•Manipulation• [BNHA × Male!OC]

Chapter 188: un beso de tres más de una vez porque ando bellaca

See, at first I was looking forward to a nice warm bath.

But what I hadn't realized is that, unlike the shower room with the individual stalls, the bath was open.

As in open to everyone.

AS IN MY BODY OPEN TO SHOTO AND KATSUKI.

"Hey, what's taking you so long?" Katsuki hissed from in the bath room.

I was still trying to pull myself together in the next door changing room.

We'd been to a bath before at the training camp, but that was before... well... everything.

Before we even knew we liked each other, and we were surrounded by the rest of the 1-A guys.

Now it'd just be us alone.

'I need to get my head out of the gutter... seriously...'

I glance down, noticing for the first time that I had lost a bit of weight and that my skin was littered with ugly, mangled scars that hadn't been there a year ago.

'What's wrong with me? I don't usually care about all this...'

I reach up to run a hand through my hair and feel another pang of loss at how short my hair had become.

'Why am I noticing all of this now...?!'

I take a deep breath and close the locker, a single white towel wrapped around my waist.

Then, a knock at the sliding doors.

"Ryo, are you okay?" Shoto's voice was muffled through the frosted glass.

I could barely make out his silhouette through it.

"Yeah, I'm coming," I sigh softly, gritting my teeth as I pull back the door.

As I stepped into the steam-filled room, Shoto looked over at me.

Thankfully, he still had his towel on.

And I must have taken longer than I realized, his face was all red from the steam.

He blinked before shuffling over.

His hand reaches for my hair, brushing my neck slightly and making me shiver.

"You..." he mutters before his eyes flick up to mine, "you look good."

'Good?'

I nearly laughed.

He must have been joking.

I was still puffy-eyed from crying my eyes out earlier and I no doubt looked like a haggard mess from everything the past few days.

I did not look good.

But then I look back at him, and his gaze is so unabashedly honest I almost shy away.

Of course he wasn't joking. Shoto didn't even know the meaning of that word.

'So the blush on his face... is because of me...?'

And all at once it feels like the self-loathing I'd been building up had washed away.

I felt refreshed, clean even, all without having even taken a step into the steaming bath that waited for me.

"C'mon," I grin at the boy, gently grabbing onto his hand, "I have a bath with my name on it."

I lead him a few paces to the bath, catching sight of a mop of blonde leaning against the edge of the bath.

"Looking comfy, Blasty," I smile as I take my first step into the bath.