private united as one // edenberry

[spicepurr]

Her adventure in the twolegplace had not brought her her desire of closure (even to find Ari and Miz happy would have been enough,) but what she did find was... curious. She rested there, under the careful watch of Wolfpaw whilst she remained in the other's garden. And by night that same day, she left, only to appear back in SkyClan's territory the following morning. She thanks StarClan for the often casual nature of nocturnal tenancies, for if she hadn't that feral instinct, she'd be no better than a loping badger.

She slips past the guard of the camp, saying nothing to them. She hopes to need to say nothing, that no one would inquire of her disappearance and that her web would not have to be spun further. However, as she tries to slip towards Twitchbolt and earn a patrol for the day, she finds herself running into Edenberry instead. The details of the other's words do not immediately matter - Where were you? You were supposed to stay vigil. Others said that you went home, but you disappeared for a day. Or maybe her sibling only offers a quiet, Good morning.

Maybe after all they had done for one another (in her startling adulthood, Spicepurr wonders what Edenberry has done for her,) the predominantly white feline wouldn't question her younger sister.

Maybe the secrets grow between them instead.

"Good morning," she replies regardless of Edenberry's tone. "I got a little carried away, I think. Did I miss anything here?"​

 

[edenberry ?!]

Was she not happy enough? Knowing that success had found her even in hardship, that she was loved? She had friends... didn't she? Edenberry realizes that in the months they've been absent, they've grown stranger from their clan-mates and worse still, stranger to their sister. They share no blood, they realize in sour thought, a reminder that family is fickle... chosen... and just as easily taken away. You took them away. It was their own fault then... that they were left lonely... that they could not sink their claws into the fur of who they cherished and yank them into place like a proper family.

They'd had a chance... and given it up willingly.

Spicepurr's not sitting at the camp entrance like she should be when they arrive that morning... They know, in truth, that kittypets have a more lenient response for sitting vigil but.... it still unsettles them, knowing her paws had carried her somewhere that wasn't home. Had she been out searching again? How long would she persist? Would she be angry or relieved to hear it from their lips that those two treasures were okay, tucked away for safe keeping with someone that could love them better? Someone that wasn't so eager to hide them. They fear the answer is fury... and curl up in their shell tighter.

"Hey," they meow in simple greeting, the itch to reach out and touch her giving them an uncertain twitch, "You didn't make it home last night...." They don't think to scold her, a high-strung sense of worry dragging through their tone; a nurturing concern, an formed habit that now proved hard to break. The tortoiseshell seems hardly bothered, doing little to acknowledge their fears outside of a vaguely woven excuse.

They don't pry. "Uhh... no, nothing super important," they answer and without hesitation, launch into what normal chit-chat the other she-cat probably wanted from them; casual and uninvested... Another scene being acted out to bury the mystery. "There's a new kit in the nursery... his Twolegs threw him out and left him to the forest. I've been checking in on him to make sure he's adjusting well but... with the queens already there, I'm sure he's gonna be fine..."

⟡₊ ⊹ i ll betray you like a man

• 
• -- edenberry / skyclan daylight warrior / any pronouns / 17 moons
  -- mostly white with black pinstripe and green eyes / scarred face and back
  -- color #728c69

​

 

[spicepurr]

Edenberry is careful with their words, with their tone - moons of parenthood, although strife with exhaustion and lack of individuality, have provided something for the predominantly white cat. They're charmed with the ability to tactfully speak without inciting frustration or anger. Spicepurr looks at her sibling with no distaste, no upset. Her own troubled thoughts whirl in her mind but without an opening, she does not unleash them. The details do not matter anyhow; in her realm, telling Edenberry that she's unsuccessful will only serve to hurt them.

"I lost track of time," she says simply, reinforcing the simple mistake in her action. It's truthful, for once, though she cannot ignore the churning in her gut that somehow she's wrong. She dismisses herself once more, drawing her tongue over her paw and then over her face.

Edenberry plays their game with ease, but the details of what has occurred in the last sun-cycle draw green eyes wider. "He's not...?" It's initial, a sparking flame behind normally dull eyes. Hope. The world must be fraught with wayward kittens, but what are the chances that this one is Mizzlekit? That by the starlight before him, he found his way back to them? If it is true, then shouldn't Edenberry be more... excited? Spicepurr dims as quickly as she had brightened, the concept of the other withdrawing from the orphan sinking in shortly thereafter. The lost kitten cannot be her nephew, lest her sibling truly detest the parenthood they've struggled through for the past several moons.

It's a question never asked, one hardly answered. Spicepurr leans into herself, deciding on her own that the mystery child is of no consequence to them.

"Nevermind," she says. "You shouldn't..." Spicepurr trails for a moment, her gaze unfocused as she tries to form a proper thought. "The nursery may not be the best place for you. Not after..." Here, she cannot say. But the words needn't be breathed into the open air for Edenberry to understand. Instead, the new warrior draws her paw over her muzzle again, briefly. "Have you seen Hawkspine?" She could've said any name, she realizes as she rumbles the tom's. Any name and the familiarity would ring the same to their sibling, for despite how many claws Spicepurr has died upon protecting the other's privacy... she has not shared anything of her own.
​

 

[edenberry ?!]

Their frown is small, one that doesn't deepen despite the way her vagueness encourages it. They don't want to cast judgement on her... there'd been plenty of nights they'd just stayed in SkyClan to appease friends. To feel like they belonged just a little bit more. Maybe Spicepurr was coming to the same confrontation in her life... the separation between daylight and moonlight, what it meant for their bonds... how complicated it made things. "O-oh... okay," they mew, swallowing past anxiousness that grows suffocating, "It's happens, I get it... I was just worried, that's all."

She perks up immediately at the mention of Snowy but the moment the description of their son doesn't come past their lips, she deflates and grows distant again. Like the tide had rushed in and just as quickly retreated at the touch of the sand. Their ears fall, ever so slightly, a guilty gnawing starting in their throat- it grows stronger at the soft lecture to avoid the nursery.

She says it like it's an infection... or a curse. "Not after..." Tears sting the corners of their eyes, a hot uncomfortable sensation overwhelming their senses as they sharply turn their gaze towards the ground. They stay silent, accepting the dig of barbs on her tongue. They deserved it. "Right...." Their words take time to pull together, to be said with clarity and lacking the wobble of a wound torn open again.

"You're right...."

They blink, growing fixated with a spot on the ground, somewhere just aside the girl's tail that wraps so carefully around her paws. It is a wall... a shield... a bid for space maybe. They don't dare press it, flicking an ear at the question for Hawkspine. It's an excuse not to face her anymore and they take it hungrily, struggling past a fluttering breath to keep themself steady. Their leafy gaze searches the camp for a moment, as if trying to rewind and recall what had been there before... "I think he's on patrol.... I'm sure he'll be back soon," they answer on an exhale.

⟡₊ ⊹ i ll betray you like a man

• 
• -- edenberry / skyclan daylight warrior / any pronouns / 17 moons
  -- mostly white with black pinstripe and green eyes / scarred face and back
  -- color #728c69

​

 

[spicepurr]

Spicepurr isn't looking. Tears crest her sibling's green gaze but the she-cat doesn't bother to watch for the pain that rises in the other. She's fallen despondent, dwelling in her own distant hurt and admittedly unsure if she can continue to shoulder the others. She holds fast to the want of hopefully not needing to. Of one day finding Miz and Ari and bringing them home, of Edenberry telling the truth and setting their sister free from the net of lies she's spun in their sake.

She cannot see the tears. Crying makes her mission feel impossible.

You're right, the other says, and there is no pleasure in the affirmative. Spicepurr simply nods in a noncommittal way, only doing so to somewhat end the conversation. She carries it only to ask an impending question, and no differently is she disappointed, no differently does she deflate and withhold a groan of dissatisfaction or upset. Spicepurr only sighs, murmuring a quiet, "Alright. I'll... wait for him, I guess." As if she has anything else to do. It's only then that she finally looks back at her sibling, limbs tensing as their shared sudden distance takes a toll on the both of them.

"I'll see you at home tonight," she promises. Spicepurr doesn't flinch with her own lie.​