Fear is Temporary - Regret is Forever | Leafkit & Turtlefang

It was a regular day in Sunclan, which meant it was a boring one with very little to do. Too many cats were so eager to garner Rabbitstar's favor, all bright eyed and bushy-tailed for the nearest patrol, and while Turtlefang wasn't one to pursue labor, it did leave him awfully empty-pawed. It'd be better when the colder seasons came around and started discouraging everyone with less successful hunts, maybe even a few good snowstorms to dampen the spirit. If nothing else, the stress was more stimulating than sitting around doing nothing- Thump.

For his credit, he didn't whip around and death stare whoever had deigned to throw something small and furry at him. He was quick to assume it was one of his brothers trying to get a rise out of him, and Turtlefang was nothing if not committed to depriving them the pleasure of his reaction. When he did turn, it was slowly. Notch by notch, with intention. Only.. there wasn't anyone stifling giggles nearby, waiting to laugh at him for not dodging an attack he quite literally had no reason to anticipate dead in the center of camp. So funny. No, instead.. if it wasn't a piece of prey or some other fuzzy projectile, what had bounced off his back?

The question was answered as a small voice made itself known somewhere very far below. The warrior's eyes dropped, sharpness eroding away into measured neutrality as he stared down at... the kitten. Oh, Starclan, not this. Although he wasn't necessarily against the company of kits, they generally didn't seem to click well with one another. Not the way other warriors seemed to play around so easily with the clan's youth, like they could harken back to their own kithoods as instinctively as breathing. For Turtlefang, that ease of mind was a privilege, not an ingrained skill. It made random encounters like this all the more stressful, and he could only numb his expression so that he didn't send the poor thing running off from him for having bumped his back.

Chattery little thing. Turtlefang's gaze narrowed a notch as he considered him once more, this small tabby with more words than should fit in his half grown body. And being Rookbriar's kit, no less... It wasn't a clanmate he knew very well, but that was seldom the case. All the same, he wasn't sure he'd ever heard the queen speak so rationally about much of anything the few times he'd shared a patrol with her. With such a scattered mother, it was a wonder where Leafkit had inherited such serious contemplations in the first place. Was I like that? Are kits supposed to be like that?

"Sounds like you've got it all figured out," was the response that came out of his mouth instead, noncommittal as it was resigned to his fate as the other's supervisor. After all, now that he'd pinned exactly where this... small, strange child had come from, he knew for certain that his caregiver was nowhere to be found, at least not out and about. Even worse, Leafkit was out on good faith, and that meant there was no banishing him to whence he'd came. Instead, Turtlefang tilted an indulging ear towards the other, although his eyes remained offset as a means to buffer any mistaken interpretations from what would inevitably his uncertain gaze. "Are you excited to be apprenticed?" It felt like a shallow question, because of course he was, all kits were. But small-talk served a purpose like any other conversational piece- to open a window. "I'm sure you won't have the time to feel restless once you're running on a training schedule, after all."

Me? The silent inquiry echoed hollow in his head, which had suddenly emptied with the shock of such a bold approach, and from a kit no less. Turtlefang couldn't help himself; Where he'd previously been looking away, not wanting to frighten any young cats with what Fawnheart called his intensity, he now snapped to attention, eyes pinned to Leafkit as if targeting a particularly puzzling set of tracks amidst a hunt. A clue of some sort, an indication he couldn't unravel. This is a child. It's not that deep. But.. Why him, of all cats, and not the other's mother? Not Fawnheart, nor whomever was on track to mentor the little cat, but him? Quite frankly, it didn't make sense, given the nature of what was presently their first real meeting.

..But maybe that was the entire idea. Kits, he considered, stare fuzzing somewhat, do not engage in social complexities. They haven't yet learned them. Young and impulsive, Leafkit could ask just about any adult they happened across to play escort. Well, there we go. Just like that, it wasn't so scary, now was it? Feeling foolish to have been stunned in the first place, rendered off-guard by an opponent a quarter his size, the lanky warrior had the gall after everything to play it coy, tail flicking with practiced idling. "Well.. I suppose I wouldn't mind," He finally replied, casual and uncomplicated as if he hadn't spent his first heartbeat analyzing the request like an omen from the stars. "You'll be old enough, after all. Might I ask.. what you're so interested in seeing that your own mentor couldn't suffice?"