"Bluepaw, Snowpaw, come in and meet your new sister."

Bluepaw pushed her way into the nursery after Snowpaw, walking slowly over to her mother's nest. Sunfall was seated beside her, a proud gleam in his amber eyes. As she padded closer, she spotted a tiny bundle of white fur at Moonflower's belly. Her heart softened at the sight of the little molly. She looked almost exactly like Snowpaw, except her ears were pure white instead of gray.

"She's so pretty," Bluepaw whispered.

"Of course," Speckletail purred from a few nests away where her own kits, Lionkit and Goldenkit, were busy suckling. "All newborn kits are lovely, and any child of Moonflower's is sure to be beautiful."

"What's her name?" Snowpaw asked.

"We've decided to name her Lilykit," Moonflower answered, touching her nose to her newborn daughter's ear. Lilykit gave a small mewl of protest and snuggled closer to the tabby queen.

"When will she open her eyes?" Bluepaw asked, still looking down at her newborn sister.

"Patience, my sweet," Moonflower meowed gently. "She'll open her eyes in her own time."

A few nests away, Poppydawn shook her head. "That's the same thing your mother said when you were born, Bluepaw."

Bluepaw nodded, vaguely remembering her second day in ThunderClan. Swiftbreeze had been pestering her mother as to why she hadn't opened her eyes yet, and Moonflower had scolded her, saying that Bluepaw–Bluekit then–would open her eyes when she was ready. She looked down at Lilykit, wondering how long it would be until her sister woke up. It had taken her and Snowpaw about two days to wake up, so perhaps it would be the same for Lilykit. According to Swiftbreeze, Leopardpaw and Patchpaw had opened their eyes almost as soon as they were born, but Bluepaw wasn't sure she believed that story.

Thistlekit bounded over to take a look at his new denmate, nearly knocking Bluepaw over as he ran past her. She scowled at the younger cat, giving her chest fur a few licks. Although Thistlekit had only just reached his sixth moon–Poppydawn expected that Pinestar would hold her kits' apprentice ceremony within the next few days–he was already bigger than Bluepaw. His two sisters, Rosekit and Sweetkit, were considerably smaller than their massive littermate. Bluepaw sometimes suspected that Thistlekit stole their milk.

"She looks tiny," the spiky tom meowed, staring down at Lilykit.

"That's because she was just born," Moonflower told him patiently. "She'll grow."

Thistlekit puffed up his chest. "Well, I'll bet she'll never be as big as me."

Snowpaw purred. "Of course, not," she meowed, giving the gray and white kit a friendly nudge.

Bluepaw rolled her eyes and opened her mouth to remark that there was more to a warrior than size but was cut off as Moonflower let out a soft gasp. Turning her head, she saw that Lilykit had opened her eyes. They were a deep blue, but Bluepaw knew from watching Thistlekit, Rosekit, and Sweetkit grow that the color might change within a moon. The little white molly turned to look at the cats surrounding her, curiosity filling her expression.

"Hello, little one," Moonflower purred, licking her daughter's ears gently.

"Hello!" Lilykit meowed cheerfully. She looked around at Sunfall. "Who's that?"

"I'm your father, Sunfall," the ThunderClan deputy answered kindly. Gesturing with his tail towards Bluepaw and Snowpaw, he continued, "And these are your sisters, Bluepaw and Snowpaw."

Lilykit climbed out of Moonflower's nest and hopped over to stand in front of Bluepaw, gazing up at her with wide, curious eyes. Bluepaw purred and touched her nose to her sister's forehead. Snowpaw touched her tail gently to Lilykit's shoulder, her eyes shining with excitement.

"Hi, Bluepaw, hi Snowpaw," Lilykit meowed happily. "Are you two really my sisters?"

"Yes, we are," Bluepaw replied.

"Cool!" the white kit exclaimed.

"I'm Rosekit." Bluepaw moved aside to allow the ginger-tailed molly to greet Lilykit.

"My name's Sweetkit," Sweetkit introduced herself. "And that's our brother, Thistlekit."

Lilykit's eyes widened at the sight of the older kits. "Wow, you guys are really big!"

"That's because we're going to become apprentices in a few days," Thistlekit told her haughtily. "We'll be moving to the apprentices' den with Snowpaw and Bluepaw and we're going to train to become warriors."

"Are they going to teach you how to groom properly too?" Lilykit asked innocently.

Bluepaw fought back a snort of laughter as Thistlekit's jaw dropped open in shock. Rosekit and Sweetkit were doubled over in hysterics while Snowpaw looked torn between laughing and comforting Thistlekit. Moonflower, Poppydawn, and Sunfall shook their heads. Lilykit looked around at the older cats, her eyes filled with confusion.

"What did I say?" she asked.

Poppydawn sighed. "Thistlekit's fur is groomed, little one," she explained patiently. "His fur just sticks up more than other cats'."

"Oh...sorry," Lilykit apologized to the older kit.

However, Thistlekit just sneered at her and stormed back over to his nest. Bluepaw frowned after him, annoyed at the spiky-furred kit's behavior. Her sister hadn't been trying to hurt his feelings, and besides, she had apologized. Why couldn't he just accept it? It wasn't as though she had said anything particularly hurtful. She probably hadn't even meant anything by it.

"Alright, Lilykit," Moonflower murmured. "It's time for you to take a nap."

Bluepaw knew that was her cue to leave. Meowing a quick farewell to her family, she turned away and pushed her way out of the nursery. A heartbeat later, Snowpaw joined her and the two sisters headed over to the fresh-kill pile to grab a piece of prey to share. Finally settling on a large thrush, Bluepaw took her meal over to the mossy stump where the apprentices ate, casting a glance at Stormtail near the warriors' den as she walked past.

The blue-gray tom hadn't spoken to Moonflower since she left Goosefeather's den and often went out of his way to avoid crossing paths with her. Moonflower herself didn't care, and Sunfall suspected that Stormtail was simply too ashamed of his behavior to face his former mate. As for Bluepaw, she took after Moonflower in that she didn't particularly care. Once, she would have pleaded with StarClan to make Stormtail want to be around his family, but those days were gone. After the way he had so callously abandoned Moonflower for Dappletail, Bluepaw had stopped considering Stormtail her father. Instead, that honor went to Sunfall, her mother's new mate–and Bluepaw's new mentor as well.

During the raid against WindClan, Stonepelt had sustained an injury that never quite healed properly. As a result of this, he was forced to move into the elders' den since he could no longer hunt or fight properly. Bluepaw had been given Sunfall as a new mentor, and not long after that, he and Moonflower had officially become mates. Sometimes, Bluepaw suspected that Pinestar had purposely named the deputy her mentor to try to get the two of them together.

Taking a seat beside Snowpaw, the blue-gray molly took a bite out of the thrush and chewed contentedly. She had a new little sister, her mother was alive and well, and she was on her way to earning her warrior name. The only thing that promised to put a damper on her happiness was Thistlekit. Bluepaw felt her lip curl at the memory of the spiky-furred tom's treatment of Lilykit. Snowpaw glanced over at her in concern.

"What's wrong?" she asked. "You look upset about something."

"It's Thistlekit," Bluepaw admitted, lashing her tail. "Can you believe how rude he was to Lilykit earlier?"

Snowpaw flicked her ear. "Well, Lilykit did insult him," she pointed out.

"Yeah, but I'm sure she didn't mean anything by it, though. Kits say stuff like that all the time," Bluepaw retorted. "And besides, she said she was sorry, but that apparently wasn't good enough. What more does Thistlekit expect anyway?"

"I know that it wasn't mature of him," her sister agreed, shifting about awkwardly. "But maybe Thistlekit was just in a bad mood. Or maybe he's just sensitive. He'll probably get over it sooner or later."

Bluepaw just grunted in agreement and took another bite out of her thrush. She admired Snowpaw's willingness to see the best in others, she really did, but she had a feeling that her impression of Thistlekit wasn't about to change anytime soon.

Lilykit is here! Bluepaw is already very protective of her baby sister. But then again, who wouldn't want to protect the babies? Well...except for Brokenstar, that is.

I've also started setting the scene for the dynamics between Lilykit and Thistlekit. Will they be friends? Spoiler alert...well, not really because the answer is probably obvious, but...no. No, they will not. However, I do have several plans for them in the future (and no, they are not going to become mates).

Thanks for reading!

-TheShadowedWarrior