Sit'ku settled into married life with ease. It was abundantly clear from the beginning the arrangement into which Sit'ku had entered-Sit'ku and Kaawu were not married to Gat.áayi separately, but rather all three were married to each other. All three shared meals, all three divided the labor of the household, and all three shared copious expressions of physical intimacy.
Gat.áayi and Kaawu had had ten years to develop their own distinct language as a couple. They thought and spoke in tune with each other, seeming to know instinctively what the other wanted at any given time. In this respect, Sit'ku often felt himself to be the outsider of the threesome, unaccustomed as he was to Kaawu and Gat.áayi's private language. Nevertheless, they both did everything they could to welcome Sit'ku into their marriage with open arms. They hugged and kissed him and asked him about himself and his life before marriage. They showered him with gifts-a necklace of abalone shells that Gat.áayi had sewn together, a wooden pipe that Kaawu had carved and painted himself. Sit'ku, in turn, fulfilled all the duties expected of him as a junior husband and excelled at them. As the season turned from winter to spring, he provided his new husband and wife with freshly caught halibut and wild game that he had hunted from the forests around the village to which the Teikweidi clan laid claim.
Slowly, Sit'ku began to feel at home in his new house. Gat.áayi and Kaawu were aesthetes. They made every aspect of the space they inhabited beautiful, from the walls of the house to the clothing on their bodies. They had painted the house with the Teikweidi family crest, and the patterns on their clothing echoed, subtly but noticeably, the imagery on the house. Everything in their world seemed arranged according to their own, private aesthetic language, to which no one but themselves was privy. Sit'ku at first felt himself to be particularly unsuited to identifying their tastes, having never before paid much attention to the intricacies of the visual arts. After having lived in their house for two months, however, Sit'ku was beginning to discern a pattern. It was not so much in the colors and shapes themselves but in the movement between those shapes that the pattern of Kaawu and Gat.áayi's aesthetic manifested itself. Had Gat.áayi and Kaawu been lucky to find their tastes so similar when, ten years ago, they had found themselves thrust into an arranged marriage with each other? Or had their tastes grown into each other over time, like intertwining vines in the forest?
Their house was too large for a family of two or even three, having been intended to house Gat.áayi's children. Gat.áayi and Kaawu both spent much of their time in the house. Kaawu's main trade was woodcarving, and he had spent the better part of two months carving an impressive totem pole for the Teikweidi lodgehouse. Gat.áayi attended to the domestic needs of the house, but being a respected member of the Teikweidi council, she was often called upon for her advice and leadership. Sit'ku could see why Gat.áayi's council was so highly valued. The same easy mastery that Kaawu commanded over his wooden medium, Gat.áayi commanded with her words. Although she was not the official leader of the clan, her words carried such weight to them that she was usually the voice to which the clan deferred.
Sit'ku, meanwhile, was usually only to be found in the house at night, as he was occupied in the daytime in the activities of hunting and fishing. His hunting party was made up of the other noblemen in the village, a group of five or so young men who were wedded to Teikweidi wives. The five hunted in the forests that directly surrounded the village, their privilege as members of a noble clan granting access to the most convenient hunting grounds. It was on one of these hunting expeditions that Sit'ku learned quite early on that his marriage was the subject of gossip among his in-laws. As he returned home on the second day with his hunting mates, a young man around his own age named Xunaa breached the question.
"Everyone's been talking about your wedding night," he told Sit'ku in an excited whisper. "Is it true that you and Kaawu both shared Gat.áayi that night?"
"Yes," Sit'ku answered, although in truth, he thought, it might be better stated that Kaawu and Gat.áayi had both shared him.
"Oh man, what was that like?"
"I enjoyed myself," Sit'ku said, but he had been cryptic about the precise reasons why. Seeing that Sit'ku was not interested in pursuing the topic further, Xunaa had dropped the subject. Later, however, Sit'ku had overheard him revealing what he had learned to the rest of the hunting party. Sit'ku was not sure whether this information had raised or lowered his status among his hunting partners. Were they jealous of Sit'ku's out of the ordinary bedfellows, or did they pity him for having to share a wife? If his unusual marriage arrangement had made Sit'ku the subject of derision, however, he did not hear of it. Gat.áayi was too influential for her wedding arrangements to be openly challenged.
In the meantime, the love life between Sit'ku, Kaawu, and Gat.áayi was drifting in an increasingly experimental direction. The more Gat.áayi and Kaawu dominated Sit'ku, the more he wanted to submit to them. He obeyed their commands readily and unquestioningly and threw himself with gusto into the power games they made up for him. He made his own suggestions too-perhaps they would like to choke him, he had once offered, or bend him over the bench to strike him. But it was Gat.áayi who eventually suggested what was to become Sit'ku's favorite game.
***
On a rainy day in early spring, Sit'ku returned from his hunt empty handed. He removed his raincoat, hat, and shoes, and set them down to dry by the fire, where Gat.áayi was preparing dinner. On this day, however, Sit'ku had been given very specific instructions for what to do with himself once he arrived home. He removed all of his clothing and put it away in the clothing chest. Then he walked over to the same bench on which he had lost his virginity only a few months earlier, and he knelt down before it. He placed his hands above his head and opened his mouth. In this position of submission, he waited for Gat.áayi and Kaawu.
Minutes ticked by. Gat.áayi had acknowledged that she had seen Sit'ku when he first entered the house, but her head was now turned to her cooking. Kaawu was in the opposite corner of the room, working on his woodcarving. He too paid Sit'ku little heed. Had Sit'ku misremembered their instructions? No, he could recall very clearly the night before when Gat.áayi had told him that this was where she would like him. She had made him kneel down and practice the posture for five minutes. He glanced over at Kaawu, who shot him a wink.
"Eyes front, Sit'ku!" he called out before returning to his carving.
They were playing with him, Sit'ku realized. This was another game. He looked straight in front of him and gave himself up to the task of waiting. He remained as still as possible, as he had been instructed to do. The longer he waited, the more difficult the posture became to maintain; his knees hurt from the hard wooden floor, and his jaw hurt from keeping his mouth open. But as soon as he began to adjust his body weight, he received another playful chide from Kaawu.
"Keep your posture, boy."
And he had obediently returned to the same position he had been holding, enduring the pain for Kaawu and Gat.áayi. He felt multiple impulses at once, as he always did when they made him endure pain. A not insignificant part of him was impatient, wanting immediate relief. Another just as significant part, however, tuned into the pleasure he sensed that Kaawu and Gat.áayi were experiencing from his pain. He latched onto this pleasure secondhand, the now familiar pleasure of being used.
He heard Kaawu get up and come to sit on the bench in front of Sit'ku. Sit'ku kept his mouth open and his eyes straight ahead. Kaawu observed him in this position-Sit'ku could feel his eyes on him. He touched parts of Sit'ku's exposed body, running his hands through Sit'ku's hair and giving his testicles a small squeeze.
"He is being such a good boy!" he called over to Gat.áayi, who was busying herself with dinner. "So still and so patient for us!"
"Always good, our Sit'ku!" Gat.áayi concurred, coming over to join them. She sat down on the bench with a bowl of boiled mussels and stewed greens and offered it to Kaawu. The two dined on the salty dish together, chatting with each other about their days and making a pointed show of not offering Sit'ku any of the food. Sit'ku knelt in front of them, his open mouth salivating, saying nothing and not moving a muscle. He was their statue today.
He was hungry, though. It had been a long and rainy trek in the woods today, only to find their beaver traps empty.
At long last, Gat.áayi acknowledged Sit'ku's hunger. "You have been waiting for us so patiently, Sit'ku. I saved some mussels just for you."
"Thank you!" Moving his mouth relieved the pain in his jaw muscles momentarily.
"Ah, but first, you'll need to eat something else for us. I think you'll be able to guess what that is."
"I may have a few guesses," Sit'ku smiled. He opened his mouth again and stuck out his tongue. He waggled it around to demonstrate to Gat.áayi that he had understood her innuendo.
"Good boy."
Gat.áayi hiked up her skirts and spread her legs, and Sit'ku obediently began to caress her clitoris with his tongue, rubbing and sucking around the sides. Sit'ku was practiced enough to know that this was how Gat.áayi liked it, and as he worked on her, he could hear her breathing quicken and feel her muscles tense. Her thighs enveloped his head. He felt as if he were drowning in her. In this position, he felt every shudder of pleasure she gave, and it sent a shudder down his own spine. As she neared her climax, she let out loud gasps and moans, and Sit'ku moaned along with her, matching her in pitch. She orgasmed in a spectacular deluge of moisture. Sit'ku lapped up as much as he could, savoring its briny taste, like the sea.
He looked up at Gat.áayi, who had lost her balance and fallen backwards into Kaawu's steady hands. She lay in this repose, breathing heavily. "I think Sit'ku's earned his dinner!" she said finally.
"Thank you," said Sit'ku, his mouth still drenched. Gat.áayi got up to fetch his bowl of dinner. Kaawu got up as well and returned with a small cloth and a short length of rope. "Put your hands behind your back," he ordered. With the rope, he tied Sit'ku's hands together behind his back. With one hand on Sit'ku's chin, he tilted Sit'ku's face upwards and kissed his moist lips, sharing the trace of Gat.áayi's orgasm that was left on them. He then took the cloth and wiped Sit'ku's face dry.
Gat.áayi returned with a smaller bowl of the mussels and greens and set it down on the ground in front of Sit'ku. She and Kaawu shared an amused glance. With his hands bound, Sit'ku realized, there was only one way he was going to eat the dish.
"Well, eat!"
When Sit'ku hesitated, Gat.áayi and Kaawu broke out laughing. Sit'ku grinned as well. He stooped down to lap up the stew with his mouth. Gat.áayi and Kaawu watched him eat. Sit'ku felt more than a little ridiculous and couldn't help but imagine how scandalized his hunting friends would be if they walked in and found him in such a humiliating position. He did not feel humiliated, though, he was surprised to discover. Gat.áayi and Kaawu wanted him eating off the floor, and so Sit'ku wanted to eat off the floor. The knowledge that he was pleasing his husband and wife buoyed him through humiliation, just as it had buoyed him through pain.
When Sit'ku finished eating, he reared himself up to the same kneeling position in which he had begun the night and thanked Gat.áayi for the dinner she had made. His mouth was once again wet with briny liquid, and once again, Kaawu wiped it clean with the cloth.
"Having fun?" he asked.
"Absolutely," Sit'ku affirmed.
