camp SMILE FOR THE PICTURE // practising

[NIGHTPAW]

" You're so weird!" One of the kits admitted straight to his face. Nightkit just stared back in confusion. He was?. Another kit added in. " Yea!, you really are!. We only agreed to play with you because Erminekit did it once and so we thought maybe you would be fun to play with but we had wrong!." Now he was staring back at the other kit. There was three of them, and all had invited him to play with them which was unusual since it was rare anybody asked him, because of that Nightkit had agreed but apperantly he had done something wrong. " You didn't even let us win even once at the seek game!, a true friend let others win now and then too!." The last kit added in and then there was the first kit again. " And you barely even talk which is so booooring!."

Suddenly this seemed to have become a roasting session. Everybody had something to say about him which they didn't like. Nightkit was taken a bit back at it because this had never been something that had crossed his mind before. Sure, he knew he was a bit different from his sisters, but to think it was an issue to others. Nightkit without a doubt knew who he was, and staying true to himself wasn't that more importand?, or should he think more carefully in the future?. Would he be liked more if he took less space?, if he spoke more and let others stand in the spotlight?. All sort of different solutions crossed his mind, weither he should care or not but it was what the last kit said that really struck him.

" And you never smile!, that...that's so creepy."

Aha, this was an issue he had recognized already. Father especially loved to smile which was something both of his sisters had copied too. In a way, it felt like a wall was between him and father because of that. Nightkit wished to be more like them, so he had been observing, watching and learning. But what he learned in theory were not always easy to put into practise. Nightkit's gaze shifted down to his paws. " Sorry, i will let you win next time." It was empty words to him, not exactly holding any truth because thier opinions didn't matter but he knew repuation meant something to father, so it should matter to him as well. So it was important to apologize sometimes even if he not meant it. He had to be kind to live up to the expecations of this name he had been honored with.

" Whatever!, we never wanna play with you again!. Come on guys lets go!." One of the kits huffed, and together they ran away to leave Nightkit to his own thoughts. Did father think he was creepy too for not smiling?, for not copying it like his sisters did?. It was more troublesome for him to thinl that father might believe him to be weird too rather then what this kits had just said to him. That...he wouldn't like...

Nightkit turned away still in his own deep thoughts when he came across a puddle. Stopping right in front of it he stared down at his own reflection. Blinking, he stared for a long time before his lips started to curl up to show his white teeths in the form of a grimace. This didn't exactly look like a smile...not anything close to his fathers smile. Lips fall back to its rightful place again, before he attempted another one this time leading a paw to his face to pull one of his lips further up. Still, it didn't look anything close to his father's trademark smile. Nightkit tried one more time, and for each fail he contunie to try, to practise in hope to find his smile....

// this is taking place a couple days before he becomes an apprentice!


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[heatherpaw.]

( ⊱✿⊰ ) heatherkit does love to smile. more precisely she loves the power of a quickly flashed smirk, the strength that comes with a sweet but judgmental grin. her place in the nursery is built on smiles, on the sickly saccharine way she speaks to some cat's deepest desires. master manipulator like her father before her, heatherkit knows she may be the prized daughter. even so, she looks out for her siblings. one must always keep family close, lest they see fit to betray.

watching the situation unfold, the girl can feel icy anger turning in her stomach. the nerve of the kittens, taunting and tormenting her brother for his simple act of playing with them. nightkit humors their every whim and still they whine and bother. a snarl curls at the blue frosted kitten's maw, and she arrives with claws out. "you'd better run, rats,"

the words are growled after the scattering kits, frost hard eyes following them, marking them as prey. slowly, she turns from the retreating cowards, finding the familiar dark form of her brother. he sits by himself, not necessarily sad looking, but dejected all the same. his lips curl in an imitation of sootspot's signature grin, and heatherkit narrows her eyes as she watches. "those hare-brains have no idea what they're talking about. imagine letting some kit win just 'cause they're not strong enough to beat you. don't listen to them, nightkit."

"a smile is in the eyes, brother," she will note, sitting before the darker furred kit and demonstrating. exaggeratedly, the girl lifts her lips, cheeks filling out, nose crinkling slightly. her eyes widen, smile lines appearing at their corners. "like this!"

SAY WHAT YOU WANT ⊱✿⊰ BUT SAY IT LIKE YOU MEAN IT

• // "#b2a0bc"
• 
• HEATHERPAW ⊱✿⊰ SHE / HER, WINDCLAN TUNNELER. MENTORED BY DOWNYFUR. 6 MOONS, PENNED BY LAVS
  
  
  
  a longhaired blue lynx point with blue eyes. her body is cloaked in pale snow-white fur, a storm of blue flooding her face, tail, and paws. stripes of darker blue accentuate her eyes nose, and band around her legs. shining eyes stare out from the angular shaped face, a deep, faded blue color.

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[PINKSHINE]

Pinkshine doesn't hear what the kits say... But hears Heatherkit's snarled words. She sees the pinpricks of her claws, and Pinkshine rushes toward her and Nightkit both, blue-ringed eyes stretched wide in alarm. She nearly thinks to scold Heatherkit, but they were clearly being mean, weren't they...? The question of what happened? lingers on her tongue. She strains to hear Heatherkit's words. Kit teasing could get pretty mean, huh?

And Nightkit's... doing something funny with his face in the reflection of a puddle. Is he trying to smile? Pinkshine's never seen someone struggle with it so much... Most cats smiled when they were happy, even if it was a weird, creepy smile. ( Her brother comes to mind — her brother that was now in the ground. Was it mean to think of him that way when he had died so nobly? ) She doesn't watch the kits in the way she usually does, with a bright eyes and brighter smile, carefully cooking up the perfect way to interject herself into their games, or whatever... She's frowning, and she probably looks terrible.
When she wasn't happy enough to smile, she'd usually just make herself happy enough. It's gotten so hard, all of a sudden...

" Your smile's real good, Heatherkit, " she mews. Even if something about her smile's a little off, a little different... objectively speaking, it was a good one. Pinkshine looks to Nightkit then. " I've kinda forgotten how to smile too, Nightkit, " Comfort in similarities, maybe... " Maybe we can do it together. Listen to Heatherkit, and then... And then I'll count down, and we- all of us, " she adds, blinking at Heatherkit. " We can all give each other our biggest smiles ever! Yeah? "​