Sunpaw lay in his nest, half conscious. He had never been a heavy sleeper. When he was younger, he couldn't get to sleep if it was a little warmer or colder than usual. Slight creaks made by the house settling would make him jolt upwards from his chosen resting position.
The young cat felt a paw prod at his stomach. Instantly, he was wide awake and opened his blue eyes. A brown tabby paw had been poking him, he followed it to it's owner. Brambleclaw.
"Brambleclaw? Och, what is it?" The gold tom groaned.
"We're meeting the others tonight, remember?" The tabby reminded.
"Bugger, so we are," Sunpaw grunted as he stood up, "well, are we going or what?" he urged.
Brambleclaw signalled him to follow, taking great care not to step on any of the other apprentices. The metahuman clumsily followed but accidentally stepping on Squirrelpaw's tail, making her yelp softly in her sleep. The apprentice didn't stick around long enough to find out if he woke her from her slumber.
Sunpaw caught up with Brambleclaw outside of camp. They walked in silence under the glowing, pale moon. That message run through the apprentice's head once again, seek midnight. He prayed to StarClan/God/whatever deity that sent him here that they would come to a sensible conclusion.
"Smooth moves with Brightheart yesterday," Brambleclaw said suddenly, sarcasm dripping from each word spoken.
"I already feel like a tosser, do you need to rub it in?" The Briton sighed in response. Brightheart was a bit like Cinderpelt in the way he felt awful for her. But while Cinderpelt's injury was easier to ignore, looking at the right side of Brightheart's face was like a train wreck because he couldn't stop looking.
"Sunpaw, are you okay? You're staring at me," Brightheart had asked him.
The apprentice had torn his gaze from the scarred half of her face. He could see in her emerald green eye she was deeply hurt. Sunpaw immediately began to panic, "Sorry, I was just staring at..." he had just made the situation worse. For the love of God, don't say her face!, He thought to himself, "...you because you're, well, beautiful," finished. The apprentice immediately blushed a deep red. That's not what he wanted to say.
That wasn't true. At all. He was just trying to not look like an arse by making making an arse of himself instead. Now, the whole of ThunderClan thinks he facies Brightheart. Fucking brilliant. And somethings been up with Leafpaw as well, she wouldn't tell him why though.
"You better think before you speak next time, love bird," The ThunderClan warrior told him.
"Oh, fuck off. I don't love her, it just slipped out when I was trying to not look like a massive prick!" He snapped in protest, his face heating up as he did so.
"Whatever you say," The brow tabby shrugged, rolling his amber eyes.
"I'm serious!" The tom huffed.
The pair walked in silence. Sunpaw wondered if the others had talked to who they saw in their dreams. He had a feeling Ivan did, the RiverClan apprentice seemed very concerned about it when they talked for the first time.
He wasn't sure if David has, but he had doubts. To him, the ShadowClan cat was the kind of person to just forget to ask and just shrug his shoulders when asked about it.
Lautrec was out of the question. The Frenchman couldn't speak English, how the hell was he supposed to talk to the cat he saw in his dream? Ivan had acted as his translator on the night they met. He doubted the Russian had followed him to WindClan just to translate what he said.
Suddenly, the bushes behind them russled followed by a thud. Both cats turned to face the interloper, only to see Squirrelpaw.
"Squirrelpaw, what are you doing out of camp? You know apprentices aren't allowed out of camp without permission, let alone at night!" Brambleclaw demanded.
"I wanted to see where you were going," Squirrelpaw stated, "and you can blame Mr. Romantic over here for waking me up," mentioning over to Sunpaw, who just muttered curses.
"Okay, now get back to camp," Brambleclaw ordered, turning to head for their destination.
"Nuh-uh, I'm coming with you," The ginger she-cat spat stubbornly, her green eyes glaring. She immediately reminded him of Kelly, who was stubborn as a mule at times. He felt pangs of loss and longing thinking about his girlfriend. Well, his ex-girlfriend now he supposed.
Brambleclaw glared that the second apprentice, but he knew she wouldn't budge until she got what she wanted. "Fine." He growled.
Squirrlepaw's face gained a look of smug satisfaction, and the trio set out for the Four-Trees. That was the worst walk in the Brit's life. Squirrelpaw would not stop teasing him about Brightheart, even after he told her he was just trying to make her feel better.
They eventually reached the Four-Trees, after what felt like a decade to Sunpaw. All three sat in silence. Sunpaw looked towards they sky, he guessed by the position of the moon that it was half eleven.
It felt wrong to not know how to tell the time here, so he learned by using his shadow as a clock and looked at the sun to get a gauge of when an hour was, same with the moon. Less he risked losing track of days, weeks, moons-no months. He sighed inwardly, he had only been here a week and he was already using their slang.
They chatted amongst each other, waiting until the others arrived. The first to arrive was David, who looked exhausted, and Tawnypelt. Then came Ivan, Feathertail, and Stormfur. Last to arrive was Lautrec and Crowpaw.
The metahumans went first. Telling their tale about the peculiar dream. After hearing about the dark tabby in their dream, Brambleclaw leered in suspicion at them, only to catch eyes with David.
"Keep staring at me like that and I'll wipe that dumb look of your face," The ShadowClan apprentice glowered.
"Try it, rouge," Brambleclaw spat in response. He wouldn't be threatened by an apprentice, like alone some rouge. The metahuman stepped forward, snarling, and he swear he head what sounded like lightning. But Tawnypelt defused the situation before it could escalate.
The others talked about their dream (except Squirrelpaw and Stormfur) , and it was immediately found that there was a divide between the ex-rouges and the born clan cats. "Maybe it's because they don't have ancestors in StarClan, so they had a different dream?" Feathertail chimed in. Smokepaw nodded his head in agreement.
"Since when did StarClan like rouges and loners?" Squirrelpaw commented.
"Okay, who invited the kit?" Crowpaw sneered, referring to Squirrelpaw.
"Look, it's a talking rat," she retorted.
David snorted in laughter, "fight fight fight!" he chanted.
"Don't encourage them," Stormfur scolded.
"What are you? My mom? Go fuck yourself ya dunce," The brown tabby sneared in response. Stormfur began to argue with the apprentice, both yowling over each other.
While they were arguing, Crowpaw glowered at Squirrelpaw before he lept for her, only to be stopped by Coldpaw. "We don't need more fighting," he mewed, dragging the WindClan apprentice.
Squirrelpaw stuck her tongue out, enraging Crowpaw. "You know what? I'm leaving," he hissed, stalking off to WindClan territory.
"Crowpaw!" Feathertail called out, chasing after the WindClan apprentice. Smokepaw followed behind her.
"Dude, he likes her," David commented to Sunpaw, "fuckin' weirdo,"
"You think? This is the first time they've met, so I don't think so," the gold tom shook his head.
"Kind of like you and Brightheart," Squirrelpaw chimed in, making Sunpaw's face burn with embarrassment as he glared at her.
"What? Dude, c'mon! You're better than this!" David scolded whilst laughing.
"I don't! I just said that because I made her upset!" The Briton squeaked, "even if I did, what's wrong with liking someone in my clan?"
David rolled his blue eyes, "she's a cat, that's the problem," he explained.
"We're cats too, you bloody spoon!" Sunpaw retorted.
"But, it's just gross, y'know?" The American replied.
"Can you two shut up?" Ivan hissed, "We're supposed to be talking about what midnight is!" his grey tail swung behind him in irritation and impatience.
Brambleclaw and Tawnypelt nodded, "finally, a loner with common sense!" The she-cat stated. Then, the other three returned. They discussed what midnight could be, but none could decide what it was.
"Maybe we need to wait until midnight and something happens?" Brambleclaw offered.
"I don't think so," Smokepaw argued, whose English had improved greatly in the past week, "Feathertail's right, midnight must be a place,"
"C'mon, are you fucking stupid? Midnight's a cat," David brushed the theory off. Sunpaw and Squirrelpaw nodded in agreement.
"I think we should go with Brambleclaw's idea for tonight, we would need to leave the clans for the other theories," The RiverClan apprentice reasoned.
"It's a dumb idea," The ShadowClan apprentice spat. But he was ignored and they watched the moon for several seconds, noticing it was coming up on midnight. They sat and stared in silence.
Sparkpaw nudged the golden tom on his right, "watch this," he said, "Yeah, I think you're right, Feathertail, we definitely need to go to the moon to find Midnight," he mewed loudly and clearly.
Without even thinking, Lautrec immediately agreed. Only to realise that the American was making a fool of him, he glared as the other metahuman snickered.
The moon now hung over them at midnight, it's pale glow illuminating them in a faint silver light. They waited.
And they waited.
And nothing happened.
"We'll try next moon then," Stormfur sighed, he bidded farewell and headed to RiverClan camp with his sister in tow.
The other three left soon thereafter, leaving the metahumans alone. Lautrec sat, still glaring at David. "Yo, Lautrec. Do you like Feathertail?" The ShadowClan warrior asked.
"What? N-no, of course not!" He replied. His face went a deep scarlet as his ears burned from embarrassment.
"Ooh, yeah you do!" Sparkpaw teased, "you've been brown-nosing her all night, it's obvious that you like her,"
"Shut up! She had a lot of good points!" The grey tom protested, his ears now folding against his head.
"Aw, it's love at first sight!" Evan cooed jokingly.
Ivan just chuckled, "leave him alone," he scolded, yet amusement glinted in his eyes. "We should get back before our clans realise we're gone," the Russian added.
The four bidded farewell and departed. Lautrec and Ivan walking together and Evan and David went together.
Their journey was quiet, only the wind, rustling of leaves, and other nightly sounds. Until the brown tabby decided to start a conversation.
"So, what happened between you and Brightheart?" He asked.
Sunpaw just groaned.
