Page 82 of Leviticus
"Indeed," Zeke murmured from his place at the table.
"I'm glad you all think so," Ruth smiled under the praise, but I was already growing tired of the weird atmosphere.
"Okay, can we just get this out of the way? There is no reason to be so formal around Ruth. I promise you she can handle the lot of you," I explained, looking at each of my brothers in turn. Their looks ranged in various stages of apprehension and worry. "I'm serious. She knows."
They turned towards Ruth and she met their apprehensive stares with her own look of confusion.
"Um... well, let's see," she stammered, clearly looking for something to say to prove that she could handle them. "Oh, I know!" she exclaimed with a shy grin. "Fuck!"
The looks on my brothers' faces were priceless. Gideon and Zeke had matching looks of shock while Malachi looked mildly amused. Ollie, on the other hand, looked like this was the greatest day of his life.
"She cooks and she curses. You lucked out, my bro," Ollie chuckled. That was exactly what the moment had needed. The tension broke and everyone loosened up considerably as we dug into the delicious meal Ruth had prepared. My brothers and I made small talk as we ate, discussing things that had been happening in town and other small bits of news. About halfway through the meal, the loud sound of Zeke's chair pushing back drew all of our attention as he looked around and then promptly left the room. The sound of the front door opening and closing sounded loud in the silence. We all began eating again. Well, all of us save Ruth.
"Is he okay?" she asked quietly, concern etched on her face.
"That's just Zeke. Nothing to worry about," Gideon replied, shoveling the last forkful of his food into his mouth. "Father has been talking more and more about you joining the Elders," he blurted out.
"I knew it would probably be soon," I sighed heavily, finishing my own plate. "Just a little while longer."
"From your lips," Malachi bit off with no humor.
"We all have sacrifices to make," I reminded each of them. I noticed Ruth looking on in confusion. She stood, walking around the table to gather the dirty dishes, but when she made her way to the kitchen, she stopped at the hallway, looking towards the front door. I excused myself from the table and made my way to her.
"I promise he's okay, Ruth. It's just something he does," I explained, hoping to assuage her concern.
"I hope so. I would hate for him to feel uncomfortable in our home."
"I promise, all is well." My words were sincere, but I could tell she still worried.
"Why are you not happy to become an Elder?" she asked me suddenly, her eyes still holding that confusion.
"We've talked about that," I startled, but she cut me off.
"No, we talked about how things are here at home versus at church and in town, but we never really talked about what that means." Her words struck me and I realized she was right. I had been hoping to keep this small part to myself; to stick to at least this part of the plan. It had never been the plan to tell our wives about leaving Zion until the very end. But now... with Ruth? I just didn't know how to handle it. I needed to think.
"It's complicated. We will talk later, okay?" I urged her to understand. She nodded but I knew this conversation was long from over. I felt a weight in the pit of my stomach start to form. Should I tell her? Should I make some excuse? Would she understand?
"Levi, leave him be. He will be back shortly," Ollie called from the table where the rest of them sat, minus Zeke, discussing a new harness Malachi had made.
"So what is so special about this harness?" I asked, pushing the concerning thoughts from my mind and doing my best to enjoy the camaraderie with my brothers I had missed over the last month.
"It's the rings, man," Gideon sighed happily. "I need one for my own kit."
"What's a kit?" Ruth's voice sounded from the end of the table as she sat back down. The room grew quiet and I covered my chuckle with my hand.
"Er, um, Levi, why don't you take this one?" Gideon stammered nervously.
"Oh, no, no. This is all you, Gideon." I sat back in my chair folding my arms over my chest and waited for this to play out. My brothers knew that Ruth was aware of kink. She was vaguely aware that we were all into kink, though we had gone into almost no detail about it. This should be fun.
"A kit is.... Well, you see..." Gideon tripped over his words amazingly. "It's a... Well, it's a kit."
"Yes, I gathered that much. What is in the kit?" she asked with interest while the rest of us brothers watched the interlude like a tennis match.
"What did I miss?" Zeke asked, walking back into the room.
"Gideon is going to explain to Ruth, here, what akitis," Ollie explained, emphasizing the word kit.
"Maybe I should have stayed outside longer," Zeke muttered, but the corner of his mouth was turned up in amusement.
