After a few weeks had passed, boy and cat were inseparable. If only because Lance refused to leave Keith alone. The child followed him everywhere, constantly meowing. Keith would sometimes meow back, but it was usually a one-sided discussion.
Lance's parents thought it was a little worrying, at first. But as the weeks turned into months and Lance was still learning English at a rapid pace, they found the entire situation cute. They filmed his "conversations" with Keith for future Lance as proof of his actions.
Little did they know; their child was beginning to understand another language.
"Okay kid, the first thing you want to do to jump up high places, is hunker down." The cat instructed as he began to demonstrate what he meant.
"Meow." Lance replied as he followed the cat's actions, his immature body made repeating the action awkward.
"All right. Now you want to gauge how high up it is and prepare your muscles for the jump." Keith continued as he wiggled his body and looked up at the chair.
Lance giggled at the cat's actions. Keith shot him a glare before he jumped onto the chair gracefully and stared down at the child.
"If you think you're so great, why don't you try it?"
Lance stopped giggling and looked up at the cat, he stood and climbed onto the chair.
"No. No. You have to jump, you're not always going to be able to climb." Keith hissed as he smacked Lance's face with his clawless paws. He spoke from experience.
Lance grumbled and whined as he clambered down again. He began to cry in distress at not being able to be next to Keith.
"What's the matter, can't jump?"
Lance quieted down as he nodded with watery eyes.
"Oh." The cat looked down at the child without condescension before he hopped down.
"Well, I suppose we start with the basics."
Lance's mother heard several loud thumps before she decided to investigate the sounds. She found her son, as usual, playing with the cat. Except this time something was different.
She watched her child begin to do a weird dance. He would swing his arms back and forth while he crouched and stood again. It almost looked like he was trying to jump.
Finally chancing it, Lance took a loud, large step forward before he turned to look at the cat. Keith's tail flicked in annoyance before he meowed. Lance sat down in frustration and began to whine; his mother took a few steps from her hidden watchpoint before Keith huffed and approached the child.
The cat purred loudly as he rubbed his body along Lance's back until the child quieted.
"Keeth." Was Lance's quiet response.
The cat replied with a soft meow.
Lance's mother felt her heart melt at the sight.
Lance's father stayed away from the cat, being allergic he didn't want to chance an attack. He couldn't remember much of his childhood other than that he used to love cats. His family had owned two of them and most of his memories included one of the felines' presence at any given time.
The details were a little fuzzy, but he was suddenly told that he had become allergic to cats so they'd had to go.
Whenever he would see a cat, he'd get incredibly excited, only to have his mother pull him away while screaming at the animal, calling it a demon and such. She'd always scolded him harshly for trying to talk to cats even though he was allergic.
Had he been trying to talk to them?
Lance's father couldn't remember doing anything other than meowing at them. Why would his mother say, 'talk to them', though?
With a mental shrug, Lance's father pushed the memories from his mind.
When Lance was almost two, he began to have more feline qualities to his movements. His footsteps were no longer unsure stomps, instead they were careful steps. He also began to hiss when he would fight with his cousins who came to visit and tried to touch Keith without his permission.
Another thing was that he would have full conversations with Keith, who would respond as if he understood. Lance's parents no longer paid it any mind. It was just a part of their lives. They were sure Lance would grow out of it.
Keith was allowed outside in order to do his business, they didn't let Lance out there because they didn't want him copying that particular action. Still, it was one of the few times that he was able to escape Lance's constant presence. He didn't mind the child too much anymore, but it was sometimes overwhelming to have his constant admiration.
Lance was a fast learner and was almost able to fully communicate with him. The child was the only one Keith could talk with. After so long without anyone to listen to him, Keith found he had a lot to say.
He told the child about his life up to this point. He was sure that Lance didn't fully understand him, but apparently, he'd picked up on Keith's sour mood enough to comfort him. That had been the first time Lance had pet him. But, it wasn't the last.
After that, he'd constantly find himself receiving affection from Lance. Keith wasn't too proud to admit that it felt nice.
The first time tragedy struck, Lance had just celebrated his second birthday. The entire family was invited. Lance's modest home was going to be filled with people of all ages. When the first person appeared, Keith made himself scarce by hiding under the couch. He'd learned long ago that strange children would target him for their torturous plans. Lance had a lot of cousins, so he figured he'd stay hidden so that the boy wouldn't try to fight them all.
He realized his mistake when Lance followed him under there.
"What are you doing here? This is my space so go get your own!"
"What doing?"
Keith had no shame as he admitted, "Hiding!"
"Why?"
"Lance, what are you doing?" the child's mother asked as she noticed Lance's feet sticking out from his hiding place.
"Hiding." He answered.
"Hiding? Is there a monster?"
Lance turned back to Keith, "Is monster?"
"Worse, there's intruders."
"Intruders?"
"What are you two meowing about?" Lance's mother asked jokingly.
"Intruders." Was the muffled reply. Though the word sounded clunky in his mouth, it was clear what he'd said.
"Where did you hear that word, Lance?" his mother asked. She didn't know where her son could have heard that. Her and her husband had no time to watch television except after Lance fell asleep. Was he secretly watching it?
"Keith." Lance's mother took a step back at her child's reply.
Feeling a little freaked out, she left with a distant, "That's nice, honey." She went to find her husband to talk to him about the incident to see if something similar had happened with Lance before.
Lance's father was talking with his mother, trying to keep her from noticing the cat they had in the house, when his wife approached him. He flashed her a bright smile before he noticed her expression.
"What's wrong?"
"Wrong? There's nothing. Just have a question for you." She paused, "Has Lance said anything weird about the cat?"
"Other than meowing at him all the time… no, not really."
"Meowing?"
Lance's parents turned to face their child's paternal grandmother, the blood had drained from her face and she was clutching at her chest. She began to rant about demons trying to steal children's souls as she marched into the house.
Lance's father managed to stop her from causing a scene before he brought Lance to her and displayed that he was fine.
"Abuelita!" Lance called happily when he saw his grandmother. He remembered that she would always spoil him with treats when she visited, but he never really spoke to her. His mother told him to call her abeulita and had practiced saying the word many times with him, so he was excited to try out the new word.
She began to coo at him in Spanish, but when he just watched her in confusion, the parents explained that they wanted him to focus on learning English so that he could have an easier time in school.
"Ah, my little Lance. You've gotten so big!" was the grandmother's reply as she switched languages and seemingly forgot about the cat in the house, Lance's parents breathed a sigh of relief.
Lance played with his grandmother for a little while until his slightly older cousins came. He happily toddled off to go play with them, he was often left behind and ignored because of his young age, but it didn't feel any different than it had with Keith so he didn't mind too much. Some of his cousins avoided him entirely because they thought he was weird from earlier fights when he'd hiss at them.
Later on, Lance was acting increasingly grouchier so his parents let him have a nap in the relative peace of their room.
Keith watched as the child was carried off to his parents' room and tried to scurry in after them so he could hide with Lance. When he was shut out again, he scampered back under the couch to resume his hiding until everyone left.
He was watching the various feet as they moved about the house when he noticed one pair heading towards him. He tensed to flee, but a bowl with a few pieces of meat on it was slid under the couch to him. Giving it a few cautious sniffs, Keith began to scarf down the meal.
Lance woke up before an hour had passed, the sounds from outside enticing him to join the party. He exited his parents' room and went to check on Keith, remembering that the cat had tried to go into the room when he'd been put in the room to nap.
He crawled under the couch and found Keith breathing weirdly and trying to move.
"Keith?"
The cat cracked open his grey-blue eyes struggling to speak, "Lance… I don't feel good."
Feeling scared, Lance grabbed Keith and dragged him out from under the couch. He carried the enormous cat to his mother, knowing that his father didn't like Keith.
"Mama! Keith!"
Something in her child's tone, had the mother instantly panicked. "What is it, Lance?" She knelt on the ground and inspected the cat dangling in her son's arms. Keith was struggling to breathe. Alarmed, she grabbed Keith from Lance's arms.
She called out to her husband that Keith had been poisoned and that he needed to check and make sure it wasn't something Lance could get into. Then, she grabbed the keys and jogged to the family car.
Her husband had called the vet before she'd arrived to let him know about the situation, allowing Keith to be admitted as soon as he arrived.
The vet asked her a lot of questions that she had no answers for. He finally admitted that the only treatment he could offer at this point was to induce vomiting. He also explained that even doing this, Keith could still die.
Feeling shaken, Lance's mother accepted the treatment. With a nod, the veterinarian set to work.
Keith opened his eyes slowly. His throat felt like he hadn't had anything to drink in days and had spent the previous night meowing constantly. When his vision cleared, he found he was in that same horrible place that had tortured him before he was brought to the McClains' home.
What had he done now?
"Keith?" the cat looked up and found Lance's mother staring at him with anticipation.
He made a soft noise in his throat and struggled to get up, but was instead picked up carefully and hugged to the woman's breast.
Keith couldn't see anything other than the woman's hair as he felt her nose press into his neck, when she spoke, it disturbed the fur where her lips were close to him, "Good boy."