private WHAT BINDS US [nightbird]

[RACCOONSTRIPE]

He had seen Nightbird in the rain, his muzzle streaked with his nephew's blood, as she'd bent over Lightstrike's lifeless body. He had not gone to her. He has not strictly avoided her — but his duties outside the nursery and hers within have laid divisions between them once more. There is something else immutable, some valley he has not been able to cross, and it's not until the kits are asleep and in the care of another queen that he's able to usher her away from them and into the dark of the forest.

The moon glows; it's waning, slivering, thinning. There's a chill in the air tonight. It is not unwelcome. Raccoonstripe does not press himself to his mate's side — when he turns to look at her, there is grief, raw and palpable, shining in earthen eyes.

"I'm sorry I haven't been by." He'd felt her absence like a wound clawed into his flank, but he'd persisted, stubborn as always, in his solitude. "I've been thinking about..." My role in this. My responsibility. My fault. "Skyclaw," he finishes.

Silence spans between them. Raccoonstripe turns his face from hers, training his gaze on the treeline. "How are the kits?" He should know. He should never have to ask that question of her, and yet, here they are.

『 out of character. 』 ✧･ﾟ:* 『 about. 』

• ooc: @nightbird
• 
• Raccoon . Raccoonstripe, he/him w/ masculine terms.
  — "speech”, thoughts, attack
  — 45 moons old, ages realistically on the 5th.
  — mentored by n/a ; mentoring Thistlepaw ; previously mentored Wildheart, Moonwhisper
  — thunderclan lead warrior. gray wolf x howlingstar, gen 2.
  — currently mated to Nightbird.
  — penned by Marquette.
  
  
  lh black tabby with white and dark brown eyes. charismatic, charming, calculating, ambitious, shallow, manipulative.
  
  

​

 

[nightbird]

⋆˖⁺‧₊☽◯☾₊‧⁺˖⋆ there is little to be said on the way out, she supposes. not much to listen to besides the rustle of leaves and quiet thudding of paws. the chill that rolls down nightbird's spine is not entirely due to the quickly cooling weather. there is a distance between them, appeared to manifest in the way they tread nearly half a tail length apart.

"i am not mad at you," nightbird voices near instantly following his apology, fresh scar across her nose wrinkling just slightly at the notion. she had expected him to grieve, bit back the almost jealous feeling that he got to do so freely. he had lost so much more, but was it selfish to desire the space he had granted himself?

she sighs at his question, claw dragging across a brittle leaf. they were nothing short of exasperating at times. the change left them confused, had certain ones acting out, others crawling into their shell as they all tried to maneuver what normal meant. nightbird hadn't a clue on how to help them. "you should come see for yourself." they missed him, she knew that much. watching a cat they idolize conveniently skirt around the nursery certainly wouldn't help anything.

nightbird follows raccoonstripe's gaze to the riveting tree line that held his attention better than she, apparently. there is a flicker of frustration when her eyes return to his profile. it was the first time in nearly four moons they had time to be truly alone. skyclaw, from their shallow grave, somehow weaseled in to usurp that too. "he is dead. are you going to let him keep taking from you?" it is the first time that night her words bear any sharpness behind them, eyes narrowing a fraction as a feathered tail twitches irritably.

BURNING SWORD // ───‎ ⋆ GUIDE MY HAND‎ ‎‎ ‎‎☽

• ooc ↛
  

• 

• 
  NIGHTBIRD ✩ she/her, lead warrior of thunderclan, 36 ☾'s
  ⭃ a small black smoke molly with a white paw and pale silver eyes. currently a queen residing in the nursery.
  ⭃ mate to raccoonstripe / / currently mentoring none.
  ⭃ peaceful and healing powerplay permitted / / underline and tag when attacking ↛ see battle info here
  ⭃ penned by vayle ↛ @vayl3 on discord, feel free to dm for plots.
  

​

 

[RACCOONSTRIPE]

"I am not mad at you." Her voice is like a salve his brother would prepare for him, to slather over still-raw wounds; her voice is like cool water slipping over burned flesh. Raccoonstripe studies her, clinical, and finds no fault with her expression. She is not upset with him — but he feels the distance between them, and he knows she has felt it, too. The absence stings in his heart.

"Maybe you should be." His tone is almost bleak, but a mirage of a smile shimmers over his pale muzzle. "You should come see for yourself." He knows she only speaks the truth, but hesitance tugs at him like patches of bramble snagging his fur. He misses them, too, misses their teeth in the velvet of his ears, their nagging questions, their burning eyes. They're getting bigger without him, and he hates that he's left them alone for so long.

"I'll come by in the morning, after dawn patrol." There's a little bit of conviction on his tongue, now. He'll rummage through the leaves, find them something tasty, let them tear it to pieces with their needling little fangs... his whiskers tremble, lost in thought, until he's dragged back to reality by the whipcrack of Nightbird's voice.

"He is dead." Raccoonstripe snaps his face toward hers. "Are you going to let him keep taking from you?" His heartbeat thrums in his chest, crawls like hot blood into his mouth. "If he's dead, why do I keep seeing him wherever I look?" There's indignance creeping into his tone. "I want to let him die. It's what he deserves. But it's not that easy. I..."

The wind whistles through the branches that arch above them. Leaves clack together. Raccoonstripe feels the thick, cloying warmth of blood in his mouth and resists the urge to spit it out. "Did you hear what he said? Before I..." His dark eyes go blank as he struggles to emit the words, "Before I killed him?"

『 out of character. 』 ✧･ﾟ:* 『 about. 』

• ooc: —
• 
• Raccoon . Raccoonstripe, he/him w/ masculine terms.
  — "speech”, thoughts, attack
  — 45 moons old, ages realistically on the 5th.
  — mentored by n/a ; mentoring Thistlepaw ; previously mentored Wildheart, Moonwhisper
  — thunderclan lead warrior. gray wolf x howlingstar, gen 2.
  — currently mated to Nightbird.
  — penned by Marquette.
  
  
  lh black tabby with white and dark brown eyes. charismatic, charming, calculating, ambitious, shallow, manipulative.
  
  

​

 

[nightbird]

⋆˖⁺‧₊☽◯☾₊‧⁺˖⋆ maybe you should be, is his dour response. the queen only clicks her tongue quietly in soft disapproval, lips tilting upwards by a fraction as a ghost of a grin finds its way onto her mate's face. it hadn't always been so infectious, she thinks, there was a time when his wolfish grin did nothing but have her eyes rolling to the back of her head. if her mind wasn't made already, she knew wholly now that there there were others far more deserving of her anger.

she nods at his decision. the morning would come and they'd be whole once again. hopefully the beginning of an end to all of this madness. but even the prospect does not chase the haunted look from his eyes. she can finally see it clearly after her words set raccoonstripe's head on a sharp swivel.

and there is no answer welling in her throat for the question posed. guilt consumed his every moment, while the taste of blood from her own victim had dissipated with the storm. "no." she hadn't heard skyclaw's parting sentiments, too busy convincing their protege that everything she had learned was wrong.

maybe if she hadn't been, there would have been time to stop other deaths. her father's, namely. nightbird's brow creases for a moment before she forces it neutral again. that wasn't fair, and she knew there was no reason to place such blame on mottledpaw. the girl hardly knew what she was doing until she had drawn blood, reduced to breakneck pleas soon after. it was easy to believe that, and just as easy to recognize that most cats would say anything to save their own tail when death loomed.

while nightbird cared little for the last words of a coward, they obviously weighed heavily upon her mate's shoulders. she cared for that- and there was no way to help if she chose to remain ignorant. "tell me," she prompts him, sitting against the dampened earth with an easy tilt to her head.

BURNING SWORD // ───‎ ⋆ GUIDE MY HAND‎ ‎‎ ‎‎☽

• ooc ↛
  

• 

• 
  NIGHTBIRD ✩ she/her, lead warrior of thunderclan, 37 ☾'s
  ⭃ a small black smoke molly with a white paw and pale silver eyes. currently a queen residing in the nursery.
  ⭃ mate to raccoonstripe / / currently mentoring none.
  ⭃ peaceful and healing powerplay permitted / / underline and tag when attacking ↛ see battle info here
  ⭃ penned by vayle ↛ @vayl3 on discord, feel free to dm for plots.
  

​

 

[RACCOONSTRIPE]

"No." She gazes at him simply. Raccoonstripe remembers the chaos, the storm pelting them with rain, claws shearing flesh and fur, screams splitting the sky. She had done as the rest of them had, as he had — she had fought for her home, for her rightful leader. She had been in a battle of her own when Skyclaw had died, when his neck had snapped between his jaws.

Her silver eyes bear into him. "Tell me." The way she tilts her head to look up at him — it's all so easy, and it should be easy. He wishes for her coolness, for the rain-slick way her troubles run in rivulets from her soul. He yearns to bathe in the silver waters of her eyes, to take the heat from his spirit, to take the guilt from his heart.

"He saw me coming for him. And he tried to stand up, but his leg — I think it had broken, when Flamestar pushed him." Something had broken, had left him crippled, though it hardly mattered now. "He said... he said he'd idolized me. He learned from me."

That redness in his mouth, it stays, it lingers, and he closes his eyes against the harsh amber glare of Skyclaw's rage. "What are you to do, then? Is it your turn to play the hero?"

Hero. That word tastes as filthy as his nephew's blood does.

"It's true." He looks away from Nightbird, into the shadowy forest that encases them. "He did learn from me. There's as much blood on my paws as..." As his. Blood he'd never wished to spill — Pebblestep, Morningcloud, Ploverhop, Cobwebtail, Howlingstar.

Raccoonstripe's throat constricts. He cannot turn to face Nightbird again.

『 out of character. 』 ✧･ﾟ:* 『 about. 』

• ooc: —
• 
• Raccoon . Raccoonstripe, he/him w/ masculine terms.
  — "speech”, thoughts, attack
  — 45 moons old, ages realistically on the 5th.
  — mentored by n/a ; mentoring Thistlepaw ; previously mentored Wildheart, Moonwhisper
  — thunderclan lead warrior. gray wolf x howlingstar, gen 2.
  — currently mated to Nightbird.
  — penned by Marquette.
  
  
  lh black tabby with white and dark brown eyes. charismatic, charming, calculating, ambitious, shallow, manipulative.
  
  

​