I Can't Lose You [c]

Locustcall

You're the pretender,
what if I say I'll never surrender?

Locustcall's paws carried him without thought, pure panic forcing his legs to race back to camp. He didn't stick around long when their two patrols met each other, both carrying wounds from dogs yet one certainly wasn't supposed to. More of those flea-bitten mongrels had broken into camp, the warriors remaining nearly losing their fight against them and only succeeding in chasing them off by a whisker. Many were injured, but Locustcall couldn't stay still long enough to find out who after Nightstar was named.

Stupid, stupid, stupid tom!

The calico entered the camp, his fur bristled in anger, fear, and despair at the sight of it torn apart, the feline and canine blood splattered on the floor. Still though, he didn't stop. He physically couldn't, like some unseen force was dragging him by the scruff as he searched for his leader. It wasn't hard, his scent easy to follow towards his den. He knew, as a warrior, he wasn't allowed to barge in like this. He needed to be invited or at least ask for permission at the entrance. However, he refused to. Nightstar could kick him out after for all he cared, he just needed to see him now.

He slipped through the roots of the old oak tree, finding Nightstar lying in his nest, the thick irony scent of old blood enough to make his eyes water. Yes, the scent was causing it, nothing else. "Will you stop dying every time I look away?!" he hissed, seething. "I swear to the stars I will hold your tail everywhere you go like a queen if you can't take care of yourself, idiot!" He sucked in a ragged breath. From running, not a sob, he wasn't crying.

Locustcall

You're the pretender,
what if I say I'll never surrender?

"I know!" Locustcall barked. Hearing rationality didn't make it any easy to accept though. If Nightstar were any other cat: Flintstar, Murkystar, Froststar if he had known him in his leadership, he would have expected this from them. But Nightstar wasn't any other cat. He was his best friend, his only friend that he felt he could be completely honest with. He was elated to finally have him back after moons and moons, and now here he was dropping lives like flies!

"But you won't be here at all to serve your clan if you die, Nightstar! If you die permanently! You've gone and gotten yourself mangled twice in less than a moon! Would it pain you to be more careful?!" His fur bristled and his tail lashed behind him, far too many emotions brewing inside his chest simply showing as anger. "I shouldn't have to worry about you in camp. Did you actually lose a life here? How many do you even have left?" There was a pause, then the tom snorted, averting his gaze. "Don't answer that." It wasn't his place... he didn't want to know.

"Starclan didn't give you these lives to throw them away. Shadowclan needs you here and you can't do that if you're rotting in a hole!" His muzzle wrinkled, his torn lip making his grimace even more evident. He took deep breaths in a vain attempt to calm, but his blood boiled at the thought his friend would so flippantly toss himself into danger seemingly every time Locustcall had his eyes closed. He wanted him around! Stop dying!

Locustcall

You're the pretender,
what if I say I'll never surrender?

Seven. With how often it felt like he found Nightstar bloodied, seven was a good number. But how quickly could seven dwindle if he kept on throwing himself into the jaws of dogs and the paws of monsters?

Locustcall inhaled a breath, but paused when his friend began to hack and cough, his words faltering into a shuddering exhale, his vision blurring. It took the calico a moment to recollect himself, falling into a sitting position with a heavy thump of his hindquarters. "I also don't an entire clan sitting on my shoulders. You have friends and family here, a clan that needs you to lead them, but all I have is you." He had Tigershriek too, and a few acquaintances, but he wouldn't have had any of that if it weren't for Nightstar, and with the tom in such a sorry state, his mind didn't linger elsewhere. All he could do was babble the thoughts that festered in the recesses of his mind. "So I would appreciate it if you stopped trying to act like your only use here is to be everyone's scratching post. It's terrifying wondering every time I leave you alone if you've gone and gotten yourself torn apart. I care about you, Nightstar..." His throat felt sore and scratchy, as if he's swallowed a feather that refused to go down.

Locustcall

You're the pretender,
what if I say I'll never surrender?

Locustcall's fur bristled, his lips pressed into a tight line as he bit his tongue. As much as he wanted to blurt Nightstar did have a choice, he knew it wasn't that simple. Nothing was simple. He took a deep breath through his nose, his claws kneading the soft ground below. "You're right, you are tied to Shadowclan. The dogs were unavoidable, I would have been just as upset if you didn't fight to protect our clan so calling you an idiot for this is... wrong." The word was spat, the admitted defeat having the claw its way out of his throat.

"However, the life you lost on the thunderpath was not for Shadowclan. You were on the wrong side of the border and I refuse to believe a monster flung you over the path. I don't care what possessed you to cross and get yourself killed, that was avoidable." Unsurprisingly, making sure his friend didn't die again on the way back home after the accident took priority. He didn't ask why he was there or what happened, just caring if he was alright. He still didn't need answers, but he hoped to Starclan he wouldn't do something that stupid again.

"What you're supposed to do is savor your lives. If you lose them all in less than a moon then you might as well have had only one to start with." The tom glanced to the red spots on his chin, thoughts visibly churning in his head before laying himself down, curling his paws underneath himself.

"I'm staying here until Burdockroot sees to you." And possibly longer than that, but that wasn't said aloud. "You need rest and cats can go bother Leopardsun if they need something." It was probably out of line to instate himself as Nightstar's guard, but in the tom's state, he didn't care. His leader, his best friend, was injured and he wasn't moving. "You've done enough for Shadowclan today. Let me help you."