Fear the dark and what comes with it (closed)

Sitting near the edge of his gathered clanmates underneath one of the old Twoleg structures, Sunflower huddled next to his father, Tinylegs; who was fast asleep. The moon shined high in the sky above, casting faint rays of light into around every-cat, and although he should've been getting his rest, the lean tom just couldn't. In the darkness that sat outside the makeshift den, the wind howled and the unwelcoming world around them brought so many other noises along with it. The barking of dogs in the distance, as well as Twoleg yips and yowls throughout the night; sometimes with their monsters in tow. Sunflower hated every bit of where they were and wanted nothing more than to go back home, even if it was in ruins. Anything would be better than this, he was sure of it.

It was dark. In the dead of night. Well, not really dead, what with all those Twoleg, unfamiliar noises around. Willowpaw was awake, sitting still. She had chosen a darker corner of camp to sit in, so that combined with her colouring made it almost impossible to see her. Willowpaw had never been the biggest fan of the unknown, being the scaredy-cat she was. Now, she sat in the dark, eyes wide, ears twitching as she listened to the weird noises.

A flash of white fur caught her eye, and Willowpaw realised with a start that she wasn't the only cat awake tonight. Moving slowly, she moved into the light and squinted, seeing the other cat.

"Hey, Sunflower. How come you're up?" Willowpaw asked, putting on a brave front.

Having been focusing on the peculiar sounds outside the makeshift den area, Sunflower almost jumped out of his pelt when some-cat approached him. Turning his amber gaze to see Willowpaw, one of the clan's newer apprentices, he let out a sigh of relief. She'd asked him something but having been startled, he didn't think that he'd heard the entirety of the question, but hopefully he still got the jist of what she'd asked. It had to do with something about how he was doing, he assumed.

"Sc-scary," the lean, abnormally large eared warrior mewed softly after a few moments. Shivering where he was crouched near Tinylegs, he let out a yawn. It was no secret that even though he wasn't able to sleep, he was extremely tired. If only they were able to go home, then maybe he would be able to get some much needed rest...

Willowpaw tilted her head sympathetically. She guessed that Sunflower meant he was scared, which was perfectly understandable. She herself was scared as well, just not showing it as much. Actually, she was probably just too much in shock still to have much of a reaction to anything, otherwise she would be crying her eyes out.

“That’s understandable. We did, after all, get uprooted from where we had lived all our lives and been plopped here, into an unknown and possibly dangerous environment.” Willowpaw remarked, shifting closer to Sunflower, partly hoping to comfort him and partly to comfort herself.

Listening as the she-cat spoke, Sunflower slowly nodded in agreement to what she said. They certainly got uprooted from their home, with everything taken from them... well, except his skypelt; the strange yet comforting item that the small Twoleg kit had given him those many moons ago.

Looking down to the blue pelt that laid between him and his father, Willowpaw's sudden contact against his own pelt sent his ears to shoot straight up in surprise and he snapped his head up as if some sort of danger had entered the clan's shelter. Cats didn't generally take a spot next to him if they had a choice, seeing as though he didn't exactly the most comfiest pelt to nest against to, and so the apprentice's willingness to openly lay next to him had taken him off guard, to say the least.

She was just laying next to him, as cats usually did... so why in Silverpelt's name was he so awkward all of the time? After a few moments of contemplating what to do, he took a breath. "I... I w-want to go h-home," he mumbled softly as tears began to fill the wells of his eyes. Everything going on was certainly overstimulating for the odd tom and the more he thought about home, the sadder he became.

Willowpaw felt her own tears well up as she saw Sunflower's do so. Stop! She scolded herself. You have to be strong for him! The idea that she was trying to be strong for someone who was a Warrior, while she was an Apprentice, would have been amusing to other cats-but really, does your rank decide whether you can be sad? It does not.

Blinking fiercely, she held back her own tears.

"Me too." She mewed. "Hopefully this will all be over soon and we can all go back, happily, life'll be back to normal, and things will be fine." She smiled at Sunflower comfortingly. She, too, hoped that things will soon be back to normal, snd that they could go home.

Ears perked, Sunflower turned his gaze towards Willowpaw. Even through such fear she was still able to be hopeful of the future, whatever it might hold for SkyClan. "H-hopefully..." he mewed softly in reply, lifting a paw and swatting at his muzzle in hopes of wiping the tears away. If only he could be as brave as her, or any other cat for that matter.

Willowpaw nodded, still working to hold back her own tears. Strange, my tears never get held back when I want to most of the time. How come it's working now?

Then, Willowpaw realised Sunflower was crying. She leaned in and, without much thought, licked off his tear.

Realising what she had done, Willowpaw quickly went back to her lying-down position. "Sorry..." She whispered.

Surprised at her sudden display of affection, Sunflower's ears perked up and his amber eyes became locked onto the tabby's olive gaze before blinked a couple of times. She sure was compassionate, that was for sure... and although they didn't particularly know each other too well, he didn't find himself complaining and had to admit that he'd been comforted by her presence.

"It... it's o-okay," he honked softly in reply to her apology. "N-no need t-to say s-sorry," he added, an ever so faint smile growing on his muzzle.

Willowpaw blinked as she met Sunflower's gaze. She smiled at him comfortingly. She wasn't too sure what was happening, but as long as Sunflower was happy, so was she. "Thanks!" She responded to his words.

A momentary pause passed where Willowpaw just laid there in silence, feeling comfortable herself and happy to be offering comfort to others. She didn't really know what was going on at the moment, except that she felt a warm feeling in her chest. That was weird...Huh.