'Till Then I'll Keep Holding Your Head ((Flyfur + Palepaw))

[Abyssopelagic]

Flyfur stood guard within the nursery, watching over the kits inside the den and out in the clearing.
No fights, no arguments.
This was one of her better days.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Halfpaw creeping foward, her face and posture suggested the apprentice really didn't want to be here.
In a slow and fluid motion, the guard-queen was on her feet and approaching. The already nervous apprentice halted, ears perked, and tail held stiffly.
Once Flyfur was at her daughter's side, the fearful quivering came to her attention and a frown pulled at her lips.
Are you in trouble, she wanted to ask, but settled for a more open question, though it wouldn't be any easier to answer.

"What has you in such a tizzy?"

It was very unlike her.
Halfpaw shrugged, looking away from the greyed guard, who continued to stare in silence, knowing that prompting made the other more comfortable to sit and continue to ignore the question.
Answering silence with silence was the only way to draw her out, it seemed.
Eventually, Halfpaw gave a defeated sigh and turned back to her mother, paws scraping against the clearing ground.

"I understand why you have me my name," she began, quickly sucking in a breath before continuing.
"You gave me 'half-' because of your brother. That was his name. When I was born with my two face look, you thought I would be a good and fitting tribute to his name."

She looked at the ground again, where she was still pawing at it.
Flyfur noticed hesitance, and nodded for her to continue, tail snaking foward to gently wrap around the young cat.
It helped, it seemed, because she did continue.

"But I'm not certain that I am. I don't like being Halfpaw. I feel wrong, like my name suggests I'm incomplete. I feel like I'm living in someone else's shadow."

The last sentence struck a chord within Flyfur, a feeling she was all too familiar with.
Bitter resentment, it tasted like copper, the metallic bite as her teeth bit her cheeks or tongue and felt like a heavy weight upon the shoulders she could never possibly lift and dragged and her fur, her feet, kept her from going anywhere.

"There's no shame in it; you don't have to keep a name that makes you unhappy," she sighed as she leaned closer to her daughter, tail wrapping closer and tighter around her.
"But," she protested, pitch going high, "you gave it to me, isn't it wrong to reject it?"

She was near hysteric, convinced her mother couldn't possibly approve of this.
Frustrated, Flyfur's tail came up under her chin, lifting Halfpaw's hazel eyes to her own green.

"Your name was a gift from me. And like all gifts, you are not obligated to keep it. Not if it makes you unhappy." _-_-_-Unfinished-_-_-_