It's Great to be a Kit Again [semi-open/ask]

The Newleaf moon crept higher into the sky as the night progressed. The marshes of Shadowclan were bustling with quiet life, and the nursery was no exception. In one of the corners of the den, a small tabby kit was stirring to the sounds of the others around her. A rather quiet prrow followed her as she rose. Stretching out her tired limbs, a yawn accompanied her promptly plopping her rump back into the soft moss. The luxury of not sharing the small nest meant that there was little pestering to be had from other kits, unless one wanted to play with her. Thankfully, that wasn't all that often.

Finally feeling awake enough to open her eyes properly, the diluted green orbs were revealed. The low light of night made it easily to gaze around the nursery, which seemed to be bustling somewhat with life. Most of it seemed to bore her - it all was just too overstimulating. After some time of lounging around, Ivykit had decided it'd be time to get up and stretch a bit. Taking the first few stiff steps out of the comforting nest, another stretch lead her quietly to the nursery door. Where, she promptly sat, with wide eyes looking around at the life before her.

Serenity was a burden for Bluekit. He looked towards the silent underbrush with discontent, bristling, kneading absentmindedly into the lining of his moss. The small cat's eyes cut holes into the night, sapphire apertures, and he watched as someone stirred. Yes, that tired little kit that always hung around the nest, only a few days younger than him. She yawned and stretched with the leisure of a kittypet. She was a bit annoying, but most of the other kits were. The moons were high and the forest was dark, few others, including the most senior of warriors, were awake. He pressed his belly to the moss. Beige fur brushed lines of dirt past his body.

Cricket hums posed enough of a distraction for Bluekit to barrel into Ivykit, flipping headfirst with a pained Oof of his own into the peaceful nestmate.

Something about sleep was just naturally appealing to the slightly younger cat. She didn't have near the energy level as the others. But the quietness of the nighttime was something to keep her aware. Ivykit definitely took her youth for granted when it came to the naps, and even then it was giving her some bad habits. As time seemed to drag on though, she was growing more alert. Her ears picked up more sounds outside, and she noticed more too. However, she failed to notice the small tom whom was also awake.

An instinctive and slightly pained squeak came from the smaller cat as beige fur collided with the silver of her own. Any sense of peace that the kit had gathered was stripped away in that very moment by her sudden attacker. She was swept off of her feet in an instant, being shoved forwards and towards the ground. "B-Be careful!" A bit of panic ebbed at the end of her tone, hoping that the other kit was okay but also that no one else woke up. After all, if any of the other kits were to stir, surely some type of game would arise from it.

Bluekit lept up, back straight to appear to have never fallen at all. "Your head hurt my paw," he muttered, glowering under the glow of fireflies that seemed to fill every space but where they sit. He licked his pad with a reserved few glances, his short fur bristling.

"I'm not going to be careful if I am trying to hit you." Bluekit began to press on his paw, cautiously at first, giving it a few presses to the ground before pushing himself on four paws. "How about you be careful. You don't know when you're going to be attacked." He leaned close to the ground, pressing his already-dirtied belly to the dirt. "Thunderclanners could be lurking in those bushes, watching, waiting to eat kits like you!"

And he jumped again, with a similar result, both tumbling. He gave another, rather awkward oof!

Ivykit quickly moved backwards at his comment, her jaw parting in objection. Although, quickly, it shut. He wasn't wrong, so she couldn't exactly retort... Shaking her head, her glare still rested on him. "It only hurt your paw because you were distracted. It wasn't intentional."

With a huff, she stood to go back to her silent gazing. As he continued to speak, her head only turned to gaze at him. With her tail flicking in annoyance, she settled back down at the entrance. "At least then I'd be put out of m- Hey!" At Bluekit's second attack, Ivykit's balance had been thrown off once again. Instead of rolling forward however, this time she just seemed to crash to the ground rather awkwardly.

Discomfort shot through her front legs while the tom-kit was on top of her. Twisting onto her back, she tried to use her back paws to wiggle out from under him. "At least Thunderclanners can land an attack properly!" She retorted quickly.

Bluekit winced and rolled over to his feet, whipping around with his eyes ablaze. His fur almost spiky at that point, his tail lashing hard enough against the ground to form a dust cloud behind him. "Why don't you go join them, then!" he spat, his voice shaky. He seemed to have hurt his paw even more, the pad stinging with yet-another hard, awkward impact. He licked it furiously, with quick, sandpaper flicks of the tongue. "You're such a kittypet," he muttered, words distorted by the mlems as he tried to better his foot.

Being able to move away, Ivykit shifted a good couple of paces away from the other cat. Her own tail mimicked the thrashing movements of his own. Her immediate retort would be to outline the rules, but that'd be too obvious. Kneading the ground anxiously, she let her breathing calm back down. It wasn't the first time she had been called a kittypet. "I'm not a kittypet." Her voice was low, the growl held in the back of her throat. Bluekit was one of the most annoying kits in the nursery. Some way, some how, he always seemed to get under her skin. Glancing around the nursery, somehow no one else had stirred at their little tussle. Looking back at Bluekit, her head tilted as he seemed to take particular interest at his paw. He wasn't usually one to worry about constant grooming... "You shouldn't have pounced on me if my head had hurt your paw."

With his paw feeling better, a few licks doing the trick, the kit planted it back on the ground, bringing up some dirt as he sheathed and unsheathed them, like a queen gathering moss into a bed. "You shouldn't have such a hard head if your fur is so long. It's like a rock in a pile of feathers!" he said, licking his lips at some fireflies that danced just ahead of them. They taunted him. He hated being taunted.

With his new target, and a paw healthy enough to be hurt once more, he began swatting at the fireflies. They always seemed a hair too far out of his reach. levitating ahead of him. He sat with a hmph. At least Ivykit was slower than the grass growing under the pine trees.

"But aren't all heads supposed to be hard anyways?" She blinked at him quizzically. It was actually kind of amusing, watching him try to reach the levitating lights. As some dared to near her, she'd quickly bat them away. They weren't of particular interest to her, although their blinking lights were pretty. Settling down and curling her paws beneath her chest, she continued to watch Bluekit try to grab the fireflies. "You almost had one. Try reaching in the direction its flying." Her green eyes were wide as she thought about how to successfully catch one.

"I know what I'm doing," he assured her, but did not bat at another one. Instead, he looked with captivation at them, her words flooding through him. His eyes were like day in night, two empyreal domes. "I wanted to miss them. Why would I want to kill fireflies, mousedung? They're pretty." His voice was rigid and quiet. The kit put a paw up loosely, flexing his toes, but didn't swipe. He let it hang, pawing the air with a gossamer swoop, as if imagining a test-swing in his head.

Ivykit continued to study the fireflies, everything folding out into her head. His comment was noted in her mind, but she didn't pay active heed to it. Instead, Ivykit reached a paw of her own up, testing what she had said. Her silvery paw swam swiftly through the air, the delicate pad of her paw grazing one of the bugs. She kept enough momentum to shift its position, but otherwise it buzzed away right after. Bluekit's comment from earlier swam back into her active mind. "I know they're pretty. But you can still catch them without killing them, toad-brain." Her voice held a tone of distance to it, and she didn't even realize the silence leading up to her response.

"I'm not a toad-brain." It was his most defeated tone of the evening. He watched the fireflies silently for a while. He seemed to calm down, and fatigue caught up with his idleness. He yawned. "I'd like to see you catch one of these things without killing one. They're too tiny, even compared to you." His tail lashed, up-and-down rather than side-to-side, slowly but sharply. The kit narrowed his eyes, ears flicking towards the bugs. "And be quiet about it, or you'll wake the queens up."

Ivykit paid little mind to his retort, but definitely paid attention to his challenge. "Alright." Her tail continued to flicker in the soft dirt of the den, little clouds of dust kicking up. As her body stilled, she flicked an ear as the only signal to listening to what else Bluekit had to say. She had already gone to focusing on one of the lightning bugs in front of her, the bug she focused on staying just a few mouse-lengths away.

A soft prrt came from the silver tabby as she quickly swiped her paw through the air, being sure to keep her claws sheathed as it targeted the hovering neon light. Bringing it downwards as her swipe finished its full motion, she huffed in annoyance when it flittered out of her grasp. "I-I nearly had it!" A sense of pride swept through the small cat as she whispered, the leaf-colored pools wide. "D-Does that count?" Her tail swished back and forth with hope. If it count, she would have totally proved him wrong.

Yewkit's dark fur seemed to blend into the shadows, a pair of green eyes staring out from the darkness. She watched the other two kits in muted interest, tail swishing, the glow of the fireflies reflected in her irises. The two of them had been playing so long without noticing her... Finally, she broke her silence, standing up from her little corner.

"'Nearly' doesn't mean anything," she huffed, voice high and haughty. "Failure is failure." One of the elders had said something like that once, grumbling toward one of the apprentices about missed prey... And the elders knew everything. What if one of them had been watching? That would have been so humiliating just to watch them get torn into like that! She strut out toward them, rigid, tail lashing. She only slowed down as one flit by, seeming to bounce through the air, just out of reach. Her whiskers twitched.

Bluekit grew rigid. Maybe it was the poor timing, but despite the high voice, he thought a queen had found them for a split second. His ears flicked, and he sat still, as if good posture would get him out of trouble. Of course, when he saw it was just Yewkit, he slackened. "You sound like an old bat," he said with a soft mrrow, looking over to Ivykit. Of course, she was right. The warriors would kill her of that firefly was a mouse. Nearly didn't fill any bellies.

"Did we wake you up?" Bluekit shot a narrow, mischievous gaze back at the newcomer. He puffed out his chest, the short, straight-facing fur. "I'm sorry. I'm a Shadowclan cat, and we don't sleep."