A Valentine's Memory

A Valentine's Memory – by preety-lady-serenity

Disclaimer:  The characters belong to Matt Groening, who recently celebrated his 58th birthday.  You gotta love the guy.

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Waylon Smithers stopped to his tracks, causing his boss to continue walking and talking on his own.  Realizing this, a couple of seconds later, Mr. Burns turned to see him with an annoyed expression.  The young man had turned a deep shade of red and remained transfixed to whatever there was in the shop's front window.

Monty Burns coughed in annoyance and let out a "Smithers" of expectation.  The younger man was brought back to reality and hurried to his boss' side.  The older man eyed the younger man who fixed his ties and smiled sheepishly.  Mr. Burns let out a sigh and hurried towards the Mayor's office.

It was later that evening that Mr. Burns discovered the cause of Smithers' embarrassment.  They had been walking towards the limo when the older man turned to look at the shop his assistant was staring at earlier in the afternoon.

The shop was s small pawnshop where one could see all kinds of items.  There were vases, porcelain dolls, clothing; items one would not spare a second glance.  Then a box caught his attention.  It was big, colorful and was starting to get dusty.  The box contained, as he looked carefully, an old toy that involved making chocolates and confectionery.  Apparently there was this toy inside that allowed a child to make and decorate chocolates and other kinds of sweets.

"I used one of this when I was a kid," Smithers commented sounding nostalgic, "Well it wasn't mine.  It was Pat's and I begged her to let me use it.  I even offered to do her homework for a week, which wasn't much of a bargain considering I'm too years younger than her."

"What did you use it for?" Mr. Burns asked with interest as they continued their way.

Waylon Smithers blushed slightly and lowered his eyes.

"I had a friend… when I was a kid… he was sad, lonely and very grumpy… so when we were told about Valentine's Day at school… well I decided to make him a heart.  It was white with…"

"…pink sprinkles!"  Mr. Burns let out in revelation as it all came back to him.

"My teacher saw it… I showed it to her…" Smithers recalled but Mr. Burns did not need to listen to any more of this.

FLASHBACK

Charles Montgomery Burns was passing by Springfield Elementary when he saw Waylon Jr. running outside as if he had been chased.  Thinking it was another case of bullying he stopped and waited but the chaser never appeared.  He was about to head home but the image of the distressed small boy kept bugging him.

He let out a sigh.  Heaven forbid someone would discover that he had a soft spot for that boy.  They would think he had turned to a senile old fool.  He, nevertheless, started driving the direction he saw the boy walking to.

He saw the boy a couple of minutes later.  He was marching as fast as he could and as Mr. Burns noted, he looked as if he was going through some strange emotional turmoil.

"Waylon Jr.' he called out startling the small boy.

"Hi sir," the boy let out, trying to hide something behind his back, still looking quite shaken up, "I – I was coming to your house sir.  If – if that's ok with you sir."

Monty Burns shrugged and opened his car's door for the boy to enter.  As he drove to the manor he noticed that the small boy held something tightly in his hands and had been awfully quiet.
It was strange but even though Waylon Jr. had been quieter than most children than most children his age, he had never been that quiet or reserved before.
"So, Waylon, did school go well today?"

Mr. Burns saw the boy getting tensed and thought that kids were difficult to communicate with.

Half an hour later they were both sitting on the couch, young Waylon being quieter than ever.  The older man had given up all attempts to engage the boy into a conversation and started reading his newspaper.

"Mr. Burns," he suddenly heard the boy asking softly, "Are we friends?"

The question took him by such a great surprise that he let his newspaper drop.  He stared at the small boy, who had turned a deep shade of red.  Monty Burns did not know how to answer.

He was certainly very fond of the boy but he did not know if he could call that fondness friendship because the boy was too young and, frankly, it was he, Mr. Burns, that  had set all of their relationship's rules.  Friendship was supposed to be of an equal partnership, or at least a part of it had to be based on that.

"What is your opinion Waylon?" he asked, avoiding the answer.

"Well, you aren't a relative… so I thought we were friends," he answered back softly, lowering his eyes and dawned Mr. Burns that Waylon Jr. was about to cry.

"Did anything happen at school today? Did anyone tell you that we aren't friends?" he asked the small boy seriously, worried of what had been exposed to the world.

Waylon Smithers Jr. started rubbing his left eye as his lower lip quivered.

"I've made you a Valentine's gift… to cheer you up for being lonely…" he let out trying to stop sob, "but Miss. Pheeney said that you wouldn't like my gift cause I'm a boy… I- I told her that you're my friend and she said… she said…"

The little boy stopped talking as tears started pouring down his cheeks.  He sniffled hard and rubbed his eyes with his hands. "Miss Pheeney said that you don't like people and you only treat me nicely because you don't want my mum to sue you."

Mr. Burns' eyes narrowed in anger.  Who the Hell did that woman think she was?  Even if he had been using the boy, which he didn't, why did she have to break his heart?

"Waylon come here," he ordered and let the boy sit on the couch next to him.  He looked at the boy seriously and asked, "And what do you think Waylon?"

The boy rubbed his eyes and looked at the floor in silence.

"I think," he finally said, "that you like me for who I am."

"Atta boy!" Mr. Burns let out sounding pleased.

He petted the boy's head almost affectionately before asking "So may I see my present now?"

The boy gave him the wrapped package, which he started to unwrap carefully.  Under the wrapping paper there was a heart made of white chocolate and pink sprinkles.

"This is a very nice present," he said as he took a bite, "very tasty too.  But tell me Waylon.  Wouldn't you prefer to give this to a girl?"

"Eww!" Waylon Jr. let out in disgust, "Girls have cooties! Except Pat of course.  Oh, and Aunt Vera."

Mr. Burns could not suppress the chuckle that escaped from his lips.  Ah yes! Young Waylon was still in his cooties stage.

"Really? So why didn't you give this to your aunt then?

"Because Aunt Vera has Uncle Jim," Waylon replied seriously and accepted a piece of chocolate the old man had given him, "He will buy her some chocolate for sure."

"Yes, but why give me chocolate?" Monty Burns asked seriously.

"I just thought that you are living all alone and you get grumpy sometimes… so I wanted to get you something this year," Waylon answered truthfully, shrugging his shoulder, "It's not a big deal, isn't it?"

"No, no it isn't."

END OF FLASHBACK

"It was such a silly thing to do wasn't it?" Waylon Smithers asked with a smile of shyness, "I must have put you in a very awkward position."

Charles Montgomery Burns looked at his assistant for a few seconds and rubbed his arm in mutual embarrassment.

"No you didn't.  I received a lot of Valentines in my youth Smithers, but this is the only one I remember so tenderly."

"Thank you sir," Smithers said and they started resuming their way to the limo.

As Waylon unlocked the car Mr. Burns stared around the parking lot nervously.  Making sure no one was around he grabbed Smithers by the shoulder and turned him around.  Smithers gazed back at him in amazement as he leaned and pecked him quickly on the cheek.  Waylon Smithers' cheeks turned a deep shade of red and to his surprise his boss' lips brushed against his.

"It is time I answer you the question you asked me twenty years ago," Monty Burns said in determination, "Waylon you are not my friend. You never were.  You are my life."

"Monty, you didn't have to kiss me in public to tell me that," Smithers replied feeling both happy and extremely shy at the same time, "What if someone had seen us?'

"Smithers, I don't care about the bloody world right now," Mr. Burns whispered in the young man's ear as he entered the limo, "All I want is for us to go home.  It's about time I repaid you for that chocolate."

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