#grayripple

the first change i want to make is that neither of them are in love with the other. turtle tail is gay and ends up with bumble and gray wing is gay and ends up with river ripple. however, they start off thinking they must be in love with the other, they have to be. gray wing wants to be a dad and loves turtle tail as a friend, and feels like this must be what being in love is like, and that he has to be in love with someone so he can be a dad. turtle tail is gray wing's best friend, and he is hers, and she isn't really interested in anyone else (except when she maybe liked rainswept flower when she was little but that probably wasn't anything. it wasn't. she was just a little kit with a friend. definitely). so she must like gray wing, right?

on top of that, they have both left the only home they've ever known, and while turtle tail is mostly excited, gray wing is really falling apart. he didn't even want to leave and then he suddenly had to take care of his little brother in a totally new and scary place and he doesn't know if he'll ever feel like he belongs anywhere again. but turtle tail makes him feel like maybe he will, and she feels like they can build their own new future here.

then bumble arrives, and turtle tail is immediately enamored with her. she thinks bumble is sweet and charming and fun to be around and really beautiful and gray wing feels like maybe his world is collapsing even more and turtle tail doesn't need or want him anymore. ever the introspective, he doesn't tell turtle tail because he doesn't want to hurt her (even though he should just talk to her, and he knows it). however, he is also a very perceptive cat (cough erins why did you make the supposedly wise cat so oblivious cough) and can see, even if turtle tail can't yet, that she likes bumble. he meets storm and starts hanging out with her (platonically. gray wing does not like storm in this au) because it's less painful than being with turtle tail.

they start spending more and more time apart, and eventually it culminates in a huge fight where they both say some pretty awful things. gray wing tells turtle tail she's betraying him and tells her he knows she likes bumble, and turtle tail (who still had not quite come to that realization yet, or at least hadn't let herself come to it) gets upset because that's none of his business and he hasn't been talking to her and been ditching her for storm. if they had communicated at all the fight would have been avoided but both of them were knee-deep in denial and after their fight, gray wing goes home to the moor and turtle tail leaves to go live with bumble and her twolegs.

in the time that they are apart, both of them realize how awful they were to each other, and sort out their own issues a little more. turtle tail realizes she does like bumble, and they get together, but also realizes that she had mostly hung out with bumble on her own and had been ditching gray wing sometimes. gray wing realizes that he shouldn't have stayed quiet for so long, and hiding his issues made them worse. he stays friends with storm, and learns to communicate better with her, but she becomes clear sky's mate and suddenly he won't let her see gray wing anymore.

when she leaves clear sky's group and gray wing finds out and goes to find her, he goes to turtle tail and apologizes before he asks for her help. they both have a good long talk and make up, though turtle tail stays where she is because she likes it in twolegplace and bumble is her mate. she helps gray wing find storm, and helps him get thunder out when they realize what's happening. gray wing, in mourning for storm and feeling responsible for thunder, tells turtle tail he'll visit and heads to clear sky's camp to give him thunder, though privately he wonders if that's the right thing to do since he let storm leave pregnant and didn't care to find or check up on her. when clear sky refuses thunder, gray wing decides he will be thunder's dad, and takes him to tall shadow's camp to raise thunder as his own.

eventually, turtle tail and bumble show up at tall shadow's camp, asking to be taken in. turtle tail is heavily pregnant. they explain that their twolegs had taken tom in and that they had wanted kits, so turtle tail asked him to be the surrogate father and he accepted. however, once she became pregnant, he told her and bumble that the twolegs would take the kits away, and that they were really his kits, so he should be able to take them and go. he also begins to abuse both of them, as well as control their coming and going from the twoleg nest. they are able to sneak out one night, and they came to tall shadow's camp to ask for help. many of the cats are suspicious of bumble, but won't refuse to help turtle tail, especially since she's pregnant.

turtle tail gives birth, and gray wing helps her and bumble take care of the kits, while they help him take care of thunder. when tom eventually shows up later and steals the kits, thunder and lightning tail go after turtle tail, who had gone after tom, while gray wing stays behind because of his breathing and to look after bumble, who is understandably quite distressed and worried but had been hurt by tom when he had visited to try to get them to give him the kits. turtle tail dies in twolegplace, but thunder and lightning tail bring back the kits. bumble and gray wing rely on each other quite a bit in the moons after that, both mourning turtle tail while still trying to raise the kits. thunder, mostly grown up now, also helps them out quite a bit, while also mourning turtle tail as a mom.