I had heard of it. Of course I had. But not more than anyone else.

Somehow, I had known what he wanted from the moment I saw him with the rope in his hand. It was as clear to me as it was that the sky was blue. And suddenly, I had felt everything fall into place.

Careful, Madara, I had thought to myself. You're a man of the Catholic Church. It's not allowed. It's forbidden.

But it was only a thought. Nothing physical that could actually stop me.

"Sit down", he said. I did. "Is it okay if I cut the rope in pieces?" I nodded. He fetched a pair of scissors from the kitchen and cut it in four, each piece about ten metres. "We have this scissors close-by", he explained as he put them on the mattress. "Just in case."

In that moment, when I realised there was some risk to what we would do, I felt I had the chance to become nervous. But I chose not to. I was calm, my pulse slow, my heart steady. My eyes didn't leave him. Not once.

"I will tie your legs up in a tailor sit", he explained calmly. He didn't look at my face but at my body, and I could see his eyes drawing patterns on me, planning where the rope would go. "Then, I will tie your arms against your body. I think you might need that." For the briefest moment he looked up, put a finger beneath my chin. "That it will feel good."

I closed my eyes and let a soft but audible sigh escape my lips. Tobirama chuckled and I clenched my eyes closed. What was happening to me? What was happening to him? What was happening to us?

"Then, I'll connect the two. And then, if you're up for it..."

He stopped speaking. I looked at him, and our eyes made a fierce connection that was very, very hard to break.

"Tobirama..." I whispered

"We'll try pain play."

He started by doubling the rope. Then, he used his index finger in a very suggestive manner to undo every twist in the double. Then, he tied the end around my ankle, a double knot, and twisted it around my knee, forcing it to fold together.

Then, he started going back and forth, back and forth over my ankles, my thighs, my hips. Whenever he pulled the rope he would pause, either to read my body language or my facial expression. I didn't know how he did it, but he always read correctly, tightening the rope when I felt I needed it, loosening it when I felt uncomfortable. Sometimes, he did so before I even understood myself what I wanted.

It suddenly struck me that this man was very,  very experienced.

The more he tied, the more I relaxed. I closed my eyes, let him work with able fingers on my body. Soon, he was done with my legs, and if I had been even slightly afraid I would feel claustrophobic, that fear disappeared; I had never felt so present in my own body.

Fuck me... Baby, fuck me...

I didn't know where that thought came from but it scared me. I was a celibate, not being allowed to have such thoughts. But suddenly, I was so horny I didn't know what to do with all the energy that was building up within me.

But Tobirama did. When he started tying my shoulders and arms, he tightened the ropes even more than he'd done around my legs, which collected me into myself in a way that felt fantastic. Then, he went on to distract me.

"Tell me, Madara... How did you ever decide to become a priest?"

And I realised that for the first time, he was seeing the true me, my true self. Before, I had been a heaping container of anxiety but now, for this brief moment in time, I was myself, the strong and confident priest I had known myself as for so long.

"My parents were not religious", I said calmly as he kept weaving, kept tying in a way that made time lose its meaning, or disappear completely. I kept my eyes closed. "I was good in school, making my parents believe I was going to become a doctor or a lawyer." I felt how Tobirama had started to work more slowly, and for each knot, I felt as if though the barriers between my mind and his were erased more and more, making me feel connected to him in a way that would have been impossible to believe you could with someone you hadn't known for years.

Maybe, our souls have been connected before they came to live within us.

"But I was bullied, even then. I was a goth." I felt a soft smile play on my lips. How long ago was it that I had smiled? It felt strange on my face in a way that the ropes around my body didn't. The ropes and his fingers felt as if they had been there all my life. "My parents didn't care, or didn't understand. In their world, I was getting good grades, so what was the problem? But it was bad. They beat me up at school. I still have a scar in my ear from when they pulled a piercing out. They fucked me up." I felt Tobirama's fingers slow their pace to close to nothingness. "Then, one day, when I didn't want to live anymore, God came before me. Not Jesus or a bearded man or anything. But a presence. It was as clear to me that it was God as it would have been if it had been someone I knew standing before me visibly. I converted. Studied even harder to be admitted to university level biblical studies, which was one of the most prestigious educations in the country. I have belonged to God ever since."

I felt my voice quaver with emotion. I had never told anyone but my little brother, who had also become religious shortly after me.

"I'm jealous of this God", Tobirama finally said while he started to bind the upper body and the lower body patterns together.

"How so?" I asked.

"Because you belong to him."

I  finally opened my eyes, let them meet his.

"Who says I'm only available to belong to one entity?"

He smirked.

"Are you ready for pain play?" he asked.

"Describe it to me, chief", I teased him, which made him smile and look down. In that moment, he was so beautiful, I felt my arms ache not because of the tight rope around me, but because I wanted to have him in them so badly.

"The pain you can create by using rope goes deeper than the pain used in more vanilla bedroom play, such as whipping", he informed me in a way that made me understand he must have been teaching others at some point. "It's made by the friction of the rope and your skin and how tightly I bind. I will use your calf, taking care not to go over your ankle or your knee, as you have fragile structures close to the surface there. But in your calf, they're deep..."

At this, he pulled my trousers up to my knee and crossed the rope over my calf without tying it, which made me understand he would twirl it very, very tightly to prevent it from slipping. He went one round, and I gasped at the sensation of pressure. It made Tobirama smirk at me in a way he seemed to be doing a lot when he did this.

"So we can be a bit more forceful. Our goal is to elicit pain from your tibia, which it the bone in your chin. He pulled the rope tighter still, crossing them over one another as he went round and round. "Is this good?"

"More..." I murmured

"Good boy", he cooed.

He lifted my leg harshly up into the air and I gasped, leaned my head back and screamed at how much more pain the ropes caused in this new position. Tobirama immediately stopped, waited for me to come back down, ever so attentive. I came back up, captured his eyes. I suddenly noticed he was erect, and he didn't at all seem to hide it, nor did he seem bothered by it.

I looked to the side, blushing, which was something I never did. The thought that his dick was searching, wanting to slide inside of me made my heart race alongside the adrenaline released by the pain pumping through my blood.

"Keep going."

Tobirama just laughed and didn't move. A desperation so deep flooded through my body, it made me moan.

"Tobirama, please!!"

Soundlessly, he continued tying, now with my leg elevated in the air. Finally, he was finished and let my leg down on the floor again, and he looked down proudly on my leg, purple and indented by the rope and, by extension, his hand.

"I have created some pressure points for us", he said and then, he put a finger on a crossover of ropes just above my chin.

I gasped, but that gasp came out of a smiling mouth. The pain wasn't negative but something that forced me to be present in my body, and also in the here and now where there was only Tobirama and I.

"My brave boy", he praised. "I'm going to try to flex your foot."

He moved closer to me and grabbed my foot and placed one hand on the sole, and as he pushed my toes up towards my face, the tension in the ropes increased to astronomical levels.

"Ahh!!" I screamed and on pure reflex, I leaned my forehead against his.

Suddenly, our mouths were only a breath apart, and we were breathing the same air. I turned away, blushing again.

Tobirama didn't move. I wondered what he thought of but at the same time, I was afraid of it, not because I thought he had enjoyed it but because I was afraid he hadn't.

For a long time, he sat still. Then, he started untying my body very, very carefully, taking his time, until I only had the rope around my calf left. Then, he stood up, reached his hands out and I took them.

"Stand up."

He smirked as I realised why he had asked me to. The pain caused by standing up was deliciously excruciating. I loved it. Loved what it gave me. Loved what it gave him.

Holding my hands ever so carefully, he helped me take a few steps. Then, he helped me sit down again, and this time, he sat next to me, and I leaned my head on his shoulder.

I was exhausted. As the adrenaline slowly left my body, I felt myself relax against his body completely. There was no denying it; the experience I had just had came close to the time I had met God.