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Lance had been peacefully minding his own business, walking down the halls of the Castle of Lions as he repeatedly clicked his tongue inside his mouth.
He’d continued his stroll before coming to a slow pause, noticing the opened door of the Red Paladin’s bedroom. Lance raised a brow as he looked into the room, his gaze searching the space before locking on to a certain black-haired boy who was sprawled out on his stomach against the cold, metallic floor of the castle’s interior, completely topless with both his shirt and binder out of sight. His expression softened at the sight and a vaguely confused, but gentle smile tugged at his lips.
Lance quietly walked over to the raven-head who had his face buried in his crossed arms, presumably pouting about who knows what. He carefully squatted down next to his boyfriend before maneuvering himself so he was sitting crisscrossed on the floor.
“Hey, baby,” The Blue Paladin spoke up in a gentle voice, not wanting to accidentally startle Keith by his approach. Keith initially tensed at the sudden presence next to him, though he quickly relaxed when he realized who it was.
He let out a soft grumble of acknowledgment in response to the greeting, probably the closest thing to a welcome that Lance would get at the moment. “What’re you doing down here?” He asked gently before continuing, “and where are your shirt and binder?”
Again, Keith only grumbled, burying his face further into his arms as he continued lying there, but after a moment of silence he spoke up.
“Don’t want it touching me…” The paladin mumbled out, in his quiet, slightly rough voice, barely loud enough for his boyfriend to understand him. Lance’s expression softened at the words.
“Off day today, huh?” He spoke out gently and Keith nodded. Honestly, the only thing Keith could deal with rubbing against his skin right now was his underwear. Even his pants were bugging him, but they were more manageable than his shirt and binder were. Lance hummed in acknowledgment as his expression softened with the confirmation. Days like these were hard for Keith to manage, especially with his dysphoria while he felt like he couldn’t wear a shirt without wanting to explode.
“Can you at least sit up, love? I don’t want you getting dirty from the floor,” Lance spoke in the same, gentle tone he’d been using since he’d entered the room, even though he didn’t know how long Keith had already been lying on the well-maintained floor of the castle. He didn’t care how clean the castle was kept, there was always risk for infection and illness when your body was exposed.
Keith gave a sound that sounded a mix of somewhere between an irritated huff and a whine. He took a few seconds before reluctantly pushing himself up from the floor, his arms instinctively crossing over his chest to try and conceal it from view as he did so. Right. Now they had to solve the problem about his chest.
Lance let out a soft hum as he let the gears in his head begin to turn while he tried to figure out a solution. His gaze subconsciously wandered the room as he thought. Keith was just leaned up against his bed, staring at an empty corner.
Keith’s room was rather plain, with only his signature cropped jacket in sight on the hook by the door. The observation was a rather saddening one, since everyone else had decorations in their own rooms. But Keith never really had much to decorate with. Maybe he just wasn’t the type of guy to decorate things, plain and simple made it easy to find messes and things that don’t belong, but there weren’t even clothes in obvious spots, it was almost completely empty. It felt, well- empty.
Lance’s gaze ended up locking onto a roll of trans tape tucked neatly into the corner of the makeshift bedside table.
Lance quietly stood up and walked over to grab it, he also grabbed the pack of nipple covers that was laid flat underneath it, as well as the pair of scissors that were there before he walked back over to his boyfriend and sat down once again, grabbing the older male’s attention. He put the items on the floor in front of him before placing his finger on the roll of tape.
“Have you tried your tape yet? If not, then would you? That way you can still bind but won’t have any fabric rubbing against you?” Lance asked his lover with a slight firmness to his tone.
Keith glanced from Lance to the tape under Lance’s finger. He seemed to examine it for a moment before hesitantly reaching out to grab both the tape and the scissors. He cut off a small strip of the tape so he could test how it would feel on his skin.
After applying the small strip of tape to part of his chest and rubbing it down so it would stick better, he ultimately decided that he’d be able to deal with the feeling for the day. He gently peeled off the test strip before cutting four more larger pieces that he would be using to tape his chest out of the way to flatten it. Lance gave a small, triumphant smile as the boy cut more pieces off, glad that he was able to assist his boyfriend in finding a solution to the bad sensory day.
He helped his boyfriend in properly applying the tape to his chest and the rest of the day was spent with the pair and the rest of the team trying to help Keith avoid any other sensory triggers.