Oz likes the noise because he hides his silence within it so easily.
It’s good to be there on stage, wood creaking beneath his feet, shoes
scuffing the dust - totally lost, all those small sounds, but he knows
they’re there even as the amps take the near silent thrum of his
fingers plucking strings, and make it loud, letting him speak without
opening his mouth.
It’s good to see the crowd sway to what he’s creating, good to wait for
the moments, rare, but worth waiting for, when the band stops being a
set of solos and becomes a group.
And when that happens and he’s grinning with the pleasure of it,
looking down because it’s not for sharing, he only has to catch sight
of Devon, over there to the right, long body writhing and twisting,
dancing with the air, to get hard.
He knows that body. Sweat-slicked and burning, restless and impatient,
shoving up against him in a demand Oz has never learned to say ‘no’ to
and never will - he knows it better than Devon. He’s touched and tasted
it, exploring with a patience never asked for, until he can get Devon
up and ready in thirty seconds with no more than a wet finger trailed
over a patch of skin the size of his hand that isn’t even near Devon’s
cock - if he went to that, it wouldn’t take even thirty seconds.
Devon lets him play with his body without understanding why it matters.
It doesn’t to him; he could live without knowing that a line stroked
from the hollowed shadows of his elbow to the open curl of his palm can
make him whimper, eyes closed in ecstasy, but Oz is too much the
perfectionist for that small ignorance to be allowable. He’s certain
Devon wouldn’t understand though, so he just smiles and finds another
place to kiss that makes Devon shudder and gasp and lift his hips that
inch off the bed that’s all Oz needs in the way of applause.
Devon turns, mouth split wide in an exultant, final scream that pierces
through the noise and breaks the silence around Oz so the clamour
floods him in a scalding stream that’s all he needs to appreciate the
cool silence when it laps back gently a moment later. Only Devon can do
that, and he doesn’t know he can, and he wouldn’t care if he did.
That’s why he can.
And why Oz says ‘thank you’ every way he can.