Hear Me Out [Closed]

"Smallbean?" Tigerdance asked his new leader, approaching the smaller cat. As he settled down next to the other tom it became clear just how big Tigerdance was compared to the new leader. He always knew Smallbean was small but.. well.. This was a different scenario. He never really had to get this close to the tom before, and now they would have to work together on a regular basis. This was going to take some getting used to.

"What's the plan from here? We-" He really wanted to say you, but he wasn't going to jeopardize their new working relationship. "Have a lot of work to do to rebuild what Shrikestorm messed up, and rebuild their trust in their leadership." He wasn't apart of Shrike's and Small's mess but it was up to him to clean it up alongside his new leader.

The sound of his name being spoken managed to interrupt Smallbean's ever-running thoughts. Tigerdance, and thank the stars he didn't sound like he had a problem. Letting out a sigh of relief, he raised his ears, a silent confirmation that he was listening to the other tom. Although not negative, they did have problems to discuss, he knew.

When the striped tom padded over, he moved over slightly, allowing him room to sit. Squeezing his eyes shut, he listened as Tigerdance brought up their biggest issue. Where to go, what to do, how they should continue from here. "Yeah... We do." The new leader really didn't want to have to talk about it, not right now, but he knew it needed to be discussed, in the least. Another sigh left his open maw. "I think... Well, there's a lot to do. For starters, I guess we should start in camp. Fix things between the cats we live with. Repair trust. Eventually..." He paused, eyes dropping to his paws as he thought. "Eventually I want to make things right with Shadowclan - All of the clans. Mostly Shadowclan. But that's uh... Hard to take care of, at least right now."

"I don't think there'll be any specific thing we can do to make them trust us. We can't make them feel any specific way. Look at Sootstorm. Even in Shrikesta-" He corrected himself. "Shrikestorm's last moons as leader, he was supportive of him. They feel how they want to regardless of what we do." The leader's mismatched eyes briefly shifted up towards his deputy. "I guess... We just have to do the right thing from now on. And own up to our mistakes when they're made." It was really all Smallbean knew what to do at this point. Even if they did some extravagant favor for the clan, there would still be cats who didn't trust them. To him, trust took time and consistent proof that they were worthy of said trust. He turned to Tigerdance. "You, uh, expected something out of the leadership. You were on the other side of this. Is there any, like. Recommendations you have?"

Tigerdance couldn't help the small scoff that escaped him. "Actually put Windclan and it's safety first?" That was the biggest thing when it came to Shrikestorm's leadership. He acted too much on his ego, and what he wanted and not really on what Windclan needed.

"Which you have already shown to somewhat do when the whole Riverclan gorge fiasco happened, but I also believe you sat by and let Shrikestorm do what he wanted too many times. You need to start standing up for what you believe in more Smallbean. You may be small in stature but doesn't mean your voice has to be." He hoped he wasn't crossing a line with his statements but he also felt like it needed to be said. Smallbean really needed to start using his voice more. "You are to be our leader after all. If you speak too softly then the others will start to walk over us."