Josh peers over the white plastic picket fence of the puppy pen at Dan, who sits by the window with a steaming cup of tea and a magazine. There's an empty plate on the table in front of him. He's a profile against the mid-afternoon daylight pouring into the cafe, face all angles and Josh sighs. Someone barks behind him. He turns around. One of the owners is holding a squeaky toy, a bone. He squeezes it. The other puppies rush over to the side of the pen on hands and knees – well, paws and knees – and bark for it.
Josh hurries over to join them, still a bit clumsy on duct-taped fists. Paws, Dan had said. Josh isn't used to them but one of the other owners had complimented Dan on his ingenuity.
“Is the blue-eyed one yours?” he had asked Dan, and Dan had smiled.
“He's mine,” Dan had said.
“He has very nice paws,” the owner had said. “Very creative. I haven't seen taped paws before.”
Josh is proud of his paws.
He sits back on his legs, holds his paws up in front of his chest as if to beg. The owner gives the toy another squeak before tossing it into the playpen. Josh kind of pounces into the group, grabbing the toy between his teeth and squeaking it, growling playfully as another puppy tries to take it. He pulls on it a bit before letting it go. The tags on Josh's collar click against each other, his little bell ringing as he plays.
It's the first Saturday of the month, bring your human pet day at the cafe. The sandwich board outside boasts that it's “the only place in London that serves tea in a dog bowl.” It's not his and Dan's first time at this cafe. It's a kink cafe – or at least it said so on the sign outside, and the chalkboard specials menu above the counter reads “Santa comes when we tell him to”. It's nearing Christmas. Josh's first Christmas with Dan, about 7 months into their relationship. A happy one.
Josh has learned to wear his rope burn and bruises and marks with pride. It took a bit of getting used to, what with Max asking why he was missing patches of hair on his arms and having to explain that they'd been duct-taped to his sides and Max's look of utter confusion and all.
Max, while he'd teased Josh about his collar a few times on the occasional day Josh was instructed to wear it out, had kind of figured it out. While he'd gone along with it at first he hadn't really understood. Josh had to explain that this whole “kinky” thing was part of him, as ingrained as his sexual orientation or his distaste for marshmallows. Max only occasionally barks at Josh now, which never fails to earn him a punch in the arm.
Josh turns his head up at a whistle. Dan, standing by the playpen with a dog bowl. Josh crawls over, putting his paws up on the fence to sniff at the bowl curiously. Tea. Josh barks.
“Shh,” Dan says. “Come back to the table and have your tea. I have a gift for you.” He ruffles Josh's hair. Josh barks. Dan lets him out of the playpen and pats his leg to signal Josh to follow him. Dan carefully sets the dog bowl down on the floor under the table and Josh lays down next to it, blowing on the hot tea. He drinks carefully, steadying the bowl with a taped paw. It's perfectly sweetened. Dan knows exactly how Josh takes his tea and that makes Josh pretty happy.
Josh hears Dan digging through his bag and pauses, lifting his head from his drink. He nudges his head curiously into Dan's lap.
“Hey,” Dan says, snapping at him. “Down.” Josh blushes, easing back. “I'm just getting your surprise for you.” Josh nods. Knowing Dan, a surprise could be anything from a new set of latex bedsheets or a random spanking for some made-up reason (not that Josh complained) to the whine of a cattle prod and the loud snap of it suddenly making contact with Josh's skin. “Well, I actually have two surprises. They're both new toys.” Dan pushes his chair back, patting his lap. Josh puts one paw on each knee, propping himself up at attention.
“First,” Dan says. He shows Josh his first gift. A new harness, one with a puppy tail on it so he wouldn't need to wear a plug to have a tail. “I got you a special tail for wearing out.”
He reaches down and around Josh, fastening his new harness on over his jeans. Josh wags his new tail and barks happily, nuzzling Dan's hand and giving it little puppy kisses. Dan pets Josh's hair.
“I think you'll like this one even better,” Dan says. He produces a new collar from his bag, a nice leather one with spikes and new tags. “Look.” Dan holds the tags apart so Josh can read.
JOSHUA FLINT
Josh looks at the tag, looks at Dan, then back at the tag. There's his dog license tag and then a plain silver band on the ring.
“I figured you'd say yes and all,” Dan says. “I mean, I know it's only been seven months, but. Well. Whatever. I guess it doesn't need explaining. You can put the ring on when we go home and I take off your tape paws.”
Josh climbs up as far as he can, wagging his tail and puppy kissing at Dan's face. Dan laughs and leans down, giving Josh kisses back and rubbing his sides as he would with an affectionate puppy. Josh paws at Dan's cheek, trying to keep him in for a people kiss. Dan notices. He gives Josh a nice soft kiss on the lips, a people kiss, a boyfriend kiss. Fiancee kiss. Whichever. Dan lifts Josh's head, undoes his collar, and replaces it with the brand new one, ring and all. He fastens it carefully. Dan holds Josh's face in his hands.
“Do you wanna go back and play with the other puppies and show them your new tail and collar?” Dan asks softly.
Josh nods.
“Okay, go play,” Dan says. He lets him go and Josh rushes back off to the playpen, tail wagging as he crawls. One of the other owners lets him back into the pen and the other puppies surround him, sniffing curiously, and Josh returns the curiosity, nuzzling around. Dan watches from his table by the window, finishing off his tea and looking out at the street and the stop light above the intersection, blocked up with cars. He hears Josh bark and even laugh a bit. Dan can't keep the smile off his face.
