stay next to me [coalfoot]

[Coldsnap]

IM SCARED TO GET CLOSE AND I HATE BEING ALONE
I LONG FOR THE FEELING TO NOT FEEL AT ALL
THE HIGHER I GET, THE LOWER I SINK
I CAN'T DROWN MY DEMONS, THEY KNOW HOW TO SWIM

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Twoleg-place was not an ideal territory. It was noisy and crowded and filled with more activity than any single cat could ever hope to keep track of. There was no proper territory to patrol and protect, though the twoleg property on which they lived was guarded fiercely by the large tabby tomcat.

After having their wounds healed and coming to the decision that they didn't want to become kittypets, the two of them had left to try and start their lives anew elsewhere. It wasn't an easy transition by any means, the wide open grassland and rolling hills replaced with pathways carved from cement and twoleg nests and other buildings that clustered together in neat rows. It seemed like every day Coldsnap was learning something new about the place and its inhabitants, but all things considered...

It could be worse.

They had taken up residence under the porch of a twoleg nest Coldsnap had spent nearly a week scoping out. There was only a single, elderly twoleg living there, and she spent the majority of her time in the house. This meant that her property was fairly safe to roam at any given time, and Coldsnap had quickly laid down the law with any stray or nosy kittypet who'd come sniffing around.

It may not be as big as the moors, but this was their territory.

There were few things that Coldsnap had left to cling to anymore, but there was one that kept him going.

Coalfoot.

He wasn't sure exactly when it happened, couldn't even tell you what defining moment changed it all in his eyes, but in the months following their escape from Windclan the other tom had become the center of his world. Every piece of live prey he struggled to hunt among the noise of the city was to prevent Coalfoot from having to dig through twoleg trash for a meal. Every cat he chased from their yard was to keep Coalfoot from getting hurt. Any ounce of effort he bothered to make was on behalf of the other, because how could it not be?

They were the only reason he had to keep going anymore.

Oddly enough, it wasn't as depressing of a thought as one might think. Coldsnap found it surprisingly easy to live for the spotted tom, might even say he enjoyed it. Maybe they didn't have the moors or the clan anymore, but there was something dinstinctly nice about a lot of the little things they still got to share.

Like waking up together in the mornings.

Coldsnap had never been much of a cuddler. He slept alone even during the cold winters when seeking body heat would have been the smart things to do. Trust issues and a bad reputation had kept him away from other, but in the two months of healing and surviving together he'd come to almost crave the closeness that Coalfoot was willing to offer him.

With morning light seeping through the board of the front porch, the ex-warrior curled a little tighter around Coalfoot. They shared a nest now. They shared a lot of things now. Sometimes he wondered if they really were just friends anymore, because he was pretty sure that friends didn't sleep wrapped up together every night in the same bed, and that they didn't spend their days looking for excuses to be closer. And yet, that's exactly what Coldsnap had been doing lately. Grooming him, putting soft things in his side of the nest, offering to share the prey he caught, hovering in general.

Close didn't seem close enough.

"Morning." he murmured, morning voice rough as his tongue gently rasped across the top of Coalfoots forehead. It was a quiet morning, the distant drone of traffic lazily going by and birds chirping their heads off the only sounds to be heard. On mornings like this, warm beside the other and dappled with the early rays of sun, Coldsnap could almost forget they weren't really happy. That this wasn't actually their home.

One look at the scars covering the smaller black and white body beside him was always quick to remind him, though.

OOC- enjoy the shameless fluff @coalfoot

---

windclan warrior - male - 16 months - a large, dark grey tabby with yellow eyes and a ton of scars​

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[coalfoot]

————————————————【 coalfoot | loner | male 】———————————————

【◈】Sometimes, Coalfoot missed WindClan life. Sometimes he didn't. Sometimes, he wondered if it was actually WindClan he missed. It wasn't something he quite said aloud. It was a loaded conversation, one filled with quite a few things he wasn't sure he wanted to dredge up. If not WindClan, what was it he missed?

Well, he missed the moors. He missed the freedom of it - a break away from the tensions in camp and everything that went with it. He missed the quiet of it. The way that only the chirp of a distant bird or the rustle of wind through moor grasses were the only things to reach his ears. The proper thrill of a hunt, the chase, the pounding of his paws on the earth beneath.

He missed the comfort of idle conversations, of pelts to press into at night, of an expanse of stars to look up at when sleep just wouldn't come to him. He missed sharing prey with his Clanmates. He missed feeling like he belonged, even if he had sometimes doubted it.

The Twolegplace was a noisy, stinking place. The Thunderpaths reeked, and the rumbling monsters belched out smoke that burned his eyes and nose. Coalfoot would never say he enjoyed it in his new home. Not that he could quite call it one.

He tried his best to stay positive, he really did. Even when they were freshly healed, his scarred paws still tender to the coarse stone beneath them, he tried his best to smile and reassure that they would be okay. They would be okay. They made it this far, they would be okay. Even if it felt like a lie, even if tears stung his eyes when the grit didn't, he would reassure them both that things would be okay.

As time went on, as they learned the ins and outs of the winding labyrinth of twoleg nests and found a place they could tentatively call their own, Coalfoot found it became easier to dish out that familiar reassurance. Even if his paws sometimes still ached, even if his scars sometimes carried phantom pains of fear and betrayal, he would do his best to smile each day. After all, it wasn't always fake.

How could it be? He had Coldsnap.

Coldsnap, that dark tabby tom that was there for him no matter what. The tom that risked his own health to stop by when he was sick in that wretched badger's den, trekking through the snow, haggling him to have the first bite of prey, conversing even when he looked way out of his depth. That coarse stick in the mud he called his friend, showing softness he knew few got the opportunity to see. The warrior he had raced with under the light of the stars, smiling and happy and free, with whom he had forgotten his worries, if only for a while.

Coalfoot owed everything to that tom. For every brush of their pelts, every piece of prey shared, every cat they fended from their little territory. Every night they spent together, every look they shared. The greater tom filled him with a warmth he hadn't previously known possible. He made him feel safe in a world of fear and uncertainty.

If he could feel that way in a place like this, then surely, things would be okay.

Not everything had changed, at least. Their scraps of familiarity came with their daily patrols side by side, scent marking their slice of home and hunting for what prey they could find. Coldsnap's late night training, Coalfoot often joining him or watching when he couldn't quite drift off to sleep. Their tussles and newfound synchrony. Even the strange patience and gentleness the other tom showed in the face of his shortcomings, when he failed to catch a pesky bird or struggled not to nod off on bad days.

If nothing else, their nest they had managed to build was quite comfortable, lined with feathers and old soft materials they had found abandoned on their journeys. Twolegs knew the meaning of comfort, that much he would say. Yet despite it all, he wasn't sure any of it could quite compare to pressing into that warm tabby pelt every night.

The bicolor tom fit so snuggly into the embrace of Coldsnap, head pressed into his chest and their legs tangled like an odd puzzle. He found no greater joy anymore than his scent, no longer that of WindClan but so very Coldsnap all the same. It was the rumble of the tom's chest, a small utterance that roused him from his sleep. Coalfoot let out a sleepy hum, no longer quite asleep but not yet quite awake.

A rough tongue rasped over him, and a broken purr started in his throat, nudging just a bit closer, if only for a moment. He wanted to revel in it, drink in the comfort and forget the world for just a bit longer, and just a bit longer he did, the purr fading out as he slipped back into a light doze once more.

Coalfoot only began to rouse fully when Coldsnap next shifted, pulling his head away in favor of stretching out his limbs in a quivering stretch. "G'mornin'," he slurred sleepily, unaware that it was the exact thing the tabby had said only minutes prior.

Finally he lifted his head, green eyes peering blearily at the world beyond their chosen shelter. Save for the distant bustling noises of monsters and the chitter of birds, the world was quiet. He let out a sigh, content for the moment, and looked back to the warrior he was still firmly pressed into. Taking in the golden eyes that gazed back, a smile crept onto his scarred maw. "Morning," he repeated, this time significantly more coherent.

[penned by its_oliverr].

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[Coldsnap]

CROSS MY HEART AND HOPE TO DIE

---

It was a strange thing to think given the fact that he was an exile who'd lost his home, his friends, and his entire way of life only a few short months ago, but Coldsnap couldn't remember a time in his life where he'd been filled with such warmth. It wrapped around him the same way rays of sun would settle across his shoulders in the summer, calling him home to a sense of comfort he could never recal feeling before. Usually so strict with his routine, he didn't even try to stop the incoherant Coalfoot from ignoring him and snuggling in deeper.

He only chuckled, a low, rumbling sound that shook his chest lazily as he laid his head back down to let the other rest, eyes closing in contentment as his senses flooded with the others scent. Mornings had quickly become one of his favorite parts of the day. He use to be up before the sun had even finished rising, quick to his feet and head out to start his day with a practiced discipline that would leave others in the dust blinking the sleep from their eyes. Lately though, they hadn't been as rushed. He woke up a little later each day, seemingly content to laze and doze beside the other as the slowly woke and broke away from the lazy lull that could have convinced Coldsnap to just stay there all day.

Who needed to eat?

As if on cue his stomach grumbled, and he exhaled in frustration, the movement rousing Coalfoot from his sleep at last.

Whatever flickers of annoyance had sat within his features was quick to melt away as the other suddenly stretched out their long limbs, a barely coherant greeting slipping past their lips. "Your too fucking cute in the mornings. Knock it off." he pretended to complain as the other repeated their greeting and looked up to meet his gaze, the smirk that sat on his lips enough of an indication that he wasn't at all upset with Coalfoots tendency to 'be too cute'.

The tabby always had this look and feeling about him when he woke up like this, as if he were the cat who'd caught the canary. He felt proud and satisfied, as if he'd accomplished something worth bragging about to others. But what the hell was he going to say?

I get to have Coalfoot.

It was a strangely possessive thought for his mind to supply, especially one that wasn't even true, but it was an answer that seemed overall to be satisfying. Coalfoot was an amazing cat. They were loyal and sensitive and brave, and fucking selfless. How many times through it all had the green eyed warrior forced themselves to smile for him? Promising with unrelenting certainty that things would be okay? And once Coldsnap found his strength again he became determined to make those anchoring words a reality for his friend. He knew he could never give them back the moors, and that realistically they might never return to the other clans again after what had happened, but that didn't mean life was over. He wouldn't let it be- not for Coalfoot.

So for the first time in his life Coldsnap had been doing the unthinkable- he'd been looking on the bright side.

For a cat that was a notorious grump, one would think that being almost killed by his former clan and then turned away by his mentor would have left him torn up, and again, if he'd been alone and living for himself, maybe he would have let that darkness sink into him. But he wasn't living for himself, and even in his darkest state Coalfoot was able to shine bright enough for both of them. So Coldsnap helped find them a good home to start over in- good enough, at least. He offered input on things and initiated conversations, kept his patience in check and didn't snap at them if they messed up during hunts.

He stayed close. He stayed soft. And he tried to give the bicolor tom whatever it was they needed.

And maybe in turn, that's exactly what Coldsnap needed.

"Did you sleep okay?" he asked as his forelegs tightened their hold around the other, just enough to keep them comfortably snug against his chest as his tail drew lazy circles along their side, occasionally tracing along scars in gentle adoration."I saw a pond in one of the twoleg yards the other day. Thought it might be fun to try our luck at fishing for breakfast."

There was no river here and no clan guarding its resources, and Coldsnap knew it was hard for the other to hunt on concrete and stone all the time with their paws. Fishing might be an easier and more efficient hunting style for them now, and even if turned out that they both absolutely sucked at catching fish, at least they could have a bit of fun while trying.

---

windclan warrior - male - 16 months - a large, dark grey tabby with yellow eyes and a ton of scars​

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[coalfoot]

————————————————【 coalfoot | loner | male 】———————————————

【◈】The up-and-at'em attitude that Coldsnap typically clung to was hardly a nuisance to Coalfoot. Routine kept them busy, kept them prepared and fed. Sometimes it simply kept the less desirable thoughts at bay. When the tabby decided it was time to rise, he was often right there beside him, stretching out and shaking away lingering traces of sleep. It was good for them. Especially toward the beginning, they had needed it.

Now, however? Maybe it wasn't a bad thing to feel comfortable enough to sleep in just a bit longer, to snuggle just a bit closer. Maybe it wasn't a bad thing that Coldsnap let him rather than hastily getting to work. Maybe it was a sign that things were finally getting better despite it all.

The tom in question said something else, Coalfoot humming in reply before he quite registered what it was that he said. Cute-? He ducked his head and giggled sheepishly. It was an unusual comment for sure, but hardly negative, given the rather smug look on his companion's face.

They were both awake now, but rather than clamber to their paws and begin their daily routine, Coldsnap tugged him just a bit closer, squeezed him just a bit tighter. This... this was a change that he minded the least of all.

Truthfully, he didn't really think twice about it. He had always been quite fond of proximity with others, and he was happy that the other seemed to have warmed up to it at last, when formerly so distant and uncomfortable. If he wanted to talk about cute, then it was cute how he seemed to hardly be more than two steps from his side, how the tabby practically draped himself over him each night, how he added things to the nest when he thought Coalfoot wasn't looking.

It was just the little things, the little moments, that made him certain that while they weren't in the most favorable of situations, he could finally start to consider himself as happy. His smiles were growing wider, his steps more confident, his eyes brighter. Newleaf was in full swing, the world was bustling. Sure, hunting may be difficult sometimes, but they would learn, right? Even in WindClan he hadn't been unfamiliar to the pangs of hunger.

Speaking of hunger, he was feeling it, even if he made no attempt to extricate himself from the tabby's embrace. It seemed Coldsnap was as well. He slept well, better than he had in a while. He couldn't remember waking up at any point the previous night. Coalfoot nodded. "Mmhm," he hummed. "The best."

He could feel the other's tail lightly brushing his flank, and it was enough to prompt him to lean in and begin grooming Coldsnap's pelt, starting with the top of his head. He spoke of a pond, off in another twoleg's territory. Pausing only briefly, he thought it over. It was several heartbeats before he responded, far too busy with his rhythm.

Coalfoot leaned back, taking in his handiwork before green eyes met yellow. "A pond? Are you sure there's fish in it? We'll have to check for dogs or twoleg kits." Or any threat, really. He doubted the twolegs of the nearby nest would be pleased to find them catching their fish. Did twolegs catch the fish themselves? It made him wonder.

The bicolor tom lapsed into silence again, resuming his grooming for what parts he could reach of the striped pelt. There was no excuse for being dirty, even in the Twolegplace.

Only after the both of them were clean, even reluctantly peeling himself away to sit up for it, did he finally remove himself from the nest. His chest pressed to the earth in a long stretch, tail quivering with the effort. "Fish is as good as anything," he huffed as he shook himself out. "You remember the way, right?"

[penned by its_oliverr].

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