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keith stares at the shower and his frown deepens.
the water’s running, his soaps are lined up on the wall, and he’s ready to finally be clean again. the only problem is that he can’t get his bandages off on his own. sure, he’d told lance he’d be okay, that he could shower by himself even though he’d only been up and about for a few days. he’s keith kogane, he doesn’t need anybody to help him shower.
only now, actually looking at the shower and then down at his chest, keith realises that maybe he can’t do this by himself.
keith lets out a frustrated sound somewhere between a grunt and a sigh and turns off the shower. he gathers up his toiletries and pulls his pants back on (which takes about two minutes because it hurts, damn-it), and leaves the shower room still as dirty as he was when he went in.
carrying his bag of toiletries is hard, too. keith can’t pick up anything that weighs more than about two pounds without wincing, and a bag of four different kinds of soaps is definitely more than two pounds. if keith had it his way, he’d only have one bottle of soap, but lance insists that he has specific soaps for everything. damn lance and his stupid skincare obsession, making keith deal with his acne and oily skin.
he gets halfway to his room (which is hard because boy do keith’s sides hurt) before he has to stop and sit down, back against the wall. keith plans to just rest for a few minutes and then complete the trek to his room, hopefully without being seen by anyone. then he can attempt to wash his hair in his sink.
after a few minutes pass, keith stands back up (which is hard when he can’t use his arms to push himself off of the floor) and starts walking again, trying to find the easiest way to carry his bag.
when he rounds the corner to the hallway with his room, keith quite literally bumps into shiro.
“woah, hey, sorry!” shiro rests a hand gently on keith’s shoulder to steady him. then his eyes trail down to where keith’s gripping the bag with both hands awkwardly. “can you manage that on your own?”
“yes,” keith grumbles. “i’m fine.” he shrugs off shiro’s shoulder, wincing at the motion. “i’m fine,” he insists.
shiro looks at him uncertainly, then smiles. “if you say so. you should try to shower, if you can. they said you’re good to bathe after a few days as long as you don’t soak, right?”
“yeah,” keith says. “yeah, no. i’ll just stick to washing my hair in my sink; it’s easier.”
shiro frowns. “keith, you can’t just not shower.”
“yeah, but i literally can’t,” keith says. “i literally cannot shower.” his voice breaks on the last syllable.
shiro hears it and picks up on what’s happening right away, like the brother that he is, and immediately tries to figure out why keith’s so upset. “did something happen in the shower room? is someone-” he breaks off. “keith, if someone on the team isn’t-”
“no!” keith interrupts. “nobody’s- everyone’s fine. they’re not- i’m-” he takes a shaky breath. “the problem is me.”
“keith,” shiro says quietly. “you’re not a problem.”
and then keith breaks. “yeah, i am. i can’t do anything by myself; i can’t adjust the showerhead because when i reach my arms up it tugs on the drains and it hurts so bad, and i can’t change my bandages or take them off because i can’t reach around myself without pulling on my chest, and i can’t even carry my soap because it’s too heavy and it hurts. i can’t do anything, shiro. i have to rely on people to do stupid, easy things for me. w-what if something happens and we have to form voltron? i can’t even fly right now! like this, i’m nothing but a burden-”
shiro grips keith’s shoulders with his hands tightly. “keith, stop. you are anything but a burden, understand? i would be glad to help you do things, no questions asked, and i know everyone else feels the same. we just want you to be comfortable, and safe, and happy. are you happier like this?”
keith looks down, at the bandages around his chest, and thinks about when lance changed them for the first time, how he’d looked in the mirror with those twin scars. “yes.”
“then that’s all that matters.”
keith doesn’t look up, just stares at his shoes and calms his breathing because it would hurt so, so bad to cry like this. when he has his breathing under control, he steps forward and lets shiro hug him close, for once not feeling dysphoric about his height.
when they step apart, keith is able to look shiro in the eyes again. there’s still a lump in his throat, but he’s not crying, so that’s good. he’d like to save the crying for when it won’t feel like his sides and chest are being ripped apart.
“do you need help showering?” keith breaks eye contact when he nods, still feeling a little ashamed. “do you want me to as lance?”
keith thinks for a moment, then says, “i just need someone to take off my bandages and fix the showerhead; i trust you.”
shiro blinks. “are you sure?”
“yeah,” keith says. “thank you.”
“it’s no problem,” shiro says, and smiles. then he takes keith’s bag of soaps from him. “lead the way; let’s get you cleaned up.”