Chapter 15
Lionpaw stretched out and flexed his claws as the warm sun hit his golden tabby pelt. It seemed like moons since he had actually spent a good amount of time in camp. He bounded over to the fresh-kill pile and picked out a vole.
Looking around, he saw Jaypaw sitting and talking with Brook and Stormfur. He padded over to them. "What's up?" he asked them. Brook looked ecstatic and Stormfur looked proud and excited as well.
"I'm going to have kits!" Brook exclaimed with excitement.
"Brook, that's great!" Lionpaw meowed, congratulating the two cats. "When are they due?" he asked them.
"In almost three moons," Brook replied. She turned to Stormfur.
The two cats looked lovingly at each other and then bounded over to Graystripe who was coming in the camp with Dustpelt, Brackenfur and Hollypaw following him. Lionpaw saw Graystripe let out an excited meow.
He wondered if he would ever have kits. He shivered at the thought. Having to take care of tiny little mewling scraps didn't seem like the thing he would want. Having gotten the thought out of his head, he sat down beside his brother.
"Has Leafpool talked to you about getting your medicine cat name yet?" Lionpaw asked. Jaypaw nodded. "She's going to take me to the Moonpool tomorrow night," he mewed. Lionpaw froze.
"T-tomorrow night?" he asked. Jaypaw nodded slowly.
"Is that a problem?" he asked.
"No, of course not. I-I got to go and talk to Honeywing," he said. Before he could leave, Jaypaw called him back.
"You and Honeywing have gotten pretty close, huh?" Jaypaw meowed, his whiskers twitching with amusement.
Lionpaw felt blood rush to the tips of his ears. "No I haven't," he hissed. "We're just friends," he said. He saw Jaypaw give him a disbelieving stare, even though his eyes could not see.
"What? I don't. Honeywing is… just a cat. She's… not something that I would consider really important to me. Besides, how could I ever have feelings for her?" he said.
Jaypaw flicked his tail at a cat behind Lionpaw. He turned around and saw Honeywing standing there. His eyes widened. Lionpaw opened his mouth to say something, but for some reason he couldn't find the right words. He stumbled for something to say, but nothing came out.
"Honeywing I-" he stammered, but she said, "No it's okay. I-I understand," she mewed, looking down at her paws. "I guess I should go," she mewed, turning around and bounding out into the forest.
Lionpaw knew all too well he had hurt her. Why do you always do this, Lionpaw?! What's wrong with you? Honeywing has been your best friend for ages. How could you say you don't care about her? She's a great cat… skilled, kind, beautiful… wait, what am I saying? Get it together, Lionpaw! He thought to himself. He turned to Jaypaw as if to ask what to do.
"Don't look at me," he said. "Looks like you're going to have to handle this on your own, Lionpaw," Jaypaw meowed, turning and stalking to over to the medicine den.
Lionpaw sighed and wondered if he should go out to find Honeywing.
"If you ask me, I think Honeywing needs some time alone," meowed a voice from behind him. He turned around to see Brightheart meowed. She was sitting with Whitewing and Sorreltail. The other she-cats nodded in agreement.
He sighed and walked over to Cinderheart.
"Cinderheart, can I talk to you?" he asked.
The fluffy dark gray she-cat lifted her head from the boulder she was laying on. She jumped down in front of Lionpaw.
"Let me guess, it's about my sister," Cinderheart said, her whiskers twitching.
"Depends on which one," Lionpaw retorted.
"Come on, Lionpaw. I know you're talking about Honeywing," Cinderheart mewed. "What have you done to her this time?" Cinderheart inquired.
"What it that supposed to mean?" hissed Lionpaw.
"Lionpaw, you two have been friends forever and have been through a lot together. A lot of things have happened between you two," Cinderheart told him.
"Well… I kind of said that she wasn't important to me and that I could never have feelings for her," he told Cinderheart, looking down embarrassed and feeling guilty.
He suddenly felt something claw his ear. It didn't hurt, but it made his hiss. Cinderheart glared at him with such fury in her eyes.
"I guess I should be really sorry?" he said, shrinking back.
Cinderheart hissed, "Of course you should be! But not to me, for Honeywing! How could you ever say that she doesn't mean anything to you?"
Lionpaw looked down. "I just… didn't know what I was talking about. I didn't mean for it to sound as if I don't care about her at all. I love Honeywing… as a friend of course," he meowed.
"Then why did you say that?" Cinderheart asked.
"I don't know… Jaypaw was going off on how it looked as though I was in love with her and I'm not," he meowed.
"I don't love her like that," he mewed to himself.
There was suddenly a voice in the back of his head. It wasn't his voice, but a voice that he didn't know
Who are you trying to convince, Lionpaw?