Blaze slid her eyes upwards to look hopefully up at the small black tom. He looked down at her with such coldness she felt her fur get as hot as it would with fever. "There will be no cats in BloodClan, Scourge, if they are all dead from wounds caused by your seconds." He continued to stare coldly at her, and she continued, "I know they cannot help doing so. But I can help heal them." He was still silent, but he sat down slowly on his haunches.

The movement made her flinch for an unknown reason. Did she really think he was going to leap down and kill her? Then he spoke slowly and clearly.

"I shall think of your offer. You are dismissed." He told her to go off with a flick of his tail. She nodded and was at the edge of the brick gathering place when she murmured, "Thank you, Scourge." There was no sound beyond his almost imperceptible hiss and him rising to his paws to stalk out through the opening to his den. Now her fur was less hot, but seeing as she'd known the warmth of a feverish house-folk, she knew she was blushing still.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*Chapter Two~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Scourge curled up in his den, but the dry and sparse grass and an old Twoleg sleeping pelt barely providing him comfort from the heat of his skin under his two layers of fur. He got up and paced, growling to himself as he did so. He felt thirsty, so he went outside to drink. He quickly found a small stream from a house gutter and drank. He couldn't even taste the supposed freshness.

Growing up from kit-hood, he reminisced, he had loved the water that he and his family's housefolk seemed to make out of thin air. Now, water wasn't so easy to find, but that's why he'd chosen to have his den here, near a gutter. There was the snap of a runaway twig from a greenleaf tree and he looked up suddenly, his eyes rounding with surprise and then he forced them to harden again into their usual almond shape, though hating his act immediately. There stood the cute she-cat, who flicked her sandy-brown-tipped light brown tail. Her pretty dark blue eyes blinked in a hello.

Not waiting for an invitation, she walked past him to the same stream he drank at, but raised on the tips of her toes and head to slightly brush his nicked ear with her light pink nose as she walked softly by. He froze, heart thumping. She was then at his side and her normal height, a noselength smaller than him. She lowered her neck and bent down, tail-tip flicking happily as she lapped up the seemingly cold water. He stared at her, fur hotter than before.

She stopped drinking and looked up at him, eyes round. "What?" she meowed defensively in that sweet voice of hers. He shook his head quickly and padded quickly off, thinking now there must be a tinge of red in his cheekfur.

Blaze stared after him. He was acting strange...What was going on? She shook her head. Before he'd ran off, she was going to say her den was close by in case he needed her. "Crazy toms," she muttered, then walked off to find some mice or rats to hunt. She'd do that after she met with Barley, though.

She'd made sure she was a ways off from the Twolegplace and that there was a forked tree like he said he'd meet her at. She sat in the small hollow beneath it, waiting. Soon there was the sound of pawsteps. She perked up. "Barley?" she mewed.
But the voice that answered her was not Barley's. "No, it's me," came the voice of the cat she had drank by earlier in the night. She froze with fear.

"What have you done with him?" she demanded, her thick and fluffy tail quivering.

"Nothing, I promise! Just come with me," Scourge pleaded. This pleading reached deep in her chest, and she asserted to herself that if he was asking like this, he wouldn't really do any harm to her. She stood, looking back behind her into the hollow. She caught the gleam of amber eyes. Barley!
The eyes looked at her for a long time, then flickered with acceptance of her being able to go with him. Scourge's eyes seemed to soften with hope at the sight of such. Scourge turned and looked back at her, flicking his tail and ear at Blaze simultaneously. She looked back at him and walked outside the den. Scourge went off at a run while she followed.

She never saw the black-and-white body that gleamed in the moonlight slink out behind her and watch sorrowfully as her legs kicked back and forth from the sand and soft dirt after Scourge. She'd probably never even think of seeing him again.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*Chapter Three~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Why did you bring me here?"

Scourge stayed silent as he pawed at some pine needles at the edge of Twolegplace, making a nest shape that fit him perfectly. He laid down but she stood. "Why?" she asked again but no softness left. It was quiet enough to be a meow but loud enough to be a small yowl. He looked at her with pitiful eyes.

She realized what was happening. He was just out of kithood, but retained the size he should've grown to, and she was longer out of kithood but smaller than him. They were both adults, and now Scourge was feeling the effects of this maturity. Blaze, a moon out of her first heat, had already felt them and knew a routine to stay away from cats until it ended, but Scourge, probably a moon grown out, didn't know such. And, seeing as he was a tom, he probably didn't know what a heat period of time even was.

"Scourge," she said softly, though he looked away, "how you've grown doesn't change my feelings for you." He looked back up at her as she sat down a tail-length from him. Finally he spoke, seeming to force himself into that high, cold voice, though it seemed to cause him pain in the way he flinched after he said it.

"I have none for you."

"Scourge, you would not have brought me here in the middle of the night while I was waiting for Barley if you did not have any for me." He was quiet again. Then he stood up.
"I'm..."

Blaze watched him struggle with the word he was trying to say. Somehow she knew what he was pleading with his vocal cords to say: "I'm sorry." But his own pride would not allow his voice to relent. He growled, unsheathing his claws. He sheathed them again.

This went on for what felt like a moon, though it was really a few seconds. She stood up. "I already have another I care for." Scourge shot his head up. She felt a pang in her chest. Why not stay? She had nothing to lose-except Barley. What would he think if she went off with the BloodClan leader? She shook her head at herself.

"I'm sorry, Scourge."

He was silent as she turned away to walk back to her meeting place. Then his voice rang out after her.

"It's-it's Tiny, okay?!"

Blaze froze. Tiny? She looked back. He was standing, quaking. He stared at his paws in embarassment. Then she watched as the embarassment turned to rage. He looked directly at her, his blue eyes ice cold yet lit with flame.

He lunged towards her, claws extended. She crouched instinctively, ears laid flat and fur bristled. "What in the name of the moon-cats, Scourge!" she yowled as he landed a tail-length away. He did not answer, instead turning back to her and lunging towards her again.

He was hissing and spitting the worst curses as he knocked her down, his teeth-covered claws at her chest. As he was about to kill her, he seemed to falter deep inside. He stayed quiet a moment as the fear and realization came to his eyes, his blue eyes seeming very kit-like. He got off of her and crouched to the ground, ears flat. He was looking fit to yowl remorse to the stars when Blaze got to her paws and, not looking at him, ran away with a new scar on her back.

Yet the yowl still came.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ To Be Continued... *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*