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They said she was too good to get tangled up with a tom like him. She had her life in order, and she was ready to become a great warrior that her Clan could be proud of—but life is a funny thing, and sometimes it has something better in mind.


Author's Note: I didn't want to wait, so here you go, guys. I think you'll like this one. c;


Turning Tables


Nimblepaw felt a strange sense of pride that Trenchpaw appeared to trust her not just to speak his mind, but to also show how he felt. She embraced the feeling of his head resting on her shoulder, and she made no move to get back up to head back to camp. She was perfectly content to just sit like they had in the stream not long ago, although she couldn't help slipping in a small joke. "I bet you're procrastinating as long as you can so you don't have to run around collecting herbs," she chuckled.

"Mmmmm..." Trenchpaw hummed, as though actually considering her words. "…maybe."

Mindlessly sheathing and unsheathing her claws into the dirt, Nimblepaw almost missed the small shudder that came from the tom. Curious, she glanced at him. "Are you cold?" She briefly thought that moving closer would allow her to share body heat, but then she remembered that part of her fur was still damp.

"I'm not cold," he said after a moment. "I was just thinking about something." he meowed as he moved his head away. She wondered, for a moment, if she had offended him somehow, but from the look he gave her, it seemed like he was just trying to get comfortable. That didn't stop her from feeling a bit awkward, though.

"You wouldn't think that the stream would be so cold during greenleaf," she said hesitantly.

"I wonder why that is," he responded slowly, but for the most part, didn't give her much to work with. His gaze, however, slowly moved from her to the sky, and growing curious, she followed it, and noticed that it was growing darker with oncoming rain. It was still a good distance away, but if they were going to get anything done, it would be best not to wait around.

"I think we should head back and see what herbs we have to find," she suggested, standing up to stretch her legs. She grinned slightly as she felt the hesitation melt away in favor of her more confident persona. "Any other time I would be fine with sitting out in the rain, but I'm not up for searching for herbs when the ground is soaked. I'd rather not repeat having my paws stuck in the mud."

"Yeah, that makes sense," he agreed. Nimblepaw smiled with amusement when Trenchpaw flicked his tail for her to follow him, even though they were close enough to camp for her to know where to go.

From the number of times she had spent time with Trenchpaw, the she-cat was now starting to understand more of the little things he did—especially how he could grow embarrassed over certain things that she pretended not to notice as to not make him feel weird about it. But he made her feel strange too, and so she thought it couldn't hurt to be honest. Since it didn't seem like he was going to say anything, she decided to throw caution to the wind herself.

Trotting forward to catch up with him, her tail lightly flicked his nose as she moved in front to lead. "You're kinda cute when you're flustered." She let out a soft, light-hearted laugh as she moved at a faster pace ahead of him, putting more distance between the two.

She didn't regret it, and Nimblepaw found that the smile and the slight blush she wore had yet to leave her face. For once, she was oddly okay with it and didn't see much reason to try and hide it. She only started slowing down and allowing him to catch up when they neared the camp. When she moved through the entrance it didn't appear as if she had been running at all, and taking a deep breath—for more reasons than one—she stopped to wait for Trenchpaw.

When he finally entered, he gave her nothing more than a short, fleeting glance to tell her he was embarrassed. It gave her a small sense of satisfaction to know that it was her doing, and did well with holding in her laughter as Trenchpaw disappeared into the medicine den.

She didn't hear the whole conversation, but she managed to catch Mumblefall's hurried words and Trenchpaw's biting reply. She almost felt bad for the medicine cat—he was their age, and at that, fairly young to be handling his duties all by himself. Despite the fact that the skittish tom had trained with them for at least a moon, she knew that Trenchpaw had never really liked him. She didn't mean to, but she couldn't help but compare it to how he had treated her. The differences were striking, and made her feel strange all over again.

She had to push the memories down quickly in order to address Trenchpaw as he approached her once more, still appearing confused, but for a completely different reason. "Okay, so we have to look for a fuzzy blue-flowered herb and a sweet white-flowered one..." he trailed off, meeting her amber gaze with something akin to a pleading look.

"Are you sure?" she asked, cocking her head as the amusement returned. "You don't sound so sure." She could only imagine the clueless expression Trenchpaw must have worn while speaking to Mumblefall about the herbs. She couldn't claim to be any better, as she chose to become a warrior for a reason, but she could at least give it a shot and see if she could offer assistance towards finding them.

"I'm..." he began, and then sighed, "No, I'm not sure."

"I've seen a blue-flowered herb in quite a few places," Nimblepaw said, recalling the time when she and Raggedstar had toured their territory. "It shouldn't be that hard to find."

"Too difficult my tail," the tabby tom grumbled after she had finished, and she was almost surprised at his boldness. "I'm pretty sure you don't know any more than I do with herbs. All the plants look the same too. Green. How are we going to find any tiny flowers?"

Well… she had to agree with him on that. She probably didn't have any more knowledge of herbs than he did. But she was willing to try and help him out, wasn't she? That counted for something, didn't it?

"It also looks like it's going to rain really soon," Trenchpaw continued. "We should hurry before we…" The tom stopped speaking abruptly and gave a small cough, and Nimblepaw knew what he would say before he actually said it. "…get stuck in the rain again."

Nimblepaw tried to remain optimistic, and it came a little easier when she exploited the joy that came with teasing her companion. "Do you not like the rain?" she asked him, looking quite innocent, but the gleam of amusement in her eyes told otherwise.

He lowered his head quickly. "No, no… uh, rain is fine." The tom shot her a quick glance before setting off.

She kept up with him while her eyes set themselves the forest, her mind slowly settling on the task at hand. "I know that there are some ferns up ahead. You can see if that has any white flowers." She knew well enough from exploring the territory where different types of herbs were, but StarClan knows if she could ever put a name on any of them.

He sped up the pace, and it took a moment for Nimblepaw to catch up, but when she did, she was met with a predictably frustrated Trenchpaw. "Are you sure you can find them with ferns?" he called over the patch where she came to stop.

"Yes, just grab some." Nimblepaw rolled her eyes. Neither of them had no idea what they were doing. "Mumblefall can figure it out easy enough. If we grab a few of these something has to be useful." She nosed at part of the plant, noticing as well that while it might have been fern-like, there weren't any white flowers that would give it away. Everything looks the same…

"Are you sure about that?" he questioned her, but Nimblepaw simply went on with her task, allowing him to spew out questions as he saw fit. As expected, he came up with another not a second later. "Uhhh... what kind of soil do the plants with white flowers grow in?"

Eventually, Nimblepaw snorted, peering around the ferns to make eye contact with him. "I seem to be recalling something a foolish apprentice mentioned to me right before we left camp. I think it went something like..." Deepening her voice, she quoted, "I'm pretty sure you don't know any more than I do with herbs." She gave him a cheeky look. "Now, I'm not sure who said that, but it couldn't be the same tom asking me what kind of soil plants with white flowers grow in." Her lifted brow showed just how much sarcasm she intended to use.

Trenchpaw stared at her, the surprise clear in his eyes. When she heard shuffling once more, she assumed he had just accepted her answer and went back to searching. That was why when she felt his breath on her ear, she nearly jumped out of her fur and turned to face him immediately.

He stood tall, her head barely meeting his chin as blue eyes peered down into amber. In that moment, with the silence stretching on, she could almost feel what he must have felt all the times she teased him. Leaning closer, the tom brushed her muzzle as he inspected her face. "Mock me again and..." Trenchpaw paused, and Nimblepaw held her breath as he stretched forward…

…and licked the tip of her nose.

"...well, you'll just find out."

Oh, had the tables turned.