Private don't prove i'm right // hawthorne

[serpentberry]

Rowan is settled. Bound where she is broken, heart still bleeding from what she witnessed - but settled. Serpent tries to not trouble her younger friend with the unavoidable. She folds her own worries and doubts beneath layers of mossy bedding, creating a nest built to be thrown away. Comfortable for a short while, and then dismissed after all is said and done. She tells Rowan that she will be back soon - just that she must speak with Hawthorne and check with the rest of the... Clan. (It was an awkward said statement; one where she had to catch herself from saying the wrong thing. How different this would be, she wonders, than how the Colony once functioned?)

Regardless, her paws carry her inwards, towards the center of camp. Hawthorne is still there, still steady despite the unrest, still lively despite the exhaustion. Serpent feels as if she could sleep on her paws as she basks in his radiance and warmth, as if his mere appearance could sanction her the security to rest again, despite the surprise and hardship they've faced. She tilts forward as soon as he notices her, wasting no time to touch her nose to his again, brushing through to hold their cheeks together. Their kits thump uncomfortably in her belly and her claws flex into the ground.

"My love -" she murmurs, and there is an ache in her tone. Her shoulders shake as she weathers another wave of her body's discontent. This one is sharper than before, growing in intensity and strength. She will be unable to escape her own nest soon, she knows. "Hawthorne, when will you join me once again?" Her voice trembles. Serpent is too careful for once, edging around the demands her tongue is so used to. "Surely you will not watch the sun rise - there are others who can do that in your stead. I -" a long beat as the tenseness goes away and she is afforded a moment to breathe. "- the kits. I don't think they liked so much excitement. Or - at least, they didn't like missing it." Soon. So soon, her ears fold back and she winds her tail around his.

@Hawthorne

 

[Thornstar]

He is in tatters, weary, aching down to the bone, but there is a elation in his exhaustion; a reminder of what had been achieved and what was to come as he glanced around their camp with wide mismatched eyes, taking in the cats preparing nests and figuring out where to sleep for the night. The moon would rise high this eve, lighting the forest and allowing easier travel toward his soon to be destination and destiny. Chosen by the stars, what lofty aspirations - he had never once dreamed of anything akin to this but it felt right in a way he could not explain. He does intend to continue going until he leaves before the moon rises, but he can not help but pause as he is called, warm black and orange spotted fur welcoming as any nest and a voice that pleaded attention in the sharp and fickle way only his mate could. It halts him in his tracks, whatever task he had been preparing to do is long forgotten as he turns to step alongside her, more than happily allowing himself to be guided back to the hollowed den she had staked her claim on when they first arrived.

"I can spare you a moment always, my heart." His tail coils around hers in turn, tightens with what grip the appendage allows him as if afraid she would slither away if he was not more firm. ""..but I do have to go soon, I want to seek out the highstones before night falls, I'll take Juniper with me. I want to speak to the stars and receive their gift. Then I promise you when I return I will give you the time you deserve of me."" His voice is light as he adds,
""...we can put Juniper to work babysitting our clan." Our clan. It was so strange to say, no longer a colony but something else - he had always felt a camaraderie with the others even during the tension of his father's passing but this new wondrous thing felt closer to his heart than before. Maybe because it was his alone. Or perhaps, not entirely alone. He had good friends, a lovely mate, kittens on the way-stars she looked like she would pop any day now and it made him anxious for the future, for the lives coming into a strange new world he had not yet navigated.

"You know, you asked me to think of names and I really still don't know. I worry they won't like my ideas or that the name is too simple or-" He trails off, humming in amusement at his own concerns. They had just waged war against their own bretheren, watched colony mates-clanmates-die before them and witnessed bloodshed the likes of which they had all not seen before in the sanctum of their own home and yet here he was worrying over something as nonsensical as his kittens liking the names he helped pick for them.
""My favorite I've come up with is Leaf, it reminds me of when we met when the leaves were all warm colored like your fur, crunching under paw and still just barely clinging to the trees but Leaf just sounds silly without the context." It was a romantic notion but the word was just so plain as it were. Maybe when he was taught how to name his clan with the titles of 'warriors' as Coffeestar had said, he could come up with a better idea to give his kits a more interesting namesake.
"I am sorry they are causing you such distress, Serpent, but mayhaps they are working all the energy out now and will be calm and mild mannered when they're finally born?" It was a comment made in jest, he had seen enough kittens born to know they were only peaceful until their little limbs were strong enough to lift them up and then they were ambulatory balls of motion and tiny teeth, rampaging across the land untethered. "At least you have a proper kitsitter now." Aside from his jokes about making Juniper do it, Rowan had been practically fused to his mate's side for some time now.

 

[serpentberry]

She feels everything in her break when he denies her request - yet he is so gentle in doing so that she cannot fathom being angry with him. Frustrated, certainly - annoyed, absolutely. But the way his tired eyes light up upon seeing her, the way her own fatigue wants to melt away in his presence... anger is not a tangible feeling when she is with him. That and more is why she stayed with the colony, and why she will stay in ThunderClan, with him. Still she shudders a sigh, eyes gently misted with disappointment. A whine almost takes her voice, but his humor instead rustles a laugh from her throat.

"Oh, I made her promise that moons ago, love," she jests in return. She walks in step with him, returning to her makeshift den. @rowanpaw is inside, still awake despite the long, long night. Serpent dwells in the few moments of silence between herself and her lover, her own mind wandering as it does, when he speaks again. Names. She's hardly thought of them, admittedly. Sure there are an obvious many but most of her figured that she would just... know upon their birth. That they would eventually stand on sturdy legs and shout their own epithets for her to hear. Still, he rambles, exhaustion making him long winded, and eventually says -

Leaf.

It's simple, but precious. Warmth now glows in her grin as she presses harder against him and he continues. He has reasons, by the stars how did she get so lucky? She once thought she'd find a partner more apt to use colors for names. But Leaf, like the season they fell in love in, like her fur - the rustling noises and beautiful early dusks. "It's not silly," she remarks with a softness unlike her. Serpent holds his tail in hers, her grin shrinking to a soft smile, "I like it a lot, Hawthorne. I really do..."

She finds her nest again and sinks into it, the ache in her legs suddenly becoming unbearable. Now that she's settled, the pain has found her - luckily still, she tapers it off with slow, deep breaths. He suggests that their kits will be calm and obedient and she laughs. "You would not think that if you seen my littermates in our youth," troublemakers. She's lived by a vow of mischief up until now, she thinks. His gaze floats to Rowan, and though Serpent nurses a contraction, she reaches a gentle-but-clawed paw to clasp over his.

"She's a sweet girl, don't you think?" Serpent lowers her voice. Her tail curls in tight around her, "She... it's only her and Maple, y'know? They've only got each other, and..." and their family is only so large, preparing to grow by an unknown number - but whats two more souls to invite into their fold? "It's a little odd, I know, but... I wouldn't mind our litter having a big sister. It'd definitely be easier to rope her into kitsitting if she had a title like that...!" A spot of her own humor, even if her state of being grew more-and-more miserable.