your beauty never ever scared me [worry]

Woolywing laid in his nest, for once due to tiredness and not fear- his several hours of relearning the simplest things like discerning scents and using his whiskers and listening for the slightest of noises had taken a lot out of him. Even now, after Dovesight had called it a day, he was practicing. He could smell cats, the scent vague at first, but if he lingered on the smell just a tad longer he could recognise a few of them- Dovesight and Sandypaw, their scents too similar for him to discern; Stormdance, his scent weak but present; Yarrowblossom, familiar as ever- Wait. Yarrowblossom? He craned his neck upward, ears pricked up. He could smell him, yes, but more prominently he could hear him. The sound was like a stab to the heart: Yarrowblossom was crying.

Woolywing's immediate instinct was to jump up, to comfort his best friend, to tell him everything would be alright. He started shuffling his paws into a better position and strained to stand up, his muscles tired from underuse. He heard Yarrowblossom enter the medicine den and stepped forward, then stopped. He'd realised he'd never see him again when Dovesight told him his eye was beyond saving, but actually experiencing it...

He sat, not confident in his ability to make it to Yarrowblossom without falling or starting to cry himself. He would not cry. He was resolute in this fact, determined to be strong for his friend- even though his soul shattered into a million pieces listening to his racking sobs. Then, after an excruciating silence punctuated by Yarrowblossom's heartbreaking crying, he spoke. Woolywing almost laughed, Yarrowblossom's signature indignance on full display even through his sobbing. The smaller tom prepared some witty retort, some joke to prove to Yarrowblossom that he was okay. That this was just a hiccup, he'd be right as rain faster than he could say minnow. But he opened his mouth and found that he came up empty. For once in his life, he had no words.

"I'm not going anywhere." He half-whispered, and the dam broke. First a lump in his throat, then a sniffle, and soon he was mirroring Yarrowblossom's own sobs. He hesitantly crept forward, trying to focus on what his whiskers were telling him despite the sobs setting him off balance, and finally clumsily bumped into Yarrowblossom. He buried his head in his fur. "I'm so- hic I'm scared. I can't- I don't-" He wasn't even sure what he was trying to say. "I'm glad y-you're here." was all he could think of.