Larry gestured at several of the Delta Rho boys. "...and then you guys swing around in front of Leo, close together, so you're sort of a wall between Leo and the audience, while Emil ties his hands behind him..."
Leo interrupted. "Can we try that now, sweetie? Em needs to practice that."
I looked around the empty auditorium, which would be used for Leo's hanging. The rehearsal seemed to be going on forever. Leo liked the play, but the stage directions in some spots were very sketchy. We had spent all day working out details. The only thing that seemed to keep tempers from fraying had been Leo's sunny excitement about every nuance of the performance.
Larry looked at Leo's brother. "Have you got that rope?"
Emil looked startled. "Oh! Sorry, I forgot I had that with me." He reached into his shoulder bag, of the sort most of the students used for carrying books, and pulled out a length of silky rope. Leo, already standing with his back to Emil, crossed his wrists behind him.
Larry frowned as he watched. "I'm thinking even if Emil gets really good with that, it's going to take too long. Nothing else is happening while he's doing that, and the audience isn't seeing anything going on. It kind of takes all the momentum out of the pacing."
I propped one elbow on my other forearm and rested my chin on my balled fist, also frowning, deep in thought. "We can't just tie his hands offstage?" All of the standard Hanging Boy scripts had the boy's hands already tied behind him when he first entered.
Leo shook his head. "There's not really a good way to do that. I'm onstage when they decide to hang me."
The frowning silence that followed was broken by Maverick saying, "What about handcuffs?"
Leo's eyes lit up. "Yeah! That'd work!"
I asked, "So you're okay with handcuffs holding your wrists instead of rope?"
Leo laughed. "Sure!."
Larry objected, "The handcuffs would clink together all the way through the earlier scenes. People'd hear that."
I had caught Leo's excitement. "Just tape the two halves to each other, then they won't make noise. Use masking tape or something, and Emil can easily rip that and free up the cuffs."
Larry was nodding eagerly. "Okay, yeah." He turned to Grover and quirked a little smile at him. "You've got handcuffs, don't you? We didn't bring any."
The raccoon gasped and goggled at him. "How did you...?"
I choked back a laugh. The marks on Grover's wrists were barely visible, but familiar. "Never try to keep personal secrets from a Hanging Boy."
Grover scratched at his cheek, trying to hide his blush. "In my room. I'll go get them." He took off toward the exit.
Leo was grinning. "After we get that fixed up, let's take the whole thing from the top."
That Night
Larry was half asleep; I gave him one more kiss, then gently tapped Maverick's shoulder. On the room's own bed, Leo and Maverick had quieted some time ago, and now breathed softly in sleep, each one's head atop the other's thigh. I got up, gently tapped Maverick's shoulder, and whispered, "My turn, sweety."
Maverick stirred and stretched, and gave Leo's cock one last kiss. Leo rolled away from him and smiled up at me. Maverick crawled off the bed and down to join Larry on the mattress below. I turned back to Leo, and crawled into bed next to him. "Sixty-Nine?" I asked.
Leo shook his head slightly. "Just did that with Maverick. Let's face each other, and see what happens."
I beamed at him. "Glad to." I put my arms around him and started kissing him.
I could hear the sounds of Maverick and Larry snuggling together, shifting to get comfortable. Minutes later, they seemed to be asleep.
I suddenly had to choke back a giggle, and whispered, "I guess things went well with Grover and Henley." Leo had had his private sex sessions with each of them after dinner. He'd be doing Shakir and Lindley tomorrow evening. "Grover came into the rec room after, looking kind of dazed and flushed."
Leo giggled, and whispered back. "He was really sweet. It's funny, he's so confident with the other boys, but in bed he was... I don't know, kind of shy. At first, anyway. I got him warmed up pretty quickly." He giggled again.
I smiled. "I don't think it's shyness. They seem kind of in awe of us. You especially. You're the star."
Leo nodded. "I went to a couple of hangings last year. That's how everybody always is around Hanging Boys. You don't get as much of a feeling for that at the Academy parties, because people there are used to being with us. But when you get with people who've never seen a Hanging Boy before... Well, you know how you felt with Marshall, right?"
I took a deep breath. "Oh, definitely! But... so everybody's feeling that way about us, now?" It was hard for me to get my mind around the concept of anyone seeing me the way I'd seen Marshall.
Leo grinned. "You're not even getting the full force. Wait till it's your own hanging!"
I shivered with the familiar sudden tingling in my neck and especially my cock, whenever my daydreams turned in that direction. "I think about it every day. I'd ask you how it feels, but I understand if you can't put it in words."
Leo shrugged slightly. "You're right, I really can't. Just thinking how..." He paused, in thought. "Everything I've worked for in the last three years is coming down to this. But there's more to it. Like I'm... floating above the clouds. It's like... it's like..."
I grinned and put a finger across Leo's lips. "Stop trying. You'll blow a fuse or something. I'll get there in another year, and then I'll know. Right now, all I want..." I stopped and thought about how to say it. "We've made love so many times, they start to run together a little. I want this one to stand out. Our last time. I want to always, always remember it."
Leo sighed. "You are always so sweet." He paused, and looked intently into my eyes. "I love you."
A small tear slipped down Leo's cheek onto the bed. My throat tightened as I responded, "I love you."
Leo's arms tightened around me and pulled our upper bodies tightly together, our chests squashed against each other's, Leo's leg slid in between mine, his thigh rubbing my cock... and Leo's lips meeting mine, softly at first, then harder, more urgently, Leo's tongue reaching into my mouth. And suddenly, all those previous times did come into sharp focus, the feel of Leo's fur, his lips, our movements together, all of the feelings that had washed through me every time Leo and I had made love. They were all present with me now, all of them wonderful, all of them right, and all of them bound together now in an unbreakable knot held together by this one last physical demonstration of our love for each other. I knew I would always remember this time, and all of the times.
THE NEXT EVENING
Leo, his four owners, and the other three of us had distributed ourselves around Grover's room. Maverick and I sat together on the windowsill. Emil had gone home to his spouse after the rehearsal had broken up. Rehearsals had gone well, and Leo had pronounced himself satisfied that he was ready for the show and his hanging. The talk had drifted to comparisons between the university and the Academy.
The Delta Rho boys were shaking their heads in amazement. Henley said, "I just had no idea you guys took such hard classes. I guess I imagined you'd just practice hanging all the time."
Larry grinned. "Well, we do a lot of that, of course. You can't learn it without doing it, but the classes tell us more about how our bodies work so we can do it the best way possible."
Leo held Larry's hand as they sat together on the floor facing the bed. Leo leaned over and gently licked Lindley's earlobe and neck, smiling when the black bear suddenly closed his eyes and shivered violently. Leo whispered, "Let's spend some time together. Can we go to your room?"
Lindley, suddenly speechless, his eyes wide, breathing deeply, could only nod. Leo let go of Larry's hand, gave Lindley another gentle kiss on the ear, and took his hand, rising gracefully from the floor. Lindley grinned and nodded, choking back giggles. Leo led him out of the room, interlacing his fingers with Lindley's and looking at him as if the black bear were his long-lost love.
Grover and Henley looked at the door after it closed, sighing deeply. Shakir laughed. "Is he that good?"
Grover grinned and shrugged. "You'll find out."
I smiled. "See, that's another thing we learn at the Academy."
In the silence following that, with Grover and Henley wrapped up in their memories, and Shakir with anticipation, Maverick suddenly asked, "Have you guys thought about what you're going to do with his head?"
I looked at my roommate, puzzled, but knew better than to ask what was on his mind. With Maverick it was never long before you found out.
Grover frowned in similar puzzlement. "We'll keep it, of course."
"He belongs to you, of course, and you can do anything you want with it,. But what would you think of possibly giving it to his brother?"
Henley gave Maverick an irritated look. "Why would we do that? We paid for him."
Maverick held up both hands in a placating gesture. "I know, I know. I won't argue with you. But there's some things you maybe haven't thought of."
Grover's lower lip was thrust out, a little belligerently. "Such as?"
Maverick spoke softly, slowly, as if he were just thinking it out now. "Well, I mean, which one of you gets him? You're seniors, and pretty soon you'll leave here, go your separate ways in separate lives. Probably even in separate cities. Only one of you can have him at one time. Maybe you could ship him back and forth, but..."
Maverick brought my hand up into his lap and stroked, shifting slightly closer and rubbing his shoulder against mine. "I can see you guys are all really good friends. But this could get to be a source of tension between you. Friends never expect to get in fights, but you know they do, and pretty often it's over exactly this kind of thing. I know you'd never want that.
"Look, I'm just saying, the four of you, after tomorrow, are going to have a memory you can share the rest of your lives. That memory will be special, and it will always bind you together. That's what you want, right? Not something that could tear you apart."
Shakir looked at the other two uncertainly. "We still could... well, donate him to Delta Rho." He looked back at Maverick. "I'm sorry, Emil's very nice and all that, but we've got a whole house full of brothers here, and they mean more to us than some stranger."
Maverick nodded. "That's fine too. I understand that feeling of closeness to all of the other boys in the fraternity. We feel it for all our classmates. But..." He smiled. "Speaking of paying for Leo, you know, the other boys didn't. You guys did. You're already doing so much for them. I mean, what other fraternity here has ever put on a Hanging Boy show? And in a few years they're all going to graduate too. Everybody you know here is going to go off eventually and leave Leo behind. Pretty soon, it'll all be strangers here."
Grover said hesitantly, "Still, even if we don't know them, they'll all be our brothers..."
Maverick smiled. "So you know how it is with brothers. Leo has a bunch of younger brothers. They've always looked up to him. Imagine how they'd feel, being able to see his head on the mantlepiece every day, inspiring them, reminding them how much he accomplished. And reminding them what he did for Delta Rho, and what Delta Rho did for them in return." Maverick's eyes were aglow in a way I couldn't remember seeing before. "And when they reach the age to come to the university, they'll feel so much gratitude to Delta Rho. You want to leave Leo to your future Delta Rho brothers? That's exactly what you'd be doing if you give him to his family."
The three boys were silent for a time, then began exchanging looks among themselves again. Grover, looking back and forth for agreement and getting tiny nods, spoke for the rest. "We can check with Lindley later, but if he says okay... Okay, we'll go ahead and give Emil the head." He looked back and forth again to make sure he hadn't misinterpreted the nods. "Right?" The others nodded once more.
I stared at Maverick, and finally raised Maverick's hand and kissed it. I couldn't think of anything to say.
Dawn
I woke up and felt Maverick pressed up against me. I rubbed my eyes and stretched. Maverick, his eyes still closed, started to stir, tilted his head back slightly to reach my lips, and kissed me. "Morning."
I returned the kiss and stroked his headfur. "Morning, hon. Leo's hanging day." The show would start at one o'clock, about seven hours from now, leaving the afternoon for a big party.
As Maverick nodded and stretched, I went on, "First time anybody I've been really close to for years has been hanged."
Maverick mumbled sleepily, "Be a lot of those pretty soon."
I nodded. "I know." I dropped one hand down to Maverick's waist. "You thought about how you want to go?"
Maverick gave a tiny head shake, rubbing his eyes open. "Maybe something different, like Larry and Leo. See what comes up."
A thought came to me suddenly, out of nowhere, startling me with sudden understanding. "Your brother! That's why you're looking out for Emil so much, getting them to invite him to the hanging, and even give him Leo's head. You're thinking about your own brother, aren't you?"
"I guess so."
I shook my head in wonder. "Honey, you never talk about him. Kelly, right? He'd be... eleven now?"
"Twelve. Birthday a couple of weeks ago."
"It wasn't that you wanted Emil to have Leo's head. You were talking about his younger brothers having it. That it would inspire them. Hon, are you hoping Kelly would follow in your footsteps? Like you with your Uncle Seymour?"
Maverick was silent a long time, so that I wondered whether he'd gone back to sleep. He finally spoke, his voice uncharacteristically husky. "I want him to live his own life. I found what makes me happy. I want him to find out what makes him happy, and go do it." He went on, his voice a little choked, "It's not that I want him to be a Hanging Boy. I want him to want to be one. I want that to be the thing that would make him happy."
I wished Maverick hadn't kept something this important a secret for so long. I stroked Maverick's back. "Hon, when we go see your family next year, Kelly can't help being impressed with how dedicated you are, and how much this means to you, and how... complete it makes you. He'll see. He'll understand. I can't imagine him not wanting to be a Hanging Boy after he sees how special the Academy is to both of us."
Maverick managed a small smile. "I hope so."
The room was steadily brightening with sunlight. "Want to see if Larry and Leo are up yet?" Maverick and I had understood that our two friends would need privacy on their last night together. They'd ignored their separate room the night before, but had used it this time.
Maverick listened a moment. "I don't think anybody's up yet."
I nodded. "Saturday. I guess the fraternity boys will all sleep late. But maybe Leo will want a walk around the campus while it's really quiet." I got up and gathered the parts of my uniform together and got dressed, and Maverick did too.
I eased open the door of our room. Nobody at all was stirring within earshot. The door opposite our room was the one Orson was staying in. He had stood quietly in the back of the auditorium during our rehearsals, quietly taken meals in the dining room. He told us we didn't need to worry about him, he'd brought some books he could read during the down times.
Farther down the corridor on their own side was the door to Larry's and Leo's room. I raised my hand to knock, but didn't want to wake them unnecessarily. So I turned the doorknob carefully, found it unlocked, and very gently pushed the door open.
Larry and Leo were indeed still asleep, holding each other, their legs tangled together. Larry was on the far side of the bed, with his arm draped over Leo, his forearm seeming to hold tight against Leo's back even while asleep, his other arm pinned underneath Leo, with the palm of his hand flattened against Leo's buttock.
They faced each other on the pillow, and their mouths were pressed together, open, as they shared the breath that would later today be taken away from Leo forever.
Maverick's chin rested on my shoulder as he looked in from behind me. I tried to nudge Maverick to step back, but found he was already retreating without being asked. Both of us backed away, and I closed the door.
Back in our own room, I reached out for Maverick and found his arms going around me already. We held each other a long time, gradually shedding our uniforms as we curled up on the bed, wanting each other, needing each other.