Disclaimer: I don't own the Warriors. Erin Hunter does.

Summary: Ever since she discovered the truth of her birth, Spottedheart had withdrawn within herself and vowed that no one would touch her heart again. But one tom wouldn't leave her alone and let the past be forgotten.

Idea given to me by ImagineClan. Enjoy! xD

Stones and Walls

Retreat. It was the only solution to my problem. Ever since I discovered the truth about my birth, I had withdrawn inside myself and built a wall there. I wouldn't let anyone touch my heart ever again. All they do is hurt me with their cruel words. Maybe I should have died that day. It would have made everyone much happier, especially my foster mother.

She had blamed the death of her own kit on me, telling me that I was better off dead, since I wasn't even of ThunderClan blood. I remembered the shock and eventually it had led to despair. Her kit's death was an accident. A fox had invaded our territory and Stormpelt, the gray deputy tom, had led a patrol to chase it off. Her kit, me, and Cinderfur were the other three warriors on the patrol. When we got to the fox's den, it wasn't there.

We sniffed the area a couple times and Stormpelt had decided that they would follow its scent. Just when we were about to head off, the fox suddenly appeared and had jumped on the first target it saw. Dappleclaw, my foster mother's own kit. The next few moments went by in a blur as the rest of us yowled at the fox and engaged it in a fight. We were successful in chasing it out of our territory, but our victory was marred by the death of Dappleclaw.

When we got back to camp, chaos ensued and my foster mother accused me that I had a grudge against Dappleclaw and I wouldn't have wanted to save her. Stormpelt tried to tell her it wasn't my fault, but she ignored him and continued on to revealed to me who I was. I was born a rogue and as the Clan had been taught, rogues weren't to be trusted, rogues were enemies.

No wonder no one ever liked me when I was an innocent little she-kit. The only one who had come close to even support me was Blazestar, the young bright ginger tom with dark blue eyes, the one who had found me crying helplessly in the grass near the Twolegplace at the border of ThunderClan's territory, and Stormpelt, who knew what happened that day.

But when Blazestar came to comfort me that day, I pushed him away. No one else came to comfort me. They were all busy with Dappleclaw. And from that day on, I vowed that no one would ever touch my heart again.

"Spottedheart," I swiveled my ears as I heard my name being called. Mentally, I ran through all the duties that I was supposed to perform today and found that I had already finished them all. So why was there someone bothering me? No one ever talked to me if it wasn't necessary. As I was thinking this, the owner of that voice came up right in front of me, his ginger pelt blocking the view of anything else.

"Yes, Blazestar?" I asked, sullenly. "What did I do wrong now?" Blazestar twitched his whiskers in amusement.

"Lighten up, will you?" Blazestar mewed as he stared into my stony gray eyes. "I just wanted to hang out with you, like old times, you know?" Ever since I pushed him away that day, he had avoided me. But now, a moon later, he was talking about old times. I shook my head in disbelief.

"Those days are long over, Blazestar," I told him. "I don't want to 'hang out' with anybody." I tried to move away from him, back to my place of solitude, but he blocked my way. I turned in the other direction and he was in front of me again. Why did he have to be so fast?

"What happened to you?" Blazestar demanded. "You used to be so confident and happy with the world, no matter what anyone else said to you."

"You know what happened," I murmured. "I got overloaded." Something that looked like surprise seemed to flash through his eyes. Taking the chance when he was rooted to the ground, I dashed into the warrior's den and settled down to sleep.

Over the next few days, Blazestar asked me how I was a couple times with concern evident in his eyes. I told him I was fine and then I would head out to perform my warrior duties. I thought nothing more of it as he just seemed polite, like a Clan leader should be. More time passed and things became normal again. It wasn't about half a moon later that I realized how wrong I was.

"Spottedheart, you're on dawn patrol today," Stormpelt informed me as he shook me awake. I opened my eyes and glared at him. When he realized that he didn't need to shake me anyway, he walked away. I quickly stretched and licked myself a couple of times, then emerged from the warrior's den. It seemed that I was the first one reporting for duty, since the usual gathering spot beside the gorse tunnel was empty.

"It's just you and me today," a gentle voice sounded behind me as I scented Blazestar's presence. "Ready to go?" I looked into his dark blue eyes, then looked at where Stormpelt was. There was no way that this was a coincidence. Dawn patrols usually consisted of more than two warriors, even if one of them was the leader. Stormpelt seemed to catch my eye and waved his tail in encouragement.

"I guess so, Blazestar," I said. "But don't we need more warriors?"

"Are you telling me what I'm supposed to do?" he asked playfully. "After all, I think during this time of peace, the two of us would be enough." I stared at him and wondered what was wrong with him. Danger could lurk anywhere at any moment.

"Let's go then," I mewed and the two of us ran side by side out of the gorse tunnel and up the ravine. Blazestar then took the lead and headed in the direction of Fourtrees.

"We'll patrol from here back to Sunningrocks and then back to camp," he informed me when we arrived at our border next to Fourtrees. I nodded and we continued on in silence. After a while, he started talking again. "It's going to be a nice day today, don't you think?" I shot him a glance.

"I guess," I said dully. I didn't really care for the weather. "Just get straight to the point, will you?"

"You're always so practical," Blazestar said, dryly. Then, he went to set a scent marker. When we continued on, he seemed to want to say something, but remained silent. I rolled my eyes at him.

"Spit it out, will you?" I told him, teasingly. I was shocked at myself. I hadn't teased anyone in a long time. Ever since that day. He turned his eyes on me as he noticed my change in tone.

"Is that how you address your Clan leader?" he mewed and then let out a mrrow of laughter. "That sounded more like the Spottedheart I knew." I flicked my ears in annoyance, but waited for him to say more. He took a deep breath. "I'm sorry that day was so hard for you. I talked to Fireleaf after the horrible thing she said to you." Why was he trying to awaken old wounds? I shot him a glare.

"After that day, you changed so much," he continued on as we continued our patrol. "I wanted to say something to you, but I didn't know how. You had somehow flew out of my reach. So I waited." I took a deep breath as the past couple moons replayed itself in my head. "When I felt the Clan had calmed down enough, I tried to talk to you again. Remember?"

"Yeah," my voice hitched as I replied. "The day I told you I was overloaded." Blazestar nodded. I tried to think up of something rude to say, to push him away again, but I couldn't seem to find it within me. What was wrong with me?

"But you didn't seem to take notice over the next several days as we talked very briefly each day," Blazestar plowed on. "So, I thought that today would be a good day to try and really talk to you." He twitched his tail and looked at me. We had stopped in front of Sunningrocks.

"Well, I guess I'm listening," I said, my stony eyes started to clear, becoming the old tinge of bright gray. The next words he said completely shattered the wall I had built, made me break my vow to myself.

"I want you to come back from that land of misery, Spottedheart. I want the happy and confident one. You won't be alone anymore," Blazestar said, sincerely, looking right into my eyes. His tail curled around and rested on my shoulder. "I love you. I always had." The world turned upside down for me, my heartbeat quickened, and I felt myself searching his eyes for a clue that he just said it to make me feel better. But in his eyes, I could see that he meant it.

Maybe life would turn out pretty okay.

A/N: Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed it. ^^