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Tenya slowly opened his eyes as the rising sun’s rays peeked through the curtains, filling his dorm with light. As he fully came to consciousness he felt the bed shift slightly next to him before an arm moved its way across his torso. He turned his gaze to face where the arm had come from to be met with the sleeping form of Shouto. He then looked over to his other side to see Izuku laying there, still sleeping but facing away from his partners. In moments like this, he wondered how on earth he had ever gotten lucky enough to be able to wake up next to the most amazing people on the planet every morning.
He sleepily smiled before closing his eyes again, hoping that he could get a little more sleep. These past few weeks had been exhausting for them. With Izuku’s hero study just ending and with Shouto’s license training, it seemed like Tenya was the only one not constantly busy. It also seemed like the three of them were hardly getting to spend any time together. So when Shouto got the message last night that he would have the day off from training tomorrow they were all pretty excited to be able to spend a whole Saturday together.
Izuku started to mutter something in his sleep, which caused Tenya’s smile to widen. He sighed as he adjusted his hand where it was wrapped around Shouto. But as he moved his hand he realized he felt something.. Odd.. on Shouto’s shoulder. Then he realized he knew exactly what it was. It was the sleeve of Shouto’s binder. Which he definitely should NOT be sleeping in.
Before he could think about what he was doing he sat up quickly and loudly asked, “Shouto what are you doing?”
Shouto immediately jumped back and stared at Tenya with wide eyes, before he started quickly saying, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry I didn’t mean to” as if he was trying to plead with him.
Tenya mentally slapped himself in the face. What was he thinking? He shouldn’t have yelled like that, especially while Shouto was asleep. If he had been thinking logically he would have never done that, but since he was half asleep and had been shocked he hadn’t exactly thought about what he was doing.
“Tenya, what the hell”, Izuku said as he sat up and looked over at his partners.
“Sorry”, Tenya said before he let out a frustrated noise, “I wasn’t thinking”.
Shouto was still saying apologies but at this point, they were mumbled into his knees where he had tucked his face into.
“Shou, hey you’re okay, you’re safe”, Izuku said as he moved a bit closer to Shouto.
Shouto curled a bit more in on himself, “I’m sorry, I don’t know what I did wrong, I didn’t mean to”.
“Shouto I apologize, I overreacted”, Tenya said.
Shouto nodded and took a deep breath, before he looked up at them, “what did I do wrong, I-I didn’t mean to do anything”.
“Shouto you didn’t do anything wrong per se, I… I just noticed you were still wearing your binder, which alarmed me a bit”, Tenya said, trying his best to keep his voice at a level tone. He never meant to scare Shouto, he hated to see his partner so scared.
“Oh..”, Izuku and Shouto both seemed to say simultaneously, but Izuku seemed to be saying more as a realization, while Shouto sounded like he had just been caught doing something horribly wrong.
“I just know it isn’t safe”, Tenya said looking down, still feeling bad that Shouto was so upset, “I already know that you wear it too much during the day anyway, which I was willing to look past because I understand that you would feel dysphoric if you weren’t wearing it in the common areas of the dorms. But it just becomes horribly unsafe if you are wearing it all day and night”.
“Yeah…. I know”, Shouto said looking away from them.
“But.. why is it dangerous”, Izuku asked with a bit of an awkward expression on his face almost as if he was ashamed he didn’t know the answer.
“Well a binders job is to compress, which can be safe if done in moderation.. but if you wear it too long It can affect your breathing, and be harmful to your ribcage, and if it does do something to your ribcage while you are sleeping you may not notice and..” Tenya stopped and sighed, “it’s just not a good idea”.
“And it hurts and makes it harder to breathe when you wake up”, Shouto added, still looking away from them.
“Wait does it hurt now,” Tenya asked as he looked up in Shouto’s direction.
“I guess a little..”
“If it’s hurting you then I highly recommend you take it off”, Tenya said with some reluctance in his voice.
“Yeah.. I guess.”
He understood why Shouto wouldn’t want to take it off. He knew how overwhelming dysphoria could be, but he also knew that this wasn’t safe. And Tenya’s main goal has always been to make sure partners were safe. He owed safety to them after he had almost gotten them all killed that night in Hosu.. but he shouldn’t be thinking about that night right now.. That is not a rabbit hole he needed to go down, right now he needs to focus on convincing Shouto to be safe.
“Shou how often do you wear it to bed”, Izuku asked, breaking the awkward silence that had fallen among them.
That was something Tenya hadn’t even thought about yet. This most likely wasn’t the first time this had happened. Tenya should have paid more attention. How could he have not noticed? How was he such a horrible partner?
“I don’t know, most nights I guess”, Shouto said tucking his head back into his knees, “It doesn’t matter I’m fine, just don’t worry about it”, with the last sentence frustration hinged in his voice.
Tenya and Izuku looked at each other then back at Shouto, it seemed like no one really knew where to take the situation from there. Izuku and Tenya were both concerned but they knew nothing they would say would do any good if Shouto was getting defensive.
“Shou you really need to take it off”, Izuku said almost desperately.
“No, it’s his decision, we cant make him do anything”, Tenya said before sighing, “but I do strongly recommend you stop sleeping in it”.
After that, they all reluctantly dropped the topic, until that night.
Shouto looked at his reflection in Izuku’s bathroom mirror. He ran his hands over his chest acknowledging how flat his binder made him look. He loved his binder, he depended on his binder. But he knew his partners were right, it wasn’t safe.
But if he were, to be honest, he hadn’t slept without his binder since they started sleeping in the same dorm. He loved his partners and he trusted them more than anyone. This would just be a huge step for him.
He let out a frustrated sigh before turning around. If he was going to do this he needed to avoid the mirror. He then pulled off his binder quickly before he put on one of Tenya’s hoodies. It was baggy enough on him that it didn’t cause his dysphoria to eat him alive, but it was obviously still there. He put his hand on the door handle and took a deep breath before he opened that door.
He turned to see his partners already cuddling in bed as Izuku told Tenya about each of his All Might figures that lined the shelf near his bed. It was obvious Tenya was trying to keep up with what Izuku was saying, but Tenya had always been one to get tired early and was hardly awake at this point.
Shouto walked over and joined them. He crawled over so that he was behind Tenya. Eventually, they turned the lights out and the room was silent, but it was obvious none of them were asleep yet.
Shouto sighed softly, “I took it off”, he whispered.
“What”, Izuku asked as he sat up on the other side of the bed.
“My binder.. I took it off”.
Tenya turned around so that he was facing Shouto, “I’m proud of you”, he said before he moved forwards to kiss him.
“Me too”, Izuku said before he leaned over Tenya so he could kiss Shouto on the cheek.
“Thanks”, Shouto whispered before he snuggled closer to Tenya and let himself fall asleep.