Blossoming Friendship [c]

Stormpaw

Stormpaw was happy it was Brookpaw he was out on patrol with. Ever since the gathering, Stormpaw had been on edge, eager to get out of camp and get some of the energy prickling under his skin out. He’d thrown himself twice as hard into his training. The possible looming threat of a conflict with Skyclan was always in the back of his mind, causing waves of dread and anger to hit him often. He really wanted a chance to get his mind off all of it, and, well… It was easy talking to Brookpaw. Besides, he really had been looking for the chance to spend more time with her again. He was still working on the whole making friends thing. He just hoped that he'd do okay keeping up with this friendship.

As the warrior leading the patrol went on ahead, Stormpaw fell into step beside Brookpaw a few tail lengths back. "How has training been going for you, Brookpaw?" He asked, stepping carefully over some fallen branches and looking on ahead to the rushing river.

Stormpaw

Stormpaw chuckled, bumping Brookpaw’s shoulder back and smiling warmly at her. “It’s been going alright. It’s halted a bit since Owlshriek got confined to camp and everything? But I dunno, I think I’m still improving, and everything.” His eyes sparkled briefly and he said, “Remind me to tell you what happened when I went out with Poppyshine a little while ago. It was really exciting.”

He turned his attention away from the memory and back towards his friend. “I’m sorry training has been going so slowly for you, though. If you ever want a partner I’m happy to practice with you! We can do like, spars and stuff. It’s always easier when you have a partner. I’m not as good as a warrior, but… still.” He shrugged and gave a soft laugh. “You always know where to find me. Because we share a den. And all.” His ear twitches and he ducks his head and gave a soft chuckle.

Stormpaw

Stormpaw’s own eyes brightened at the sight of Brookpaw looking happy at his offer. He liked making Brookpaw happy, and just spending time with her. It was easy to talk to her, he didn’t feel as awkward and fumbling as he did with most cats. Sometimes her confidence was infectious, and he could even feel confident himself. “Never ever,” He swore with a laugh, booping Brookpaw’s nose with his tail.

He relaxed as they walked beside each other, his worries from earlier having receded completely to the back of his mind in the face of Brookpaw’s company. He giggled when she brought up the story from earlier. “Mm, I dunno, maybe it’s not thaaat exciting,” he teased, drawing it out, before he laughed.

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding.” He hopped up onto a log, balancing atop it as he walked along. “Well, Poppyshine and I went out for a walk. I think she just wanted to check on me, I’m not sure. We were going to go hunting when we were attacked by two snakes!” He jumped down off his log to punctuate the dramatic twist. He tries to exaggerate the drama of the story a bit. He’s not terribly good at it, but he wants to make Brookpaw laugh.

Stormpaw

Stormpaw’s nose wrinkled when Brookpaw returned the nose boop, and he let out a little giggle. He grinned at Brookpaw’s protests, enjoying teasing his friend and messing around with her. He was pleased when she seemed hooked on his story, his tail held high, and he was utterly easy prey to her pounce.

He made an entirely undignified squeak as he went down, eyes wide and fur puffed as he looked up at Brookpaw, before he started laughing. “You got meeee,” He whined, flopping out dramatically for a minute. “I’ll never recover. Your blow was mightier than any snakes. I can’t possibly survive…”

Stormpaw laughed again, accepting Brookpaw’s help up after he finished his dramatics and giving her shoulder a quick lick to reassure her he was perfectly fine. “I’m kidding. But you did get me good.” He laughed. His chest feels warm at the sound of Brookpaw’s laughter in a way he can’t really identify, but it made him feel light and airy. His own purrs accompanied the chuckles that continued to escape him.

“Buut, what I was going to say before I was so rudely interrupted,” He shot her a playful glare, but it’s interrupted because he started giggling again. “Is that I kicked some snake butt. I mean, Poppyshine still did most of it because I’d never done actual fighting before then, but I did do this really cool stunning move.” He grinned.

Stormpaw

Stormpaw grinned. “Well how can I say no?” He asked, giggling again. He looked around until he found a stick to act as his fake snake and he grabbed it, pulling it over. “Well, I grabbed it by the tail like this,” He said, biting the end of the stick to demonstrate and looking at Brookpaw with it hanging out of his mouth (looking rather silly as he did so) and giving her a grin around it. Then he mimed pulling back and dropped the stick roughly back to the ground. “And then yanked it back down like that!” He finished his demonstration of the tail yank move and focused on Brookpaw completely with another big smile.

“And after that it didn’t have a chance.” He said, his head held high. He’s not really one to boast most of the time. He usually didn’t think there was much to boast about. But as usual, Brookpaw’s confidence was simply infectious… and Stormpaw couldn’t put his paw on it, but he never felt judged around her. Besides, he knew the more over the top he acted, the more he could make Brookpaw laugh. Which was always a win in Stormpaw’s book.

Stormpaw

Stormpaw’s smile was all together dopey at Brookpaw’s compliments, his heart doing something warm in his chest. And then before he could get too lost in that moment, his tail was being attacked and he let out an undignified squawk, yanking it away. The sudden movement made him stumble forward a little bit. He tried to look offended, but he couldn’t help but laugh at both her and himself. “Rude!” He accused, halfheartedly batting at the tail that tickles his nose in return. His nose crinkled as her tail brushed against it.

He shook out his fur, prepared to continue moving, when her question caught him off guard. “Well, one of the snakes ended up just running away mostly-dead.” He explained. “It probably died somewhere else. But-” Stormpaw frowned and fully sat down. “Huh. We did just kind of leave the other one behind. Poppyshine was really worried so she rushed me back to camp…” He trailed off, and then sort of puffed out his already chubby cheeks in a pout. “Man! I completely missed my chance to find out what snake tastes like! I didn’t even think of it.”

Stormdance

Stormpaw was far too distracted by Brookpaw calling him cute to realize what was happening until once again, it was far too late for his poor tail. He let out an inelegant squawk, lightly batting at Brookpaw’s nose with a gentle paw to push her face away from his tail as giggles shook his body. “Hey, hey-!” He interrupted himself with the laughter that bubbled out of him. “I’m not gonna walk in front of you if you keep that up!” He laughed, swishing his tail and shaking his head.

Brookpaw’s words caught him off guard, and he relaxed from the playful crouch he had fallen into. Stormpaw looked around and realized that she was in fact completely correct about the third member of their party being gone from sight. “Huh.” He said. Just as the anxiety of being on their own started to rise in him, Brookpaw bumped into his shoulder. He looked at her, then smiled. She was right. As long as he had his best friend with him, he felt like he could take on just about anything. He giggled. “You’re right. Let’s get some actual hunting done.”

He paused, looked out to gauge just how far the river was from them. Since it was close enough that he could clearly hear the river rushing, his face split into a grin. He looked at Brookpaw, eyes twinkling, and he reached over to playfully boop her nose with his paw. “Race you to the river!” He took off before Brookpaw could protest, suppressing giggles as he ran.