[Empress Of Evil]

Originally Posted by Constellation

Passionblaze felt like he was being a stuttering mess, that awkward state showing through. Especially when she looked to give him a questioning look, so Passionblaze avoided her gaze, continuing to talk (completely making a fool of himself). He had no problems with admiring the female strength. His mother, who is the most important role model in his life, raised two toms. That's strength alone right there. Especially remembering the heartbreak Burn had put her through. To the tom, it was always important to acknowledge the female skills. They were graceful, intelligent, sly little heart warmers. If Passionblaze had a sister...he couldn't imagine the possibilities, but he supposed Cherrybubble was the sister he never had (now, if only his mother would cooperate and stop trying to see that there's more to their friendship). Clearing his throat, the tips of his ginger ears appearing darker as he felt a tad embarrassed. The flame tom bashfully looked away from the white she cat muttering something inaudible before he quickly turned back to her with a calm smile. ''Hm, you don't sound too convincing.'' Passionblaze, after prepping himself up, he turned back to the she cat to give her a suspicious stare. ''You're hiding secrets, aren't you?'' He teased. Her response sounded uncertain, almost like she was reluctant to say the simple one word. Passionblaze only took a swift look at her expression, noting a small bit of shock. But, he didn't question because the she cat must had brought herself back into the realms of reality.
Passionblaze's solemnly stared out at the thunderpath, a grimace of a smile appearing on his face. He was more disgusted by the concrete path more than anything, and wished that it never existed. So, when the molly began speaking again, Passionblaze didn't bother to look at her. His gaze was turned to the stoned path. But, his ears swiveled to let her know that he had been listening to her. He almost choked on her words, chuckling lowly. ''You sure are humble,'' He commented, flicking his tail as he rolled his eyes up towards the sky. The russet tom was thinking over what Blizzardhail said about natural talent. That she didn't rely on skill. He knew she was joking, but it made the tom go into deep thoughts about his own skills. ''Even natural talent gonna kick you in the rear end,'' He snorted, vaguely remembering that thunderclan cats are natural at climbing trees. It was a profession, but Passionblaze fell out a tree at trying to chase a squirrel one time. The tom was a good enough climber as the rest of thunderclanners, but he didn't rely on that broken branch causing him to sleep. ''Trust me, I know. And, I got the scratches to prove it.'' He smirked. Most would believe that Passionblaze got his scars in battles, which were true, but he was also quite reckless. Hah, quite. Impulsion was embedded in him.
The tom narrowed his eyes playfully at the molly at her teasing remark. ''Is that so?'' He spoke. Before he could even retort, she was continuing and Passionblaze kept a listening ear at her words. When she finished, he let out an exasperated sigh. ''I don't know about that. You quite worry me with your fascination of the Thunderpath.'' He threw his head back towards the stray road. ''If anything, I have to keep an extra-extra eye on you. You look like the type that would enjoy some attention.'' Passionblaze straightened his posture, giving the she cat an amusing glare. Passionblaze wouldn't think of protecting a clan as 'babysitting'. These cats wouldn't have become warriors if they did not know how to protect themselves. Passionblaze, obviously was not the type of warrior to sit back and watch as his clan mate was taken advantage of. He wasn't afraid to leap into action without a second thought. It was a reckless thing to do...but Passionblaze liked to think of himself as a martyr. He needed to die for a cause. ''I know you can take care of yourself.'' He purred lightly. ''You have a very leaned muscle form, I'm impressive. I'd say you could land some good blows on the battle field without any help from others.'' He complimented. Truth be told, he saw that she was in perfect shape to take care of herself. She appeared to be a very healthy and beautiful warrior to serve thunderclan. ''But, I wouldn't be surprised if you yowled my name to save you. I'm known for rescuing damsels in distress.'' He playful remarked, then puffed out his chest, bigger than it already was to show a confident vibe towards the molly.
One thing about Passionblaze that many did not see was that he was a dare devil. Passionblaze liked doing daring motives, but ever since he became deputy, he tried to keep it to a minimum. He was supposed to be setting an example for all the clan. And, pushing himself towards troubling pain was not on his list. So, that little glint in the molly's eyes made Passionblaze lit up with a type of sadistic pleasure until it melted quickly at the words he uttered to her. ''Don't you dare.'' He narrowed his eyes, his voice a little harder than he intended. His fur had bushed up when she was defying him. Taking small steps towards her destination. Passionblaze was ready to shoot at her like a flamed bullet, but she stopped abruptly in her movement. It made Passionblaze stop as well, and he finally melted into a rigid, calm state. He took a couple steps towards the she cat, glaring down at her. ''You like to tease much, don't you?'' He questioned, daringly. Passionblaze knew he was in the wrong for indulging in his love for daunting tasks...it just brought back treasured memories when he and his brother would make up ridiculous games to outdo each other. Passionblaze blinked at the she cat. ''Don't play with your life. Please.'' It would be all fun and games until she either ended up dead or fatally wounded, and Passionblaze would had carried that pain around like a chip on his shoulder. But, apart of him felt that it was nice to meet someone almost as...daring as he. Or, maybe she made herself appeared that way.
Once things were serene around them, Passionblaze sat down on his haunches. The bottom of his pads were tired, and he just noticed that when he put pressure on them. Perhaps, the skin was hardening on the bottom of them, creating a callus of some sort. ''Yeah...tell me about it.'' His voice was distant; low, and he faintly heard her comment, but his head was bent analyzing his paw. The flame-pelted tom lifted his paw and turned it to see why was it causing him trouble. He gave it a few tender licks before he put it down. It was a casual silence between them, something Passionblaze didn't mind. He would never be the first to leave a conversation unless the other cat was comfortable with that. It was rude, in his opinion. His ears perked at Blizzardhail, hearing her question and he shifted in his spot uncomfortably. When Passionblaze looked up at the sky, he thought about his father. Was Flamingpassion proud of him? Passionblaze knew Springingsky was, and her opinion matter most. The niece he was raising, she constantly bragged about him, and his brother? Oh, his brother...didn't even know the proposal Passionblaze was getting. ''It's great.'' He lied, even feigning a purr as he uttered the words. It was a bit lonely without Burn around to mess around with. ''A lot more than a normal warrior duty and all, but I think I can handle this.'' He shrugged. ''I wouldn't call it fun either. When is work ever fun?'' He mused, laughing deeply. ''But, I like it. I like being able to get to know my clan mates. I plan on sticking around, and if it comes so when it's time for me to step up to be leader, I just want all my clan mates to know that they can count on me - troubles or whatever. I just want them to see me as someone they can talk to as a friend, you know?'' Kinda like how he was talking to the pretty cat in front of him. It was easy, it was a mellow conversation that Passionblaze was enjoying. When he got up to his paws, he ruffled his fur, his eyes reflecting their golden hues with the sun's help. ''Say, you wanna walk with me or play stationary here all day?'' He was beginning to walk away, swaying his tail behind him as he called over his shoulder to her. Anything to get her away from that thunderpath, because frankly, Passionblaze didn't fully trust that she would stay away from it. ''Maybe we can hunt.'' He rolled his broad shoulders to relax them.

The Turkish Angora tried to meet the tom’s gaze but he seemed to be purposely avoiding her’s. Was he embarrassed by what he was saying? The she-cat let out a quiet purr and couldn’t help but smile at that. It was kind of adorable, the way he got flustered when he complimented females like that. Although maybe the way he was acting was slightly her fault. The way she had responded to those words, she made it seem like what he was saying was wrong. But the deputy was actually completely correct. It warmed her heart to know that there was at least one tom who saw she-cats for more than just a pretty face. Of course, she wasn’t saying that every other tom held no such respect for females, because there were a lot of toms like Passionblaze who silently appreciated she-cats, she just wished that they would say it more often. “No no, I was just a little….surprised,” Blizzardhail responded. “I think that’s the first time I’ve ever heard a tom say that to me,” she explained, giving the tom a small smile. It was such a strange and surprising thing that she had learned about the deputy today, but it was something that she was happy to have discovered. Now the she-cat was more curious about the tom. She wanted to know more about him and see what kind of a cat he was. “Secrets? Me? Of course not,” Blizzardhail said, widening her icy blue hues in mock innocence. The warrior wanted to laugh at herself. There were so many secrets that she had stored up in her mind. Most of these secrets weren’t bad, just things that she didn’t wish to share with anyone. She didn’t usually didn’t mind if someone found out one of her secrets, but she did prefer to be as quiet about her secrets as possible. She wasn’t one to share secrets like she would prey. She didn’t share a secret daily, but she’d already shared one secret today, to a cat she barely knew. “You’re a lucky lucky tom, Passionblaze. Not many cats know about my interest for the thunderpath. They would all think I'm crazy if I said such a thing," she laughed. Blizzardhail acted as if she were joking about the matter, but she knew that the words were more than true.
"Of course, dear," she purred. "My parents would've named me Humblekit had they not liked the name Blizzard so much," she joked, chuckling at her own joke. Blizzardhail could be humble if she wanted to. But she preferred to talk about how great she was, although most of the time she was just joking. "Hmm, I suppose," she said, letting a quiet hum of agreement. The Turkish Angora licked a paw and dragged it over an ear, not giving Passionhail anymore signs of agreement. Her icy blue hues flickered to look at the tom's. She followed his gaze and saw that it had landed on the grey, stony path. She noticed that his gaze wasn't like hers when she looked at the thunderpath. The look in her eye was curious, but his was dark. At his next sentence, she raised an eyebrow, clearly quite curious. Blizzardhail didn't have many scars. Only a few, all of which were battle scars. Long fur hid her scars and the stories behind them. After taking a brief look at her, no cat would notice any scars, she would look as new as a newborn kit. But anyone who took a closer look would notice the pale lines which blended in with her snow-coloured fur. There was nothing wrong in having a scarred pelt, it showed off bravery, but Blizzardhail personally preferred to keep her pelt clean of scars.
“Oh yes indeed,” she said, a smile playfully dancing on her lips. “Oh the Thunderpath can’t kill me. The monsters might, but they can’t catch me that easily,” she said cheerfully, completely ignoring his exasperated sigh. The she-cat knew that she had to be very careful around monsters, and she had hung around the thunderpath enough times to know how to cross it without getting hit. “Hmm, I guess I do like a bit of attention,” she said thoughtfully, flashing a wink at the tom before laughing at whatever reaction he had. She was just messing with him right now. Passionblaze was certainly attractive, but was he worth flirting with? That she still had yet to find out. Some cats just weren’t worth it, no matter how pretty they might look. “Thank you.” Blizzardhail cared about how she looked and made sure that her pelt looked nice at all times. She hadn’t tried that hard to get the muscles that she had. Those had just come with her as she grew up and trained. The Turkish Angora was satisfied with Passionblaze’s admission, but her smile suddenly dropped at his next sentence. She rolled her eyes in a playful manner. “Yeah right! As if I would need your help,” she laughed, smirking and making herself look even more confident. The warrior wasn’t invincible, and she didn’t mind it when other cats decided to help her out from time to time, but she did prefer to look after herself or herself and another cat. She worked better independently rather than in a group. And anyway, there was nothing wrong in looking confident.
As Blizzardhail got up to creep towards the thunderpath, the ThunderClan deputy became rigid and his eyes had hardened. She had to bite her tongue and the inside of her cheeks to stop herself from bursting outside with laughter as she played her mean, little trick. She didn’t want the deputy to come flying at her again so she halted in her step and whirled around, her tail flying after her. “Oh you are such fun to tease,” she remarked as she sat back down in front of him. “But you have a good heart. I think you’ll make a good deputy,” she declared, giving the tom a warm smile. Just from his reaction to her trick, she had seen how ready he’d been to stop her, which meant that he had good intentions. “I love to tease,” she said boldly. The she-cat had to admit that she found so much joy in teasing others. She never meant any harm, she was just having a bit of fun and being playful. She was born with a sense of humour, and sometimes she even struggled to see the seriousness of something. She was sillier than she looked. Most cats viewed her as a refined cat who was pretty but a bit lonely. “I’ll consider your request,” she responded. She placed a thoughtful expression onto her face and hummed quietly as she considered it. About three seconds later, she stopped thinking and smiled brightly at the tom. “Your suggestion has been considered and rejected,” she said. “I love taking risks just too much. Nothing, not even the word of the deputy is going to stop me from being a bit daring,” she chuckled playfully.
After the tom had responded to her comment, a comfortable silence fell upon the two. She watched with no emotion as the tom lifted his paw and gave it a few licks. She craned her neck to see if anything was wrong. From where she was, she couldn’t see anything wrong with it so she relaxed and looked around for a bit. Somewhere in the distance, a bird screeched loudly and her ears swivelled around in that direction. She scanned the sky with her icy blue gaze before dropping it back down to look at Passionblaze. Perhaps she would go hunting later, the bird sounded like it was nearby. Soon enough, the tom replied again and the silence was lifted. Although she hadn’t found the silence uncomfortable, she preferred to talk and fill the silence, rather than just let it be. She found silence to be generally awkward in conversations, no matter how comfortable she might’ve felt during that time. The she-cat believed the fake purr that he gave and she grinned happily for him. “That’s good. We wouldn’t want a deputy who can’t handle the pressure.” Having an unorganized deputy who didn’t believe that they were fully capable of handling the job wasn’t a good thing. ThunderClan would be doomed at that point. Every clan needed two strong leaders to keep things in control, not just one. “Work can be fun. Hunting is work and hunting is fun,” she reasoned. Part of the she-cat agreed with the tom in that work wasn’t always fun, but she chose not to voice that part of her and voiced the opposite. As Passionblaze continued talking, the more faith she had in the tom. He wanted the best for ThunderClan and he wanted his clanmates to know that they could trust him. Snowstar had made a good choice it seemed.
Hunt? Remembering her thoughts from earlier, she twitched her whiskers in amusement. “You’ve just read my mind,” she said, giving him a grin. She took one step before pausing. She looked over her shoulder and took one last glance at the thunderpath before bounding after Passionblaze.