The auction had gone well.

Actually, better than well, it had gone brilliantly, getting them much more funds than they had expected, which was such a relief, as they needed just a little bit more money in the bank to push forward with all their plans for improving the farm and for kicking off their cheese side business.

'Someone looks happy' Gheorghe said, bringing him back to reality, giving him a little shove with his shoulder, as they walked back to the car.

From the corner of his eye, he could see that Gheorghe himself was happy, in his quiet, understated way.

Johnny wasn't one to beam. He used to be one, grumpy arsehole and had spent much of his life just seeing everything as one, huge mountain ready to collapse on him any moment.

And yet, ever since they journey back from Scotland, ever since his new life was proving to make him feel so much better than any amount of alcohol or anonymous sex could make him feel, he was finding himself smiling a lot more.

He was finding himself able to look at that scary mountain of responsibilities and not panic.

And, in that very moment, as he walked back to the car with his partner by his side, he was feeling as happy as he could ever hope to be.

He knew that it could never be as perfect as that.

And happiness can sometimes make you do crazy new things you wouldn't normally do.

'Oh yes' Johnny replied.

On the spur of the moment, without thinking of where they were or who could see them, chucking the fear of judgement down the drain, Johnny grabbed Gheorghe by the collar of his jacket and crashed his lips against his.

He felt a smile on his lips as Gheorghe, after a moment of surprise, gently moved his hands to cup either side of his face.

Warmth was spreading in all corners of Johnny's body.

If there is anybody up there, if you are watching us, thank you, Johnny thought, as happiness exploded in his chest.

He surged against Gheorghe's body, as Gheorghe kissed him back, leaving him breathless.

'I didn't know we were doing this now' Gheorghe said then, as they breathed slowly, forehead against forehead.

No, they were not the type of couple prone to public displays of affection. Johnny could count the times it had happened with the fingers of one hand: the hug in Scotland, his own head lolling on Gheorghe's shoulder as he fell asleep on the bus (but did that really count, considering that Johnny wasn't even aware of it? Well, Gheorghe continued to insist that yes, it did count) and that time when, casually, they held hands as they walked back to the house after a day of hard work (did that even count as PDA, considering that there was nobody around, besides, maybe, his nan?).

But Johnny found that he didn't care.

If people wanted to look, they could very well look.

He was happy. Everybody else could go and fuck off.

The only thing that mattered to him was Gheorghe's gaze on him.

Gheorghe never spoke much.

His eyes usually did most of the talking for him.

And, right there and then, they were full of love.

'Don't get used to it' Johnny replied, clearly feeling his cheeks warming up as he gave Gheorghe a little shove.

'Freak' Gheorghe said, with a little amused smile colouring his cheeks as they got back in the car.

'So are you' Johnny said, as he turned the engine on.

If happiness always felt like that, he wished he could be happy forever.

It was about a week afterward that Johnny noticed something strange. He had gone to the village to purchase a few supplies for the house and to pop in the pharmacy to collect his dad and his nan's prescriptions. Nice, easy tasks, nothing more to it.

But, for whatever reason, wherever he went in the village, he had the feeling that people were looking at him.

Even the pharmacist, as jolly, rotund lady that Johnny had known all his life, quirked her lips a little as she passed him what he needed.

And the greengrocer, the grumpy guy that was always complaining about how everything was way better under Margaret Thatcher, shook his head as he served Johnny, even more than he usually did.

He didn't think much of it. People judge, that is what they do, he had always thought. You just have to do what you can to not let the judgement drag you down.

But then, a couple of days after that, he spotted a couple of young girls, maybe around eighteen or so, wandering just outside the farm.

And, when they spotted Gheorghe and himself, they giggled a little, blushed and then ran away.

'What was that?' Johnny asked.

Gheorghe simply lifted his shoulders and got back to focus on work.

Well, fair enough, Johnny thought.

But the girls came back. And then another couple of people.

Johnny was under the strong impression that someone even took a picture of them, but Gheorghe told him that he was seeing things.

'Yes, seeing things. If I were a horny teenager, I would take a picture of you too' Johnny had muttered between his teeth, as they got back to work.

This strange development was not helping the latent jealous streak of his character.

He had been able to keep it at bay for a while now, he knew that he needed to show Gheorghe that he could be trusted, that he was working hard on his character to be a better man.

But it was hard.

And Gheorghe, being so nice and kind to everybody he met all the time, was not helping it.

Only a little too late he noticed Gheorghe looking around himself, checking that there was nobody watching. Only too late he noticed Gheorghe's eyes and the desire in them as he pushed inside the barn.

And closed the door.

'I don't think the cows have mobile phones' Gheorghe whispered, as he nuzzled his neck.

'Thank Christ for that, can you imagine?' Johnny laughed.

A laughter that soon turned into a quiet moan as Gheorghe knelt in front of him.

The confirmation that there was something strange came a couple of days after that, when an email appeared in their business email inbox, the one that Gheorghe had insisted on setting up after they managed to get a decent internet connection up there and launched their website to start connecting with customers.

The email was from an independent journalist interested in writing a piece about young farmers. And, especially, about gay young farmers and the difficulties of loving in a rather conservative and difficult environment. Considering their now acquired fame, the journalist said that it would be an honour to interview them.

'What the hell?' Johnny said, as he read the email over Gheorghe shoulder.

'I have no idea'

They looked at each other for a moment and, at the same time, both said:

'Robyn'

Johnny rushed to the phone and called Robyn, who, luckily, picked it up quite fast.

'I was wondering when you might call' Robyn said, chuckling, even before Johnny could say the reason why he had disturbed her after dinner time.

'Do you know anything about this? Somebody emailed us about our "fame" as young, gay farmers. What is going on?'

'Go online and search for HeartsOnTheFarm. There is a blog, an Instagram, I think a few tumblrs by now, lots of stuff. It was quite a quiet thing, not much really. But ever since your picture appeared it has gone viral. It's all over the shop'

'What picture?'

'Go and have a look. Enjoy'

He went back to Gheorghe, who, in the meantime, had been trying and failing to write something decent to this journalist to deny the interview without hard feelings, and told him to search for HeartsOnTheFarm.

Gheorghe frowned immediately at that.

'Don't ask. I have no idea. Let's just try to get to the bottom of this' Johnny replied, sighing as he rolled his eyes.

Gheorghe wrote it on Google, and, immediately, the first result, not to mention several others right after, were all the same picture of the two of them kissing outside the auction place.

And there were a couple of others, of the two of them working on the land, side by side.

Those pictures had Gheorghe as the focal point for the viewer.

Johnny felt his face going immediately up in flames.

'What the hell?' he muttered.

Somebody had taken pictures of them. Of moments of their intimacy. Of their kiss.

And now they were all over the internet for everybody to see.

For everybody to fawn over his Gheorghe, was his first thought.

And there were likes, so many thumbs up, likes, or whatever they called them.

And comments, so many comments.

'OMG, look!'

'So so sweet'

'It warms my heart'

'It is nice to see love still winning even in this cold, cold world'

'I would die for them'

Johnny wasn't even entirely sure what they meant, why would someone want to die for them anyway?

The worst thing though was that he had no idea who these people were. Who had taken the pictures in the first place? Surely there are laws against these things, right?

Bastards, he thought, as he felt the fire of rage starting to burn deep down under his skin.

He had finally managed to relax. He had finally started to enjoy life.

And now this happened.

This intrusion on their life that had rucked up his not so latent fears that everything was just a dream.

That he was going to wake up and everything would go back to what it was once again.

Instinctively, he slammed the upper part of the laptop down.

'Hey' Gheorghe said, more surprised at the sudden movement than anything else.

'This is utter rubbish'

'Yes. But we need to address it' Gheorghe replied, his cheeks a little flushed. He had stood up and was now facing Johnny.

'Yes. Robyn will come over for dinner to discuss it' Johnny growled.

The kindness he saw flashing in Gheorghe's eyes for a moment didn't help calm him down, and, before Gheorghe could say or do anything to soothe his tempestuous spirit, Johnny grabbed him by the wrist and said:

'We will. Tomorrow'

Before dragging Gheorghe to their bedroom.

People liked seeing pictures of Gheorghe.

But he was the only one allowed to see him when pleasure washed over him.

He had made his claim.

World sod off.

The day after Robyn came over to visit them right after dinner, when his dad was already in bed and his nan had offered to do the washing up.

'So, boys, have you had a look?' Robyn said, with her elbows on the table and the tips of her fingers touching each other.

In that very moment, she reminded Johnny of the evillest master minds in thriller movies.
But it was just an impression. He knew how cheeky Robyn could be at times.

'Yes. And it is utter garbage' Johnny said, crossing his arms around his chest, slouching on the chair.

'Oh, I wouldn't call it garbage, the pictures are so cute, and the loyal community of people forming around it is actually quite nice. Did you know there are even a few fanfictions about it now' she said?

Why was she even smiling so much?

'This is not funny' Johnny muttered, still looking at everything but Gheorghe, who was sat right next to him.

'Fanfiction?' Gheorghe asked.

'Yes, people writing stories about you two. Most are made up, obviously, they have no idea about your messy lives and stuff, but they are quite cute and fluffy, one has become my official comfort fic and'

'And how to we stop this?' Johnny finally asked.

'I don't want people to continue looking at my partner's pictures and do god knows what with that' he continued, standing up and slamming both hands on the table, looking straight ahead at his two hands.

God, he had said too much.

Gheorghe was never going to let him hear the end of his jealousy outburst.

Whatever, it felt better to finally let it out.

'Oh, Johnny boy. They are not fawning at one of you specifically. They are fawning over both of you. As a couple' Robyn said, laughing.

The evil, evil woman.

'What?' he asked, finally lifting his eyes to her even though he knew full well his ears must have been as read as a tomato by then.

'Why?' he asked.

'I don't fully know it myself. But, I guess, it's a mixture of you two being undoubtedly cute, sweet, and I guess sexy together. Even I see that' she said, crossing her arms to her chest.

'And a nice, romantic story against the backdrop of a difficult and lonely environment, well, it's got to make hearts flutter'

'Fair enough' Gheorghe said.

Fair enough? Johnny thought.

How was it fair enough?

'How do we stop it now thought? We can't have people keeping on coming to the farm and taking pictures of us' Gheorghe added.

Yes, now that made a little more sense, Johnny thought.

'Well, you might want to think twice about it' she replied, arching an eyebrow.

Yes, evil mastermind. For sure. She was enjoying their discomfort far too much.

Try to find a way to get revenge on Robyn, Johnny thought, filing away the mental note.

'Considering the amount of social media presence you have now, and, as I said, the loyal community that seems to be forming around you, well, it is only bound to bring you incredibly good business, especially when your cheese job starts properly'

'But is it morally acceptable to do something like that? Using our image to get more business' Gheorghe asked.

Robyn put her elbows back on the table.

'Well, if you are looking for something morally acceptable, why don't you do the interview? If there were other young gay farmers around seeing your example and your story could only help them out of the closet, to leave a more meaningful life, think about it?'

Johnny and Gheorghe exchanged a look.

He had never thought about something like that.

Could their lives, their example, really help another?

'Anyway, time to go, let me go and say by to your nan' Robyn said, yawning and stretching.

'Also, you might want to have another little look. As I said the people in the community are quite nice. You might cause a heart attack or two if you were to engage with them, but most would be super happy to chat'

Johnny looked at Gheorghe, who simply nodded as he turned the computer on again.

Johnny was not prepared, yet, to even consider that perhaps this situation could turn out of the best.

It felt strange and not a little uncomfortable to be honest, but maybe it was worth having a good looking, knowing the "enemy" a little more before deciding what to do.

'Thank you, Robyn'

'Don't mention it' she said, disappearing in the kitchen.

Robyn loved Deirdre Saxby. She would never tell her that pf course, Deirdre would just tell her to stop say stupid things anyway. But, secretly, she hoped to be like her if she would be blessed enough to reach her age. She admired her strength and her ability to face problems like no other.

And she also admired her ingenuity.

Her plan, after barely getting acquainted with the power of social media through articles she read in the papers, was incredible.

As she entered the kitchen, she saw Deirdre Saxby lifting her eyes from the drying plates she was putting away and, after giving a cursory glance to the door to check that the lads were not at the threshold, Deirdre whispered:

'All good?'

Robyn smiled like a Cheshire cat and whispered back:

'All good. The plan went exactly according to plan'

'Thank you dear'

'Don't mention it' she replied, giving the old lady a little kiss on the cheek before leaving.