Gears and Steam

Final Epilogue

Edmund

"Julian, I swear to god, if you don't put me down right now, I'm going to slit your throat," I threatened.

"I want to carry you into our new house!" Jules protested, tightening his grip on me so I couldn't squirm out of his arms. "And you can't make the excuse that someone will see us, because we don't have neighbors."

I groaned and finally rested my head on his shoulder, allowing a small smile to cross my face as I looked at the small house in front of me. It could be considered a cottage, I guess, and it resided in the center of a wide field. This was the first time I had seen it. Jules insisted on doing everything himself. He'd scooped me up right before we could cross the threshold and held onto me tight.

"You ready to see your new home?"

"I can't believe we're finally moving," I muttered.

Jules nodded. "We've been together for two years, I figured it was time we got our own place."

"And you choose a cottage in the middle of nowhere?"

"It's far enough away from everything that nobody will bother us, but close enough that we can still get to work and the racetrack," Jules explained. "And all the walls are painted green, plus it rains a lot up here, so I thought it was perfect."

"Well then, what are we waiting for? Show me around," I laughed.

How Jules managed to get the door open with me in his arms, I had no idea, but he did. It was cooler inside the house, and the change of temperature hit me immediately, making me shiver. I looked around as best I could from my vantage point in Jules's arms. He hadn't been lying when he said the walls were painted green. The two lamps in the entrance hall were already lit, and I could see the living room that it led into.

"Hey, Jules."

"Huh?"

"Can you set me down now?"

"Oh yeah, right." He set me down, but quickly put his arm around my shoulder to keep me close.

Now able to walk around freely, I wandered forward into the living room, then into the kitchen, then back into the living room and over to a shut door.

"Go in," Jules urged. "I think you'll like it."

I gave him a small look of confusion, but pushed the dark wooden door open. I gasped when I saw the room inside. It was about the size of my old bedroom, but instead of a bed there was a workbench pushed against the back wall, and the walls were lined with shelves of gears, screws, and just about every other small machine part imaginable, all organized into neat little bins, and each one was labeled. Hanging on the wall over the workbench was an array of tinker's tools. The room was lit by six small, yellow light bulbs hanging from wires on the ceiling.

"Jules," I breathed, wandering further into the room and leaving him at the doorway. "How did you—"

"Ada helped." Jules walked up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist, pushing my back against his chest. "I figured you'd miss having your workshop at home. Do you like it?"

"It's perfect." I was startled to find a tear carving a path down my cheek. I couldn't believe that he would go through all this trouble just for me. Sure, we had been together for two years now, and he had proved his love to me countless times, but this...it was almost too much.

Jules turned me around so I was facing him, and wiped the tear away from my face. "Hey, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," I choked, wiping away more tears. "You're just too perfect and I really love you."