love us as we are [open!]

Batbite found herself down by the river, paws tucked under her chest as she watched the water flow. It went on, ripple after ripple passing her by, steady even as the water was always shifting. She was not here to hunt, nor to fight - though she wouldn't say no to either should the opportunity arise, she had simply come here to think. It was quiet today, just as she'd hoped. Her tail curled around her side, and the river rippled. She blinked, and the river rippled.

Nothing she did would change that. It was strange, to sit so close and feel so safe, but not in an unpleasant way. She wasn't quite close enough to touch it, the lingering chill of leaf-bare and distaste for her ancestors keeping her where she was, but she could see each ripple and the occasional glint of silver underneath. She watched them pass, ripples and silver glints that she thought to be fish, and simply let the sound of the river's flow distract her from her thoughts for a moment.

The river rippled, and she knew that if she swatted at it with her paw she could shift the direction in which it ran. If she jumped in, it would splash, and the direction would change again. But in time it would return to the way it was before; it would flow the way it always had as though she were never there. Not unlike the stars.

She'd never thought as highly of StarClan as most of her clanmates did. That wasn't to say she'd never respected them, but she spoke of them plainly, without much in the way of reverence. They held power, certainly, they'd proven as much time and again - but as far as she could tell, they'd done nothing to earn it; and besides, they'd lived their lives already. They were ghosts of the past, with paws to guide and wisdom to share, but no cat was infallible and not all traditions were fit to keep.

That was one of the things that made her different; that she'd never let them guide her paws in quite the same way. She'd listened, at her Moonstone, but even now she wondered if there had been anything to learn. She wondered if her Clanmates whispered to themselves, if they thought that it was because she wasn't truly Clanborn. That was nonsense, plain and simple - she was ThunderClan as any cat, and if it was blood they wanted from her then she had shed it on the battlefield, same as any of them. She'd sworn a warrior's oath, and she'd kept it, even if it had taken her a while to do so. She was keeping it now, even living within the rules for once in her life.

It was resignation that had brought her home, but it was love that led her to stay this time. The playful, lilting voice in the back of her mind told her love was the reason she'd left, too, but that wasn't it. She hadn't felt at home here then, though it was the only one she'd ever known - she'd been an outsider and a stranger among her family; her distaste for the warrior code had made her distant even from her kin. Strom had understood that, he had felt the same sort of weight on his shoulders, and they'd left to find something closer to happiness for themselves.

And in the end, they'd found it led them here.

The river continued rippling and she watched, lost in thought. Her ears pricked at the sound of someone else's pawsteps interrupting her quiet, though she didn't look up.

Strom found his paws directing him to the river once again. It was almost strange, how it seemed to draw him; he'd lived beside it for most of his life, played in it, fished in it, swum in it, and it seemed he couldn't get away from its calming voice, that gentle chuckle and splash of wavelets. The river had never been the one to hurt him, but memories still lay there. They didn't hurt as much as they used to, but merely filled him with an odd nostalgia, a strange longing. If you can't get away from your ancestry....

There was another reason for him to wander out here, too. Bat's scent trail led here; she'd left camp a while ago. He didn't have much else to do, and his paws had led him in this general direction anyway. Up ahead, he could see her pelt, black and curly strands of fur standing out against the shine of the sun rippling on the river. A memory flashed - her eyes staring intensely into the water's depths, a sparkle flashing as a fish arced up, up into the air, and her eyes as they looked into his. A strange nostalgia... like a faded scent of something that used to be there, and no longer was. They never had succeeded in what they set out to do there, but... We found something better. And now it was threatened by the very ancestors who had told him to choose. No. I'm not thinking about that again.

Her ear twitched as he padded quietly up, but her head didn't turn to glance at whoever was there, and he simply settled beside her, letting his fur just brush her pelt. There was a perfect quiet, here, and it lulled him, a comfortable silence, broken only by the sounds of the river and birds, and their breath. This time of newleaf... somehow it was always so peaceful, and yet held a remnant of the chill of leaf-bare in the mists that lingered along the river and in the reeds - and the roots of the trees, too. He was loathe to break it, and there was nothing that needed to be said. So he let the river and his own silence speak for him.

The scent of her mate reached her nose, and Batbite flicked her tail in a silent greeting as he settled beside her. There was the sound of rushing water, the feeling of earth beneath her paws, the warmth of her mate's pelt brushed against her own. For a moment, she let herself stop thinking at all. For a moment, at least, there was peace.

"What brought you out here?" she asked eventually. The spell of silence was broken, but her eyes were still focused on the water. Watching intently as each ripple passed them by. A glint of silver flashed beneath the surface, and her tail lashed once, but aside from that she kept perfectly still.

The ripple of the river slid before them, ever-changing yet oddly the same general pattern repeated endlessly. It lulled a sweet, burbling song, full of gentleness and warmth, and he let his thoughts flow to it, eyes half-closed as he simply rested.

His ear twitched as Batbite spoke, and he stirred, glancing at her and following her gaze out to the little glimmers dancing under the water's surface. What had brought him out here? Batbite, the gentle pull of the river, or just his paws wandering idly? Or all of them? A slight smile crossed his maw as he shrugged lightly. "I don't know. But I'm glad I am."

He reached a paw forwards, just touching the edge of the water as he stretched it, and feeling the wavelets lap at the edge of the white fur. "When the river's like this.... it's always peaceful." Memories slid by like the ripple of the river, and he was silent for a moment, letting them burble gently up - free of hurt and cares - to the surface. The warmth of his mate's pelt beside him helped keep the old sting away, and he let his paw rest in the edge of the ripples a moment, his eyes half-closed.