While Denis is dressing in the bedroom, Alain prepares to go to work. He slips 500 francs in the boy's wallet. When the boy cones out, he hands him his things.
The boy slips in his pocket the wallet and the empty key-holder, then gives Alain the plastic Asterix. "It's not much at all, but I have nothing else. Take it, just as a symbol to tell you thank you, Alain."
"Alright, and thank you to you. Listen, you now know where I live. If by chance you are hungry again, or you feel like taking a shower, or else to sleep in a decent way... you have only to show here. I am usually home at supper time, and I seldom go out."
"Thank you."
They leave the apartment together. They say goodbye at the bus stop. Alain goes to work. He puts his hand in his pocket, finds the Asterix and looks at it, smiling. All day long he hoped he could meet Denis again... He likes that boy. If he was just a couple of years older, he could even like him in another way... he thinks. His boss accepts to publish the manuscript he revised - he completely trusts his judgment. Alain likes the thought that he discovered and helped a new writer.
He goes back home satisfied. He is preparing his supper when the doorbell rings.
He opens the door. "Oh, Denis... Come in."
"I just came to give this back to you," the boy says, handing him the five 100-franc notes.
"No, why? They could be useful to you... to eat..."
"No, thank you."
"Really, I'd be glad if you kept them. I would worry less about you. It is not a great sum, unhappily, and they would not last a long time..."
"I..." the boy says hesitantly.
"Come on, put them back in your wallet. And, as you are here and I'm fixing some food, why don't you stop to have supper with me?"
"I don't want to take advantage..."
"I would be pleased if I didn't eat alone... Come in."
"Well, I then accept, thank you." the boy says with a shy smile.
They go to the kitchen. Alain tends to the cooking.
"I can prepare the table, meanwhile," the boy proposes.
"Do you know where to find all you need?"
"I think so. I noticed the kitchenware yesterday evening and this morning...and in case I don't know I'll ask you."
"Good, then. Thank you."
They sit at the table.
"Did you know that you are a good cook?" Denis says with an appreciative smile as soon as he starts eating.
"When Gilbert was here... he really was a good cook," Alain says with a sad smile.
"Your brother?"
"No... my friend," Alain answers.
>From the short lightning in the boy's eyes, Alain guesses that he could have understood the real meaning of that word... but the boy doesn't ask anything more.
"Were you a student?" Alain asks, just to say something.
"Yes."
"And did you like it?"
"So-so... I aimed just for passing marks..." Denis answers with a slightly ashamed smile.
"Are you now looking for a job?"
"Yes, but... it's not easy. I'm not yet of legal age and, having run away from home, you see..."
"Why did you run away?" Alain then asks, recalling that the boy didn't want to answer the previous night.
"I didn't fit with my step-father..."
"Oh, is your father dead?"
"Yes, he died when I was thirteen. Two years later my mother married again..."
"Did he abuse you?"
"No. Not really..."
"So then?"
"Well, I didn't like him..." Denis says.
Alain doesn't insist. After the meal he washes the dishes and Denis dries them.
"Do you feel like watching some TV?"
"Yes, thank you... but, don't you have to work this evening?"
"No. I'll fix us a coffee, you go in the living and switch on the TV."
"What channel?"
"Any one you'd like."
"Can you watch Video Music?"
"Sure."
"It's okay with you?"
"Sure thing, I like it. At times I watch it, too."
He reaches Denis with the coffees. He sits near him. They comment on the video clips. Alain observed Denis expressions - he really likes that boy very much. He is a meld of an adult and a kid, fascinating. He is simple, spontaneous, naive, and judicious...
At a certain point the boy looks at his watch. "It's late... it's better if I go..."
"Do you have a place to sleep?"
"I'll manage..."
"Why don't you stay sleeping here?"
"Really? Can I?" asks the boy, visibly happy.
"Sure you can... as long as you don't snore!" Alain says jokingly.
He goes to retrieve the pajamas the boy used the previous night and hands it to him. "If you want to change in the bathroom..." he suggests.
The boy thanks him and goes. Alain shuts off the TV, goes in his room and changes into his pajama trousers.
When the boy returns, Alain goes into the bathroom. He brushes his teeth then goes back in the bedroom. Denis is already under the sheet. Alain lies down on his side and shuts off the light.
"Good night, Denis."
"Night, Alain... and thank you."
"For what?"
"For... for all."
"Sleep now, go on..." Alain gently answers.
He is falling asleep when he feels the boy's body against his own. That body's warmth gives him a strong sensation of pleasure.
The boy girdles his chest with his arm and whispers, "You are not yet sleeping, are you?"
"No..." Alain says, slightly tense. The boy's hand lightly caresses his chest. Alain is aroused at once. "What are you doing?" he asks with choked voice, without moving. Without answering, Denis bends on him and suckles his nipple. "No... I didn't offer you to stay in exchange for this."
"I know... but I know you like me... and I like you." the boy whispers, caressing his body.
"But you are so young..."
"Not so much to not desire making love... with you." the boy says, lowering his hand to caress Alain in an intimate and sweet way.
Alain tries to resist for a while, wanting him to stop, wanting to push him away, but then Denis kisses him on his mouth and Alain surrenders. For a while he allows the boy to caress him, then he too takes the initiative and Denis emits a soft sigh, satisfied. Their contact becomes more and more intimate, and passionate. The boy is hot-blooded and sweet at once. Denis offers himself to Alain, lying on his back and pulling his legs against his chest. They don't need words, since the inviting smile of the boy turns on Alain at once, who goes on top of him and takes him. Denis emits a moan of pleasure as Alain sinks inside him. And they unite in a joyous embrace, full of ardor. While pumping inside the boy with intense pleasure, Alain lowers to kiss him in the mouth - it has the flavor of a fresh mountain spring. The boy's eyes shine while Alain is taking him with intense pleasure and they smile at each other.
Later, while they relax half-embraced, Denis asks him, "Did you like it?"
"I really needed it..."
"But did you like it? I liked it a lot."
"I too."
"I'm not too young, then?" the boy asks him cunningly.
"It really doesn't seem..."
"Why... where is Gilbert, your friend?" the boy asks almost shyly.
So Alain tells him about the disappearing of his lover.
"But you are still in love with him." Denis affirms seriously.
"Yes..."
"I understood it."
"But you...why did you ran away? What problem was there with your step-father?"
"Can't you guess? Don't you understand?"
"He found out you are gay... and he made a big fuss."
"Well, not exactly. He discovered I am gay... and then wanted to fuck me. If he wasn't my mother's husband, I might have even accepted his request, but... Then he became more and more demanding, and would put his hands on me each time my mother was not in sight. He swore that sooner or later he would fuck me. So I decided to run away. I thought that my mother's sorrow would be lessened if I did this rather than let her know what her husband demanded of me..."
They talk some more, until it became late and they fall asleep. In the morning Alain says to the boy that if he wanted to stay at home while he was working, he could.
"No, thank you. You don't still know me."
"But I feel I can trust you."
"Thank you. Rather, if you want, I'll come again tonight..."
"Yes, sure."
Denis comes again to Alain's... that evening and the following, too. Alain is growing more and more fond with that boy. After about a week, he persuades Denis to stay with him. Denis is also growing fond of Alain, so he accepts. Denis is keeping tidy and cleaning the house, trying to be useful in some way.
A couple of weeks after first getting together, Alain introduces Denis to Charlotte and Jean-Claude, who offers to hire him as a waiter. The boy accepts at once.
He wants to give all the money he earned to Alain, but the young man convinces him to keep it and to open a bank account. "One day you might need it..."
"But it's my debt to you for allowing me to stay here..."
"Oh, just some food, and not even so much now that you have a meal at Jean-Claude's. No, don't worry, Denis. Do as I tell you."
One day, when Charlotte is alone with Denis, she asks him, "Are you in love with Alain?"
"No. I am very fond of him, he is now my real family. But I know he is always in love with his Gilbert... And I think he will come back someday."
"Well, I don't hope that anymore, unhappily. I would really like to know what became of Gilbert..."
"I think he will come back. I feel somewhat like if I know him. Alain talks of him quite often. I say he should have had a very serious reason if he did what he did. One day we will know..."
"But what if Gilbert really comes back?"
"I will be happy for them. And I'll quit living in Alain's home at once..."
"Where would you go, then?"
"I don't know, we will see. I now have a job and some savings... and the fact that Alain doesn't want my money made me understand that he, deep inside, is still waiting for Gilbert."
"I see... In case that happened, you can live here... at least until you find another place."
"Thank you, Charlotte. I'll remember that."
But months are passing without news of Gilbert. Alain and Denis continue to live together. Denis is now eighteen, so Jean-Claude can hire him legally.
It is a little more than two years since Gilbert disappeared. Alain didn't want to pull out Gilbert's remaining clothes from the closet, so he freed a part of his own closet to put Denis' clothes in it. There are also pictures of Gilbert throughout the apartment, here and there, so his presence is tangible.
The Nicois goes away for one of his robberies. Gilbert guesses it, even if he cannot be sure, because the man becomes more loquacious on the day before doing one, showing a forced cheerfulness. If he is right, then the Nicois will return and he will stay shut at home with him for about a month, without going out... and he will have sex with him several times a day, at least on the first days of his return.
This time, however, the Nicois doesn't come back. Instead, the police come to take Gilbert away as an accomplice. But the young man succeeds in demonstrating that he knew nothing - he is just the former cellmate of the Nicois and now shares his apartment. The Nicois and the two other accomplices brought in for questioning also confirm that Gilbert had nothing to do with the robbery. So, at the trial, Gilbert is acquitted and given a complete discharge. The Nicois and his two accomplices, who were caught red-handed, are convicted and sentenced to an extra twenty-six years in prison for killing the owner of the filling station they robbed. The police also start investigating the Nicois, connecting to him other robberies done with the same "modus operandi". Therefore, more trials and more sentences are foreseen.
Gilbert, again free - or rather finally free again from the Nicois - hesitantly decides to go to Alain's. He doesn't think Alain will want to be with him again, but he wants at least to explain the situation to him and ask for his forgiveness...
When he is at the front of the apartment door, his heart skips a beat upon seeing that the brass nameplate with their names is still in place. He looks at his watch - possibly at this hour Alain would already be back... He rings the bell, his heart beating furiously. As he hears the door opening, he feels as though a hand is violently twisting his stomach. Denis appears on the threshold and for a moment they look at each other.
"Gilbert?" Denis asks with a low voice.
"Yes... who are you? Is Alain home?"
"No, he will arrive later, he called a moment ago. Come in."
"I don't know if... Are you his boyfriend?" Gilbert asks hesitantly.
"Come in. Alain will be so happy to be seeing you." Denis insists.
Gilbert is still hesitant but Denis gently takes his arm and pulls him inside.
"This is your home... come in," Denis says gently.
"But you..."
"I am Denis."
"You... you are Alain's boyfriend, aren't you?"
"Gilbert, in his heart there is only you... You see? All remained as such... I am just a friend, a provisional companion. You are his only true boyfriend. I'll leave, don't worry..."
Gilbert shakes his head. "Just if Alain... No, I have no more rights after I..."
"I knew you would come back. I hoped it."
"You? I don't understand... You live here... with him... don't you?"
"Yes, but I know I am just a guest."
"For how long?"
"About one year... I ran away, and I didn't have a place or a job. He helped me... I work now... as a waiter at Jean-Claude's."
"Oh, I see."
"Everybody tells me about you, so I know you... in a sense."
"Who knows what they would think about me..."
"They simply cannot understand... but they would like to. I am sure you would have had a serious reason to... to disappear so. I am sure you can clarify everything... Alain loves you."
"God, are you serious?"
"Yes, sure!"
"But... what about you?"
"I like him a lot, sure, and he too is fond of me, but... you are his real love."
Gilbert starts to silently cry.
Denis, almost on instinct, puts a hand on his shoulder in an affectionate gesture. "You are back home again..." he whispers.
"My God, my God..." Gilbert moans.
"He will be so happy when he sees you... as will your other friends, especially Charlotte and Jean-Claude," Denis gently says.
"More than two years have elapsed..."
"What could they be, compared to a lifetime?"
"They seemed to me an eternity... I hoped several times to die..."
"On the contrary, happily, you are here."
They hear the key turning in the lock. Gilbert stands up, turning pale.
"Wait here..." Denis whispers and, closing the living room door at his back, arrives at the entrance while Alain is entering.
"Hi Denis! Sorry to be so late..."
"No, it's alright. There is somebody waiting for you in the living room."
"Really? Who is he?"
"Somebody you've been waiting for..."
"I've been waiting for? I had no appointments..."
"No, but you were waiting for him... for two years..." Denis says with a sweet smile.
"Gilbert?" Alain exclaims, widening his eyes.
Denis again smiles, pointing towards the closed door with his head.
"GILBERT!" Alain shouts, running headlong towards the living room.
Denis goes out of the apartment without a noise and rings at Charlotte's door.
Alain throws open the living room door and stops. "Gilbert!" he exclaims, his voice broken with emotion, looking at his lover. Gilbert looks at him and, unable to speak, starts to move toward him. Alain opens his arms and they run to each other. They hold each other tightly, crying into each other's shoulder.
After a long and desperate embrace Gilbert, at the urging of his lover, explains to Alain the reason for his disappearance, expressing the agony of those two years of separation.
"You could have told me then..." Alain gently reproaches him, caressing and cradling him against himself, "...together we could possibly find another solution. We could run away together, making him lose our tracks..."
"I couldn't... to you it would mean losing your job, this home you love..."
"Don't you understand, Love, that for you I would have willingly renounced everyone and everything?"
"I thought I was right doing what I did... please forgive me."
"Shush! You don't need to say that word. Two lovers should never have anything to forgive each other for. And I love you, Gilbert."
"But... Denis?"
"He... wait, where is he? Denis!" Alain calls.
They look for him around the apartment.
'Where could he have gone?' Alain asks himself, then he understands. "Come, Gilbert, we will find him at Charlotte's. She too will be so happy to see you..."
They go to ring at her door. The woman rushes toward Gilbert as soon as she sees him, embracing him tightly as she exclaims, "Oh, our Gil! We have missed you so much!" She then shows in the two lovers.
Denis is sitting in the drawing room, smiling.
"Denis..." Alain says, slightly tense.
"It's alright, Alain. I'll stay here with Charlotte, if it's okay with you."
"I'm sorry, Denis..." Alain says.
"For what? I'm happy for you two. Really!"
Later, Alain and Gilbert go back to their home.
"Come in here..." Alain invites him with a tender smile, full of desire.
"No. Let's go out," Gilbert says.
"Out?" Alain asks astounded.
"Yes, please."
"As you wish, my love..." Alain says.
They cross the bridge, walking in silence, side by side. Alain now understands where Gilbert is leading him. They enter the yard of an old house, slipping inside the bush.
"It's still here..." Gilbert says satisfied while they pass through the breach and emerge in the Roseraie.
They go back to the place of their first encounter. And here they make sweetly, for a long while, love.
While they are going back to their apartment, Alain says, "Promise me that we will never again be separated, no matter what happens."
"I promise, Love."
They go upstairs. They eat something. They go to bed and Alain embraces tightly his lover.
Gilbert asks him, "What about Denis... will you not miss him?"
"Are you joking? Now that you are here?"
"He is a handsome boy, sweet and good-hearted."
"Yes, sure. I'm fond of him. But you... are you... the only one I love. Gil, I again want to make love with you."
"Yes, Love, I too... I feel I'm born again, with you... I was afraid... you wouldn't want me anymore."
"Silly boy... you know that it's enough to have you look at me, to touch me, to make me desire only to be yours, don't you?"
"God, how much I do love you, Alain!"
"Yes..."
The day after Alain and Gilbert are reunited, Denis takes his belongings from the apartment and moves to Charlotte's. Jean-Claude offers back to Gilbert his old job as a cook. Gilbert gratefully accepts. Life starts again, serenely. The two lovers are, if it's possible, even more united than before.
Denis also finds happiness. During a party thrown by Charlotte, he meets a twenty-six year old painter named Olivier Sorel, who proposes him to pose as his model. The second time Denis poses for him, Olivier caresses him and tells he wants him.
"I too like you," Denis whispers.
They make love there in the studio. This happens several other times then Olivier proposes to Denis to come live with him. Denis leaves Charlotte, happy. Olivier is not really so handsome, but is very sexy and cheerful. They become lovers.
Gilbert is glad to see Denis happy. He too grew fond of the boy, and now Denis considers him to be like an elder brother, and gives him his confidences.
"You two and Charlotte are my family," the boy tells him one day.
"Thank you. And I'm happy you fit well with Olivier. I was feeling somewhat guilty for having taken Alain away from you."
"Don't be so silly! Alain was always yours and yours alone. If I hadn't have made the first move, I really don't think he would've ever touched me. His heart has always been full of you... and only you."
"Are you really happy with Olivier?"
"Sure. He is a wonderful man. And we are in love. I have a job, a lover, a home, and splendid friends... How could I possibly not be happy?"
THE END