leave it to me // open, intro.

[EVEREST]

"SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO FACE THE THINGS YOU FEAR, EVEN IF IT'S YOURSELF"​

Sneaking back into camp was always easy- everyone was so focused on the issues with the Marsh Group that him leaving to go see Crow was barely even noticed. Even if it was, they wouldn't believe that they were romantically involved; he could always pretend that they were trespassing and he was escorting them back. It usually worked, he assumed. Everest didn't like the idea of sneaking behind his group's back, but love was something he didn't come by often. Especially not with someone like Crow, as beautiful as they are.

"I caught some squirrels. Two."

The tom meowed as he walked over to a group of familiar cats, smiling up at them. As if he hadn't been lying for moons, sneaking out to see a cat from their practical enemy's group.

"Are the kits awake? Are they?"​

✦ ★ ✦​

 

[Lionsnarl]

"GIRL, YOU'RE A DIME, I'M A DIAMOND"​

Tugger was tired. Though he had tried his best to keep it hidden, the ginger king had been skipping out on sleep for days now, choosing instead to obsessively patrol a rough approximation of a large perimeter around their camp. The skirmishes and attacks were becoming too frequent, too tense for Tugger to be comfortable with them.

It was evident on his face how exhausted he was now.

Despite all of this though, he was sat with a queen, quietly discussing the possibility of her children exploring the greater regions of the camp when Everest approaches. Tugger's whiskers twitch in acknowledgement. "Sophie just put them down, but I'm sure she's hungry." Tugger grumbles as if the younger cat is some annoyance, though the position of his ears and turn of his muzzle betray true emotion. Everest is his brother, his blood without blood, even if he rarely says it a-loud. He would know that Tugger's grumbling and growling is mostly harmless, especially towards him.​

✦ ★ ✦​

 

[HAKU]

Haku knew little of love, especially of the romantic kind. He'd admired she-cats of many beautiful pelts and intelligent words, both in and out of his group; but especially since he had fled from his former home, he had not seen enough good in his heart to justify approaching them. To be loved was a light-years distant dream that he would be lucky to ever touch- and he was unsure if he even wanted it. Could he love, when he despised himself so? Perhaps one day. Grieving, and the terrible tornado of blaming oneself, would pass. He knew, though he had not anticipated the winds to be quite so strong.

Awkward and fringing the sidelines, deeply frigid eyes watched as Everest set down his catches, a smile upon his face. In polite but detached greeting, Haku dipped his head. "Good catch." It was admittedly a feeble offering, but at lease it was something- better than he had managed in the past. There was still that twinge of self-doubt in his gut, however- that vicious whisper that convinced him he dwelled in a world where no one wished for him to be around.​

[ PENNED BY PIN ]​