[lone]

Originally Posted by Mauve

It only now occured to Jaypaw how his good intended gesture may have been wrong in the eyes of his new Clanmates - and his old ones. They were separated by a border now, and with all the tension put aside, the warrior code stated that they must not be friendly. Still, the tom couldn't help himself. She's been one of my best friends. I'm not crushing on her, but I do care about her he thought to himself, facial features twitching as a slight inner turmoil took over a majority of his head. Barely any of this showed on the surface as the tom replaced it all with a grin - his skillset had always been in keeping his composure under any circumstances after all.

"I wouldn't be surprised if they doubled the time for my apprentice training," Jaypaw answered honestly, a hurt look crossing his face. The truth was, it had been hard on the tom since he'd joined, and he knew it was a hard road ahead of him to make it as a WindClan warrior. As he watched Kestrelpaw, not for the first time the thought of how much easier it would be in ThunderClan crossed his mind. He wasn't going back, but that didn't mean the tom hadn't thought of the possibility now and then. He'd have no family, but at least he would have Kestrelpaw, and Grovepaw, and Foxpaw, all of whom he'd left behind. Grovepaw he thought. It had been awhile since he had thought of the feline, and he shook his head, closing his eyes as if to dislodge the thought like a burr caught in his pelt.

After a bit he straightened up, pretending to ignore the fact that it came across as weird that he had just shook his head for no reason. "Speaking of, I should probably head back to camp. I know Shiningfeather wanted me later for the dusk patrol, and I would hate to be late for that," he mewed, a part of him not wanting to go. Jaypaw raised his eyes once more, watching Kestrelpaw's face for any signs that she might not want to go either. "I'll miss you," he decided to add after a moment pause, swallowing the lump that had started to build itself in his throat. The young apprentice was not anywhere close to crying, but he wanted to keep up his score of the perfect composure and wasn't about to take any chances with it.

The 'paw cleared his throat and straightened himself up. Any sign of his long to be closer to Kestrelpaw vanished and was replaced by the cool courteous look that one would give an acquaintance. It was drawing nearer to the end of their conversation, and for the first time he realized how much trouble he would be in if he was caught talking to a ThunderClanner, given his heritage and relationship with the specific cat he was conversing with. With that, he dipped his head to Kestrelpaw and turned, starting to head back across the moors towards the direction of camp. "Hopefully I'll see you at the next Gathering?" he asked as he paused, looking over his shoulder back at the ThunderClan apprentice, a hopeful twinge of light gleaming in his gaze.

(Oooh, okay so if it's alright with you, I could see Kestrelpaw actually developing into another love interest of Jaypaw's, and perhaps later on down the line when they're both warriors they could have a kind of Lion/Heather type relationship from the books? It could be a cool plot, and perhaps tempt Jaypaw to return to ThunderClan at some point?)

”Well, they’d be stupid to do that. They’d be wasting a perfectly good warrior if they kept you back.” The way Kestrelpaw spoke was brisk, and almost smug, like it was herself who she was talking about, and not Jaypaw. She did believe the words she had just said, however. Jaypaw was a perfectly able-bodied, intelligent, quick-learning young cat and if WindClan couldn’t see that, then they were stupid. The she cat was irritated that ThunderClan had lost a good future warrior, but as long as he was an apprentice in WindClan, perhaps he would lose his drive to be there? It was a stupid Clan, anyways. Nobody liked them, as far as Kestrelpaw knew, or at least, as far as she was hoping. Besides, Blazingstar really should learn to take responsibility for his warriors.

She couldn’t believe the immaturity of the whole situation. And although she wasn’t acting much like a soon-to-be warrior by placing blame everywhere, she couldn’t care less. It felt good to blame someone else for everything that was happening. It felt good to know that there was someone who had screwed up, and that was the reason things were happening now. And besides, if a leader could do that and remain leader, that could mean that there was hope for her yet. She so desperately wanted to be leader. Someday, perhaps, Snowstar would make her deputy and then eventually she would be leader. Nine lives.

Leading the Clan and judging what battles were worth taking and which ones weren’t, getting to do so many things, all of which constantly thrilled Kestrelpaw. Jaypaw’s announcement that he needed to go came so suddenly and seemed so unexpected to Kestrelpaw that she felt like someone had just clawed her in the face. She hadn’t expected the now-WindClan apprentice to be leaving so soon. She’d had a lot more she wanted to talk to him about, but… now that it came down to it… she supposed it was a good thing. If anyone were to catch her talking to a WindClanner at the border, and being friendly with one, no doubt, her warrior ceremony would be postponed AGAIN and Kestrelpaw was pretty sure she would never be able to deal with that. It was really annoying, when she thought about it… how come it felt like you had been training for much longer then you had, and your warrior ceremony still hadn’t happened?

Kestrelpaw was going to stay out of the upcoming battle (the one that was sure to happen) if she was still an apprentice. There was no WAY she was going to have yet another setback. ”Sounds like a fun time. You definitely don’t want to miss that, so I guess I’ll see you later.” The she cat snorted, shaking her head a little. Still, Jaypaw’s determination to prove himself to his new Clan was admirable. She could understand loyalty more then anything else. And his was above and beyond what she could find herself feeling for another Clan. Jaypaw’s choked-up words surprised her, and she looked down at the ground awkwardly to keep from looking TOO surprised. Or too embarrassed.

Embarrassed though she felt, Kestrelpaw was determined not to show that. So all she did was smile, once she could get herself together, and her tail began to twitch anxiously as he started moving away. If someone caught them right now, that would be the absolute WORST. ”Yeah… yeah, I’ll see you later.” The she cat smiled as she spoke, before she turned and started bounding back through ThunderClan territory. Back to the camp. Where she felt at home… the camp that WAS her home.

(that sounds cool, yeah! I'm totally up for it c: )