Living A Lie

Chapter 3

When Shouto gets up in the morning, he almost panics the moment he notices that the bandages aren't wrapped around his chest. Normally, he would just loosen them before going to bed and retighten them as soon as he gets up. He had made the mistake once, when he first started wearing the bandages, of leaving them tight when he went to sleep and ended up waking up in the middle of the night gasping for air and swore never again. It probably would have been wiser to take the bandages off at night, but the one time he had tried that, it took too long to rewrap them, and Endeavor had been pissed by the boy's tardiness, so waking up without them leads to a moment of panic, afraid of being late, only for him to remember the situation from the night before. It feels more like a dream now, someone finding out and not immediately treating him like a girl, someone actually caring about what he wants to be. In his eyes, that's basically impossible.

Once his initial shock evaporates after remembering the events of last night, he takes care of things, exactly as Bakugou had told him to, then dresses in a double layer, the inner layer tight to his body and the outer one very loose fitting, to hide what his bandages used to. Shouto honestly doesn't feel like his current outfit choice hides his situation all that much, but he knows that Raven would tell the explosive blonde if he were to rebandage himself. He doesn't need both of them on his case about not listening to what Bakugou had told him to do.

Once the bi-colored boy is as satisfied with how he looks as he can possibly be, he checks his phone for any messages from Fuyumi to let him know if she's on her way with the stuff Bakugou had requested in the message. Shouto knows that Bakugou knows what he needs better than he does, so he's glad that the blonde sent the message instead of telling him what to request.

F: On my way from the store. Be there in ten minutes.

With her being that close, Shouto starts his walk to the school gates knowing that she won't be able to pass through. When he gets there, Aizawa Sensei is standing guard, and the boy feels exposed as if Aizawa can see right through him the way Raven can. It's uncanny sometimes how much his teacher reminds him of the cat who has been his closest companion since he was four.

"Shouldn't you be getting ready for training?" he asks Shouto once he's within earshot.

The boy nods. "My sister is dropping off a few things that I forgot. She should be here soon."

Shouta gives him a quick glance over, noting the difference in clothes compared to what Todoroki normally would wear, before returning his attention to the gate. "Training starts in thirty minutes, so be sure to be ready in time."

Shouto nods, standing watch for Fuyumi. When she arrives, they don't exchange any words, she just hands him a drawstring bag and gets back in the car. She probably did that to prevent Aizawa Sensei from realizing anything from whatever she wanted to say to her brother.

The heterochromatic boy rushes to the training room to get properly ready for training now that he has the things he needs, and when he searches through the bag, he notices something similar to the tank top looking thing Bakugou had him try on last night. That must be the item he called a sports bra. After putting it on twice, somehow managing to put it on backwards the first time, he realizes that while it doesn't flatten him as much as the bandages did, it at least feels like he will look somewhat passable, and when he puts on his new hero costume, it looks even better because the top is pretty tight, flattening his chest out more. Maybe this will work out.

In the changing room after training, Shouto hides in the back like he usually does when Bakugou suddenly appears next to him.

"Glad to see that you listened, Icy Hot." The blonde sneers, but not unkindly.

The top of the boy's hero costume is off, so he can easily see that Shouto wearing the thing he had Fuyumi get for Shouto.

Shouto doesn't respond to him wanting to just get dressed and get back to his room. While his hero costume may help hide his obvious femininity, the boy's regular clothes don't help as much. He may look passable, but he fears that his classmates might notice the difference. He doubts that the others would be as accepting as Bakugou has been, especially Mineta. He fears Mineta finding out more than anyone else.