Red light

9. A whisper (Tobirama)

Izuna will never agree to this.

I had the phone on speaker as I made an omelette with salt, pepper and bell peppers.

"Is it the same payment?" I asked, a trick I had learned by trial and error; posing it as a simple question usually worked wonders as the directors didn't want to start a fight with me since I was such a huge name in the industry.

Will, however, was also a huge name, so I didn't know if it would work with him.

"I will increase it ten percent. And you'll get a bigger chunk of the profits."

So it worked.

"How much bigger chunk?" I asked. To me, it was honestly not about the money, but about depriving the money-hungry directors of some of their greed.

"Twenty per cent."

"Same for Izuna?" I asked.

Will was quiet again.

"No..."

"Then I won't do it."

Will sighed.

"Yes. Same for Izuna."

"Good."

"Although I don't think you need to worry about him. He may be your sub as we film but the man is very good at speaking for himself."

I was about to answer with something snappy, say that of course I knew that, but realised that wasn't true. I did, in fact, not know that. I hated to admit it, but I was surprised to hear it. Maybe, his timidness was only acting after all.

"There's one problem, though",  I said.

"What?"

"I don't think Izuna will agree to film kinks again."

"Oh, but you're wrong, Mr Senju." I furrowed my brows. "I spoke to him before you. He already agreed."

This time, it was the same hotel room as last time, the same luxury, the same modernism. I arrived quite late this time, right after a gym session. I was chewing a gum vigorously; I always did that before filming if I didn't come directly from home and thus couldn't brush my teeth.

Izuna was already there, looking, as always, incredibly cute. He had curled his hair a little. But he looked so small. He looked so incredibly uncomfortable. Much, much more so than last time, maybe because this time, he knew what was coming since Will had just phone us and said 'The kink video went well, let's do another one.'  Izuna looked like he was beginning to regret agreeing to doing all of this all over again, and I couldn't help but feel terrible.

There was one difference, though. This time, I was prepared. This time, I'd had time to think. I wanted to provide him comfort, to make him feel safe without discouraging his autonomy, and I'd come up with an idea as to how. Being here was his choice, and leaving had to be his choice as well. But whatever he chose, I saw it as my responsibility to ensure he had a way out.

"Izuna, I-"

"Listen up, you two." It was Will. "Same as last time. Tobirama, use your belt." I jerked. Izuna jerked. The entire atmosphere in the room changed; it was as if someone had instantaneously pumped in the entire room's worth of air on top of the air already existing; the pressure got so high. Will, however, didn't notice. Or didn't care. I started to dislike the man slightly. "Do what you want with it, but use it. Izuna, I need more from you than last time. It needs to be just as believable but also more."