#rainfleck

And here continues the (FANMADE) butterflyweed saga, this time focusing on Milkweedstar's parenting of Vervainkit and Milkweedkit. Now, I actually think Milkweedstar would be a pretty good father; however, wc-grassroots has said that he can be a little flakey, so in this hypothetical situation he ditches his leadership duties to play with his kits, much to Rainfleck's chagrin. Initially, the kits were unimpressed with him because they didn't register him as 'father' at first, and his lack of milk. However, they adapted pretty quickly and grew to love their father because he's basdically just a big kit himself. Being half-kittypet they develop rather slowly and since they were barely over half a moon old, they almost immediately forget about Butterflyleap and their two sisters. Which is good because they won't blab, but otherwise pretty sad.

Well, Vervainkit and Milkweedkit are both very water-loving, so they sneak out of the nursery one day and go all the way to the lake to swim, but quickly lose control because, well at this point they're less than a moon old. For some reason Rainfleck and Perchgorse are hanging out (Perchgorse used to be warrior, so maybe they're buds and go hunting together sometimes? Maybe Perchgorse needed someone to help her gather herbs and Rainfleck didn't feel like going on patrol? Who knows.) and they save the kits. The kits say they don't have a mother (because Butterflyleap is nonbinary, so they aren't really a 'mother'), their clan scent was washed off from the water. And, because Milkweedkit looks exactly like Milkweedstar, and has the same prefix, they deduce that these kits must be Milkweedstars (his flirty ways have to catch up eventually) So they bring the kits to their leader, and he is just as surprised as them, at least initially he is - he remember how he and Butterflyleap had grown close as friends, BUT Butterflyleap abruptly called off their weird friends-with-benefits/budding-romance out of nowhere a few moons back, without an explanation. Also, when Milkweedstar is mumbling while having flashbacks, he is trying to say he never had a mate. Realizing Butterflyleap must have broke things off because they were expecting, Milkweedstar decides to keep the kits. He IS NOT doing it maliciously, but he knows that his deputy and medicine cat know both that these kits are his, and he doesn't want Butterflyleap to catch any flack or have their deputy position or reputation jepordised. Although, Milkweedstar is still pretty hurt that Butterflyleap kept the kits a secret from him. AND SO Milkweedkit and Vervainkit grow up in Riverclan being raised by their father, forgetting about Skyclan, Butterflyleap and their siblings quickly because of their young age (Which isn't that far-fetched, because it happened to Mistyfoot and Stonefur too)