis nodded wordlessly, smiling slightly in response to the slight frustration in the man's soft, rasping voice, as well as Raistlin's reluctant amusement with his twin's treatment of him as the three of them made their way back to the clearing where the finished house resided.