ask me when i'm sober [silversmoke]

[Johnnyflame]

HE SAID, "WELL MY NAME'S JOHNNY, AND IT MIGHT BE A SIN
BUT I'LL TAKE YOUR BET, AND YOU'RE GONNA REGRET, CUZ IM THE BEST THERE'S EVER BEEN."​

---

Sometimes, Johnny wished that he and his twolegs were able to communicate a bit better, because at least then the lead would have been able to give his clan a heads up that he wouldn't be in on time that day. No, instead he'd woken up to his catdoor closed and his carrier sitting in the living room, the word 'vet' telling him all he needed to know. Odd that they'd be taking him in for another checkup so soon, but and he found himself a little frustrated that he would be kept from his morning routine.

He was even more frustrated when he realized he wasn't goin in for a regular checkup.

Apparently his twolegs had made plans to have a broken tooth removed which had been bugging him. Which meant that, no, Johnny wasn't in and out. He was knocked out and then set in a cage to recover for several hours. When his twolegs did finally come for him, it was well into the day and bobtail was still feeling pretty out of it. He was an odd mixture of too-light and too-heavy, his head reeling with dizzyness if he dared to turn it too quickly in any one direction. He was too sluggish for his own good, and the smart thing to do would have been to remain in his catbed where his twolegs put him.

Where it was warm, and safe, and terribly, terribly quiet.

He hated it. Almost irrationally so. Johnny had never been keen on having to recover alone, but for some reason it felt remarkably worse this time around, his feelings having nothing to tether themselves on. The logic and reasoning he normally would use to pull himself through these moments was nowhere to be seen, and instead the sunny-eyed tom could only focus on how badly he wished someone else was there with him. He wished he had siblings to come check on him, or a friend to curl up beside- even the kits bullying him to go play would be better than rotting away there all by himself.

In the quiet.

Which was when his drugged-up brain seemed to come to a realization. He could just... go. Couldn't he? It was daylight out still, and he was a daylight warrior. The clan would be waiting on him anyways, worried most likely. Guilt piled itself onto the misery he was feeling, followed quickly by an odd mixture of panic and excitement upon realizing nothing was actually stopping him from going. He had four feet and a heartbeat, after all, which was all he needed to make the walk.

So instead of being smart, Johnny let himself be stubborn. Besides, it wasn't as if the tom were thinking straight anyway. His mind was fuzzy and his thoughts were slow, but his feelings seemed to ring clear throughout him and right now he was unreasonably lonely. He hated being holed up on his own when he was sick or hurt, and while he wasn't quite sure if this constituted as either of those, he certainly didn't feel right. And perhaps childishly, the only solution that seemed to make any lick of sense to Johnnyflame was to go home- well, his other home, at least- where he had a nice soft nest waiting for him, along with all his friends.

Out the catflap -which was unlocked since his twolegs had expected him to pass right out and sleep it off before wandering away- and over the back fence of the garden. And no, he definitely did not fall off it and face plant, thank you very much! He was just, inspecting the grass... very closely... with his face.

Regardless, he'd made it into the pine forest beyond his home, albeit on unsteady legs that had him zig-zagging lazily down the familiar trail. He was craving a kind of comfort his twolegs couldn't give him right now, fueled by the guilt he felt over not showing up. It leeched its way right into his bones, leaving him feeling almost panicky in his need to reach the camp.

To his nest. To all the familiar smells. To the comfort of chatter in the background.

Something that promised he wasn't on his own.

@SILVERSMOKE

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[SILVERSMOKE]

Venturing the territory alone was something of a pastime for the spotted tom; it was something for him to do when told he wasn't needed for patrols but didn't want to deal with the noise of camp. There were... alternate reasons for his isolated tour today, though he wouldn't admit it out loud, there was a reason why Silversmoke ventured so close to the Twolegplace again. Silversmoke had duly noted the absence of a Daylight Warrior. It was his job to keep everyone in the pines safe, though abandonment of SkyClan was the most common cause for their disappearances in the past, Silversmoke had come to trust Johnnyflame a little more than the others. Insults once readily offered in his head felt like a poison he regretted spewing - no cat that stayed with SkyClan through so much was not the half-warrior he'd claimed them to be. But it was difficult to forget the smell of twolegs on the chimera, the loyalty that, though veered towards SkyClan, was still split between friend and foe. Suspicion quelled that conflict for a time, as when ThunderClanners had insulted kittypets, he wasn't keen on abandoning a SkyClanner regardless of their rank or origins.

He didn't think he would actually see a splash of brown and ginger fur between the trees, perhaps behind a pane of glass or bars as thick as badger bones, but not out in the open. Tufted ears pinned back in alarm as he made eye contact with the creature... except, it seemed to look right past him. A selfish part of him was grateful, he didn't want to admit he'd been worried about someone he could so easily call an enemy and perhaps Johnnyflame didn't know it was him, but, guilt festered in place of relief. Silver watched the Lead Warrior stumble left and right, zig-zagging as if disorientated, illness couldn't be smelled on the other, but something was wrong - 'poison?' He didn't know what it looked like, he'd only heard rumours that it was an awful way to go - mouth-frothing, body shaking like a leaf, neither thing he saw in Johnnyflame as he waddled on. An instinct to protect drove Silversmoke forward, paws squashing the fresh grass below with little consideration. It didn't matter when someone (not quite a friend, not quite the enemy to SkyClan he'd tried to proclaim all that time ago) was hurt, grass could regrow but lives could not.

"Johnny?" Silversmoke reached the other's side and pressed against it, hoping to give the other something to balance on. Long fur bristled at the contact and his face locked into a sneer on instinct, resisting every urge to bat the other away with a broad paw. It was energy he'd likely convert into chastising the other for being out when he walked like a wobbly kitten (sooner rather than later), but for now, he just needed to know if he should be getting Dawnglare. "Are you alright? What's happened?"

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[Johnnyflame]

HE SAID, "WELL MY NAME'S JOHNNY, AND IT MIGHT BE A SIN
BUT I'LL TAKE YOUR BET, AND YOU'RE GONNA REGRET, CUZ IM THE BEST THERE'S EVER BEEN."​

---

The bobtail hadn't been paying attention to his surroundings- not to the things that mattred, at least. Instead of keeping an eye on the trees ahead or keeping track of the sounds and smells around him, Johnny was zoning out on the little things instead; how nice the sun felt on his back whenever he stepped into the dappled patterns of light scattered across the forest floor, or how nice the pine forest smelled in spring, and how underneath the refrshing fragrence of nature coming to life was also the smell of Skyclan. Of home.

He only noticed he wasn't alone when Silversmoke was practically right beside him and calling his name. Johnny quickly turned to look up at the other cat, his body automatically beginning to veer in that direction as well, only to find itself corrected as the silver tabby pressed against him to keep him walking straight. Sunny eyes took a moment for recognition to spark, but it was easy to see the exact moment when it registered.

"Silversmoooke~!" he all but cheered, "Ye found me!"

Not that he was particularly hard to spot considering he was standing right there on a well-walked path in Skyclan forest, but that didn't matter! Johnny wasn't alone anymore, and his fellow Skyclanner was strong enough to have his back while he was feeling so weird. Smart enough to keep him out of trouble, too. Beneath all the fog and the strange urge to laugh at nothing, there was a still a part of him coherent enough to understand that much.

He let out a rather dramatic groan as he was asked what happened though, tossing his head back as if the mere thought of recalling it was too much to bare.

"I had to go to the healers today. It's was so boring! They did something, and now my head feels like it's full of clouds- threw off my whole routine, Silversmoke! Couldn't even go for my mornin' run..." he explained, tone akin to that of someone who'd been forced into doing a tedious chore, annoyed instead of panicked. That tone shifted though at the proximity between him and his fellow lead warrior, unable to help but pause in his complaining to give the other a curious sniff, as if only just realizing..

"Ye smell like home." he stated with a frown, borderline pouting as he was reminded of what he'd come out here for. " That's where ah'm going, ye know?" he informed them with a proud tilt of his chin. "Gonna sleep it off in my nest."

]

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[SILVERSMOKE]

Tufted ears pinned back at the cheer from the other, so loud next to him that he had to wonder if the other even knew it was him leaning against him. Feeling the tips of the ears grow warm at how eager Johnnyflame was to see him, Silversmoke had half a mind to bop the Daylight Warrior on the head again for trying to wind him up at a time like this. "I wasn't looking," he lied under his breath, desperately trying to find an excuse but coming up short as uncertainty wracked his mind. It was only when Johnnyflame continued that Silversmoke noticed that the sincerity of his wobbly state also reached his words too - even if he tried, the chimera was in no position for jests. He twitched as the other let out a groan, about to ask what was wrong before the other explained himself... sort of. There was something about a healer and a fuzzy head, immediately, the spotted tabby frowned. It was something he'd heard of before, twolegs had their own poppy seeds that were strong enough to knock a cat out - but why had Johnnyflame been forced into unconsciousness?

He gave Johnnyflame a once over, odd-eyes glancing at the scars all over his body. "What a shame. You also missed the morning patrols," he mewed in between his search, seemingly not paying attention to the other's running plight. Up close and without the fear of embarrassment, it was easier to notice the ruggedness of fur parted by pink lines, the interesting shape upon his left foreleg, and the little flick of his bobtail like that of a bunny's. Silversmoke cleared his throat and forced himself to look away; he couldn't get distracted, not when they were in the middle of the territory. Even the most well-worn of paths could be intercepted by danger and he'd rather not die because of curiosity. When Johnnyflame spoke again, Silversmoke's voice grew curt. "I do not smell like your—" Offence shone in his eyes, mouth forced to shut as the chimera continued. 'Home'. He looked over his shoulder towards the Twolegplace, then towards the direction Johnny had been going, and felt a pit of guilt form in his stomach. "Your nest..." he echoed in a whisper. The nest that Silversmoke had made, a declaration that Johnnyflame was more of a SkyClanner that the maine coon-mix would let on.

"Oh." The realisation only confirmed that he'd been right to feel bad: Johnnyflame hadn't been on about his Twoleg's home at all. It was a heartwarming sentiment. So often he'd presumed the Daylight Warriors didn't see SkyClan as a true home that briefly, he had to consider if he'd been wrong to use certain language around them. He thought back to Edenpaw and Hazelbeam and how angry they'd gotten when he suggested that the apprentice go home. Shaking himself out of his stupor, Silversmoke realised he would have to give it some more thought when the other was safe. Deflecting, he mewed, "You really are mousebrained, you know that?" He nudged Johnnyflame with his tail, hoping to prompt the Lead Warrior to move with him. "You could've stayed in the Twolegplace instead of risking your life to come to SkyClan. Being bored's better than being eaten by a badger."

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[Johnnyflame]

HE SAID, "WELL MY NAME'S JOHNNY, AND IT MIGHT BE A SIN
BUT I'LL TAKE YOUR BET, AND YOU'RE GONNA REGRET, CUZ IM THE BEST THERE'S EVER BEEN."​

---

"Aye.." he agreed with a frown, the word spoken on an exhale of disapointment. "No bein' mad at me, though."

Johnny was bummed about leaving the clan short-handed for patrols that morning, but he was also very distracted by just how nice the unexpected closeness with his clanmate was. Silversmokes fur was way fluffier than his own, and he was nice and sturdy... like a big, sturdy, fluffy rock that was keeping Johnny upright at the moment.

"Knew you'd make a good heater." he mumbled to himself, eyelids drooping a bit as the warmth from the others body-heat and the smell of Skyclan began to ease his earlier anxieties, culling that almost panicky need to get to the clans camp. In a way it felt like he was there already, or at least close enough to pretend. It was certainly better than the suffocating feeling he'd had while sitting in his catbed. He didn't even notice the momentary change in Silversmokes behavior when they mistook his words, merely nodding along dopily at the word 'nest'.

The silent command to move registered, though Johnnys paws lagged at the touch, remaining still for a moment too long before lurching forward, half dragging in the dirt beneath him. His balance was still garbage, but it helped having someone there to help steady him- momentum to go forward wasn't the issue for the bobtail, just the walking in a straight line part.

"Worth the risk." he scoffed, clearly not in the right state of mind to be making important life decisions at that moment, especially since he hadn't ever actually seen a badger and didn't know what it was. Then, he smirked. "Besides, you wouldn't let a dumb ol' badger eat me," he added confidently, "Not your favorite daylight warrior."

He said it like it was obvious, like it wouldn't get him cuffed all the way back to his fence at twoleg place. But Johnny had complete confidence in it.

"That's okay, though. I wouldn't let one eat you, either. I'd eat them, instead."[" he assured them, glancing up at the taller tomcat with a dopey smile and half-glazed eyes, snapping his teeth in emphasis.

]

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