ribs (laios touden)
summary: laios comforts you during a difficult time in the dungeon.
reader description: transman/transmasc/ftm reader
warnings: angst with comfort, dysphoria, improper binding techniques
word count: ~1,2k
You were no stranger to dungeons.
There were few luxuries within their cold walls. You would forgo a good night’s rest for days on end, not like there was a soft place for you to lay your head anyways. A warm, hearty meal was even harder to come by as you and other dungeon goers were forced to stock up on nonparishable items that were hardly nutritious in value.
But your luck seemed to change when you joined the Touden party. Its members brought a certain comfort unlike other parties you were part of. Not to mention that a certain dwarf was quite the chef even if the ingredients were quite unorthodox.
Yet traversing the dungeon was still no easy task.
It was almost as if the hallway before the five of you stretched on for an eternity. Your limbs ached, and your feet were sore as the bindings against your chest felt impossibly tight. Every breath caused a twinge of pain to shoot through your ribcage, and the baggage you carried on your back only weighed you down even further.
“How much longer does this go on for?” Marcille cries out as her voice bounces off the walls. Orbs of magical light formed by the half-elf cast long shadows in front of you all, hovering over your heads when you inevitably come to a halt.
Chilchuck stretches his arms over his head with a huff as he glances down both ends of the seemingly neverending hallway.
“Marcille’s right. It’s been hours since we reached this floor, and we’ve gotten nowhere.”
A low sigh falls from your mouth when you shuffle to a stop and shrug off the pack on your back. Laios follows the half-foot’s gaze with a frown tugging at the corners of his lips.
“It looks entirely the same,” the blond murmurs to himself, a hand raising to cover his mouth in thought while he mutters into his palm.
“There’s nowhere else to go, let alone significant markers that indicate a hidden passageway.”
You lean back against the wall with your head gently resting against the cracked stone. The conversation is lost upon your ears as your eyes close and instead try to focus on catching your breath despite the tightly wound fabrics that constrict every movement.
“Is everything alright?”
Your eyelids flutter open at the sound of Laios’ voice, only to find the tall-man a few inches away from you. The others are nowhere to be found, yet a couple of Marcille’s light orbs linger above the two of you.
“Just resting,” you wheeze with a weak smile which seems to satiate him, at least for now.
Laios glances back down the way the group came and adjusts the straps of the bag he’s carrying. Those golden eyes flicker back towards you, almost lingering for a moment too long before he’s looking away again.
“The others have gone ahead, but I’m going to retrace our steps. Will you be okay by yourself?”
You nod and give a nonchalant wave of your hand in response.
“Go ahead. I’ll be here.”
He turns on his heel before disappearing down the hallway with one of the balls of light following alongside him, now leaving you alone. You slump back against the wall before sinking down to the ground, and you wince at the pressure in your ribs that only seems to grow even as you’re sitting still.
Your gaze turns towards the direction where Laios wandered off. He would no doubt take some time in exploring the way you all once came, and there was no telling how much longer the others would be.
It’s then that you peel off your armor, the metal clinking against the cobblestone floor when you gingerly place each piece to the side. The chestpiece is pulled off, revealing the loose shirt you’re wearing underneath before your hands slip underneath the loose material. Fingers graze along the linens that are wrapped snugly around your chest with the skin beneath the material no doubt bruised and raw from how long they’ve rubbed against the tender flesh.
A thumb and forefinger pick at the edge of the cloth, threatening to pull the bindings loose for an ounce of relief. You’re so focused on the temptation of tugging the cloth off that you don’t hear the footsteps approaching the spot where you’re sitting.
That all too familiar voice reaches your ears in a quiet call of your name and causes you to practically leap off the floor before you’re scrambling for your armor.
“Laios!” you exclaim as you hold the breastplate in front of yourself, but all he does is slowly blink down at you in response. He lingers in front of you, silent while you frantically slip the armor back on.
You wait for him to yell, for the confrontation now that he’s discovered your secret. You expect him to call you a liar, and the tears have already begun to swell in your eyes now that the image you’ve created for yourself has started to crumble right before you.
But that moment never comes. Laios simply stares at you, eyes swirling with something akin to curiosity.
“I think that’s the first time I’ve seen you without your armor.”
It was your turn to stare at him this time, and you watch when Laios steps closer to sit down beside you. The realization settles upon you too because he’s right. From the moment you joined the party, you refused to be seen without it even as you slept. And you made it a point further to go by yourself when the rare opportunity arose to bathe or clean yourself. You knew the others questioned your secrecy, but you’d heard Marcille murmur about you simply being modest. And it has worked for you.
That is, until now.
You suck in a breath, but Laios doesn’t say anything else. The metal of his own armor rattles against the stone wall when he reclines backwards, and you take the silence as a means to speak up.
“You’re not going to tell anyone else, are you?” you finally ask, voice low and worried with a fear that you don’t feel when fighting against the enemies that can be found within the dungeons. Laios quickly shakes his head as you watch him from the corner of your eye, and it has you releasing the breath you weren’t even aware that you were holding.
“You have my word that I won’t say a single thing!”
Silence fills the air between the two of you once more before the blond shifts at your side.
“But if you ever did tell the rest of the party,” Laios grunts while he pulls himself to his feet, “I know that it wouldn’t make them see you any differently.”
You look up at him as he extends a hand out to you, and his lips curl upward into a handsome, boyish grin. And at that moment, you don’t feel like a fraud. You feel truly seen, and you began to wonder why you bothered hiding in the first place. So, you smile back and take his hand before he hoists you up.
“Come on, let’s catch up with the others.”
Makes my trans masc heart incredibly happy ^_^
