xxSandystarxx: Wish granted, I have finally updated! And thank you :)

Last night had just seemed like a dream. After going downstairs and slipping past the adults, Tigerclaw and I had made our way outside to the pool. When we got outside I realized something mortifying- the fact that I was pale. Not just fair skinned, no, but really, really pale. It was accented even more with the fact that most of my hair was black with the exception of the small silver stripes at the bottom. Hesitantly, I pulled my shirt off to expose myself, scarred that Tigerclaw wouldn't be impressed with my complexion. I stared long and hard as he pulled off his own shirt. Tigerclaw was only 14, but already he had developed a lot of muscle. Not to mention he was naturally tanned, something you really couldn't fake with a tanning booth.

I had starred for a little too long, noticing this when I saw him look at me quizzically. "Oh, sorry," I managed to get out, not sure why I was so nervous- I stare at people all the time. It only takes them about 10 seconds to turn around and notice the little yellow-eyed kid staring at them from under a table or behind a wall. I always laughed and made sure to disappear quickly whenever this happened. But with Tigerclaw, I could just stand there and hope that the whole thing hadn't happened.

After that, neither of us had said anything for a while. We had both sat down at the edge of the pool, Tigerclaw slowly swirling his finger in the water, me hugging my knees to my chest, staring down at my own reflection. I thought back to so many mornings just rushing to get out of the house, not giving the mirror a second thought. It was only now, in the blue, chlorinated waters of Tigerclaw's pool, that I really saw what I looked like.

My hair was black, yes, but it might just be a little gray- not enough to be noticeable though. I didn't get haircuts as regularly as the rest of the boys in my class did, nor did I brush it as much. It just kind of curved around my head, hanging in down in strands since I only really took a shower once a week, at the most. I wasn't that fit, but I wasn't fat, not at all. I couldn't tell much, but I knew I wasn't nearly as handsome as Tigerclaw.

"You know," he finally spoke, "I never thought I'd actually see you here. At my house, I mean," he finished.

I looked up and nodded. "Yeah," was the only thing I could say.

"Do you ever swim?" He asked next. I shook my head, realizing that I'd never actually had the chance to swim, therefore I didn't know how. Okay, not getting in the pool tonight. "I used to," Tigerclaw continued, "Well, my mom and dad would take me and my sisters into the pool when we were toddlers. We couldn't actually swim ourselves."

I looked up in surprise, "You have sisters?"

"Did," he replied, "They died early on. The doctors said that out of the three of us, I was most likely to die. But I proved them wrong. After my sisters' death is when my dad left us. My mom was sad, and all I remember was being angry." He stopped for a second, "Do you have any siblings?"

"No," I couldn't help but sigh in relief and smile. "The idea with sharing my house with anyone but my mom just seems disgusting. I hate sharing it with her, but soon enough…"

"Soon enough what?" Tigerclaw prompted. It was then I noticed something change in him, a little shift, a small perk of interest that I didn't understand at the time. I little gleam in the eyes, and sudden smirk beginning to pull at his lips. "You'll get rid of her? Be alone?" I looked at his narrowed eyes, his inviting face, and all I could do was nod. In a quieter tone, he asked, "Do you want to be alone?" We seemed so close now that I'm pretty sure I could've reached out to touch him and retract my hand so quickly that he wouldn't have noticed.

But I didn't get the chance to. "Darkpaw! It's time to go!" Willowpelt was standing in the now open and lit doorway with Leopardfoot, calling out to me. I got up reluctantly, reaching for my shirt and pulling it on.

"Come say goodbye to Darkpaw and Aunt Willowpelt, Tigerclaw!" Leopardfoot called out more gently. It was strange, I thought, that Willowpelt yelled and treated me like some sort of criminal who'd committed too many crimes to be saved when I was only eleven, and Leopardfoot spoke to Tigerclaw as if he were still five years old and treated him like an angel, even though he was fourteen.

"Bye, Darkpaw," We were at the front door now, standing to the side so other people could get to their cars and drive off. "Thanks for coming, I'll see you at school," Tigerclaw looked down at me with Leopardfoot's hand on his shoulder, restricting him from anything.

"Bye," it came out more like a whisper as Willowpelt dragged me down the steps and toward the car, so I raised my hand to wave too. Even as I was staring out the car window in the opposite direction of Tigerclaw's house, I still felt a tingly sensation in my chest, not sure what it was exactly, but knowing that I never wanted it gone.

I turning the street corner, my school coming into view. I saw cars pulling up, kids hopping out, kissing their moms on the cheek. I was surprised to see Tigerclaw come out of one of these cars, I never really saw him arrive at school at all, he was just there. Why didn't I want to see him? I ducked my head down a little and speed-walked towards the doors. Too late. "Darkpaw!" I turned around, seeing Tigerclaw walking toward me. Up close in daylight, he looked even better than last night. He was wearing a dark blue button down shirt (which was not buttoned in all places) and black skinny jeans, a combination that only he could pull off.

I looked down at my own white t shirt and jeans and suddenly felt self-conscience. "It was fun having you over last night," he said, snapping me back to reality.

"Yeah," I replied, nodding. I looked around. Some other kids were staring, whispering, probably new rumors about how I'd teamed up with Tigerclaw to destroy the rest of my classmates. Sadly, this was far from true.

"Look," he brought me back again, "I'm sorry I didn't find in you in the alleys yesterday." I looked at him quizzically, then remembered suddenly what we'd said yesterday and how I'd spent that time with Longpaw.

"Oh," I said suddenly, "I'm sorry, I was just-"

"It's fine," Tigerclaw put up his hand to stop me. "I was also coming to say that I'm sorry I can't hang out with you today during school. But I'd be happy to walk you home later, if that's okay with you."

I could only nod. Tigerclaw was coming home with me? He was actually going to walk me home? He had chosen to spend time with me, all on his own? I nodded again, more sure of myself. "Great," he said, then walked off in the direction of his friends. My time with Tigerclaw wouldn't have to end at 3:10 pm today, like it always had. It could go on and on and on.

"You! I gotta talk to you!" It was lunch time now, and the effects of Tigerclaw's offer had worn off, just a little. But enough to be able to confront Longpaw whole-heartedly. Longpaw turned around, startled, but then calmed when he saw it was me. But not for long.

I marched over to him until we were only inches apart. "You're the reason I missed my meeting with Tigerclaw yesterday! If you hadn't come over to my house, I would've-"

"You were meeting with Tigerclaw yesterday?" Longpaw looked up at me in amazement, either ignorant to the fact that I was mad at him, or just trying to ignore it.

"Would've met up with him. But instead, I was busy 'training' you."

Longpaw looked down for a second, "Oh, sorry about that," We were both quiet for a moment, the sounds of kids laughing and screaming in delight going on behind us. "But hey, check out what I can do!" Longpaw's confidence was quickly replenished, as he brought over his half-empty water bottle and set it down gently on the ground. Not liking where he put it, Longpaw furrowed his brow and placed the bottle up on the wall people normally sat on. The wall reached only to my knees, making it rise above Longpaw's knees high enough that he almost had to struggle to get up onto it.

Standing with his right foot back and left foot in front, Longpaw took a swing with his right leg at the bottle, and knocked it onto the ground with his foot in a clean sweep. Unfortunately, he'd put too much momentum into it, and went spinning in the opposite direction and fell down, hard.

"Um, you okay?" I asked tentatively. I almost wanted to reach down to him like Tigerclaw had to me, but I decided against it.

Longpaw got up, rubbing his back. "Yeah," he replied, "It's a good thing I got this fuzzy sweater to protect me!" It was only now that I noticed what he was wearing, and I was surprised I didn't notice earlier. Longpaw was wearing possibly one of the fuzziest red sweaters I'd ever seen- I swear, effing puff balls were coming out of that thing.

"Um…yeah," I was beginning to think that "um" had become my new favorite word. "But that was a good kick," I had to admit I was a little impressed.

Longpaw's face lit up even more, "You think so?"

I nodded, "Sure," I replied. Looking up at the clock on the side of the building I noticed it was almost time for us to go in. Packing up my things I turned my head back as I began walking towards the school, "Maybe now you can protect yourself against Six-Fingers again,"

"Yeah," Longpaw looked down again, not moving towards his own lunch. "Maybe."

"So how long have you been living here?" The day had dragged by slowly, all in anticipation for these ten minutes of bliss with Tigerclaw, who was now asking me questions.

"Since forever," I replied.

"That's a long time," he nodded solemnly, not pursuing the question. So far, I had not asked anything, just answered. But now, a question did occur to me.

"How did you know where I live?" He seemed a bit taken aback by this.

"What do you mean?" I guess I was a little puzzled too, not sure why I asked.

"Well," I began, "You offered to walk me home, and when we began the walk, you seemed perfectly at ease, not really needing to follow me. You actually seemed to get ahead of me a few times."

Tigerclaw shrugged, "If I had gotten that far ahead I would've waited for you at all the turns. I'm not familiar with this neighborhood."

"Okay," I continued, wanting to believe that, "But what about when you said you'd find me in the alley I was in yesterday? You just said now that you weren't familiar with the neighborhood- how would you even know where to start?"

Tigerclaw looked straight ahead, "There aren't that many alleys in this town. I'm sure I would've figured it out." Even if I had wanted to, there was no more time to ask questions. We were coming up to my house now, and unless I wanted to ask more questions, I'd have to invite him into my house. "I'm guessing this is the place?" He asked, noticing that we had stopped.

"Yeah, not really impressive," Tigerclaw just smiled a little and shrugged for the third time today. I was about to invite him inside when I saw something peculiar- two cars were parked in my driveway. One was obviously Willowpelt's beat up silver Volvo, but the other one was one I didn't recognize. It was a white Ford, no dents to be found¸ just sitting there as if it was quite at home.

"I'll see you later, Darkpaw. Have a nice evening," And with that, Tigerclaw smiled and left back in the direction of the school, where, at the end of the street, there was a bus stop where he would catch a bus to the nearest stop to his palace home where a loving mother would be waiting for him. Waiting for me, though, was a demon mother with a mysterious Ford-driving stranger.

I unlocked the gate and open the door cautiously, peering inside, not seeing anything but our dusty kitchen and a few empty cereal bowls left out here and there. Slipping in, I set down my back pack gently and shut the door. As soon as I did, a voice called out from the living room, "Darkpaw? Is that you?" Willowpelt.

"Yeah!" I called out. Who else would it be?

"Come in the living room, please," I was scared. Her voice wasn't sharp and demanding like it usually was. It wasn't gentle, but it wasn't a command. It was a request, but not a demand.

I walked in and slowed down, narrowing my eyes suspiciously, trying to hide my surprise. Sitting next to Willowpelt on the couch was a man, about her age with white and black hair and a nice flannel shirt that did nothing to bring out his pale yellow eyes. He was wearing khakis and nicely polished shoes, which didn't seem to match the length of his hair, which went down to his shoulders. His hand was on top of hers in between them on the cushions.

"Darkpaw," Willowpelt began. "This is your Uncle Patchpelt," I looked more closely at the man- Patchpelt, apparently- who smiled kindly back at me. I looked back at Willowpelt, as if to say "So?" Picking up on it, she continued, "He's going to be living with us for a while."