Author's Note: This is my first FanFiction, and I'm taking a stab in the dark with all the formatting, etc., so sorry if this turns out to be jumbled together and weird.

This series of oneshots will have a few unusual pairings, the first up being Heatherpaw x Foxpaw. Random, yes, but interesting. At least, I hope so.

DISCLAIMER: If I was Erin Hunter, why would I be writing on FanFiction when I own the book? Therefore, I am not one of the Erins.

Different This Time
Heather x Fox/

She was breaking the rules. Again. But she couldn't help it! Lionpaw had told her to find someone in WindClan, and she'd tried. Oh, she'd tried. But they were all just the same old boring, predictable WindClanians. And Heatherpaw liked it when she didn't quite know what was going to happen next.

She had wanted to keep meeting Lionpaw, but she knew that he wouldn't hear anything of the sort. In fact, she hadn't really talked to the tom she'd thought she'd loved since he'd walked away from her, breaking her heart with a swish of his tail and a backwards glance.

She had let that follow her like a dark stormcloud of gloom for quite a while. A few moons, in fact, until she decided that she wasn't going to let some stuffy tom who in the end turned out to be a bit like Breezepaw ruin her life. Hey, she was young, and there were plenty more fish in the lake. And it was this discovery that led her to an even more important one – the reason she was gallivanting through the moors of WindClan at sunset to the little patch of forest by the border that she sometimes found squirrels in.

Reaching the top of a rise, Heatherpaw narrowed her robin's egg blue eyes, seeking out a distinct reddish-brown pelt that had come quite familiar to her of late. Upon seeing it, she perked up noticeably.

Purposely taking her time, Heatherpaw descended the hill, gaze fixed on the tom ahead. As she reached the bottom, he noticed her.



"Heatherpaw!" He cried, eyes brimming with warmth. The she-cat purred.

"Who else?" She trotted up to the tom, touching her muzzle with his.

The tom licked her ear affectionately, and Heatherpaw had to marvel at how much he'd grown for someone a few moons

The tom licked her ear affectionately, and Heatherpaw had to marvel at how much he'd grown for someone a few moons younger than she. "I was thinking about you a lot today." He confessed.

Heatherpaw felt her heart swell. "I thought about you all day," She replied. "No matter how exciting it was."

Heatherpaw felt her heart swell. "I thought about you all day," She replied. "No matter how exciting it was."

Foxpaw looked at her questioningly.

"Well," Heatherpaw began, pausing to add to the drama. "Today, Crowfeather came up to me. Said my training was going really well. In fact," Her heather-blue eyes flashed, "He said, and I quote: 'Heatherpaw, I am proud to have you as my first apprentice. To cat could be prouder. Tomorrow, I will be assessing you, to see if you are ready for your warrior name'. Isn't that great?!"

Foxpaw nodded earnestly. "Brilliant."

Heatherpaw could sense that something was wrong. Foxpaw's eyes were suddenly troubled; this confused her. They'd already had the 'this-is-breaking-the-Warrior-Code' and the 'this-endangers-our-loyalty-to-our-Clans' conversations, and both had said that they didn't care. What if... What if Foxpaw had changed his mind? Like Lionpaw? What if he had found someone else? Panic stabbed at Heatherpaw. No! This couldn't be happening! Not again! Although he was getting quite chummy with those other she-cats, the tortoiseshell, Poppypaw, and Lionpaw's sister, What'sherface, Hollypaw, during the last gathering. Did he want to, uh, get to know the she-cats in ThunderClan instead of staying with her? Why had she been so stupid as to trust another ThunderClan-born tom with her heart?

"Heatherpaw? What's wrong?" Foxpaw's gentle voice cut into her panic.



"I could say the same for you!" She mewed, trying not to let the shrillness reach her voice.
"What...?" Foxpaw's question stayed unfinished, his eyes clouding with confusion. He was so easy to read. Heatherpaw suppressed a sigh.

"There's something wrong with you. What?"

Foxpaw shook his head.

"What? I thought we didn't keep secrets." Heatherpaw's voice had a hard edge to it.

"We don't. It's just that…" Foxpaw sighed, and Heatherpaw braced herself. "You're so much older than me."

Heatherpaw blinked. "Huh? So?"

"So, you're getting your warrior name already while I'm not even halfway through my training!"

"Does it matter?" Heatherpaw's voice softened. "I love you. That's all that matters."

Foxpaw sighed again. "You're right." He meowed. "I'm being stupid. It's just a few moons difference. It's not like you're a kit and I'm and elder or anything."

"No."

The sun had completely set, sinking below the horizon in a banner of fire, staining the clouds in Firestar-orange and blood-red. Soon the fire, too, faded, and the warriors of StarClan began to show, like the tiny pricks of silver swimming in the depths of Heatherpaw's eyes, although these pricks of light were swimming in a sea of inky blue. Clouds wisped and rippled across the night, and the two apprentices lay on their backs, pelts touching, pointing out shapes in the sky.

Lionpaw never did this with me Heatherpaw thought dreamily. We were always trapped under those StarClan-forsaken tunnels. Glancing at the warm body beside her, eyes reflecting the almost-full moon, Heatherpaw felt a ripple of pure happiness. Who cares if I'm breaking the Warrior Code? StarClan has to understand this.

Thinking back to her past experiences with toms, with consisted of a fling with Breezepaw when they were kits and the disastrous events with Lionpaw, both of which had ended in black heartbreak and or humiliation, Heatherpaw felt a flicker of hope. She could feel in this calm, peaceful night, that her romantic luck was about to change.



Things were going to be different this time.