A quiet exhale is let out, the only movement in the still, heavy air around them. The heat traps everyone, setting nerves on edge, drawing out restlessness and causing countless complaints.

Byakuya looks on as Renji shifts on the floor, his red hair splashed about his head: a beautiful contrast with the dull brown of the wood. Summer has driven him close to indecency with her heat, forcing him to bare his chest and the expanse of skin continues until the sharp jut of his hipbone, profane in its appeal. Byakuya finds himself liking summer, even as he too has been forced to forgo his scarf.

His gaze follows the inked lines; it is a habit by now. Byakuya thinks it might be a bad one, or perhaps not. He sees the subtle impatient shifting of muscles under skin he has traced with his hands, lips, tongue a hundred times and feels the familiar stirring of desire low in his belly, but the heat injects sloth into his veins, rendering him slow and unwilling to move, even for the beautiful creature in front of him.

The redhead is made even more tempting by the glisten of sweat, shining and highlighting the perfection of the body it covers. A small drop gathers itself, rolling amongst the contours of Renji's body, dipping in and out of places that Byakuya is certainly no stranger to.

Renji tosses a glance at Byakuya, half-lidded gaze filled with the endless frustrations of the heat before he blatantly moves his eyes to the curve of Byakuya's naked neck and Byakuya pretends to be unaffected.

The redhead lets the shadow of a smirk emerge before making to shift, but the heat robs him of his energy and he settles for stretching, leaving his body in a sinful arch, taut with promises of pleasure. The sigh he emits races down Byakuya's spine, intimate as his touch.

Byakuya smiles and thinks he will have his way with his lieutenant when dusk falls.

For now, he is content to just watch.