Little White Lies [closed]

The soft grass bent easily under Brindlewhisker's feet, hardly making a sound as she slipped through the still-rather brittle bushes and shrubs that rimmed the Fourtrees hollow. Ever since Hollowfang became a warrior, she found herself having more and more free time- time that she could never put to good use. Instead of lounging uselessly around camp as she had been previously doing, she had decided to spend her downtime restlessly pacing the borders that hadn't been fully scoped out. The cats she normally spent her time with weren't an exact option either- Smokepelt was constantly busy with Deputy-related issues, Thistlefall seemed up to his neck in apprentices, Willowwhisker was confined to the nursery until her latest litter was born, and there was still a bit of frostiness between Mottleheart and herself. She just needed something to do to keep her from being totally consumed by boredom.

The border that separated Windclan territory from Fourtrees was often neglected as most Clan cats steered clear of the sacred meeting place unless it was the full moon. Today her paws had been drawn towards the timeless meeting place for a reason she couldn't really pinpoint- perhaps she was just seeking the seclusion that the hollow usually offered. Brindlewhisker was halfway down the gentle slope that led to the hollow when she paused, still half sheltered by the brown, prickly fronds of the many ferns and grasses that clogged up the slope. Her eyes narrowed at the trembling bushes across the hollow, her large ears pricking at the sound of faint rustling and pawsteps; another cat was here? Her pink nose wrinkled as she briefly scented the air- the mucky mixed scents that still lingered within the Gathering place greatly blocked the scent of the newcomer- before simply settling on waiting in the bushes.

Once more, Rockpaw snuck out of camp, the sleepless nights really taking their toll. Ever since he had woken up Cloudpaw with his incessant sobbing he had started leaving for fourtrees like clockwork. He'd wait for everyone to go to sleep before quietly padding out to dirt place, passing the guard undetected. He had been doing this for nights now, he couldn't handle being in camp anymore.

Rockpaw had changed his pattern despite, the suffocating glares and hisses as he passed the nursery forcing out of the camp. He was glad though, he could take a break from all the non stop work he had been doing. So here he was, padding into the clearing, the ground squelching under his paws that felt too big for him now.

The apprentice wandered into fourtrees further, coming across a puddle that made it's home there. Looking into it he took a moment to process how sunken in his eyes looked, how gaunt his face looked. Turning he looked at his fur, ragged and hanging off him like it was going to fall off any moment because he didn't fit into his own skin anymore.

Rockpaw padded beneath the great rock, his tail dragging on the ground behind him, he didn't care, not in that moment anyways.

Brindlewhisker's ears perked as the unfortunately familiar shape of Rockpaw slunk into the Fourtrees hollow- why did the troublesome tom always somehow end up where she was? A frown twisted her features heavily as she noted the condition he was in; ragged, matted fur, prominent ribs, and awkward, cowardice gait to his step. What in the name of StarClan had befallen Rockpaw? This was definitely not the confident apprentice who tried to sneak into WindClan's camp! 'Why is it always him?' She reflected, shaking her head.

Slipping from her hiding place within the brittle foliage, she began to pick her way down the soft slope, ignoring the way that the debris crunched more loudly underpaw here- her stealth was forgotten by now as she only had eyes for the disheartened ThunderClan apprentice. Leaping down the rest of the slope, Brindlewhisker landed in the hollow with a soft 'thump', before hurriedly moving to where she saw Rockpaw's trailing tail vanish. Rounding the Great Rock, she came upon the hunched up little tom, and her whiskers drew back slightly at the stench of self-pity that engulfed the grey tom. "Well it looks like you've seen better days." She announced loudly, keeping her distance from the bedraggled tom.

Rockpaw jerked in surprise, his eyes widening before falling to a depressive half-lid "What better days?" Rasped the apprentice. Shifting with creaking bones the tom turned to look more fully at Brindlewhisker, tilting his head up he tried to gain a semblance of normalcy, this was an enemy cat to him not a friend. But when he tried to sneer, his lips only twitched before falling flat.

Noticing the distance between them he gave a hiss. "What? I'm clearly in no shape to be fighting you, a leaf could probably break my back. Then again I am a murderer." Rockpaw snapped, shakily getting to his paws. "I suppose this is all what I get for loving another cat, trying my bestest to be good to all my friends n family, but this is all I get in return." Spluttered and raged the tom, his gait shuddering as his paws curled under him at times.

"I'll be leaving now, I've no need to hear your spite, I've no need for anything. I can go back to camp for that." Growled the tom, only making it a few tail-lengths before falling onto his behind.

Brindlewhisker's ear perked at Rockpaw's words- murder? Great StarClan this tom was the very definition of a hot mess! Every time they managed to run into one another, he'd have some new crime hot on his heels. 'How could a cat as small and puny as him manage to actually kill something?" She wondered, watching the way his large paws rolled slightly underneath his weight. Dropping down onto her haunches in a manner similar to the way Rockpaw had, she wrapped her tail around her paws as she glanced over at the toms hunched up form. "Well if your just heading back to camp to get scorned, then why not indulge yourself with a bit of non biased, neighborly chitchat?" She mewed nonchalantly, glancing briefly out at the empty hollow.

Tilting her head curiously, she sniffed once more, eyeing his messy, matted fur with reproachful eyes, although she held her tongue. A proper washing would of helped his attitude in all likelihood, but it wasn't exactly her place to order him to clean all the mats and burrs from his pelt. "I mean what's the worst that could happen from opening up to someone you've met a few times? Do you think I'd take all your deep dark little secrets and run straight to Ashstar about them? I'm not some overfed, gossiping Riverclan cat- I'd respect your privacy." Brindlewhisker mewed, partly exasperated with the self-pitying words. "Plus since Mottleheart seems to be done with your misguided attempts at friendship, it looks like I'm all you got." She added, flicking her ear as she recalled when Mottleheart first introduced her to Rockpaw.

Rockpaw huffed as if he had no choice, his heart yearning for conversation without anger. Giving a soft nod he meowed, not even bothering to look back for a moment before heaving himself to his paws, taking a few steps towards Brindlewhisker and slumping down onto his bottom again. "Well uh... Thunderclan is well, we've recently taken in an orphaned kitten... Uh um.. it was it's mother that I killed a few days ago.. I didn't mean too she jumped me when I just wanted to chase her out after she was hunting in our territory! I didn't even know she had a kit." She sputtered hurriedly in defense of his actions.

"How is Mottleheart by the way? Hopefully better than me?" He asked hopefully, he would be very concerned if Mottleheart was worse off then he, Rockpaw couldn't even stand up right! He had to stop starving himself out of his regret! But he couldn't, he'd probably vomit if he tried now. He didn't even have the energy to clean his fur.

Looking to his paws, then Brindlewhiskers paws then her face he swallowed harshly then looked away again. "I'm sorry I was so mean to you at the gathering when we were all apprentices... I had- have a thing for Mottleheart... still.. but he has kits now and dear Starclan I'm a mess." He huffed before flinching. "Sorry for everything I guess, and all the self-pity..." He apologized.

Brindlewhisker listened to Rockpaw's hurried, defensive words intently, not even minding the way that she was now settled closer to the Thunderclan apprentice. She let out a soft sigh once he finished his story- an accidental murder? 'No wonder he seems so bad; he had bloodied his paws simply trying to defend his territory. His Clanmates would hold such a thing against him? For StarClan's sake Smokepelt purposely crippled an apprentice and no cat even batted an eye!' She reflected, fur prickling uncomfortably at the comparison. Shaking her head slightly, she continued to listen to Rockpaw ramble. "As insensitive as it sounds, you probably did the kit a favor. You spared it from a hard life bouncing between places, without a set place in the world. It doesn't really justify what happened, but at least now the little scrap will always have a warm den to come back to, Clanmates to look out for them, and a purpose." She offered, slightly unsure of what to input in the topic.


"Oh and no harm no foul," Brindlewhisker couldn't help but snort slightly with amusement at the fact that Rockpaw felt the need to apologize for some childish indiscretion that had long ago been forgotten in her mind- who hadn't been snippy at one point or another when they were a newly-made apprentice? "What kind of cat would I be if I held some unrelenting grudge over the fact that you were a bit on the cold side when we first met?" She mewed, tail flicking slightly. At the mention of Mottleheart, her warm attitude dampened slightly- how was Mottleheart? Ever since their big falling out, it had been nothing more than dead air, with the snapping remarks and cold glares being the only thing shared between them.

"When it comes to Mottleheart, I'm afraid I'm just as shut out as you are," She mused, bashfully shuffling her feet in the cold, brittle earth, "But he's been okay from what I can tell. He got knocked around by an Eagle a while back, but thankfully I was there to help." She mewed, proudly recalling when she had come to the rescue of her former friend. "He healed up nicely though- he even got an apprentice." Brindlewhisker added, looking over at Rockpaw's hopeful face.

Rockpaw nodded to Brindlewhisker with a small smile that stretched on his face, only existing for barely a moment. His heart lifting just that little bit more as he listened to the Windclan warrior. He didn't expect for her to show much generosity if any at all, but he didn't expect any as of late anyways. Shuffling a bit closer as he grew more comfortable.

"I feel like I'd make myself a better tom if I apologize to those I've wronged. Guess I'm going to have to apologize to the whole of Windclan." He meowed jokingly, his chuckle off-key as his shoulders jerked. Sighing contentedly with a shy smile on his maw there once more he looked away, paws shuffling. "Especially Mottleheart, I got to apologize to him the most. He doesn't know that I was only angry at him because I felt jealous... I kind of fell in love with him when we were younger." He huffed, looking away bashfully as he admitted it.

Turning to look at Brindlewhisker with alarm at the news on Mottleheart getting hurt, frowning his matted fur bristled. Though as Brindlewhisker explained his fur laid flat once more, his face softened just slightly but kept its frown. "Well, it's good that he's better and you were there on time, who knows what would have happened if you weren't there. Does he know? Maybe you two can reconcile." He pondered, tilting his head, feeling a bit dizzy and disorientated as he did so.

"Mottleheart's very clueless, isn't he?" Brindlewhisker mused in amusement after Rockpaw's latest admission, eyes twinkling with amusement at the bashful display of behavior Rockpaw was suddenly displaying. "Two of his closest friends trailing after him with eyes the size of the full moon and he couldn't even gather a hint of what was going on?" She couldn't help but snort with laughter, slightly relieved at the parallels in their situation on the Mottleheart front. 'It's nice to see that someone else had a similar reaction.' She let out a soft mental sigh of relief at the idea. "But I'm sure if you explained that your anger was only founded out of jealousy, he would forgive you." She quickly added, wrapping her tail more tightly around her paws as she continued to observe the quickly opening up Rockpaw.

Noting the concern on the ThunderClan apprentice's face when she spoke of the Eagle attack, she watched his expression and tension melt away the further she explained what had happened. "Oh I'm sure he knows it was me- after all I dragged his sorry hindquarters all the way back to camp afterwards." Brindlewhisker mewed with a slight huff, wincing slightly as she remembered how long the journey had seemed. Blinking thoughtfully at the apprentices words, she let out a slight 'mrrow' of agreement. "I'm sure he'd forgive me if I actually spoke to him, but I guess I'm more like you- leaving him to stew in his heartbreak for a bit before I decide to grace him with my forgiveness." She joked, throat growing tight for a few heartbeats at the realization of how difficult it could truly be to earn her way back into Mottleheart's good graces.

The tom gave a soft chuckle, nodding as she explained everything. If he wasn't gay he might have just wanted to pursue something more with the she-cat. Giving a small little gasp as an idea popped into his head he meowed. "Why don't you bring him to Four trees in... three sundowns and we give him a good talking to?" The idea giving him a bit more hope, maybe he'll treat himself to a nice fat mouse once he gets back to camp.

"We could trap him here until we have completely explained ourselves." Rockpaw looked to his paws again, the sudden thought of having to go back to camp in the fore front of his mind.