True to the lieutenant's word, Mouse and Sneaky had left the ship, it seemed that they were now in the docks of the boat as free men. The ride had been pretty slow but it was worth the wait, France was as beautiful up close as it was in the distance while they had been in the warship.
"We're out… We're finally away from zat accursed sheep. Come on Sneaky! I hev zo moch to show you" said Mouse, excited to exercise his newfound freedom away from the influence of his family and running off to who knows where.
Sneaky looked back at the ship, the warship sailed back to base, the lieutenant giving a subtle salute to Sneaky, who saluted back, and turned to follow Mouse to wherever he planned taking him. The mouse had called a taxi, urging Sneaky to follow him.
After getting inside the taxi, the two veterans sat in the backseat of the vehicle, the driver asking them "where to?" looking at the rear view mirror. Mouse thought of where to take him, Sneaky was certainly not one to be asked where he would go, considering he grew up in a nazi camp. He thought that maybe he could take them somewhere peaceful, war museums were written off, and they have had enough of war.
"Monsieur, take us to ze Notre Dame" said Mouse, the driver, a komodo dragon, drove off to the tourist attraction without hesitation. Sneaky had heard Notre Dame from several other French soldiers, saying how they'll want to visit if they came back alive.
"Hey Mouse, what kind of place is Notre Dame?" asked Sneaky, curious of its history.
"Oh, uh, it'z actually a huge church, this church iz one of ze most prominent symbolz of France. You'll zee in time" said Mouse, looking at the window. Sneaky, having nothing else to do, looked out the window as well, seeing children play, adults shopping, school children running to their respective schools, elderly people sitting on benches, and tourists feeding a flock of pigeons.
The trip was worth it and he thought of how it had contrasted with his time growing up. It felt like yesterday how he witnessed daily executions in that concentration camp. Compared to this place, he wished so hard that he wasn't really dreaming and wake up in his cage again. He would give anything to erase that memory from his mind, including the minds of the other chameleons that had been trapped there. His hatred for the general boiled inside him, he didn't deserve the death he got, he deserved far worse.
"Hey, you okay my friend?" asked Mouse, Sneaky had let his anger get the best of him, his hatred had made him change his face to an angry one, which was unusual to see for Mouse as there was no reason to be angry about anything.
Recovering quickly, Sneaky softened his expression and looked down, "Nothing, sorry to worry you" said Sneaky, with a low depressed voice.
"Whatever's troubling you Sneaky, I'm sure you'll forget them when we get to Notre Dame" said Mouse, optimistic about their visit.
They eventually stopped by the Notre Dame, paying the taxi to wait for them until he was needed again. The outside actually looked like a castle, like they merged two towers with a smaller one, creating a castle-like feel to it.
"Zis is Notre Dame my friend, zis is where people come to pray to God for safety, protection, and repentance. It's actually surprising to see zat zis place is still standing after ze fire that broke out. Something along about probably an electrical problem" said Mouse, Sneaky could see that aside from the loads of people entering and exiting the church, there were numerous pigeons flocking around the place. Children ran to the pigeons, and watching them fly away, as well as some lovers who did the same, Sneaky couldn't blame them, the activity looked actually fun. For a place that had been a victim of fire, the place still looked beautiful.
Entering the church, they were greeted with church bells and soothing singing, whereas the concentration camp had sang screams of terror and cries of sorrow, this was actually relaxing to Sneaky. If this was what life was like in France, he was actually glad that Mouse lived here.
Sitting in the church benches, "Zo Sneaky, you have any regrets that you wish to pray about?" asked Mouse, Sneaky could only think about how he hadn't killed the general sooner, though he had wished that all his life previously, if he had done that, he'd probably be next in line for the gas chamber, and never met Mouse.
"No, I don't have any" said Sneaky, smiling brightly. Mouse smiled back, both prayed for a safe life in France, countries were at peace now, and they prayed for it to last.
After praying for lasting peace, the two headed back to the taxi, Mouse knew where to go to next. "Monsieur, to Louvre at once" said Mouse, the driver sped to the place that they had wanted to go to.
Louvre was a museum in France, one of the world's largest museums in fact, that it was known worldwide and housed many kinds of art like antiquities, paintings, prints and arts.
To think this many kinds of artwork had existed blew Sneaky's mind, maybe he could pursue a job here in France as an artist? With Mouse's permission of course.
They had toured many of the different pieces of artwork, all made by different people, and made differently from each other with clever and interesting ways of how they were made to be.
They eventually came upon a painting, a peacock was smiling and almost looked like she was directly gazing at them, she was wearing a translucent veil, dark robes, and no jewellery.
"Zis is ze Mona Lisa, one of ze most famous paintings in ze world. Many people have theorized ze meaning of zis painting but nobody knows no. A lot of ze people say there is no meaning, yet maybe there is. Too bad Da Vinci is dead else we could ask him.
"Why do the paintings have glass containers?" asked Sneaky, it was an obvious question, he didn't really have any opinions on any kind of philosophy on paintings, only that they looked pretty.
"Ah, you see, zere were cases where the Mona Lisa was vandalized, so they placed a bulletproof glass to prevent zis" said Mouse, Sneaky responded with an "I see" and they eventually moved on to other places.
Next, they headed to Arc De Triomphe, night time was upon them judging by the blue and orange hue of the sky, Arc De Triomphe was more of a monument than a place. It towered over the other buildings in comparison, and people walked around the base and entered the building. The two sides of the building radiated lights, which blended well with the sky's look.
"Zis is Arc De Triomphe, in zis public monument, you can walk around it, judging by the people doing so right now. You can also go up zis monument to reach ze top, zo what do you zey? Want to climb up ze stairs?" asked Mouse, Sneaky had enough of marching around places, both when he was in captivity and when he was enlisted in the army, so he preferred the other way around.
"Sure, let's go up" said Sneaky, Mouse smiled, "I waz zick of walking around anyway" replied the spoiled French. They had underestimated the sheer height of the building, reaching the top. They were exhausted, Sneaky was on his knees while Mouse lied down on the rooftop, wheezing and feeling like he would pass out. After waiting for Mouse to recover, they had gotten up and looked at the view that rewarded them for their tenacity to reach the top. The lights of the city and the size of the people below them looked like ants compared to when they were down there, the wind breezed past them, the height getting them to feel like none other than they felt before.
"Heh, for a soldier, you sure do get tired easily" said Sneaky, smirking at him.
"Hey! It waz a long time since we exercised. Besides, I grew tired of it sinze it'z the only thing we can do in ze base" complained Mouse, the Mouse had a point, doing 100 push ups, sit ups, squats, and 1000 km runs every day would make you sick of it if done every day.
"But you didn't mind when we were in the cave" said Sneaky, flirtatiously and jokingly mentioned the intimate act they did back then.
"Iz that a challenge?" asked Mouse, lifting a leg to tease his growing bulge.
"Ah! N-not here!" Sneaky said, blushing and making Mouse chuckle at his reaction.
There was one last place to go, and that was the Eiffel tower. If they were looking down on Arc De Triomphe, this time they were looking up. The tower twinkled with 20,000 lights, illuminating the whole tower. The tower itself was shaped like an exaggerated letter A, which was the most eye capturing thing about it aside from the lights and towering height.
"Zis is ze Eiffel tower, the heart of the city. This is where most photographers and lovers go to take photos of each other. Zis is where most marriage proposals are given to couples that love each other. They say zat this is ze place where couples go to say I love you a thousand times a day. This is why the city is called the city of love." said Mouse, raising his hands on his sides.
Love. That was usually what people fought for. At first, he had only fought for freedom, but when Sneaky had met Flippy and Mouse, he also fought for their friendship, and now, he had one reason for being for Mouse. It was love.
"Mouse… I have something to say to you" said Sneaky, Mouse cocked his head to the side.
"What iz it my friend?" asked Mouse, Sneaky walked up to him slowly.
"I… I love you" said Sneaky, his voice shook, he was afraid but he wanted to express himself. "I… I don't know if you love me, the mushrooms in that cave clouded our minds. I felt this way ever since, and it hasn't disappeared. I… I want to be with you forever, wherever you go, whether it be on the battlefield or in this city" said Sneaky, he didn't want to cry, but he felt the tears leaving him. Now Mouse was probably going to abandon him and leave him alone.
Mouse smiled at the chameleon, who had his eyes shut from crying out. He wiped them with the back of his hand, making Sneaky tense up. "Zere is no need to cry my friend, I feel the same way" said Mouse, leaning up to kiss him due to their difference in their height.
Sneaky closed his eyes once again, he was happy, he hoped that this was not a dream, holding the smaller man close to him. The two kissing each other passionately as one of the many couples of the Eiffel tower, confessing to each other about their true feelings.
Sneaky reached a hand to Mouse's plump butt, and gave it a squeeze. Mouse moaned, and whispered into his ear. "Let's take zis someplace else"
Yeah, uh, feel free to cringe after reading this XD