Keith woke up in a cold sweat. The lingering feeling of dying followed him into the waking world.

"No! Keith!" Those were the words he understood, the rest were kind of a garbled mess as his dream-self faded away.

The young man shook his head to clear the lingering memories. He stood with a groan as his joints popped. He walked past the only picture he had of his parents. When he was sixteen, his parents had both died in a "tragic accident" as the news reported it. It was no accident. Some drunk fuck had decided he was fine enough to drive and had swerved onto the sidewalk where his parents had been walking to their car.

With a sigh, Keith forced his tense muscles to relax.

After two years of isolation, he thought he should be used to the silence. He'd taken up residence in an old shack in the middle of the desert. No one around. No drunk drivers out here.

Keith gripped his hair as he pushed the thoughts from his mind. The guy responsible was already dead. So, there was no one to take the blame. Just… three people dead. And one bitter son left alone. For no reason. What was the point of him even being here?

Stop.

With an angry grunt, Keith threw off his clothes and turned on the shower. He allowed himself a luxurious shower, for once, and kept the water running as he quickly scrubbed away at his body. When he was done, he turned off the water and stepped out to dry off with a towel.

Those dreams always made him get like this. It was like he couldn't focus on anything other than the dream itself and his parents' deaths.

Without his permission, the dream's events played back in quick snatches. It was from the perspective of a cat. He'd experienced loss and death over and over from the cat's point of view and each time he woke up with a need to find that boy.

He never gave into it. But, when he was five, he'd woken from a dream and panicked as he ran from his bed all the way to his front door crying out "Lance". His parents had told him that story when he was thirteen, and it just stuck with him.

"Lance." The sound of his voice in the deafening silence startled him. He looked up and saw his haggard form. His long, dark hair was stuck to the back of his neck, and his blue-grey eyes stared back at him dully. His pale skin, even though he lived in the desert, made him appear sickly. Most likely from the fact that he rarely ventured outside.

He slung the towel over the shower curtain rod to dry before he walked to his bedroom for a change of clothes.

He pulled on a loose shirt, underwear, and some jean pants that didn't smell too badly. He stepped out into his living room and saw the lonely sofa sitting in front of a coffee table. His last meal, a juice pouch and an empty can of some processed food, sat finished.

Keith looked into his barren kitchen, and felt the silence overwhelm him.

"Aahhh!"

His scream echoed around him, and then it was silent again. That oppressive, lonely silence.

He sank down on the sofa and clutched at the sides of his head. The only thing that seemed to whisper words of comfort in his ear was the name, Lance. Over and over.

Lance. Lance. Lance. Lance. Lance. Lance. Lance!

Keith abruptly stood up and marched into his room. He tugged some socks over his feet and shoved his feet into his boots. He grabbed his motorcycle keys, wallet, and phone on his way out.

He stomped over to the small shed attached to his house and pushed his motorcycle out into the desert. He pulled his helmet over his head and swung his leg over the seat.

What was he doing? His doubts plagued him.

He was finding relief. Relief from his dreams. From this silence. From his loneliness.

With that, his motorcycle revved to life and he was off.

He'd been searching for weeks. He could vaguely remember what the neighborhood looked like. He couldn't rely on the house being the same, if his dreams were to be believed, the house had burned. The thought occurred to him to track the name Lance and scout out areas that the name was found in, but there were a shit ton more Lances than he'd have thought possible.

He'd even resorted to asking if anyone had seen someone named Lance and asked if they had the same dark skin, brown hair, and blue eyes that his Lance had.

Keith snorted. His Lance indeed.

He rode his bike everywhere, it seemed, and still he couldn't find Lance. At night, Keith found himself in cheap motel rooms on creaky, old beds or uncomfortable sofas if he stayed in a questionable place. As he tried to fall asleep, he admitted to himself that finding Lance gave him something that he thought he'd lost long ago. A reason to exist.

He had his first big break when he found what he remembered to be Shiro's house. Obviously, Shiro was nowhere around, but it was a start. He thought about how far a cat could travel and figured it couldn't have been more than he could cover in a few hours on his bike.

He had been wrong. Terribly. Horribly. Wrong. Sweat made the hair free from his helmet cling to his neck. His hands were turning red from prolonged exposure to the sun. He'd been pushing himself for hours to try and find something familiar to him and yet nothing scratched at his mind. The houses were eerily similar and a few times he'd been excited that he'd found Lance's house, only to find that it was occupied by a family that bore no resemblance to the people he'd known.

It wasn't fair. Fair. Keith scoffed. He'd known life wasn't fair for a long time now. No, this was more than just unfair. This was ridiculous.

Here he was. Searching for someone he'd seen in a dream. A dream about him as a cat, no less.

He pulled the motorcycle over and kicked the stand out to balance it. He ripped off his helmet and angrily hung it on one of the handles. He paced for a time, berating himself while simultaneously bargaining for more time searching.

He finally resigned himself as one of the most foolish humans to have ever existed as he leaned against the tall wooden fence behind him. He slid down and sat in the grass, sulking.

"Meow?"

Keith's eyes snapped over to find a large, blue grey cat. Her eyes molten gold as she stepped over to him cautiously. Keith remained frozen for a moment before he tentatively reached out a hand. He didn't try to force it on the cat, just extended a piece of his body so that the feline could investigate him.

She had just leaned forward close enough to sniff his hand, when a door closed loudly behind them.

"Hey, Blue. What're ya doing over here?"

A tall man appeared on the other side of the fence as he leaned down and scooped up the cat. He scratched at the cat's chin before he looked down and found Keith sitting there. His blue eyes widened.

"Oh, shit!" Lance took a quick step back before he recovered with a smile, "You scared me there. I hope you're not hurt. Ya know, just sitting there against my fence. It's a little weird but. You do you, I guess." The man chuckled nervously.

Keith couldn't believe it. This man looked strikingly similar to the child from his dreams. The blue eyes that sparkled with life, the tan skin, and the fluffy, brown hair. There was no way.

"Lance?"

The young man startled, "How did you know my name?"

"Lance?" Keith had nothing else to say. "You're Lance." Keith smiled victoriously. "Lance!"

"Alright, buddy! You're really starting to creep me out. And I have a high tolerance for creepiness."

Keith laughed as he shook his head and stood. "I wasn't sure I'd find you. But, it's me. Keith!" He'd went by that since he was young, apparently. His parents told him that when he began to speak, they would tell him that his name was Kyung-gu and he would defiantly yell that he was Keith. Eventually his parents gave in and called him Keith.

Lance looked lost. "I…don't know…any…Keiths?"

"No, I'm…" Keith thought about how ridiculous it would sound if he told Lance about his dreams. "I'm from out of town!" He finished. "I moved here recently and got a little lost." Keith looked away to hide his lies, "I heard there was someone my age here and… wanted to see."

Willing to accept the answer, Lance smiled again. "Oh, jeez. You really had me going there! I thought you were some kind of weirdo." Lance laughed.

Keith laughed stiffly. "Y-yeah. So… I'm gonna just. Go now."

"Oh, well… Okay. I'll… see you around?" Lance asked hopefully.

"Uh…yeah. Sure. I'll come visit you some time."

"I look forward to it… Keith." Lance said his name like he was trying to see how it felt in his mouth.

He hadn't had as much practice as Keith at saying the other stranger's name. As was evident when Keith confidently spoke, "Goodbye, Lance." It rolled off of his tongue like they were old friends. In a way, they were.

He looked at the cat cradled in Lance's arms and felt a surge of jealousy. There was also the strangest longing to be held in the same manner, but Keith shoved it aside. He wasn't a cat anymore. Those thoughts were inappropriate.

With a wave farewell, Keith climbed back on his motorcycle and took off down the street. He searched the neighborhood but couldn't find a single motel. He looked up the hill from Lance's neighborhood and found a densely wooded forest.

He could make this work.