Russetfur stood up slowly, ears pricked, eyes wide in the gloom. The cover of darkness would do nothing to mask her color and form if another warrior happened to glimpse her leaving the den and even her most silent pawsteps would be heard by the sharp-eared ShadowClan warriors—if they were awake. She closed her eyes, her own refined hearing picking up nothing but slow, even breathing. If she was spotted, she had the ready and easily believable excuse of night hunting, but it was better if she just managed to leave the den undetected in the first place.
It was for this very purpose that she'd continued sleeping near the outside of the den even after Blackstar had appointed her deputy. Her pawsteps falling slowly, softly, one right in front of the other, she reached the outer edges of the pine tree and slid beneath one of the branches, wincing as sap seeped onto her fur. She wanted to pause and clean it off, but knew the sound of a rasping tongue might wake her warriors. No, she would just have to hope it wasn't noticeable.
Dropping to the ground, she darted around the outside of the warrior's den, as light-footed as if she was in an ambush patrol. Her eyes glowed like tiny moons as they swiveled around the camp, checking for movement and finding none. She paused once by the entrance barrier to taste the air, but it was still and scentless on this humid night. Pine needles hung, limp with moisture, around clusters of pinecones that had lost their rich aroma to the stagnant air. Erect and alert, Russetfur made her final move in a burst of speed that brought her just inside the leader's den.
"Blackstar?" she mewed, keeping her voice just loud enough that he could hear.
She could see his white pelt glowing in the gloom, his inky paws disappearing into the shadows. He opened one amber eye, and then the other. "Russetfur?"
She smiled in return. "Yes."
"I didn't think you were going to come."
She tilted her head. "Sorry," she murmured. "Rowanclaw wouldn't fall asleep for anything. I had to wait until I knew he wouldn't notice me leaving."
He rose, shaking his head. "It's alright," he purred, his tongue silently swiping around her ear. "You're here now."
She mirrored his purr, pressing her head into the space between his chin and his chest, feeling the thrumming in his throat, his soft fur tingling against her whiskers. He draped his tail over her shoulders and gently pulled her back with him, into the even darker shadows that surrounded his soft, mossy nest.
Russetfur blinked, resting her chin on her paws. Blackstar had dozed off, and while she was still pressed against him, squeezed into his nest with his tail draped around her, she couldn't find the usual comfort in this that she normally did.
She would never admit it to anyone, not even him, but she'd liked it when Sol had come to the clan, made him Blackfoot again. It had reminded her of the days after they'd been driven out of the clan with the rest of Brokenstar's allies, those moons separated from the clans and the code. The other cats had scattered, but he'd found her, perched on a rock on the far side of WindClan territory, looking out over the twoleg structures and the thunderpath carving its wide arc through the forest.
He'd leapt up beside her. "Russetfur?"
She'd looked up, knowing that her gaze was filled with desperation and despair and hating it. "What are we going to do? We might not have been much of a clan before, but at least I felt safe when I slept. Now we're rogues. Now we're outside the warrior code, not that we weren't before, but cats can kill us without a guilty conscious. What if that ThunderClan kittypet convinces his leader to send a patrol to hunt us down, or something?"
He'd shrugged. "We do what we've always done: we fight them. We make them run away with their tail between their legs."
"But we were a clan before. Now…"
He'd been silent for several moments. "Loners, rogues, don't always live alone, you know. A mother and her kits live together, and mates, or friends," he'd added hastily. "If you don't like the idea of…of living on your own, we wouldn't have to go separate ways. Unless you wanted too. Unless you're sick of me." He'd flashed a wry grin, and no matter how many times Russetfur had told herself that this had begun as friendship and blossomed into more after he'd appointed her deputy, after they'd rebuilt the shattered Clan, she knew that the moment that sarcastic smile had crept over his face was the moment she'd fallen in love with him.
She'd shaken her head, returning his good-natured expression. "I'm not sick of you," she'd promised.
"Then we could stick together, for awhile, you and me."
Her paws tingled now when she'd thought of it. "You and me," she'd repeated.
Those days had been simple, their friendship easy even when life was hard. They'd hunted together, found a new place to shelter every night, had no need to hide what they were—if they had been anything by then—from Clanmates who would see scandal in a romance between leader and deputy. No sneaking around like they had to now. And when Tigerstar had welcomed them back into the clan and made Blackfoot his deputy—well, she'd had her doubts about the tabby striped leader, but she stuck by Blackfoot's side as she always had. He was her best friend, her comrade, her love.
Even when he'd murdered Stonefur—even when she'd seen the RiverClan warrior's blood on his claws—she knew deep inside her that she couldn't stop loving him, couldn't even turn the sweetness they shared into a despair that she couldn't break it off. Love had blinded her, but maybe that was just as well, because she'd seen the regret in his eyes when he'd returned from the Moonstone. Forgive me, Russetfur. I'm not proud of what I did. I want to rebuild this clan, I want to make ShadowClan strong again, respected but not feared as murderers.
And then he'd stared at her, his eyes showing all his emotions as they so rarely did around anyone but here. "I need help, Russetfur. I can't do this on my own. I've run over every possibility in my mind, and I can only think of one cat I want as my deputy." And then there was that look again, that dry humor. "I think we need to stick together awhile longer, you and me."
Her heart had melted and her resolve hardened at the same time, and she stepped forward, licking his cheek softly. "You and me," she'd agreed.
Russetfur looked up now, at his face peaceful with sleep. She lifted her head, smiling, to purr in his ear.
"You and me."