Warrior Cat Clans 2 (WCC2 aka Classic) is a roleplay site inspired by the Warrior series by Erin Hunter. Whether you are a fan of the books or new to the Warrior cats world, WCC2 offers a diverse environment with over a decade’s worth of lore for you - and your characters - to explore. Join us today and become a part of our ongoing story!
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Even if everything was different. Even if the sting of betrayal still throbbed in her chest. The scent of greenleaf in the fields and woods she'd missed so dearly was like a balm to the wounds on her soul, and Rosethorn could feel the love from her sister, from old friends, from the whole clan who knew that she'd faced and fought through yet another tragedy.
It had been a few days, and she knew Foxpaw was going to start asking when they were going home. So when she could, she slipped out for quiet walks and left him with his cousins, who were more than happy to distract him. Today was one of those days, and her paws led her over the rolling hills, her heart heavier than she'd like to admit. It was one thing to hold her head high and put on a brave face in front of those who knew she'd been abandoned by her mate. It was another thing to reconcile that fact in her mind with her enduring love for Phantomfox.
The long-furred cream and gray cat turned her head to the side when she realized there was another cat on their own walk nearby. Her amber eyes stirred with curiosity, wondering if it was an old friend or a new acquaintance who she'd be sharing the afternoon with.
Secrets didn't stay secrets for very long in SummerClan. It hadn't been like that when he'd been around the first time, and it had taken some getting used to since coming back, but by now he'd adapted well enough to the environment of constant, whirling gossip and rumour and whispering. He'd almost come to enjoy it - he was nothing if not built for judging others - though the feeling of eyes and ears everywhere he went made him feel a little panicked and claustrophobic. Even so, many an evening he could be seen lounging near the fresh-kill pile with a posse of she-cats, joining in on their catty gossip like he was holding court. A particular favourite topic currently doing the rounds around SummerClan was how humiliatingly - brutally, even - the newest returning soul to the flowery isles had been cheated on by her mate - with the leader of NightClan, no less. As a former NightClan cat, that piqued Doefreckle's interest particularly; he'd been trying to gather together scraps here and there about what sort of cat Aspenstar was, and now, it seemed, he had what he needed to know.
Still, though Doe laughed along with the gossip and gave his own stinging witticisms, he did feel rather guilty about turning something so life-shattering - a betrayal to the degree Rosethorn had suffered it - into a dinnertime scandal. It ate at him, even as he held court, and all of the previous evening his eyes had kept wondering worriedly to where the cream and grey she-cat had been sitting at the edge of the clearing. He'd wanted to disentangle himself from the gossips and go ask if she was okay, but Doefreckle was nothing if not susceptible to popularity, morally weak when it came to choosing between staying at the top of fawning flatterers and doing the right thing.
So, now, when he saw her walking by herself in the afternoon sunshine, relief flooded Doe's chest - half because there she was; he didn't have to make the hard decision for himself; half because his kind heart was genuinely relieved to be given the chance to make sure she was settling into SummerClan and coping - and he bounded over to her as quickly as his broken forepaw would allow. The first thing he noticed, with a glow of surprised admiration, was how serene she looked. If he'd been cheated on like that, he'd have been spitting bloody murder. Still, he decided it might be best not to mention that he knew about her betrayal outright; the only thing worse than dealing with it on your own was knowing everyone and their mother knew.
"Rosethorn, isn't it?" Doe greeted sunnily as he slowed beside her. "I'm Doefreckle, a friend of Devotedcrow. How are you settling in? Lovely day, isn't it?" He looked around with a smile at the golden sunlight filtering in through the brown, drying leaves. "You chose a good time to come home."
Rosethorn knew about the gossip. It was the lifeblood of Summerclan, and she'd even participated in a healthy dose of it herself before leaving. She didn't mind it. Most of the cats talking about it knew her and remembered her fondly from her time as deputy before, and many had approached her to ask how she was. Let them talk- they were all on her side, anyway. She was the snubbed one, right?
"Yes, it's Rosethorn. Nice to meet you, Doefreckle. Any friend of my brother-in-law's is a friend of mine," she said, with a quiet smile on her features. "I couldn't ask for a lovelier day for a stroll. Summerclan's territory is even better than how I remembered it in my dreams." Eight moons was a long time to away from home, but for a long time she hadn't know if she'd ever really come back. Now that she had, it was helping ease the pain. There weren't ghosts of her love haunting these sights, just good memories that helped dull the ache.
"Are you new here? I don't remember you from before I left- and it was kind of my job to know everyone back then," she said, glancing at his broken paw and deciding now was a good time to sit on the crest of a hill overlooking the river.
SummerClan’s territory is even better than how I remembered it in my dreams. Doe had been smiling, warm and polite, as he listened; now his smile grew into something genuine, his eyes smooshing up slightly. He understood that feeling.
When Rosethorn glanced discreetly at his paw, he swallowed back the automatic fizz of annoyance, forcing his eyes not to dart to the side in a little diva eyeroll, and sat down beside her. It never occurred to Doefreckle to view such sentiments as kind, as proof of other cats’ care and generosity for him; they just felt like another stone of resentment to add to the towering pile. “Yes and no,” he replied warmly, turning his head to look at her, and there was no sharpness in his voice; he sounded as friendly and open as ever. “I was leader before Ratstar - well, a few leaders before him. That was about two years ago now, long before… god, it makes me feel old, but long before you or Crow were even born, I think.” He let out a little breath of laughter. “But I’m not originally from SummerClan either. I’m from… NightClan.” He realised a second too late, the last word coming out unwilling and low. Doe gritted his teeth slightly in a little grimace and glanced at Rosethorn apologetically. “Sorry, I know that word must be the last thing you want to hear right now.”
Really, he sympathised with the she-cat more than he could say, feeling a small brand of kinship that made all her hurt stick in the wounds within his own heart. He’d lost three of his own kits - found two of the three bodies. He had known what it was to move between Clans, thinking you’d finally found a home only to have it end up the wrong decision once again; knew what it was to fall victim to abusive partners. In truth, he felt an innate warmth for the she-cat he had known by name only until that afternoon, felt quietly protective of her. He understood - not entirely, but enough - and if he could do anything to make her feel happy in SummerClan once more, he would do it.
"You don't look that old and decrepit to me," Rosethorn said with a smile, surprised by the information. "But apparently you're old enough to be my grandfather? Fascinating." The pretty she-cat tucked her tail over her front paws, digesting what Doefreckle had said, and shrugging off the Nightclan comment.
"I can hardly blame you for being born elsewhere. There were good cats there. And some bad ones, as I'm sure you've heard." There was a quiet clenching of her heart, a soft sigh, and she smiled again. "But Summerclan is where I belong, and I'd die before I'd leave again. I was the deputy before Crow, you know. Before... well, before everything happened."
Rose didn't know how deeply Doefreckle could relate to her story. But she sensed his quiet sympathy, felt some sense of connection between the two. And it was easier to talk to him than it was to her sister or Crow, who'd been so... present for every tragedy that had occurred to her. The temporal and physical separation that Doe had had from it all made it easier to talk about it- and Rosethorn talked things through too much, anyway.
"Good genes," Doe laughed sheepishly, voice soft. He didn't reply to her comment about there being good cats in NightClan; in his experience there wasn't a single one, save his brother, but even his sweet spirit had come close to being crushed by their Clanmates after Doe abandoned him. It was possible he was just viewing the past through the hurt, dramatic lens of an apprentice just named a warrior, but if he was he didn't acknowledge it; the NightClan of his memories was the truth and it would be a cold day in hell before he ever went back there.
"Were you?" he asked in surprise at her comment about being deputy before Crow, leaning back a little to look at her properly. "I didn't know. Well, then I'm sure everyone's doubly happy to have you back - with hillbillies runnin' the Clan we need all the help we can get." He grinned lopsidedly. He'd grown secretly fond of Ratstar since their less than friendly - well, his less than friendly - beginnings, but he was never going to stop teasing him. "Personally, I found that my eyes struggled when I first came to SummerClan." His head turned back to the river and rolling hills that sprawled out before them as he continued. "To go from never seeing the sun in NightClan to, oh my God, having it everywhere here did a number on me. For weeks I was all weepy, and then when I became deputy I couldn't get by just hiding in the warriors' den all day waiting for it to get dark. I still see better at night even now. Hopefully you have it a bit easier. And the worst of the summer's over, though I dare not say that within anyone's hearing 'cos they'll have me planting seedlings for a week - and I hate planting seedlings. I'm not even a Garden Keeper but they always think I am." He suddenly realised he was babbling, his eyes widening slightly. He could have kept going for God only knew how long, and he'd been drawing in another big breath, completely wrapped up in just chatting away, when he'd realised. Doe turned to Rosethorn with a sheepish half-grin. "Sorry. I've been getting better about the rambling thing. Must be the changing weather." He let out a soft little laugh.
Rosethorn laughed warmly at the hillbillies comment. She was very fond of Ratstar personally- he'd helped her sister get out of her abusive relationship, and he'd had enough confidence in her to pick her as deputy. And Crow? He was like a brother to her. "The readjusting isn't too hard for her, but I spent far more time here than there," she said, grinning wider at his story.
"I was a Garden Keeper- I suppose I am again now," she responded, tilting her head up towards the sun. "I had a lot of issues surrounding fighting and death after I lost my parents, and I couldn't be a warrior. I've worked through a lot of that now, and I'm training- or I was," she said with an expression that darkened slightly. Phantomfox had been her mentor, but that was over, now. "I'm going to ask my sister to keep training me- she's in the Red Guard. Maybe you can help, as the former leader? Show me a few fancy moves? I won't take any heed to your rambling if you don't fault me for mine."
Rosethorn turned her head to look at Doefreckle with the same half-grin, sensing a deep friendship potential between herself and this tom she'd just met.
"Oh, I don't think I could give you any fancy moves worth having," Doefreckle replied modestly, bowing his head for a moment. "You probably received all the same training I did in NightClan - tree fighting in the pines, scouting in the dark on a moonless night, ambush. Swimming against the current of the waterfall from dusk to dawn, just to see if you can follow the order not to get out, and God help you if you drown - that was my favourite test. Dunno if they're gotten rid of that one. The other Clans nurture their apprentices, from what I've heard. In NightClan, it's about stripping all of you away so something else can be put in its place. It doesn't sound like it's changed very much."
He was quiet for a moment, lost in lingering bitterness, before he started back to the present and held up his broken paw with a sheepish little laugh, eyes soft. "Plus, my fighting days are over. Now, I'm useless." The word was said playfully as he collapsed on his side on the late summer grass, disturbing bees that buzzed up around their heads and flew away into the sky and making the heads of white daisies bob. "What would you like to do, Rosethorn? Tell me about how pathetically terrible your ex-husband is in bed so he can get that tingle down his spine that someone's making fun of the great Phantomfox? Even better, tell me how much better you're gonna be without him and all the ways you're gonna live your life happily to show him just how much you don't need him? Hey, we can pretend I'm your rebound - imagine how much that would sting a man's ego, you managing to turn a gay guy straight." He grinned up at her devilishly, his back curled against the grass in a c shape, his forepaws resting on his soft white chest.
"I'm sure you know more than I do. And no, I didn't quite get the same training, since my mentor was- well, as you put it, the great Phantomfox. I've only just learned the basics. I bet you could still take me on, even with your paw." Rosethorn's smile was strained at the mention of her ex. He'd been so gentle with her training, with her son's training, so opposite of how cruel he'd been in their last encounter.
Rosethorn could never keep her emotions in, though- and trying to suppress her grief around her sister and son made her all the more eager to vent now. Doefreckle's bright chatter and jokes did bring out a small, genuine laugh, and she sat back as well, flopping among the overgrown yarrow and red poppies of the hillside. "But thank Starclan someone else around here burns off steam the way I do- my sister, bless her dear, dear heart- mulls things over in silence and Crow takes things too seriously sometimes. I couldn't tell you how good Phantomfox is in bed- it's been that long since anything's happened in that regard." She laughed bitterly, fluffy tail flicking behind her. "I can tell you that he and Aspenstar are both way too serious and their tragic relationship is going to be a downspiral of absolute depression. We better not do the rebound thing- it would go straight to my ego." She added this last part with a grin. "Though maybe if I laid on the charm I could turn you straight. I used to be known for my captivating ways."
He grinned softly, relenting. "Whatever you want, sugar," he replied, with the quiet, pleased resignation of having his arm twisted into doing something he'd really been alright with doing from the start. "We can start a hellish training regime later."
When Rosethorn flopped down beside him, he turned his head to look at her through the grass. As she spoke, a small smile spread across his face; at the mention of not having gotten laid in moons, it broke into a big, genuine grin and he let out a surprised, delighted laugh. He met very few cats who had the same capacity for crassness as he did. "Mm," he agreed more sombrely when she continued about Aspenstar and Phantomfox's doomed relationship. "Well, good for them. I, for one, wish them all the best chasing misery and an unsatisfying bedroom life once the honeymoon period is over." He flicked her flank with his tail-tip. "You're much prettier than either of them - and I like rugged, scarred toms. Christ, and everyone and their mother knows I go chasing after literally anything with a heartbeat so his vibes must be super off." He grinned at her through the grass.
At her last tease, he rolled over onto his back, looking up at her grin upside down. "Okay. Flirt with me, then." His voice was earnest.
Rosethorn's lips twitched up further at his response. "Good grief, they'll be such a tragic, oh boohoo you're my star-crossed love, heavy-handed kind of couple." She laughed, genuinely laughed at the image, and was grateful to Doefreckle for helping to lighten her mood about it. "At least he and I balanced each other out. They're far too similar for their own good. And you should be scared of his vibes- he's only gotten worse. At least your chasing has its limitations."
His invitation almost made her giggle. It had been moons since she'd flirted with anyone new- after a serious relationship of over a year, and several months of trauma after her stillborns, she felt severely out of practice. It felt like the right place- in the sunny flower fields, peering at each other through the long grass. And it was low-stakes, since Doefreckle had said himself that he was into guys. So, she resisted the urge to turn down his offer and instead laughed a warm laugh, her amber eyes sweeping over his frame appraisingly. "Is this a challenge? Even a tom as handsome as yourself can't trick me into thinking I can change your natural orientation- as much as I'd like to."
"No?" he replied, low and intimate. From where he lay looking up at her through a hooded gaze, his expression was dark and sombre, seductive, his muzzle a breath away from hers. "It's not like I've never been with a she-cat before, you know." Her amber eyes were so confident, so intense—
"Ooh!" He physically shivered, his voice snapping back to normal as he let out a genuine laugh. "Weird! I got chills. Toms are easy, they're so stupid. But you've actually got something going on behind your eyes, whoo, I'm not used to that. Very sexy." He looked up at her upside down, mock-lecherously.
Rosethorn burst into laughter, despite the faint warmth tingling along her fur. "Thanks! I appreciate the compliment. I forgot what it feels like to flirt," she confessed, whiskers twitching in amusement. "It's more intense than I remember. Your own smoldering gaze is honed to perfection, I have to say. Have you had a lot of practice with it since you came to Summerclan?"
She reached out a paw, tapping his shoulder with a teasing smile. Doefreckle was fun, she had to admit, and for once she felt young and carefree again.
Doe let out a flustered little laugh, his ears and nose reddening. "Uh- a bit. I have no idea how to say yes to that without making myself sound like a total tramp but I think it's safe to say most of the non-straight toms in the general vicinity of Summer... Well, the Mountain Clans... Well, the forest know of my existence." He said all of this very sheepishly, nodding his head to the side on every 'well' as he guiltily widened the vicinity and growing redder every time, painfully aware of the reputation that had started to circle around him. He hastened to add, sitting up slightly, "but I don't even really flirt, is the thing. I just kind of exist and then next thing I know it's like, oh, whoops, Doefreckle's had another one-night-stand. Oh, no, Doefreckle's tempted a medicine cat from his vows - don't repeat that," he added quickly, throwing a glance at Rosethorn.
He flopped back down. "Maybe I need therapy. My dad would be... so proud." He grinned up at the sky. "He always said 'no son of mine is going to be effeminate!' and-" Doe choked on a sudden burst of red-faced laughter, rolling over in the grass so his voice was half-muffled and slightly squeaky. "He got two gay sons! Oh, it's so embarrassing." He wiped a fake tear from the corner of his eye, rolling onto his back again.
"Own your trampiness- not that I think you are one," Rosethorn said with a laugh. "And your secret is safe with me. Though I am dying to know more. Better to enjoy life and experience different kinds of love before you settle down too quick with someone who doesn't treat you right."
Rosethorn listened with a half-amused, half-serious smile as he spoke of his dad. "Listen, I learned long ago not to care too much what your parents think. Mine always preferred my sister. If you put too much pressure on yourself to be the child they want- well, then you're not really you, are you? You'd just be an image of your dad's wishes. And I happen to like this Doefreckle more than I would if you were non-effeminate and super boring."
At Rose's 'though I am dying to know more', Doe just gave her a secretive little smile, his brows waggling, and, with a playful little wobble of his head and shoulders, sank back down into the grass. As she went on, he was quiet. Truthfully, he'd never considered it in that way - he'd always been so broken each time something he'd hoped might be forever had come up short, so filled with failure and grief because it was his fault or the universe's, that he'd never stopped to think that a love that didn't end in forever was still a love. It always felt too much like a defeat to stop and realise that there had been good times, that he could remember those forever, that care was still care even if it didn't result in finality, in marriage, in the one. It was always all or nothing with Doe, and he'd been so absorbed by the nothing for so long that all the goodness had just been another failure. He didn't want to say it, because it was so stupid a thing to be a revelation, but Rose had inadvertently offered him a balm to wounds that had been open since he was a child. This would keep him up at night, but it would also soothe a part of him that had been hurting for so long. God, he was such an idiot if this sort of thing just came so naturally to everyone else. He'd never felt stupider in his life and he blushed, out of embarrassment and relief and joy combined.
And I happen to like this Doefreckle more than I would if you were non-effeminate and super boring. Doe let out a soft snort, grinning up at her to poorly hide the fact, betrayed by his shining eyes, that her words meant a lot to him. "This feels like therapy now," he replied dryly. It was a thank you. He suddenly rolled to his paws and stood up, shaking scraps of flowers from his fur and giving it a few quick licks to keep it looking fit for a dandy. "C'mon, soldier girl. You think you're gonna become a fearsome fighter if you lounge around in the flowers all day?" He shoved at her side insistently with his nose. "No! You gotta be up before the birds! You gotta go on ten mile runs every morning! C'mon, c'mon, c'mon! Christ you're lazy, I dunno how your sister's ever gonna turn you into warrior." He grinned at her playfully.
Rosethorn climbed to her feet with a growing smile, batting his nose away lightly with her paw. "Hush up sergeant," she grumbled, shaking off her own long fur. After a moment she straightened her shoulders, giving him a playfully obedient look. "Alright, sir, what do I need to do first?" She asked, squaring her shoulders and giving a mock salute with her tail.
This was already far more fun than the training sessions with her cheating ex-husband, which, while effective, had been marked by his moodiness.
