Our Hearts Are Compatible

Of course she’d go for a tom like him.

Flirty to a fault and more charming than Sedgestream would care to admit, he was perfect for her wild child sister. They were both so sure, so confident in themselves. But that came with consequences. 

Sedgestream had pointed this out to her sister numerous times. “He’s from ThunderClan. You can’t keep doing this.” Fawnsplash had responded every single time with “Dad is from ThunderClan, Sedgestream" with an eye roll, as if that answered everything. “Dad was willing to leave for Mom,” Sedgestream always parried, and Fawnsplash always said nothing. It was a given that neither was willing to move clans for the other. Their carefree personalities betrayed them in that sense. They didn't really care as long as they got to be together.

Fawnsplash was forced to care when she got pregnant.

Sedgestream hated Starlingspeckle. She hated him for getting her sister pregnant. She hated his stupid unique coat, with it's interesting pattern of white and black. She hated his attractive face. She hated that she could see why Fawnsplash was attracted to him. She hated that he knew Sedgestream was attracted to him and teased her about it. Most of all, Sedgestream hated that Fawnsplash loved him more than she loved her, her own sister, her best friend.

It was ironic, Sedgestream noted bitterly, that Fawnsplash died not during the massive war that LeafClan was involved in currently, but during labor, birthing the kits of the tom who she seemed convinced wouldn’t cause any problems. No, they were just two kids in love, what could that hurt?

Sedgestream broke when her sister gave her black tabby son and silver tabby daughter a single lick each before pushing them off to Sedgestream; a silent request as she lay there dying.

The silver tabby wanted to refuse; she wanted to tell her sister that she was going to be fine and she just needed to sleep; she wanted to say that in the morning she’d name the kits, or she could even send Sedgestream to talk to that mouse-brained tom and ask what he’d want to name one…

But Sedgestream just stood there, jaws parted in a look of horror as Blackshadow slowly gave up on her. “I’ve done all I can,” he admitted. “Her fate is in StarClan’s paws now.” He almost spat the words out, and the bitterness was not lost on Sedgestream. The name Crowshadow briefly popped into her head, but it was gone when she realized the severity of Blackshadow’s words.

Instead of recovering from labor like it was supposed to, her body gave up on her. Blackshadow had merely bought her a few minutes - not even conscious minutes. Blackshadow must’ve seen it coming, because he left while Sedgestream watched over her sister. A minute later, he was replaced by Whitepaw, who pressed against Sedgestream comfortingly and soothed her when she finally realized her sister was gone. Sedgestream was briefly grateful to Blackshadow - his version of offering comfort was to send his significantly-less-grumpy apprentice to comfort for him. It worked wonders. Whitepaw was a lovely cat.

Sedgestream went to him after ensuring the kits were safe with another queen.

“Is this what you wanted?” she spat in his face. “I told you, I told you both that this was dangerous! I TOLD you! And now look at her!” Sedgestream wasn’t like this. She wasn’t cruel. She wasn’t mean. But grief was a hell of a thing.

Starlingspeckle, for once, had nothing to say. Sedgestream looked at herself reflected in his green eyes and saw someone she didn’t recognize. Those mirrors in his skull had shattered as she revealed what happened. The silver she-cat felt bad, awful, horrid for the things she was saying to him, but the searing fire consuming her wasn’t out yet. “You should’ve stayed in your clan,” she hissed. “None of this would’ve happened if you had just LISTENED TO ME!”

She wanted to stop. She really did. She wanted to apologize. Take everything back. But the fire in her veins insisted that this was the cat who killed her best friend since birth, and she couldn’t think clearly.

She turned to walk away and had gotten about a fox length away from the border when the broken father croaked out “What… What are their names?”

Sedgestream froze. She glanced over her shoulder, and the pools in her eyes had iced over. “I don’t know,” she said cooly. “Their mother didn’t have time to name them.” She turned and left.

When she officially adopted the kits as hers, she found she couldn’t bring herself to name them without Starlingspeckle. Fadedstar was the one to propose that Sedgestream bring the father to see them. He suggested it gently, holding her close and wrapping his tail around her as he did so. He missed Fawnsplash too. Maybe not as much as Sedgestream did - he was always closer to Wolfheart - but Wolfheart was gone too. They only had each other.

“I don’t want him to take them,” Sedgestream admitted, watching their sleeping forms and realizing she couldn’t live without them. She loved them, and they were the last piece of Fawnsplash she had.

“We won’t let him.” The confidence in her smaller brother’s voice was comforting. He wasn’t confident about much - he hadn’t learned to trust himself yet - so when he spoke like he knew the answer it was… reassuring, to say the least.

So she arranged a day for him to come. A day for him to see his kits and name them.

Sedgestream felt a weird mixture of emotions when Starlingspeckle lovingly stroked his kits with his tail. “Have you named them yet?” he asked softly. Sedgestream shook her head, but from where she stood hovering behind him, she knew he couldn’t see. “No,” she repeated out loud.

Starlingspeckle glanced at her nervously. “Could I name one?”

She didn’t see it coming, so she had no control over the hint of bitterness in her voice when she snapped “They’re yours” sarcastically. He blinked at her and shook his head as he looked back down.

“They’re yours,” he told her, and didn’t leave her room to argue because he immediately said “Spiderkit” while placing his tail on the tom. 

Sedgestream would’ve said something in retaliation, and was opening her mouth to do so when she realized what he’d inadvertently given her: confirmation. He would not try to take them from LeafClan. She clicked her jaw shut, contemplating for a few seconds, and then asked “Why?”

Starlingspeckle blinked up at her, seeming confused. “... Why the name, or-?”

“Why not take them back to ThunderClan?”

She watched his heart break again and his face - the face that should’ve always held some sort of self confidence and joy (the fact that it didn’t and hadn’t for a while almost unnerved Sedgestream and would’ve made it hard to look at had she not wanted him to look like that) - crumbled ever so slightly, becoming more desperate and self-blaming, and Sedgestream nearly had to look away. “They belong with their mother,” he said hoarsely. “And their mother is here. She always was and she always will be.”

Sedgestream wished she could feel her now; she wished Fawnsplash would’ve done something to confirm what he said, but she felt nothing.

“I'm sorry,” Sedgestream finally said.

“I know,” Starlingspeckle responded quietly, turning back to his kits.

 

---

 

Bouncepaw didn't want his sister to become a medicine cat.

He watched the way she screamed, dug in her metaphorical claws, begged their mother to not let them do it. But StarClan was never wrong, and so she was dragged to Blackshadow’s side. At least Blackshadow was as skeptical of StarClan’s word as Bouncepaw and Cedarpaw were, but since he was the medicine cat, he kinda had to listen to them.

But hey! Maybe his sister would end up liking being a medicine cat after all. It’s not exactly what she wanted, but it could be fun. Plus, saving cats’ lives was important. Crowpaw was important!

Then why did she look so upset…?

They grew up and he watched Crowpaw fall for Blackshadow as they reached warrior age. Bouncelight and Cedarfeather were distanced from Crowpaw, who was nowhere near getting her full name due to Blackshadow’s lax teaching because of her situation, and they felt bad about it. They knew that Crowpaw was agonizing over the fact that she’d never have a mate or kits, and her falling for Blackshadow was just adding onto that; he was the medicine cat, after all. And yet he reciprocated her feelings.

Bouncelight definitely looked the other way when they were just a bit too affectionate with each other. He looked the other way when it was obvious Blackshadow wasn’t trying too hard to teach her how to do things. He even looked away when they slept so close together they might as well have been in the same nest. Honestly, he was happy for his sister. This wasn’t exactly what he’d hoped for for her, but maybe this was the best she’d ever get. Or maybe things would even improve someday!

Bouncelight wished he'd talked to her more when Blackshadow frantically asked him if he'd seen her during a particularly bad battle. He wasn't sure why he missed her, but he did. Something odd twinged in his stomach.

When Blackshadow padded up to him after it was over, looking like the weight of the world was on his shoulders, the feeling in his stomach intensified. There was something in his mouth. Some… herbs? 

“Chamomile and goatweed,” Blackshadow rasped as he put them on the ground in front of Bouncelight. He sounded.... crushed.

“Blackshadow?” His own voice shook with fear he didn’t even realize he was feeling. “What’s wrong?”

The black tom merely nodded toward the herbs. Bouncelight ate them quickly and stared at the medicine cat expectantly.

“They’re for grief,” Blackshadow started.

“Grief? You gave me herbs for grief?”

Blackshadow looked away, and the bad feeling in his stomach exploded. Anxiety hit him like a monster. “Blackshadow?” Bouncelight repeated, his voice going higher as his fear raised. He wasn’t saying… he couldn’t be… but he looked so-

“Crowshadow died… defending the nursery.” Every word looked painful, as if each one was a bone stuck in his throat.

Bouncelight opened his jaw to say something, but nothing came out. It felt like all of his blood turned to ice and then shattered inside him. He was lying. He had to be.

“Crowshadow?” was all Bouncelight managed to get out. By focusing his attention on something else, maybe it would make it not true.

“I gave her her full name. It… didn’t seem right, to not let her have it. She died a warrior after all.”

Nope, this was worse. Bouncelight wished he hadn’t even asked. He didn’t want to know that. He didn’t want to know that his sister had only managed to get her full name through the dying apprentice ceremony. She deserved so much more, she deserved the world-

Things got so much worse when he heard Cedarfeather’s sweet voice from over his shoulder calling his name hesitantly. When he glanced over at her he must’ve looked as broken as he felt because she looked so concerned, so utterly concerned- ‘No, don’t be concerned for me. I’m not the one who-’

He watched numbly, tuning out the sounds of Blackshadow’s confession and Cedarfeather’s anguished screams as he focused inward. This is why he missed her. He somehow knew something bad was happening. Could he have saved her-?

No, this was a bad road to go down. He couldn’t have saved her. It is what it is. It was StarClan’s will, surely…? They haven’t lost so much control over LeafClan that her death came as a surprise, have they…?

Then again, she wasn’t meant for the medicine cat life in the first place. StarClan had obviously made some kind of mistake. But… they were supposed to know everything… Why… why did they let his sister die like this…?

Smokeheart walked up to them from the direction Blackshadow had come, his head hanging low, and he pulled his remaining kits close to him. They said nothing, they simply nuzzled each other and wailed.

 

Bouncelight had seen the pretty she-cat before, and he knew the story of her sister; the one who mated with a ThunderClan cat and died during labor. Fawnsplash was a good cat - very lively, and he liked cats like that. He tried to be optimistic and positive and it wasn’t hard around a cat like her.

He understood, at least mostly, how the silver tabby felt. He hadn’t been best friends with Crowshadow like she seemed to be with her sister, but he felt it all the same. He often saw two kits trailing after her and he was confused; he’d never seen her with a mate. In fact, the only cat she’d been around a lot was Fadedstar, but he was her brother.

‘You mouse-brain, those are Fawnsplash’s kits,’ he realized. She was taking care of them. Who else would? Someone not even related to them?

Bouncelight didn’t realize he was in danger until Poolkit barreled into him and knocked him over. “I got the DuskClan warrior!” she yowled to her brother.

“Hey! L-Leave him alone!” Spiderkit squeaked, running over with his small legs and knocking the tabby she-cat off of Bouncelight. Bouncelight chuckled as he sat up.

“Say, that was pretty good! I didn’t even hear you coming!” he purred. Poolkit beamed up at him.

“Hey!” This time, the word definitely came from an adult. He looked up as the beautiful she-cat walked up to him, gaze stern as she stared at the kits. “You can’t just bother other cats like that. Go play with Otterkit,” she scolded, shooing them away with her feathery tail. “I’m sorry,” she said, turning those sapphire eyes on him, and they hypnotized him. Such pretty shades of blue. “They’re getting really antsy; they can’t wait to become apprentices. You know how kits are,” she said with a tired smile.

“I do,” Bouncelight purred. “But it’s really no big deal. I like kits.”

The she-cat smiled at him. Suddenly, her eyes widened as if she’d realized something. “Wow, I don’t think I really formally introduced myself. I’m Sedgestream, but you probably know that.”

He didn’t. “Bouncelight,” he returned with a smile.

“Well, Bouncelight, I should get going,” she started, turning away.

He hesitated. “Wait,” he meowed, standing. “Have you had anything to eat yet? If not, we could share something. Or we could just share tongues,” he suggested hopefully. He wasn’t quite ready to let go of her just yet.

Sedgestream glanced back at her two kits, playing with Otterkit while Dappleshine watched, looking content. She turned back to Bouncelight with a smile. “I could go for a mouse right now,” she purred.

Oh StarClan. Now all Bouncelight had to do was remember what Cedarfeather taught him about flirting.