Description: You can hide and deny it as much as you like, but your love is obvious to those around you.

Nick's POV

We were walking through Gorm, just walking. For once, we didn't have any saving the world to do. This was a relief as it gave me a chance to think about something that was confusing me.

Jessica and Toby were walking ahead of Lucas and I, and they didn't seem to be arguing, for once. Come to think of it, I couldn't remember the last time they actually argued.

Suddenly Lucas crashed into me. "Watch where you're going!" I snapped, a little annoyed that he'd interrupted my spying. Luckily, Jessica and Toby hadn't noticed anything and remained oblivious to me.

"Sorry," Lucas said, helping me to my feet. "What were you looking at anyway?" In reply, I point at Jessica and Toby. He looks at me, very confused.

"Just watch." I sigh, turning back toward the subjects of my interest. Jessica had seen some sort of flower and had grabbed Toby's hand, eagerly pointing at the flower. She started talking about how she wished there were pretty flowers of the like on Earth. What threw me was the fact that Toby actually seemed to be listening to her, rather than just laughing at her.

He took hold of her hand, lacing their fingers together. He looked deeply into her eyes, smiling at her. With his other hand, he pulled her close to him in a one-armed hug. "No flower could ever be as beautiful as you," I heard him say honestly.

Her eyes widened and she blushed, giving him a shy smile. He returned the smile before gently kissing her, causing them both to blush furiously. Lucas looked at me, "No way," he said in a hushed voice.

Now that I had seen it, I couldn't believe I hadn't noticed anything between them before now. I felt like a blindfold had been lifted from my eyes. "Yep," I confirmed what we both knew.

"To be honest, I don't know how we didn't notice this," Lucas pointed out. "I mean, they haven't argued for ages, they both get angry and upset if the other gets hurt, not to mention they've been spending a lot of time together lately." So I wasn't the only one who had noticed the changes in their relationship.

We both decided to hang back and watch them, as they obliviously revealed their feelings for each other to us. I still had trouble working out how I could have missed something so obvious. It was so blindingly obvious now, I couldn't help but recall all the times they had spent together. They were always better together than apart, dnow I knew the reason why, and they weren't even trying to hide it.

They were in love.

Later that day (Lucas' POV)

I was staying the night at the Tripp's house which gave Nick and I the perfect opportunity to interrogate Toby and find out exactly what was going on between him and Jessica.

"So..." I say, sitting next to him on the couch. We were watching movies in the living room as it was still quite early in the day.

"So?" He asks, staring at me quizzically. I try to generate some sort of response, but the words got stuck in my throat. Luckily Nick jumped in, saving me from having to reply.

"What's the deal with you and Jessica?" He asked, sitting down on Toby's other side. We both stared at him in that "we're not letting you leave until we get answers" way.

Toby's eyes widened momentarily before he replied, a little too quickly, "I don't know what you're talking about." However his reaction told us he knew exactly what we were talking about.

"Come on, Toby, we're not dumb," Nick sighed. "We saw what went on between you guys earlier." He looked at his brother, urging him to tell the truth.

"Yeah," I add. "There's no point in trying to hide it. It's been obvious for ages that there's more than just friendship between you two now."

Toby looked angry. I guess he kind of had the right to be, though. "You were spying on us?" He asked incredulously. We both nodded sheepishly. "Well, there's absolutely nothing going on between us. We're just friends, okay!" He said this last part rather loudly.

"Well, why do you keep getting so wound up about it if there's nothing between you?" Nick asked and I mentally cheered. "I could write a book of the things you guys do when you're near one another..."

It seemed like the last straw for Toby as he snapped frustratedly, "Alright, fine, I love her! I've always loved her! Well, how could I not? She's brave, smart, strong, beautiful and always tries to see the best in people even when they can't see it in themselves."

He looks at us as he stops yelling before quietly adding, "I kept trying to hide it from everyone, including myself. I mean, how could a girl as perfect as her possibly love a guy like me? I thought if I denied my feelings, they'd go away and we could go back to being rivals as well as friends. It didn't work, though. If anything, they grew stronger. That moment was the best moment in my life; now that I knew how she felt, I couldn't deny it anymore. So I told her I loved her. Happy now?"

"Well, what did she say?" I asked, genuinely interested to hear how Jessica had reacted to this revelation.

"She said she already knew, then told me she felt the same," he replied, frowning. "I don't see how she could have known, though. I mean, I wasn't that obvious, was I?"

Nick and I both glanced at each other. It seemed that Toby had been trying so hard to deny his feelings for Jessica that he had, unknowingly, been displaying them the whole time, ever since they first became Lords of Nature, in fact.

"Why are you guys looking at me like that?" He asked, looking slightly scared. Now that his feelings were out in the open, he didn't want to deny them any longer, not that he wanted to. It had been so obvious to everyone; it was almost as if he hadn't been trying very hard to hide them.

"Oh, nothing," Nick says casually. "We're just making sure you don't try to deny admitting any of this."

"Or this conversation." I add, nodding at Nick. We both laughed at Toby's mystified expression. "You were pretty obvious, if you want the answer to your question. Speaking of which, when did you know that you loved her?"

Flashback (Toby's POV)

We all stared in horror as the dome surrounding Jessica and the Air Gormiti shrunk. This couldn't be happening; I couldn't lose her! Wait, why am I so worried? It's just because we're friends, right?

Nick informed us that the answer was somewhere in the Forest Nation. Lucas nodded and headed toward the edge of the citadel. Bertz told us he would remain near the dome so he could warn us of any danger.

"Don't be worried! I believe in you... I trust you!" Somehow it felt like she was addressing me, and me alone. I place my hand directly over hers, wishing that there wasn't a stupid dome between us. The look she gave me was so full of trust and something else I couldn't quite determine. I won't let you down, I silently promised.

Reluctantly I removed my hand. I would save her, whatever the cost. I would save her every time, even if it meant giving up my own life. I would do it all in a heartbeat; someone as pure, as perfect as her doesn't deserve a life marred by darkness. I wanted, all of a sudden, to keep that darkness from her.

It seemed the feelings I'd noticed had grown. This wasn't interest, or even a crush. No, this was Love at its very worst and trying to deny it was driving me crazy.

End of Flashback (Normal POV)

It seemed that an important lesson had been learned. Love is a powerful thing. You can try to hide it and deny it as much as possible but it always expresses itself somehow. You cannot deny an everlasting love, you see.