of the friendly sort [closed]

Darkglow, still tired from her vigil, despite finding it oddly restful, had been assigned to a patrol. She'd been given lots of time to process the things that were going on and not sleeping meant her dreams couldn't be interrupted. Shaking out her coat, she padded after her patrolmate. The elder warrior was one she knew little about, other than the fact that they were Jaystar's kit. Although the new warrior was not the most social type, there was something about this cat that begged to be pried open and she found a curiosity budding the longer they patrolled. She wanted to hear them talk, to get out of her own head if only for a moment. It had been these thoughts that slowed her steps slightly and when she came back to, the she-cat quickened her pace to catch up.

Once she reached Flywhisker's side, her wide and gentle eyes sought to meet theirs. A soft smile touched her features, a hopeful thing, as she tried to get them to speak, "You've been a warrior for a little while now, right? Do you miss being an apprentice?" She had been happy at the prospect of a warrior ceremony, more because of the company it meant she would be in rather than the gravity of the role - which was something she had yet to wrestle with, given the many other things captivating her thoughts. As Darkglow waited for an answer, she tipped her head slightly, hoping her friendly features would encourage conversation.

The first thing that hit Flywhisker’s ears after they rolled out of their nest was an order, courtesy of Perchfall, to head a small patrol—an order they followed without flinching, blinking sleep out of their eyes as they trudged through the snow. Not that they needed it, but the threat of starvation had a way of making cats dutiful. They needed to pull their weight more now than ever. They just had to figure out how. Sure, they could hunt, fight, and probably walk the borders in their sleep, but there was more to it than that. Apprentices chattered to each other endlessly on patrols. Warriors shared tongues with friends, family, their own denmates. As Flywhisker had kept quiet vigil over RiverClan’s camp, on the outside looking in, something had clicked: they couldn’t serve a Clan they didn’t know.

Silence settled across the plains, punctured only by the faint crush of snow under paws—at least until a voice broke through. Their patrolmate. (Darkglow, they remembered. Though they’d been out of camp for her ceremony, they had made a point of learning their new denmates’ names since settling into the warriors’ den. Kitten steps.) In any case, Darkglow was staring at them now, golden eyes soft, yet expectant. Flywhisker blinked back. For the first time since they’d set out from camp, something like nervousness flared in their gut. How long had it been since they’d talked to someone who wasn’t Turtlefur? (Even then, they hadn’t spoken much since before Flywhisker’s ceremony; Flywhisker wanted to give him space after… After.)

But they couldn’t back down. Just the thought of it made their chest clench. They wanted, needed a connection, and Darkglow had dropped a chance for one right into their paws. “Not really.” There. Easier than going to war with SkyClan. Flywhisker took a breath. “I mean, my apprenticeship went okay, but I like being able to do things. If the fresh-kill pile’s empty, I can go out and fill it. If I want to, I dunno, go stargazing, I can.” At some point, they’d stopped walking. With one forepaw shifting just enough to kick up puffs of powder, they idled there. As if moving forward might mean leaving the tentative thread of conversation behind. “What about you? I guess it’s only been a day, but—it feels different, right?”

She nodded along as they spoke, soaking in the words with a genuine interest. Subtle flicks of the ear and the light in her eyes showed that the she-cat was genuinely engaged. Darkglow smiled softly. The fact that they answered made her paws a little lighter. Flywhisker had been a silent creature, slipping in and out of the den without the pair of them ever speaking before. Most of the time, the calico had little ability to think about anything other than the worries running through her head. But she noticed little things here and there, outside of her head, away from the world of uncertainty. It brought some comfort to engage in such a normal conversation.

"Stargazing?" Darkgaze's head tipped as she looked at them. She'd spent so much time conversing with the cats up in silverpelt and keeping her eyes low to the ground, that she never considered what it must look like at night, "You should show me sometime. What the stars look like." She was curious, and it sounded like such a nice and peaceful moment - a reason to keep herself awake for moments longer and with another cat at her side. Without meaning to, she drew slightly closer to him. Her features looked pensive for a second, contemplating the question.

"I wish it felt more different, that things could change more. But it's very much the same I'm still just... me. Unfortunately, I'm not too exciting, Flywhisker." Her whiskers twitched as she laughed softly at her own admission. It was true, beyond having wandering pawsteps in her sleep, Darkglow could not think of much interesting about herself. With the restless sleep she got, each passing day she felt like a fish slipping mindlessly though the river. If only she could possess such little thoughts as well.