Title: Love Bites
Universe: Bleach
Pairings: Renji/? (It's fairly obvious, though)
Disclaimer: Kubo Tite owns Bleach

Although you would not know it by his bumbling demeanour and bashful air, Abarai Renji was very popular among the women in his division. They swooned when he stopped by the barracks in his casual clothes, the thin flowery material barely able to hide his tan, muscled thighs or his well-built chest. And those tattoos! There were many speculations about just far down those markings went, and what the tattoos on the lieutenant's more intimate parts might look like.

There were also rumors that he had already achieved bankai, that he was well on his way to captain-hood and would therefore soon be in search of a suitable girlfriend, or wife to complete the post. Renji was, after all, not known to be dating anyone.

So there was much consternation when, on one cheery Monday morning, the lieutenant of the Sixth Division showed up to work with a line of large, angry hickies on his neck.

Hisagi was the first one to notice, having been sent by Kensei to arrange a training between the Sixth and Ninth Division. "Hey Renji," Hisagi said to his old friend as he stepped into Renji's office. Then - "Damn, what happened to your neck?"

Renji, who had looked up inquiringly from his paperwork when Hisagi entered, immediately turned a flaming red. He clapped one hand to his neck and brought the other one up in a furious "Shhh!"

"You couldn't have covered those up?" Hisagi asked, eyeing them with astonishment. "It's pretty indecent to be walking around the office with those, don't you think?"

"You don't think I tried?" Renji hissed at him, gesturing for Hisagi to close the door. "There's too many of them!"

Hisagi sat down in front of him, looking amused. "So who's the lucky lady?"

At this, Renji flushed an even deeper shade of red but kept his mouth clamped shut. Try as he might, Hisagi could not get any names from his old friend.

Name or no name, this was juicy gossip. After he left Renji's office, Hisagi immediately went to find Matsumoto, and within hours rumors were flying thick and fast. The atmosphere within the Sixth Division was particularly tense, with many of the female shinigami (and the occasional male) walking around looking put-out and murderous.

Despite Renji's obvious embarrassment, as the days went on the hickies not only persisted, but seemed to grow bigger.

"Is that a bite mark?" Kira asked him one day over lunch, goggling at Renji's bruised neck. "It is! Renji, I can see the outline of teeth. Whose teeth are those?"

"I don't want to talk about it," said a flustered Renji as he crammed a rice ball into his mouth.

"The lady Renji is dating must be a real wildcat!" Kira said to Hisagi later. He had thought for a terrifying moment, that maybe Renji was dating Kenpachi. Bite marks and visible hickies seemed like just the alpha male, rough sex bullshit that Kenpachi would be into. But to his relief the bite mark looked a bit small to be Kenpachi - that man had a very large mouth.

Hisagi whistled admiringly when Kira told him about the teeth marks. "The sex must be amazing," he remarked, and sighed. Matsumoto had done her best to figure out the woman's identity, but no dice. As far as she could tell Renji spent most of his time either in the office or reporting to the Kuchiki manor for duty.

"And it's definitely not Rukia-chan," Matsumoto said firmly when Hisagi had asked. "She's dating one of the officers from Thirteenth."

"Whoever it is - she must be doing it on purpose, right?" Kira asked Hisago now. "Why else would you leave such visible marks?"

"She must be very possessive," agreed Hisagi, and they both had a moment of silence for poor Renji.

"Taichou," Renji said plaintively that night. "You aren't doing this on purpose, are you?"

"Of course not," said Byakuya serenely, eyeing his handiwork. "Sometimes I forget myself in the heat of the moment. In any case, Renji, you may feel free to borrow my scarf tomorrow if you would prefer to hide your neck."

Renji declined, knowing that if he showed up to work wearing Byakuya's scarf around his neck, he might as well tattoo "I'm Byakuya's Bitch" across his forehead.

"After all," Byakuya added with a glimmer of a smile. "You've worn the scarf before."

Renji immediately turned scarlet. The incident, which had happened a few weeks ago, had been his fault, really.

Byakuya, growing up in luxury, had been taught from an early age that experiences should be savored. A well-brewed cup of green tea, for example, should be enjoyed slowly, sip for sip, preferably while contemplating one's immaculate garden. It was considered extremely ill-bred, not to mention disrespectful, to gulp down the tea without properly tasting it.

Renji of course, had grown up completely different. In Rukongai, you didn't savor anything, especially not food. You swallowed whatever you found, preferably without chewing, before someone else could steal it out of your mouth.

Byakuya enjoyed the swallowing, but not so much the hurry. And so one night in bed, Byakuya, exasperated by Renji's impatience, had tied his wrists firmly to the bed frame with his scarf. "This scarf is a Kuchiki heirloom," he had informed the wide-eyed Renji calmly.

Terrified of damaging the soft silk, Renji had to keep his arms completely relaxed, and thus was powerless to interrupt Byakuya from "savoring" him as he liked. Byakuya had put the time to good use - it was on this night that Byakuya had discovered Renji's neck was his weak spot. By the time Byakuya was done, the sky had started to lighten, birds were chirping and Renji was a quivering mess.

"Maybe you should wear the scarf again soon," Byakuya added thoughtfully, and Renji's body stirred traitorously at the suggestion. During the heat of passion that night, Byakuya had said some very dirty things to him. "I hope you do tear the scarf," he had murmured in Renji's ear as the redhead writhed beneath him. "I'll chain you to my bed and make you pay back the debt with your body. Every night, for thousands of years."

It wasn't really fair, Renji thought with a grin, that he hadn't torn the scarf after all, but Byakuya still devoured him every night as if Renji had a debt to pay. "Can we at least lighten up on the bite marks?" He asked, giving Byakuya his best puppy-dog eyes. "People are starting to talk."

Good, Byakuya thought to himself. He mentally made a note to bite Renji as much as possible going forward. "I do not concern myself with what the riff-raff are saying," he said aloud.

Renji groaned. He knew a "no" when he heard one.