I'll turn you around! (closed)

The preparations were complete! A day of rolling around on the moors had made Silverwing's pelt sufficiently disheveled, she would need that if she wanted to trick Smallbean. It may have been a little mean, but she could apologize for that later! Silverwing gave herself a good stretch before bolting into Fourtrees. Immediately as soon as he came into sight, Silverwing started to snap her head in every direction. "S-Smallbean? Smallbean!" She called for her deputy breathlessly, putting a little bit of leftover fear into her voice as she did. Doing great so far! After a few moments of this, her eyes locked onto her prey. A couple quick bounds had her in front of him. "Smallbean, quick! The crevice, a cat fell in to the crevice!" Her words came quick, and before they were completely out of her mouth Silverwing was already running out of Fourtrees and in the general direction of the crevice. Masterful acting, Silverwing! She didn't even have to look back to make sure Smallbean had followed, even if he knew she was lying he couldn't just ignore something like this. As she got closer to the crevice, Silverwing slowed her pace to a stop a couple fox-lengths from the opening. That thing was scary, she didn't really want to get too close.

For the majority of the day, Smallbean had spent his time trying to make Fourtrees like camp. Sending out normal patrols, taking part in normal conversation, holding normal ceremonies. Right now, the deputy lay on the ground in a ray of mottled sunlight that passed through the canopy of Fourtrees. It had only just started to grow cold, and although his pelt protected him, he still enjoyed the comfort of sunlight on his back. Comfort. Something he appreciated now more than ever.

Seemingly out of nowhere, a panic-stricken call broke the air, affectively pulling his attention. Snapping his head in the direction the calls were coming from, Silverwing quickly came into view, looking bewildered. The warrior's panic spread to the deputy in a matter of seconds, and within the time it took for her to reach him he'd already gone down a spiral of possibilities of what could be wrong. Silverwing stopped in front of him, spitting out disconnected thoughts and leaving again with no extra context, not even allowing time for him to respond coherently. "Wait, what! Huh?" Smallbean was already on his paws, stumbling after Silverwing as she fled from fourtrees.

As Smallbean crashed through the underbrush outside of Fourtrees and out onto the moors, he ran after the warrior, able to see the direction she was headed over the flat land. Cursing his short legs, he pushed himself, sprinting as fast as he could to catch up to her. The deputy didn't know what he would do to help the cat who fell into the crevice, but he'd have to try his best. What if it was an apprentice? What if someone was really hurt? Stars, he should have asked another cat to follow him before leaving Fourtrees.

Smallbean noticed that he was catching up to Silverwing a lot faster than he thought he would. What was wrong with her? This was urgent! Upon further inspection he realized that she was slowing down, eventually coming to a complete stop. Skidding across the hard ground and using his claws as leverage, he turned to face her.  "What's wrong? Who fell in the crack! Where are they?" He questioned, chest heaving and limbs aching after the strain they were under. The tom noticed that she'd changed completely in demeanor, no longer frantic or panicked. "Where are they? C'mon!"

Silverwing watched as Smallbean came to a stop. "Careful Smallbean, you almost ran right into that thing." Her tail flicked toward the crack in the ground as she spoke. Having a cat actually fall into that thing wouldn't be very funny. "Calm down, no one fell in, I just said that to get you away from everyone else. I wanted you out here so I could say that I'm... I'm sorry for what I said, y'know, before." She wasn't quite sure what she had done to make Smallbean want to leave that day, but it must have been all the bragging she had done. It was only natural that he would feel down when faced with all the great things she was able to do. If she were in his spot she probably would have left too. "I didn't mean to upset you, honest. Could we maybe start over?" Flashing him a warm smile, Silverwing waited for her deputy's response. A fresh start would be nice, maybe they could forget about how she acted when he tried to leave, or maybe he had already forgotten?

"What." Was the only word that Smallbean was able to squeeze out. Was... was she kidding? The entire stunt she pulled, the desperate pleas and calls of distress, was just to get him alone. For one of the first times in his life, he felt pure rage toward a cat without an added element of fear. He stood where he was, shaking, narrowed eyes intently focused on the warrior. The way she'd said it so nonchalantly, like it was a joke. The way that she thought a simple 'calm down' was going to immediately make him feel better again. His anger rose and festered the more he thought about it until he could contain it no longer.

"What makes you think that something like that is okay, Silverwing! You can't just- just.. Mess with my emotions like that! You made me think that one of my clanmates was in danger,  or- or, or that someone who I care about could be dying! I don't know if you've noticed, Silverwing, but I actually don't like having to worry like that! It's not fun!" He spat, a hint of distress in his voice. It was one thing if he made himself worry about something, but it was an entire other problem if someone else made him worry. Especially, if it was a lie. "You could have just told me you had something you wanted to say! Or that you needed to talk to me alone! Why in Starclan did you think it would be okay to make me think that someone had fallen into the crevice! Did you take any time to think? What about all of the other cats who watched your scene, some of which might be on the way right now?"

At this point the deputy's chest was heaving, both from yelling and the fact that he hadn't gotten to catch his breath from running all the way here. The more he thought about it, the more his anger festered. He could acknowledge the fact that she did all that just so that she could apologize, or the fact that she wanted to apologize at all, but he didn't want to. He didn't want to praise her for anything after this, not while he was still angry, anyways. Her desire to apologize was pushed to the back of his mind, to be pondered later while he was alone.

"Silverwing, I don't really want to start over." Maybe she hadn't meant to upset him before, maybe she hadn't meant to now, but neither changed the way he felt. "I don't want to be angry. I don't want to not like you. But I.." He didn't know what to say. "You've upset me already, and you can't change that."

Silverwing blinked as Smallbean began to shake in front of her. It wasn't really that chilly out, why was he shaking like that? Maybe it was because of how close he had come to falling into that hole, that would make sense. That thing was definitely creepy, and she didn't think any less of him for finding it scary. Then the yelling started. The silver she-cat froze as Smallbean continued to yell at her, a mix of fear and oddly enough sadness filling her. Mess with his emotions? She would never, not on purpose. She had just said it to get him out of camp, and it wasn't even true. Shouldn't he be happy that no one had actually fallen in? Did you take any time to think? No, that was her problem. Situations like this just kept happening and all because of her stupidity. By the time Smallbean had finished his speech, Silverwing's smile had long since faded, replaced with teary eyes and a quivering mouth. "I- I didn't..." Stars, he was right. That little scene she had made in Fourtrees was likely to have attracted attention from others. "I'm sorry Smallbean, I didn't think you wanted to talk to me after last time, I thought that this would..." Make things worse? Before it had been crushing to hear his disinterest in her, but now she was actively being shouted at, something that Smallbean never did. Holding back the tears at this point was incredibly hard, almost hard enough to make her let them flow, almost. The last thing she wanted to do was break down in front of this tom for the second time.

Smallbean didn't give her much of a choice however, his next words making the tears stream down her face. The fear that he didn't like her at all wasn't just a fear anymore, it was a reality. Simple sorrys weren't enough to fix this, but Silverwing had no clue how she was even supposed to repair their relationship in the first place. "I don't want you to hate me either Smallbean, please just tell me what you want me to do! Anything, I'd do anything..." Within reason. She wouldn't leave Windclan, or throw herself into the pit, or anything extreme like that, but she would be willing to do almost anything to make him like her.

The look of hurt that plagued Silverwing's features struck Smallbean harder than any monster could. Crying was something that he did often, it was something he'd come to terms with long ago. If he ever got too overwhelmed or upset, even it wasn't sadness, the tears would flow. But seeing other cats cry was something he was unfamiliar with, something that he didn't see every day. So when Silverwing began to cry, it sparked guilt and anxiousness within him. Being the source of direct distress was foreign to him, it made him want to take back every word he'd just said. He'd have liked it more if she'd blown up back at him, it would make him feel far more justified in his anger.

Just like what happened before, she began to plead. He couldn't help but feel bad for her, because he didn't know what to respond with, what to say. He'd never been put in this situation before, apart from the last time, but a fox had interrupted before he could say anything. His eyes drifted downwards toward her leg at the reminder, partly to keep himself from having to look at her face.

"I... don't hate you." He said quietly, eyes averted. "And.. I don't... know what i want you to do." To apologize? To leave him alone? It's not the type of thing that could be fixed with one action. He can't simply change his opinion on her because she does what he says. "It's... not my place to tell you that." He said, finally.

Slowly, hesitantly, he began to move his paws, still refusing to face the warrior. "... You have bigger things to worry about." He muttered as he passed, heading in the direction he'd just come from.