Ocean Blue

Chapter 21

"Oh, Keith."

Keith shrugged, hissing in pain as he did so. "It's not- it's not that bad."

Allura poked him in the ribs, and he paled. "Tell that to me again. Keith, you can't do this to yourself!"

She examined his right arm carefully, wincing at the damage. His whole arm was mottled with purple, blue, green and red bruises that started at his fingertips and marched up to the base of his neck. The shoulder itself was the worst, and was slightly deformed. Allura took ahold of the shoulder under the pretense of examining it and then quickly shoved it back into place.

Keith yelled, and his left fist came careening towards Allura. She caught it in her hand and guided it back to his side.

"Coran?"

A sling dropped down next to her, and she nestled Keith's arm in it, tying it around his neck. He tugged at it distastefully. "What's this for?"

"It's so you won't destroy your arm again. Leave it alone. You're to wear it all of the time except in bed.

"What?!"

"You're not to strain your arm. You're not to fight, and you're not to do anything strenuous."

"But—"

"Shiro's backing me up on this," Allura cut in over him, "So don't argue. Let's take a look at your ribs."

"You can already see them. They're just bruised."

"Mmm. Breathe in."

"What? Why?"

"Just take a deep breath in!"

He did, or tried to, but stopped with a wince. "Good enough?"

"Can't you breathe deeper than that?"

"No."

"I think that you can."

"Well, I can't!"

"Okay. Twist your torso to the side." Allura demonstrated. "Don't ask questions, just do it."

Keith started to twist to the side, then stopped, hissing. "How did you do that?"

"It's easy, Keith. Try again."

Keith tried again, and again he stopped with a hiss. "I can't. How can you do it without getting hurt?!"

"I think that your ribs are broken."

"What?! I don't have time for broken ribs!"

"Well, you'll have to make time. I'm assigning you one week of bed rest, and then you'll have to take it easy for another five weeks. No physical exertion. That should do it for the shoulder, too."

"Fine."

"And Keith? If I catch you sneaking about doing strenuous activities? You'll be on bed rest with a guard for five weeks."

Keith grunted unhappily. "Fine. Did you get my sword?"

Allura nodded. "We did. But you aren't getting it back until you're rested and you've had time to heal."

Another unhappy grunt.

Allura hesitated, and then sat down next to him on the bed. "I'm glad we got you back."

"I am too."

"Back there, Lance... he brought up a good point. You disobeyed orders, and it nearly got you killed."

"I didn't want to, Allura! I didn't have a choice! Zarkon was coming down the hallway and—"

"Zarkon?! What do you mean, Zarkon was coming down the hallway?!"