Lucien finished his breakfast first. He left the table and, looking behind, he saw that Caroline was busy washing some dishes, he brushed Mundy's head with his hand and left a light, silent kiss on his head. Caroline's ear pricked up and she smiled. He put his cup in the sink.

"Let me wash the dishes for you, Caroline."

"Nah, sweetie, it's fine, you go wear something for the farm and find Mike."

Lucien smiled and blushed as it was the first time Caroline called him "sweetie".

"I'm afraid I don't have anything suitable to wear for the farm."

"Ah, let me help with that!"

Mundy had spoken with his mouth half full.

"Yeah Micky, give him something."

"Follow me, Lu'."

They climbed back upstairs and Mundy opened his wardrobe.

"Roight, you can wear this shirt and uhm... I used to have some... Ah, here they are! Overalls!"

Lucien had undressed and started to put on the clothes that Mundy gave him. The shirt had short sleeves and red chequers and the overalls were washed out blue. Lucien put them on and stood in front of the mirror and was closing his buttons. Mundy stood behind Lucien while doing so.

"You look..."

Lucien raised his head.

"Oui?"

"Different."

"Well you're taller than me so the overalls are a bit too long but I've adjusted it with the buttons... And the shirt is a bit too wide in the shoulders."

Mundy wrapped his arms around Lucien's waist and put his head on Lu's shoulder. Lucien finished arranging his outfit. He put a hand on Mundy's cheek and kissed him.

"I see someone is liking what they're seeing."

Mundy sighed.

"What can I say...? You look gorgeous whatever you put on..."

"Merci mon amour."

They cuddled up for a minute.

"I should get going, your mother seemed to really want me out of the way."

"Yeah, true."

Lucien freed himself from Mundy's embrace. But the Australian was anxious. While Lucien walked towards the door, he was staring at himself in the mirror. His hair was ruffled and needed to shave. He was wearing a white tank top with an open shirt and a pair of dark blue shorts which in fact used to be a pair of sweatpants that he had cut into shorts. He was worried about what his mother was going to talk about.

"Mundy?"

He blinked and shook his head as if to zone back to reality. Lucien saw the anxiety in his lover's eyes. He dropped the door knob and walked back to him.

"What's wrong?"

"I don't know what she wants."

"Don't worry, I'm sure it will be fine."

"Don't just say that to calm me down."

Lucien raised his eyes to meet with Mundy.

"Mundy, I know for sure it will be fine. I am not saying this lightly."

"And how do you know?"

Lucien closed the door and switched to French.

"Son langage corporel n'a trahit aucune animosité quand elle a dit qu'elle voulait te parler."

[Her body language didn't betray any animosity when she said she wanted to you.]

"What?!"

"Elle a même souri quand je t'ai embrassé sur la tête. À mon avis, elle veut juste prendre de tes nouvelles mais seule à seul."

[She even smiled when I kissed you on your head. In my opinion, she just wants to have some news about you but alone.]

Mundy was looking at Lucien with big wide eyes.

"How can you...? Bah, alroight, fine..."

"Si je me trompe, tu auras le droit de me demander ce que tu veux ce soir...!"

[If I'm wrong, you can ask me anything you want tonight...!]

Lucien winked and Mundy blushed intensely.

"Uhm... Ah... Merci mais... Tu m'as déjà gâté ce matin..."

[Uhm... Ah... Thanks but... You already spoiled me this morning...]

Mundy replied in French and Lucien's pupils instantly went wide. He also blushed.

"Tu as de la chance qu'on soit pressé..."

[You're lucky that we're in a hurry...]

"Or what?"

Lucien came close to Mundy and pushed himself up on the tip of his toes. He put his hand in front of Mundy's ear and whispered.

"Miaouu..."

[Meoww...]

Mundy went red as a brick as Lucien carressed his cheek. He grasped the Frenchman's hand suddenly, moved it out of his face and dived to his lips. Mundy pushed on Lucien's lips so hard that the Frenchman bent backwards almost to the point of tipping back and falling but Mundy put his arm behind his back and supported him. Meanwhile, with the hand he had grasped, he unfolded his fingers to put them between Lucien's, who tightened his grip on the Australian's fingers. Lucien closed his eyes.

I don't know what I did to deserve someone like Mundy. My childhood was terrible and only taught me violence. My teenage and young adult days proved me that you can live off that. Then I met Jérémy's mother who slapped me out of her existence right before we got him. Back in Paris, I met with countless other women, pretty, beautiful, gorgeous, irresistible... And I ended up in Mann Co. and he was there! Right under my nose! Right under my bloody nose as he'd say! But no! I just could see a filthy jar man who lives in a van! Oh how stupid I was... And how happy I am!

Mundy broke the kiss.

"I didn't know you knew some dancing moves."

He helped Lucien to straighten his back again.

"Je ne demande qu'à apprendre si tu me montres."

[I only want to learn if you can teach me.]

Lucien winked and adjusted his overalls again.

"I will remember this, Mundy, and I will teach you. Now, we need to go."

-- A moment later --

Lucien had gone to the farm, leaving Mundy in the kitchen with his mother.

"So, uhm... Mum, what did you want to talk to me about?"

Caroline had just finished washing the last cups. She wiped her hands.

"Sit down, Micky, I'll be a minute."

Mundy obeyed his mother and in a few seconds she was back with some bandages and disinfectant.

"Give me your hand."

"Oh, thanks, I could have done that, or asked Lu'."

"It's fine, I can do it."

She started unwrapping the previous bandage from Mundy's hand.

"Roight, so, I wanted to ask you a few things. I might be a bit nosy so please tell me if you don't want to answer. But I'm too curious."

Mundy nodded.

"Before Lucien, had there been anyone in your life?"

Mundy blushed and lowered his head. He did not want to answer at first but it was his mother who was asking...

"I'm only asking because, well, given that you never told us that you preferred men, I was thinking maybe you did have previous... erm... companions but you just never dares introduce them to us."

Mundy slowly raised his head back up. His mother was disinfecting the wound.

"To be honest, no, nobody really. When I was a kid, there was a girl, I can't even remember her name. Like all the boys at highschool, I wanted a girlfriend and we got along nicely. So I asked her out and she accepted. At first I was delighted but then it hit me like a train. I didn't anything else for her than the usual friendship... So I started wondering a lot. And then, there was that new student, Alex. That's when I understood. Whenever our eyes met, I'd blush, whenever he'd talk to me, I'd trip on the words, whenever we had to work together, I couldn't focus."

He sighed. Caroline gently turned his hand and continued cleaning the wound.

"I broke up with that girl because I had realised that yeah, Alex was on my mind all the time, much more than she was... I confronted him once. And I told him that I liked him. Well, I wish I hadn't. He made fun of me and the rest of the school did. That's why I just wanted to isolate myself. I could not tell you or dad about that and I started to think that I had a problem, that I was a problem."

Caroline started putting the new bandage.

"After I left school, I decided to work to earn a living and be independent. There was a point where I thought I needed to go away, as far as I could from you. I sometimes wished I liked girls or even on a very few occasions, I wished I didn't exist at all. If I could vanish from everyone and live in a secluded hut, that would have been perfect."

She finished with the bandage and held her son's hand in hers.

"But I loved you and dad too much. So my hut became a van. I could come and go freely, which was ideal. I could vanish sometimes, when I needed it, and then re-appear. I had the job in the band in a pub, as a saxophone player, you remember?"

She nodded, looking at him with sadness in her eyes.

"Well, the reason why I quitted it was because I was tired. I was tired that each and every night my friends would spend their nights with someone and look at me sadly, with pity in their eyes. But what really decided me is when they paid a..."

He blushed.

"They paid a woman to... Because they had figured that I... Some said to me 'Can't say you don't like it if you never tried it'. That night, I quitted my job, ran back to my van and cried myself to sleep. And I did that on multiple nights. But at some point it clicked in my head. I just got used to it. I was going to always be alone. Bah, that's fine, I have you and dad, that's all I need."

Caroline looked down at Mundy's hand that she was holding in hers.

"Years had passed and I helped dad in the farm, having the occasional hunting contract here and there. And I got good at hunting, very much so until that Mann Co. came around and hired me. That's where I met Lu'. But he was said to have a lot of success with the ladies and, having talked about it with him, it turns out it was true!"

He smiled although sadly.

"We never saw each other as anything more than colleagues. The few occasions where we exchanged a couple words was when we needed to, on the battlefield. Other than that, I kept in my van and him, in his smoking room."

"So you didn't... like him back then?"

Mundy shook his head.

"No, I didn't. And after that contract ended I came back here and you know the rest of the story."

She nodded, looking thoughtful.

"What Lucien said to you the other day, in front of your father and me, those were very strong words."

Mundy nodded.

"What do you think, Mundy?"

Mundy raised his eyes.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, what do you feel for him? The reason I'm asking this is, well, clearly he loves you that much that he was ready to leave you for you to be happy. Such actions are very hard to make. And you ran after him as if your life depended on it. I just want to know what you feel for him and please, from now on, do talk to me about your feelings, Mundy. Don't think that it's awkward or I don't care cause that's wrong. I'm your mother, I want you to be as happy as possible, sweetie... Now, tell me."

Mundy took a deep breath.

"I... I don't know where to start... He is a... I mean I... uh... I can't really find the words, sorry..."

"Take your time, sweetie."

Mundy looked down at his bandaged hand and tighened his grip on his mother's hand.

"Mum, I love him. I love him so much. When I bumped onto him the day I met him in Paris, I had no idea it was him. In the Mann Co. days, he used to wear a mask but in Paris, he wasn't. He recognised me but I didn't him. I offered to fix his hand and he taught me French in exchange for it. And the days passed that turned into weeks... At some point, I offered him a tour at the zoo and in the end, he suggested we got get dinner somewhere. Somewhere inside me, there was this loud voice that I was trying to shut up. That voice was screaming those feelings that I had developed for him without realising it."

"Oh..."

"You know, it's like a... like an itch but you can't scratch it off..."

"I know what it feels, Mundy and it's called 'being in love'."

Mundy smiled.

"He drove to a restaurant and when he parked the car, he told me that he knew."

"About what? Your feelings for him?"

"No, that I liked men. And mum, I got terrified. I saw myself back in highschool being bullied and humiliated for it. I saw that night with the guys at the pub... But he said it didn't matter. Mum, he said it. didn't. matter... I was shocked! He took me inside the restaurant, the food was lovely and then he disappeared. Mum, you're never going to believe what he did. There was a stage with a pianist in that restaurant. He appeared there and sang... for me..."

Mundy's voice was trembling. Caroline's jaw dropped as she put a hand on her mouth to cover it.

"Aw!"

"If only you were there... Mum he has an amazing voice, he can do imitations as well. But when he sang that night, it felt like he had pierced through my ribcage and was holding my heart in his hand, pressing it harder and harder... When he finished, a waiter asked me to go and see him backstage. I obeyed and there he was. He told me the truth, that he was the Spy from Mann Co. and that he... he loved me."

Mundy had tears in his eyes. He sniffed. His mother's eyes also filled with tears.

"Next thing I remember, I woke up having spent the best night of my life and having someone I loved and who loved me back by my side..."

He sniffed again.

"You know, he is very clever when it comes to people, he knows them and understands. And for the first time I had found someone with whom I could share all of me with... My joys, my sorrows, what makes me happy, what annoys me... It's... It's the best feeling I've experienced all the more so that I had abandoned the dream of finding such a person...!"

He wiped his tears with the back of his left hand.

"Mum, I'm so glad you accept him."

"No, I don't."

Mundy opened wide eyes.

"Whot?!"

"I don't just accept him. May God be praised for having made your paths cross! I am delighted for you two. You look so lovely! And please, you don't need to hide. If you want to cuddle up or anything, feel free to do it, even in front of us."

Mundy's face brightened.

"Thank you so much, but I don't think we really can. I think dad would look at us strangely."

"Well, he has to get used to it! You love each other! If Lucien had been a girl, he wouldn't mind you doing that so what if he's a man? It doesn't change anything! You know Mundy, I'm truly happy you found your match and you found the courage to talk to us about it. Also, I am convinced of one thing."

"What?"

Caroline pushed her chair back and stood up. She went to Mundy who was still sat down and hugged him.

"He's the right one for you."

Mundy blushed intensely and his face wore the biggest smile he could.

"There is only one thing that makes me a little bit sad."

"Oh, what's that?"

"You'll never give me grandkids..."

Mundy turned and looked at his mum.

"Lucien has a son, mum, he's living with us in Paris."

"WHAAAAT?! AM I A GRANDMA AND YOU DIDN'T TELL ME?!"

-- Author's notes --

Ayyy thanks for reading guys :D !

Shout out to the discord crew, as always, it's thanks to them and all your comments that I keep on writing this story :) !

See y'all around for the next one!