Soft and Wholesome Harret Bonding [closed]

ooc: forgive me i couldn't think of a title

Ferretnose returned from her patrol with two chunky squirrels dangling from her jaws. Her head was tilted high with her tail curled up as she proudly dropped her kills onto the fresh-kill pile. The days were getting colder and harder on her body. Hunting was a great passion of hers, but as prey retreated for the Leafbare moons, it became a struggle to come back with adequate prey for her sizeable clan. She needed a break, a fact she was generally unwilling to admit. It was sunhigh, and all of ThunderClan congregated to relax in the center of camp. It was her favorite time to be home. She spotted a familiar brown pelt and purred to catch Harefoot's attention. In a few moments, she sat down beside him and stretched out her legs one by one, fighting back the tension of having them constantly bunched up in a crouch. Spending time with Harefoot was always nice, as they shared a certain mild-mannered attitude. He was a good companion, not combative or lacking kindness. Ferrretnose liked him quite a bit.

"Leaf-fall is arguably worse than Leafbare," she sighed. "I'm telling you, there's nothing worse then stepping on a leaf with a rodent right in front of you. It's the worst! How's being confined to camp been, dear? Are your ribs healing well?"

Camp life had been restrictive and altogether boring in Harefoot's opinion. He liked running in the territory and the relative isolation of the forest more than lying about in the busy, bustling camp. But The medicine cat duo kept him off of his paws and in as much comfort as a cat with broken ribs could be in, and he wasn't about to defy StarClan's own messengers. Harefoot wasn't in the mood to put himself in pain anyway. So there he rested, just outside the strongly-scented den, and he spent his days socializing and humbly accepting the prey that apprentices and younger warriors brought him. It was a day like this that Ferretnose approached him, sitting next to him with a friendly purr.

"Oh, you're right - and even when the leaf is soft, there's inevitably some crunchy twig beneath it waiting to alert your target!" He agreed, taking a few awkward breaths every few words. Despite the open wound, freshly coated with a poultice of some unknown leaves and berries, Harefoot was in a rather good mood. It was hard to be upset with such a jovial cat around. "I'll tell you, Ferretnose, you don't know cold until you can feel the morning breeze on the inside of your coat," He meowed with a good-natured chuckle, "but really, I think I'll be okay. Hurts like the dark forest but certainly not life-threatening. That's what Pricklebush tells, me anyway."

Ferretnose shuffled closer at the mention of coldness, suddenly realizing that Harefoot was probably about to shiver right out of his skin in this weather. Even if he wasn't, she didn't particularly mind the contact of pelt against pelt. She listened to him talk about Pricklebush, the old grump, and she was taken back to her apprenticeship. He had to lead the entire clan by himself...

She found herself horribly lost in thought staring at a wayward tuft of fur on Harefoot's shoulder. Ferretnose's ears turned hot with embarrassment. "Not to be weird, but that's really bothering me, and there's no way you're getting it with those crunchy ribs!" she mumbled, reaching up to lick it flat. "There we go!" she mused with a little tremble in her voice. Why did she do that? StarClan, what was that? Oh boy, oh darn it all, oh stars-

"G- W- Ah- Mm- I'm sorry."

"Oh, well, uh, if it was bothering you, then... I don't mind, really..." He responded, Ferretnose's apparent awkwardness beginning to affect him as well. Surely that was merely a friendly gesture, right? They were friends. Good friends. Friends who groomed each other all the time and it wasn't weird at all. "So! Badgers! Yep. Nasty business. Claws and all that." Harefoot rambled, trying to force the conversation into a more relaxed topic than whatever had just happened. "Yeah, and the gathering... why don't you tell me how the gathering went, Ferretnose?" An odd sort of heat spread though his coat, and he gave her an uneven smile. 'StarClan, I thought I was done being weird!'

Ferretnose allowed a giggle to escape her mouth at Harefoot's flustered stumbling. Alright, so it wasn't just her. She groaned at the mention of the Gathering, which was always a chore. It wasn't that she didn't appreciate the cultural experience of sitting with all five clans in one clearing, but it seemed that nobody could resist picking a fight. Whatever happened to a night of peace?

"If you can believe it, nothing happened!" she chirped. "A few cats were getting snippy with each other, but that was it! Whew, it's like we can never get a minute to breathe. It gets my heart rate jumping. I've been more jumpy than usual..." Her voice trailed off, remembering what filled her with anxiety. Poor Hazelpaw, sitting up in StarClan, watching her tormented sister from above. Ferretnose held Duskpaw on the day her apprentice passed. Harefoot did not know that pain. Houndheart was a formidable (if not touchy) tom. Perhaps she cared too much. She had mourned for too long. Her heart recovered, yes, but what about her mind? She felt weak and cowardly. It was everything she didn't want to be, and everything the forest made her feel she was. They always targeted her left side. Always.

"Well, it's hard not to be jumpy when you've got one working eye, right? I mean, look at this thing. I could see in it for a little while, and then... nothing. I don't remember what two eyes was like. Sometimes I feel like everybody just sees the eye." Ferretnose shrugged, smiling through the intense pain of allowing herself to be known. It was a scary thing.

Harefoot leaned into her as he listened to her report, his undamaged side propped comfortably against hers and his ears perked in interest. A calm gathering? Now that was shocking. Then Ferretnose's voice trailed off after she admitted to her recent jumpiness. Honestly, Harefoot hadn't really noticed, but he'd been stuck in the same place for a long time while she continued on with her duties. And Hazelpaw... oh, poor young thing. And poor Ferretnose for having been saddled with the pain of losing and apprentice. Sympathy fluttered in his chest as she appeared more crestfallen with each passing moment, and he leaned in to cradle her cheek with his muzzle for a few heartbeats. The motion was over quickly but the meaning was clear: 'I'm here for you.'

The dusty tom pulled back to meet her gaze, eyes flicking between her working eye and clouded eye. "Well, it is a pretty distinguishing feature. But, to be completely honest, I don't really see it when I look at you. I see... a loyal, devoted warrior who wants what's best for her clan. And her... friends." His hesitation at 'friends' stuck out oddly amidst his soft and hopefully reassuring words. He blinked and looked away, a timid smile curling his mouth softly.

Ferretnose found herself leaning closer into Harefoot's pelt until their muzzles were a hair apart. She felt as though her heart had become a little leaping cricket, tumbling around in her chest. A sudden warmness fueled her core, combating the bitterness of the breeze. It was strange, but the warmth had nothing to do with Harefoot's soft brown pelt, which was scented with the zest of herbs and the musty earth. Oh, stars.

It was nice to be seen.

Sparkling with the thrill of a tender moment having come out of nowhere, Ferretnose made a tiny chirping noise and touched her nose to Harefoot's. Her tail swooped timidly to the side, sliding underneath the tom's own. The she-cat resisted the urge to wiggle with happiness. "Well, when I see you, I see a cat who is equal parts compassionate and honorable. I see somebody like me. And I know that when push comes to shove, you'd lay yourself on the line for your 'friends.'" She nudged Harefoot's cheek playfully, poking fun at his use of the word. "You know, nobody's ever complimented me like that, except Mossbloom. But it's different with you, because you're..." Realizing how dangerously close she was to making herself look foolish, she let the rest of her sentence trail off as her good eye darted around camp, desperate for somewhere else to look other than a pair of grass-green eyes.

'Oh, rats, I've made things weird again!' Some of the kind things Ferretnose said made him want to giggle like a kit, elated she thought so kindly of him, but his own social ineptitude was making things difficult. He grinned at the ground when she gave him a light-hearted nudge, wide eyes avoiding her gaze. Harefoot felt the tension build as she cut off, curious what she was about to call him, but refused to say anything else for fear of jumping to the wrong conclusion. She was a great warrior with a lovely personality and problably had all the toms in ThunderClan padding after her, and he didn't want to ruin their great friendship, and he wasn't even sure what he was feeling in that moment except a kind of constricting feeling in his chest and a tingle in his paws. The warmth of her tail intertwined with his was enthralling, and he could really only picture feeling this close to one other cat.

Bearooth.

'Oh.'

Well, things weren't exactly the same. Were they? Everything was getting muddled in his head, and the confused tomcat was silent for probably much longer than was socially appropriate in such an intimate occasion. "I mean, um, I'm always happy to... say nice things. About you. You're really nice to me, too." Some of the pauses were due to his broken ribs, but a lot of them were because he was simply a painfully awkward cat. "I guess sometimes I feel a little invisible. I'm not a really great fighter or anything and I don't do a lot besides hunt. But it's nice to know that someone's waiting for me when I get back to camp at night."