I haven't been active in this fandom for a looong time, but I was idly browsing through some Word documents and found a little collection of snippets and things I wrote way back when. I recall that this was for a writing exercise where I took words from a random word generator and wrote quick little drabble-y things. The word for this one was, unsurprisingly, "bother". Hm, at one point I had a billion OCs for this. Don't we all? Usually I prefer working with the canon characters, but my mindset was a bit different a few years ago.
Jayfeather sorted herbs impatiently, his tail twitching with annoyance. It had been a long day. It seemed like every cat wanted something from him. First Briarlight had wanted to play around with a moss ball. Then Millie had come in the medicine den and harassed him about Briarlight's health and exercises. Then one of the kits had gotten tangled up in a bramble patch and he had had to deal with that and the kit's hovering mother. And then Lionblaze had wanted to talk and Leafpool had wanted to talk and Squirrelflight had wanted to talk.
Plus, Dewpaw had been asking all sorts of questions today. Maybe he should be glad that she was so dedicated to learning how to be a medicine cat, but it was frustrating that she didn't pick things up as fast as he himself had. And he really hadn't wanted an apprentice yet, if only because he didn't want to deal with all her silly questions.
"Jayfeather!"
He bit back a growl as Dewpaw burst into his den. "What now?" he grumbled irritably.
Undeterred by his rudeness, she blathered on excitedly. "I was out looking for herbs and I found this one. I can't remember what it's called or what it does, but it looks and smells familiar. Which one is it?"
"Borage," Jayfeather huffed dismissively, able to smell the plant even from the other side of the cave.
"Yeah! That's it! Anyway, I was thinking that…"
Jayfeather flattened his ears and tuned her out, but after a few minutes of her chatter he finally snapped.
"Will you stop already? Go bother someone else. I can't deal with you right now," he snarled.
Dewpaw fell silent, and Jayfeather distinctly felt hurt radiating off of her. It seemed out of place coming from a cat who was always bouncy and cheerful.
"Sorry," she said after a moment, her voice more subdued than usual. Jayfeather felt a prick of guilt, but before he could say anything, he heard her pawsteps as she retreated from the den.
With a growl directed half at her and half at himself, he turned back to herb sorting. Peace at last. He tried to shove away the nagging thought that Dewpaw hadn't seemed like her normal self. She was fine, probably off having fun with her siblings or playing around with Briarlight already. That's just how she was: adaptable and always cheerfully optimistic.
But still, he really shouldn't have snapped at her like that. She had obviously been able to tell that it was more venomous than his usual grumpiness. Well, he'd try to be a little nicer when she came back.
But she didn't come back for quite some time. Jayfeather had been moping around the medicine den for hours, and she still hadn't returned. He should really just relax and enjoy the quiet, given that there wasn't much quiet to be had when Dewpaw was around. But…
With a sigh, he padded out of his den and went looking for his missing apprentice. He picked up her scent quickly enough, but it was stale and she was clearly not in the camp. He followed her trail into the woods, stumbling over a few branches in his path.
Eventually he found her sitting by the lake. Even though he couldn't see her, he could tell that she was abnormally still. He padded up to her and sat down by her side, curling his tail neatly around his paws as he stared blankly out towards the lake and remained quiet. Dewpaw didn't say anything either, and they sat in silence.
After a few minutes, Jayfeather pushed himself to his feet heavily. "Well, come on then. We might as well head back to camp."
He began walking away, but quickly realized that Dewpaw wasn't following. The grass rustled beneath her paws as she rose to her feet and turned towards him, but she made no move to follow. He glanced backwards questioningly.
"Do you regret taking me as an apprentice?" she asked finally. "I know that you didn't want one."
Jayfeather's ears flattened and he flicked his tail uncomfortably. It was true: he hadn't wanted an apprentice yet. And if he had to choose an apprentice, someone as bubbly and outgoing as Dewpaw would certainly not have been his first choice. Her perky personality often rubbed him the wrong way, and he really hadn't liked her much in the beginning.
But it was also true that he had grown used to her presence in his den. He had begun to develop the fierce protectiveness of a mentor towards his apprentice, and despite the annoyance her chattering caused him, he had grown dependent on it in some way. He had been resistant to her attempts to wriggle her way into his heart because the last time that had happened, it had hurt too much. Whisperwillow had died, and Jayfeather couldn't bear to face that pain again by letting someone else get as close to him as she had.
But despite all his grumblings about Dewpaw, he had to admit that he was softening towards her.
"Well, it wouldn't be the same without you bothering me all the time, would it?" he asked finally, unwilling to spell out in words what she meant to him.
There was a pause, and then he felt a wave of relief and giddiness come off his apprentice. He breathed out a silent sigh of relief as she bounded over to him.
"Well, come on then. We don't have all day," she said cheerfully. "I bet I can beat you back to camp!"
As he grumbled about the unfairness of the challenge due to his blindness and she retorted that he didn't like cats thinking of him as handicapped so he shouldn't make excuses, he almost smiled at the thought that he seemed to have said the right thing for once.