[dionysus]

Originally Posted by Constellation

Too long, conserving space XD

During the moment of Piperwing's speechlessness, she noticed Passionblaze look up in surprise. She almost laughed when he turned around to look behind him, as if wondering if something back there had rendered her speechless instead of his compliments. Starclan, this tom is thick! She thought to herself, inwardly laughing at how silly he was being. It was endearing though. Piperwing felt the first pang of an attachment inside of her. Not love or attraction. She simply began to care for this thick-headed, hostile, moping tom. He obviously didn't care for himself, so she decided she would just have to do it for him. From this moment on, they would be friends whether he liked it or not.
Piperwing laughed at Passionblaze's continuation of their joke. "Don't worry, I am. You should start practicing if you want any hope of beating me!" She laughed with a sparkle of amusement in her yellow-green eyes, turning to the side and shifting her shoulders to show off some muscles. Her tail whisked through the air behind her, darting in to brush the top of Passionblaze's head before returning to her. "Oh, I won't. The question is: Will you?" Piperwing teased with a grin, ignoring Passionblaze's dark voice. He didn't scare her in the slightest. Her eyes traveled over his form, noting the muscles and overall stockiness. Passionblaze was clearly built for strength whereas she was clearly built for speed. It made them a perfect match. Piperwing knew she could take him if she struck first, darting in to land a blow to the chest or throat to wind him and get him off balance. It would be hard for him then to focus on where he was throwing his paws and she could dodge them easily, dancing around him to land multiple blows all over him until he fell over. Obviously, battles rarely went as planned, so she'd need a second plan and even a third, but she still believed that she could beat him in battle.
Piperwing didn't know Passionblaze well enough to know all of his faults or virtues, but she knew her own enough not to judge him. She knew that she could be too pushy and annoying and that she never thought before throwing herself into situations. Honestly, at times she wondered why any cat put up with her. That was why she was so taken aback by Passionblaze's compliments. Piperwing had a very low self-esteem, despite her confident facade. No cat knew just how much Piperwing hated being Piperwing; she was too good at hiding how she felt.
Piperwing almost sighed in relief when Passionblaze turned down her offer to talk. She never knew how to handle upset cats. "Yeah," she responded in a thinly-veiled disbelieving voice, "It'll pass."
Piperwing listened as Passionblaze gave his whole gender speech. She didn't agree. Piperwing didn't think everything could be boiled down to gender and she hated when cats reduced everything to the simple fact that some of them were chemically different. Piperwing was right in the middle. She didn't think one gender was better than the other. She hated the very idea of that sexist Shadowclan family, which she'd heard of through stories. She couldn't even imagine living in that clan with them and felt sorry for those who did. Especially Halfgaze, their new deputy. In fact, Piperwing longed to meet her and tell her that she respected her. However, she'd hate the family just as much if it was filled with she-cats who were sexist against males. Piperwing just didn't see the point in alienating oneself from the other gender or acting like one was better. They were all cats, after all. Therefore, she found it hard to keep quiet during his rant and spoke up as soon as he was done, "I do, in fact, think you're intelligent. Way more intelligent then you are acting. I also don't think that this can be chalked up to gender. I don't believe that the male gender as a whole lacks sense and the female gender as a whole has an abundance of it. It's individual. Why do you try to break yourself down to just a tom when you're so much more? You are the one who is brave, not toms as a whole. You are the one who is loyal and protective and a fighter. You are also the one who lacks the sense to leave a fight when you are too injured to win. I would go back in a heartbeat to help fight if I thought it would help Thunderclan but do you think they can spare the cats necessary to peel our dying bodies out of the fray? Going back now would be a dis-service to your clan. And, no. Your life is not more important than all the lives in Thunderclan. Yes, we could find a new deputy. But, what makes you think your life is unimportant? Could you honestly say about your clan that we would be unaffected by your death farther than just choosing a new deputy? That is some cold sentiment." Piperwing's tone wasn't harsh or angry. It was more...disappointed and tired. She knew she couldn't change his mind, but she had to try to make him see reason. Piperwing wasn't finished yet and continued in a calm, slightly desperate voice, "What about the cats who love you? You'd really force them to live without you and then say that it doesn't matter? They could just get a new son or brother or friend." Piperwing realized through this conversation that no matter what she said about him, Passionblaze wasn't the type of cat to care about his own life or his own well-being. Her only hope was to make him care about her. She continued, "I've decided that we are friends now. I am going to care about you now since you don't care about yourself and that means that if you go and get yourself killed, your killing part of me too. Do you want to do that to me?"
After her rant, Piperwing was tired. As they moved on to the subject of Rabbitpounce, she sat back down and looked at her paws. She wasn't hungry anymore and the thought of Rabbitpounce was already making her stomach churn. Whatever Passionblaze said, it was Piperwing's fault, and that was one trauma that they shared. He can blame himself all he wants, but his claws hadn't torn through her flesh and ripped the life from her. Piperwing could still feel the blood oozing between her claws and dripping down her paws. She could feel her claws ripping into the other cat. Passionblaze would never have to live with that. His words caused another pang in her heart. It was meaningful, yet it stung like any wound when she thought about how he would have said that for anyone. He didn't want to lose a clanmate, not her specifically. She wasn't in love with him, but she did like him in a friendly way. Piperwing simply wanted someone to care about her specifically and not just because she was a part of the same clan.