embarrassing older brother (c)

Dovetail was fairly quiet, as far as the warriors of RiverClan went. He wasn't overly sociable nor overly antisocial. Mostly he did whatever was asked of him, went on patrols, held inoffensive conversations. But whenever he had free time, his eyes were always on his friend Murkyriver, his brother, and his sisters. It was second nature; he couldn't help it. He was always worried about their well-being. Whether they were getting enough to eat. Whether they got a thorn in their paw on the walk. Whether they weren't feeling well. And any time someone needed his help, he would be nearby. Of course, when observing the same few cats as often as he did, there were very few things that escaped his notice... and lately, he'd been noticing something troubling. He wasn't the only tom keeping an eye out for Pigeonpaw. At almost every turn--the fresh-kill pile, patrols, the apprentice's den--another pair of eyes followed her. And, with a narrow glare, Dovetail took note. Scarletpaw. Murkyriver's apprentice. Pigeonpaw's... friend, perhaps. He'd been the one who'd gotten lost with her. He knew little about the tom, other than Murkyriver mentioning how disrespectful he'd been to her at the mentor-reassignment ceremony, and the way that he lurked near Pidge like a second shadow. And Dovetail didn't like either of those things. To be frank, it sat uneasily under his pelt. It itched at him, raised his hackles, caused him to flick an annoyed ear whenever he caught sight of the bothersome apprentice near his sister again. So he supposed he ought to do something about it.

One frigid afternoon, when the sky was clear and the air felt like it bit through any fur to get straight to the bones, Pigeonpaw was out on a patrol. Scarletpaw had probably finished his duties for the day, judging by how he was shivering by the fresh-kill pile. Now was as good a time as any. Dovetail had been wearing his fox pelt all day to help with the icy leaf-bare wind, and he felt no reason to take it off now; for once, it might actually help if the tom found him intimidating. The stocky warrior padded up to the fresh-kill pile, pale-blue eyes locked on his target's pelt. No one else was around to stop him, and Pidge wasn't here to wail in embarrassment or annoyance. He allowed the head of the fox pelt to shadow his eyes menacingly as he approached, taking a seat by Scarletpaw without any ado. Silently he groomed one of his front paws for a moment. Then he turned, staring at the scrawny young apprentice. "So," he said bluntly, "why have you been following my sister around?"

The little apprentice was intimidated by him--something that pleased Dovetail, for some reason that he could not quite put a paw on, though he tried not to show it. He squeaked, his eyes darted around, he bristled almost at the question. Not a very faith-inspiring reaction. Dovetail's eyes narrowed. "I believe there's a difference between being around a friend and shadowing Pidge's every movement even when she's talking to someone else," he pointed out, lashing his tail once behind him. Murkyriver lurked near him in a similar fashion, though he saw no reason to point that out. Though now he got to thinking about it, what did that mean? It wasn't the point of this interaction, though, so he filed the strange thought away for later. "Even if you do only have one friend--" the tone of his voice implied this was pathetic, despite the glass nature of his own house-- "then it's not normally polite to follow her around like a second shadow. And... you are only friends with her, aren't you?" Here, he leaned forward slightly, looming over the younger tom even more. His pale blue eyes gleamed beneath the shadow of his fox pelt. "I sincerely hope, for your sake, that it isn't anything more than a friendship."

Then he pulled back a little bit, glancing nonchalantly away to groom one of his large paws again. Hopefully that had dissuaded any strange thoughts from Scarletpaw. Then, with a sigh, he answered the question. "Yes. I do worry about her. Her, and all of my siblings. It's the job of a brother to protect her from any threats. Now that she's safe here, I don't intend to let anything bad happen to her." Here his head turned once more, locking eyes with the other tom. "Anything bad," he repeated slowly, a hint of a growl at the end of his words. Implying that if Scarletpaw were to somehow become a threat, then he would not remain so for long.