private WISH THAT YOU WERE HERE // robinheart

[rivuletkit]

Rivuletkit babbles. Noisily, at that. Perhaps it's due to the continuous excitement that surrounds kittens hitting new milestones, but the child doesn't seem to stop unless she is asleep. From every moment she has her eyes open, she's chattering away nonsensically - both simply because she can, but also it seems that having a voice gives her attention and praise. She's not said proper words yet, however, lagging behind her younger siblings only slightly.

Rivuletkit leans against the fluff of Robinheart's chest fur, just watching the other kits play. Ever since their incident, she's become quiet. She's fatigued and sleeping more often than before - but not ill. Simply... hurt, and trying to not make the hurt, hurt worse. Her ear feels heavy once it's laiden with medicines and she feels as if she can't move her wrist at all (though she can't comprehend how her mother's injury isn't the same as hers, she mimics the other in as many ways as she can.) It's a boring many days so far, but Robinheart does her best to make sure the two of them do not strain themselves, and in response, Rivuletkit says... nothing.

Blue-shifting eyes tilt up to the citrine ones of her mother, and suddenly with no warning, Rivuletkit pops her lips. "Mama," she says. Her babbles would continue, as if the word never ended and the syllables would extend into infinity. However this time, she speaks definitively, purposefully. She pops her lips again, speaking a very certain, "Mama...!" into existence. After a few moments, regardless of if they are filled with shock or praise, Rivuletkit leans her weight against her mother, offering, "Mm-love," to her. The word and its intent are unclear to the child, but Robinheart has spoken it so much to her and her siblings that she's retained it best she can, and has finally returned it in kind.​

 

[robinheart]

She misses the babbling, the constant string of sounds brimming with youth and life. Rivuletkit’s silence feels wrong - deafening even despite the stillness. Robinheart fills the noiseless air when she can; whispers of comfort and sweet nothings, namely during their time in the medicine den. It had been new and scary for mother and daughter. Robinheart, empowered perhaps by Splashpaw’s words, vowed to be brave and strong for Rivuletkit - to try and hide her pain so the child wouldn’t be more frightened than need be.

She watches how the quiet kitten watched her den mates play. Soon Rivuletkit’s cobwebs and poultices would be shed, revealing healing pink skin. The tortoiseshell queen wonders if it’ll scar - she hopes not, for the hound itself has scarred youthful mind enough. But deep down she knows sensitive skin stood nary a chance against the harsh pebbles (and nicked ears never come back together, a permanent reminder of that bloody day). As soon as she is freed of her restrictions Robinheart hopes Rivuletkit will join her siblings in games. That she’ll regain that innocent spark of life that had been cruelly broken.

Ever changing eyes, swirls of sky and robin’s egg, raise to seek and find her own pools of sun-warmed honey. ‘Mama.’ The queen blinks in surprise at the finality of the word. Purposeful, not babbled. A recognition of herself in her child’s eyes. Rivuletkit speaks again, another proudly popped ‘mama’ and emotion swells in blazing chest. “Yes… yes, I am mama,” Robinheart whispers through watery smile, crumbling all the more as the white and gray child leans into her and adds heart filling novelty to the moment. ‘Mm-love,’ she utters and tears roll down the queen’s cheeks. “My love, oh how I do love you.” She loves Rivuletkit with everything she has, just as she loves Redkit and Algaekit; how she loved and continues to love Brookstorm.​

[ penned by kerms ]​

 

[rivuletkit]

Her mother murmurs in the same soft, sweet, near saddened tone she always does - and yet, it spurs a smile nonetheless on the child's rounded face. Rivuletkit does not babble, still, finding her footing being purposeful, but she hums a very happy hum, and purrs an untamable rumble in her chest. She keeps close to Robinheart as the other returns her love, her cobweb ear twitching with zaps of pain as she pushes herself against the other's chest, further and further, as if she'll be able to become one with the queen once more.

She only relinquishes her efforts to lean back, looking at her mother with shifting blue eyes, and reaching up a white-and-blue paw. She pats the side of Robinheart's face - an action clumsy and more akin to a kitten playing with a feather - as she tries to swipe at the tears the other sheds. She blows a raspberry, swatting again before tumbling back on unsteady paws and pouting as a new pain shoots through her healing wrist. Her tail lashes, but Rivuletkit does not cry like her tortoiseshell mother does. She pushes herself back to her paws and continues in her senseless game.​