Disclaimer: I don't own the Warriors series!

Title: Berry Paint

Summary: Stories of four warriors- one from each Clan- who're a bit off from the others, sexuality and/or gender wise.

Chapter Title: Sandpaw (Lightpaw)

...

MagaNerd- I saw it differently, but that's me. =)

PerfectlyClearly- She's certainly not about to sink her claws in and hold on for dear life.

Pikawarriorcat- Every chapter has some development in it, mind you.

...

Sandpaw shifted his nest to the side a bit to gently claw at the dirt beneath the edge, opening up a small hollow which was empty, save for some dried purple splotches. The apprentice's tail lashed in disappointment.

Rain had plagued ThunderClan in recent days, soaking everything and anything and generally lowering morale. Sandpaw's pelt had washed clean; first of paint, then of the stains, and finally of the dry dust. He looked at his bare yellow paws with a sniff of disdain.

"You look unhappy." Crypaw commented. The gray tom was curled up in a tight ball, eyes closed. Sandpaw doubted he'd so much as looked at him.

"How can you tell?"

"You're twitchy. Want me to go fetch you some prey?"

He watched Crypaw flick an ear as a drop of water landed on his forehead. He'd bet a moon of hunts he was only half-awake. "No, thanks. I'm fine."

"Okay."

Rowanpaw growled and stretched, pointedly kicked his littermate in the process. "Hush."

"Who died and made you Clan leader?" Nutpaw's tail flicked from her corner of the den.

"If he's Clan leader," Crypaw mused, "then I suppose it'd have to be Barkstar."

"Don't say that!" Brownpaw wailed, eyes flashing. "Barkstar's a strong tom. He'll outlive all of us, just you watch."

Sandpaw forced himself to stand, staring into the muddy clearing with no real excitement. "My berry stock is empty. I'll go collect more."

"Face it, Sandpaw." Rowanpaw meowed, rolling his eyes. "There aren't any left. It's too close to Leaf-bare."

At this point, it was less about finding any and more about being alone. "It doesn't hurt to check."

Despite the pouring water and general chill in the air, signaling sad times ahead, there was something freeing about Sandpaw pushing his way through the undergrowth that lifted his spirits.

I've already checked close to camp, Sandpaw thought without stopping. So I should have a look near the borders this time.

Keeping close to the treeline, Sandpaw creeped along, watchful of patrols. Rain washed away markers and made cats testy, and Sandpaw didn't want to push his luck.

A rustling from above was his only warning before clumsy paws landed on his shoulders, squishing him to the ground. Sandpaw felt something familiar ooze into the fur on his back, saw a flash of tail, which he promptly clamped in his teeth, heard a yowl and tasted mud and fish on his tongue.

Sandpaw's attacker smushed a branch of berries- not very ripe, he noticed with a practiced eye, a small splash of it creasing the fur under his eye- and ripped the appendage free with a snarl. Sandpaw glanced at the offering, then looked at the cat cleaning blood from its tail, fur almost a translucent color in the gloom.

"I brought gifts." They said.

"Lightpaw?" Sandpaw buried his nose in her fur to affirm his theory. It was Lightpaw.

He'd never seen her completely clean before, although the steady downpour had made sure of that. Plastered to her skin, she almost looked like a cloud, she was such a bright blonde, and her blue eyes weren't as farfetched as he once thought.

Lightpaw flinched, and he drew back. With her pelt damp and uncurled, and his barren of any paint, they were both practically naked. "Thought it was you." She said. "But I had to make sure. Without any of your pretty stuff, it's hard to tell."

"So you pounced on me?"

Lightpaw rolled her eyes. "I fell. Duh."

"Fell my tail!"

"More like mine." She returned.

"That was a ThunderClan move. You tried to attack me with a ThunderClan move!"

Lightpaw bared her teeth. "What's the matter? Afraid a RiverClan cat can do it better?"

"I know you can't. I'm lucky you didn't accidentally break my spine." Sandpaw cocked his head to the side. "Not that I'm not happy to see you, but what are you doing here, anyway?"

The yellow-white she-cat shrugged. "I like climbing trees. Most RiverClan cats don't, but I do."

He twitched his whiskers curiously, but Lightpaw trotted over and sunk her claws into the bark, testing it, before slowly pulling herself onto the first branch.

"You think leaders ever get dizzy?" She asked. "Since they're always hanging off the top of stuff."

"Maybe." He admitted, climbing up after her. Before them stretched the wide-open space that led to the ShadowClan territories. "But that just makes them braver for doing it."

Lightpaw's tail swished. "Rosepaw is a warrior now. Applestar named her Rosetuft."

The emptiness to her words made Sandpaw's belly twist. He hoped Rowanpaw and Crypaw wouldn't be too mad when he, Nutpaw, and Brownpaw got their names first. "Tell her congratulations for me."

"She wants to share nests."

"That's nice of her."

Lightpaw sighed, shoulders slumping. "I'm a coward." She told him, claws digging into the wood. "I thought, if I could just make it to warrior, I would be happy in RiverClan. All my problems would just go away. I just needed to be brave, and hold on."

Sandpaw's whiskers twitched. He was always a little uncertain as to what to say to Lightpaw when she was like this; he was truly blessed by StarClan, compared to her. "We're still 'paws for another moon." He pointed out uneasily.

"And nothing's changed. I'm tired, Sandpaw. I don't want to live where I'm not wanted anymore." She looked at him pleadingly, eyes bright with hope. "Do you think I could live here?"

He almost fell out of the tree. "In ThunderClan?"

"In ThunderClan." She agreed. "I know... they'll never trust me. Not really. And I'll have to start training all over again. But you'll be there, and that one other apprentice."

"Nutpaw?"

"Yeah, her. She didn't seem to mind me."

For a moment, the sun sinking in the distance, he honestly wanted to say yes. Sandpaw had never had any littermates, although Nutpaw and Brownpaw were close to it, and they looked so much alike when they weren't drenched and clinging to the limb of a tree.

Lightpaw would never laugh at them for needing space. She always needed space.

"On one condition." He heard himself saying. "You spend one night with me inside ThunderClan territory."

Her eyes narrowed. "We'd be caught, and then cats would start spinning tales of cross-border mating."

Sandpaw was fairly sure that, if Lightpaw ever did find a mate, it wouldn't be a tom like him. It might not be a tom at all. "I'm willing to take that chance. Are you?"

"Alright, Sandpaw." She shook out her soggy pelt, to no real avail, and leapt to the grass below. "I'll call your bluff. Lead on."

He found them a little hollow in the trees a few fox-lengths into the trees and instructed her to wait inside while he found them something to eat, returning with a water-logged sparrow.

Lightpaw systematically kneaded the ground with her claws, ears perked warily. "It's so loud here." She meowed finally. "But it's also quiet. Like it's missing something."

"What?"

"I don't know. A sound."

Sandpaw gently pushed the prey over. "The river, you think?"

"Yeah." She mumbled, in a sort of daze. "The river."

Sandpaw woke up the next morning to find himself alone. For a brief moment, he feared Lightpaw had snuck away to speak to Barkstar herself, but she didn't know how to reach the camp alone, and she wouldn't trust the dawn patrol.

He followed her faint scent (she'd probably waited until these conditions, he thought, simply so she could sneak out without fear of being tracked) and found her rolling in the open grass, trying to shake off claustrophobia.

"I thought this might happen." He sighed, feeling his hopes whither.

"It was only my first night." She argued, gnawing at an itchy spot along her back. "Give it time. You'll see."

"We don't have time." Sandpaw stated, prodding her with his paw to make sure she took heed. "Lightpaw, listen. Maybe you're right about RiverClan. I don't know your Clan like you do. But, even if you don't belong in RiverClan, you belong by the river. You'd never be comfortable here."

Lightpaw's features were a mask of hurt. "Don't you want me here?"

"Of course I do!" He nuzzled her throat with a hoarse purr. Sandpaw hoped he hadn't doomed them both to illness, sleeping outside the camp in the middle of a storm. "But I want you to be happy more."

The she-cat faltered, then stopped, ears lowering with resignation. Mud was splattered against her back and legs, and he'd carefully splashed a stripe of purple across his side with the berries she'd given him; they looked like themselves again. She looked like his Gathering-buddy again. "Okay. If you're sure."

"I am." He nodded.

"Thanks, then, I guess. For trying." She awkwardly turned to look at the territories beyond as though they were strange and new. "I'll... go back to RiverClan. For now, at least."

"Rosetuft will be excited to see you." He tried, hoping to smooth things over between them.

She snorted derisively. "Rosetuft is excited when the sun rises. We'll see how long it lasts."

"We'll see." He echoed. Lightpaw quietly lumbered away, tail low, almost dragging the ground.

Author's Note: Sandpaw's time for pain will come. Just you wait. I think the only one of them who's been through pain and is now completely at peace is Hoptail. And he's almost an elder.

-Mandaree1