The Gardener
Sowing the Seeds of Sunflowers

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine
You make me happy when skies are grey
You never know, dear, how much I love you
Please don't take my sunshine away

Chapter One

Ivan had been with Alfred for years, they were partners since they met in the late 1880s. They had lived with one another for so long that they knew each other to a fine point, and the romanticism in the relationship had lost all meaning. Ivan knew everything about Alfred, and he didn't like it. They were constantly arguing, often about the most pointless of things, but they had recently came to an agreement, one of out of hundreds of things they didn't agree with.

"I want a gardener."

"Da? You want a gardener."

"Yes. The state of our backyard is horrific. I mean I know we planted flowers in there at some point, not that you could see them. The grass has grown so high it is like a jungle out there, and I refuse to fix it. Hire someone"

"Fine. I was thinking of getting one either way. It is horrible out there, da?"

It turned out that Ivan himself was getting sick of the constant struggle he had to make to even see his sunflowers. He was already thinking of getting someone to their garden anyway, before his 'wife' had even said anything of the matter.

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"Why hello there, Ivan who is this young thing?"

"Our new gardener, Matthew."

The boy sat there, his face flushed, palms sweaty as the grip his knee caps, soft, wavy hair falling around his face, perfectly cupping and caressing his small cheeks. As soon as Alfred looked at him, he felt a pang on annoyance and jealousy. The boy closely resembled him, but had features more soft, more beautiful than his own, he even spoke with a more seductive tone, Canadian, with a soft touch of French.

"It is so very nice to meet you, Master Alfred."

"Well then. Get to work, our garden isn't going to look nice if you are just sitting there."

The young boy bolted up, his face even more flushed, and had ran out of the room and onto the porch with the instance of being told to. Ivan had noted his ability to follow orders and have reminded himself to remember this in the long run. He was going to be a fine worker in their house and he was excited to have him there.

"Well, what do you think? Fine young lad, da?"

"Well he looks fine, but the question is can he work? I mean unless you picked him up for another reason other than needing him for a gardener."

Without even been given the time to answer, Ivan was left alone as Alfred flounced out of the room, his tail coat whipping behind him, and hitting Ivan gently on the thigh. Obviously, his partner was mad, but god damn if he knew the reason why. He had noticed that Alfred started becoming more like a wife than a husband in the past couple of years. Every time he had stopped to talk to a friend, a male friend, not even a female, Alfred had glared at him, and then yelled at him the entire carriage ride home. He was unable to figure out the sudden change in Alfred, other than the fact that it began to affect their sex life, and thus had begun to affect him.

"Um," a voice had broken his train of thought "I was wondering Master, could you tell me where I could put my tools?"

Ivan turned to look behind him, at the direction of where the voice was coming from, there standing in front of him was Matthew shirtless, chest glistening with sweat from hard work, face flushed, bright red. Hot, sticky sweat covered every inch of his body, pooling at his forehead, the curves of his well-toned muscle.

"There is a tool shed nearing the end of the garden, I will take you there, da? Oh and Matvey?"

"Oui?"

"Call me Ivan."

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Even though most of the grass had been torn away, the walk to the back of the garden was still tough. Ivan had kept the younger male close to him, his breath hitched as he felt the boy fit comfortably into his side. Their sweat mingled, heart beats synced, Matthew was perfect and Ivan knew it.

"Ma-Ivan, merci, thank you for taking me to the shed, you are very nice."

Nice? Nice. It was not a word that Ivan was used to hearing, sure it was said on the off occasion, but that was usually by Alfred when he handed him his spending money. Never because somebody actually believed that, definitely not in the way that Matthew had said it, that sincerity, that absolute sincerity that Matthew had said it in. Well, he was shocked by it.

"It is of course no problem, Matvey."

The boy had stayed still, standing in front of Ivan, shuffling his feet, blushing, eyes firmly planted on the ground, his palms sweating even more than they did from hard work. Ivan moved closer to the boy, nervous anticipation surrounded them, pulling them into a sickly sweet embrace. It was wrong, Ivan should not have held the boy in his arms, but there he was, holding this boy around the waist. Matthew's frame was small and slender, soft to the touch, oh that softness, the most evil of things. Ivan traced the spine, his fingers brushing against the bumps, the rough pads of his fingers felt the skin beneath them. They looked at one another, Ivan up, Matthew down. Their breaths heavy, their eyes glazed over with a feeling neither of them had ever felt before.

"Darling, Ivan! I am going out for a while, just down the road for a few hours. Nancy, oh you know her, is holding a bridge game, and I said I would play. Alright, well goodbye!"

The two who had separated at the instant of Alfred's voice, were once back into their embrace. Lips had pressed together, battling in a heated kiss. It was a feeling unlike no other that Ivan had ever felt, he didn't even feel this way when he and Alfred kissed. All of that seemed pathetic and meaningless compared to what he was sharing with Matthew.

"Ma-I-Ivan, we can't be doing this. Y-your husband!"

"I have never felt in all the years I have known him, the feeling that you have given me."

"Ivan."

It was barely there, but like a breath, the calling of his name was needed. It was conformation of their affair.

"Matvey."

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A/N: Thank you for reading this I know this chapter is pretty short but I hope it will get longer over the time, but I wanted to get it out in the air. Merci bien for reading.