Justin woke up to find only one of his partners in bed. Keith, sprawled on his stomach, face first into the pillow and snoring. Micah, on the other hand, wasn’t anywhere in the bedroom. Justin quietly eased himself out of bed and made his way into the kitchen, discovering Micah at the dining room table with his tablet and a mug of coffee. He looked up and smiled with Justin entered the room.

“Make me a cup?” Justin asked, fully aware that he could make one himself, but always appreciative of the ways Micah liked to serve him. 

Micah set his tablet down and popped up, stopping for a brief good morning kiss before dropping a pod into the Keurig and brewing a cup of coffee for Justin. While he waited, Justin took his normal seat at the table, pulling Micah’s tablet toward him to see what he was reading.

“Anything good?” he asked, when Micah returned.

“Just the news.” Micah shrugged and sat down, wrapping his hands around his mug and taking a small drink.

“You’re up early. How did you sleep?” Justin asked, studying Micah’s face to make sure there were no new bags under his eyes or any other signs of fatigue or illness.

“Good,” Micah smiled, no doubt remembering the slippery and loud things the three of them had done before bed last night. 

“I’m glad you’re up, I’ve been wanting to talk to you.”

Micah looked up, his face darkening with worry. 

“Nothing bad,” Justin amended quickly, reaching out and taking his hand. 

Micah’s face settled and he smiled, turning his palm into Justin’s embrace.

“I miss this sometimes,” he said softly, then looked up. “Not that I want things different, but some of my favorite times with you were our quiet mornings together.”

Justin smiled. “Me too, firecracker.”

Micah’s eyes fluttered closed and Justin let himself sit in the silence for a moment, truly enjoying the peace with his husband. They’d come so far from when they met, and Micah was brash enough to make demands of Justin that he’d never dare to make now. He chuckled, reflecting on the way the dynamic had shifted, the way he’d taken so easily to D/s…

He and Micah had married in secret and hadn’t ever gotten rings for each other because that wasn’t the important commitment between them. Justin would never leave Micah; they didn’t need rings to make that any more or less true. The collar was what counted, the choice and the control what mattered the most.

“What did you want to talk about?” Micah asked, drawing Justin out of his head and back into the present. 

“Things are different between us now.”

“I know,” Micah agreed, adjusting himself against the hard wood of his chair with a knowing smirk. 

“I know you’re serious about things with Keith,” Justin started to say. “You’re as serious about him as you are about me, right?”

“Yes,” Micah exhaled his answer.

“There’s always going to be an imbalance between us, since you and I are legally married. We have six years with each other that he’ll never be a part of. I don’t regret that, and I wouldn’t trade them for anything, I need you to know that.”

“I know,” Micah agreed, another slick smile on his face. 

Justin leveled a warning glance at him before continuing.

“I’ve been in the habit of coming to you first about things that involve the three of us because it’s been ingrained with me for so many years to put you first.”

“I like that about you,” Micah teased, cutting him off.

“Watch it,” he warned, wagging a finger between them. 

 Micah rolled his eyes and remained silent. 

“I’m not going to do it anymore,” Justin announced. 

It was something he’d been thinking about for awhile now. The three of them had been working toward a level relationship where things were as equal as a D/s triad could be, but this imbalance always hovered between them, at least for Justin. Not just his marriage to Micah, but his inclination to always clear everything with Micah first, before involving Keith. He knew it had to stop. 

“Then what is this?” Micah asked with a raised eyebrow.

“This is the last thing I want to clear with you before the field is even,” Justin told him.

“It won’t ever be level, Sir,” Micah reminded him sardonically.

“Right,” Justin agreed. “Now I’ll have two of you in charge instead of just one.”

“What a burden,” Micah mused, rubbing his finger around the brim of his mug.

“God help me,” Justin snarked back, quickly sobering. “I’m serious though.”

“I know you are,” Micah said, looking up and tracing his eyes around the lines of Justin’s face. “I love that about you.”

“I love you,” Justin whispered.

“What did you want to clear then?” Micah questioned, picking up Justin’s hand and kissing it.

“I want us to get tattooed. Together.”

Micah inclined his neck and grinned. “Oh, do you?” 

Justin held up the hand Micah wasn’t holding and waggled his ring finger. 

“Rings?” Micah asked, looking from Justin’s finger down to his own hand.

“Rings.”

“You never wanted one,” Micah observed, flexing his own ring finger and straightening it away from his hand. 

“There was something more important between us than a piece of gold, don’t you think?” he asked, somewhat rhetorically.

Micah scoffed, the noise lodged in the back of his throat, and he looked up at Justin.

“And now?”

“Well, it’s bigger than it was before, isn’t it?”

Micah stared at him, and Justin watched the past six years of his life flash across Micah’s eyes in a flurry of explosions and light that set his heart on fire. He’d never thought it was possible to love someone more than the way he loved Micah, but bringing Keith into their lives didn’t just add another person; it somehow expanded the affection he felt for Micah, his dedication to the two of them a broader and all-encompassing thing. 

“Much,” Micah agreed.

“And it deserves to be recognized.”

Micah nodded his agreement. 

“We’ll discuss it when he wakes up then,” Justin said, bringing his mug to his lips and taking a sip of his coffee.

Micah hummed and went into the kitchen to make himself a fresh cup, returning to the table and tapping his tablet back into life. They sat beside each other in silence, Micah reading the news and Justin watching Micah, until a groggy Keith stumbled his way into the kitchen. 

“Good morning,” he mumbled, shuffling toward the Keurig and making himself a cup of coffee. He smacked his lips and dropped into his chair, using a flat palm to swipe his hair out of his eyes. He took a small sip of the coffee then set it down, lifting his fingers to his eyes and wiping the sleep from the corners. 

“Good morning,” Justin said, an eyebrow lifted while he waited for Keith to join the ranks of the living. 

Micah pushed his tablet across the table to Keith, as he did every Saturday and smiled at Justin before looking away.

“Are you awake now?” Justin asked, after Keith had finished almost his entire cup of coffee.

“Mostly,” Keith said with a small laugh and an adorable grin. 

“There’s something I want to talk to you about,” Justin said, same as he had to Micah, and he laughed when Keith’s expression mirrored Micah’s from earlier.

“It’s not bad,” Micah supplied.

Keith’s features calmed and he nodded.

“I talked to Micah about it this morning because what I want to talk to you about now represents a huge shift in our relationship. For the better, though. It levels things out, I think, and this is something I’ve been thinking about for awhile.”

“You have me nervous,” Keith stammered, forcing a smile.

“Don’t be,” Micah promised, reaching for Keith across the table. 

Keith let Micah take his hand, and Justin took the other, forming a physical connection to match the existing emotional one. 

“When Micah and I got married, we didn’t exchange rings because our relationship wasn’t based around that specific commitment. He wears my collar. Now, you wear my collar, but the ties that bind us together are greater than the strips of leather around your necks.”

Keith’s face lost some of his color, like he knew where Justin was going with this train of thought, but he didn’t look scared, more…surprised.

“I want everyone to know that the three of us are together. That even though there is this specific dynamic between us, that’s malleable. What won’t ever change is my dedication to the two of you, and I hope yours to me and to each other.”

“Never,” Micah rasped.

Keith’s lips flattened into a tight line and contorted. He blinked rapidly and stared at the woodgrain of the table with a jerky nod. 

“I want us to have rings,” Justin put the idea out there.

Keith inhaled a watery breath and squeezed his eyes closed. 

“Permanently.” 

“How so?” Keith asked after steadying the quaking of his shoulders. 

“Tattoos,” Justin suggested, swiping his thumb over Keith’s finger.

“That is definitely permanent,” Keith whispered, not looking up from the table.

“Aren’t we?” Micah asked.

“I hope so. I want it to be,” Keith admitted, finally looking up at Micah across from him. 

Micah smiled at Keith, then looked at Justin, causing his breath to catch in his throat. Earlier he’d seen their past in Micah’s eyes, but all he saw now was the future. A bright and beautiful future with the three of them together. 

“Can we go today?” Keith asked, any earlier doubts and trepidation washed from his face, in their place a beaming excitement and hope for tomorrow. 

“If you like,” Justin agreed. 

“I like,” Keith confirmed. 

“And tell him the other part,” Micah reminded Justin.

“The other part?” he asked, puzzled.

“The other thing we talked about this morning.” 

Justin scratched at the side of his nose and chuckled. 

“This idea was the last one that involved Micah and I before you,” Justin told Keith, squeezing his hand to hold his attention. “After we do this, the three of us are on equal ground, neither of you is more important than the other. We’re going to go after the holiday and get paperwork drawn up. Power of attorney and whatever we need to cover ourselves. You both come first.”

The last word scratched out of Justin’s throat, the heaviness of the change settling on him like a weight that instead of leaving him fearful or unsettled, calmed his soul and his heart.

“I’ll fight for both of you, in all things,” Justin said, swallowing down a surge of emotion. “I love you both, so very much.”

“I love you,” Micah said, dragging his thumbnail across the palm of Justin’s hand. 

“I love you both,” Keith said, his voice coated in happiness.

“I love you,” Justin said with a nod. “And yes, find a place that’s open and we can go today.” 

Keith pulled his hand back and swiped Micah’s tablet open, tapping furiously at the screen before turning it around and offering it to Justin.

“Found one,” he said with a smirk. 

“We should go get dressed and get going then,” Justin said, smiling fondly at his men. 

“I love it,” Keith enthused, holding his hand in front of him and smiling at his ring finger. 

They’d thought about designs and colors and in the end, settled on three thin bands that wrapped each of their fingers, one for each of them, equidistant from the other. Justin had put on a brave face and fought back his own tears as he watched his two partners mark their bodies in demonstration of their commitment.

“It hurt,” Micah whined. “You’re lucky I love you.”

“I am,” Justin agreed, pulling Micah against his side and pressing a kiss against his temple. 

“Does this mean I can call you my husbands now?” Keith asked, tucking himself against Justin’s other arm with a laugh.

“I’d hope so,” he answered, pinching Keith’s shoulder. 

They grabbed hot dogs from a street vendor and collapsed onto a park bench that was partially shaded by a large and gnarled oak tree. 

Keith and Micah ate, poking at each other over Justin’s chest before settling into a comfortable silence and staring up at the blue sky above them.

“What do you think that one looks like?” Micah asked, licking his fingers and pointing up at the largest cloud in the sky.

Keith rested his head on Justin’s shoulder and his eyes followed the direction Micah was pointing.

“Everything,” he answered.

The end.