Bumblestar wasn't used to pouring her heart out like this. Everything was usually guarded by thick, twisting branches lined with sharp thorns, wrapped tightly around anything that she wanted to remain close to her chest. All of her words in the past few minutes were what she had allowed to slip out through temporary gaps - gaps she would permit to remain open should everything go right. Violetfreckle's silence made her want to close them again, regret already creeping across her spine in the form of slowly spiking fur.
Then Violetfreckle spoke. And Bumblestar wasn't a crier, not by any means. She could count the amount of times she had shed tears over cats, dead or alive, on one paw, maybe one and a half if she tried to stretch it. The emotion simply wasn't worth her time or her energy anymore.
But, stars above, hearing Violetfreckle and seeing
her have to wipe tears away made tears of Bumblestar's own sting the corners of her eyes. She tried to blink them away, unable to tear her attention from Violetfreckle's captivating stare. Those eyes pulled her in, made her want to drown in them - she almost didn't catch the single word that made her ears flip forward.
'Love.'
It struck her in the center of her chest, stole her breath away. Violetfreckle was lucky she wasn't capable of spontaneous combustion, because if she were, the den would be nothing more than smoldering ash and black smoke. Her throat bobbed as she glanced from one eye to the other, and as Violetfreckle pressed closer, something finally clicked in Bumblestar's head.
She squeezed her eyes shut and met Violetfreckle halfway, perhaps a bit too quickly, so that she could tuck her head against her shoulder.
"I love you, too."
Behind her words, soft and vulnerable, was something heavier, a hint of worry for what came next: how best to protect Violetfreckle, how to balance her devotion to the she-cat and to ThunderClan, how to prevent her from becoming a target by the other Clans who sought to do harm or even from cats inside ThunderClan, how to hide her as a
weakness - because in reality, alongside everything else that would come from this, a weakness was the next biggest thing, something else to occupy her already-busy thoughts.
But she spent too much time already worrying and over-thinking to the point her head felt fatigued. She wanted to focus on the good, on the warmth that bloomed in her chest like the flowers that lined the back of her den and would no doubt have her glowing from the inside out if it were possible.
"I love you, too," she repeated.
Then on a whim,
"I'm sorry about the scar from trying to claw your face off."
[ @
vellichor ]
Re: subwoofer lullaby [p]
