[dionysus]

Originally Posted by Constellation

While Passionblaze was staring at Piperwing, it was out of curiosity and admiration. All his life he knew a female to bounce back up after any tragedy that struck her life. He also knew it was rude to stare. Whether it would had been at a pretty object or a deformed one, Passionblaze had no right to stare at anybody that felt tensed of his view. He had ruffled his own fur to make it look more presentable, but it didn’t work. When he noted that most of Piperwing’s fur had been groomed to her satisfaction, saved for her back and sides. The tom tilted his head at her, clearly confused at why she was chuckling. When she reached up to smooth down the fur on top of his head, he almost pulled back, assuming that she was trying to get close to him. A little too close for his comfort, as he always kept a safe distance between himself and a she cat. Instead, she quickly fixed the tussled fur atop his head, and pulled away. Passionblaze blinked his appreciation. “Thanks.”

“That’ll be impossible. I never lose a fight.” Passionblaze boasted, easily. He was pretty confident when it came to the area of fighting than any other field in his life. Fighting was something that was embedded in him. If it were a talent, he saw himself as an expertise. Passionblaze had nodded eagerly with his eyes closed upon her teasing response. “Not an abuse of power, actually. The way I see it, is a she cat who absolutely loves to serve her clan, so she comes to her deputy to ask for more work.” He smirked. Piperwing has continued, a glimmer in her eye he caught. It made him chuckle for a moment, and he shook his broad head. He already got enough annoyance from Foxpaw, for Piperwing to add on? Passionblaze shot her an unreadable look. “I don’t think so, missy. This elder gonna be all over the place, whereas you will be occupied with different duties. Clean this, get rid of that, fetch this, retrieve that.” Passionblaze flicked his ears. One ear was turned, the other perked to listen to Piperwing. He wanted to keep an ear out for his fighting clan mates, so he could quickly know what was going on. He wondered if Snowstar was alright. How many warriors were lost? Did they win? Reasons why he itched to go back and fight. He would had burst up and ran back to the fighting field without hesitation. “Unless you prove to me that you can be a good girl then maybe we can come up with a different plan.” The deputy flexed, giving the she cat a knowing smile that soon softened until it disappeared. It was just odd about sitting out in the battle when he should be the main one still fighting. He felt like less of a tom even though his new friend was keeping him company and making him feel at ease. Troubling thoughts still played in his head. He would had been beaten himself up if Piperwing left.

Piperwing was probably oblivious, or she picked up that Passionblaze thought she was beautiful. He commented that he knew she was strong, smart, and beautiful. He had meant it. Yet it was a difference between finding someone beautiful and then being attracted to them. Piperwing was a friendly feline. She was that one sweet friend to always motivate you, hoping you would never give up. Just hearing her say those words made the deputy himself confused for a moment. They were throwing teasing remarks at one another, a little conversation to grow their friendship. Passionblaze had looked down at his paws, then back up at her. “Don’t you dare try. I’m trying to warn you. It’s unfamothable, I’m telling you!” Passionblaze didn’t know what himself was saying, but he doubted she was like a cheetah. Maybe, she was as fast as one, but the thought made him laugh. When she exclaimed that if he doubted her, he ended up giving a deep, guttural laugh. Wasn’t it obvious he was? His laughter had died down. He failed to flinch when she feigned a lunge at him. He didn’t know she was sending that action directly toward him, so he had looked at her like he was waiting for her to finish her act, but she didn’t so he laughed at her. Her voice made him hummed. “Well, I believe it to be entirely too cute, so I’ll give you that.” The ginger tom purred, lightly. He got up, turning his head to look back in the direction where a fight was taking place. He let out a deep sigh, but bent the front half of his body to stretched downward. He clenched his teeth at the shock feeling of troubled bones. Passionblaze held in a snort. He might as well be an elder with how much cracking his body was producing. He cautiously lifted himself up, and purred much deeply. Pain maybe didn’t feel good to others, but for him, physical pain was accepted wonderfully.
Passionblaze never found any cat to be the same. He didn’t believe in stereotypes. Everyone was...perfect the way they were. So, he believed that Piperwing was far from the stereotypical cat. He had met many; none really the same. All fascinated. Even if they were snippy. Grouchy. Ungrateful. Happy. Pleasant. Annoying. Whatever they may be, Passionblaze had to keep an opened mind and away from judging anybody specifically.
Passionblaze continued to take bites from his kill, spitting out any hairs that stuck in his mouth. He didn’t like the fuzziness of most freshkill which was why he loved the taste of ripe fruit. His favorite being strawberries. Growing up as a clan cat, he was used to eating fresh kill, but that didn’t mean he had to like most of it. His bites wasn’t as large as Piperwing’s. He was still feeling a sudden weight on his shoulder because he abandoned his clan mates on that field. Any other warrior could had taken the abused back to camp, but he was told to specifically. At least he felt a little satisfied that he got to fight more than enough Windclan and Shadowclan warriors together. A little sprout of victory welled into his chest, but even so it wasn’t good enough. He looked up from his meal, and tilted his head towards the sky. “You really do like to run, huh?” His eyes roamed her figure. It was the perfect shape of being fit to be swift. Then, he rolled his eyes upward again, a dreamy smile placing on his maw. “I like sparring. Fighting, a lot.” As if that wasn’t obvious. “I love to explore,” he smiled, softly. “A run at dawn is more of my thing. I need to exercise throughout the entire day. I also like to climb trees and see how far I can leap from one branch to another. And, then I like to look at the stars and cloud gaze.” What he told her were basic fascinations of his, where they would relate. Most of his interests he considered to be foolish and awkward like how he liked to sneak off to twolegplace and rummage through plump gardens of the folks and steal their juicy fruits. Or, that he liked to find treasures and dig them up like he were a dog. Passionblaze had a lot of strange interests, which was probably why he hung out with himself because he didn’t want to be laughed at for being happy around doing things he liked. “Anything that, hm, uninterested you?” He plucked his squirrel’s fur, a disgusted look on his face. Passionblaze would had killed for some strawberries.

Piperwing didn't really mind the staring. Some cats may have been offended or whatever, but there was no way to know what was going on in Passionblaze's head. He could have been zoning out again for all Piperwing knew and didn't even realize he was looking at her. She nodded a silent 'you're welcome' as he thanked her for smoothing down the fur. "I did it more for me than you. I couldn't focus on anything with that sticking straight up in the air."

If Piperwing had learned one thing about Passionblaze from this conversation...Well, it was that he had anger issues. However, if she had learned more than one thing, which she had, one of those things was that he was a fighter. She was built for speed, he was built for strength. They would make an amazing duo if they ever had to fight back to back. She laughed and answered is boast skeptically, "I find that hard to believe. You didn't even win that fight against my tail!" Piperwing waved her tail in front of his nose again with a smile before drawing it back over her paws. His continued teasing threats drew more laughs out of the pale molly and she purred, "Oh no, if you can figure out a way to get me to do chores. I can figure out a way to annoy you doing them." Piperwing noticed Passionblaze's turned ear but wasn't offended that his full attention wasn't on her. She wanted to know the second the clan members returned. "Hmmm, good? Sorry, that word isn't in my vocabulary!"
"Not so unfathomable, Blazey." Piperwing teased with a flick of her tail, sitting down and watching him as he talked. When he called her cute, Piperwing jumped to her paws and ignored the pain that rocketed through her front limbs. "Cute?" She exclaimed, "I'm not cute! I'm deadly." She crouched and pretended to prowl forward, but couldn't mask the warm smile on her face.
Piperwing had never tried fruit, but she would be willing to if someone recommended it. Her big secret was that she actually liked the taste of herbs. Some herbs. Obviously there were those that tasted like death, but there were some in the forest that actually tasted good. She avoided medicinal herbs for obvious reasons, but it felt better to call them herbs than plants. What cat ate plants? Still, she enjoyed the taste of freshkill as well. Except magpie. She absolutely despised magpie. Don't even go near her with a magpie. She will freak out.
She nodded at his question about running and listened curiously as he detailed his own hobbies. She got the feeling that they were both being a bit superficial instead of going deep into what they really love. But, they were new friends so that was understandable. Piperwing was doing it too. She hadn't told him about her enjoyment of herbs, or that she loved to track creatures. Even if she wasn't hunting them and didn't plan to kill them, she loved to find tracks and follow them to find a creature and watch it for awhile. She also hadn't mentioned that she liked insects. Most cats found them to be pests, and she didn't like them in her nest or anything, but she liked to observe them in the forest. Piperwing shuddered at his mention of climbing trees, but smiled at the thought of stargazing. She had forgotten to mention that, but she loved to stargaze and cloudgaze. When he asked what she didn't like, Piperwing didn't hesitate to answer, "Climbing trees! I hate heights." She looked at him to gauge his reaction before continuing, "I'm also not a fan of swimming. I've never tried it, but I've walked through a puddle and I'm guessing it's similar. Other than that, I don't really dislike anything. If it keeps me from being bored, I'll try it." Piperwing was one of those energetic cats who couldn't handle any boredom.