Everybody deserves a happy ending

It was very late at night when the train pulled into the suburbs of Kinshasa. Jean sprinted off the train, trunks in hand. He could barely wait as he hailed a taxi to bring him to the university building. It was an imposing brick building, stark among the small squat houses around it. As soon as the driver stopped in front of the school, Jean hurled a fistful of coins at him. "Keep the change!" he yelled as he ran towards the mission.

There was a small plump monk at the reception, illuminated in the dim room by a single lantern.

"Hello, Father, I'm looking for Julien Quentin."

The monk looked him up and down and then smiled, satisfied. "You must be his petit ami."

"Excuse me?"

The monk smiled kindly. "Dwai, kid, we're all a bunch of rad allies here. He's in 207. Down the hall, up the stairs, to the left."

"Thank you, Father." Jean grabbed his trunks off the floor and clattered towards the love of his life. The hallway seemed to stretch on forever, but finally, he made it to the plain door marked 207. He hammered on the wood. Inside, someone groaned. Definitely Julien.

"Who is it?"

"Shall I call you Frere Julien? Or is Julien still ok?" He had barely spoken the sentence than the door was flung open and Julien had plastered their bodies together.

"What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be at uni or something?"

"The world had other plans. Listen, I made the biggest mistake of my life."

"What did you do now? Did you kill somebody? I'll help you bury the body but let me tell you, that's a lot of penitence you're condemning me to doing."

"No, not that. Letting you go. That was the biggest mistake of my life."

"Oh."

"Julien, listen to me. You are my sun, my stars, and the sky above me. I will never stop loving you. I'm yours. I'm so completely totally wholly yours. Please, take me back. I swear I won't ever let you go again. I'm in this time. I'm 100% in."

"Of course. But what about your dreams? And your future?"

"They're right here with you."

"Wow, Jean, that's romantic but I don't want to be the one holding you back from your dreams."

"You're not. The university transferred me here. You're going to do your priestly things and I'll go be a comptable and then I'll work here and we can be together."

Julien's face lit up. "Well, in that case, there's something I'll have to ask you."

"Yeah?"

Julien carefully removed an organic locally crafted artisan tribal ring that he had bought at the market from his finger. He got down on one knee.

"Shit, you're really… Bro, we're only 17. Also same sex marriage isn't legal." But though he had his doubts, the only thing Jean really wanted to say was yes.

"I have a hunch that in fifty or so years, we'll be able to marry in Holland. And age doesn't matter, Jean. When we first met, I knew you were the one. So answer me, Jean Kippelstein. Will you marry me in about fifty years when we're both old and wrinkly and smelderly?"

"Of course I will. After all, it was always you."

La Fin

Epilogue (30 years later)

Julien: Jean, I want to make a movie of our time at the boarding school

Jean: k, but you should probably say I died or something. It makes it so much more emotional.

Julien: k