Wavepaw pads through RiverClan camp, pausing tentatively at the mouth of Shellstar's den.
Hushed whispers echo from inside, increasing the blue-gray apprentice's nervousness.
"Papa? You called for me?" Wavepaw mews at last, stepping nervously closer to the den's mouth.
She hears a shuffle; a few heartbeats later Shellstar pokes his head out from inside, smiling in a slightly disconcerting manner.
It was a familiar expression, one that signified to Wavepaw that she was soon to endure an uncomfortable and frustrating conversation.
"Hello, Wavepaw, " Shellstar mews, stepping a pace out of his den and looking down at his daughter through amber eyes that glimmer with pride.
"Hi...Papa," Wavepaw mumbles, shifting uncomfortably.
If she were to be honest, Wavepaw would admit that she hated talking to her father, if only because everything was blown up into a fight between him and her mother.
She wished that they would just act like normal, good parents sometimes, but at least she had Ivyhawk.
"We have something very important to discuss with you, if you'll come inside," the RiverClan leader mews, beckoning with his tail toward the gaping mouth of the leader's den.
His slightly reassuring expression betrayed he'd caught on to his daughter's apprehension, but Wavepaw still advances with a tinge of nervousness; after all, who else was included in 'we'?
The blue-gray apprentice shuffles reluctantly into the hollow log, biting back a curse once she sees Snowflash sprawled out near the back, purring blissfully.
Shellstar follows after his daughter, settling down beside Snowflash and allowing her to smooth down his ruffled pelt.
The leader and deputy exchange smitten looks and purrs all the while, and Wavepaw sighs, curling her tail tightly around herself.
"So, Papa...what did you want to talk to me about?" Wavepaw inquires, trying unsuccessfully to look away as Shellstar and Snowflash start nuzzling each other.
The concept of two cats being this close to each other- let alone her own father and a cat that wasn't her mother- made Wavepaw uncomfortable, but Shellstar and Snowflash's insistence on being as sappy as possible made it so much worse.
"Ah! Yes. I wanted to tell you, Wavepaw," the RiverClan leader mews, pausing to curl around his deputy, "-that we understand how hard things have been for you in the family recently."
"Uh-huh," Wavepaw replies absently, feeling suspicious at the lack of tension in her father's movements- maybe Snowflash and her advances were messing it up, but she'd expected him to at least feel something whilst addressing such a touchy subject.
"Our family was split into two halves, in a way, and I don't want to make you take sides. You're free to favor your mother- or me- or favor no one at all."
"...Okay."
"Snowflash, darling, would you tell Wavepaw what you wanted to say?" Shellstar coos.
"Of course," the white she-cat replies softly, caressing the side of the RiverClan leader's face with a paw.
Wavepaw, nauseous, feels compelled to bolt out of the den, but clenches her jaw and remains seated.
"All I wanted to say, Wavepaw, is that even though I'm not Fallowtail, obviously, you can consider me a mother of sorts if you would like."
Wavepaw lets out a hum of surprise, eyeing the RiverClan deputy warily.
"Um...thanks, I guess."
"But yes, that's all we had to say," Shellstar finishes, tipping his head and glancing down at his daughter.
"You may go now."
Wavepaw nods, wanting to leave but at the same time wondering what questions there were to be asked.
She supposed she could ask about the uncle whose existence Wavestar implied, but that would likely be messy and best saved for after a conversation was established.
The ShadowClan alliance also piqued her interest, and she knew that Shellstar was always keen to discuss his political strategies although he wasn't very great at applying them, according to Ivyhawk.
"Papa?"
"Yes, Wavepaw?"
"Why do we have an alliance with ShadowClan?" the blue-gray apprentice replies, tipping her head with a look of kitlike curiosity.
Feigning cluelessness tended to work well with Shellstar, who was too detached from Wavepaw's life to be aware of what she already knew.
Maybe it was wrong, because technically it was deception, but Shellstar wasn't exactly the most honest of cats so she supposed it was fair.
"Well, Wavepaw, ShadowClan is a powerful ally. They're home to some of the lake's most powerful fighters, and they're close to securing an alliance with ThunderClan as well, so we'll have the assistance of two Clans."
"Ivyhawk says that ShadowClan is run by frauds," Wavepaw muses, keeping the same clueless expression plastered over her face.
She wanted to see just how right Ivyhawk was in Shellstar's mind, since she had little reason to doubt her mentor as opposed to her father.
A prickle of tension bounces off both Shellstar and Snowflash- it seemed like her theory was confirmed.
"Ivyhawk's an idiot, Wavepaw, don't listen to his rambling," Snowflash mews, all the saccharine that once smoothed her voice replaced by disdain.
"Precisely," Shellstar adds, grinning sweetly at his paramour.
"What's Slightstar like?" Wavepaw mews, twitching an ear.
The RiverClan leader tenses again, though relaxes when Snowflash presses up against him.
"He's a very professional cat, and he's...efficient. You'll get to meet him one of these days, when we next have a meeting."
"Mhm," the blue-gray apprentice hums in reply, trailing off into a yelp as Fallowtail comes unexpectedly storming through the den's entrance.
"Mom, hi," Wavepaw murmurs, shrinking away as her mother stalks toward Shellstar and Snowflash.
"What do you think you're doing in here, trying to manipulate my daughter?" Fallowtail spits, her striped fur standing on end.
"I am doing nothing of the sort," Shellstar replies defensively, rising to his paws and shoving his muzzle close to his ex-mate's.
"And she's my daughter too, in case you've forgotten."
"Stop meddling in our affairs," Snowflash hisses, ears flattening.
"You're paranoid. Talk to Petalface."
"You do not get to talk to me like that, you little-"
"Please stop, everyone," Wavepaw pleads; her voice is promptly drowned out in the cacophony.
"Don't fight over me-"
"Fallowtail, get a hold of yourself," Shellstar hisses, narrowing his eyes.
"Wavepaw is perfectly fine, aren't you, sweetheart?" the blue-gray tom adds, angling his gaze at his daughter.
Caught off guard, Wavepaw edges closer to the den wall with a stiff nod.
"Yep, fine..."
"See? You have nothing to worry about, Fallowtail," Snowflash calls in a mocking voice.
Fallowtail, undeterred, continues to screech at both Shellstar and Snowflash and grows more loud and incoherent by the heartbeat.
"Hey!"
Wavepaw groans at the new voice, glancing up for a moment as Falconpaw roughly shoulders his way into the leader's den.
"Stop yelling at Dad, Mom," the spiky-furred tom hisses, his ears flattening backwards.
"See? See, Shellstar? You're manipulating my kits against me!" Fallowtail screeches, starting to fidget and twitch.
"No he's not, Mom!" Falconpaw yells back.
"You're out of your mind, but I doubt you had much of one to begin with," Snowflash quips, smirking a bit.
Wavepaw's senses are promptly overwhelmed by screaming and the tension rippling from each arguing party; muttering a half-hearted apology, she slips behind Fallowtail and ducks out of Shellstar's den.
The blue-gray apprentice pads through the scarcely populated camp, staring blankly down at the ground.
It pained her to see her family so divided, and it wasn't helped by Snowflash and her need to worsen an already messy situation.
Wavepaw reaches the RiverClan medicine den and pushes inside, only to be greeted by a tired looking Ivyhawk and a coughing Mallowwhisker.
Ivyhawk glances back at his apprentice, bristling up.
"Stay back, Wavepaw. I don't want you getting sick."
Wavepaw nods, glancing concernedly at Mallowwhisker, who seems a bit deflated.
The young dark gray tabby was usually energetic and a little arrogant, but he now sprawled deliriously out on the ground, coughing under his breath so not to spread the sickness to Ivyhawk.
She watches her mentor help their Clanmate to his paws and guide him into the back chamber of the medicine den, holding her breath out of instinct.
"Do you want me to grab anything? Catmint, juniper?" Wavepaw inquires, grimacing at the sound of coughing.
"Yes to both of those," Ivyhawk replies from around the corner.
"Please be careful, Wavepaw."
"I will!" the blue-gray apprentice replies cheerily, trotting to the herb shelf and casting a glance at the bundles of herbs that were for ShadowClan.
Ivyhawk would soon have to go and deliver them, as was the agreement this moon; it alternated between the golden tabby going to drop them off or a ShadowClan cat coming to pick them up.
They'd thankfully never been late, even though Ivyhawk seemed to worry about what would happen if they at some point failed to get ShadowClan their supplies on time.
Wavepaw places the freshest of their remaining catmint and some juniper berries into a leaf wrap and carries it toward the back-chamber-turned-sick-bay, glancing curiously around at the dusty old space.
It hadn't been used much recently, and the only time she'd been back here before was when Ivyhawk first showed her around when she was a kit.
The blue-gray apprentice approaches her mentor, placing down the herb wrap and nudging it in his direction.
"Here, Ivyhawk," she mumbles, trying not to suck in too much air.
"Thanks, Wavepaw," the golden tabby replies with a weak smile; Mallowwhisker nods his gratitude, rubbing his face with a paw.
Wavepaw backs up to a safe distance and sits down, sighing quietly.
"Mom and Dad are fighting again, Ivyhawk, and now Snowflash and Falconpaw are in on it too."
Ivyhawk rolls his eyes in response, pushing the herb wrap toward Mallowwhisker before rising to his paws and padding back to the herb shelf.
"What was he trying to talk to you about in there?"
"Papa said that he understood that him and Mom splitting up was difficult for us, but I don't think he really understands," she mews.
"Then Snowflash said that I could consider her a mother if I wanted to, which was kinda weird.."
Ivyhawk tenses, giving his pelt a sharp shake; bits of reed shaft and leaf fragments drift to the ground.
"It sounds to me like they're trying to get you in their good graces so you'll be on their side instead of in the middle."
Wavepaw frowns, slumping down on the ground and curling her thick tail around herself.
"That sounds about right...it was a little creepy 'cause Papa didn't even tense up when he was talking about how hard and painful it was, or at least he didn't until Mom started yelling at him," she muses.
"Maybe I should've gotten Petalface, but I wasn't really thinking about that..."
Ivyhawk shrugs, shaking his head.
"She'll hear them at some point, so I wouldn't worry too much," he mutters, trailing off into a yawn.
"I asked Papa about the ShadowClan alliance, but all he would really say is that Slightstar was smart and stuff," Wavepaw mews, tipping her head.
Ivyhawk smirks.
"You pulled the clueless number on him, didn't you?"
The blue-gray apprentice giggles in reply, nodding vigorously.
"It worked great! I don't know if I should be offended because Papa seems to think I don't know a ton of stuff, but...yeah, it worked."
"I've known Shellstar a long time, Wavepaw, and from all that I've learned one thing. No matter how low your expectations are, he'll find a way to underwhelm you. He and I have been going at each other for ages now..."
Wavepaw considers the statement, tipping her head.
Her father neglected to do even the most basic of fatherly things, including checking on her just to be nice and not because he wanted something.
"...Yeah, I guess that sounds about right," she replies, frowning a little.
"You see this?'' Ivyhawk mews, motioning to the jagged tear in his right ear.
The medicine apprentice nods, curious as to where this point was going.
"When your dad and I were apprentices, we were arguing and he went too far and said something rude about someone in my family...might've been my mom. You would've liked her."
"Anyways, I got mad and said something...subjectively insensitive back to him and he didn't have anything to say back, so he sprang at me and we started fighting."
Wavepaw draws a paw over her ear, amber eyes alight with intrigue.
"Wow, so you two were fighting over stuff even back then.."
"Yep," Ivyhawk replies, chuckling dryly.
"Long story short, I somehow won the fight, even though I was way smaller than Shellstar at the time. He had me pinned and was starting to showboat, and I kicked him in the gut while he was trying to impress the other apprentices."
"He did manage to rip my ear, but that was about it."
Wavepaw nods, feeling a pang of guilt at what was being said about her father but quickly pushing it down.
"Needless to say, he didn't try fighting me after that," Ivyhawk finishes, smirking proudly.
"That's...interesting," Wavepaw remarks, not sure how to feel.
Shellstar was a complex matter- of course, he was her father, but he neglected to do most of the things that'd cement his status as such in favor of cuddling with Snowflash.
Fallowtail did the same thing, and that often left Ivyhawk acting in loco parentis for both sides.
All her parents did these days was bicker and scream and try to get their shared kits caught in the middle, used merely as emotional ammunition to try and break the other party.
Not even Petalface could stop them once it got really bad.
Wavepaw was lucky to have Ivyhawk; unfortunately for Falconpaw, though, his only uninvolved confidant was Carpsplash, a rather unremarkable warrior who was sympathetic to the young cat's plights at best and courteously ambivalent at worst.
Wavepaw had briefly wondered what her family would be like if her uncle was still around, but StarClan only knew what happened to him.
She had a feeling that everyone, even Ivyhawk, knew more about what happened in the moons of her kithood than they let on.
Maybe it was for her own good, or maybe it was to maintain an unspoken status quo; there was no way of knowing.