Title: A Very Simple Feeling
Summary: Foxpelt would give everything to serve her Clan. She'd starve to feed them, spill her last drop of blood to protect them. But this was asking far too much of her limited patience. (Written for Clan of Clouds' "Castle of Glass" challenge)
Warnings: None at all.
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"Hey, Foxpelt!"
Oh, no. Not him. Please, StarClan, tell me I'm not stuck on patrol with him.
"Looks like we've been put on the hunting patrol together."
Fox dung! Foxpelt heaved a huge inward sigh and forced herself to greet her Clanmate. "Finchclaw," she mewed coolly. Her ginger fur threatened to bristle along her spine at his smug expression.
"Alone with a gorgeous she-cat. However will we pass the time?" Finchclaw purred, his voice low and throaty and way too suggestive.
Foxpelt gave him the coldest look she could manage. "By hunting." Finchclaw might have had just about every she-cat in the Clan wrapped around his paw (as evidenced by the jealous glares searing into her pelt), but she was not going to be fooled by his charms. He was as arrogant as they came, and there was nothing she found more repulsive.
"Ah, be that way, then," he sighed, trying his paw at looking wounded. The smirk completely ruined the effect. "I'll convince you to like me yet." He moved as if to brush flanks with her. Foxpelt immediately spun and all but ran out of the camp, her pelt crawling. WindClan's biggest flirt followed more slowly, chuckling softly to himself.
The patrol only got progressively worse from there. Foxpelt missed the first rabbit she spotted and only barely caught the bird she stumbled across afterward. Its cut-off alarm call must have startled everything from her location to Fourtrees, because after that, she couldn't find so much as a mouse tail.
Dejected, she started back to camp, scolding herself for being so clumsy. Halfway there, she found Finchclaw - lazing in the sun, not a bit of fresh-kill to be seen anywhere near him, and chatting up their deputy, Sunspots.
Foxpelt dropped her bird, the rage coiling in her gut surprising even her. The expression on her face must have been murderous, because both Finchclaw and Sunspots looked fairly alarmed when they spotted her.
"Uh," the black and white tom began, but before he could get anything else out, Foxpelt was yelling in his face.
"Shut up! I'm sick of you thinking you can get away with anything you like just because half the Clan has lost their minds over you!" She didn't know where the words came from, but they tumbled out of her like floodwater. "We're supposed to be hunting for the Clan, or did you forget that just because our deputy glanced in your direction?" Foxpelt, reminded that Sunspots was actually standing there, rounded on her. "And you! You call yourself a deputy? Why weren't you telling him this?"
Sunspots looked bewildered. "Foxpelt, I - "
"She was," Finchclaw cut in calmly.
Halfway through drawing another breath to continue shouting, Foxpelt stopped and gave him a confused look. "What?"
"Sunspots was ordering me to get back to work." The familiar amused expression was back. If he hoped looking charming would get him out of trouble, he was wrong.
"A bit late for that, isn't it," Foxpelt snarled. "We've only got one bird between us. What will Cloudstar think?"
"That you're an utterly gorgeous and very skilled hunter. I'll tell him that it was my fault."
His whiskers were twitching. Was he making fun of her now? One bird wouldn't feed an entire Clan!
Fuming, Foxpelt snatched up her blackbird and stalked past the two cats, fully intending to tell Cloudstar herself.
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Sunspots sighed. "I'm sorry, Finchclaw. You'd better go with her."
The black and white warrior chuckled heartily. "Yes, I suppose I should. If only to make sure she doesn't destroy poor Cloudstar's den."
"Must you rile her up so much? You could have told her you already brought your rabbit back."
"I'll tell her later," Finchclaw promised, getting up and stretching luxuriously. "She's cute when she's angry."
And tell her he did - after Cloudstar very patiently explained what the situation was.
"I know," the flustered ginger she-cat muttered, shuffling her paws. "I'm...sorry. I shouldn't have gone off on you like that."
Unable to resist teasing her, Finchclaw meowed, "Well, I do tend to have that effect on she-cats."
Foxpelt's eyes widened and she spluttered. "You...! You're so - "
"Attractive? Charming? Handsome?" he offered, scooting closer.
"Impossible," she growled, glaring.
"I get that a lot," he meowed easily, pressing against her and leaning his head toward hers. "So, what do you say? Want to get out of camp and take your frustrations out on me some more? I promise I'll let you do whatever you want." He winked.
"Go fall in a badger's den," she told him bluntly.
Finchclaw pretended to wince. "That hurts." He raised one paw to his chest for dramatic effect. "You've wounded me deeply, Foxpelt. I may never recover."
The ginger warrior rolled her eyes. "Don't you have some other she-cat to pester?"
"Well, yes. I could go pester someone else," Finchclaw meowed, tipping his head to make her think he was actually thinking about it. "Sunspots, maybe?"
"You go do that, then," Foxpelt muttered, but he couldn't help noticing she had yet to move away like she usually did. Triumph fluttered in his chest.
Now to convince her. "I think maybe you don't want me to," he murmured, letting his voice soften and deepen.
Foxpelt scoffed, but the sound had lost some of its usual venom. "Don't be rabbit-brained. I couldn't care less which unfortunate soul you decide to bother."
"What if I said I don't want to bother you?" Finchclaw tilted his head. "I'd like to get to know you better, I really would."
"Do you say that to all of the she-cats you've had?" Foxpelt asked, shifting away slightly, her eyes wary.
"I mean I want to be friends, Foxpelt," he sighed, somewhat disheartened that he had to spell it out. Maybe more in the future, but for now...friends is good.
She looked so surprised that it took all of his willpower not to lick her cheek. The ginger she-cat really was too cute for her own good. "And you'll...stop bugging me if I say we can try to be friends," she meowed dubiously.
"Well, no," he chuckled, "but I'll try to pester you less often. How does that sound?"
Foxpelt shifted her paws uncertainly and nodded slowly. "Alright, Finchclaw," she mewed. "We can try."
He flashed her his most winning expression. "That's all I ask."