Prepare to suspend your disbelief for this one. It's a bit ridiculous, but when are romantic stories without a bit of fantasy?

Enjoy.

dress-up

As the day came to an end, the sun began it's slow journey down beneath the horizon, leisurely draining the cloudless light blue from the sky and leaving behind the extravagant exposition of purple, yellow, red and poignant gray that it always did. On any normal day, Lakepaw was never usually as invested as sunsets as some of the other members of his Clan, for reasons not many seemed interested in his life enough to inquire on, but today he couldn't be more excited to watch the sun flutter down beneath the horizon and the dark, starry night take its place.

Moonlight filled the apprentice den, painting the walls of bramble a beautiful, graceful silver, and the small drafts of wind filled his senses with delight, only adding more and more fuel to the prickly fire of anticipation burning brightly in his belly. Maybe it was the fact that he had passed his assessment today "with flying colors," as his mentor had proudly said, maybe it was the daunting realization that he was going to become a warrior first thing tomorrow, certainly something monumental for everyone who had gone through his life over countless generations, or maybe it was the fact that he felt the world going a million miles a minute for the first time in a while with his mother expecting her second litter of kits.

If one were to ask him, he'd probably shrug it off and say it was nothing quite shyly. But the truth was that he was going out tonight. Nobody knew about it, of course, except just him.

And, of course, the wildly exuberant, happy-go-lucky, rogue-ish tom he called his best friend.

His best friend who he may have the slightest crush on.

Just the slightest, though.

It was planned as a celebration for their hard work, but he was just told about when it was happening, nothing else. He didn't want to make assumptions, but he had the sneaking suspicion that he didn't plan this fully and he wasn't going to have any idea what to do once they met up.

Oh, well. All the more fun, he'll probably say.

By now the moon was quite high above the camp, though not enough for it to be moonhigh. Sneaking out ever so slightly and glancing around the clearing, he saw that the deputy was snoozing away. This was normal. He never seemed to have the energy to make it through two patrols in one day, and he had been receiving light-hearted banter from his friends since apprentice-hood about that.

But now was a perfect time, a time that allowed the start of their plan. Though they couldn't face consequences about seeing each other since they were in the same Clan, Lakepaw was still quite nervous. The last thing he wanted was to get caught out of camp this late at night, and even so, he had so much to say, he was worried that what he was planning on saying wouldn't grant enough time for it to be heard, or worse, understood.

But now wasn't the time to worry about the future. Now was the time to get out of here and begin it. So quietly, Lakepaw got to his paws and snuck across the clearing as quietly as he could, making sure to avoid stepping on any crunchy leaves. He got to the entrance without much complications, and by the time he was out, he was running as fast as his legs could carry him towards the meeting spot.

Along the way, the wind was blowing against him, so by the time he got to the meeting place, a small clearing by the waterfall, he was quite winded and his fur was ruffled in several different directions. When he went to check himself in the pool, Lakepaw suppressed a gasp of disgust and quickly went to fix it as quick as he could.

"You never told me this was a fancy occasion," said a voice behind him.

Lakepaw stopped, then allowed himself an embarrassed chuckle as he turned to face the cat behind him. "Hey, Shardpaw. Uh…"

Shardpaw, a ruggedly handsome tom with sleek brown fur and jade green eyes, walked up and sat next to him. "How fast did you get here? You seem winded."

"Well," said Lakepaw, "it's just I wasn't liking the idea of getting caught."

Shardpaw chuckled. "Classic Lakepaw. Loving the idea of dangerous things but scared out of his fur when he actually does them."

Lakepaw flushed with embarrassment. "S-Sorry, I…"

"No, don't be!" he said reassuringly. "I wouldn't change a thing about you! That's what friends are for, right?" Lakepaw nodded, smiling, and the two of them looked at the waterfall.

They were silent for a while before Shardpaw spoke up again. "Soooo…" he said, seeming unsure of himself, "We got all night. Got any ideas?"

"I was thinking you would say that," said Lakepaw, smirking playfully, "Pick a time and place, but do nothing else." Shardpaw nudged him on the shoulder, Lakepaw pushing back before they sat back down.

"Actually, I did have an idea, though I'm not sure you'll like…" Shardpaw trailed off, "Nevermind, it's stupid."

"No no no!" said Lakepaw, his interest spiking, "Now I want to hear this. Besides, is the great, boisterous Shardpaw," Lakepaw paused for a fake gasp, "unsure of himself?" That earned an eye-roll from Shardpaw, though a rogue snicker betrayed the mood.

"Well," said Shardpaw, "since this is our last day before we become warriors, I thought," Shardpaw seemingly tensed up at suggesting the idea, "maybe we could go back to acting like kits for a night, y'know? Play those games, do mock fights, be our younger selves one more time. Of course, if you don't like the idea…" Shardpaw drew out the sentence for a little longer before sighing and looking back at the waterfall.

"TAG!" shouted Lakepaw suddenly, slamming into Shardpaw and sending him to the ground. Lakepaw giggled as Shardpaw's look of confusion turned into one of competitive glee. "Oh, it's on," he growled playfully.

He leaped but Lakepaw was too quick, and Shardpaw landed behind him. "Too slow, snail-paws!" mocked Lakepaw joyfully. Shardpaw pulled himself to his feet and snarled, "You're gonna pay for that, fox-face," he said playfully.

"Gonna have to catch me first!" shouted Lakepaw, as he took off the other direction, hearing Shardpaw's comical guffaw as he made chase. As the two leaped over branches and tree stumps, each found a moment to appreciate how the beginning of the night couldn't have gone more perfectly.

"No way!" said Lakepaw, turning towards him in the grass, "That's so weird."

"I mean, it must also be nice," said Shardpaw, still looking at the sky, "As weird as it is, you do get to spend every day with your crush if he is your mentor."

"That's fair, but him?" Lakepaw let out a half-hearted scoff, "He's like thirty moons older than her! I would have thought that your sister, of all cats, would make better romance decisions."

"Let's look beyond that for a second," said Shardpaw, turning in the grass, "If you want my opinion, I think they're perfect together. They really do care for each other; I mean, any cat can see that if they just look at them, but they know their priorities and focus on training. Doesn't seem like that would happen very often."

"Duly noted," said Lakepaw before a mischievous grin crossed his face, "At least he's not an elder."

Shardpaw's eyes widened. "NO!" he shouted, shoving Lakepaw roughly, "EW! Why did you put that in my head? StarClan save me, that's disgusting!"

Lakepaw was losing it, "I'm just imagining him being like, 'What beautiful kits we have, young feller!'"

Shardpaw jumped him, and they tussled playfully while rolling down the hill. After about ten seconds, they got to the bottom, Lakepaw's head on Shardpaw's chest as they laughed off the ridiculousness of the scenario.

They sighed, and together they looked up at the clear, starry sky, smiling brightly. When they caught their breath effectively, Shardpaw broke the silence, sending vibrations to Lakepaw's head, "So, are you excited for the kits?"

Lakepaw was caught off guard by this question, and he was noticeably silent for a while. "Sensitive topic?" asked Shardpaw, laying his paw on Lakepaw's head. He nodded, muttering "Just a little," before returning to silence.

Eventually, Lakepaw gave up on sealing up his opinion. Shardpaw was his best friend, and he deserved to know his thoughts. "Actually, I'm a little scared," he said, unsure of himself talking about this, "I never really wanted to be a role model, not so soon at least. I mean, I never thought of myself as a deputy or leader, just someone who is satisfied being part of the whole and not trying to make more for it. If anything, I could have gone until I was a warrior for a couple of moons."

"I get that," said Shardpaw, "I know I've made it clear I want to make it big here, but I guess I haven't spent as much time as I should've been thinking about the consequences." He paused to insert a disconsolate sigh, "There was a time where I would dedicate everything to my sister's happiness, mainly in kithood, and one of her favorite things to see was when I would decorate myself in flowers, vines and moss. Like a game of dress-up. And I would let her add on whatever she wanted to. As long as it made her laugh, I was happy."

"Can I see it?"

Lakepaw realized too late that the question had come from him, and he felt himself flare up as Shardpaw gave him a confused look.

"Oh, StarClan, sorry! That just slipped out! What was I thinking? Aah!" He pushed off of Shardpaw and rolled a couple mouse-lengths away, insanely embarrassed. "I'm so sorry! Why did I say that? Haha! I didn't mean to say that! "Oh, StarClan save me!"

Shardpaw didn't say anything, just watched his blushing friend roll around the grass in confusion and embarrassment before he reached over and prodded him with his paw. He stopped, but didn't turn to look at him.

"I can show you if you want…"

Lakepaw lost himself for a moment before trying to recompose himself. "No! I-I mean, I don't know, I just...well, maybe, but no! No no no! I do not need to see you dressed up in...flowers…"

Shardpaw stopped him again. "I wasn't asking if you needed to see me like that. I'm asking if you want to."

Lakepaw turned slowly to look at him, whose gaze was nothing but sincere curiosity. Nothing negative, nothing sarcastic. He meant every word he said.

"Yes," he said quietly, "I do."

"See?" said Shardpaw, helping Lakepaw up, "Was that so hard?"

"S-Sorry, I just thoughtー"

"No no! This is great! I actually wanted to ask you if you wanted to play it!"

Lakepaw froze, and looked up at him. "You...did?"

"Yeah!" he said, grinning brightly, "I figured it would be something you would like to play!"

Lakepaw smiled. "How considerate of you," he said.

"Come here," he said before gently guiding Lakepaw's head to his chest and he wrapped him in a hug, "You can tell me anything. That's what friends are for, right?"

Lakepaw nuzzled back briefly before breaking away. "Right."

"Great! So here's how you play: one cat grabs whatever the other wants them too. So it can be flowers, leaves, moss, anything like that. Then the cat that's grabbing them has to try and put them on."

"'Put them on?'"

"Yeah! So you can stick it in your fur if it's messy enough or you can use something like honey. Anything that lets it stick. Then, when you're dressed up, the other cat will play with your decorations as much or as little as they want."

"Ok…" said Lakepaw, thinking it over before brightening up, "Sounds like fun! Who goes first?"

"How 'bout I go first, so you can see what the game is like? Then we can switch."

"Alright," said Lakepaw, glancing at the moon to see how much time they had, "It's just after moonhigh, so I think we got time."

"Awesome! I'll be back soon," said Shardpaw before heading from the moor they had been laying on and into the forest. Lakepaw let out a shuddering sigh when he saw him dive out of sight, laying back down on the grass and trying to control his uncontrollably fluttering heart. He thought of it as a blessing to have his crush as a close friend, but to see him embellished in flowers? Lakepaw could barely keep himself composed, though the hints of his sexuality were given to him more unconventionally than he really wanted them to be.

But Shardpaw was the best cat to let that happen to. He was so open-minded that he never questioned his sexuality, sometimes giving hints of embracing it even. He was always there for him, always joyful, plucky and always so handsome. StarClan, why did he have to be so handsome?

Sometime while he was reveling in his glee, Shardpaw strode back to him, eventually calling to him when he wasn't that far away. "Alright, I'm ready." Excited, Lakepaw scrambled to his feet and had to keep his jaw in his mouth when he faced the sight he saw.

Shardpaw stood before him, but he looked completely different. White lilies, just barely hanging on to their season, laced his tail and spine while a small rose was sported between his head fur and his left ear. And somehow in the time he was gone, he had made a crown of flowers supported by vines. He looked so astonishing, so dazzling, so...beautiful.

"So?" he asked, allowing Lakepaw to marvel in his handiwork. He didn't need him to answer, which he didn't, because he already knew. It was perfect.

"How did you do it?" he whispered hoarsely in awe.

"Well, thankfully, my fur is messed up enough to keep these flowers in, the rose was pure happenstance to be honest, and this," he gestured to the crown he had made, "took a lot of time. I actually made it before tonight since I figured you'd be the perfect person to show it off to."

"How am I supposed to beat this?" he said trying to add a little humor in. Shardpaw chuckled. "Well, feel free to tell me to take this off so that there's no competition for you."

"You are keeping this on for the rest of the night," replied Lakepaw almost immediately, giving him a small nudge for even bringing up the idea. Shardpaw smiled.

"Well," he said, turning to him, "You're up!"

"Oh yeah!" said Lakepaw brightly before coming upon the revelation that he didn't have any ideas in anticipation for his turn, "Uh...I may be a while. I'm running low on plans."

"That's alright! Take your time!" said Shardpaw, pausing to sneeze a petal off before continuing, "Like I said, we got all night!"

"Yes we do!" said Lakepaw happily before bounding off into the forest.

Time flowed pretty fast from then on, and if anyone were to ask, Lakepaw would say that he could remember every moment of that night with picture perfect detail, but that hour or so when he was searching for items to dress up in felt so surreal, he never took note of anything at all, but by the time he was done, he had collected countless flowers, a bundle of vines he would use as a necklace and a problem that he probably should have picked up on earlier. See, Lakepaw went to great extent to keep himself clean, so his fur was so smooth that thanks to the years upon years of grooming, the fur on his flank would not stay in a disordered position for more than a couple of seconds. But just when he was about to give up on flowers he stepped on a solution. Quite literally.

Lakepaw, like everyone else in the forest, thought that burs were just a nuisance, but he was quite smart, and it didn't take long for a plan with consequences spanning beyond that night formed in his head. Slowly, he picked up a bundle of two or three burs, and making sure for them not to stick together, he stuck them to different parts of his flank, tangling them up and taking a couple seasons of continuous cleaning off in the process. But by the time he was done, he was covered in burs, but also a place where he could stick the flowers without worrying about them falling off.

When everything was set, he was now covered almost completely in flowers, along with a vine necklace and a pink flower in the same place Shardpaw had put his rose. As he looked himself over in the river, he couldn't help but smile. Oh, how fun it was to get messy once in a while!

But since this isn't some magical speedy dress-up scene in a Saturday morning cartoon, it did not take long for Lakepaw to realize that the sun was almost touching with the horizon, and that it was only a matter of time before Shardpaw went from thinking Lakepaw was putting in a lot of effort into his embellishments (which he had, no doubt) to fearing that something had gone wrong and he was lost. So Lakepaw hurried back to the moor as fast as he could, taking great caution to not lose any of his articles.

Shardpaw's reaction was something Lakepaw would never forget. Eyes wide, jaw locked open in a broad smile and eyes glowing with amazement and happiness. "You look amazing!" he squealed in joy.

"Worth half the night, eh?" said Lakepaw, smiling along with his friend's happiness.

"Winner, winner, winner!" he said, rubbing Lakepaw's head vigorously. They then took a moment to catch their breath, and a few moments later, they realized they were staring.

Staring at each other.

"Actually," said Shardpaw, recomposing himself, "There are a couple things I would like to change. Do you mind if you close your eyes for a couple moments?"

"Uh...Yeah! Sure!" he said, expecting there to be some quick touch-ups he had missed. But what he did not expect was for him to feel Shardpaw giving him the equivalent to grooming. He felt his tongue going everywhere, and it was almost mesmerizing how satisfying it felt for his tongue (with the consistency of sandpaper, mind you) to find its way through almost every inch of his fur. Lakepaw couldn't help but let out a sigh of satisfaction as he finished, and a couple of moments later, he heard Shardpaw's unusually sheepish voice.

"You can...You can open your eyes now."

Lakepaw did, and he was quite confused to see that Shardpaw had actually removed everything from his fur, only leaving behind the flower next to his ear, and when he looked further, he saw that Shardpaw was blushing from eartip to eartip, seemingly avoiding his gaze.

"You...took everything off."

"Because…" he said, cutting Lakepaw off effectively. After a moment, he kept talking. "Because you don't need to dress up, Lakepaw. You don't need to cover yourself in flowers vines or moss. You...don't need to do any of this." He took a shuddering breath. "Because you are already the most beautiful cat to ever roam this forest. And I couldn't be happier to walk by your side every single day."

Lakepaw was astonished. "Shardpaw…"

"I mean what I say, Lakepaw!" he said almost desperately, "I don't need a she-cat! I don't need kits! I don't even need to be leader or deputy! And I hate that it's taken me so long to figure this out, but…" Shardpaw looked Lakepaw right in the eyes, "the only thing I need to make me happy is you by my side."

"I love you, Lakepaw."

Both toms were silent, staring at each other relentlessly.

Then Lakepaw responded.

"I love you too, Shardpaw."

The two moved in unison. Their eyelids slid shut, they stepped forward, and let their love take over.

Lakepaw pressed his muzzle to Shardpaw's, the two exchanging gentle licks while Shardpaw twined his tail with Lakepaw's, shiny silver tangoing with dark, accented bracken. After a few moments more, Lakepaw pressed his muzzle to his chest, beginning a soft groom. As he worked his way to the spine, Shardpaw rested his head on the other's nape, his sighs of satisfaction making Lakepaw shiver with affection.

Slowly and quietly, Lakepaw moved his left forepaw down the spine of his beloved, stripping him of the flowers that were held by the shreds of tangled fur. Shardpaw didn't object, rather moving his tongue in small circles around his neck.

When he was finished, both cats nuzzled each other for a couple more minutes before returning to a stand, their noses touching ever so lightly.

"Thank you," whispered Lakepaw, setting himself up to savor this moment forever.

"Thank you, too," whispered Shardpaw, purring brightly.

They let themselves rest against each other for as long as they could, letting everything go in their bliss, before Lakepaw noticed the sun peeking up from the horizon, and from the sad twinkle in Shardpaw's eye, he noticed it too.

"Well, I guess we'd better head back. It won't be long before the others notice we're gone." It hurt Lakepaw to say it, and Shardpaw seemed to get it too, but after a sad sigh, he gave him a reassuring nuzzle. "Hey," he said, "Tomorrow, when we become warriors, there will be nothing we have to hide. I know that there's gonna be confusion, there's gonna be disapproval, I accept all of that. As long as we're together, you can be damn sure we're not gonna care, right?"

Lakepaw nodded, "Right!"

And so, tails twined and pelts pressed together, the two toms began the slow, savory journey back home, now the greatest of friends and something much more.

And who would've thought it all came out from a game of dress-up?

So.

FLUFF!

StarClan always,

~Res