Cry a River || Turtle & Daisy… Fight? Flirt?

He takes everything so personally. But regardless of her barbed comment, Turtlefang was just relieved to see him climb back out of the water, as smooth and practiced as a duck might cross over into a reed bed. Falling silent, the tortie leaned over the now empty pool, staring across the final ripples of her exit as the surface gradually reclaimed its glassiness. He watched it until he could see his face again, like a doppleganger, looking back. He was struck in that moment by his own resignation, the same degree as echoed in Daisyfire's words across the pond. Tearing his gaze off the water, he found her with an utterly hopeless demeanor, the colors of her pelt drenched, washed out and darkened with the wet weighing it down. Dimmed.

Turtlefang broached the silence, flat toned and unflinching. "My rationality is a natural part of me. Starclan receives no credit for the hard work I've done to hone it." He worked very hard not to look at the Moonpond again in search of a disapproving figure listening in on him. As if to scramble his thoughts, he gave his pelt a shake, the little water still clinging to his belly spattering around him like rain. "As flattered as I am, I'm impossible to replicate. Don't look so down about it. What counts is you're trying, hm?" With a fleeting smile, too awkward to keep, he made no move to approach Daisyfire. Because things were working out like this, weren't they? That bitterness, those dejected words- all signs that the matter was settled. That his fighting spirit had finally been crushed, and they could comfortably inhabit the distanced roles they were always meant to. A Sunclan and a Moonclan warrior. No loose ends.

Ah.

From where he sat, exposed to Daisyfire's blaze, the world seemed to shudder with an uncontrollable force. There was no yowling like before, no rocks flying, but Turtlefang was pinned to the spot in the exact same way. This time, by a numbness that spread from the heavy thud of his heart out to his limbs, locking him in place as he watched his assailant through narrowed eyes. The type of reaction he wasn't unfamiliar with, but one that seemed so much more targeted than the prior attack. It was a forest fire, singing the ends of his pelt and doing its very best to choke him on the smoke so he could be swallowed alive in one orange swell. Somewhere through the haze of all the swipes, Turtlefang realized where the tremor of the planet was centralized- He was shaking, trembling with the blister of molten lead heavy in his stomach, and only growing hotter with the haughty, chastising lecture being spit his way. It was an unfortunate side effect; Rather than burning to a crisp, the descending flames had been harnessed within his own mass. Transferred to a new home.

On the angry vibrations of his paws, Turtlefang finally stood up. And then, instead of releasing all the heat that'd been passed to him, something stranger happened. The shake of his frame, from his now rigid tail to the tip of his nose, erupted into a laugh. A laugh that started as a chuckle, plastic and experimental, and rapidly picked up energy until he was truly, exceedingly laughing, tinged with the harsh rawness of an unvoiced fury. A wrath which couldn't be named, of which there were no words to describe- and so he cackled like he'd lost it, because maybe, in a way, he really had. Hunched over with the force of his own hysteria, he had to take a good breath, a long inhale, before he could even start to respond. But he managed, breathing deep and hard like he'd just resurfaced from the Moonpond a second time. And then, when he did speak, it was with a smirk too wide and the sound of humor still dancing in his chest. "I understand everything now."

Out of everything that'd happen next, the resounding shriek was not one of them- even in his own mania, Turtlefang stiffened at the sound, glare already beginning to darken with the malice of a fox inches from the kill. Beginning, before the sway of anger, of the yelling and posturing and arguing that they both so desperately had been maintaining in stupid displays of power, grew too tall. Like a towering redwood, creaking with age, even the mightiest fixtures must fall. And fall it did, with a single tap of Daisyfire's sob.

Turtlefang's blood ran cold in an instant, sapped of all the magma that'd rushed so readily mere moments before.

Movement occurred at the edge of his vision, and he raised his head just enough to see Daisyfire make an approach. Instinctively at this point, he felt his paws stiffen, somehow expecting him to take up that offer to blind him in spite of how long ago the moment had passed. But before coming much closer, she had stopped once more, seemingly far beyond the limit of his lungs as soft wheezes filled the air between them. A bit unintentionally, Turtlefang couldn't help but stare, wondering if he was witnessing something that needed greater attentiveness than he was prepared to provide. Slow and careful, he raised a paw as if to step closer- before a gleam of violet stopped him once more, stilled beneath a meaningful gaze. And with it came apologies, strained and reedy with the thinness of breath behind them.

Whatever humor Daisyfire seemed to find in the situation, Turtlefang held no such amusement. Quiet now, contemplative with the fraction of mental clarity he'd been afford during his cooldown, he simply watched the motions of the other tom, giggling and waving and looking away like he'd react in some way if she didn't. In such a position, deprived of his advantages and made to flounder about in confusion, it was hard to determine whether he liked this more or less than the other versions of her he'd encountered. That painful sweetness, the starry eyed, the yelling, the crying, and now the laughing. Which one was better? Which one was worth salvaging? The calculations came up dry as the heat cracked earth, and all he could do was watch with the start of a frown tugging at his muzzle.

Oh. Turtlefang's half frown came to full fruition as he looked aside awkwardly. He had said that, hadn't he? It'd been such an afterthought to him- or perhaps he'd already started repressing apologizing- that he hadn't realized Daisyfire would give it much thought of his own at all. Once again, she'd already doubled back to smooth over the misunderstanding, and he was left in the dust; not that it seemed to bother the other cat's lungs, the way his breathing had quieted to something more standardized. For another one of the many times throughout their encounter, the Sunclan warrior wondered if he should ask about it. But then, what would he do with the information? Try to help? Blatant treachery.

Turtlefang was having a really good time counting the near invisible grooves on the smoothly worn face of the stone beneath him, only to be violently uprooted from his task with the mention of that face. Entirely against his will, he reacted just as aggressively as Daisyfire, downturned eyes darting immediately to pin themselves to the subject in question. It was as if he'd been spooked out of his own indifference, expression flickering into disbelief as a very particular notion crossed his mind with her phrasing, evidenced more strongly by her sudden interest in licking more intensely, as if to cast it away entirely with each fierce stroke of the tongue. It was undeniably embarrassment- as it should be, of course. But more specifically, he couldn't help but wonder if. Is this.

In an impressive feat of self defense, his brain sputtered to a tumultuous halt before it could continue any further down that darkened path. It put a buzz in his ear that made it difficult to focus for a moment, left Turtlefang wide open for attack. Luckily, that didn't seem to be the agenda of his current companion. For better or worse, he was stuck here, enduring the endless mind games that came with being nice. A horrible fate. Through the racket of his heart in his throat- Why?- He sharpened his focus, listened intently for the next words filling the otherwise silent cavern of the Moonpond's protected nook. A bit numbly, the tortie uttered through his stiffness the best he could, grasping onto something that could be expanded. Something harmless, something curious, that surely wouldn't perpetuate the rigid tremble of his tail, nor the burning across his back that now stung a little fresher, like a reminder. "Crowns?"

Crowns. He'd never heard of such a thing before, never had the chance. If it was something of Moonclan's design, that was only natural. The less the clans exchanged and intermingled, the safer both would be. He could only imagine it was a pointless thing, because what use were there for flowers outside of medicine? What use was there for anything outside of practicality? Strangely, the thought brought his attention to Daisyfire again as he began to question things he hadn't questioned before. Things like his flopped ears, his too-short muzzle, those trending coughs and so much more. He wondered about Daisyfire, who was unlike anyone he'd ever met, and he wondered why he wondered when it served no purpose to learn.