Are You Happy? {open}

The days since the gathering had been hazy, warm little things as Leaftwirl curled up in her nest in the nursery. Her clanmates had helped to carry the kits back, and the queen was adamant on keeping them all close to her belly, warm as the chilly leaf-fall wind began to cut through camp. Sunflower would visit often, and Leaftwirl's green eyes flashed at his presence. While he was the father, and it was logical that he should find interest in his kits, the she-cat found she was foolish for once leaning on him as she did. Maturity could be faked, and she had done it well. Hunting and fighting under Wolffang's watchful gaze. It was easy to seem like a star warrior next to Sunflower, however selfish it may have seemed. But the lonely nights spent by his side had led to something more than a friendship. It wasn't forced, but rather it came along slowly, unsuspecting, until she was heavy with his kits, and he was heavy with responsibility. Ironic, how in Leaftwirl's comparison to the cowardly warrior, she had turned him into something of a hero. At least, that is what he needed to be, for her children. It never occurred to Leaftwirl that kits would be a thing she'd want to have. Her life had always been focused on the whimsical things, the snowflakes and feathers. While Wolffang had discarded her point of view for another, there was never a thought of children in there. But now, two moons after their birth, Leaftwirl couldn't think of anything else she'd rather do. The little scraps of fur had been as wonderful as her apprentice-hood adventures. They'd often whisper little nothings to her at night, or would bring her pretty rocks or flowers. Leaftwirl would purr and respond with their beauty, telling her offspring what wonderful cat's they'd be. The spark in their eyes seemed to add a new sense of hope to her own heart, and Leaftwirl found herself smiling again, carefully folded into her own little world with her beloved kits who she loved so dearly.

Naming them had been something Leaftwirl took on herself. Sunflower simply accepted the titles they had been given. There was a time the she-cat would have thought it selfish, but these kits were her own, and she would die to make them happy. With Amberdawn gone and her old friends across the borders, Leaftwirl had forged her own fortress, a shield against the oppressiveness SkyClan once produced. She had never thought such a thing possible before. Leaftwirl was a sensitive cat with her heart buried in the sun and the moon. Life would bring happiness and she'd laugh with it. And life would bring sadness and she'd sit and wait. No efforts were made to break through, as it was proven time and time again that the sun would continue to rise. She'd often sit and think that perhaps this truly made her a coward like Sunflower. But deep down, the she-cat refused to accept it. She had trained hard to be something Wolffang could take pride in. And yes, her own livelihood had been sacrificed as well, but that, she listed as one of her greater feats. Oh, how times had changed her.

Leaftwirl sat up from her nest and peered down at her little ones, purring as they sat nestled in the moss. Amberkit, named after Leaftwirl's beloved friend Amberdawn, had Sunflower's white body, with a striped tail like her mother. Basilkit was a darker gray, skinny like her father with large ears that made Leaftwirl chuckle. And Silkkit, baring the softest fur, all three little scraps beloved and cherished. Leaftwirl sighed as she vowed to bring them happiness. It was simply another feat to devote her life to, just like hunting or fighting. "Good morning little ones..." She whispered fondly, wrapping her feathery tail around their sleeping frames. "Let's go play a game of mossball, or we can find some beetles perhaps!" Are you happy?

"Beetles?" A little gray-hued head popped up immediately from underneath the shelter of Leaftwirl's feathery tail. It look silly, the way those long strands of fur decorated her angular head, green eyes popping out against the background. Any sleep that had once fogged her mind dissipated at once. Finding beetles was an excitement she craved. Her siblings could gather moss but she was determined to find every little bug under every little sock. They were silly, the way they crawled senselessly in any direction they desired. Basilkit was a sweet and simple creature in youth. She knew what she liked, and that was what she desired. One time she had asked Leaftwirl to change her name to Beetlekit, only to be met with some nonsense that only Tinystar could do that now and Basilkit was a fine name. The kit never forgot but after sometime had decided she was content enough with her name.

As the slender kit slid out from underneath the guise of safety, she tapped her little black nose to Leaftwirl's with a soft purr. Her eyes danced with a trill of life that could only be held by the ignorance of a kit, "Do you really mean it, momma? Can we search the forest too? Thas where all the good beetles are I'm sure of it!" Basilkit was ready to scamper out of the suffocating nursery and see the world. There was no memory in her head of the birth at fourtrees, but the freedom of such a birth seemed to have engrained itself into her very being. She was destined to see the world. And being at the belly of a queen, under the rules of a clan, at least now, seemed to be such a stifling thing. Her family and her siblings were her everything, and it was her decree they come too. As long she was permitted to roam to their territory, and beyond.

Amberkit lifted her head that seemed too large for her body and blinked her amber eyes. Her brown tail was wrapped tightly around her small kitten body. She pulled her attention to Basilkit who spoke first, she always wanted to agree with her siblings but she just didn't feel like collecting bugs today. "What about mossball? We always collect bugs, all the time!"

Foxpaw was feeling restless, practically pacing around the camp as he tried to decide what to do. It was tempting, to leave the camp and perhaps go hunting or check the borders but he knew he technically wasn't suppose to leave the camp on his own, but he also didn't feel up to bothering another warrior or attempting to find Spottedleap. He was in the middle of brushing past the nursery when the sound of voices caught his ear, turning his gaze to the dimly lit entrance.

Right, Leaftwirl. It had been a surprise to poke his head out of the medicine cat den when he had heard the cats returning from the Gathering only to see them bringing home kits. He couldn't believe it, Leaftwirl had kitted right in the middle of a Gathering! Part of him was relieved that he had missed it thought, he wasn't sure if he was ready to witness the miracle of kitbirth just yet... He paused for a few seconds, before he turned poked his head into the nursery. With his leg fully healed finally, he wanted to make the most of it...And playing with the kits seemed like the best idea.

"Hello Leaftwirl," he greeted, although he honestly didn't know her all that well... Outside of Spottedleap, he hadn't really interacted with the other warriors...Mostly because he had been stuck in the medicine cat den for so long and now...Now he was just worried they would discover his fear of heights. "I see that the kits are awake" he mused, as he gazed at the small kits...He couldn't believe that kits started out that small...That he used to be that small - that anybody used to be that smal-Well, okay maybe he wasn't surprised that Tinystar used to be that small. He sat down not far from them, happy to see such energy in the kits. "Do you need any help entertaining the little bugs?"

Having kits was a lot of work, and he wasn't even the mother.

With Leaftwirl having kitted at the gathering not too long ago, Sunflower had been busy making sure her and the kit's bellies were full and comfortable with moss surrounding their nest. It'd been hard, hunting so much, especially when he wasn't particularly keen on hunting, but it was his duty, one in which he'd prove to the clan that he could fulfill, no matter how simple it seemed to other cats.

With a bird in his jaws, the abnormally lean tom trotted over to the entrance of the nursery, and a small bundle of fur almost sent him to jump in the air. Luckily for him, it wasn't a mouse, but Basilkit, most likely about to try and leave the den.

Resting his tense hackles and giving his on edge fur a shake, he stopped in his tracks and plopped his rump down, having to hunch down in order to fit through the twig crafted entrance. Looking down to the scrawny she-kit, Sunflower set down the bird in front of her tiny paws. He wasn't exactly great when it came to interacting with kits, seeing as though he'd never had a reason to do so before, but he tried his best, and hopefully Leaftwirl was able to see that.

"E-every seen a b-bird?" the soft voiced tom mewed to his kit, a meek smile on his large muzzle. Obviously, she couldn't eat prey such as birds just yet, but better to introduce them to what they'd be hunting sooner rather than later, he supposed.

"Bugs do things, moss doesn't." Basilkit pointed out factually to her littermate. She tilted her head in Amberkit's direction for a moment before turning to the nursery entrance. Her tiny black nose peered just over the entrance as she waited for an explicit permission to be released upon the camp. Within moments, there was a lanky pale figure approaching. Excitement grew and he ears perked up. As Sunflower jumped ever so slightly, his bones threatening to flee his skin, she was thrown into a fit of giggles, "It's just me daddy. I'm not a badger." In her youth, she found his fear to be amusing and not disconcerting. This was just the way the timid tom was. As he plopped the feathery creature down, Basilkit set to inspect it. Her nose twitched as it drank in the scents of the forest. With a sneeze, she realized that perhaps it was possible to sniff too much. She hardly had time to answer her father's question as she shook her head.

And then there was another cat! The russet of the apprentice's fur was appealing and her easily distracted brain forgot there had been a question as she heard the newcomer speak something of fascination - bugs! The gray-hued kit scampered towards Foxpaw and her prying nose darted over his paws and his coat in a flash. One might have even thought she was a Windclan cat with such speed. After a moment of searching she came to a conclusion and pulled back to fix the tom with a decided statement, "You have no bugs. But we can find some if you like. I'm... I'm sure Amberkit won't mind. They're a lot of fun and they look all different ways." Her rapid speech caused her to stumbled over the enthusiastic words. She did not have a name for this red cat but she liked him, since he liked bugs. They would go find them together. That sounded like fun for sure. Maybe since he was older too, they could journey farther. Other than her littermates, and parents, this new cat was her best friend. She had decided. And then she realized,

"Oh. What do I call you?"

Since the Gathering, Lightfang had kept his distance from—well, from an awful lot of SkyClan, but especially from the nursery. Queens could be protective of their kits, and he’d made his allegiance painfully clear as of late, however his Clanmates felt about that. Besides, he wasn’t good at talking to kittens. They jumped from one subject to another like a warrior jumping between tree branches with no discernable thread of conversation to follow. Even his brief talk with Meadowkit back in his apprenticeship had left his head spinning. But he didn’t mind them, not really.

The sudden commotion from the nursery had drawn his attention; during his moon of camp life, he’d learned to patrol here the way he’d used to patrol borders. Of course, when he arrived, it was to find that nothing was wrong. The pale warrior lingered at the nursery’s entrance, uncertain. Watching them now, one wouldn’t know the kits’ birth had caused a stir throughout the forest; they acted as carefree as a litter that hadn’t managed to disrupt an entire Gathering. Amberkit, Basilkit, and Silkkit. One of them, the gray one, was going on and on to Foxpaw about bugs. A smile crept onto Lightfang’s face. He ducked his head to hide it. It was sort of refreshing to hear the kit's enthusiasm, even if its subject was…what it was.

It was probably strange to stand there for so long without saying something, and leaving would be stranger still, especially if any of the nursery’s current occupants had noticed him. ”They seem like a pawful,” he meowed, raising his eyes to meet Leaftwirl's. ”Do you need anything?” This, too, was a holdover from his confinement, though it was a pointless question most of the time and probably would be now; after all, Sunflower had already brought a bird, and Lightfang wasn't about to volunteer himself for bug hunting.

Amberkit shook her head at her littermate. She noticed that a red-furred tom came in and shortly after her father came in. A little bit after that a white and light-ginger tom came in and her big amber eyes caught sight of the scars that ran down the tom's neck. "Uh- excuse me mister, have- are you alright?" She mewed in a soft voice.