Scorchpaw opened his eyes, lifting his head lazily to look at the sky. It was still dark. Even if he craned his neck as far as he could, he couldn't see a single hint of the sun over the trees that were still standing. The dark ginger tom stretched his jaws into a relaxed yawn, feeling content with his sleep. The pounding in his head at subsided, and he was in a rather good mood. Scorchpaw was about to try and catch a few more hours of sleep when he heard a quiet sniffle nearby.

Ignore it, he urged himself. It's too early to deal with these cats. Scorchpaw tried his hardest to ignore the muffled tears, willing himself to sleep. But as another headache threatened, he gave up. Focusing his eyes on the spot where the noise was sounding from, he spotted a light brown she-cat with a white chest, white underbelly, white paws, and white tail tip. She had her head buried in her paws, and the quiet sniffles split the silence every now and then.

Sighing, Scorchpaw got to his paws. He had grown up with the she-cat, and he knew enough about her to know that this was not normal behavior for Meadowpaw. The she-cat was usually optimistic and bubbly, even after the death of her only sibling, Cedarpaw. She didn't look up as Scorchpaw approached.

"Something wrong?" He asked, somewhat gently.

Meadowpaw looked up. Scorchpaw tried not to focus on the tears in her gentle green eyes. They were large and brimming with water. Her nose was running slightly, and she looked like she hadn't slept very much. "I'm fine," she mumbled.

"No, you're not," Scorchpaw told her. "You've been sniveling all morning, and I am definitely not looking forward to starting the journey in a bad mood."

"Sorry," Meadowpaw retorted, sniffling.

"What is wrong?" The tom persisted.

"Nothing you'll care about," she mewed.

"I asked, didn't I?" Scorchpaw responded, an edge of impatience in his voice.

"Well, yeah, but-"

"Just tell me what is wrong," Scorchpaw cried, no doubt waking up a couple warriors.

StarClan, why is she making this so difficult?

You should've left her alone, a voice sang in his mind.

Don't remind me, he thought angrily.

"I'm just tired of all of this," Meadowpaw moaned.

"Tired of what?" Scorchpaw prompted. He was determined to get a straight answer out of the miserable she-cat even if it took all morning. He fixed his amber eyes on her, hoping that they looked less harsh than usual.

"O-of…this," she cried. Obviously the ditz was having trouble describing what was going on. Scorchpaw let out a sigh. He figured that she meant the traveling, but that sounded a little weird.

"I'm sorry, what?" He asked yet again. His nerves were beginning to get the better of him, and he hoped that she would respond before he lashed out at her.

"E-everything."

Don't tell me you're suicidal, Scorchpaw said inwardly. "Everything meaning what?" She must think you're so slow.

"J-just…all this loss. Traveling. Depression…" Meadowpaw whispered.

You act like you're the only one, honey.

"I'm sure many cats feel the same way," Scorchpaw mewed sort of gently. He felt the urge to rest his ginger tail on her brown shoulder, so he did. He was afraid she would flinch and pull away from the action, but she didn't. Scorchpaw felt a rush of relief. He didn't think he'd make it this far without exploding.

"I 'spose…" Meadowpaw echoed doubtfully. "It's just unfair, I guess, that we have to go through all this. SkyClan gets all the crap."

"Hey, the other four had their share," Scorchpaw offered. "They had to abandon their home, too."

"Yeah, but I'm sure they found a new one on their first try," the she-cat spat bitterly.

"You never know," Scorchpaw shrugged. I'm being much too optimistic…

"Where's StarClan?" Meadowpaw asked suddenly. "Like, why aren't they helping us? I'm sure the other Clans had help."

"How do you know?" Scorchpaw inquired. "Maybe they had it just as hard as we do. Maybe they had it worse. Maybe they never found a new home and had to split up. We never heard of the forest being destroyed, and we don't know the story. Maybe we'll never know…"

"Don't say that!" Meadowpaw cried.

What did I do? "Er, don't say what?"

"Don't say we'll never find them!"

Sudden change of heart, eh? What happened to 'I'm so sick of this blah blah blah?' Now we're being cheery, aren't we? "Well, maybe we won't," Scorchpaw meowed.

"Don't say that!" Meadowpaw repeated, tears spilling over.

I'm so bad at this, Scorchpaw thought with a malicious chuckle. "It's true," he said simply.

"But don't say it!"

"Why not?" Scorchpaw questioned, beginning to lose it. "Hiding from the truth isn't going to change anything. If anything, it'll make it worse when you finally choose to show yourself to the ugly truth that is life. You cannot hide from life. You have to face it. If that means sadness, screw it. If that means peril, screw it. If that means you've got to get off your behind and try a second time, screw it. You've got to do it no matter what, and you're going to have to live with that fact."

You went too far, a voice informed him.

Shut it, I'll fix it, He retorted.

Before the voice could respond again, Meadowpaw was bawling.

Good one.

"Uh, er, I, uh, um," Scorchpaw babbled. "Please don't cry."

Meadowpaw drew in a deep, shuddering breath. "I-I'm sorry. I-I didn't mean…I-I…sorry," she rambled. "D-don't mind me."

Scorchpaw couldn't believe it when he felt the strongest wave of affection he had ever experienced. And towards Meadowpaw, a she-cat he had hardly ever spoken to. He lifted his tail from her shoulder, resting his head their instead. "I'm sorry," he murmured smoothly into her ear.

Before either could continue, they heard a loud yowl.

It was dawn.

A.N. Short, sorry. :P