Chapter Text
The mine is just as gloomy inside as Lance remembers. The torches really don’t do enough to get rid of the lingering darkness. Instinctively, he takes Keith’s hand in his as they make their descent. The Galra working at the front of the mine had been a Blade member and had swiftly waved Keith and Lance in. Krolia, along with the several other Blades that had accompanied them had spread out, finding their posts to prepare for the riot.
Keith had taken hours to memorize the map before arrival. He had told Lance that he wanted to know where he was at all times. He didn’t want to feel lost in here again.
“This way.” Keith mutters, swinging to the left, “This will take us to the main mine. Then we can find Chi and the others.”
Lance can tell that there’s lingering stress in Keith’s shoulders. He’s still scared that not all of them will be there, and honestly Lance is too. He has no idea what it will mean for Keith if they’re not all alive. He does know that Keith will blame himself for it. He will blame himself for not coming back sooner.
Lance really hopes that they’re all okay.
The corridor they’re in opens into an enormous cavern filled with people. The noise in here is almost unbearably loud, the sound of machines and people chipping away at the rock with pickaxes. Keith navigates smoothly through the throngs of people and Lance easily follows. They’re careful to stay away from any sentries just in case it’s not a Blade operative. After nearly ten minutes of weaving through the cavern, Keith drops Lance’s hand and rushes to a group of people.
“Chi!”
An older man who looks to be in his late sixties turns at the sound. His eyes grow wide and he drops his pickaxe to gather Keith into a hug.
“Keith!”
The other people in the group quickly gather around him, obscuring him from Lance’s view. They’re all talking at once, overlapping on each other.
“You’re here!”
“We thought you died!”
“You’re alive!”
Keith pulls back from Chi and Lance can tell that he’s doing a mental headcount, glancing at each person in turn, before his face falls. Lance’s heart sinks.
“Where’s Liv?” He asks, his voice almost too quiet to be heard over the din.
A young man, around their age steps forward, “She’s in the dying rooms.” He says, his voice quavering.
“They took her there yesterday.” Another man says, his voice laced with a thick accent.
Lance sees the fire in Keith’s eyes as he straightens. Lance’s heart swells with love for this man, and his determination to protect the people he cares about.
“We’ll have to go get her then.” He replies, “I was in those rooms for nearly three days before I-” He falters, and Lance steps forwards.
“Before we got him out.”
“You saved him?” The young man asks, and Lance shrugs.
“His mom did most of the work, I just tagged along.”
Lance sees Keith open his mouth to protest, to tell Lance that he was a fundamental part of the rescue, but he doesn’t get that far. An explosion rocks the room, throwing Lance off his feet. Rubble rains down around him and Lance has to move quickly to avoid getting caught. He sees the young man flash him a wicked grin.
“I guess it’s time to revolt!” He cries as a second explosion rocks the room.
Keith had rolled effortlessly away from the rubble, nearly knocking Daan off his feet as he went.
“Guess that’s the signal.” Daan says, grabbing his pickaxe.
“I’ll go get Liv.” Keith says, “And meet you guys out front.’
Daan nods, and behind him Keith can see Chi and Kassy reaching for their pickaxes as well. He hopes the others are okay as well, but he doesn’t give himself time to worry. He has to get out of here and get Liv out safely.
He casts a desperate glance around for Lance. He’ll go without him if he needs to, but he’d really prefer to have his partner by his side. Fortunately he sees Lance waving him over.
“Keith!” He calls and Keith bolts to his side.
“Okay,” Keith says, stumbling as a second explosion rocks the room, “If we go back the way we came, we’ll have a straight shot to the dying rooms.”
“I’ll follow your lead.” Lance says, and Keith turns to bolt back down the way they came. Once they reach the corridor again, Keith runs to the right, deeper into the mine.
Liv has only been in the dying rooms for one day, so there’s a high possibility that she’s still alive. There’s several reasons they stick people in the dying rooms. They get too old, they get sick, or they get too injured to keep working. Keith had been an exception. He had been placed into the dying rooms because he was literally on the verge of death.
Two lefts and another right and they’re almost there. Keith knows that there shouldn’t be any sentries down this way, but he still clutches his blade tightly, just in case. It’s eerily quiet in this part of the mine, compared to the noise and chaos raging in the main cavern, so it’s immediately clear when Lance isn’t following him anymore.
“Lance?” Keith turns and is met with Lance’s concerned stare.
“Sorry,” He says, “I just… I’m nervous.”
In two steps, Keith has Lance pulled into a hug. He should’ve known that going to the dying rooms would be hard on Lance. That’s what the majority of his nightmares are about, and Keith can’t imagine how traumatizing it must have been to have to look through all the rooms until he found Keith. Only to find out he was too late.
“I can go on alone,” He says, “If you don’t think you can handle going back there.”
“Can you?” Lance mutters, one of his hands gently brushing along Keith’s neck.
Keith opens his mouth to answer but his words are stopped by the press of cold metal on his neck and a sharp click. Lance forcefully steps out of the embrace as Keith’s hands fly to his neck.
The collar. Lance put the collar back on him.
Lance is…
...not Lance.
He can’t breathe.
“Let’s finish this, shall we?” The shape-shifter says, shooting him a cocky smirk.
Lance is panicking. After the second explosion he hadn’t been able to find Keith anywhere. It was only after the human with the thick accent asked him why he’d come back that Lance realized what had happened.
The shape-shifter had left with Keith.
Lance races through the corridors, silently thanking Keith for making him memorize the map. He desperately hopes that they’d headed in the direction of the dying rooms, or else he’d have no idea where to look. He couldn’t let Keith get captured again, he couldn’t lose him again. He couldn’t.
And then Lance hears it. It is a cry that is unmistakably Keith’s.
And unmistakably in pain.
He sprints as fast as he can, grabbing the wall to swing himself around the corner faster. They’re about halfway down the hallway, the shifter is still wearing his face and towering menacingly over Keith.
“They were not pleased when you got away.” The shifter is saying, “Blamed me for it. But I’ll have my revenge.”
Lance raises his blaster, aiming for the shifter’s back. It’s a killing shot, but he honestly couldn’t care less. He takes a moment to line everything up, and he’s about to pull the trigger when the shifter moves faster than he ever thought possible.
“ Tsk tsk ,” The shifter says. It’s holding Keith in one arm, and using the other to press a small pistol to Keith’s temple.
“Take one more step, and I’ll blow his brains out.”
Lance clenches his jaw, but he doesn’t move. He’s a good enough shot that he could still hit the shifter, but it would kill Keith before Lance’s shot could hit.
“Now lower the gun.” The shifter says. It speaks as if it’s talking to a small child.
Lance meets Keith’s eyes, and slowly lowers the gun.
“Good.” The shifter says, and Lance almost raises the gun again at the condescending tone of voice, “Now put it on the ground and kick it over here.”
Glowering, Lance complies. He never thought he’d hate looking at himself so much, seeing the shifter wear his own face causes Lance’s inside to boil with rage.
“So obedient,” The shifter says, tightening it’s hold on Keith. Lance notices that there’s a metal collar clamped around his neck, the same one that the salve all had. No wonder Keith isn’t trying harder to fight back. He’s in just as rough a spot as Lance.
The shifter lowers the pistol for a brief moment in order to toss an object to Lance. It thuds on the ground in front of him, and he realizes that they’re handcuffs.
“Do us all a favour and cuff yourself to that pillar over there.” The shifter says, returning the pistol to Keith’s temple. Lance just stares incredulously. Seriously? This low-life scum expected him to cuff himself to a pillar?
“Now.” The shifter growls, placing a finger on the trigger.
They’re in a bind. If Keith tries to fight back, the shifter will electrocute him with the collar. If Lance tries to fight back, the shifter will kill Keith. Lance doesn’t exactly trust that his strange Altean powers will work twice in bringing Keith back. He has a feeling it was more of a one-time thing. And so, glowering at the shifter the entire time, Lance picks up the cuffs and walks over to the pillar. Before he cuffs himself, he reaches up to his ear, making it look like he’s scratching it. He quickly presses the button of the comm in his ear, before lowering his hand and activating the cuffs.
He has an unpleasant flashback of being cuffed to a tree by Nyma. At least then, his and Keith’s lives hadn’t really been at stake.
“Now what are you planning to do, now that you’ve captured Keith and have me trapped?” He says, and he almost slumps in relief when he hears a number of Blades reply.
The shifter raises an eyebrow, finally finally dropping the pistol from Keith’s temple.
“This.” It says, and it hits a button on a cuff around it’s wrist.
Keith’s answering cry of pain brings tears to Lance’s eyes as he watches his boyfriend slump to the ground. He can see the white bolts of electricity arcing through Keith’s body and he writhes in pain. The shifter grins maliciously for several moments before hitting the button again. Keith’s body goes limp, his head lolling to the side. Lance panics for a moment before he sees Keith’s chest rise and fall. He’s not dead, just unconscious.
There’s Blade chatter in his ear, but Lance doesn’t dare reply.
“Any moment now, the Galra are going to blow this sector of the mine into smithereens.” The shifter says, stepping over Keith’s prone body, “And when they do, I will be happily on my way out the mine with him and a lovely story concocted about how I rescued him from the evil shape-shifter. He will wake, and he’ll be none the wiser about where the real Lance is.”
“He’ll know it isn’t me.” Lance growls.
“Oh really?” The shifter says, “Because I’ve fooled him twice now, I think I can do it again. You’re really not that hard to pretend to be. All I have to do is be all mushy and romantic with him and he’ll never suspect a thing.”
Lance snorts. Keith knows him better than he knows himself. He’d never fall for it.
But of course, by then it’ll be too late. Lance just has to hope the Blade will get here in time.
“Oh I think he will. And who knows, maybe I’ll decide to live out the rest of my life with him.” The shifter adopts a sly smirk, “If he’s as good in bed as he is at kissing then I guess he’s worth keeping around.”
If Lance’s hands weren’t cuffed he would’ve throttled the shifter. He resorts to trying to kick it. The shifter easily dodges his attempt and places a hand on Lance’s shoulder, it’s eyes going white. Lance lets out a small cry as a sharp pain trills through his head. It feels almost as if someone is poking his brain with a white hot knife.
“Cool trick huh?” The shifter says, removing its hand from Lance’s shoulder, “Now I can really play a convincing version of you.”
“What did you-” Lance gasps, still reeling from the hot knife sensation.
“I just took a stroll through your memories, all the parts that make you… well you.”
Lance’s stomach drops in fear. If this shifter has his memories, it can become him and Keith might not ever know the difference. But Keith would know, wouldn’t he? At the very least, he should feel the intense pain again when Lance eventually died down here. Then he would know that his soulmate was dead. If it even works that way anymore. Lance had already died once, would Keith know it if he died again?
The shifters smile is nothing short of evil when it says, “You love him so much don’t you? I might come to love him too, one day. Or maybe not, maybe I’ll break up with him and leave him in the dust. He’s too strong willed for my tastes although that could make things interesting when we-”
The shifter’s eyes go wide as a shot rings out through the room. Lance follows it’s gaze to it’s chest, where blue blood is soaking through it’s shirt at an alarming rate. It stumbles backwards and falls to the floor, finally shifting out of Lance’s body and back into what he can only assume is its natural form. A strange reptilian-like creature.
Lance looks up and locks eyes with Keith, who is on his knees and holding Lance’s still-smoking blaster.
For a moment, all is silent save for the shifter gurgling out its last breaths.
“Lance!” Krolia’s voice registers through his comms, followed shortly by Kolivan.
“Status update.” He barks.
“We’re okay.” Lance replies, as Keith shakily gets to his feet, “The shifter had us for a second there, but it's been… ah… neutralized.”
“Alright, well get out of there as soon as possible.” Krolia responds, “That sector is about to blow.”
“No can do.” Keith’s voice comes through on the comms as he reaches Lance and begins fiddling with the cuffs. His hands are shaking badly.
“We have to get to the dying rooms.” He continues.
“Already on it.” Kolivan replies, “We’re extracting prisoners as we speak.”
“Liv?” Keith says, panic colouring his voice, “A blonde human, would be around Pidge’s age.”
“Yes, we’ve got her.” Krolia replies. The handcuffs finally snap free and Lance wastes no time in pulling Keith in close.
“Noted. We’re on our way out.” Lance says, then he turns off his comm. Keith does the same.
“Are you okay?” Keith asks, his voice small.
“Yes, are you? It looked like the shifter hit you pretty hard.”
Keith grimaces, “I have a higher pain threshold than it thought. I played it up though, made it seem like I was out.”
Lance can’t help it. He kisses Keith, hard. Keith responds in kind. It’s not the best kiss, messy and uncoordinated, but Lance doesn’t care because Keith is alive, and he’s alive and they’re going to make it out okay.
They don’t linger, heeding Krolia and Kolivan’s warning. So hand in hand they run back to where they came from.
They don’t make it before the explosions.
There’s an awful ringing in his ears, and Lance feels like his head is going to split open. Groaning, he opens his eyes, only to be met with darkness. He can taste blood and soot in his mouth, and he feels the soot coating his throat making it difficult to breathe. He tries to sit up, but his head slams into something hard.
Don’t panic . He tells himself, assess the situation and don’t panic.
He gently tries to move other parts of his body and finds that there is a slab of rock roughly ten inches above him. He’s on his back, and his left wrist is pinned under more rock. There’s a shooting pain when he tries to move it, so Lance fears it might be broken. On his right side, he can feel Keith’s body pressed in close to his own. From what he can tell, Keith is on his stomach, and he’s still out cold. Lance can feel his breath puffing against his neck, the steadiness of it easing Lance’s anxiety.
“Keith?” He whispers. He tries to move his right arm, but it’s pinned under Keith.
“Babe, I need you to wake up.” He says, louder this time. He shakes his pinned arm, jostling Keith, and heaves a sigh of relief when Keith groans in response. It takes several moments for him to wake, but when he does, his body goes taut and his breathing stops.
Of course, it’s pitch black.
“Keith,” Lance says, and Keith inhales sharply, “It’s me okay, it’s Lance.” But his words seem to have no effect. Keith is taking several short, quick breaths, his chest heaving up and down.
Lance closes his eyes and concentrates as hard as he can. He’s never been very successful in making his Altean marks glow on demand, but he hopes beyond hope that they will work this time. He sends a prayer to Allura for her help. After what seems like an eternity, he feels the telltale tingle in his cheeks.
He snaps his eyes open to see that their small space is bathed in a soft blue glow. Keith’s face is scrunched up and his eyes are tightly closed.
“Keith, love, look at me.” Lance says, “Please.”
Slowly, Keith peels his eyes open and stares in fascination at the glowing marks on Lance’s cheeks.
“Lance.” He whispers, and his voice sounds so small and so broken.
“Hey.” Lance whispers back, “My arm is pinned kinda awkwardly could you-?”
“Huh? Oh… oh yeah.” Keith raises his body, but Lance doesn’t pull it free. Instead he stretches it out and pulls Keith closer by the waist. Keith’s left arm wraps around Lance’s waist as well. They’re close enough now that Lance can bump their noses together gently.
“Are you okay? Anything injured?” Lance asks.
“I don’t think so. You?”
“My left wrist is pinned, but other than that I’m okay.”
Keith breathes a sigh of relief, “Good.”
They’re both silent for a moment, then Keith releases Lance’s waist and brings his hand up to his ear.
“Hello?” He says, “Krolia? Kolivan? Anyone?” He pauses, and then drops his hand with a frustrated grunt, “Nothing but static.”
“It’ll be okay,” Lance says to reassure himself just as much as Keith, “They know that we were down here, they’ll find us.”
Keith sighs again, his breath gently fanning across Lance’s face. Lance presses a soft kiss to his nose.
“Shoulda brought Kosmo huh?” That earns him a chuckle.
“Seems like every time I don’t bring Kosmo, the mission ends in disaster. First I get captured and sold into slavery, and now we’re buried under who knows how much rubble.”
“Lesson learned. Take Kosmo everywhere.”
“How much air do you think we’ll get down here?” Keith mutters. Lance stills. He hadn’t thought about that, but now the idea causes his heart to race. What if the Blade doesn’t find him and Keith in time and they both suffocate in the dark and buried under rubble? What if one of them dies first and the other has to live their last moments in excruciating pain before also suffocating?
“Hey, hey Lance, sweetheart.” Keith places a hand on his cheek, thumb brushing slightly over the glowing mark there, “Don’t panic, it’ll be fine. Like you said, they know that we’re down here. Now breathe with me okay.”
Lance takes several moments and matches his breathing to Keiths. Slow and steady. In and out.
“If one of us dies-” Keith makes a noise of protest, but Lance cuts him off, “If one of us dies, do you think we’ll feel the pain again? Or not since we’ve both already died?”
Keith shrugs as best he can in their cramped position, “I’m pretty sure us dying didn’t stop us from being soulmates… so maybe?”
“Well that kinda sucks, not gonna lie.” Lance replies, “Like unless we both die at the exact same time, one of us is maybe gonna have to go through that again. Which, by the way, is the worst way to find out who your soulmate is. How come nobody’s mentioned it before back on earth? You’d think people would talk about it more if they felt that much pain when their soulmate died.”
Keith squints at him in the semi-darkness, “Haven’t I explained the whole soulmate thing to you before?”
“Um… not really? Like aside from the fact that you knew that we were soulmates for literal years?”
“Huh.” Keith says, “I swear I explained it to you.”
“Explained what?”
“Finding out who your soulmate is is different for every species. Humans have absolutely no indicators and no way of knowing. That’s why it doesn’t matter if soulmates never end up together. It’s the Galra that experience the pain when their soulmate dies. So I guess since you're lucky enough to have a Galra soulmate, you get to experience it too.”
“Oh.” Lance says, “That clears a lot of things up actually… so, do Alteans have indicators?”
“I think it’s something to do with their marks?” Keith shrugs again and then continues softly, almost reverently, “And I think Lotor was Allura’s soulmate.”
Lance’s heart aches. He knew how much Allura had loved Lotor, and how heartbroken she’d been when he’d betrayed them all.
“If things had been different.” He murmured.
“I like to think she kicked his butt and he grovelled for her forgiveness in the afterlife.” Keith says.
“Oh yes, she would absolutely do that. No questions asked.” Lance replies, “But I also hope that she accepted his grovelling, and finally settled down. She deserves some peace and quiet.”
“She really does.”
They lapse into silence, and Lance tries desperately not to think about their precarious situation. His relationship with Keith is still so new, and he is still so terrified of losing Keith. Not because he thinks Keith will ever leave him, no, Keith has made it abundantly clear that he will never leave Lance. He’s scared of losing Keith to death. He’s scared that Keith will run off on a mission one day and just never come back. When Acxa had come to Altea and told everyone that Keith had died, Lance’s soul had shattered. He’d been broken beyond repair, and that was before he’d known what it was like to be with Keith. To really love Keith.
Back then he’d had a chance, however minuscule it was, to recover someday.
If he’d lost Keith now, he’d lose himself too.
The thought scares him.
“You’re thinking too loud.” Keith says.
“I wanna marry you.” Lance blurts. He’s pressed so close to Keith that he can feel the other man’s body go completely still. Keith’s eyes are wide and glossy in the blue glow from Lance’s marks. Lance refuses to let himself get flustered.
“I know it’s super crazy and that we’ve only been together for four months, but Keith , I’ve loved you for years and I’m never going to stop loving you, and so naturally… I just… kinda assumed someday… we’d get… married.” He fizzles out awkwardly as Keith continues to stare. Lance realizes with a start that there are tears gathering in his eyes.
“I wanna marry you too.” Keith whispers, “Not now, I don’t think I’m ready for that now, but someday. I want to marry you.”
Lance can’t help the grin that takes over his face. There’s a gentle dusting of soot on Keith’s cheeks, and his hair is plastered with blood and sweat, but in this moment he’s the most beautiful thing Lance has ever seen.
“So does that mean I get to call you my fiancé?” Lance says, rubbing their noses together gently.
“Nuh uh.” Keith replies, “I want to propose, and it’s going to be the best proposal ever.”
“Not if I beat you to it.”
Keith narrows his eyes, “You’re on.”
Lance leans as much as he can, and Keith meets him halfway for a kiss. In their trapped position, it’s somewhat awkward, but Lance cherishes it anyways. Every kiss with Keith is something special and to be revered.
“We’ll have to decide on a last name.” He says, “Keith McClain-Kogane doesn’t sound too bad.”
Keith’s smile is fond, “No it doesn’t, but something tells me we’ll choose Kogane-McClain.”
Lance purses his lips, “Is that cause of the space whale vision?” When Keith doesn’t reply Lance resorts to whining, “Keeeeeeeeeith come on! You had an epic vision of us in the future and you won’t tell me anything about it. If you really loved me you’d tell me.”
Keith only laughs in response.
They pass their time talking about everything and nothing, and sharing more than a few kisses. There’s not much they can do except wait to be found, and Lance finds that he needs a distraction or else his mind will start coming up with the worst case scenarios. It must be hours later when they hear rock moving above them, and they both start shouting.
Within the next hour they’re freed and on the ship, officially leaving the colony behind for good.
Keith had expected Tang to come and find him, he just didn’t think it would happen so soon. He’s sitting in the medbay, waiting for Lance to come out of the pod. His wrist had been broken, and so the Blade doctor onboard suggested he hop into a pod for a couple of hours. Liv is also in a pod, and the former human slaves had been in and out to visit her. But Tang seems to have come here solely to see Keith.
“Hey.” He says, sitting down next to Keith.
“Hi.”
“I hope your friend is okay.” Tang replies. Keith doesn’t know if it’s just him, but there seems to be an air of awkwardness over this whole encounter. Tang had all but confessed having feelings for Keith. Feelings that Keith definitely did not reciprocate. Keith figured he might as well rip the bandaid off.
“Boyfriend, actually. And yeah, the doctors said he’ll be fine.” Keith keeps his gaze glued on Lance, not wanting to see the expression on Tang’s face.
“Oh.” Tang replies, “That’s new?”
“Yeah,” Keith says, feeling his face go soft, “It is.”
Tang places a light hand on his shoulder, “I’m happy for you.” He replies.
“I’m so-”
“Don’t you dare say you’re sorry.” Tang cuts him off with a sharp glare, “You’re in what I presume is a happy and loving relationship. You don’t need to apologize for that. Besides, it was just a crush. When we get back to Earth I’ll find another awesome guy and sweep him off his feet.”
Keith chuckles lightly, “I’m sure you will.”
“Thank you.” Tang says, “For coming back for us.”
“I couldn’t just leave you guys there. You and the rest of the group are the only reason I didn’t lose my mind.” Keith says, “You deserve to be free, to live out the rest of your lives at home on Earth.”
There are tears in Tang’s eyes when he says, “And thanks to you, and your boyfriend, we will.”
Christmas with the McClain’s has always been a large and loud event, but in the years since the war it has become moreso.
The house is packed to the rafters with people, so much so that Veronica and Acxa had asked if they could stay with Keith and Lance in the guest house. It wasn’t really a guest house anymore, Lance’s parents had all but given it to him, although Lance still insisted on paying at least a little bit of rent.
In addition to the five McClain children and their significant others (and in Luis and Lisa’s case, children), Hunk had come with Shay, the entire Holt family made an appearance, Krolia had managed to make it just in the nick of time, Coran and Romelle had arrived from Altea, and of course the newlywed Shiro and Curtis were happily enjoying their first Christmas together as husbands.
To say it was slightly overwhelming would be an understatement.
But Lance wouldn’t have it any other way. As the friends and family gather together in the living room on Christmas Eve, Lance can’t help the swell of gratitude he feels. During his time with Voltron, he had often felt so lonely, missing his family with an ache that couldn’t be soothed. But now here he was, years later, with more family than he could’ve ever hoped for. And not only that, he has Keith by his side, his face bright with happiness and laughter.
He presses his nose gently into Keith’s hair, “I love you.” He says.
Keith turns to face him, cupping Lance’s cheek in one of his hands, “I love you too.” He says, voice quiet amidst the chatter of the room, “I love you so much .”
Lance presses a soft kiss to Keith’s lips, pulling away quickly before Pidge can see and torment him about it. They’re really quite merciless.
“Do you want to know what my vision on the space whale was about?” Keith says, eyes sparkling in the light of the Christmas tree.
“Yes!” Lance breathes in wonder, “Yes I do.”
“Family.” Keith responds, “You and me… and our children.”
Lance doesn’t think he’s breathing anymore, “Our children?” He can’t help but stare at Keith in awe.
Keith nods, “Two of them, Addison and Timmy.”
“Addison and Timmy.” Lance responds, and the smile Keith gives him is the most beautiful thing in the universe. There are definitely some tears in his eyes when he says, “I can’t wait to meet them.”
“Me too.”
“Oi! Quit being gross and come play some games!”
Lance flips Pidge off as he yanks Keith in for another kiss amid a chorus of cheers and groans.