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"How do you tell a cat you want to be mates with them?" Pigeonhop asked as the patrol wound their way along the river border.
Tallstar, Bristleblink, and Emberdusk stopped and turned to look at him.
"I'm not sure any of us are the best to answer that," Bristleblink purred.
Both their leader and Emberdusk looked away.
"Maybe," Pigeonhop accepted, "but it's on my mind now. How would you want to be asked?"
Tallstar could have said many things: how he and Jake had first spoken of their feelings, how Barley had first lit up as the three of them had curled together in the barn, how he had confessed to Barkface that he wished the medicine cat hadn't taken his vow.
Instead, he simply said, "You must be honest about your feelings. Tell them not only how you feel about them but what you want from them."
"What I want from them?" Pigeonhop questioned.
"Yes. What does being mates mean to you?"
With Jake, it was love, but it was a distant, adventurous love that sprawled unfamiliar fields and dangerous quests together.
With Barley, it was companionship, a deep understanding of one another and the differences in their lives.
With Barkface, it had always been an intense friendship, something they had always had, but more than that. It was another form of companionship, swallowed up by just being there for each other.
Pigeonhop paused to think about it.
"So what do you want from them?" Tallstar prompted.
"I want to share a nest with her. I want to have kits with her. I want her ."
"Then that's what you tell her."
Emberdusk couldn't mention the tom that had captured her heart, nor how they had gone about becoming mates. It was against the warrior code, and with Tallstar beside her she was certain that if she even uttered the idea of it she might well be cast out of WindClan.
She had to be cautious in her advice.
"You could ask the elders," she suggested. "Most of them have had a mate, or multiple mates, and they must have given advice to other cats too." She'd never asked, though.
"I suppose," Pigeonhop agreed. "I thought about asking Sorrelfeather, but..."
She tilted her head. "Why wouldn't you? You're so close!"
It seemed feather-brained for her to be giving him advice if he hadn't even spoken to her mother. Pigeonhop was her closest kin to a father figure, wasn't he meant to be giving her advice?
"She and Mist were never mates," he pointed out.
"Oh. Right. But she loves—" Emberdusk glanced over to Tallstar, unwilling to get her kin in trouble, and dropped her voice. "She must have spoken to Soot about it."
"It's different. Soot's not a Clan cat." He sighed. "I'll ask her anyway. Thanks."
But it was love, wasn't it? Love, whether within a Clan or outside it, was still love, she thought.
"I'm really not the cat to ask about this," Bristleblink said as Pigeonhop approached him for his thoughts.
"What do you think though, if you were being asked by a cat to be mates with them?"
Bristleblink debated how to be mates. "To be mates or to mate ?" he asked.
"To be mates, partners, companions..."
He interrupted the list quickly. "My answer would be no, regardless of how they asked."
Pigeonhop blinked. "What? Always ?"
Purring, Bristleblink pawed the younger warrior's side. "After all these seasons, I know that I don't want a mate. That isn't going to change for me now."
"What if you liked them?"
"I don't like any cat in a way to change my mind on that," he answered. "If having a mate is important to you, you need to remember that it isn't for every cat. Some cats won't return your feelings. Others won't return any. Be prepared for that. Understand that is it not your fault or theirs."
The advice wasn't what he was expecting, but maybe he'd asked the wrong cats. As they returned to camp from their patrol, Pigeonhop reflected on their words.
He had to be honest, but he had to be understanding. It would be best to talk to Sorrelfeather and his former mentor before he decided on what he'd say.
At the top of the slope, he looked down, spotting her immediately. Morningflower sat with her littermates, grooming one another in a huddle. He gazed at her, dreaming of how she would look when he asked her.
If she wanted to be with him, maybe her tail would quiver with excitement. She might lick his muzzle before he was even done asking. Or she'd say that she'd been waiting for him to ask, or how she had been building up the courage to ask him!
But if she didn't want to be with him... he'd have to prepare himself for that. It wouldn't change much between them, he'd give her space, he decided. Until she was comfortable with him again. Then they could continue being friends, if that's what she wanted.