pafp total insecurity ;; sneaking out

[Fireflyglow]

WE'VE BEEN DOIN' ALL THIS LATE NIGHT TALKIN' ✧​

// please wait for @Snowpaw to respond before you reply! he didn't sneak out of the territory, but he's visiting snowpaw's hiding place outside of camp at night.

With the sun set low, the moon hung in a sliver above their heads as his clanmates all rested. He's taken to staying up late again, just like he always did- something kept bugging him, other than the light. The chill in the air caused his lungs to wheeze, a short cough leaving his lips as he pushes himself out of his nest next to Greenpaw. Carefully, oh so carefully, does he slip around his snoring friends and fellow apprentices. He hopes he doesn't step on one's tail.. Ugh, that'd suck.

Once he made it out, hopefully having not stepped on any limbs or tails, Fireflypaw is quick to rush across the camp. Through the snow, sending it flying everywhere without a single care in the world. Until he reached the tree line, and Fireflypaw let his pawsteps grow quieter. He needed to find a certain someone, and his nose was just the thing to help. Lifting his head, his nose sniffs for the familiar scent of Snowpaw before it very subtly graces his nostrils. "Snow?" Fireflypaw calls out softly, voice gentle. He didn't want to scare him off. Fireflypaw pushes through a bush, under a tree, until he manages to reach the edge of the territory.

He almost gives up, until he hears shuffling nearby. His ears re-angle themselves, eyes shut as he moves them around. Just under a tree is Snowpaw, burrowed to stay out of open view. "There you are." He mutters softly, opening his eyes just a bit to squint towards the older tom. "What are you doing under there? Your nest has lost it's scent. Come back to camp, please?" He couldn't be angry. It wasn't Snowpaw's fault. Morningpaw, she.. She jumped in, didn't she?​

 

[Snowpath]

It wasn't the most comfortable, he preferred his nest back at camp, but the burrow was doing its job well. He'd gotten more ferns and packed it full of whatever bits of dried and crumbling vegetation he could and it had ended up being quite the insulated hollow now. Once tucked inside with his back turned to block the entrance with his plant-covered body, the heat of his own fur and breathe was enough to fill the small area and keep him warm.
Snowpaw's ears flicked to the sound of crunching snow, his senses as of lately had been on a hairtrigger and the slightest distruption wake him in a sharp jolt of panic; living out on the edge of the territory set his nerves rattling-he could only imagine how loners felt not having the benefit of a clan's guarded walls and warm dens.
The frosted apprentice lifted his head, liquid gold eyes narrowed as he twisted around to face the front of his burrow where he could strike out if necessary against whatever was snooping about but thankfully his reflexic panic did not extend to his claws. Not anymore. He hesitated to even unsheathe them anymore these days. Fireflypaw's porcupine scarred and dark face appears in front of him, complaining in a plaintive tone for him to come home in the way only a cat still so close to kit-age would. Blazestar's brats...they were all five moons now. In four he would be a warrior himself, maybe. In seven they would have seen Morningpaw become one with her siblings.
"You shouldn't be out here, it's cold." As if that weren't obvious, but he tucked his paws under himself and snorted in annoyance at the apprentice he did not have the heart to get angry at for bothering him. He didn't have much anger in him anymore lately, so much had happened that he might as well stop feeling at all. "Go back to camp, Fireflypaw."

​

 

[Daisyflight]

"SUREFIRE, YEAH, THE SETTING SUN WANTS COMPANY"​

Nights fell on her heavier than they had in some moons of late. The warmth of the den, ordinarily coveted, seemed to prickle uncomfortably along her skin. It ruffled her pelt and well, she couldn’t have that. And so the dusk-laden shape of an apprentice leaving camp was hard to miss as she sat tucked into a well of shadow, fern leaf low to her brow.

The warrior almost called after Fireflypaw, identifying him by the lush black of his tail, but curiosity wrapped a knot around her snout. Paws poised to descend ever so carefully, she snuck after him.

When the scent of her son graced her nose however, any attempts at subterfuge crumbled to cinders. Snowpaw’s distance had been a waking wound on the calico’s mind ever since he fled from camp. She had been too far to talk him back, or even drag him by the scruff. It was his fault, he just needed to- Oh she wasn’t sure anymore.

"It certainly is!" The cold air swilled through her teeth as she sucked in a sharp breath. Daisyflight cut a brief look to Fireflypaw, a muddle of appreciation and mourning aglaze in her eyes. A rush to smuggle her son into an embrace stuttered from her approach at the sight of him, tucked beside a muddy hollow. The infrastructure was admirable but she hadn’t moved from the streets have her children sleeping an inch from the snow.

"Please, come back. We’ll get you warmed up and we- we can sort through this. Thunderclan won’t lay a claw on you.” She knew it was a hollow sort of promise in the face of a life lost but what more could they do? A glimmer of chalk was offered to the solitary tom, her snowy tail gesturing him forward.
​

✿ ✿ ✿​

 

[Fireflyglow]

WE'VE BEEN DOIN' ALL THIS LATE NIGHT TALKIN' ✧​

Go back to camp, Fireflypaw.

It's spoken on tired lips, too numb to give his usual glare- there was no rebellion in his voice, no fire in his eyes. You shouldn't be out here. It's cold. "And 'yer spotted. So what?" Fireflypaw replied with a huff, frowning. He's about to say something more, smart Snowpaw out once again, but Daisyflight's lips speak and Fireflypaw nearly jumps out of his skin in response. She asks him to return to camp, reassures him that ThunderClan won't hurt him. Fireflypaw winces at the words.

"I don't think he should have to if he doesn't wanna, but honestly.." He hums softly, trying not to stick his nose too far into talking back to the Lead Warrior and mother of Snowpaw. His eyes flutter open ever so slightly, aquamarines meeting swimming pools of gold. "What does burying yourself in a hole do for you, other than make you have to deal with yourself more?" He asks curiously, head tilted to the side. He blamed himself, he knew he did- and Fireflypaw blamed him too, at first. But he's realizing that Morningpaw wouldn't have wanted this, wouldn't have wanted him to be so angry at his clanmate over something he didn't mean to do. "I saw what happened, Snow. I was there, remember?" He whispers, eyes glancing down at the snow-covered ground. His ears lay back against his head. "Morningpaw jumped between the two of you, wanted her clanmates to stop fightin'. It was an accident, Snowy. She never blamed you, not even when she took her last breath."

So quit blaming yourself, please.

"..And I don't either."​