[Lance continues watching him as he moves on to the fridge, briefly concerned about whether Richie has been getting enough to eat considering the food shortage, but right now it seems he's more nervous than anything else especially once he drinks half the bottle after starting to talk.

So he nods a little, listening silently until Richie is done, before responding.]

It's pretty weird, but so is being in this place at all. We just sort of have to adapt to the situation.

[At least as far as that sort of thing goes. But although he answered the questions--or the last one, anyway--that's only to keep the conversation from becoming too serious too quickly and therefore potentially scaring Richie off.

But Lance only allows that much distraction before addressing the rest of what he said.]

'Something missing' as in someone to give you direction as to what to do, or do you mean in another way?

[That's the impression he got from the comment about drifting, but he's not entirely sure.]