Part Two

"Watch this, Dewstrike!"

"No, no, no! Don't watch him, watch me, Dewstrike!"

Dewstrike watched on in amusement as the two kits playfully wrestled with each other on the nursery floor.

Oakkit's distinctive light-brown pelt seemed to easily sink into the ground, camouflaging him. If it weren't for the fact that his sister, Petalkit, was lying on top of him, then Dewstrike would have dismissed the kit as a mere spot on the ground.

Frostbreath's kits were nearly six moons now, and they would be apprenticed soon- but to who, Dewstrike had no idea.

Maybe it would be himself, though he quickly dismissed that thought.

After all, it was incredibly rare for an apprentice's own kin to mentor them.

Dewstrike knew that he was the only recent exception- not that he knew exactly why it was so.

The kits on the ground continued squealing, and when Dewstrike had had enough, he cleared his throat and cut in.

"I think that's enough for now, kits," he said dryly, and a smirk came over his face when Oakkit and his sister began to immediately protest. "Besides, it's way past your bedtime. Who knows what your parents will say if you're still awake when they get back."

"But, Dewstrike!" Oakkit whined. "I don't wanna!"

"Yeah," Petalkit added. "We're not tired."

Dewstrike rolled his eyes. "That's what you always say when I wound up babysitting you lot. Pinefoot won't be too happy if you're still up, and Frostbreath will make you sleep anyway. So don't even think of disrupting her rest. And I'm tired, too. So, when they get back from the Gathering, I'll make my own way out."

"You only want to leave so you can see Cherryshine," Oakkit mewed, and when Dewstrike glanced at him sharply, the kit's amber eyes were innocent.

"What?" the kit questioned, and when he continued glaring at him, Oakkit squeaked. "S-Stop looking at me like that, Dewstrike! Besides, I meant what I said! You really do want to see Cherryshine, don't you?"

Dewstrike sighed. "Of course I do," he muttered, gazing at his sister's spawn wearily.

"Because you love her, don't you?" Petalkit piped in sweetly, her lips pulled into a devious grin.

"Yeah," he answered, immediately on the defensive. Whenever Petalkit got a look like that on her face, it always spelled for trouble.

"And you want to have kits with her, right?" Oakkit suddenly tossed in, and when he only nodded somewhat hesitantly, the kit grinned a grin that lit up the entirety of his face. "Then do it, Dewstrike! 'Cause me and Petalkit don't wanna be the only kits in the nursery anymore! We really wanna have someone else to play with besides each other. And what better way than to have more kits? It'll solve all of our problems."

Dewstrike flushed, and he glared intensely at the unaffected kit below him. "Mouse-brain," he snapped. "You can't just ask someone that out of the blue! Besides, just whose problem would this solve? Because, as far as I know, Cherryshine isn't sure if she wants to have kits at the current time."

Oakkit wasn't in the least bit intimidated, and he continued to grin, eventually dissolving into a smile that dimpled the corners of his lips. "Whose problems does it solve?" the kit snickered at the question. "Mine and Petalkit's, duh! And yours, too," he added when Dewstrike glowered down at him. "We want someone else to play with, and you want kits. So, when the kits come, then everything we want will have come true!" Oakkit beamed at the end of his little speech, all the while Dewstrike continued to glare down at him with an unimpressed look on his face.

"No need to look so grumpy, Dewstrike," Petalkit giggled. "We were only joking."

"No, we weren't," Oakkit protested, and immediately, his sister turned to him and the pair began to argue.

"Yes, we were!" Petalkit mewed sharply.

"No, we weren't!" Oakkit shouted. "We were not joking!"

When their voices began to rise in the midst of their cries, Dewstrike decided he'd had enough.

"That's enough!" he yelled above them.

The pair flinched and turned to him, peering up at him with wide, pleading eyes.

"Go to sleep, kits," he ordered in a no-nonsense manner. "Pinefoot and Frostbreath should be back any minute now, so if you're not asleep by the time that they do, then I really won't listen to your so-called "solution"."

Oakkit and Petalkit gasped in unison. "You're actually going to do it?" they asked simultaneously.

Dewstrike grinned over his shoulder. "Believe it or not," he mewed. "But I actually want kits just as much as you two do."

The kits grinned back in response.

When Dewstrike settled beside Cherryshine that night for sleep, he discreetly nudged her, and when she snapped open weary, sleep-darkened green eyes, he grinned at her sheepishly.

"So, kits?" he offered.

His only response was a whack to the head by his mate's tail.

. . .

"Dewstrike?"

"Hm?" he turned his head to find Cherryshine looking up at him quizzingly. "Yeah, Cherryshine? What is it?"

His nosy, simply over the top, crazy mate looked strangely shy for some reason that Dewstrike couldn't comprehend.

"Well," Cherryshine answered, and there was a touch of embarrassment added as she said, "What you said the other night… isitstillvalid?"

Dewstrike blinked, then an amused smile tugged at his lips. "I can't understand you when you talk so fast, Cherryshine."

To his complete and utter surprise, his mate actually blushed.

Blushed!

Then, she blurted, "I really want to have kits with you, too, Dewstrike!"

Dewstrike froze, before gazing down at her with wide eyes.

Cherryshine stood strong and proud under his gaze, but there was a strange timidness to her expression, he noticed.

His mate was embarrassed.

Dewstrike suddenly laughed, and when the sound escaped his lips, it was Cherryshine's turn to blink.

Then her half-closed eyes shot into a glower, with her lips pursed tightly.

He merely laughed harder at her expression.

She looked ridiculous with the way she was glaring up at him right now.

"You think what I want is funny, huh?!"

Dewstrike slowly stopped laughing, and when the last of his chuckles had finally died down, he allowed his lips to curl into a gentle, satisfied smile.

"I want the same thing," he murmured. "I want to have kits with you, Cherryshine."

That was when Cherryshine's face positively melted, and soon enough, she was looking up at him with a tender smile of her own.

"Yeah," she quietly agreed.