A Spy Among Them (ShinsoxBakugoxDabixAizawaxReader and more..)

Ch. 25 Dressing Room Encounter

Mina, Kirishima, Sero, and Kaminari were already at the formal wear store by the time I got there. I was meeting Mina to look at dresses for tonight while the guys picked up their tuxes. 

"Where's the rest of the crew?" I asked, looking around and noticing that one member of the squad was noticeably missing. 

"Bakugo owns his own tux, so he didn't need to rent one," Kirishima explained.

"Oh."

"Disappointed?"

"No," I said, feeling the hair on the back of my neck bristle. "Why would I be?"

"No reason," he said, smiling. Kirishima pulled me aside, a little bit away from the others, so that they couldn't hear us. "He didn't know you were meeting us here."

"Yeah, well, the last time we spoke, it didn't end on good terms."

"Just call him. You know, he talks about you. You're the only girl I've ever heard him – "

"Let's get a picture of everyone!" Mina interrupted as she pulled us all together. "Hold up your tuxes!" When we squeezed together so she could take a group selfie, I felt Kaminari put his arm around my waist and move me toward him. After Mina took the picture, he didn't move his hand, so I gave him a look. He didn't seem to get the hint.

"Are you riding to the thing tonight with us?" he asked, hand still on my hip.

I wiggled away. "No, I'll just get a cab."

"By yourself? Don't you want to be escorted by a dashing young hero?"

"Do you see one of those around here?"

Kaminari grabbed his heart, pretending to be wounded. "Ouch."

"I'm sorry," I laughed. "I'll be fine. I'm used to doing things on my own."

"Well, if not as your escort, I could help you try on dresses. They say I have a good eye for fashion."

"Uh... dude, no one says that," Sero butted in, trying to get Kaminari's attention. "Anyway, aren't you matching tonight with Jirou's purple dress?" He raised his eyebrows suspiciously.

"Oh yeah."

"Sorry, y/n," Sero said, shaking his head and pushing Kaminari out of the store.

"Come on, why can't I help?" I heard Kaminari saying as Sero moved him along.

The guys headed back to the dorms while Mina and I looked through the dresses. Mina helped me pick out a few, most of which were a little too wild for my taste but I agreed to try them on anyway.

"There are dressing rooms with plenty of mirrors in the back," the store clerk told me. "Let me know if you need different sizes or have any questions."

I hauled my dresses down the hallway in the back of the store, opening the first door I saw. Instead of a small dressing room, the door opened to a larger space where a young man, not much older than myself, in a black suit and white tie was standing in front of a mirror. A tailor was measuring him while two more men in suits stood at attention close by. All three, plus the tailor, paused when I walked into the room. The young man watched me in the mirror but didn't say a word.

Something seemed off.

Everyone was too quiet.

"Sorry," I mumbled, backing up. "Wrong room."

The young man narrowed his eyes at me in the mirror and then raised a gloved hand and snapped his fingers. The other two men started walking toward me.

"I'm gonna... go..." I said, dropping the dresses and rushing out into the hallway.

I grabbed Mina by the shoulder as I ran through the store. "Mina, go, now" was all I was able to say. Luckily she didn't need much more encouragement and she ran after me.

"Did you steal something?" Mina shouted at me as we ran.

"What? No. I don't know what just happened, but something weird was going on in there," I said after I felt like we had put enough distance between us and the store. I told her about the two men and the strange young man in the mirror. I couldn't shake the eeriness of the whole thing.

"Hey," she said, "it's okay. Let it go. Tonight's going to be awesome. Just focus on that, not those weirdos."

I took a few deep breaths to calm down and reminded myself that nothing had happened. Maybe they had wanted to talk to me or show me where to go. But it definitely hadn't felt like that. It had felt... sinister.

"Ok. You're right. But I still don't have a dress..."

"Come back to the dorm with me. I need to get back anyway. I'm pretty sure I have something that could fit you."

"No, it's okay," I said, thinking of the dresses she had picked out earlier as well as the fact that Endeavor's credit card was still in my wallet. "I'll try one more store and then head back home."

"You sure you're okay?"

I nodded my head.

Mina didn't look convinced. "Well, call me if you need me." She gave me a hug and then headed off. "For real call me!" she yelled back at me as she walked away.

There was only one store I knew of that might have dresses on my way home, so I walked in. No sign of any weird men anywhere that I could see. I breathed a sigh of relief.

I tried on a few dresses – a long silver one, a short red one, a couple all black options. It was tough to focus on anything because my mind kept going back to the man in the dressing room.

What would have happened had I not run away?

I forced myself to try on a couple more dresses and think about something else. Like all of the people I could meet and talk to tonight. All of the top heroes would be there. There were so many possibilities. Starting to feel anxious, my mind drifted to the idea of Shinso in a tux. Was he going tonight? I hadn't heard him mention it.

I took pictures of myself in a few of the sexier ones and texted the pics to Shinso. Immediately I got a reply.

S: Damn. Where are you?

Me: Looking for a new dress for tonight.

S: Have a hot date?

Me: Maybe.

S: Lucky guy.

Me: Lucky and cute, too. He's tall, super smart, and has the fluffiest purple hair. I think he might like me, too. I'm hoping he is going to the hero gala tonight.

S: He might be.

S: I bet this tall guy with purple hair might like the pics more if there were fewer clothes in them.

Me: or if he could help take the dresses off?

S: Now you've got my imagination working...

Me: Guess it will have to just keep working until I see you later.

S: You're killing me.

This kind of attention definitely helped me forget my earlier uneasiness. I giggled and decided to send a couple to Aizawa as well. Surprisingly, no response from him. Oh well. I sent the one of me in the red dress to Katsuki who simply replied with the fire emoji. At least that was something.

I finished trying on a few more dresses, finally deciding on a floor length golden gown that shimmered in the light, with tiny straps, that hugged my body all the way to the floor. I added a necklace, new shoes, and handed that credit card over as fast as I could. 

Tonight was going to be my night.