[Brilliance]

Originally Posted by Empress Of Evil

Auroraflame watched with little expression as Umbraice greeted her in his usual 'kind' manner. She rolled her eyes, something she constantly did when she was around this tom, although usually she did it with a smile on her face. This time, all she had was a distant deadpan.

Auroraflame watched with little expression as Umbraice greeted her in his usual 'kind' manner. She rolled her eyes, something she constantly did when she was around this tom, although usually she did it with a smile on her face. This time, all she had was a distant deadpan. She wasn’t sure if Umbraice was glad to see her or not, or more importantly, if he considered her to be a traitor or not. Other than the three or so other cats she had met up with a couple of moons ago, Auroraflame was no longer sure who was a peacemaker and who wasn’t. She would go and ask Shinefang, but she couldn’t risk making the medicine cat look suspicious. “I didn’t know that I was your type, Umbraice,” she responded flatly in response to his sarcastic compliment. Normally, this could be seen as a flirtatious comeback, but Auroraflame’s tone made it clear that she was doing anything but flirting.

The inky she-cat followed as the tom stood up to pad away with prey in his mouth. She didn’t have anything better to do, and she certainly hadn’t walked over to him only to have him walk away from her after a couple of seconds. She needed someone to talk to, someone to bother, and perhaps Unbraice would be chill enough to put up with her for a bit.
The tips of Auroraflame’s lips twitched as the Umbraice patted the spot beside him with his tail, gesturing for her to take a seat beside him. Someone wasn’t pushing her away at last! She almost let out a laugh of relief, but she stopped herself. She couldn’t trust him so easily. What if he wanted her to seat down next to her just so she could have a one on one conversation and talk about how she had betrayed the clan. She prayed to StarClan that he wouldn’t. She wanted anything but to talk about her actions. She needed to take her mind off of it, and she was trusting Umbraice to do that. Would he know her well enough to understand that that was all she wanted?

She had to admit that she agreed with his reasoning. It was fair enough that there was no point in letting them win. “Fair enough,” she agreed. This was rather unlike her. Normally she would’ve found some reason to use against him, even if she agreed with him, but not this time apparently. But at his next statement, Auroraflame found herself frowning in thought. “Not necessarily. Sometimes a failure crushes your passion and your motivation,” she argued. Her recent demotion had given her a lot of time to ponder over deep, sentimental thoughts and observe things more carefully and for longer. She could relate to the words that she’d just spoken. She was learning from her experiences.
At his last statement, Auroraflame snorted, and surprisingly enough, a smile cracked on her face for a few seconds before disappearing again. Umbraice was doing his job. He was making her forget and he was making her smile. Maybe he wasn’t totally lying. “Like flirting it seems,” she snorted as he threw a wink at her. “For someone with a face as ugly as yours, you’re awfully confident,” she remarked, a smirk falling onto her face before disappearing quickly again. Even though she brushed it away every time, Auroraflame knew that Umbraice attempt to bring back their banters was working, and slowly she could feel a little bit of herself returning.

It was easy to tell when someone was in a mood. Umbraice didn’t normally ask how his clan mates was faring, but it was pretty easy to tell when someone was in a rather pensive mood. He expected much from Auroraflame given the current circumstances. The tom himself wasn’t in a very sour mood. He tried to stay to himself and neutral, or at least keep everything under wraps. With everything going on, Umbraice was pretending to play aloof until things were sorted out...if anything would get better. The sour mood of the former deputy was kinda buzz killing, but Umbraice didn’t comment on it because he knew this must had been a tough time for her. Umbraice has been rather chilled all that morning, but he was humorously thinking that allowing Auroraflame to sit beside him meant that she was probably going to lure him into her cloud of depression. His whiskers twitched as he mentally laughed at that thought.

He ate while he listened to her, plucking the tough feathers off the scrawny chordate. It was rare when she would agree with his concept, so hearing her utter thenwprds made his chest swell in pride...until he gave her an irritated expression when she decided to disagree with him. Umbraice paused eating, blinking at her with a roll of his shoulders. “That’s your fault if you choose to give up because you continuously fail. You’re not going to get perfect at something the first or second or third time. It takes time and dedication.” Umbraice concluded. At least, that’s how his mindset was. He wasn’t the greatest climber, and he usually always broke claw in the past. There was times he wanted to give up, but now after so many, many long months the tom was an exceptional climber of rocky and rough surfaces. “It’s called perseverance, you know.” Normally, he always expected Auroraflame to be her super bubbly self, but even her eyes heated the expression that everything was loss. He felt bad for her in a sense.

The next second though, his tail swished behind in victory. He caught that crack of a grin planted on her features. He was totally about to continue whatever he was doing to make her smile until it disappeared. His lips stayed into a smirk, scoffing at her. If her comment was supposed to offended it, it did quite the opposite. Instead, he threw his head back to laugh. “Is that what you all are calling freakishly handsome now? Then, yeah, totally. That’s the best way to describe my face and me.” He rumbled on, a deep purr eliciting from him. He didn’t think there was any point in mulling over thoughts of recent events. If Starclan could hear their cries, then they would answer their prayers soon enough. This moment would had called for whisking her away from her sadness, but she couldn’t leave camp. Which sucked. Being stuck in camp was the worst punishment alive according to Umbraice. “I mean, why else would you approach me? I know you just find me so irresistible...” He drew out. He normally wasn’t this idiotic flirt, but with her it was kinda fun. He liked playing around with her, but when he continued to notice that she wasn’t budging to keep a smile on her face, he hit her on her flank with his tail. “Would it kill you to smile a bit? You’re souring the mood, Auroraflame. Just a little smile, doll. For your friend, Umbraice.” He begged, his smirk turned into a much brighter smile.