frostbite-wc

“you knew the whole time?” firestar asks; morningflower’s ears prick, and she immediately knows exactly what he’s referring to.

she gives her friend a tight smile. “it was hard not to. hawkfrost looks so much like him, and sasha pretty much told me when she was staying with windclan.”

(she saw it so much over the seasons, as hawkfrost and mothwing began to grow - their resemblance to their father was becoming as plain as day.)

firestar is quiet for a long time; morningflower blinks, frowning at the orange-furred tomcat.

“it wasn’t my secret to tell,” morningflower tells him sternly. “and it has no relevance; who their father is, that’s not important. hawkfrost and mothwing have nothing to do with him.”

“it’s not that,” firestar’s voice is strangely soft. morningflower blinks, and he looks at her with a sad gleam in his eyes. “i just….how were you able to do that? to take them in, to raise them as your own. how….”

morningflower feels a twist in her gut, and she can’t look at firestar’s face. it’s the same question that tallstar had asked. onewhisker. ashfoot. every cat who was alive during that time, during the worst day of morningflower’s life, had asked.

how can you look at them? dont they remind you of the cat who murdered your son?

she’s quiet for a very long time; firestar looks worried.

“i’m sorry,” he says quickly, dipping his head. “i shouldn’t- it’s not my place to comment on that, i apologize.”

“it’s okay,” she tells him; she thinks of his question much harder than she has any of the other times she’s been asked it.

“truthfully?” morningflower asks, and firestar nods. “i was - am - able to be their mother because they needed someone. they were all alone, firestar; sasha couldn’t stay in the clans, and they would’ve been alone in windclan. they needed someone to look after them, to take care of them,” she’s quiet again. “to be another mother to them, to love them. i can see tigerstar in their faces every day; it’s hard not to, but…”

she thinks of hawkpaw, running full speed to her just to show her his first catch. mothpaw, curling up against her side because of a thunderstorm. the pair of them bringing her out of the nursery on her worst days, the days when all she could think of was gorsepaw, just because they realized she needed someone, too.

“they saved me,” she feels a weight coming off of her shoulders, just being able to finally say it out loud. “i needed them just as much as they needed me. i wanted….” she smiles as she looks at firestar; it’s pained, but it’s there. “they’re tigerstars children by blood, but i wanted to raise them away from his image. they’re my children, not his.”

she can imagine gorsepaw’s face - but this time, she feels as though she can hear him whispering i want you to be happy, mama.

But then at the very end, he does something incredibly impactful, that he finally and truly earns his warrior name. And he is excited and relieved, because he did it. He earned his position by himself and his hardships.

And then they name him Flameheart.

And he knows Firestar’s warrior name. Maybe Bramblestar told him the story when Firestar, as Fireheart, saved him from the fire. Or maybe Graystripe told him about some of his adventures from old forest.

And he realizes that no matter what he does, no matter how much he is himself, the clan will always see him as Firestar’s kin.

And he breaks. He can’t take it anymore. If the clan won’t let him be himself, then he doesn’t want to be in a clan.

And he runs. If they want him to be like Firestar, then he will go back to his very roots.

The poll is closed now and we appear to have a winner!

1. kits/apprentices/younger warriors are like in awe and respectful of him. like there’s no way firestar isn’t that one cool teacher that’s pretty much your second dad. throughout the original series he was like the apprentice magnet. there’s no way as a leader he isn’t constantly helping the apprentices train and cracking endearing but very uncool jokes. he can’t walk around the camp without a line of kits tumbling after him.