Binder
Your binder was killing you today. It was usually uncomfortable but you had overdone it the past few days. Besides the typical 9-5 you had to wear your binder for, you also had to account for transport to the office as well as staying late potentially at the office. These last few days you were all working on an important case, and you decided to stay late the past few days to help for a bit, meaning you kept your binder on longer than you typically would. This wasn’t great for your ribs.
You were currently leaning over in your chair, hugging your hands around your chest as you felt lots of pressure and sharp pain in your ribs. You sigh because you know you have overdone it these past few days with your binding.
“Hey kiddo, everything okay?” You heard Foggy ask.
You nod.
Foggy seems skeptical. “Really?”
You don’t want to get into it all so you just nod again.
“Really? Because it Looks to me like you’re in pain.”
You shrug.
Matt- ever the perceptive one adds in “How long have you been binding?”
“Probably too long…” you respond.
Foggy grabs and balls up and then throws the hoodie you now keep in the office at you and it lands on your face. “Go change into this, you don’t want to hurt yourself too much.”
“Yeah, but I don’t want to be perceived without this thing on.” you retort.
Matt shrugs “You need to be safe with that thing. Keeping it on for too long is unsafe for you.”
“Yeah, kiddo. You need to take a break from it- at least until tomorrow. It’s past 5 so you can go home and take it off then if you promise to take it off as soon as you can. Or, you can just go to the bathroom and change out of it if you’d like to keep hanging out with us awesome people. I promise we wouldn’t think of you any differently.” Foggy offers.
“Fine.” you go into the bathroom and change out of your binder, put your shirt back on, and put the hoodie over your head. You want to still keep being useful to the team so you exit and put the discarded clothes in your bag.
“Feel any better now?” Karen asks you.
You nod. “Yeah, thanks, guys. I’m sorry you have to deal with me all the time.”
Matt responds “Don’t be. We’re your friends and we care about your well-being.”
“Yeah man, you’re pretty great and we all care about you” Foggy adds.
You know better than to argue with them so you change the topic back to the case. “Okay, now back to the case, I was thinking-”