[lone]

Originally Posted by AbsurdJinx

Yes, you do have an apology to make! Was what ran through Fawnskip's mind from the start of Obsidiansky's apology. His defensive nature had been so frustrating! He'd been so awkward! She was getting irritated with him for not easily falling for her tricks, but she refused to let this emotion show through. Of course, she enjoyed challenges, but a certain ginger tomcat she was currently trying to play her games with was already challenge enough. She had been hoping for an easy ride this time, but it seems that that won't be happening.


She was drawn from her thoughts when she decided she'd had enough thinking about how frustrated she was. Fawnskip silently told herself she was supposed to be having fun. She watched him through kind eyes as he continued to apologize, smiling in embarrassment at some statements or nodding in understanding. She inhaled heavily when he finished as if she had just been told a lot that needed to be taken in. Then Fawnskip smiled, laughing softly in an attempt to lighten the air - this was her sign of forgiveness.


Unlike Obsidiansky, Fawnskip was as comfortable as could be. She'd learned to let herself act like she was acting like herself. Wow! If that's not complicated, then what is? And then she felt her defensive walls grow even higher. Fawnskip had had an average kithood which she was grateful for, but for some reason, her adolescence moons were where everything went downhill. She learned she was interested in tomcats, and toms were interested in her. Being a game-loving feline who adored challenges, she refused to go about this the easy way. She just had to learn how to make love into a game. So she did. She experimented with toms, befriending them and discovering what they wanted in a mate. She was quick to learn that most toms adored her appearance, and so she used it to her advantage. She'd use her beauty to keep their attention while she educated herself on them. By the time she was an older apprentice, she was ready to break someone's heart.


She found some immature toms who easily fell for her tricks, and she left them in the dust like she planned. Fawnskip's success gave her confidence which just fueled her outer and inner beauty. Since then, she's been breaking hearts and destroying relationships. Of course, she wouldn't tell Obsidiansky that. Fawnskip sheepishly glanced at him, shaking her head nervously. ``Don't laugh or tattle on me, okay?`` She took a moment to quickly brainstorm a story, but it didn't take her long to think of one seeing that she's lying's best friend. She acted like she was preparing to tell her story, like she was reluctant to share. Maybe if I told him a story - er, my backstory - he'll feel comfortable to tell me something of his own past?


Finally, with a final cautious glance at Obsidiansky, she started, ``When I was an apprentice, I had a crush on a flirty tom from another Clan. He led me to believe he liked me too, but this one Gathering, I found him chatting up some other she-cat.`` Fawnskip avoided Obsidiansky's gaze, looking down at her paws as if to hide tears or even an angry expression. She made herself the victim, in an attempt to gain his understanding and compassion. ``I- I guess I got angry at the entire tomcat population, because I swore against them that day, that I'd never fall in love. I'm ashamed to say this, but I flirted. I know it doesn't make sense. If I didn't want crushes or to fall in love, why did I flirt? I flirted to hide my pain. I guess I thought that I could show the tom that broke my heart that he hadn't hurt me, that I'd moved on. As I grew up, though, I learned not every tomcat was out to hurt me, and I stopped my bitter-flirting, I guess you could call it. Over my moons of flirting, though, I learned you could make an impression on someone by saying a couple charming things. I want someone to love me, to make me feel important and worthy. I- I thought that if I made my mark on a tom, maybe he'd take an interest in me?``


After a few moments of staring at the ground below her, raised her head to gaze at him, smiling painfully. Fawnskip laughed, ``I was a fool, wasn't I?`` She shook her head at herself in disbelief, returning her gaze to her shuffling paws. When her sad laughter faded away, she meowed softly, apologetically, ``I didn't mean to tell you my entire life's story. I'm sorry to put that all on you. I didn't mean to - I just couldn't stop rambling once I started going.``

The backstory that Fawnskip told him surprised Obsidiansky. And, like a fool, he believed every word that she told him. Of course he was still guarding himself. Despite her attempts to get him to be more open about his feelings, to get him to fall for her, right now he was guarded. Even though the dark tom did quite like Fawnskip. She was different from the other cats who were chasing him. She was so open and free, and it was different from the messing around and sidestepping that he was used to. That kind of confidence was intriguing him, and he couldn't have known he was headed for heartbreak. "You weren't a fool," He answered after a moment. It was easy to get tricked by a few twisted words!

That was why he was careful when it came to love, because anyone could be lying. He'd been tricked before. He wouldn't be tricked again. No one knew this, and Obsidiansky would never tell anyone. Not even his closest, best friends knew his deep and dark secret. The secret of his heartbreak. The secret of the cat who had betrayed him. It was her secret too, and he would not share it. Gone though she might be, Obsidiansky held himself up to keeping his promises. She might not have, but the tom would never be like her. At the time, they had been new warriors... known each other through apprenticehood... and Wildfire had been her name. He missed her sometimes, but Obsidiansky knew that it was for the best now. She had been a liar and, she had tricked him. Tricked him into thinking what he had believed for so long and what she had smashed to the ground later on - that they could be together. And ever since then he had been careful with his heart. While that had taken him a while to get over, Obsidiansky was pretty sure he was almost ready to start a new romance. To begin again, to forget what Wildfire had done to him and the lies she had told him, and when he was ready? He would find someone that he could see himself with in the future.

Whether that be Sagewhisker, Canineheart, or even his new friend - his new crush - Fawnskip. It was unlikely; but perfectly possible. "You were young, and had a crush. He broke your heart - which is the easiest thing to break and the hardest to mend." He said after a while. At least he was no longer making a fool of himself. He was actually doing pretty good at this point, trying to be nice to Fawnskip and feeling more and more like he could open up and trust her. "So, uh... do you have any other questions?" He asked, looking up at the she cat. Right now he just wanted to get his thoughts off of Wildfire, and love, and onto another topic. Chances were she would ask him something about that. If she had romantic interest, or intentions with him, that was. Right now, the tom was desperately hoping that she didn't.

He wouldn't be able to resist her seemingly natural charm if she continued to pressure him. Right now, he was in one of the weakest - the darkest - points in his life. The only time things had been worse was when Wildfire had betrayed him, lied to him, tricked him - when he had found out, actually. That had been the lowest point of his life and somehow, somehow he had overcome it. But that darkness from that time would still come back. Once you felt flickers of darkness... it was hard to stamp them out completely. And Obsidiansky still had dangerous thoughts sometimes. Scary thoughts, thoughts that he wished he could stamp out.

Fawnskip was making him nervous right now. If she tried to find out about his past, and he decided that he couldn't keep it from her, there was a chance he could end up very badly hurt. Guard yourself. Mind closed, ears open. It was something he had lived by for the past... almost fifteen, maybe more like almost seventeen moons now. Mind closed; ears open. Basically refusing to show any vulnerability (until he knew them well) and listen to what they had to say. In an attempt to get to know them, that was. And yet, he would answer questions. Questions that he found harmless enough... or if he didn't have the willpower to resist answering them.