With her face pressed against Anteros, with him holding her so tight, Lottie didn't see Eros give up his usual trappings. If she had, she might have given in then and there, because the loss of those beautiful wings would have been painful for her to watch. Though they would still be there at his whim, the visual of it would have been too much for her to bear.
But since she didn't see him, she only heard him, then heard Anteros' response. She only addressed Anteros. “Of course it matters, Ter. Of course it matters. He's your brother. He's a cocky jerk and an inconsiderate asshole and an irresponsible pinhead and I hope his wings moult, but he's still your brother. You shouldn't have to fight your brother. Family is important.”
Lottie sniffled, trying to get the tears to stop, because she was tired of crying. She was just tired of it. But she couldn’t seem to staunch the flow, they just kept coming. She'd have thought she would have been dry hours ago. So even though she couldn’t prevent the tears, she began explaining, slowly, because even to her it didn't make sense an she really wanted Anteros to understand. She didn't expect Eros to get it if she him him over the head with it at this point, he was so convinced he was right, but he was there so he could listen if he wanted to. Might do him some good.
“It was like a game to him, to Nicolas,” she told him. “He worked so hard to get my attention, he wrote me poetry and sang me songs. He swore up, down and sideways that I had his eternal devotion, that he loved me. He said the way I looked at him made him want to live, that my love was like the air he breathed and without it he would die. He promised, Ter, he promised that he loved me. But he didn't love me. He loved chasting me. I... we had sex. And then, he just left. He has no interest in me now because why bother? The pursuit is all that matters.”
Lifting her head, she looked up at Anteros. “And not just to him. I thought the other ladies were being melodramatic, but they weren't. They're all doing this. They're all playing this game, the men and the women. They pretend they're wooing and falling in love, but it's just some stupid sort of playacting.”
It was then that she turned to her gaze to Eros, finally seeing that he'd shed his beautiful wings. It didn't really matter anymore, her heart ached too much to hurt any more than it already did, it was just a new kind of pang that lance through her when she saw him standing there all but naked. In a dull voice she added, “They're calling it courtly love. It has rules. I didn't know that there were any rules. I didn't know that it was a game. Love shouldn't be a game.”