Affirmation

Loud pop music pumped through the packed streets of Roselake, doing its best to be heard over the crowds of people decked out in their loudest outfits. Pride was in full swing, gripping the usually laid-back town in its glittery grip for its annual weekend festival. Everywhere you looked was glamor, and color. Which made it easy to miss the short man wearing a bulky, black hoodie in the middle of summer. Not that Logan wanted to draw any kind of attention to himself. He kept his head down, sticking to the backstreets, and weaving through the throngs of people cheering on the drag act up on stage. Finally, he ducked around a corner towards the shopping plaza. About a dozen stalls were set up selling handcrafted merch, and providing help and advice for anyone interested. Still, he stuck to the covers until he finally stepped into the air-conditioned paradise that was his destination; Costume Plaza.

Almost immediately, Logan was caught off-guard by how quiet it was. Especially compared to the noise outside. He was expecting dozens of people looking for something to wear. In fact, he didn't see another customer at all. The only other person inside was a bored employee with his feet propped up on the counter, head in a book.

Logan gulped, thinking of leaving entirely. But he had to hold his ground. This was his only opportunity, all he had to do was ask... He shuffled up to the counter, and waited for the guy to notice him. He was a homely lad, with longish hair and a patchy beard. He had no name tag, but there was an ace flag sticker stuck to his shirt pocket. Logan found himself unconsciously scratching his own, beardless cheeks. He sighed, and finally gathered his courage. "Excuse me," he blurted, his voice catching in his throat at the last minute. He really hated being the center of attention, especially in current times. The quicker he could get through this interaction, the better. "Are you still open?"

"Mhm?" The guy looked up from his book, disgruntled by the interruption. "Of course we are."

"Uhm, sorry..." Logan gulped, embarrassed by the minor issue. "It's just so quiet. I thought you'd be jam-packed today, what with Pride and all."

"Anyone who needed a costume for Pride bought theirs in advance."

"Oh, right. Of course. Silly me..." Logan chuckled nervously. The man cocked an eyebrow, questioning whether he should get back to his book, until Logan dug his phone out from his pocket. He scrambled with his apps, saying aloud, "uh, I received this weird email the other day, and, you know, wanted to know more details...? Aha!" He found the email in his saved folders, and flipped his phone round to the employee.

The man took his phone, and mumble-read the contents to himself, before handing it back with a nod. "Right, the Pride Promo. I suppose they're targeting that stuff, huh. Feels like an invasion of privacy to me. But what do I know..."

"Cookies, and trackers, I guess... Heh..."

"Right. So I suppose you're here for the gender affirming promo?" He gave Logan a look up and down, a judgemental one-two that he always hated to encounter. He looked away, his cheeks burning red, until the employee merely gave him a short "Cool," before stepping out from behind the counter. He walked over to a sheltered section of the store, and rattled off the details. "So you can choose any costume you like from this part of the store. You then have to try on the costume before you leave, obviously, and I'll have some paperwork for you to sign. Legal mumbo jumbo so you don't sue us if things aren't to your liking. And finally, we'll waiver the permanence fee, free of charge."

Logan nodded, trying to hold back his excitement. Costume Plaza had a reputation for charging exuberant fines for anyone trying to keep their costumes to themselves. Enchanted clothing wasn't cheap, apparently. So to basically remove that fine was a deal of a lifetime. This wasn't his first time using Costume Plaza. In fact, it was a costume mix-up that gave Logan the epiphany that he may actually be a man. In hindsight, there were other signs when he was growing up. His hatred of make-up and dolls, not wanting long hair, the desire to pee standing up. His mom always called him a tomboy, and he clung to that title with pride. But the day he accidentally ordered a male costume for a party, that sudden epiphany hit him hard. Since then, he'd rented a costume semi-regularly. The cheapest costume he could muster, just so he could exist as a man outside and in for a day. He'd been old, young, short, tall, smooth, hairy. Always masculine, always a man. Every single costume had felt familiar, and like home. Then he would return to his old, feminine body, and feel cold. It was never enough, and the dysphoria he felt when returning to his normal self hit harder every time.

Eager to get it over and done with, Logan skimmed through the rack until he found a nice looking suit, and dug out the price tag. His stomach dropped. "How much!?" he cried upon seeing the four digit price tag. "There has to be a mistake! I can rent a suit like this from the online store for, like, twenty bucks!"

The man merely shrugged. "This is the premium stuff. You can't expect the store to give this stuff away, we're not running a charity," he declared. "If it makes you feel better, it's like ten times cheaper than the permanence fee. And, if you think about it, far cheaper than surgery."

"That doesn't mean I can afford it, though..." Logan sighed. His dreams of finally having a body he was comfortable with were dashed as quickly as they'd appeared... A costume worth thousands would definitely put him deep into debt. Even with the money he'd saved up with his crappy coffee barista gig, it'd take him years to afford such a lofty goal. But he couldn't give up now, he was so close! He flipped through the rail of clothes, first checking the costumes that took his fancy, gulping at the steep price, and moving onto the next one. This quickly dove into checking every single male-presenting costume for the cheapest option he could muster.

When he was just about to give up, Logan's hand landed on an outlying price tag. It was more than half the price of everything else he'd seen. It still a little pricey. But it was 'flight to Europe' expensive instead of 'six months rent' expensive. He pulled it off the shelf, and almost immediately cringed. It was barely even a costume, more an amalgam of leather accessories. No wonder it was so cheap, there was almost nothing to it!

Logan held onto the hanger tight, rapidly firing through the racks to find something, anything, more appropriate. But alas, there wasn't a single costume that came close to being as cheap as the leather ensemble. It was his only option. But it still gave him pause. It was so...revealing... He'd be showing off so much skin. And given how he was wearing a hoodie & jeans in triple digit weather, that wasn't something he was comfortable with. Logan glanced around, embarrassed to even be holding something so outwardly kinky. He was still the only one in the store, but what if his friends were passing by and looked in the window? What if his boss happened to enter, and saw him clutching all that leather? He'd never live it down! No, he shook his head. He couldn't keep doing this to himself. Letting his anxiety get the better of him. Not when it was ruining his chance at happiness!

Logan glanced towards the changing rooms, his head swimming as his legs guided him towards an open room. He was really doing it. He had to. He couldn't keep hiding away like this, he wanted to be free to be himself, to be happy with himself. He took a deep breath, turned his back away from the mirror, and began to strip down until most of his clothes were on the floor. He stared down at his diminuitive frame, his heart pounding. With shaky hands, he reached up and unstrapped the binder that had helped him all those months, letting it hit the ground with a light thud. Then he grabbed the leather off of its hanger. Arm bands. Wristbands. Hat. Those were the easy parts. He struggled with the odd jockstrap - chaps combo that clearly swamped him. The boots weren't any better. Finally, with tears in his eyes, he pulled the ill-fitting chest harness down over his breasts as best as he could. He suppressed a sob, he looked ridiculous. A puddle of leather on his unwelcome, feminine frame. But thankfully, it wouldn't stay that way for long.

With every piece of the costume in place, Logan could finally feel the magic swimming through him, the familiar lapping up and down his body in warm waves. He shut his eyes, and winced in preparation for what was next. A sudden sense of vertigo overcame him, as his tiny body suddenly stretched up toward the ceiling. The leather chaps creaking slightly as they no longer scrunched up around his ankles. He wiggled his toes as his feet inched forward to fill his big boots. His whole body pumped and slightly ached as his slender form filled up with muscle. His torso widening, and losing its womanly curves. The arm bands getting tight against his emerging biceps. His harness slowly yet surely sliding into place as his breasts dimished in size, the fat dissolving away. A literal weight off his shoulders. Logan finally cracked a smile, and opened his eyes. His cumbersome breasts were a thing of the past, until his chest thrust out further once more, this time thickening up with tight muscle. He was already overcome by how masculine he looked, and he was still changing!

A familiar itch overtook him as thousands of hairs began to break out across his body, his arm hair thickening up, his new pecs getting a healthy dusting. A dense stubble scratched across his cheeks, growing denser around his chin and lips. And a small treasure trail slid down his belly button to his crotch. That trail appeared to ignite a new feeling within himself. He groaned slightly, his voice deepening with each utterance, as he felt his organs rearranging themselves. There was an almost overwhelming sense of arousal as his sexual organs pushed outwards, reforming into a pink-headed cock, and a scrotum brimming with two hefty balls, each continuing to grow and fill up his jockstrap with a sizable bulge. His round jawline broadened, and squared off into a solid, angular chin that finally signalled the end.

Logan fell to the floor, panting. The transformation had taken a lot out of him. But what he got from it was nothing less than incredible. He gazed at the leather-bound man in the mirror before him, a little dissociated from his reflection. That was him. That handsome, hairy, stud was actually him! He rubbed a hand across his chest, feeling the hairs that sprouted across them. His chest was admittedly still large, yet it felt so different from his heavy breasts. There was no softness to their size at all. A grab and squeeze confirmed it was all muscle, tight and hard to the touch. Those wretched breasts were finally gone. He chuckled to himself, a rich baritone that made his heart leap with joy. No amount of vocal exercises would have gifted him such a hearty voice. He stood up to his full height with a grin. No level of surgery could ever make him this tall. 

Speaking of which, Logan reached down to his crotch and rubbed his newly born genitals through the leather. His fingers fumbled with the jockstrap, finding a small opening that allowed him complete access. He growled in pleasure as his cock and balls spilled out. To think this was actually his. No more pussy. No more periods, he thought with resounding relief. He couldn't help but give it a good rub, his warm meat growing hard within his palm at the very sight of the man he had become. That short, petite, feminine body he was once cursed with was all but gone. In its place was a broad, strapping young man. Tears dripped down his cheeks again, but he wasn't upset. He was happy. All those years of hiding himself from others, from himself. But no more. He had a body to be proud of, because he was finally a man in both body and mind.

 

As he dwelled on his new position in life, Logan couldn't help but fondle with his penis some more, giving it a good stroke. He really shouldn't, he thought. But that was the old him, the cowardly him. He was a new man, with a new outlook on life. His grip on his cock tightened, his pace growing rapid until he grunted and howled. His knees buckled as he shot a thick, ropey load of cum directly into the mirror. He panted, and leaned against the wall with euphoria. His first ejaculation, but not his last. Because he was a man. There was a time he didn't know it, and a time where he didn't accept it. But that was all in the past, because here and now, he was a man. All of that cowardice, and timidness, and frailty had been thrown out the door. He was confident, brash, cocky, and ready to go out into the world to show it all off. He picked up his old clothes, using them to wipe the semen off of the mirror, before dumping them in a trash can on his way out of the changing rooms.

As Logan saunted back to the main desk, the store employee almost sensed his masculine presence. He looked up from his book, and did a double take before whistling. "Damn!" He declared. "Talk about a glow-up!"

"Damn right it is," Logan growled. "Look at me, so sexy that even the asexual's noticing."

"Cool it meathead, I can be ace and still tell when someone is good-looking." The employee sighed. Logan knew he was insulting him, but he couldn't help but push his chest out in pride. He was a meathead! "Now the boring part," the guy continued, tapping the pile of paperwork next to him.

Within minutes, Logan stood at the store entrance once more, several hundred dollars lighter. He'd have to budget for the next year, maybe even get a second job. But it was worth every cent.To think he almost didn't go through with it because of his revealing costume. And now, he couldn't wait to reveal his masculine body to the world. Logan stepped out into the sun with a cocky grin. He looked around the plaza, and all eyes were on him and his leather. Just as they should be, he thought. He strode straight into the crowds with newfound confidence, eager to finally be the man he always knew he could be.