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“Aw, stop it,” he giggled, blushing.
With his wrists, arms and ankles cuffed, I placed the strap around his neck, sliding my fingers under to assure it wasn’t too tight. “You’re sure you want the mask off?”
“I’m okay.”
“Good boy. Later, I’ll open the seat and let some of the men signed up for the raffle come and feel you up. You know, test out the merchandise.”
His eyes may have widened comically, but his pink cheeks and sly smile told a different story, not to mention the sudden rise in his jock.
“Fucking pervert, Joel.”
“Y’all! I’m jus’ sittin’ here!”
After kissing him, I got on the mic and announced my friends. “Gentlemen, non-binary folks and boys, I’d like to introduce my two best friends, well, after my partners, that is. The men who talked me into coming here to begin with, and who have cheered us on every step of the way. If it wasn’t for them, none of us would be here tonight, Noah and his boy, Eli.
“Eli is going to be branded by his Dom tonight. All I ask is that, while it’s happening, you remain quiet, so Noah can brand his boy without interruption. Here are Noah and Eli!”
Noah led the way from their table, with Eli walking heel just behind him. Eli walked tall, his gorgeous, muscled frame swaying only slightly as he tried to walk perfectly for Noah.
They got up on stage and Noah nodded to the crowd. “Thank you for comin’. Doc?”
Brian Lauder got up from his seat and came onto the stage, surprising me. Noah whispered, “For my head as well as Eli’s. And, he’s a doctor, so if somethin’ happens.”
“Good idea, Noah.”
“You’re staying too, right?”
“I’ll be over there with Joel, to make sure he handles it okay, but I’m right here.”
His brows were drawn, and his lips were thinned out to a slash on his face. I took his shoulders into my hands and assured, “You love him. You can do this.”
“It’s big. I’m…I’m okay.”
Eli was standing near the stocks, and ready to be placed in them, but the second I got over to Joel, Noah got the microphone and spoke into it after clearing his throat. That made a loud sound that got some laughter, and Noah turned bright red. “Sorry, everybody. Anyway, I have…I have something to do before I brand my Eli. I’ve thought on it for a long while now, and…” He turned and handed the mic to Brian Lauder. “Hold that for me, please.”
“Sure.”
Eli was watching Noah, and I saw him start to fidget as his anxiety started, wondering, like the rest of us, what the hell was happening. Then, it became all too clear. Noah dug into the front pocket of his jeans, which was no small feat, with how tight his pants were. Then, as he retrieved whatever it was, he got down on one knee. Brian smiled, I did, and our eyes met briefly before we turned our attention back to Noah.
Brian held the mic close to him as Noah looked up at Eli, and the love we witnessed, that the crowd couldn’t, as he was turned from them to Eli, was the kind that could just take anyone’s breath away. Tears ran rivers down his face, and he kept swallowing as he blinked up, his voice hoarse with his emotion as he asked, “Will you marry me, Eli?”
I saw my friend, the one that never thought anyone could want him for more than his looks, the friend that had been taken for granted, taken advantage of and dismissed as anything except a pretty boy, his face broke as he began to sob.
Unable to get out words, he just started to nod, and he fell to his knees to Noah, throwing his arms around his man’s neck, the entire place erupting in the kind of applause a crowd ten times that would make.
Of all the beautiful things I’d witnessed in my life, which was right there at the top. I turned to Joel, who was crying uncontrollably, and I went to him, and suddenly found Damon by my side as we checked to make sure he was okay.
“Joel, baby, are you okay? I saw you from down there!”
“I’m fine, ‘at was…I love ‘em! They deserve it, to be ‘appy like we are!”
We both brushed his tears away and kissed him, then we three turned our attention back to Noah, who was clumsily getting a ring on Eli’s finger. I walked over in time to hear Noah confessing, “I figured that had to come before the brandin’. I wanted you to know that…that…”
“I know, Noah. I’ve known since I first knew I loved you.”
The crowd wasn’t quieting down a bit, and no one cared at that moment. See, it wasn’t just Noah and Eli we were celebrating that night. Our community, gay, bi, trans, lesbian, sure, but the sub-community of leather folk, kinksters, well, we weren’t accepted very often. It was in places like we had built where we could be ourselves, we could love and fuck and live like we felt our truths to be.
As I looked over the crowd, I saw all of them, like me, like Damon and Joel, that just needed to be safe and accepted, and that night, in our little barn of kink, we all could feel at home.
