Thanks for all the reviews, favs, and follows! :) Here is the next chapter~ Theres a bit of fluff in this one. :p

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Firepaw lunged at her opponent, slender ginger fur glowing softly. He reared upwards to slam her down to the ground, and she gasped as the breath was driven out of her. She grit her teeth and recovered fast, on her paws in a heartbeat. The dark tabby swiped a clumsy blow at her head, which she easily evaded. She nipped lightly at his hind-paws, and he kicked out at her, but his kick was so soft it hardly did anything.

The green-eyed she-cat leapt away from her opponent, tilting her head. "Why are you so distracted today?" She frowned, nudging him.

Her opponent- a dark tabby tom whom she knew fairly well, lifted his head, amber eyes deeply troubled. He sat down and wrapped his tail around his paws, and squared his shoulders. "Does my new scar look funny to you?" He asked hesitantly, almost looking afraid.

She frowned, narrowing her eyes. She glanced at his scar- and felt a pang of familiarity, which she swiftly pushed away. That was ridiculous- she had never seen a scar like that before. "No." She shrugged. "It doesn't look weird. You're lucky- I would die for a cool battle scar."

That seemed to reassure the tom, and a little spark of energy returned to his eyes as he sighed in relief. "That's a relief." He nodded at her then, and padded towards her. "Now lets work on battle strategy. You seem to be pretty good at fighting- but what about strategy. Weaknesses of the cats." Firepaw shrugged at him, ears twitching. He sat down ahead of her and swiftly began to assess her. "WindClan."

"They are very fast but small. They're not very strong, so you just have to hit hard- however they are very good at slipping out of your grasp or dodging quickly. Also, they smell sort of rabbity, so that will give them away." Firepaw grinned cockily as Tigerpaw nodded in approval.

"Good." He meowed, grinning.

"You're actually a really good mentor." Firepaw admitted reluctantly. I'd never tell him this- but if not for him, I don't think I would have passed my first assignment. "Thanks a lot, Tigerpaw."

Tigerpaw grinned happily at her. "Is it hard being the leader's daughter? Do your parents expect a lot from you?"

Firepaw gnawed on her lip, averting her gaze, ears flattened against her head. "I'm not really talking to them much…" She meowed quietly, her voice trailing off. "Ever since we snuck out of camp, they seemed kind of disappointed. So naturally, they busied themselves in looking after Owlpaw and they kind of… left me alone."

The dark brown tabby blinked sympathetically at her. "That sucks." He admitted, eyes round. "My parents are the best. They never stopped loving me- and never will. I guess they're still so surprised that I've grown to be such a… sturdy tom." He shrugged. "I don't think they expected much from me."

"They were wrong." Firepaw laughed quietly, almost bitterly. "I was wrong too." She shook her head, frustrated. "I always thought I would be the best warrior. I can't believe how arrogant of a kit I was- you were so quiet and shy, and now look at you. You're twice the apprentice I am."

Tigerpaw's eyes glowed at the praise. "Really?" He smiled happily. "Blossomfall hardly praises me- and when she does, she just doesn't sound happy." His ears drooped again and the light faded from his eyes as his shoulders sagged. "Sometimes I despair of ever pleasing my mentor. She's so tough- and she has such high expectations for me. Especially since that border skirmish two sunrises ago."

I wish my mentor had high expectations for me. Firepaw thought miserably, picturing her mentor's face. Now Cherryfall hardly even tried, and began getting closer and closer with Toadstep. Firepaw knew her mentor still resented her- and was probably waiting for an apology, something that Firepaw's pride was definitely not going to let her give.

"I used to think being an apprentice would be so easy." Firepaw sighed, lying down on her back. "Now look at me. I'm so bad at it- I need extra mentoring than everyone else."

Tigerpaw let out a huff of annoyance as he flopped onto his back. "I agree. Blossomfall is working me so hard, my muscles are literally screaming with exhaustion." His eyes twinkled playfully as he twitched his paw. "Can you hear the screams of agony?"

"Of course." Firepaw replied sarcastically, rolling her eyes a bit.

She had never thought this would happen- but her and Tigerpaw were getting slightly close. They still didn't talk in camp, or much to each other, and often sniped at each other- but when it was midnight… they seemed to get along alright. Maybe it was because when the sky turned dark, she felt an awful feeling in her chest- loneliness. She wished for her parents for a moment, and her sister.

Firepaw knew it was probably half her fault that they had grown so far apart, because of her cocky attitude and rudeness to everyone- but she wanted to make it okay. Sometimes she looked at Squirrelflight and Leafpool, and felt awfully miserable at how close they were. Squirrelflight was the deputy, and Leafpool was the medicine cat. They had completely separate lives- and still were closer than Owlpaw and Firepaw would ever be.

"Do you think Firestar and them are watching over us right now?" Tigerpaw whispered beside her, his voice hushed as he waved his paw up at the sky.

The sky was a beautiful dark blue color, splashed with darker grays and blacks. There were no clouds in the sky- it was absolutely clear. The moon, pale white color, hung amongst a series of beautiful twinkling stars. The night was alive as it danced with celestial sheen.

Firepaw sucked in an awed gasp.

"Maybe." She replied to him. As she turned her neck to look at him, she realized how close they were. They were only a mouse-length apart. She could almost feel the warmth radiating from his pelt- and yet, oddly enough, felt no desire to shift or scoot away from him. "I wonder if they're watching us. All the time." She moved her gaze back up at the sky.

The dark brown tabby tom let out a soft chuckle beside her, and she could just picture the playful gleam in his eyes. "If they did, that would be slightly creepy. Plus, they'd know all the trouble we got into."

"Oh yeah?" Firepaw challenged him, eyes glowing. "Like what?"

The dark tabby was laughing now, before even telling his story. "One time I told Hollypaw if she didn't run up to Snowpaw and tell him she thought he was handsome, I would put fire ants in her nest. She didn't of course, and I put them in. She woke up with like, five thousand bites."

Firepaw giggled as well- that was pretty silly. She could just imagine how angry Hollypaw would be, as she stood up and shrieked with disgust, pawing the ants off her pelt. "One time, when she wasn't looking, I stuffed rabbit droppings inside of the vole that Owlpaw was eating." The ginger she-cat was giggling crazily now, eyes glittering with amusement. "You should've seen her face. She spit it out and began to paw at her tongue as if it were on fire."

"Yeah." Tigerpaw purred softly, glancing up at the sky. "I wonder if they saw all that." Firepaw turned her head to face him, and to her surprise he was looking at her already. "It would be pretty weird."

Then the dark brown tabby tom's jaws stretched in a noisy yawn. At the sound- Firepaw realized how exhausted she was. Her paws felt like stones and her eyelids were heavy, so she closed them.

"Tigerpaw?" She mumbled blearily. "Are you awake?"

Silence.

"Yeah." He whispered.

"Are you cold?" She questioned. It was leaf-bare, and she hadn't realized how cold she was until she had lay down. She began to tremble with the cold and curled up tighter in an effort to warm up.

More hesitation. "Kinda." He answered.

Without even opening her eyes, Firepaw scooted a bit closer to the tom- so their fur was almost touching. Something about their conversation had warmed her heart, and the forlorn feeling was completely off her mind. At least, for a while. She felt so miserable and lonely, but right now she didn't. Their fur touching, heat flooding through them- she felt less lonely than she had in a long time.

They lay there for a long while, their chests rising and falling. Firepaw felt as if she couldn't sleep without asking one more question. "Are you still cold?" She murmured exhaustedly.

There was no reply this time.

Firepaw smiled softly to herself and pressed a bit closer to him before squeezing her eyes shut, her body slipping into a peaceful, dreamless sleep. She didn't have nightmares- and she didn't feel forlorn. She felt perfectly normal.

Firepaw was awoken by harsh light stinging at her eyelids. She mumbled something inaudible, pawing at her face. Why was it so bright? Wasn't she in the apprentice's den… Oh, StarClan! The ginger she-cat shot to her paws, eyes alight with panic.

"Tigerpaw! Tigerpaw, wake up!" She meowed desperately, nudging the dark brown tabby tom. He let out something that sounded like a mix between a mumble and a moan, before curling up tighter again. "Tigerpaw, it's sun-high! We've been here all night and morning! Get up, now!" Her voice was almost a shriek.

He was up and on his paws in an instance, eyes wild. "What?" He stammered, shaking his pelt out. His fur was tousled and tangled, and he looked completely bewildered. Then remembrance flooded into his eyes and he stared at Firepaw in a panic.

"We have to get back to camp!" She squeaked with horror- just imagining the trouble she would get into. "Wait! We can't go to camp at the same time… they'll get suspicious!"

"What do you mean!" Tigerpaw snapped, eyes narrowed.

What she didn't want to admit was that she was spending time with the dark brown tabby tom. She valued their… their, whatever kind of relationship they had, but she didn't want other cats to know about it. "I mean like…" She meowed slowly, trying to think of something on the spot. "if we go together, they'll think we went hunting together and rumors will fly all over the camp! They'll think we're going to be mates- which is weird, because we're related!"

The dark brown tabby tom coughed awkwardly. "Yeah, definitely weird." Then he gave her a firm nod. "Okay- you go back to camp first, I'll go catch like, a bird or something."

"Then they're going to think I'm stupid and I can't hunt!" Firepaw protested, arguing with him.

"No they wont!" Tigerpaw protested.

"Yes!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"No!"

That went on for a while. Firepaw finally heaved a sigh of exasperation and shouldered the dark brown tabby out of the way before dashing back to camp as fast as her legs could carry her. She panted with exhaustion but she tumbled into the camp, almost tripping over her own paws. To her great dismay- the whole clan had realized they were missing.

"Oh, Firepaw, thank StarClan!" Someone gasped as they saw her- Firepaw recognizing it as Bramblestar. The dark brown tabby tom's amber eyes were glittering with worry as he gazed at his daughter, and he wrapped his thick tail around her. She blinked in bewilderment, but she didn't stop him- even smiling a little bit. "Where did you go? Why did you run off?"

"I didn't run off!" Firepaw protested, trying to explain.

Then Tigerpaw burst into camp, a vole dangling from his jaws. He shot Firepaw a little smirk as he padded forward and dropped it onto the fresh-kill pile. Immediately, both of his parents darted forward to meet him. Cinderheart looked extremely worried while Lionblaze simply looked slightly curious and almost amused.

Bramblestar pulled away from her and yowled a greeting to the clan. "Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey gather around Highledge!" He waited for a moment, then his shoulders seemed to sag with relief. "I'm pleased to inform you that Firepaw and Tigerpaw are safe- and indeed just go off for a little bit by themselves."

Firepaw shot her father a glare- but she wasn't really mad. Him coming to greet her and act as if she were his daughter? How could she be mad after that. She was elated and desperately relieved!

He looked slightly amused. "Separately. They went separately." He swiftly added, but he didn't look as if he believed it. Before bounding down, Bramblestar opened his jaws to speak again. "Now, since we are still gathered, there is something I must do. Two cats have successfully passed their warrior's ceremony and are ready to become warriors. Seedpaw, Lilypaw, step forward."

Brackenfur's eyes glowed with pride as he looked at his daughters, but there was sadness in them too. The two daughters dashed forward, paws skimming across the ground.

"Poppyfrost, has Lilypaw trained hard and do you think she's ready to become a warrior?" Bramblestar inquired.

The tortoiseshell she-cat's eyes glowed as she stared down at her apprentice. "Lilypaw will be a fine warrior." Poppyfrost meowed affectionately.

"Bumblestripe, do you believe Seedpaw has trained hard and do you think she's ready to become a warrior?" Bramblestar asked.

"I do. She'll be a warrior that ThunderClan will be proud to have." Bumblestripe meowed as he gazed kindly down at his apprentice, his stripes rippling as he turned to face his apprentice.

"I, Bramblestar, leader of ThunderClan, call upon my warrior ancestors to look down on these apprentice. They have trained hard in the ways of your noble code, and I commend them to you a warrior in their turns." He meowed, eyes gleaming. "Lilypaw, Seedpaw, do you promise to uphold the warrior code and to protect and defend your clan, even at the cost of your life?"

Without any hesitation, Seedpaw boldly meowed, "I do."

"I do." Lilypaw's eyes glowed with excitement as she replied.

"Then by the powers of StarClan, I give you your warrior names. Seedpaw, from this moment you will be known as Seedpelt. StarClan honors your kindness and courage, and we welcome you as a full warrior of ThunderClan." Bramblestar announced, resting his muzzle on the newly named Seedpelt's head. She stretched upwards and rasped her tongue over his shoulder before withdrawing to the side of the clearing.

Then was Lilypaw. Her eyes were glowing with excitement as she stepped forward. "Lilypaw, from this moment you will be known as Lilyheart. StarClan honors your enthusiasm and bravery, and we welcome you as a full warrior of ThunderClan." The dark brown tabby rested his muzzle on her head, and she licked his shoulder as well. The two sisters drew to the side of the clearing, and ThunderClan erupted in cheers.

"Lilyheart! Seedpelt! Lilyheart! Seedpelt!" They called. Brackenfur was the loudest. Firepaw joined in, chanting softly but loud enough for other cats to hear her.

After the ceremony, Bramblestar bounded downwards and towards his daughter. "Are you okay, Firepaw?" He asked, swiftly checking wounds. She nodded mutely. Anxiety crackled between them as Firepaw turned to look for Squirrelflight, but the she-cat was talking happily with Owlpaw.

Firepaw's ears flattened against her head in defeat, her shoulders sagging as she slumped to the ground. She didn't want to ask her father, but she had to know. "Why is mother acting as if I'm invisible?" She mumbled, bewildered.

"She doesn't think your invisible!" Bramblestar protested, pressing against his daughter.

"Why did you treat me as if I were invisible?" Firepaw shot back at him, eyes narrowed. "Until I go and vanish- I'm invisible. Do you guys even care about me? Why is it always only Owlpaw."

Bramblestar sighed softly. "Oh, Firepaw." He meowed, reaching out his muzzle to touch her shoulder.

Firepaw moved away from his touch. "I need an answer, Bramblestar." She meowed tightly. "This is unfair to me, and I don't want to deal with this anymore. All I want are loving parents that will be proud of me- is that too much to ask?"

The dark brown tabby looked as if each word stung him sharper than a thorn, and his eyes glowed with actual pride and affection for Firepaw. "I've always been proud of you, Firepaw." He admitted. "When you opened your eyes- you were the first kit to do so. Such a beautiful green, exactly your mother's shade. Just a few sunrises ago, when you caught those two voles, that was a lot of prey for leaf-bare. Also, Cherryfall told me that recently you beat Spottedpaw in a mock-fight, and that your battle moves were coming along well. I was so proud." He shook his head, as if reliving the memories as he spoke.

"I'm sorry that I never told you how I felt. I was always wary of approaching you- you seemed to be so angry at us, both of us, all the time. I didn't want to destroy our relationship, so I stayed away." Bramblestar bowed his head. "I realize now that I'm wrong."

"Then why don't you ever tell me how you feel?" Firepaw hissed at him. "All this time I thought you guys hated me or something, but you said you were proud- do you know what its like to grow up without parents?"

Bramblestar settled down beside Firepaw, wrapping his tail around his paws. "I grew up without my father." He meowed softly. "You know who he was?" The ginger she-cat rolled her eyes. Probably some random cat. "Tigerstar." As soon as the name left his mouth, Firepaw sucked in a startled gasp. "My sister left to ShadowClan. My mother supported me- but I had to fight for my loyalty. It wasn't easy- my being a spitting image of the dark tom."

"You look exactly like Tigerpaw." Firepaw blurted, green eyes embarrassed.

The dark brown tabby tom smiled faintly, but his eyes were filled with bemusement. "Yeah, I realized." He held out a paw and glanced at his thick coat, and shrugged. "I don't know how that happened, but I guess it did." He shrugged. "Anyway, it was hard for me to grow up, but my mother supported me through it. Even if your mother doesn't support you right now, I will. Squirrelflight will come around sooner or later."

"But I want Squirrelflight's support right now." Firepaw meowed sadly, looking down at the ground. "Ever since I snuck out, she's been different. She's always all over Owlpaw, especially when I'm around."

Bramblestar scooted a little closer to Firepaw, wrapping his tail lightly around her. "She does love you, you know that right?" The ginger she-cat gave a mere shrug, looking helplessly up at her father. "Squirrelflight loves you so much. She is just dealing with some things right now."

"What things?" Firepaw mumbled, eyes round.

Bramblestar's bit his lip and he pulled away from his daughter. "It was nice talking to you, Firepaw. Remember- we do love you." The dark brown tabby rasped his tongue over Firepaw's ear, and then he padded away.

She looked around for her mentor, but Cherryfall didn't seem to be in the clearing. Firepaw heaved a sigh, feeling more lonely than ever.

"Hey." A certain dark brown tabby tom padded up to her, amber eyes dark as he watched Bramblestar leave.

Firepaw blinked reproachfully at him. "I don't want to talk to you."

"Your mentor isn't taking you out training, is she?" Tigerpaw guessed, ears twitching. "Blossomfall is calling me for the noon patrol- why don't you come with us?"

The ginger she-cat picked herself up, eyes narrowed. She gave him a firm nod however, and shouldered past him. But she could feel his quiver of excitement from behind her as she touched him- and she couldn't deny that she was pleased to be going out on patrol as well. Firepaw ran towards Blossomfall, Lionblaze and Birchfall. They greeted the two apprentices as if it were nothing strange about Firepaw coming along, and padded out of camp. Firepaw smiled at Tigerpaw- just a bit.