Firestar can't sleep. He circles and circles in his nest, but cannot find a comfortable position in the moss. Dread stalks beside him, dread for a meeting with a Clan that wants for nothing but destruction. (Or is that simply Tigerstar himself?)
He can't stay here. He needs—
Goldenflower paces outside the gorse tunnel as he slinks past. "Where are you off to?" she mews, halting.
"A walk," Firestar sighs.
"Careful out there, then."
He nods. "My claws are as sharp as they've ever been."
The forest is quiet, the occasional call of an owl and the stirring of the wind through the trees the only disturbances. Firestar picks his way up the ravine, twisting past roots, a fallen branch. Leaves crunch beneath his paws.
At night, the shadow of Sunningrocks is thick and oppressive. At night, Sunningrocks is nothing but frigid, dead stone. Why do they fight for it, he wonders, clawing his way upward.
Firestar settles into a crouch on the highest rock, wrapping his tail over his paws. He gazes upward, eyes darting from one point of light to the next.
The stars tell him nothing tonight. They are as silent as they are far away.
His head droops to rest between his paws. The stone is freezing, unforgiving, near.
There are pawsteps behind him, a familiar scent. Firestar starts, turns around to see—
Tigerstar.
"What are you doing here?" Firestar splutters, teeth chattering.
Tigerstar gives him a quelling look. "It's a cold night," he meows, and settles beside him.
Firestar lashes his tail, his fur bristling. "This isn't your territory anymore."
Tigerstar blinks. "I'm sure it will be, soon enough. But please. Relax. I'm only here to brood tonight."
"Fine." Firestar crouches once more.
"Why are you out here?" Tigerstar meows after several moments of stillness. "Couldn't sleep, kittypet?"
"That's right. No thanks to you."
"Thought StarClan might have answers for you?" Tigerstar rises, towering over Firestar. Firestar skitters back in surprise, but Tigerstar's pelt is flat and sleek, and his claws remain sheathed. There's no moon, and the stars reflect faintly in Tigerstar's golden eyes. "They can offer you nothing," he murmurs. "You must look beyond them."
Firestar shakes his head. "What would I find? A dozen murders? Pointless revenge?"
"Yourself, kittypet." Tigerstar edges closer, and Firestar feels his warmth and wonders…
It's a cold night.
Only one night.
Firestar edges closer, too.
Their noses touch, and their pelts brush, and yes, there is warmth to be found.
"It's a long walk back to camp," Firestar notes as they clamber down the rocks to a small gap, sheltered from the wind.
"Mm," Tigerstar mews in agreement. Someone has left the remains of a bracken nest here. Firestar wonders idly how many cats wander here, perhaps as sleepless and listless as he is—the two of them are.
They circle. The bracken crackles invitingly.
"What would your pretty ginger molly say?" Tigerstar goads, half-hearted, as they curl together.
"Goldenflower still misses you," Firestar meows back.
Tigerstar snorts. "Maybe. It was all for the kits, you know."
"Sandstorm isn't mine. She's her own cat. We're friends."
"I'm sure."
Tigerstar's scent is a little bit ThunderClan, overlaid with ShadowClan: pines and bogs and…it's not so bad, really. It reminds Firestar irresistibly of his earliest days in the Clan, when he held nothing but admiration for Tigerclaw, when—
Well…
It's a comforting memory, even with everything that has followed, even with the prospect of battle and doom so near.
They share tongues. (They never have before.) It's hesitant at first, but they quickly find the proper lay of each other's fur.
And it is much warmer here.
When Firestar sleeps, he dreams only of Clans happy and fed, thriving, alive.
Morning comes too soon. "Guess that's it, then," Firestar meows as they stretch out the stiffness from their legs and tails.
"Guess so," Tigerstar replies. "See you at Fourtrees, kittypet."
"I'm not looking forward to it," Firestar sighs. "It doesn't have to be this way."
"But it does." Tigerstar flicks an ear. "Don't disappoint me. I know you're dying to prove how brave you are."
"I'm just doing what I have to," Firestar snaps.
"That's what we all say." Tigerstar turns on his heel and pads off back toward the ShadowClan border. Firestar watches his dark shape recede, then makes his own way home. Best to forget this ever happened, he concludes. No one need ever know.