#the wise man knows himself to be a fool ;; fay

[s-extilis]

tag correction drop i

[lu-undy]

Chapter 55 - SBT

Here it is!

"Uh… Spook?" 

"Oui?" 

"I-I'd need to go to my van to get some clothes…"

Both men finished bathing. Mundy followed Lucien from the bathroom to the bedroom, each wearing nothing but a towel around their waists. 

"Nonsense. I will lend you some clothes for the night."

"For the night?" Mundy asked. 

"Unless you would rather go back to your van but-"

"No, I'd… I'd love to stay actually."

Their eyes met and they exchanged a smile. 

"Glad to hear it. Now, which color do you prefer, navy blue, light blue, Burgundy red or off-white?"

Overwhelmed by the choice, Mundy went for the last one he heard. 

"Off-white?"

"Interesting choice." Lucien passed him some pyjamas and a pair of underwear.

Mundy took them and realised it was a shirt and a pair of trousers, made of satin and matching of course. They had motifs of branches and leaves of fern sewn in, in white cotton. Lucien opted for the Burgundy one with golden sewn flower motifs. 

Each of them turned their back to the other and dressed up. Lucien was the first to finish, he turned to Mundy and heard him mumble and curse under his breath. 

"What is it, mon loup?"

[my wolf]

"It's the bloody buttons, I can't get them right, I always mess them up…"

"Let me help." Lucien moved in front of Mundy and did the buttons. "If you have any difficulty, start from the bottom and go to the top."

"Why would it be easier that way?" Mundy asked. "Doesn't make sense, does it?"

"But it does. The buttons at the bottom you can see easily, whereas the ones at the top are right under this lovely chin of yours." Lucien tickled it gently as he finished and Mundy chuckled. 

"Thanks…" 

"My pleasure."

Mundy looked down at himself. 

"Uh… We might have a problem, Spook?"

"What?" Lucien went to sit on the bed, with his back against the wall. 

"Well look at me…" Mundy wiggled his shoulders and pulled down the end of the shirt. "The sleeves are too short, and look down, the legs too! And if you don't mind, I'll open the buttons cause it's too tight on my shoulders."

"I would be an utter fool to complain when you want to sleep with your shirt open, Mundy."

"N-no, I mean, it's not like that, it's just your shirt's too small for me… Also, wait, what? You want me to sleep here?"

"Unless you prefer the rusticity of your campervan…" Lucien raised an eyebrow and Mundy shrugged. 

"Ok, I get it… But this time, don't take all the blanket, alright?" 

Mundy took the other side of the bed and both slid under the duvet.

"Me?! You were the one to steal it all night long and I had to pull it off your limbs!"

"As if…" Lucien answered and he stopped when the door to the bedroom creaked. 

"Meow." 

Perle trotted to the bed and jumped to climb on it. 

"Perle, mon bébé, you should really sleep in your bed tonight."

"Meow?" 

"Cause your dad wants me to sleep with him." Mundy answered and she went under his fingers. Yes, Papa knew how to choose his companion wisely, the scratching was divine.

"Meow…" She answered, disappointed, but started purring under the delightful head scratches.

"Don't worry, kitty cat, I'll take care of him. I'll keep him warm and safe, alright?" 

"Meow?" 

"O'course you can say goodnight to him, you'd better do it actually, he might be pissed off if you don't, eh." 

Perle went to Lucien and climbed his shirt to settle on his shoulder. He hugged her and kissed her repeatedly, saying sweet nonsense that Mundy could hardly understand. 

"Bonne nuit, mon bébé, fais de beaux rêves." 

[Good night, my baby, sweet dreams.]

He kissed her fur and put her down on the floor next to his side of the bed. To his greatest surprise, she climbed in her little cosy basket and curled into a ball of fur. 

When Lucien came back to lie down in the bed, Mundy wrapped his arms around him and pulled him to himself. 

"Ah, here we go for the clingy kangaroo."

"Oh alright then…!" Mundy let go of his lover and turned his back to Lucien. 

"Non, mon amour, please…!" The Frenchman spooned him and laced his arms around him. "Please turn to me…"

"The clingy kangaroo says no." 

"Mundy, please…" Lucien begged as he brushed his skin under his lover's open shirt. 

The Aussie melted. Hearing Lucien beg him to give him attention was something that his mind barely managed to understand. He rolled on his side to hold him back. 

"Right, right…" 

Lucien hummed happily as he buried his head against Mundy's hairy chest, lovingly. The Aussie closed his arms around him and held him close. 

"Gosh I never imagined I'd feel all this one day."

"Feel what?" 

"Wantin' to hug someone that badly." 

"I feel that for you too." Lucien answered as Mundy made sure the blanket was around him properly. 

"Oh-?" The Aussie blushed when he felt Lucien kiss his chest. 

"Ticklish?" Lucien asked. 

"Surprised." Mundy answered. 

"Is it too much?" 

"N-no. It's just… I didn't expect that." 

Lucien stopped and just cuddled with the taller man. They both appreciated the warmth, the fingers exploring each other's silhouettes, the hands sliding on clothes and skin.

"Lu'?"

"Hm?" 

"I feel weird right now…"

"Why?"

"I love you."

"And that makes you feel weird?" Lucien asked. 

"Yeah… I mean… It's been a few days since, y'know, you told me that you liked me and I liked you and…"

"Oui?"

"I haven't left your side for those past few days. It's weird. Spent years on my own and I never liked people. Now, I can't get enough of you."

Lucien smiled against Mundy's chest. 

"It's weird…" Mundy repeated. 

"You are thinking about it in a weird way." Lucien answered. 

"What d'you mean?"

"I do understand what you mean of course, as I have gone through a similar… sentimental desert for years."

"You haven't tried to get anyone?" Mundy asked. 

"Non. I couldn't get her out of my head."

Mundy looked for Lucien's hand under the blanket and when he found it, he slid his fingers between the Frenchman's. 

"What's her name?"

"Mary but I always would call her with my French accent 'Marie'."

"Mary…" Mundy repeated. "What's she like?" 

Lucien grinned as he reopened the most colourful chapter of his life in his mind. 

"She was charming, in her own way, and I never thought I could fall for a woman like her. She was American, she lived in Boston. I met her there as she worked as a waiter in a diner, similar to the one Victoria works for."

"Ah, I see." 

"She had black hair that would hardly touch her shoulders. She would always wear a headband that matched her outfit. My favourite one was her blue dress, it enhanced the colour of her eyes."

"She had blue eyes?"

"Oui. Darker than mine and lighter than yours. She was about… half a foot shorter than me and the curves of her body were proof of the existence of God…"

"What d'you mean?" 

"She had a slim waist and beautiful hips, oh… She had the most feminine silhouette."

"Have any pictures of her?"

Lucien frowned. 

"You would want to see her?" 

"If that's ok with you. I mean, if it hurts or anythin', you don't have to."

"I just fail to understand why you would like to. Wouldn't it make you feel uncomfortable? Actually, perhaps it was foolish of me to talk about her at all…" Lucien rubbed his face with a hand and frowned. "I shouldn't have."

"No, I was the one to ask, I mean, if you don't mind…?" 

Lucien sighed. 

"Fine, give me an instant." He got off the bed and Mundy watched him go out of the room. He thought that he might have pushed too far and his mind pictured Lucien locked up in the bathroom crying of grief, or anything worse maybe?

But no, Lucien re-appeared and sat back on the bed, his back against the wall. Mundy sat up next to him. 

"Your cigs case?" 

Lucien nodded as he opened the metallic case containing the nicely lined cigarettes. He pushed them slightly and retrieved the photograph hidden behind them. It wasn't facing him, but rather was turned such that Lucien needed to flip it to see it. 

"Here." He took it away from the cigarette case delicately without flipping it, and handed it to Mundy. 

"Can I see?" 

"Oui." 

Mundy flipped it. 

"Oh… It's… her with…"

"Jérémy, my son, and myself."

The black and white photograph showed the three of them. Lucien, Mary and young Jérémy in the middle. Lucien was lacing his arm around Mary's hips, and she was resting her hands on Jérémy's shoulders as he smiled to the camera. The Frenchman was wearing a white shirt and dark trousers but no tie or vest. Mary was wearing a dress with a headband of the same shade of grey and Jérémy had a baseball jacket that seemed a bit too large for him.

"You three look cute in this picture. And wow, you look quite younger too."

"No grey hair and not a single worry in the world." Lucien answered.

"Why d'you keep this picture upside down?"

The Frenchman sighed. 

"Because I am a heavy smoker as you know, and it is too hard to see them all the time. I keep them close to my heart, but I cannot afford to look at them. It is too strong, even after all this time."

"Right, I see. Any other pictures you have, or did you leave them in France?" Mundy asked as he gave the picture back.

"They are indeed in France but not in my possession."

"What d'you mean, 'not in your possession'?" 

"I…" Lucien thought fast. He didn't want anyone to know about this but Mundy was surely the last man he was speaking to, so he might as well confess all his sins. "After Marie and Jérémy passed, I gathered all evidence of their existence, and all proof that I once was happy. Any photographs and souvenirs I put in a box and on a rainy night, I went to a park in Paris."

Mundy frowned. 

"The rain was pouring on me and my clothes, drenching me to the bone. I could feel my suit sticking to my skin and all my hair was soaked. I picked the lock on the gate of that park and entered it. I walked such that I was sufficiently deep in and at some point I dropped to my knees, in the muddy grass. I took my knife out and started digging a hole with it and with my hands."

Mundy's jaw started to lower down. He could guess where it was all going. 

"When the hole was sufficiently big, I lowered the box in it. The rain drops falling on it made an unbearable drumming noise. I then put the dirt back on top of it and made it look like any other mole hole."

"Holy…" 

"All of what I was before is in that box which to this day lies under the ground in Paris." Lucien summed up. "I guess you surely think that I am a fool for this. But I don't want to keep secrets anymore, especially not with you."

Mundy pulled Lucien to himself and hugged him. 

"No. You're not crazy. I… After my parents went away, I put my rifles, bullets, bow and arrows, everything in a large tin crate and buried it in the middle of the desert. I prayed each day that I forgot where it was so that I can't go back to it. I'd learned my lesson. With a rifle in my hands I can not only kill the bloke in my scope, but also all the other people that I don't see when I scope. So yeah, I took everything, tossed it in a box and ditched it far from anyone and anything." 

Lucien snuggled against Mundy. 

"We both did the same then." He said. 

"Yeah. We both tried." 

"And look where it led us." Lucien said as both sank down to lie on the bed and intertwined their limbs together again. 

"I dug up my rifles again." 

"And I went back to three-piece suits and balaclavas." 

Both sighed. 

"But it's the last time we do that, right?" Mundy asked. 

"Oui. This is it, the final job."

Mundy was lying on his side with Lucien tightly between his arms, his head against the Aussie's chest, under his jaw. 

"Love you, Lu'. Love you more and more." 

"So do I." 

Mundy lowered his head and kissed Lucien's still slightly damp hair. 

"Mh, merci, mon loup."

[Thank you, my wolf.]

And those were the last few words they exchanged before falling asleep in each other's arms.

The minutes and hours hands spun, sweeping past the clock's face and soon the sun rose again.

"Mh… Lu'... What are you doing… Stop it… Let me sleep, please…" 

"Meow."

Mundy opened his eyes. 

He thought Lucien was playing with his hair on his face again but no, it was actually Perle brushing herself on Mundy's face. 

"Baby cat…" He hugged her and kissed her, looking over to Lucien who was still sleeping giving his back to him. 

"D'you think we should wake your Dad up?" 

Perle purred and stretched under the rough fingers and the exquisite scratches all along her back. 

"D'you want to wake him or…?" 

"Meow." She answered and rolled to offer her belly for Mundy to scratch. 

"Right, I'll do it myself then, but you need to leave, Pearl."

"Meow?" 

"Cause it's not a sight for kids. You'll understand when you grow up."

"Meow…" 

"No, you're still a baby, look at your big head and massive eyes. Also, your tail is very short."

"Meow!" She answered. 

"Yes, it is. Now, here," He kissed her and rolled on the bed until he was at the edge to drop her on the floor. "Go and play while you wait for me to wake Papa up, ok?" 

"Meow." She brushed herself on his hand one last time and trotted out of the room. 

"Right, now, to us…" Mundy got closer to Lucien and if his first thought was to spoon him, the temptation to kiss him overwhelmed the man and laced his arms around Lucien to kiss his back, on his satin shirt. He shifted closer to stick his body to the Frenchman. 

"Someone is happy to hug me…" The voice with the French accent sung and Mundy blushed. "Very happy, hm? Unless you keep a dagger in your underwear at all times." 

"Uh, n-no, I mean, it's just that, uh, I just woke up, ok? Sorry…" Mundy shifted away from Lucien's body but the Frenchman pulled his arms to make him come back. 

"When did you hear me complain about it?" He asked and Mundy came back right behind him with his happiness of the morning very much stuck to the Frenchman. 

"Sorry…" 

"Mmh… Don't apologise, there is no harm done. How did you sleep?" Lucien asked, revelling in his lover's arms. 

"Yeah, good. Didn't have nightmares but didn't dream about you either. Could be worse and could be better." 

"Hm? Have you ever dreamt about me?" Lucien asked. 

"Y-n-no, I mean, I might have, once or twice, maybe, ahem, anyway, did you have a good night?" 

Lucien smiled. He understood his lover's uneasiness at the question. 

"Oui, I have slept well, and woke up in the arms of the man I usually dream of, day and night."

"Oh, so you dream of me sometimes?" Mundy asked.

"Of course. My mind shows me images that my mouth can barely speak of."

"Why? Is it nightmares?" Mundy asked, oblivious.

"Quite the opposite, Mundy. In fact, there are hardly any dreams more pleasant than those…"

"Oh." Mundy now caught on what Lucien was meaning. "Right, ok, wow! I'll uh…" He pushed the blanket away from him. 

"Are you hot this morning?" 

"W-well, yeah, a bit, I mean, it's what you said, it's like you're meaning that you dream about-"

"Oui, I do." Lucien cut him. "I did and I still do with my eyes wide open, Mundy." 

He rolled to face the Aussie and sensually ran the tip of his fingers on his stomach and sides. 

"Gosh…"

Shivers everywhere and Mundy shut his eyes, frowning. Then, Lucien's lips on his chest, kissing softly, nipping here and there, up to his neck, under his jaw. Mundy's fingers were twitching on their own, they were lost, paralysed. Lucien finally arrived on Mundy's lips. He kissed them slowly, taking his time to appreciate each contact, each time he pressed his thin lips against the sharpshooter's, as he ran his fingers behind Mundy's back. 

Without consciously realising it, Mundy slid his hands on Lucien's slim cheeks and kissed back, passionately, his legs stretching and his toes curling under the blanket. He felt Lucien slither his legs between his.

"Gosh, Lu'..."

The Frenchman smirked and buried his head in Mundy's neck, nibbling softly there as his hands glided down Mundy's back, lower and lower until...

"Oh-?!" Mundy got startled at Lucien's sudden grasp for softness.

"Sorry, it was way too tempting." Lucien whispered in Mundy's ear.

"Yeah, nah, it's fine, it's just… I didn't expect it." Mundy lowered his head and kissed Lucien's hair. He shyly whispered. "Can I do the same to you?"

"I'm all yours." 

Mundy's hands slithered down Lucien's satin, dark red pyjamas until they reached the bottom of his back. 

"You sure?" 

"Please." 

Mundy timidly slid his palms lower and didn't see Lucien roll his eyes in bliss when the Aussie grasped the softness of the situation. 

"You have wonderful hands." Lucien purred.

"Oh, uh, ok, I don't know…"

"Do with me what you wish." Lucien snuggled closer to Mundy, sticking his chest and abdomen to the Aussie. 

"Oh, God…" Mundy realised that Lucien too was happy to wake up next to him. The surprise of it made his hands twitch and squeezed what they held for an instant. 

"Oh!" 

"Shit, sorry!" Mundy removed his hands.

"Non… It was delightful." Lucien's voice was begging for more without the words.

"C-can I-?"

"Oui."

"But you don't know what I was going to say?" Mundy chuckled. 

"Whatever you want to do," Lucien raised his head to Mundy. Their eyes met and Lucien pushed Mundy's long hair away from his face. 

"Please, do it."