Cathairsis (Part 5) by Fantasy Weaver

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Continued from part four.

Part five of "Cathairsis: A Photographic Anthology". Please read the previous parts for context.

-Fantasy Weaver.


Note

1: Foul language ahead

2: Adult content ahead


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Cathairsis: A Photographic Anthology

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Picture 1 - A Crack in the Mask of Man - Part 2

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Satisfied, Rah ventured towards his tool-laden counter.

"I said we would talk…" The barber’s right hand hovered slowly over the many trinkets at his disposal. Fingertips brushed over combs with feather-light touches, slid along the tops of glass bottles and closed jars, circled the base of a container of blue liquid, until, they stopped, delicately picking up the tool of his choosing, from a display case, with a resounding zing that seemed to travel so much further in the silence that reigned in the den.

Sharp, gleaming with near-deadly intent and made of black steel, Rah’s scissors may as well have been a weapon, an extension of the Master’s iron will.

"…But you’re going to stay silent until I say you can speak. After all," Rah prowled behind the chair, passing his left hand along Lucas’ covered left arm, up his bicep, to his collared throat, until, with his submissive shaking with every touch, Rah buried his hand deep in those blonde locks and pulled, voice but a heavy whisper along the shell of Lucas’ ear, "You’re man enough to take a little criticism, aren’t you?"

With a flurry of pictures capturing Lucas’ widening gaze, Aden knew he had been right.

Rah let go, and reached into his pocket momentarily. The whirring coming from that toy under the cape increased in intensity and Lucas’ body wound tighter and tighter, jaw grinding with effort. A low sound issued from his throat, trapped behind his firmly sealed lips. The barber, amused by this, gave a pitiless laugh.

"Poor boy. You were already so hard. How much longer do you think you can last?" Rah twisted a finger through a wave of blonde hair at Lucas’ nape, circling it around his digit leisurely. For a moment, he seemed lost in thought, thinking, analysing the length and texture of his boy’s hair. "You remember what I said? That I was going to cut three inches off? You were willing to give me full control of your body for three inches. And that would still leave you with almost all of this-"

Putting the scissors in a back pocket, he dug his fingers to either side of Lucas’ head, pulling the hair out to show the length to the camera. The barber stopped his fingers at the three inch mark from the ends, and, Aden could admit, Lucas would be left with quite a bit of hair still. Just brushing his shoulders probably.

Rah smirked darkly. "But I have a better idea."

His hands went back into his boy’s hair, with Lucas lifting his eyes to stare unseeingly ahead with a puzzled expression, a hint of fear marring his brow. Those tan fingers pulled his hair up again, but instead of going down the length, they stopped.

They came to a halt at three inches…from the scalp.

Aden snapped some photos before Rah could glare at his inaction again. Oh, that definitely did something to Lucas, as he broke his silence with a tremble in his voice and the tensing of his neck. Even if he couldn’t see it, he could feel the drastic difference, "No! No, don’t-"

"No?" The barber snorted as he let go, one booted foot pressing on a pedal near the bottom of the chair and with every push, Lucas’ body got raised higher and higher. "Boy, you have some nerve arguing with your Master. Didn’t I tell you to be quiet? Should I gag you as well?" He locked his chair in place.

Lucas bit the inside of cheek, fully aware that his Master would not hesitate to do so. He bowed his head.

"Head up, boy." Aden saw Rah reach into the pocket with his toy’s remote, and once more, his sub jumped in the chair, though this time, something new happened. The masturbator which had only been vibrating away on Lucas’ endowment was, well, moving under the cape. Back and forth.

The jock struggled in the cuffs now, but he followed the harsh demand and turned his face back up to the camera, breathing heavily through his nose. Aden’s hands gripped his Nikon hard. Rah didn’t seem to care for Lucas’ evident discomfort for the haircut he was about to receive. The guy clearly didn’t want this.

Yet, from the back of his mind, Rah’s words came back to the photographer. ‘Oh, I’ll listen to them; listen to them whine and moan, maybe, but I won’t stop.’ That’s right. That’s why he had demanded Lucas’ safeword before wasn’t it? It wasn’t just to see if he remembered it; it was to warn him that he was about to do something that may very well claw the word from his mouth.

But it never came.

Slowly, Rah reached into his other pocket for the scissors. Holding them up to the light, he brought them in front of his boy’s face, allowing Lucas to gaze at them, to realize just what kind of predicament he had landed himself in. Aden, behind the lens of his camera, captured the moment of clarity with a press of the trigger.

Rah nodded to himself and gave his boy a long, dark stare. He grasped a heavy hank of Lucas’ hair near his crown, pulling it up until his stud’s blue eyes narrowed in pain.

"Do you know how long I’ve wanted to do this?"

The photographer saw Rah lifting the shining shears, how those fingers fit perfectly in the handles, how they parted the blades and placed them near the vulnerable strands held taught between scalp and fist.

Lucas’ breath labored. Blue eyes glazed over, no longer seeing Aden or the camera. His wrists pulled and tugged at the cuffs but they remained steadfastly in place, and Rah remained thoroughly heartless despite the desperate gesture.

"Shh, shh," he shushed the young man, though he smiled sinisterly through it all, "You need this more than you know, Lucas."

And with that, Rah closed his scissors repeatedly, painstakingly slowly over the first lock of hair, cutting it, as promised, to three inches short. Aden pressed the trigger over and over, making sure to see Lucas’ horrified face and Rah’s satisfied expression in his viewfinder, with the scissors’ movement caught in static motion between them. With every press of the trigger, and every moment taken, more and more of that blonde tress came lose from Lucas’ head, and soon, the snapping of the blades announced that it had finally succumbed.

Rah made sure to walk towards the left side of the chair, holding the thick blonde hank triumphantly in front of his boy’s aghast features. Unceremoniously, he let the tresses fall to the cape, where they landed squarely on top of the toy pumping slowly away underneath the pinstripe material, where they moved and fluttered down to Lucas’ lap.

Something in Lucas’ expression changed then. His apparent apathy, his lack of emotion, his stoic mask, which had already cracked under the pressure, was actively breaking before Aden’s shocked eyes.

And the Master, scowling now, hissed quietly in his submissive’s ear:

"If you want to, now’s the time to scream."

What came out of Lucas’ mouth next wasn’t so much a terrified cry as it was an angry exclamation of hatred.

"You motherf***er! You said you’d wait! You said I could keep it long! You-"

Aden’s honey-colored eyes snapped to the barber, expecting to see the man do something to shut his raging submissive up, but instead, there was a smug grin painted over those tan features, and victory in his shadowy brown eyes.

He grabbed another thick lock of hair- "That’s it, let it out, Lucas," -and started cutting it off.

"F***! Stop! Please stop!"

Aden’s hands were shaking on his camera. Inside his chest, his heart jumped to his throat.

‘Stop! I don’t want to, leave me alone!’

Sh*t.

Alright. He’s fine. It’s fine. This isn’t…anything like that. This event and that, they’re as different as apples and oranges. Which is why, Aden told himself firmly, he would continue. He’s being paid to do this, and no matter how genuinely angry or scared or discontent Lucas seemed, Rah had told him to keep taking pictures. So long as his safeword didn’t come out, this was fair game.

But this didn’t feel all that fair.

As Lucas writhed in the chair and tried as much as he could to halt the barber’s actions, Rah was in control. And with it, he hacked away at the left side of his boy’s head indiscriminately. Every time those crunching scissors sheared a new lock off, Rah made damn sure to throw it on the cape with relish. Every time he did, a new, colorful curse got thrown his way by a less than pleased-

Less than pleased…

"Oh, f***… Oh God, Master- Rah please…"

Less than pleased?

The man was practically moaning! No, not practically, he was moaning now. At some point while taking photographs of the jock, Rah must have used his remote to increase the stimulation on his boy’s dick, because the mounted masturbator could be seen going back and forth a lot faster under the cape now. This begged the question now: was Lucas moaning because of the toy, because of Rah cutting his hair or a vicious combination of both? Surely with all his incensed cussing, Lucas must not enjoy getting a forced cut, right?

By now, Rah had finished cutting the left side and the back of Lucas’ head, leaving uneven, more-or-less three-inch strands behind. He was working through the right side now, methodically shearing the loose waves there too.

"You have a lot to say now, don’t you boy?" Rah goaded with a sharp edge to his voice.

"F*** off-!" the insult got cut off by a rough tug on the jock’s bangs, and just as soon those gleaming scissors made their path through them, leaving them to hang limply from Rah’s hand.

He tossed them aside, switching his scissors around in his hand until he could use the loops to tilt Lucas’ head back. "Look at that. There’s a handsome face hiding under all of this. Who would’ve guessed?"

The words seemed to momentarily confuse Lucas, whose tongue got caught between a swear, a dumbfounded grunt and a cut-off groan. At last, Rah demolished the superficial length that remained on top of his overstrung sub’s head, who, by now, was having trouble dealing with the stimuli to his dick - and maybe even the carnage happening to his hair.

With blonde locks fluttering down to land in the heap on Lucas’ lap, Rah sighed. "Much better already." Aden watched as the barber grasped Lucas’ chin and angled his face towards him. "But we’re not done yet, are we?"

"What? No! It’s short enough, please don’t-!"

"It’s short enough?" Rah parroted with a deep laugh, as though what his boy had said was the funniest thing in the world. "Boy, you have no idea how short it can actually be. Should we find out?"

Aden’s eyes followed Rah’s hand, where it placed the scissors aside, and grabbed at one of the many clippers lined up on hooks in the countertop.

Lucas looked just about ready to either lunge at Rah or melt into the ground, and his internal struggle was apparent even in the many pictures Aden took of him. "Sh*t, Rah- Master, I don’t- I can’t…"

Rah bent his tall frame to be eye-level with Lucas, bare arms flexing as his hands placed themselves over his sub’s restrained wrists, pushing them further into the armrest. As the barber blocked the view of the camera, Aden took a moment to lean back and stretch his neck…

And eyed Rah’s back, how every muscle seemed so very-

Oh wow.

He had been so focused on the cut and the actions in front of his camera that Aden had failed to see the design on Rah’s back. It took up all of his upper back, extending behind his shoulders and up his neck, obscured behind his ponytail and the leather harness.

A crow or a raven, with dark black feathers, flying in front of what appeared to be the moon.

It was…beautiful.

"Lucas," Rah spoke pointedly, "You know what your biggest problem is? It’s not even the hair."

Aden couldn’t see the stud’s face for his reaction, but if his heavy breaths were any indicator, Rah had captured his attention.

At last, the barber stood back up and left the line of view, allowing for the photographer to resume his work. He reached into his back pocket and amped up the vibrations for the masturbator, dark eyes watching his sub squirm even more than before. From the station, Rah took up a matte black comb, and came back to the right of his seated sub, armed with his clipper. "Your problem, Lucas, is in expression."

Snap.

Aden’s not into this stuff, but even he could admit that the distinct noise those clippers made when Rah turned them on, and the subsequent hum of the motor, made an apprehensive shiver roll down his spine. And if that’s what that sound did to him-

Then it was no wonder Lucas’ eyes nearly rolled to the back of his skull.

Why though? Hadn’t he just been protesting the use of that machine? Why would the sound produce such a visceral reaction from him when it should very well have been horror-inducing?

Rah smiled as he watched his sub’s face morph into that expression of lust. "You’re being very expressive now though, so I’ll commend you for that, boy." He brought the clippers close to Lucas’ face, where those ocean blue eyes followed those moving blades without blinking. "Should we do it, boy? Get rid of it once and for all?"

Aden snapped a picture as Rah brought the silver blades up to Lucas’ forehead, so very close to his unprotected hairline. "F***! I’m sorry I don’t talk, is that what you want to hear? Don’t!"

More pictures, the capturing of Lucas’ stricken features, of Rah’s toothy smile. "I could do it. All I have to do is one move, boy, and then we’ll have no choice but to shave it all."

The masturbator pumped faster. Lucas was completely rigid in the chair, fingers digging into the armrests from under the cape, neck taut under his collar and sweating, blushing, panting as the situation and the pleasure to his dick finally broke him.

"I’m scared I’m not going to look good!"

Snap.

For a moment, the only sound in the den was that of the masturbator and Lucas’ heavy breathing.

Rah, slowly and deliberately, removed the clipper from his submissive’s sweat-beaded forehead. He leaned down, lips brushing along his right ear.

"Good boy."

Those words may as well have been a siren’s call for Lucas, but his body, now struggling against his binds and grunting without reprieve, could only muster: "Oh god, I’m going to-"

"Then go on."

Aden realized only far too late what that meant. His finger was automatically pressing the trigger when his mind finally caught up to why Lucas’ face was screwing itself up before his eyes. For as loud as he had been before, now he was back to being quiet, and he came with near-silent groans that barely pushed any air out of his mouth.

Leaning back, Aden cast a questioning glance at Rah, who had turned his eyes to him while Lucas rode out his orgasm.

"We’re not done."

Honeyed eyes returned to the viewfinder, hiding behind his trusty equipment.

"Gh- jesus christ, that’s sensitive, f***, take it off, take it off, take it-" Lucas rambled nonsensically, coming back from his rigid state to writhe against the continued stimulus to his spent cock.

Taking mercy on his boy, the barber pressed on his black remote, and soon, the pumping motions ceased, but the vibrations? They stayed on. "Slow down there, boy, you’re not going anywhere yet."

Tired blue eyes gave their Master a pleading stare, but at the raised brow on Rah’s face, Lucas resigned himself to his fate, licking his lips before nodding mutely. He closed his eyes, concentrated breaths lifting the hair-littered cape.

Rah went over to his station, hand opening one of many drawers and perusing its contents, taking some attachments for his clipper out. Aden isn’t much versed in the language or tools of a barbershop, but he had seen clippers and their many guards before in the past. His father had been the owner of a cheap - yet effective - pair of Wahl clippers. Often it had been used, along with one of it’s longer guards, to give his siblings a simple, inexpensive copy-paste haircut.

A haircut he would all but refuse to get, and would escape outside the house to avoid.

Rah placing the guard on the counter with a snap pulled Aden from his reminiscing, and he stored the memory away. Before the barber continued with Lucas’ cut, he used some clips to section out the top portion of his hair, using his comb to separate the strands in near-perfect lines along the sides of his head.

Aden returned his attention to taking pictures, finding Lucas’ face in his viewfinder with ease. The guy was opening and closing his mouth as Rah sectioned his much shorter hair. What could be on his mind, now?

He didn’t have to wait long to know. "…Master?"

Rah barely gave his sub a glimpse as he took his clipper and his comb. "Yes, boy?"

"…What are you going to do?"

The lens focused briefly on Rah’s features as he came back into view. Uncoiling the long black cable behind him, the man asked a question of his own, "Are you afraid I haven’t taken into consideration your particular facial features?"

Behind his Nikon, Aden’s brow furrowed at the highly specific inquiry. But then, he looked a little more closely at Lucas’ face.

He had thought it before too, how masculine he was to the eye. But why was that? Aden tried to think back on many of his other clients from past projects, tried to recall any who resembled Lucas in his maleness. Of all those faces, he did recognize one key aspect that cemented that feeling of masculinity in them. The forehead. The jaw. A combination of those two, of sharp, angular corners. Was that what Rah was referring to?

"I…" Lucas’ low voice drifted off, becoming a near-silent moan as his cock continued to be stimulated.

Rah sighed. With a flick, he turned the clipper on, motor purring loudly and filling the air with its vibrations. "I know you’re nervous, even if you don’t say it out loud. And that’s alright, sometimes. But," he brought the clipper up, bare blades close enough to his submissive’s ear to have him flinch in the chair, "just because you let someone f*** up your hair once doesn’t mean it’s going to happen again."

Those blue eyes closed tightly when, at last, those fast-moving blades rid him of his sideburn, stopping just above his ear. As the barber took the machine away, Lucas let out a deep breath, his entire body shaking under the pinstripe cape.

Aden captured the moment with a click.

Despite having some longer stubble on his face, Rah chose not to attend to it. With his left hand holding the comb, Rah steadied Lucas’ head and, with his clipper, started to shave a bald strip of skin all along the circumference of the other’s head. He angled the line downwards slightly, and as the clipper disappeared behind Lucas’ head, Aden couldn’t tell how high or low Rah was going with it.

While he came around to his sub’s left side, the barber said, "You thought the problem was that your hair had been cut too short, so you let it grow out. But that wasn’t the issue. Your barber just didn’t know how to work with your face. I do," he emphasized, running the blades through the left sideburn and sending it to the cape. "How long have you been my submissive, Lucas?"

The jock’s eyes flicked from the severed hair on his lap to give a sideways glance at his Master. "…A y-year."

More photos, an approving hum from Rah. He turned the clipper around in his hand, blades directly applied to the hair under that bald line. Folding Lucas’ ear back, and shaving the unnecessary length, Rah went on, "And in that year, how many times have I cut your hair?"

‘Interesting question’ Aden thought. Lucas answered quietly, as though afraid to say it out loud, "Six times."

Doing some quick math, the photographer deduced that this meant Lucas would submit himself to a cut by Rah once every two months. That by no means meant they couldn’t see each other for other, non-haircutting scenes, but that, Aden concluded, was surely none of his business.

A smile pulled at those tan lips. "Don’t you think after that many times, I should know what looks good on you?"

Lucas stayed quiet this time, body going rigid when Rah shaved away the hair at his nape, just above his collar, sandy blonde clippings falling to the floor, gathering in the folds of the cape.

"Something to think about," Rah murmured quietly as he came back to the right side, and divested Lucas of the hair there too with practiced, fluid movements that Aden had a hard time following.

With that sentiment looming over Lucas’ head, Rah headed back to the barbering station, taking a moment to turn the clipper off, and snapping one of the guard he had placed on the counter over the shining blades. Without a moment to waste, he turned the machine back on and made his way beside Lucas.

"Do you trust your Master, boy?"

Aden flinched on his stool. There was that damn word again. He had heard it in here the first time too, when Rah had told him he would have his safety in mind while showing him his den. And again, he had said it when he spoke about why his boys come to him. Now here he was, using it once more. It was so at odds with how cruel he had been just moments prior, threatening to shave Lucas entirely.

"…Yes, Master."

The skin beside Rah’s eyes crinkled in pleasure. "Then allow me to do what I think will best suit you."

With that, Rah applied his clipper to the hair left above the line he had defined earlier, left hand using his comb in combination with the clipper to shear the three-inch strands to a much shorter, less than half-an-inch length. Aden observed the movement as he snapped some pictures. Rah would first press the clipper with its’ guard up against Lucas’s scalp, before using his comb near the sectioned-out locks to pull the clipper upwards, away from his skull, leaving a longer length near the top that blended smoothly from the rest of the fuzzy pelt.

Lucas was breathing shakily now, fingers tight on the armrests. The toy hummed away under the cape still, and its effects must be getting Lucas riled up again, but Aden could only infer as much as he could see, and now that the jock had orgasmed once, his stoic mask began to slip back into place. This time though, it may as well have been a see-through veil. Both Aden and Rah had seen how panicked and aroused he had gotten, and the pictures on his SD card won’t lie, unfortunately - for both Lucas, and for Aden.

Blonde hair piled up on top of the blades before Rah flicked them away. Some fluttered down on his polished black boots, or stuck to the leather of those peculiar pants-

Honeyed eyes followed a blonde lock, where it got caught just above one silver button, laying against smooth abdominals.

‘No. Nope.’ Aden forced his camera back up, snapping some photographs to keep himself busy.

Rah continued his work all around his submissive’s head, with Lucas staying quiet if not for the occasional moan or hard breath. After a while, Rah switched his current guard for another, and repeated his movements. Even now, hair fell to the cape. Aden caught sight of the man doing something with the clipper, thumb flicking a tiny lever on the side of the machine. What purpose did it serve?

Over and over again the barber passed the clipper against Lucas’ head, sending what could only be described as dustings to the cape. And though barely anything got cut, the style began to take better shape, hair blending in to shaved skin seamlessly. Lucas had closed his eyes at some point, breathing deeply, perhaps to keep himself from becoming so agitated again.

Or, maybe he was concentrating on that toy. Aden didn’t really want to know.

After what felt like fifteen minutes of this clipper ritual, Rah turned it off and placed it back on its’ hook.

Turning to Lucas with his hands on his hips, he said, "Look at your Master, will you?"

A swallow, a nervous sigh, and Lucas obeyed. The interaction was punctuated by a tense pause, and Aden was filled with the sense that Rah was inspecting his work, seeing what still needed to be done. Maybe he was just doing this to f*** with Lucas too.

After a few seconds, Rah decided what he wanted to proceed with, and made a grab for his scissors once more, holding them and his comb in his right hand. "You’re already looking so good, you know that?" he said with a smile.

The compliment had that mask cracking again. "It’s…you’re just saying that to be nice."

"When have I ever not been genuine, Lucas?"

The words were like a slap to the face. Regret flooded those blue eyes, at having said such a thing to Rah. If anything, the photographer was certain that Rah was not one to mince his words or lie. Thinking back on every interaction he’s had with the man, Aden could not recall a single moment where Rah had not been direct in his approach or his speech.

Rah removed the clips holding the rest of Lucas’ hair in place. "If I didn’t think it was true, I would not say it. Now," He tapped his comb under the jock’s chin, "apologize to your Master for speaking like that."

Lucas’ nostrils flared. "…I’m sorry, Master."

"Good boy. Keep your head straight."

Aden continued to take a few pictures while Rah used a spray bottle to wet his boy’s hair, turning the sandy locks a darker color as each strand became saturated with water. The barber combed the three-inch strands back against Lucas’ head, quickly defining a part to the left. He then combed out a thin section in the middle of his crown, from the left to the right side of his head, horizontally, and with barely any forewarning, pulled the section taught between his left index and middle finger, tucked his comb in the fold of his left thumb, and snapped the scissors over the uneven half-inch or so strands that poked out of his fingers.

Letting the cut section go, Rah teasingly told his sub, "You now have two choices, Lucas, because you’ve been a good man and because I’m nice, as you put it." Rah’s dark eyes found Aden’s in the viewfinder, and pointed his scissors in his direction. "You can either cum in front of the camera again while I cut your hair, and I get to see your handsome face all twisted for me in portrait form, or," he leaned down, lips brushing his boy’s ear, "We use whatever other pictures Aden has taken, but," his voice went low, "I get to edge you for three hours, and milk three orgasms out of you at the end of it, and that starts right after I finish your cut, boy."

Aden tried to keep his face from changing behind his Nikon at the suggestion. Lucas had already climaxed once, so surely whatever the second option was would be better right? Then again…What did edging and milking involve, exactly? If by the end, Lucas would have three orgasms, then surely it would be a pleasurable experience, no? Without knowing why though, Aden had the distinct feeling that Rah was not offering this with pleasure in mind.

However, there was one thing that Aden personally would find horrible in Lucas’ place, and that was to have his orgasm-face immortalized. Again.

Clearly, this disconcerting idea was also making it hard for Lucas to decide what he would rather have.

With his jaw clenching unhappily, Lucas grumbled, "Edge and milk me, Master."

Even Rah seemed surprised at this, but his shock soon made way for sick, sadistic joy. "Oh Lucas, you’re going to be screaming when I’m done with you." With a pat on his boy’s caped shoulder, the barber reached into his back pocket, and with a click of his little black remote, the masturbator on Lucas’ dick went silent. A relieved, yet defeated sigh escaped the jock’s open mouth.

Rah’s body moved around the chair, combing out and picking up sections of hair with practised ease, cutting every strand deemed out of place. Something Aden noticed - like so many things he’s noticed since the beginning - was how Rah used his scissors.

It’s not something Aden had ever really given mind to during his very few-and-far-between trips to a salon, but now, having to capture the movements and pay closer attention to them, he could see that Rah had a specific way he held the shears and cut with them. His right thumb and ring finger fit into the circular handles snuggly, with his pinky on the protruding tang from the ring finger handle, and his index and middle fingers along the shank of the blade. His thumb did a lot of work, pushing and pulling the blades apart with quick, rhythmic moves.

And then, when not using them, he did this odd move, flicking the closed scissors so they rotated around his ring finger, catching the thumb handle between his bent ring finger and his pinky, pointing the blades parallel to his arm. He would just as quickly rotate the shears back into position, so fast Aden had trouble capturing it with the current settings of his camera.

The barber cut away at Lucas’ hair, angling the held locks so they were held out to conform to the shape of his head. Before Rah attacked the fringe though, he went to the section beneath the part, and cut the hair there by pulling sections of it downward, towards the fade, and cutting the excess length. He switched techniques, using his comb and his scissors in tandem, closing the blades over the hair he lifted between the teeth of his comb as he pulled it higher and higher.

All the while, Lucas had his eyes closed, was breathing deeply. The only noise that cut through the tension building in the room was the sharp snap, snap, snap of the scissors.

The fringe, at last, became Rah’s focus, and he pulled it back towards his cut guide, leaving it slightly longer than the rest of the cut, though, the photographer admitted, not by much. Little wet clumps gathered in the stud’s lap, among the longer, dry strands that already resided there.

After a quick inspection, Rah, went back to his array of tools, switching the scissors for another pair, with many teeth along one blade. Thinning shears, Aden recalled, and Rah took no time to start using them on his quiet submissive.

Again, Rah utilized a scissors-over-comb technique along the edges of the cut, blending the longer top to the shorter, faded sides. The blunt cuts became softer, less apparent as the thinning shears ate away at the drying strands. Rah was fully concentrated on his work now, not even stopping to taunt Lucas or grab his hair or anything else.

His dark brown eyes were only focused on one thing and one thing only, Aden knew: getting Lucas’ hair looking perfect.

Every so often, Rah’s hands went to his boy’s head to tilt it to his desire, or to brush along his sides to send little dustings of hair away from his view. The crunching shears came back, to the back of Lucas’ crown, texturing the hair there too.

Then, Rah ran the shears, without a comb this time, through the three-inch locks atop his sub’s head, getting Lucas to hiss a surprised breath from his tightly closed lips. The barber laughed under his breath, but didn’t say anything as he continued doing this, releasing fluffy blonde hairs from the other’s head. Aden took some pictures of this, seeing how with every cut Rah made, the top became lighter, but not so much that the thickness became affected. More like…the bulk became less apparent. Textured, feathered. It gave dimension to the cut.

He could already tell, Rah had chosen this style with Lucas’ looks in mind. The medium-length mop he used to sport seemed inappropriate now.

"Nearly done," the barber stated as he put his shears on the counter, bits of blonde sticking out of the metallic teeth. "Let’s clean up your beard and neck, hm?"

Lucas nodded once, pursing his lips.

Time and being bent over towards his camera began to tire Aden, and he stretched on his stool, hearing his neck pop and crack quietly. Just a few more minutes, surely. He could already feel his shower calling to him.

A smaller clipper made an appearance, battery-powered and equipped with a guard. The barber reached behind the chair, one hand pulling a headrest out from under the cape, and guided his boy’s head to lean back against it.

As he came to Lucas’ right, Rah turned his clipper on and asked, curious, "Do you know why I told you to grow your beard out, boy?"

Rah gave the man a moment to think and answer him, waiting patiently with his clipper purring away in his tan hand. Lucas blinked, seemingly at a loss. "I…don’t know."

"Hm," Rah hummed, gently pulling Lucas’ skin up where his sideburn used to be. Carefully, he made small moves with his clipper, trimming away the growth of his beard there until in faded into his skin. "For someone who dislikes his square jaw, I’m surprised you haven’t noticed how less apparent it is with a beard."

Was it? Aden had never really given much consideration to facial hair being utilized in the same way a haircut would be. But then, why wouldn’t it? And Rah being a barber, he had more experience in such things than Aden did. If he was saying it, then it must hold some value.

Rah blended Lucas’ beard into his skin near his sideburns, and, switching guards, he gave the whole beard a pass, evening the short stubble. Turning his clipper off, he reached for yet another, this one with a round handle in black and gold, with a small cutting head. He used this to define sharper edges to his stud’s beard, along his cheeks and under his jaw, his upper lip, along his neck.

Giving Lucas a pat on the back of his head, he gave a quick command of "Up" and pushed the headrest back down. "Alright, neck. Let’s get this collar off for a moment."

‘How sweet of him’ Aden thought sarcastically. That collar would no doubt come right back on when Rah was done with the cut.

The clinking of metal preceded the collar coming off. The barber placed the brown leather ring on his station, busying himself by getting a towel from his stack. He placed this on Lucas’ shoulders after having passed a hand along his caped shoulder to dust off any loose hair.

Lucas was looking a little warm under the cape, Aden noticed as he took another photograph. His blue eyes watched his Master’s form at the barbering station. A whirr from Rah’s form had Aden looking his way as well. In his left hand, Rah had a mound of white foam, and he approached his cuffed sub with this. A smile tugged at his lips at Lucas’ retreating eyes, and it stayed there while he spread the lather in his hand along his boy’s bared nape.

White covered the shaved skin Rah had left behind with his clipper, around and behind his ears and all the way down his neck. The application had Lucas shivering, eyes closing in near-bliss, yet behind his relaxed mannerisms, Aden could still see a lingering of fear - perhaps having to do with what would ensue after the cut was over.

Rah rinsed his hands in the sink, and when he had towelled them off, the photographer spotted what Rah’s attention was trained to now.

Crinkling paper in tan hands. The silent snap of something breaking in half, expert hands bringing a thin, sharp blade into place.

With a reverent sigh, Rah held his straight razor up to the light.

And Aden could not think of a more terrifying sight.

"You’ll stay nice and still for me, won’t you, Lucas?"

Thinly veiled threat: move, and you’ll get hurt.

"I will, Master" the man answered, trembling with barely-repressed terror.

‘Me too, Lucas, me too’ Aden’s mind conjured, pitying the poor sod. Still, the camera called, and Rah would probably want to see that emotion on Lucas, and so, he captured it, pursing his lips in displeasure at having to do so.

Boots thudding along the wood flooring slowly, hips swaying just every so slightly, black hair swishing around a tattooed upper back, Rah placed himself behind Lucas.

Delicate scraping. Aden turned his eyes back to his viewfinder. He couldn’t see what the barber was doing, but his arms flexed and moved behind Lucas’ head. He shifted, around his boy’s head, tilting it, stretching his scalp behind his ear, running that shining blade along his taunt skin.

Rah wiped his blade on the towel on Lucas’ shoulders, unhurriedly continuing, shaving the faint stubble and foam away.

A minute later, Lucas was shaved to Rah’s liking, and the barber placed his straight razor on the counter. Taking the towel away from his submissive’s form, he wiped his neck and threw it in a laundry bin without care. From the brushes on his station, Rah chose a slim round one, and from a hoop on the side of the counter, took up a hair dryer.

The man took a few moments to dry Lucas’ hair in a sweep, lifting the fringe up and away from his face, giving it volume, and slicking the hair on the sides of his head towards the back, flatter to his head. Finally, Rah put the tools away and from a jar, dipped his fingers into some styling product which he applied to the sandy strands, combing his fingers through Lucas’ hair and placing his locks, pinching some strands, and defining the form he wished to give to the style.

Touching the sides of his jock’s jaw, Rah tilted his head towards Aden. "Smile for the camera, Lucas."

The last thing Lucas looked like he wanted to do was smile.

Aden gave Rah a look that he hoped conveyed what he wanted to say: you’re pushing it.

And Rah answered with darkening eyes: take the picture, the glare said.

Take it, or else.

Scowling, Aden took a picture, Lucas’ lips pulled back into a forced, confused grin.

"Wonderful," Rah intoned, turning his attention to the discarded collar on his work station, and the mirror behind it. He took a moment to fasten the collar back on his boy, and, with a quirked brow, Rah asked his sub, "What say we look at your new do, boy."

"I don’t think-"

"Turning around!" Rah sing-songed, booted foot unlocking the chair with a muted sound, swivelling the seat towards the mirror while Lucas averted his gaze to his lap.

Aden decided that this was probably the moment in which he should make his way into the barbershop upstairs. After all, he didn’t want to be here for whatever Rah had planned for his poor submissive. He stood from his stool-

"Wait a moment, Aden. There’s one more picture I want you to take."

Aden breathed harshly though his nose, closing his eyes and trying hard, so very hard, to find some form of patience. He stayed put, standing beside his tripod, arms crossing as he observed the next moments with interest he wished he could stomp down.

Rah stood behind his chair, hands pressed into Lucas’ shoulders, brown eyes staring at his boy’s downturned features. "Lucas, look," he said, so much more gently than he had for the whole ordeal.

He did, slowly turning his eyes up to the reflective surface of the mirror. Immediately, Lucas’ mouth fell open in stunned silence.

Under the cape, Lucas tried to lift his hands, but the cuffs kept him firmly in place. As though remembering their existence, Lucas flicked his gaze to his covered arms, and back to the mirror, to the gaze Rah was sending him from behind his head. His mouth opened and closed on words that never came. His shoulders tensed under Rah’s hands, which gripped him tightly, yet in no way roughly.

"You remember what I said before, don’t you?" Rah questioned lightly, right hand playing with the short hair at the back of Lucas’ head. "The problem isn’t your hair, Lucas."

Lucas looked as puzzled as Aden felt.

"Granted," Rah said with a smirk, combing fingers through his boy’s hair, nails scraping along his scalp, and making Lucas shudder, "It has definitely helped make you look a lot less, hm, square. But you still look handsome, more so, and you don’t need all that hair to flaunt your looks or hide behind. It took away from your best features: those nice eyes, that strong chin, your brow. Now though…"

Rah came in front of the chair, and with an open palm under Lucas’ chin, his features softened, brown eyes shining with an understanding his boy must have felt if his widening eyes were any indicator. "You just need to open up."

Lucas’ brow furrowed. "What?"

"Open up, Lucas, you know what that means?" Rah tilted his head down, pinning his boy with a hard stare. "It means not bottling up your feelings. It means being confident in your words. It means being vulnerable. Not just with me, Lucas."

Lucas looked like was ready to bury himself six feet under. "I don’t-"

"You want to be manly? It’s not just with a six pack or a haircut, boy." Rah removed himself, and pushed Lucas’ face towards Aden and his camera. "It’s by being emotionally available."

Comprehension lit up Lucas’ face at last.

Rah addressed himself to Aden. "Take a picture now."

And so, he did, without a word of protest.

XXXXX

Aden sat back against the waiting area’s couch in Rah’s barbershop, camera bag and laptop case nearby, tripod leaning against the wall to his right. After he had taken that last photograph, Rah had asked him to go upstairs and to wait for him.

He sat now, awaiting the barber, foot tapping idly against the tiled floor, and with time to think about what he had been witness to.

What he had helped to capture, for Rah’s viewing pleasure.

‘I can’t believe you let yourself do this.’

‘You didn’t have to take those pictures.’

‘You could have left.’

‘Why didn’t Lucas use his safeword?’

‘Why didn’t you leave?’

All these thoughts ricocheted around his head, but none more concerning than:

‘Where you enjoying it?’

F***… That last one, Aden couldn’t be bothered to answer. He didn’t want to answer it. He didn’t want to venture into the depths of his mind to see the answer.

Was he afraid of it?

"-leave him down there for the time being."

Aden startled, jumping a foot off the couch when Rah unceremoniously waltzed into the barbershop. "Christ, can you be louder? I barely heard you come up." He settled a hand over his heart for a moment, urging the fretful organ to calm itself.

Rah gave him a smirk, replying amusedly, "You know these boots have a steel toe, right? I’m pretty sure I was being loud enough coming up the stairs."

Aden shook his head, rising up from the couch. "Yeah, well, I didn’t hear you."

"Hm. Thinking too loud?"

Aden flicked his head to Rah, chocolate tresses flying everywhere, where the man leaned against the barber chair, one foot crossed over the other. There was this knowing look in those deep brown irises, like he knew what Aden had been struggling with just minutes prior. He hated it. Rah was way too good at reading people for his own good.

"Nothing you need to worry about," he offered sharply, honeyed eyes hardening.

Like so many times before, Rah looked like he wanted to say something. And as direct as he could be, when he didn’t want to say what was on his mind, his lips stayed firmly locked up. And instead of acknowledging the elephant in the room that was their tense interaction during the shoot, Rah chose to steer clear of them.

Good. It would be easier to maintain professionalism this way. He didn’t need Rah making sure he was alright. He was. He was fine.

"Do you want me to bring your lights up? You left them in the den," the barber said, pointing towards the back of the shop with his thumb.

It took a moment to be cool enough to answer without a biting retort or a snide remark on Aden’s part. "There are nine others I still need to photograph, so I may as well leave them down there, if they’re not in your way." Besides, he thought, he had plenty others he could use.

"Are you sure? I don’t mind bringing them up."

Aden shrugged, tucking his hands into his pockets. "It’s easier to leave them. I won’t have to set them back up and adjust them every time."

For some reason, the statement seemed to please Rah. The photographer could only imagine why, but Rah answered his unsaid inquiry at the same moment, "You plan on continuing the project with me, then?"

Taken aback, Aden schooled his features into a mask of neutrality. He hadn’t really thought of it that way, especially not after having sat with his chaotic musings on the current shoot. Sure, it was out of the ordinary, way outside his comfort zone of family portraits or wedding shoots, but…other than a few glares shared between him and Rah, and the infrequent questioning of why he was doing or enabling this, he couldn’t say this was the abhorrent project he had conjured up in his mind.

Sure, it was different. He had never taken a picture of someone in the middle of cumming, that’s for certain. The whole context was unorthodox. It did make this, well, interesting. More interesting than a group photo or a couple’s portrait.

But God, it was so completely, ridiculously kinky. Intimate. And Lucas, or any of those other boys, are they truly okay with all of this?

"Look, Rah," Aden started, not knowing how he wanted to word this, "I just want to know: what I did today, what I took pictures of, was that really okay for Lucas?"

Rah seemed to have already known he would ask him this, sooner or later, for his answer was as precise as it was concise. "Lucas was the one who first suggested portraits of my subs."

What?

"I…I’m sorry, what?" Aden sputtered, disbelieving.

"Surprised?" Rah grinned. "So was I when he told me that, six months ago. We talked about it a lot before anything concrete came out of the idea."

Aden tried to reconcile the fact with the things he had seen down in the den, how they seemed so separate. "But, Lucas was…I don’t know. It didn’t look like he was exactly thrilled to be photographed."

At the words, Rah pushed himself from his leaning position, slowly walking towards Aden. He stopped in front of him, brown eyes holding the photographer’s own, confused honeyed irises. "If Lucas had actually not been alright, he would have used his safewords." He tilted his head. "Did he?"

Aden tilted his head up to look at the barber directly, hands balling into fists in his pocket. "You can’t tell me even you didn’t feel bad for him, at some point."

Rah barked a deep laugh that had Aden’s eyes widening and body reeling back. What was so amusing? Rah shook his head, raven hair swishing at his back. "Aden, I think you need to understand something." Rah’s eyes were dark, full of ominous energy. "My boys come to me knowing I can be heartless. And they stay, because I am."

Aden’s hands shook.

Rah’s tone mellowed out then, and his body relaxed. He sighed. "I always have my sub’s interest at heart. I wouldn’t put them through these situations if I didn’t know they would enjoy them and be safe while they’re happening. And even though Lucas can be closed off, if he didn’t like what was going on, if he really wanted this to stop, he would have told me."

He wasn’t convinced. "You said yourself he’s closed off, what if he was afraid of disappointing or angering you?"

"If my subs are afraid of me, then I’m a terrible dom and I’m not doing anything right. And you know what Aden?" Rah emphasised, "I tell my subs to not be afraid or ashamed to tell me anything, and if they feel they can’t trust me, to talk it out with me or leave to find someone they can. And Lucas has heard that from me every single time he’s had a session with me."

Aden pulled his hands from his pockets, grinding his teeth behind his lips. "Does he tell you he trusts you?"

As soon as the words left his mouth, the photographer regretted them. Rah watched him intensely, eyes peering into his so deeply, Aden was afraid he could see his thoughts.

His soft voice was quiet, but it was anything if not fascinated. "Do you?"

Nothing could have prepared him for the effect those two words had on him.

Rah continued deliberately, "I asked you to tell me if this" he gestured toward the den, "wasn’t working for you. I asked you if you were okay. I made sure you were comfortable. And you said you were fine," He spat the word out as Aden took a step back. "I did my part-"

Aden’s body seized when, unexpectedly, Rah grabbed his left hand in his own right one.

Before he could protest the touch, Rah lifted his hand, palm up, and slapped the consent forms for both himself, and Lucas, in the photographer’s hold.

With a final, shadowy glare, Rah made his point excessively clear:

"Now do yours."

XXXXX

Constructive criticism is appreciated. Please be patient for the next parts. These "picture" chapters will probably all be longer to write than the previous ones, and if you have theories or ideas for what will happen to some of the boys, or where the story is headed, please leave a comment, I would love to know your thoughts!

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