Counting the Deathberries

"Pitchpaw could you go and get Hollowgaze?" Snaketail lay down carefully, holding out his front paw. He'd been trying to show her a good way of jumping down on prey from the trees, but had landed awkwardly on his front paw in the process, apparently his muscle added to his weight making tree climbing harder for him.

He purred with amusement, "my own fault of course, but Hollowgaze should probably just check it over before I try to put any weight on it."

Just in case it was serious, and because it was cold outside, Pitchpaw ran back to Camp and into the Medicine Cat's Den where she almost collided with Hollowgaze.
"Snaketail..." she panted, "hurt paw... sent me to get you..."

Hollowgaze didn't seem to fazed, smiling at her as he went back into the Den to collect a few herbs to take with him.
"I'm sure he's fine, thanks for coming to get me."
With Hollowgaze gone, she collapsed to the ground to calm her breathing down.

A couple of moments later a wet mossball was dropped in front of her. Pitchpaw followed up from the white paws to the brown and black head of Noisepaw.
"Drink that and slow your breathing. It's getting colder and we are in high alititude. If you push yourself to hard in Leafbare you'll pass out."

She was too tired to get irritated at him for anything, so she just pulled the mossball towards her gratefully and drank. At first it was very cold and pained her throat, but she was so thirsty that she kept going and eventually adjusted to it, finishing her drink and leaning against a rock for support as she got back to her shaky paws.

"I'd say 'thanks' but you'd probably lecture me again" she managed to huff out, still attempting to catch her breath a little.

With a shrug, the tom picked up the Mossball and tossed it outside of the Den, "I'm not in the mood to lecture, so today is your lucky day."
He puffed out his fur and went over to lie down in his nest, "Are you beating up on poor Snaketail too much?"

"No he fell out of a tree during training" she told him, thankfully they hadn't been very far up the tree just in case something like this happened.
She glanced up at him, felt herself starting to blush, but continued to hold his gaze as he could mistake it for anger, she puffed up her cheeks for good effect to help with this illusion.

Noisepaw didn't react. "Well at least it's not to serious. A day or so of rest and he'll be good as new and back to training you. You're lucky your mentor is tough as nails."

Bursting out suddenly in real frustration, driven on by her own embaressment that she'd actually blushed in front of him, Pitchpaw regained her balance and glared at him, "You're always doing that, is that truly how you think of me? You call me a pest, you don't care if I'm angry or upset, do you really not think any more of me than your other patients?"

He gave her a small start and an almost confused look for a few seconds, before narrowing his eyes at her and getting out of his nest, turning his back on her, "And here I thought I was being nice to you. I didn't expect for you to get snappy over kindness. Fine. I'll make a mental note to not show you any more affection if you're gonna act like a spoiled brat."

Drat. "Noisepaw wait," she hurried round him, "look I'm sorry okay, I just..." she gritted her teeth again, this time more in anger at herself, "...It doesn't matter, I know it's my problem not yours... well okay you make the whole thing worse for being a grump all the time, but..." She shook her head, "It's a difficult age," she repeated what Rosepaw had told her.

"Difficult age? I'm sorry but I lost you there." Noisepaw flicked his ear in confusion and looked down at her. Well at least she had his attention again and he didn't seem to be cross.

Pitchpaw gave him a pained look, life was so unfair, with every day that seemed to pass those feelings inside her seemed to grow, and she'd come here to see him, thinking that perhaps she'd found some sort of way to see a light in him, something resembling a likable cat, then he'd just say something and hurt her feelings, even when she was trying to be nice to him.

Noisepaw looked down at her before sighing. "Go lay down in one of the nests. You can give Hailpaw some company. Your little boyfriend isn't doing so well. I'd rather you wait till Hollowgaze got back to see if you need anything else."

"He's not my boyfriend!" She practically shouted this, anybody in the Den would have heard her, but she was too upset to care, unconscious of the tears that were now streaming down her face, "He's not! Why won't you believe me," she stepped forwards, lifting herself just a little to match their heights.

Noisepaw growled. "I was just teasing you. No need to get so offen-"

He was cut off by her forcibly pressing her nose against his.

She pulled back suddenly, eyes wide, she hadn't meant to do that, she hadn't meant to do that.

Opening her mouth as if to say something, she found she couldn't, how could she explain this to him?
Instead she felt her face beginning to scrunch up as she attempted to hold back more tears of embarrassment, turned and ran out of the Medicine Cat's Den.

"W-wait, Pitchpaw!" Suddenly he was hurrying after her, she heard a couple of crashes that would have suggested that he'd tripped over something in his pursuit which gave her a short distance advantage as she tore out of the Camp, heading towards the Cloudclan border, where she might be able to loose him in the rocky terrain. He was angry, absolutely for sure, and he had good reason to be, if anyone had seen that it could have called his entire position in the Clan into question.

Teeth closed around her tail and pulled her back, causing her to let out a squeak of instinctive indignation, as he pinned her to the ground by her shoulders.

"Let me go!" She protested, tail flailing, she was sure it was a mess and that he'd pulled some of her fur out when he'd grabbed it.
She attempted to push him off with her hind legs, but her heart wasn't really in it, though she knew she could have done if she wanted - Noisepaw wasn't particularly adapt to getting around the mountains quickly with his altitude problems, and he hadn't received any battle training.

Noisepaw hissed and covered her mouth with his paw. "You need to stop talking so much. It makes all this really hard."

Pitchpaw was in the middle of searching for the best possible insult when the older Apprentice sighed and leaned down, pressing his nose to hers gently.
She was so shocked that her mind went completely blank for quite some time, before she reached up to place her front paws around his neck to hold him there, closeing her eyes and just letting herself exist in this moment, uninterrupted for now.

Finally they pulled apart, Noisepaw stumbled back a few pases before falling down heavily into a sitting position and shaking his head, "I'm an idiot."

"We're both idiots" she admitted sadly, "If that's the way things are..." She knew enough about what had happened to Splashleaf to know that she didn't want that for him. It was laughable really, Fallendreams had tried to kill her mother, and all anyone seemed to say was that he probably had good intentions, but a Medicine Cat with a mate, well that was apparently just taking things too far.

She kept the distance between them, "Nothing needs to come of this... I understand that you're a Medicine Cat, or at least training to be one, you took vows and stuff to Starclan, I'm sure... I'm sure that I'll manage."

Noisepaw flicked his ear and looked over at her. "You know, for a spoiled brat... You're really selfless."

She gave him an irriatable look, "You're the one who called me that, I never said I was," okay perhaps she didn't walk around like some Cats, falling over everyone and blinking with wide-eyed genuine innocence, looking out for everybody but yourself because 'you just didn't care what happened to you as long as everybody else was alright', she could even hear herself immitating a high pitched irritating voice herself, she couldn't hate Cats like that of course, but it wasn't the sort of trait that she found particularly admarable.

"I care about you" she managed to admit, "I would never, ever want someone I cared about to go through the same suffering as Splashleaf."

The tom looked over at her and a small, rare smile came to his muzzle. "See, you do care." He stood up and walked over, sitting down beside her. "However, would you care to explain?"

"What do you mean?" She wasn't sure which part of her story he was questioning her on, still he didn't seem to be angry, and to at least some levels it seemed that she wasn't completely alone with her feelings, which was another relief.

"Explain... Your feelings?"

She blushed as brightly as her nose, "I..." She'd always imagined this would be easier, like it was in stories when the she-cat just professed her love to the handsome tom and they went off into the sunset together, but in practise it was a lot harder.
"You... You lecture me all the time, make me feel like a helpless Kit that doesn't know how to do anything for itself... but you're braver than any other Cat I know, I just don't feel quite whole when I'm not with you."

"You know you've dug yourself in a hole, right?" Noisepaw sighed, looking down at her with his dark blue eyes.

"Don't you think I haven't told myself that" she sighed, "But..." She glanced up at him, a small glimmer of hope, "I wasn't the only one right?"
He shuffled his paws uncomfortably, "I... hoped me teasing you and being mean would push you away. I didn't know it had exactly the opposite effect."

Pitchpaw laughed lightly, "What can I say, obviously there is something wrong with me," there was a slight flirtatious note to her voice, "So my turn now," she began grooming down her tail from where he'd pulled on it, "Explain your feelings?"

"There are a lot of things wrong with you" Noisepaw huffed and looked down at his paws. "You're loud, you're annoying, you're strong-headed, and you don't take no for an answer. You may trip over your paws trying to get attention, but you dont need to be treated like a child. You're stong."

As she listened to him insult her several times over, she could feel her annoyance rising again - had he only been teasing her, then she stopped, "you know" she smiled, "She-cats don't always take 'strong' as a stand alone word to be a particularly good compliment."

"Oh hush or I'll push you in a river." Noisepaw grumbled and got to his paws, fluffing his fur out.

Pitchpaw nodded, forcing herself to be serious, "So... are we agreed, we'll just pretend this didn't happen?"
It would be hard, so hard that she wasn't actually sure she'd manage it, but Noisepaw wouldn't agree, would he?

"When did I say that this didn't happen?" He took a few steps back towards camp, smirking and waiting for her reaction.

"What?" She hurried to catch up with him, her face a perfect picture of shock and confusion, "but you're a Medicine Cat and sensible and stuff, I know I'm adorably gorgeous and everything, but I'm not sure I'm worth risking your position over."

"Who said I was risking my postion? There is a very big difference between me and Splashleaf, Pitchpaw. I'm not stupid, I know what I'm doing, and I don't give birth."

She almost smiled at that, tempted to come back with a retort, but for once in her life she really felt like she should be making him think about this.
"I know but... Secret relationships.... do they ever stay that way, I mean both Shiningwing and Splashleaf were found out, as were Shadowcliff and Aspenstar."

"We'll just have to be smart. Besides, we're both apprentices. And everyone thinks I hate you. Hollowgaze even asked if I was looking at the herbs so often because I was counting the Deathberries."

"Okay..." she nodded slowly, lifting her tail hopefully, before grinning and running around him in a tight circle, brushing her fur happily against his, "and your right, I mean your so nasty towards me no one would think of it, and I spend so much time with other toms that nobody would even think to look your way."

Noisepaw rolled his eyes. "Just dont get too cozy. And if you come in with fake injuries, I'm gonna give you real injuries. So dont push it." He playfully smacked her in the face with his tail and purred.

"I promise" she grinned, "Perhaps we shouldn't be seen coming back to Camp together either," a smirk played across her features, "Cats might talk, and we wouldn't want that."

Noisepaw nodded. "Then you run along. I'll get some herbs and then head back."