[lone]

Originally Posted by Dipper

"Oh.. hey," Fawnpaw said, fighting to keep his chin raised so their eyes could meet despite the incredible temptation to lower his gaze to where his paw scuffed the ground. Suddenly self-conscious of his appearance, he gave his chest fur a couple licks to inch his way toward presentable. Fawnpaw resisted the urge to shake his fur and free the scraps of flowers that clung to him, determining it would have to stay there for... well, however long this interaction continued for. At least it carried a nice scent. "I..." There was an excuse on the tip of his tongue, a reason for being here, for... probably coming off as odd since she didn't know how long he'd been there. But he did, and he perceived it as unacceptably long. Luckily, her sentiment transformed the uneasiness in his stomach into a tight coil that wasn't nearly as unpleasant. And he already forgot what he was going to say.

Fawnpaw broke into a stupidly giddy grin instead and ducked his head, flush blossoming into a greater spread underneath his fluff. "I mean, I'm not sure if it's been that long but..." A breathless chuckle rolled from him. "I missed you too. I didn't... uh, I guess I did expect to find you out here since I followed your scent from camp, but--" The abrupt cut off was approximately where he'd realized words were failing him, perhaps making this worse. Fawnpaw jumped to amending it by explaining, "Sorry, I swear it's nothing weird-- I was wondering why you were out here alone so... I was making sure you were okay." The last piece was lifted like a question as he tried to gauge Amberpaw's expression, hoping she wasn't too... put off by it. He guessed he wouldn't blame her; curiosity often wedged him in uncomfortable situations, and he wished he had better rein over his unsatisfied mind.

"My training?" He tilted his head, then understood. "Oh! It's... fine, yeah. Definitely fine. I have a new mentor and she seems pretty nice-- Troutrunner, do you know her?" It'd be unsurprising if she did because from their brief interaction, her worldliness had been pronounced. "Maybe this one will actually manage to teach me something," he offered in a lame joke, "not that I think she's.. unskilled or anything. Honestly, I'm probably way less qualified to be an apprentice than Troutrunner is to mentor one."

Amberpaw cocked her head to the side, following his stumbling speech. "Hey, don't worry about it. I think it's sweet you were worried about me," She answered, with another bright smile. The smile faded, however, when she remembered she wasn't supposed to be out here on her own - and, although she had never been much of a rule-breaker (she liked pleasing other cats, and cats who broke the rules all the time didn't do that), everyone needed some space sometimes. It had become part of her daily routine, and as happy as she was to see Fawnpaw - her happiness was now mixed with guilt.

"Hey, Fawnpaw, if me being out here doesn't come up, um... would you mind not telling anyone? I mean, don't lie if they ask you, but - maybe just - don't bring it up?" She felt bad for asking him to keep her secret, even partly. She wouldn't have wanted that on her, and she stopped for a minute before giving a little shake of her head and continuing. "Actually, you know what, uh - you don't have to do that. You can tell someone if you want to, I mean - sorry. You, uh, you didn't need my permission for that." Amberpaw didn't like feeling flustered, and she liked it less when she felt cornered, but she knew Fawnpaw hadn't been trying to corner her. He was being nice. She appreciated that, it felt good to have cats care about her.

"Troutrunner, huh?" The name wasn't familiar, but Amberpaw didn't know many of the warriors yet. She had met a few - all nice, really - but no one that she could recall being named Troutrunner. "Hey, I bet you'll make a great warrior. You're trying, right? That's a big part of it," Amberpaw grinned, momentarily forgetting her embarrassment. She was glad Fawnpaw had a new mentor. He was older than she was, and he'd probably get to be a warrior soon - that would be exciting. She couldn't wait to go and watch, and get to congratulate him afterwards. It would be the first time any of her friends had become a warrior, and she couldn't wait for it.

"By the way, I like your new look," She commented a moment later, glancing at the flower petals still stuck in his fur. "It's nice, it accents your fur and everything," Amberpaw added, before leaning forward and gently picking a couple of them off. "As much as I like it, something tells me you don't want to go back to camp like that." The end of her sentence was accented by a soft laugh, a hint of mischief sneaking onto her expression before it disappeared as quickly as it had come.