Care without the Blood

[Starfall]

Spiderthroat
He/Him || ThunderClan Leader
Beefed Up Tier III || Just a Scratch || Hulk SMASH
@Fawn

Finally. After all the ceremonies, all the reassignments he found a second to breathe. Clan commerce was happening. Sorely, tiredly, the...now leader , made his way off the Stormcrest and made his way towards a rather familiar little kit.

His worry had grown for her since he spotted her after he'd brought the otters in. "Hey kit. How are you feelin since yesterday? The otters were a bit much huh." he'd asked, lowering himself down to the ground. Up until he practically laid himself down.

The kit had grown on him in the past few day cycles. Tiny, stubborn. Typically he had a sharp hatred for orphans. They were sad, and ignored at birth. Truth be told not his problem. But this one ended up gluing herself to him almost as if she'd decided right than and there she was adopted. Right than and there. No questions asked.

"Up for eatin?" he asked, attempting to make it come across as if he himself were hungry. He wasn't. But he was worried the tiny one hadn't eaten since the otters. She couldn't grow big and strong if she was refusing food.

[Fawn]

"He offered no shelter, only a kind of shade,
Thin, thorny, but his.
And she, never one to beg, made herself at home beneath it."

Dovekit -

Seeing Spiderthroat (Spiderstar’s?) approach, Dovekit’s gaze shifted from side to side, a pendulum to predict where he was headed only to inevitably conclude she was the target.

Oh.

Dove, she wanted to correct—a plea not to be like all the others, the reassurance-seeking measure that she meant something—but held her tongue in fear of disrupting the fragility of this. Where being noticed hung in the balance, the perceived-as-conditional affection Spiderthroat could revoke.

Skepticism flickered. Her eyebrow quirked, and a whisker twitched. “A bit much,” she repeated, as if toying with the sentiment while the mental imagery sprung forth: a broken Spiderthroat, bloody, half-alive. The trigger wasn’t, and had never been, the otters. Her commentary was matter-of-fact as she delivered in a deadpan quip, “You were a lucky blow from being their feast.”

It felt nearly dishonest, given her truest feelings on it were nowhere as clean or poised. Inside her lived the volatile, ugly emotions Dovekit refused to give name to when they stirred admist Spiderthroat’s latest near-death experience, because to care would be a crack in her composure.

The idea of a meal landed with neutrality, but Dovekit nonetheless drew a vole from the fresh-kill pile and placed it in their shared space, lowering herself.

“What about you? Did you taste them?” Dovekit inquired idly, then specified a moment later: “The otters. It all seemed rather… lewd, but I suppose if some brute left me in that state,” her voice wavered almost imperceptibly, jaw setting tighter, “I may lose my manners and want to eat it too.”

Dovekit took a couple initial bites from the vole, chewing on that (and her next statement) for many long seconds before she spoke again like she was intrigued by the thought, “Leader.” Simple, to the point, why elaborate when they both knew? “Means I’m allowed to cuff cheeky apprentices, I assume.” The almost-warm note of her subtle, dry humor hung in the words.

@Starfall

[Starfall]

Spiderthroat
He/Him || ThunderClan Leader
Beefed Up Tier III || Just a Scratch || Hulk SMASH
@Fawn

The tom snorted as she seemed to somewhat be back to normal. Somewhat. Something still felt off, he couldn't place it. But it was there, nagging in the back of his mind. "Yeah. I hear ya. It was much. Had to make a point though. Other's were startin to get scared. Had to show em Otters bleed to. If it bleeds, it can die. It's how life works. It's not pretty, and how I went about it wasn't respectful. But sometimes that's how it's done." he hummed.

Absentmindedly he went to rest his head on his paws. Taking in a deep breath and letting out a rather shallow sigh. "Again. How life works. It sucks. It does. But you gotta give an take. Can't have a butterfly without it eatin some leaves, can't have the leaves without the tree usin some decompositoin to grow. Can't have that decomposition unless somethin's dead."

"That bein said, takes a lot more than a big otter to kill me. I never die." he snorted triumphantly. A rather proud look on his face. He hadn't gotten killed...yet. It'll probably happen some day. Bad karma and all that.

Big words for such a little lady. It made the Calico stop and look at her for a moment. His head tilted. "Bit em enough to get a somewhat taste of em. Not bad. I will say. Little on the tougher side. But not bad." he responded. Entirely unsure how to respond to the rest.

Than there was the direct attention grabber. Ears turning towards her before his face did. Spiderthroat looked down at the tiny kit. Another one that managed to worm her way into his heart. "Yeah Dove?" he responded.
That was until he processed what exactly she was stating. That earned a chortle from the tom. "Chuff who you need if you feel it's nessecary. Better to ask for forgiveness than permission sometimes." a saying he often took to heart. Although he had yet to beg.

[Fawn]

Dovekit -

What may have been a lesson about life and death, Dovekit interpreted as an affirmation of necessary evils. And so she took in his words, gaze distant and mind whirring, then slowly nodded. Her addition to Spiderstar's list of metaphors was notably darker but delivered with unaware innocence as she chimed in, "The Clan thrives on the bones we leave behind."

Then, the slightest shrug rolled from her shoulders. Back to eating.

Nearly imperceptible, Dovekit cracked a smile at Spiderthroat’s declaration pertaining to his ongoing natural life. It was kind of humorous, claiming victory over existence, especially when other accomplishments—rank, status, whatever blood he’d surely spilled—could’ve come to mind. His words rang echoed: I never die. A sentiment all of ThunderClan could assert, besides maybe Bumblebreak and other less-fortunates. “You’d get on well with those cats in Willow’s Rise,” Dovekit idly remarked, unbothered by the grim nature of the conversation as she plucked a couple more bites from the vole before pushing it towards him expectantly. “With your similar ideologies and whatnot.” It only took once. Usually. Perhaps an additional eight times now in Spiderthroat’s case.

The surge of victory was well-hidden underneath a veneer of indifference, but the glitter in her gaze betrayed her, Dovekit’s subtle brand of delight. Not only had it amused him, but Dovekit wanted to pull at the thread. “Tell me,” she spoke, not a question, hardly an invitation—more like the devil on his shoulder bringing sin to the act of confession. “Exemplary rule-following didn’t get you here.” Although her eyes were alight with intrigue, Dovekit didn’t know that for a fact; it was a ventured guess based on his reply. “So what did?”

@Starfall