fanning the flames. [VA]

[Rose]

She awoke because something warm had wrapped around her. Fogged amber hues snapped open with alarm, lips peeled back in a snarl at the ready, claws digging into the bark beneath her paws. Until her gaze met unfortunately familiar ice blue. White, patterned fur, a lazy, arrogant smile, body stretched out as if he owned this perch, as if it hadn’t been hers for moons. Lostspark wasted no time reeling back, moving herself away from the situation, irritation evident in the narrowing of her eyes.

— “Cool down, Sparky.” Came the croon. A self-satisfied drawl, which only succeeded in receiving a sharp glare.

“Get the hell off my perch, Icethroat.” Words laced with tension, with restrained irritation, as he had been getting under her fur for over a moon now.

— All they earned her was a tilt of the lips. “Aw, you know you enjoy my company. You never care when I sleep under your perch. Is scaling this tree and sleeping next to you any different?” Mockery mixed with genuine amusement, pissing the scarred Enforcer off further.

“You play with fire, Icethroat,” a set of claws pressed to a familiar scarred throat. “So continue testing my patience and you can burn, or you can do the sensible thing and take your pretty face elsewhere.”

— “Oh, sweetie, you think I’m pretty, do you? Tell me, who replaced your prey with crowfood? It’s amusing to see you so snappish. I do love it when you bite.” Long limbs stretched out leisurely, as if there was not the risk of falling. Icey hues flashed with something ever darker a moment as she was studied from head to toe, and then Icethroat was pushing to his paws.

Leaning in, until Lostspark was leaning back, paw held against his neck, over the edge of the tree overlooking the camp they sat in the midst of.

— “I so do not appreciate being denied, Sparky. Maybe you are unaware of this. Such a shame…” A lowering of his voice. “Do you see? Your so-called mother is ever closer to having her first very own… how to say this without sounding insensitive… biological children. You will never measure up. Not unless you capture her attention again. I’m only speaking because I have your best interests at heart. Since you deny my affections.” A derisive scoff. “Do think on it, Sweetie.”

Lostspark had not lost her sneer. She leaned in, until their faces hovered an inch apart. She was no coward. “You speak lies, Icethroat, but a silver tongue cannot work its wonders on me. Let me to my peace.” The former herbalist warned, but deep-seated doubts formed in one’s kithood days did not waver so easily. And so Lostspark watched as the tom across her pressed forward, smile stretching wide as her claws nicked his throat.

— “As you wish, Sparky.” A whisper with too many veiled promises behind it, before Icethroat was pulling away and leaving her perch. His scent still lingered behind, though. She would think of him regardless on whether she wished to or not.