private MIDNIGHT FORECAST 🎀 FEATHERSPINE

[PINKSHINE]

Featherspine was probably thinking about a lot, right now...

Pinkpaw was thinking about a lot to, but she was thinking about what she could do about it. Not what she couldn't do or didn't do... Worrying about those things didn't do anything but make her sad, and Featherspine was so growly all the time, he probably did a lot of that too... Pinkpaw could try to find her, and they could sit down and... talk about stuff, but wouldn't it be better to worry about it later? The ifs, the buts, and the ands... They should just have fun now, and when Featherspine was all cheered up, then they could deal with important stuff. Important stuff is a part of life, she knows... but she thinks unimportant stuff is just as important.

Far into WindClan's territory, where the fire hadn't burned things black and... there was no blood on the grass. Pinkpaw found something and got the best idea ever. Featherspine would get the special friend privilege of seeing it first. " Feathuhspine! " Pinkpaw finds her around sunhigh, mouth stuffed full of her prize from the falls, a bushel of bright red berries that probably weren't poisnous. She feels fine, so it's probably okay. She wishes she had more colors, but this would have to do... She wonders if Featherspine'll be able to guess... " Les' hang out! " she mumbles, tail waving high in the air. Without waiting for an answer, she scampers out of camp. She wanted this to be a secret just for Featherspine! For now, anyways.

She hadn't really thought of where they'd go ahead of time, which maybe was a mistake, since a lot of WindClan was still... burny. She heads in a random direction, eyes scanning the moor. She just needed to find something not burny, like... like... umm... some bark!

It's a miracle! It was a little darker maybe than it would've been in Leaf - bare... but maybe it would work! She sets the berries down, waving Featherspine over with her tail. " I found these berries, um, super far away! Remember how we used to draw in the sand? " Carefully picking just a few berries off the bunch, she rolls them forward onto the bark, and... smush!

" Look! " she cheers. " Drawing! "

// OOC: @FEATHERSPINE​

 

[FEATHERSPINE]

For once, Pinkpaw had made a shrewd observation. A lot was on Featherspine's mind, indeed. The death of her former mentor most novel, but the death of her brother ebbing in the backdrop, the soft thumping of a tearing heart. Shivering sadness teetered a tightrope across her bones, hiding behind steely skin. She refused to outwardly falter. It was not what warriors did...

But even when he'd been an apprentice, he'd been acting like a warrior. When was the time to act like an apprentice?

Well, it was in these meetings with Pinkpaw. Despite the difference in their ranks now, Featherspine could walk behind her and almost feel completely relaxed. He could pretend for a little while that everything was good, because Pinkpaw tirelessly made it seem that way. And whenever she called him Featherpaw he wouldn't correct her.

Today, she got it right. Featherspine did not feel dipping disappointment, no, but there was still a small twinge of a feeling reminding her of... not wasted days, but whatever it was that was missing that she just kept on noticing. "Okay then," he hummed, faking some kind of reluctance, but she was gone before his response could even properly land. A snort left him, straight-faced laughter, and he was following her without really thinking about it.

Pinkpaw walked with such purpose it was a surprise when she stopped, supposedly looking for something... ever-glaring eyes blinked, the sight of scorched moors stained behind her eyelids. Something good, something good- she caught the ginger-striped wave of Pinkpaw's tail, and decided that would be it. For once, he did not scorn his feeling of trust as he lowered himself down to sit.

Remember how we used to draw in the sand? Featherspine smiled, close-lipped, with a glimmer of something sad in yellow eyes as she murmured, "Yeah, I remember." He'd never really liked the line's he'd made- they had always been jagged and scribbly, like the scrawly monsters that even now lurked in the corners of his vision at night.

Genuine awe, though subtle, flickered in Featherspine's gaze as she looked upon their makeshift ink. "Are they p-p-poisonous?" he muttered suspiciously, though against his better judgement reached a white paw out to dab at the smashed berries. Brtght red usually meant bad. With any other cat he'd think it was a murder plot. Her movement was tentative, fearful almost- as if he armed himself against enjoyment.

Still, she drew a red smudge across the bark- it stood out brilliantly, like a flashing danger sign. Featherspine's lips quirked again, trembling up and down. Her movement was a smooth swirl, like lapping waters, like the top of a cloud. Within her, she was surprised to feel a spark of pride at something so trivial. "Is that right? You're much better at p-p-puh... p-pointless things than me." A joke funnily enough, voice void of disdain. ​

✦ penned by pin​

 

[PINKSHINE]

NOTE: mobile post!

Featherspine reflects a smile. It's small - but she's relieved it's there at all. Relieved that she hasnt lost the ability to, after everything... and, like... a small from Featherpaw was like a big one with sparkling teeth, from Pinkpaw. She won't take this moment for granted... she'd be stupid to, after everything. When they're doing it together, it's easier to make her own smile push at her eyes.

It doesn't feel like it's been that long, really. It really should since... everything's changed. They would never patrol behind the tails of Scorchstreak and Bluepool again, for more than one reason... They couldn't see too much of the territory without being a bit sad, anymore. Pinkpaw had less kin to ramble about... But they're still just Pinkpaw and Featherpaw, right? Having fun together, talking about whatever they want... Well, now he is Festherspine, but it's not that different. It doesn't have to be that different. Should she want things to be that different?

Well, whatever! They're drawing! Painting? Featherspine is so, like, responsible! Asking if they're poisonous and stuff, but even so, he joins in. Pinkpaw hums. " Proooobbably not? " she offers, leaning closer to her friend. " Well, we can go to Wolfsong together if they are! " Hopefully not. He didn't need more work, really.

Doesn't matter, cause Featherspine's having fun and the berries are definitely ( probably, hopefully? ) not poisonous. His line goes down all swirly - like and bright red. Pinkpaw shoves herself forward with an energetic " Oooooh " of wonder. Is that right? he asks. " There's no right, silly! " she snorts. " It has... as much of a point as you want it to have! And looks as right as you want it to look! " She sounded super cool and smart right now, she's sure!

" As long as you're having fun... " Suddenly determined, her eyes narrow into slivers and a pink tongue dips from her mouth. She raises her ruddy paw, preparing to strike... before painting her own swirly - like line to the left of Featherpaw's. She didn't know what they were drawing, but she liked that they were doing it together. A pleased, close - mouthed giggle leaves her. " No one else could do anything like this, I bet. "

...Has she been doing it the whole time? Calling him Featherpaw? Or was it only in her head? She looks to her friend, but everything is... normal. Unless she was mad at her, and it was just the normal kind of mad. A moment passes, and then... " D'you think we can keep doing stuff like this when we're... um, Featherspine and Pinksomething? " She'd make it happen, so long as Featherspine liked it too.​

 

[FEATHERSPINE]

It wasn't difficult to smile with Pinkpaw around. He used to pretend it was- or, well, he'd been younger and more immature, and it had annoyed him instead of seeing the usefulness in morale. If it was all about usefulness, anyway... then it was useless to be miserable. And here he was again, scrambling to pick apart any good feeling, as if its existence had to be justified. Pinkpaw, she smiled without having to make excuses for it. She did it because that was what she believed in... what had once annoyed Featherspine, she now found admirable about her. To stick to your beliefs, tirelessly...

But as ever, sun-bright tones stopped him from dwelling. Slivers of yellow softened, and the scrawl upon the bark felt almost like an extension of herself. Snowy paws were stained now, yes... but oddly, Featherspine found she didn't really care. "Juse don't p-p-put any in your mouth, then," she huffed. It would be wasteful to give Wolfsong unnecessary work... and there was a sadness in his eye that was making Featherspine a little avoidant, a little skittish.

It looks as right as you want it to look! Featherspine fumbled for a retort, but even a sharp wit couldn't throw a dart through that sentiment. It was so purely good, so immaculately jovial, that there wasn't an argument. Even still, he struggled for something... snowy paws grasped an answer, any answer. What point do I want it to have, came an inner whisper, and then... what is it I want? And had he been quiet for too long?

As long as you're having fun! Featherspine retorted quickly, defensively- "I am!" It tumbled right out before she could think about it, before he could realise that Pinkpaw wasn't being accusatory, that she wasn't trying to say anything unkind. As if she ever would. Embarrassment prickled beneath his fur, but he watched her all the same- a swirling, flowing line. It fit well with his... it looked like the breeze. An idea pushed itself to the forefront of his mind, and Featherspine prodded his paw into the berry juice, delicate and precise.


The 'ink' made the shape of a cat- it was small, purposefully so, and with legs outstretched as if it were running, though they were stick-thin and hardly realistic. Trailing behind the figure was a tail distinctively flicked with stripes. He swallowed, feeling a twinge of judgement, worried that she may not recognise herself. "I don't think anyone else would try." Her voice carried within it a lightness, distinctive and true. No, no one would even think of it... Pinkpaw's mind was sweetly unique, in that way.

Featherspine drew her paw away. It only looked a bit like a cat, and even less like Pinkpaw herself- but the worry dissipated upon Pinkpaw's next question. A squall warred in yellow eyes when he set them upon her- was she asking permission? Was she... did she think she wouldn't want to? The marbled tabby kept his composure enough to utter, "We'll have all the more freedom to do so, when we're warriors." It sounded stupidly formal. Bristling fur refused to lie flat, where a moment ago it had been as windblown grass, strands bowed. "B-But, I mean... I would want to." Vulnerability couldn't stay put out there for long. "I doubt you'd find someone else as willing as me, anyway."​

✦ penned by pin​

 

[PINKSHINE]

NOTE: mobile post!

She doesn't think Featherpaw's worrying as much as he thinks he is. His eyes are fixed on the bark. A white paw is held, stagnant. Pinkpaw gives it just as much attention. " Okay! " she agrees. She stretches her paw in front of her, held up beside Featherspine's... They're torally matching. " Maybe we can wash our paws at the falls! " she offers. And maybe they could find more colors there, too.

Pinkpaw's gaze flickers to her friend's. She was... waiting for something maybe? A few wide eyed blinks seek Featherspine's attention; back and forth between her and their drawing. She was having fun, wasn't she?

I am! bursts forward with a quickness, drawing Pinkpaw's ears to surprised points atop her head. It's like he thought he needed to prove it with the tone of his voice. Pinkpaw already knows, though! At least... she thinks she does? Between giggles, she says, " I believe you! " Tail still shot up like a flower looking for sunlight, Pinkpaw's paw drifts easily. Featherpaw watches her the same way she watches him. She hopes Featherpaw likes her drawing... which is weird, because who cares who likes it? It's hers! It's theirs. With the completion of her line, Featherpaw seems to find some sort of determination. The dip of his paw into the kind - of - ink is purposeful. Pinkpaw watches, mouth parted in a singsong - like, " Oooooh "

Pinkpaw tilts her head, watching close. " A... uh... cat! " she exclaims? Working the drawing out aloud. The stripes in the tail are noticed with sparkling eyes and a gasp. " A me? " It's so super hard to not like, shake Featherspine and totally mess up the drawing! Her tailtip flicks back and forth in excited motions, restraining itself to only tap against her own leg, at least. Was that true, that only she would ever have this idea? Was that all the more reason to share it with the world, or should it be a secret for Featherspine only?

Pinkpaw looks adorable. Drawing Pinkpaw, that is. Though real Pinkpaw does too, of course! So adorable that real Pinkpaw is fighting a viscious battle in her head over how to celebrate. Her paws buzz with energy, so much so that they pat the ground in a constrained little dance. She felt like everything was right all of a sudden. Despite the fire, despite the prey, despite Bluepool... but she'd want them to feel good still, wouldn't they? She's quiet for maybe a little too long, except for the sounds of her tail whipping up the moorland behind her.

" Yeah? " she says. Her voice comes out higher than normal, caught between answering a question and an excited squeal. Featherspine goes spiky again, and only then did she notice that he hadn't been, before. But I mean... I would want to. Pinkpaw's eyes don't leave their bark canvas. Her smile doesn't leave her eyes. I doubt you'd find someone else as willing as me, anyway.

She's quiet. And her face kinda hurts, but that's okay. Her paw smooshes itself in more berry juice, way less gracefully than Featherspine had, but that's okay. And it's the hardest thing ever, to keep her paw straight. The lines she draws are more wobbly: another cat behind the first taking shape in the same manner that her friend had. This one is taller, with long legs and a pointed tail. Spikes line his back, and Pinkpaw tries to plant a star on his forehead. It looks more like a smudge, instead.

But it makes her happy. Without noticing, a quiet purring has welled up in her. It's in the wobbles of her lines and the sounds of her voice. " I wouldn't wanna find someone else, either. " She tears her eyes away from their work at last... so she can make sure she captured all of Featherspine's likeness, obviously. She's used to this: fur like ruffled hawks feathers and brown tabby stripes. Pinkpaw tries to find her face... tries to find the same smudge on her forehead. She never wants to be not used to this. " We can do this forever! " she purrs.​

 

[FEATHERSPINE]

Something in Pinkpaw's laugh eked the corners of Featherspine's mouth higher, finding it easier to let it twitch upward and stay there. I believe you, she said, and he could for once resist dissecting it. Her plainness, it was something that had once writhed right through him- made him sick with worry that it would land her in trouble. Now, though? Now it brought energy, spun it through Featherspine's bones in a unique way. She believed her. And saying it was enough.

Pinkpaw's grin was even easier to mirror when her eyes sparkled like that, and her happiness had blossomed from something that Featherspine had done. It wasn't... wasn't in her nature to make other cats happy. She'd never been good at it- she'd always been content with being a guard, far away and cold and unfriendly, but at least keeping everyone alive. But that stargleam in blue-ringed eyes of dawn sun- the smile, deeply genuine on ginger-blushed features- Featherspine found a spark within herself that danced a little in yellow eyes. He gulped against it, pushed it away with a swallow.

"Yeah, a you." Like it was obvious. And Featherspine was still smiling- closed and small, as ever, but deeply genuine. Sparking warmth, some flipping feeling at the back of her throat, struggled against an instinct to shut it up, to clamp iron-grip jaws upon it and let a comfortable scowl return. The more Pinkpaw vibrated with joy, the more she glowed with glee, the more her tail whipped a waltz, Featherspine found that the spark was winning against the rime. A fire melted the frost.

The silence, he didn't mind as much... yeah was all she said, all she asked- and he nodded wordlessly. Yellow glare softened. It was a state she'd hardly let anyone but Pinkpaw see her in. How she'd managed to whittle him down so much, he could never say...

Those same yellow eyes followed a snowy paw- watched intently, with a distant glittering amazement, as she drew a cat beside the drawing-Pinkpaw. Drawing-Featherspine, that was for certain. Maybe it was Featherpaw- or, well... if this was a vision of the future, it'd be Pink-something and Featherspine, certainly. It was her, unmistakeably- Pinkpaw had even the care to draw her taller, and line the quills of her pin-feather fur along her back. And to think... once, she'd considered her thoughtless.

Pinkpaw's purr pulsed from her patchy pelt, quaked through the ground so that Featherspine felt it in her paws. I wouldn't wanna find someone else, either. When her eyes found hers, spangled and sapphire-surrounded, the kindling grew to an inferno all of a sudden. Rime in veins melted, and Featherspine's gaze narrowed, and then softened into something almost sad. An inhalation hitched. Was it true, that she would not leave him? "Do you even know how long that is?" Humour found its place in the crevices of her voice. "But I s'pose I've always b-b-been stuck with you..." And why me? "So what's a little longer?"

It was gentle chiding- sweetened by words void of venom. And softly, with the same flint-strike surge of affection she had felt when Pinkpaw's eyes had sparkled like Silverpelt, Featherspine found herself shuffling a little closer to Pinkpaw, and setting sunlight eyes upon the art they had created. Upon what they had made, together. A spiny tail, tipped with snow, brushed lightly against ginger-striped- his own purr rumbled through his body, and would be felt by Pinkpaw where their bodies just-slightly touched.

Featherspine gripped to this strange, good feeling while it was still here. Did it live within Pinkpaw? Was that why it sprawled out, pulling forth things she'd never do for anyone else, whenever her friend was near?​

✦ penned by pin​

 

[PINKSHINE]

They're doing it together — creating and watching each other create. She hopes Featherspine felt as happy watching her as Pinkpaw felt watching him. He may never show teeth... but the tight smiles counted just as much. And to think, when they were littler, Pinkpaw had been convinced that Featherpaw didn't know how to smile; worried that she would never know how to smile, but somewhere along the way, she figured it out. Pinkpaw led by example. She continues to do so, grinning until it borders on uncomfortable; but it never could cross that far, really... Not while Featherspine was here, and not while she was smiling back at her — one of those few things that she's always wanted, and that she hadn't stopped until she got.

She did pretty good drawing Featherspine, she thinks. And she wishes she had another color — something bright and sun - yellow like Featherspine's were, even if she'd probably put it on all smudgy - like. It'd be her, and that's what matters. " Just long enough! " she tells him, and she seeks to tear at the squishy parts of Featherspine's face that tried to make her stop smiling. And Pinkpaw very nearly yells, or drops her jaw in mock - indignance at what Featherspine says, but somehow, it sounds... nice. Too nice for Pinkpaw to even be fake - mad at.

So instead, she just keeps smiling, and so does Featherspine as she feels the brush of their pelts. And it's like... a victory, better than any battle won or piece of prey caught, for her rumbling to be joined by Featherspine's own. Where the brush of their pelts is slight, Pinkpaw leans further in, relishing the feeling of being happy, together. It sinks into her bones all warm and fuzzy like; the feeling, and the thought... I made Featherpaw happy.

...That didn't make it over. She would keep making her happy for as long as she let her, she realizes. Her smile softens; less quivering excitement and more... well, she can't really remember the word, right now.

They crowd their artwork in unison. There is a long moment of relative silence, left only to a wide grin and rumbling purrs. It takes a little while to find her voice again ( which is something that never happens ). Where Featherspine's tail is gentle, Pinkpaw's nearly thwacks his in her excitement. " We're soooo cute! " she coos. " We can't — we gotta... We gotta save this forever and ever! To celebrate it being the first! " she declares. " And 'cause... when I'm a warrior, this is gonna be us, definitely. " She had been worried about being a warrior before... but not anymore, if she could keep doing things like this.​

 

[FEATHERSPINE]

Featherspine did not believe she would ever know what had made Pinkpaw persevere so intensely- to stick to him like a burr and knead at his temper until it twisted into a smile. It was insane that it had worked, pestering to wear him down... or maybe it hadn't been mithering, and Featherspine's self-crafted steel had simply been so barbed and vicious that no one else had bothered trying. No one but Pinkpaw, starry eyed, spirit agleam.

Just long enough! And Featherspine's smile grew, twitched just that little bit bigger. She could not find within herself a retort, and in truth hardly wanted to. Pinkpaw leaned closer, her tail thumping against hers. The harmony of their purrs, together, managed to calm Featherspine's ever restless spirit. Against better judgement he let himself forget every expectation levied upon her shoulders ... he let himself melt into the touch. It felt almost as they were competing for who could put more weight upon the other.

There was silence, for a moment. Blessed silence everywhere. Outside and within. Pinkpaw's purring drowned out all the static in Featherspine's head that told him constantly he was not doing enough to be worthy of the blood in her veins. For a moment, Featherspine closed his eyes against it... he felt the breeze in his fur, and for once his paws felt rooted upon the ground.

Pinkpaw spoke, then- it cut through the quiet, but she at the very least did not tell Featherspine the things she told herself. For a moment he eyes her with some flickering race of annoyance for shattering the moment, but then thought better than that feeling when what Pinkpaw was saying began to wash over her. It was sweet, it was sentimental- upon a tan muzzle, a smile quickly returned. "Of c-course we will. When we're old we can look b-b-back and think about when our puh... p-paws were steady enough to make it." We. And whose nest it would stay in went unsaid. It would float in the abyss between them until Pinkpaw was made a warrior... and then it would be in the center of a cluster of nests, a thread tying them together. Her gaze flicked to Pinkpaw's eyes, blue-ringed, glimmering.

"It's amazing," and after a moment, her eyes flicked down to their art again. "I won't let anything happen to it."

Featherspine closed her eyes, again. She let herself rest against Pinkpaw's side, the long locked fur of their tails brushing fondly. "Let's not go b-buh... b-back, just yet..." A sigh. "Let's... let's stay here for a while." ​

✦ penned by pin​

 

[PINKSHINE]

When we're old. It's a funny thought: the two of them being elders together... they could tell the stories of Sootstar to kits that were too young to have ever heard of her, and demand stuff from cats as young as they were now... It's nice to, to not consider the possibility of an untimely, young death. Pinkpaw wanted to live long enough to see kits become warriors... To maybe even see inside the nursery again, someday. She'd like Featherspine to be there with her, and they'd race the moors until they can't anymore. Their painting would probably be dull and worn by then... but the important thing is that they would still remember, right?

Pinkpaw laughs, the shake of her shoulders ruffling quill - like fur. " You'd be the grumpiest elder ever, " she mews. Pinkpaw would pretty much have to be her with her to balance her out... not like she'd be anywhere else. Dedication is made clear then in sundrop eyes. Pinkpaw is proud to have been a part of this thing he calls amazing without a roll of the eyes or huff of breath. Her smile crescents her eyes, fondness stretches across them, but never grows thin. " You keep it then, " she says. It'd have a warrior's claws protecting it that way. " I trust you. " And Pinkpaw would brush a ruddy cheek against Featherspine's, purr never once quieting.

Featherspine relaxes against her, then, and Pinkpaw has never felt more special than now, to give Featherspine something way more important than any one thing could ever be. Pinkpaw is in no rush to get back to camp and see the stiffness return to her friend's shoulders. She finds a giddy calm in her, so that Featherspine can stay where she is – so a sudden jostle wouldn't remind her of the more important things they could be doing, and they can just... be here. " Yeah... " Obviously, she agrees. Slowed to a gentle lull, a candy - striped tail can twine with hers; a silent ask that her friend stays with her. " Okay. "​