Unfortunately, although the rest of her Clanmates finally had the sense to stop spreading rumors about her and Thistleclaw, Lilyspark still had one lingering issue to deal with. For whatever reason, the spiky-furred warrior refused to halt his pursuit of her...whatever it was that he wanted from her. Try as she might, she couldn't figure out why he was suddenly so interested in her.
Regardless of his reasoning, however, the fact remained that she could barely get a moment of peace from him.
"Alright there, Lilyspark?" Thistleclaw meowed, padding up to her as she was sharing a squirrel with Bluefur and Lionheart.
"What do you want, Thistleclaw?" Lilyspark asked testily as Bluefur and Lionheart glared at him.
"Just thought I'd stop by and say hello. Where's the harm in that?" he asked smoothly, and she wanted nothing more than to vomit (preferably all over his oversized paws). "Mind if I sit down? What are you eating?"
"Yes, I do mind, and food, generally," she replied, taking another bite out of her squirrel.
Thistleclaw shook his head. "I meant what are you having right now? Like, specifically?"
"An unwanted conversation," Lilyspark meowed, not even bothering to look up.
"No, I meant–"
"Give it a rest, Thistleclaw," Bluefur snapped. "She doesn't want to talk to you. What's so hard for you to understand about that?"
Thistleclaw glared furiously at the blue-gray molly, but even he knew better than to test both her and Lilyspark's patience. Whirling around, he stormed off toward the camp entrance, snapping something at Goldenflower as he nearly collided with the golden-furred warrior. Lilyspark stared after him, bewilderment making her mind swirl, then shook her head and went back to her meal. As confused as she was, she didn't have the energy to deal with her Clanmate's strange behavior. Whatever was going on with Thistleclaw, he would just have to figure it out for himself.
"You'd think he'd have learned his lesson by now," her sister remarked, looking as exasperated as Lilyspark felt. "How many times are you going to have to reject him for the message to sink in?"
"Tell me about it," Lilyspark agreed, shaking her head. "Then again, what else do you expect from toms?"
"Hey!" Lionheart protested.
"Not you, Lionheart, you're special," she meowed, flicking her friend affectionately over the shoulder with her tail. She shook her head. "But really, if I had a mouse for every time I asked myself what that arrogant mouse-brain is up to, I'd have enough fresh-kill to feed the entire Clan for the next six seasons."
Meowing a quick goodbye to her sister and her best friend, Lilyspark stood up and padded toward the camp entrance, hoping for a bit of time to relax and maybe hunt for a while. It had been a while since Thistleclaw left, and she felt fairly confident that she wouldn't run into the gray and white warrior. Unfortunately, she was quickly proven wrong when, upon pushing her way through the thorn barrier, she was greeted by the sight of him loitering around just outside the camp entrance.
"Lilyspark!" Thistleclaw exclaimed.
"Not you again!" she groaned. "What are you even doing here? You left ages ago!"
"I was going to leave, but I remembered that you always like going hunting after you finish eating, so I decided to wait," he explained.
"Oh," Lilyspark meowed, not knowing what else to say. How did he know her habits so well?
"So...do you want to go hunting together?" the spiky-furred tom offered. "We'd catch a lot more prey for the Clan if we work together."
"What makes you think I would want to go hunting with you?" she asked irritably. "We're not even friends!"
She hoped that by rejecting him so harshly, she would anger him enough to convince him to give up on her. Unfortunately, rather than losing his temper, Thistleclaw simply averted his gaze. Lilyspark stared at him. If she hadn't known any better, she would have thought that he was embarrassed. That would have been quite a sight to see if it weren't for the fact that Thistleclaw never got embarrassed about anything. He simply didn't have the emotional capacity.
"Well...I guess, but...we could try?" he offered, flashing her a hopeful look.
"Why would we do that?" Lilyspark asked, honestly bewildered. What game is he playing at now? Since when does he care about being my friend?
At the question, Thistleclaw looked even more embarrassed. "Well, I just figured...I mean, we're supposed to be Clanmates, right? So we should do our best to try to get along. We need to present a unified front to the other Clans. It makes us look stronger."
Lilyspark didn't answer at first, pondering over his words in her mind. In fairness, what he said wasn't entirely unreasonable. It would be best if they tried to get along, if not for their own sake, then at least for the sake of keeping their weaknesses hidden from their enemies. Yet still...
"If you're so concerned about presenting a unified front," she began slowly. "Then why aren't you also trying to make amends with Bluefur?"
Thistleclaw flicked his tail dismissively. "She's not important right now. I'm asking you to be my friend, not her."
"Watch it," Lilyspark growled, feeling a flash of anger. "That's my sister you're talking about. Don't tell me she's not important."
"I–I apologize," Thistleclaw stammered. "I only meant that I'm only concerned with asking you to be my friend right now."
Silence fell between the two warriors for a few heartbeats. Lilyspark still didn't know what to say. In the few moons since Snowfur had died, Thistleclaw had gone from despising the ground she walked on to suddenly wanting to befriend her. She knew he had to have an ulterior motive of some sort, but she couldn't figure out what it might be.
"I don't understand you, Thistleclaw," she meowed finally. "You've hated me ever since we were kits, and I don't think I need to tell you that I'm not exactly your biggest supporter either. We've been Clanmates for seasons, but you've never even tried to make friends with me before. What made you decide to do it now?"
"I told you. I want–"
"No," Lilyspark interrupted, narrowing her eyes at the older cat. "Give me the real reason, not your heap of fox dung about 'wanting to present a unified front'."
For a few heartbeats, he remained silent, and she began to wonder if he would answer her at all. Finally, he looked her in the eye and replied softly, "I like you."
Whatever answer she had been expecting, it certainly hadn't been that. Lilyspark stared at him, unable to form a coherent thought, much less say anything in response. Thistleclaw seemed to take her silence as an invitation to expound on his confession.
"You're a great cat, Lilyspark, really," he meowed quietly, staring at her in a way that made her pelt prickle uncomfortably. It wasn't necessarily a threatening look, but even so, she would rather he look at anyone else besides her with it. "You're an amazing cat...you're brave, strong, funny, and you've got a tongue sharper than my claws. I've liked you for a while now, actually. I know we haven't always gotten along, but–"
"Thistleclaw, no," Lilyspark interrupted, finally finding her voice. She didn't know where all of this was coming from, but she wasn't going to let it continue. "I'm sorry, but you're deluding yourself. You don't like me."
"I'm not. I know this is out of nowhere, trust me," Thistleclaw urged her, and she suppressed a snort at the understatement. "But I really do like you. I...I think I might even feel the same way about you that I did about Snowfur. If you would only give me a chance..."
"I don't know how you can even say that!" she burst out, and she wasn't entirely sure where her sudden rage was coming from, but it was all she could do not to rake her claws over the gray and white tom's ears. "You hate me. And I hate you. That's how it's always been. How can you sit there and tell me that you feel the same way about me that you did about Snowfur? Is this your idea of a joke? Because if it is, it ends now, understood?"
She finished her tirade, panting slightly and glaring at the spiky-furred tom. Who did he think he was, messing with her mind like this? It was ridiculously obvious that he didn't actually like her–how could he? Nobody went from despising someone to suddenly liking them as quickly as he apparently had. Quite frankly, she found it insulting that he thought she would be foolish enough to believe him.
But that wasn't the worst of it. Thistleclaw was trying to confess to her when he had been mates with her sister. They had a family together. Even if she had returned his feelings, Lilyspark would never have even dreamed of betraying Snowfur like that.
Besides, while it was certainly well within Thistleclaw's right to find a new mate, Snowfur had been dead for two moons.
"Lilyspark, I love you," he meowed softly.
"No. You. Don't," she snarled, pure fury bubbling up inside of her and burning her pelt. "You don't love me. You could never love me. I doubt you even loved Snowfur, judging by how easily you seem to have forgotten about her. Do you have any loyalty in you at all?"
"Lilyspark–" Thistleclaw protested, but she cut him off.
"The sad part is that for whatever reason, she loved you more than anything. When she found out that she was going to have your kits, I've never seen her so happy. I don't think I need to tell you that I didn't approve of your relationship, but even I'm not going to deny that. But I guess she never meant as much to you as you did to her." Lilyspark shook her head. "I'm going hunting now. And don't you dare try to follow me, Thistleclaw. Go away. Go away and leave me alone."
Without waiting for a response, she flashed him one last contemptuous look before turning around and padding off into the forest.