[lone]

The tom blinked in surprise and stared at her for a moment before the words seemed to truly register in his mind. Warrior? Adderpaw... no, Adderheart? A warrior? For real? For another second he stood there and then headbutted her back, a grin coming over his features. "Adderheart, really, that's awesome! Oh my gosh, that's like, the best name ever, too... I love it! Adderheart! You're going to be the best warrior, are you excited to not have to train anymore?" Pinepaw asked, his green optics lighting up in happiness. He was truly glad that his friend was a warrior. The thought of that was just... amazing. That was the word to describe it, amazing. A purr rumbled in his throat, and he lightly headbutted her again. Soon he would be a warrior too! And then the two of them could do awesome things together... they wouldn't have any more training, but they would have to train their own apprentices!

And then, then they would be able to get families of their own one day! Pinepaw wondered who his future mate was going to be. Did Adderp - no, heart, it was Adderheart - ever think about that kind of thing? It would be funny if she did, because he hadn't really thought about it before right now. Pinepaw was going to have to remember that her name had changed, just another bit of information for him to retain - nothing special. He was always retaining information, anyways. "My name is not going to be Pinefluff! It'll be something fierce, and awesome-sounding, like.... like Pineneedle! Or, or Pineclaw! Something cool like that," Pinepaw bragged with a smile on his maw. He was very much enjoying his fun with Adderheart. And he still couldn't believe that she was a real warrior, because how - where - when had this happened? How could he have missed her warrior ceremony? However, wherever, and whenever this had happened, Pinepaw was pretty sure that he was 100% proud of his friend. Yes... pride. It was a feeling that previously, had been mainly directed at himself. He was proud of himself. He was always proud of himself, because he was a proud tom, but - it was nice to be proud of someone else. To get to tell them good job. Except he hadn't really said "good job," he was too excited to think of the polite formalities at the moment. Let someone else give them to her! It was different with best friends, wasn't it? Yes. It was much different.

"And, I'm so giving you a nickname! I just have to think of a good one!" The feline grinned even more happily, his maw stretched wide in a smile. Going through possible names for Adderheart in his head. Adder? Nah, that didn't seem original enough. He could just start calling her 'sweetheart' or 'cutie' or something like that, but for him, that sounded too much like a romantic nickname. And he sure didn't want to give her one of those! He didn't want to completely ruin his friendship with her. That was the easiest way to do it, wasn't it? By acting like an idiot? Probably.

Addie!

That was what he would call her, Addie. It sounded adorable. And it was sure to be one of those nicknames that would get under her skin, and make her happy at the same time.

"Luckily for you, my GENIUS mind came up with one already. I'm going to call you..." His voice trailed off and he watched her through glistening light-green optics before he finally was ready to announce the name. "Addie!" To him it sounded perfect. Adderheart... Addie... yes, there was a distinct difference in fierceness between the two. Such as, one of them had plenty and the other had absolutely none. Why would you ever want to be called a nickname that didn't sound fierce? Pinepaw sure wouldn't. And yet here he was, pinning that on his best friend.

Why? For fun. For nothing but fun, because he liked Adderheart a lot, and he wanted her to have a nickname from him. So far he hadn't given one to her, had he? Racking his mind to try and think if this had already been created, he came up with absolutely nothing. So this was the right thing to do - the only thing to do! If his friend needed a nickname... who was he to keep one from her? And besides, after all, it seemed like the right thing to do. A best friend kind of them to do.

--

The younger cat smiled up at her mentor. She had gotten much better at deciphering his shaky speech, and she was happy about it, too - it was hard to tell what he was saying sometimes! Especially because she hadn't been hanging around him all that much, despite him being her mentor - their training times hadn't been super long, and although she had learned a lot, not that much speaking had been done either. It was a moment before she could figure out what he had meant, and then she nodded as though she had suddenly understood a mystery to the universe. "Oh yeah, well, maybe you should take her out somewhere! Just a nice, relaxing day with the two of you... I bet she would love that." Heartpaw thought for a moment. She remembered going out in the territory with Rainpaw when they were little. Technically they had been kits, and she hadn't been supposed to go out - neither of them had - but they had anyways. And honestly, Heartpaw wouldn't have traded that day for anything. That was the day they had become friends.

The day she had been happy and carefree, and those days were over now. She wasn't carefree anymore. Oh sure, she was happy - she was a happy cat - but not as careless. She had a newfound appreciation for lots of things. Work, mainly, but then she also had an appreciation for rest. Rest was something that she hadn't enjoyed quite as much. And work... well... Heartpaw had never realized how hard it was going to be. She had always had a glamor filled life in her head, a life of adventure and excitement, but that wasn't what being an apprentice was. It was messy. Something that she had neglected to think of when she was a younger cat was how hard it was going to be, and she knew how hard it was now. Sighing, the young apprentice curled her tail around her paws and glanced up at the sky. Before speaking, she had been lost in thought - and after she finished talking, Rookpatch was there trying to comfort her. It was such a nice gesture and surprised the younger cat, and she looked at him with her blue optics partly clouded over with regret and unshed tears. It also made them a little more sparkly in a sense, as though she were hiding jewels beneath those deep blue pools.

Or maybe her eyes in themselves were the jewels, sapphires - of the purest kind. Picturing that, that was the way that her optics looked at the moment. Pupils of deep obsidian sat in the very center. Her small frame trembled, but she was highly grateful for the comfort. While it wasn't exactly what someone would call 'five star comfort,' it was good enough. It was good for her. It was what she needed, at least in that moment. Deciphering Rookpatch's stuttered words as he went, the younger she cat nodded. What he was saying made sense. Even though the last words somewhat knocked the breath out of her. Let him... go? That had never occured to her that that was even an option. She couldn't just 'let someone go,' at least she didn't think that she could, but maybe - maybe that was something that it was time to consider doing.

"Thanks, Rookpatch." Heartpaw attempted to smile, but it was drowned out by her worry. The worries that were speaking in her head, or shouting in her ear from the inside, more like, were making it near-to impossible for her to so much as think. And she was terrified. What if something happened? What if she did end up losing Rainpaw, what if Rookpatch had given her the wrong advice? But that was the thing - for her, there was no 'right or wrong' advice. It was based off of experience and opinions, and everyone's were different. What worked for him might not work for her. So even if she did end up losing Rainpaw, there was no way that she could blame it on the tom. That would be very wrong and very rude of her. And, Heartpaw was not either one of those things. She always tried her best to do the right thing and she wasn't rude... right? Depressed, maybe.

A little bit. And scared. She was honestly terrified, even if she was just admitting to being a little scared. "Hey... Rookpatch? If, um... if things don't go well with Rainpaw, can I come and hang out with you sometimes? And, um... maybe even if they do... we could sort of have more talks?" The younger cat suggested nervously. This was her mentor! He wasn't scary, he wasn't going to say no to her! And it wouldn't hurt her that much if he did, right? After all - the older tom probably wanted to keep his free time to himself, and his mate, and his future kits. Maybe he wouldn't want an apprentice hanging around. Still - Heartpaw wanted to remember him as an authority figure for her, someone she could go to, someone she had fun with. That was what she believed she should remember him as. And so she was trying, very hard now, to get and maintain that relationship with him.


@Duskflight