It seemed like clothes were coming off almost the minute they got inside Byakuya's bedroom.  Coats and scarves weren't hung up, but slung  across the backs of chairs.  Renji had grown noticeably more adept with buttons, and in seconds flat he had the crisp indigo shirt falling open around Byakuya's shoulders.  He felt Renji's warm hands on his chest and leaned in to kiss him, the memory of their unabashed kiss in the bar fresh in his mind.  Renji had called himself Byakuya's boyfriend. So that settled it, then. Renji kissed back fervently, running his hands down Byakuya's back.  Byakuya felt tight pectorals and hardened nipples beneath the tight black tee, and just thinking about the exotic tattoos just underneath intensified his arousal. Renji broke the kiss to peel off his shirt, as if reading his lover's mind, and Byakuya took a moment to gaze at the young man's gorgeous body before succumbing to his overwhelming need to touch it.  He was used to it by now, the wildness of their trysts, the urgency with which things unfolded.  And despite how eager his body had grown while dancing in that close, warm space, he wanted to hold onto things a little longer this time.

As Byakuya began unfastening his belt, a thought struck him.

“How would you feel,” he said, as he coiled the black leather around Renji’s wrist, “…about a little healthy loss of control?”

Renji’s eyes widened.  “Oooh, I like this side of you,”  he said, a mischievous light dancing in his eyes.

Byakuya didn’t own any handcuffs.  But he was a resourceful man, and though he disliked bing caught unprepared, he was not incapable of improvisation.  Renji had also been wearing a belt – a studded punk-rock-looking thing which had already been discarded on the floor along with his jeans.  On picking it up, however, he found it a bit too stiff to be useful in binding Renji’s other hand.  Instead he opted for another belt from his own closet, a thin, brown cloth one he had never much liked wearing.  For a minute he pondered the potential uses of his many silk ties, but the thought of damaging any of them was too forbidding. Returning to the bed, he found that the thin brown belt worked marvelously, and he was pleased to have discovered a better use for the thing.  

"Can you move?" he asked, once he had secured the other man's wrists to the ebony bedposts. 

Renji bent his elbows and twisted his wrists, tugging at the belt bonds, before deciding, "Nope."

Byakuya sat back  to admire his handiwork.  The redhead's hands were strapped to either bedpost, his long arms immobile above his head as he lay the length of the bed, naked but for his black and red boxer-briefs. The brunet climbed gracefully atop him, slipped the elastic from Renji's hair and let it fall in scarlet cascades over the tanned shoulders.  He slipped a finger under the edge of Renji's underwear, then paused.  Some things could wait.  Renji groaned in agony, thrusting forward against nothing.  Byakuya ran his fingers delicately over the dark lines of Renji’s body, eliciting murmurs and tiny shudders. Being bound seemed to make Renji twice as sensitive to every touch. Every part of him felt tight, contracted, his body tensed against the unpreventable onslaught of sensation.  Byakuya kissed the strong, vulnerable neck, dragged his fingertips over pronounced hipbones, swirled his tongue around one erect nipple, then the other. This was all so different without Renji’s movements to counter his own, and to his surprise, it felt like something was missing now that he had total control.  Part of him longed for fingers in his own hair, for firm hands on his thighs.  On the other hand, having the exquisite man lying prone before him like a captive…

“Tyger, Tyger, burning bright,” he said half to himself, quite sure that the Blake reference would be lost on his lover.

“Tiger, huh?”  Renji smirked.  “Gonna try to tame me?”

Byakuya smirked back. “I’m going to make you roar.” He buried his hands in the thick red hair as he brought their lips together again.  Immediately Renji's tongue curled over and around Byakuya’s like a wild thing, as if he had channeled all his lusty eagerness into the one muscle he still controlled.  Byakuya responded in kind.  Their chests pressed flush against each other, already heaving, already damp from the rising heat.

On a whim, Byakuya picked up Renji’s studded belt from the floor.  The metal was cold to the touch.  He slowly brought the cold surface up to brush against the taut skin of Renji’s abdomen.  The redhead twitched and inhaled sharply at the cool sensation, and a trace of a shiver rippled down his spine.  Byakuya let the metal kiss Renji’s taut nipples, both at once, and the captive gasped.

"That thing is cold!"  Renji yelped. "I so did not see that coming.  I feel so..."

"Defenseless?" 

"Yeah... It's awesome."

“That's more or less how I felt sitting in your tattoo parlor,” Byakuya said.

“Probably not as horny as I am though,” his young lover replied. 

“Not quite.”  He teased two fingers lightly over the front of Renji's underwear.

Renji looked as though something had dawned on him.  “We could ya know, role play.”

“What?”

'You could pretend you’re the artist and you’re tattooing me.” The prospect seemed to excite Renji greatly.

Byakuya looked at Renji’s tattoos as if they were a particularly confounding algebra problem.  “You don’t have much available surface area.”

“I’ve got enough.”  Renji winked. "Mr. Artist, Sir."

An amusing vision of Renji's ideal world, in which tattoo artists were elevated to the status of Sir, flashed in and out of Byakuya's mind. “What sort of tattoo would you like?”

“There’s a man I like a lot…name’s Byakuya.”  Renji looked like he was trying to pretend to blush, but just wasn’t quite capable of it. Byakuya had a hard time not smiling at Renji’s sheer cuteness.  What had happened to him?  Not too long ago he had considered himself impervious to cuteness. 

“I want his name…on the inside of my thigh.”

"Here?" Byakuya stroked the smooth, ink-free skin of his right thigh, perhaps more sensuously than a tattoo artist ought to.

"Mmm, exactly."

Byakuya pondered the task at hand.  "I suppose I have to shave the area first."  He wasn't sure how realistic this role-playing business was supposed to be, but as he didn't feel like going to the bathroom to search for a shaver, he settled for lightly raking his nails over Renji's thigh in a slow, deliberate motion.  Renji seemed to approve, and Byakuya knew this tattooing process would be slightly non-traditional. He decided to run with it.

"Alright...you are familiar with the conventional transfer process...but at this studio, we lay out the design slightly differently."

He leaned in close to the area in question, and licked a long clean line for the base of the letter "B."   Renji gasped and jerked a little at the initial contact – apparently Byakuya had hit upon one of his more ticklish spots.  The familiar letters seemed exotic as he drew them out wetly on his lover’s skin. While Byakuya’s handwriting was neat and cramped, his tongue formed the strokes with a painterly grace and an expansive wildness.

“Is that where you want it?”  he asked when he had finished.

"Oh yeah."

Byakuya sat up. He reached forward to finger the small silver earring in Renji's left ear, and without explanation, carefully removed it and held it in his hand.  “Of course, you know what they say about people with many tattoos?”

“We’re sexy?”

“You’re masochists.”  As he spoke he pressed the tiny post of the earring hard against the flesh of Renji’s thigh.  The redhead inhaled sharply and exhaled a low moan as Byakuya released the pressure.

“Damn, 'Kuya!”  he cried, his maniacal smile alleviating any concern the brunet might have had.

Byakuya's expression was serious.  "I believe you mean Mr. Artist Sir." 

Renji laughed.  "Dude, you must be so much drunker than you look. I will call you anything you want."

“Are you certain you want to undergo this procedure?”

Renji cocked an eyebrow.  “Are you kiddin’?”

Byakuya tried to remember what getting tattooed felt like.  Out of nowhere, he had another idea.  He reached into the nightstand drawer and found a lighter.  With a quick flick he produced a little tongue of flame into which he held the post of the earring. He touched the post to his finger.  It was hot. Plenty hot.

The faint sheen his tongue had left on Renji’s skin had not quite dried away. Renji’s massive quadriceps were clenched in anticipation, and Byakuya wondered if Renji would even flinch as he brought the heated metal to the top of the first letter.  The captive redhead didn’t move a muscle, but released a tiny gasp.  Byakuya dragged the post over the skin,  almost but not quite hard enough to break the surface.   A thin white line, pinkening and rising. followed in its wake.

As he traced out his name, occasionally pausing to reheat his would-be needle, Byakuya couldn’t help but be distracted by his proximity to  his lover’s most erogenous zones.  The pain of the mock tattoo seemed to only have amplified Renji’s arousal.  "Almost finished," he said as he rounded off the last curve of the "a."  There it was, his name traced in desire and pain across Renji's inner thigh.  Then he slipped his hand stealthily inside Renji's underwear. The redhead moaned and reflexively bucked his hips forward as Byakuya palmed his erection and pulled the interfering fabric out of the way at last. 

A final click of the lighter and the earring was hot again.  Much more gently this time, Byakuya ran the heated metal slowly up the underside of Renji’s cock, then encircling the sensitive pink head which shone with beads of precum.  Renji's back arched into the intense burning pleasure.  "Oh my god, oh god, shit!"  As soon as he spoke, though, contact disappeared from his loins, and Byakuya's hand was behind his head urging him to sit up.

"How do you like your tattoo? Here, take a look."

Renji looked at the spidery pink lines on his thigh, which at present showed no signs of fading.

"Sexy as hell. Maybe the most intense tattoo I've ever had."  He shook his head. "But uh...when are we gonna get to the part with the water-based lotion?”

“As I recall," the brunet replied, "you have to wait for that.”

“Well yeah, for three days you put on the special ointment, but we don’t have any of – ohgod!”  Renji closed his eyes in startled ecstasy as his erection was immersed in the hot wet caress of his lover’s mouth.

Byakuya moved up and down over Renji’s cock, steadily and teasingly.  He flicked his tongue over the wet slit and pursed his lips around the head.  Then he moved down again, taking in the full length without hesitation.  Renji moaned, writhing against the belts that bound his arms.  He was struggling not to buck his hips and thrust deep into Byakuya’s throat. 

"Shit, Bya -- I'm goin' -- insane here --"  he sputtered between deep breaths. 

It delighted Byakuya to see Renji so desperate.  He was tempted to carry out the task to completion, but the time for satisfaction would come later.  He had to teach the young man some patience.  Besides, his own impatience for relief ws getting the better of him.   With a final swirl of his tongue he released Renji's cock.  Before the redhead could protest, he circled his finger around Renji’s entrance, dancing lightly over the skin between the opening and the underside of his balls. 

“Aaanh, just hurry up and fuck me already!" he complained. "You're killin' me."

Byakuya thought that the bedroom was one of the few places where the two of them were ever thinking the same thing.  Whether out of mercy or selfishness (frankly, he couldn't care which), he reached at last for the condom and the lube. 

“Don’t you dare start goin’ easy on me now,” Renji warned.

"And what makes you think I would be so inclined?" he asked, carefully inserting one well-coated finger into Renij’s opening. 

Renji's initial wince morphed into a smile. "Just remember -- I got a whole lot more tattoos than you."

Byakuya moved a second finger alongside the first, gradually stretching Renji’s tightness. He knew he had hit the right spot when the redhead let out a moan that could only be the result of the deepest pleasure.  His own erection was just aching, aching to be inside the other man.  His whole body craved sensation; watching Renji react helplessly to his ministrations made him all the more desperate for this moment.  Lifting Renji's legs and letting his fingers slide out from between them, he gently pushed himself inside.  The pure bliss of that feeling, being sheathed to the hilt in hot, tight pleasure, felt doubly good after giving so much.

"Um, did I say gently?" Renji demanded.  "You tie me up an' scratch me an' burn me an' now you're gonna fuck me gently?"

"Apparently," the brunet replied, thrusting forcefully without warning,  "I should have gagged you as well."

One thing was sure: mercy was definitely not on the agenda from here on out.  He slammed into the young muscular body so hard and fast that his own muscles were trembling from the effort. It felt so good…the tightness clenching around his length, finding at last the friction he was craving. Renji's cries of pleasure and agony were as indistinguishable to Byakuya's ears as the dual feelings must have been to Renji himself as wave after wave of raw sensation consumed him. Each thrust was violent but calculated, perfectly angled to  graze Renji's sweet spot.  Renji's hips arched and pushed back against him, defiantly and hungrily.  Over and over, pounding into the lush folds of the bed, they moved together.

Byakuya felt himself approaching his breaking point faster than he expected.  He wanted the redhead to come first.  It was imperative.  He watched the agonized arousal play across his lover's face as he drove into him once more.  God, Renji was so beautiful like this, submissive, pleading...and yet still the tough, insolent kid he will always be, Byakuya thought, as Renji used all his strength to drive them even closer together.

Renji's brows furrowed, his eyes squeezed tight.  "Please," he cried, and Byakuya complied to the unspoken plea, touching his long-tortured length.  Renji's breath hitched; his body quaked a little. 

“I’m…almost – “ he panted, but before he could finish he was already coming, screaming, trembling against his lover's  body.  His back arched violently and all his muscles tensed tighter than ever, finally collapsing in a shudder of release.The force of Renji's orgasm was almost too much for Byakuya, and as the creamy seed spilled over his hand he almost thought he would come right then and there.  It only took a few more deep rapid, thrusts before he too was in lost in the blinding, deafening pleasure of climax.  Everything blended together in a final contraction as he finally let go, hurtling over the edge towards what could only be heaven.

He recovered his breath, becoming once again aware of Renji's chest rising and falling beneath him.  Dazed and still reeling, he sat up and looked at his lover, hands still bound, head thrown back in a pool of red locks and sweat droplets.

"Wow," said Renji. 

Byakuya let Renji stay tied while he cleaned up quickly, then at last unwound the belts from the bedposts.  They both seemed a little worse for wear -- the belts, that was. The lovers could not be more satisfied. 

"Finally,"  Renji said as his arms came down and immediately enveloped Byakuya in an embrace.

"Finally you're free?"

"Finally I get to touch you,"  he grinned.  "That was amazin'."  He touched the skin on his leg where Byakuya's name was still visible.

"I'm pretty impressed with your tattooing skills.  If, ya know, the whole English thing doesn't work out." 

"Thank you, but I think I'll let you keep your one remaining area of expertise," Byakuya said with mock iciness.  "Since we've established I can dominate as well as you."

"That's for sure.  You fuckin' killed me.  Man, am I beat."  He pulled the covers up around their entwined bodies.  Byakuya switched out the light.

Renji cuddled close to him, stroking his stomach with impossible tenderness.  His eyes were open, and even in the dark, Byakuya could sense a shade of trouble behind them.

“Am I the first lover you’ve had, since Hisana?” Renji asked.

“Yes, you are.”

Renji fingered the dark lines of the cherry branch, now fully healed, on Byakuya’s hip.

“It’s strange, ya know,” Renji said, his voice uncharacteristically quiet.

A trace of unease crept into Byakuya's heart.  He had never heard Renji sound so vulnerable, had never been more unsure of what he was about to say.  He waited, watching Renji's downcast eyes.

“It’s a strange thing, now, knowing I gave you this tattoo…to remind you – forever – of somebody else.”

Byakuya shook his head.  He took Renji's hand from his hip and cradled it in his own.

“I chose it because it reminded me of her.  But now, always, it reminds me of you.” He pushed back a strand of crimson hair and kissed Renji's forehead.

"Good," Renji smiled.  Just before he closed his eyes, he said, "I love you."

For a time, Byakuya was silent.  Those words were too precious, too full of memory...  he held them in his head for awhile, watching Renji curled beside him -- Renji, who was completely unafraid to hurt, and unafraid to love.

"I love you, Renji" he said at last, softly.

But Renji didn't hear him.  He was already asleep.

Byakuya sighed and closed his eyes.  He didn't get to see the satisfied smile spread across the redhead's lips as he drifted into dreams.