freezing flames |p|

[Flamepaw]

|for Freezepaw|

Flamepaw flopped down into an empty nest, figuring that the lack of scent on it meant it wasn't being used by anyone. 
    Soft, the small tom thought, nuzzling his face into the fluffy moss. The tabby had quickly learned that being an apprentice was much harder than being a kit; there was a lot of chasing after prey, practice fighting, and patrolling around the territory. Which the dark ginger tom usually wouldn't have a problem with, as long as he got to spend time around cats, but he was starting to feel a little tired and overwhelmed.
Sighing in content, the apprentice looked up, his eyes catching on the icy-blue of another apprentice's. Shuffling around until he wasn't so sunken into his nest, Flamepaw offered a lopsided, and slightly bashful smile to the other apprentice. 
    "Um, hi!" the small tabby greeted, wanting to start a conversation but not really knowing how.

[Freezefeather]

Freezepaw had been making his way over to his nest.

He found his nest next to a nest occupied by an unfamiliar apprentice. The apprentice seemed to be rather comfortable. Although something was off. The nest didn't exactly have the signs of a nest belonging to some cat. So either this apprentice was new... Or they were too lazy to get to their own nest and just plopped down into an empty one. He didn't really care either way, but he'd assume it would be less troublesome for it to the former.

He was standing over the mystery apprentice, wearing his usual bored expression with his attentive eyes the usual contrast. The tabby noticed him and shifted to say hello. Freezepaw sighed. "Oh... Hello." He replied, not sounding enthusiastic at all.

[Flamepaw]

Flamepaw relaxed slightly as the other tom spoke, voices had always comforted him, well, unless they were annoying and high-pitched, that was always more disruptive than soothing. Yet, that's besides the point.
    "I'm Flamepaw," the small tabby introduced, letting his bashful smile become a little more toothy and confident, "I was just apprenticed to Blazeleaf a little while ago," he mewed absentmindedly, reveling slightly in the fact that he was now an apprentice. He had never looked forward to it while he was in the nursery, but the small twinge of accomplishment he felt at climbing a rank was something nice to cling onto. It was as if one everlasting day had ended, only for the dawn of a new one to begin.
Drifting away from his thoughts and back into the "real world", Flamepaw took another look at the other apprentice, seeing as he view was now clearer. The dark ginger tabby's gaze once against settled briefly on the other tom's eyes before he took to looking in another direction. The eyes were always the first things he really noticed  about another cat. They were always the most alluring feature; everyone had a unique eye color, and the emotion each optic seemed to carry had always attracted the young tom, as a moth is attracted to a flame.

[Freezefeather]

Freezepaw knew well that a cat's eyes never lied.

If you truly needed to know what a cat's true emotions were, you would read their eyes. It was true, that eyes are the window to the soul. His own eyes were always sharp. Attentive. However, most cats failed to look past his lazy posture and bored expression and dismissed him. No one had picked up on it. Not his mentor, his friend, no one had ever quite noticed yet. He wondered briefly if Flamepaw would. 

He hoped. He expected not. Why would this one apprentice be different? Listening, continuing to keep up the well crafted facade of disinterest, he blinked slowly. Blazeleaf? He'd never heard of that cat. But then again, there were many cats in the clan. It would take a while to meet them all. Not that he exactly wanted to, because it wasn't exactly required. Bit too much work. "Name's Freezepaw. Apprenticed to Lionstrike more than a bit of a while ago." He meowed, sounding bored. Taking a look at Flamepaw truly, he was shy at first. Now he was confident. Good. 

Now, he was no fan of loud peppy cats. Those sort of cats were living nightmares, always screeching in your ear... Begging to play or do something else you don't want to do. Never understanding the meaning of no.... Yeesh. Then again, shy cats who would literally squeak at you and then hide in their nests.... It was more effort to try to interact with them rather than a confident cat.

So far.... He liked Flamepaw. Not too loud, apparently confident enough not to be a nervous wreck when meeting a new cat.

[Flamepaw]

    "Freezepaw," the small tabby tipped his head slightly to the side as he tested out the new name in a soft tone.
It was a habit of his-- both tipping his head to the side and repeating someone's name after they had first mentioned it. Names were another thing that was unique to every cat, and saying them aloud was much like looking into one's eyes, for Flamepaw at least. It was likes a stressless way of learning about someone without having to actually do anything; there was no prying involved, and the simple word could provide you with so much information: what rank a cat was, something about their physical appearance, how creative their parents (or whoever named them) was, and if the other cat was a warrior you might even be able to tell what their personality was like or what their abilities were. 
Yet, this information zipped through Flamepaw's clever brain too fast for him to ponder on right now. He was more focus on the owner of the name rather than it's meaning.
    "Well, I'm not entirely sure what a freeze is, but I do like your name, it sounds rather fetching," Flamepaw complimented lightly. He had heard the term "freezing" before, and assumed that the word freeze would also be associated with the cold, but he wasn't one to back up assumptions with his only evidence being a comment he had overheard an elder give.
For the third time, Flamepaw's eyes traveled to the icy-blue of the other apprentice's, and he had to force himself to look away again, or he would end up staring. He had met a cat before, a she-cat named Snowblossom, who had a similar eye color, yet for some reason there was an acute difference. The small tabby had always been rather dense when it came to reading body language, but his observant and curious mind seemed to have found some flaw in the older tom's gaze. I cant quite put my claw on it, though, Flamepaw thought, trying to figure out what it was about the other cat...
    "As for Lionstrike... I don't think I've met her before. Funny, I guess we've shared a den for the past 6 moons, and I don't think I've even caught a glimpse of her," Flamepaw mewed, trying to recall if he had any images of the Queen stored in the back of his mind as he pulled his mind away from his previous thoughts. He would have plenty of time to contemplate such things in the solitude of his dreams.

[Freezefeather]

It seemed to Freezepaw that Flamepaw seemed to be inspecting his name.

Hearing Flamepaw repeat his name, he couldn't think of a different reason. It couldn't be to catch his attention. His attention was already obviously on Flamepaw. He wondered for what reason would Flamepaw inspect his name. Perhaps it was a quirk. He halted that train of thought right there, knowing with his current knowledge it would only derail into strange speculation. Which was a bit too much effort.  He'd rather deal with all the facts and minimal work. Like he always thought. He personally analyzed and carefully observed what cats said and did. Without knowing, quite often cats let things slip through one way or the other. Things hidden have a way of squirming their way to the surface. Then again...

Cats more often than not chose not to see them, completely missing important things. He blinked his eyes lazily, hearing Flamepaw's compliment on his name. He shrugged. "Freeze is a verb. It refers to the action of water turning into ice. I assume I was named for my eyes." He explained, not sounding particularly interested. Then Flamepaw stared at him for a moment, before tearing his gaze away. Freezepaw gave out a sigh. He'd noticed the action. He hadn't particularly cared. Flamepaw was the first cat he'd met who truly saw, instead of just looking in a general direction. A cat who observed. Similar to him. That was nice. Perhaps they could hold a more stable friendship than the one he shared with Azaleapaw.

Freezepaw shrugged. "Don't blame you. Didn't know about her until she became a warrior, despite being a Queen in the nursery while I was there as well."

[Flamepaw]

|sorry about this being super late 'n everything. i spent, like, all of last week prepping for the convention i attended the past few days. i should be more active from now on|

    Named for his eyes... weird. His eyes don't seem very frozen, the small apprentice thought. Flamepaw supposed  he must have been named for the color then. After all, to the flame-colored tabby it seemed as if his companion's eyes were much more vigilant than they were frozen. I wonder what I would have been called if Fadingnight named me after my eyes, Flamepaw thought as his mind drifted. Oceankit, maybe? it made sense, he had remembered someone, most likely his mother, describing his eyes as an ocean-blue like his fathers. 
The tabby apprentice nodded at what Freezepaw had said. Although he assumed that his own lack of observation was most likely associated with his sleep schedule. The majority of the past few moons for him were spent curled up in a nest, dreaming the day away while the other kittens played and became acquainted with their kin. 
    I wonder if I'd be taller if I spent more time out in the sun, he thought absentmindedly, remembering a comment someone had made about his short height possibly being linked to his obsessive amount of time sleeping.

[Freezefeather]

Freezepaw noticed Flamepaw hadn't said a thing.

He assumed Flamepaw was thinking. He was more than glad Flamepaw was a thoughtful type. Some cats talked for the sake of talking, barely saying anything meaningful. That was annoying and somewhat wasteful in his eyes. He was more than content that Flamepaw seemed to think things out. Plus he wasn't loud. That was a plus. He wondered if Flamepaw noticed his eyes and how while the color matched... The state of them less so. He assumed Flamepaw was named for his pelt. His eyes were a sort of ocean blue. Not matching his name... Looking at Flamepaw's eyes... He was vaguely reminded of the sky when it was a dimly shrouded by those wisps of clouds. Except the sky was a deeper hue. 

Freezepaw yawned. "Opinion on training?" He asked quietly.

[Flamepaw]

Flamepaw wrinkled his nose a bit at the mention of training.

    "It's okay, I guess," he mewed with a small huff and nestled comfortably into his nest while he continued to speak, "I mean, it's not like I dislike it or anything, I just wish I got more time to relax 'n stuff. It's sort of a pain to constantly be getting up early to run around the territory. Plus I'm not really fond of cleaning up the dens," the tabby said passivley, sniffing in distaste at the last part of his explanation. He missed being able to sleep the day away, or hover on the realm between the dream world and the waking world. He wasn't to fond of battle practice either, it was a lot of work and he already wasn't to fond of the idea of harming another cat. 

[Freezefeather]

Freezepaw wasn't a moron.

He had a certain opinion on training, that may surprise the cats that hear it from him. He was fairly sure if he expressed it to his friend Azaleapaw, she'd be surprised at how it didn't have lazy bum written all over it. "I don't like getting up for it either. It's alright once I get going and active. I just don't like if it's interrupted. I don't like breaks in my training." He looked over at Flamepaw. "I don't mind battle training or hunting training. I think it's good. No... I'm not happy about running among the ferns chasing down a small, skittish rodent. Or trying to pin down my best friend. But..." His eyes narrowed and there was a slight passion lit in his eyes. "I may like relaxation... But I need to be able to hunt and fight. Could you really sit back and sleep if Treeclan was starving or under attack?" He questioned.

He sighed and his eyes faded back to normal. "I couldn't. I like relaxing. Observing. I can't do that if my friends are in danger. From claws or hunger."

[Flamepaw]

The flame-colored tabby listened to Freezepaw's little speech curiously, finding a fervor behind the tom's words that intrigued him. 
    "I couldn't either, it's just..." Flamepaw' spoke, his blue eyes softening a bit, "I don't like thinking about my family or friends getting hurt, whether it's from battle wounds or lack of food," of course, he realized that it was impractical for someone to go their whole life without getting a few scratches, but the fact that cats he cared for could get seriously injured was one of the few things he feared. It was why he had never given up on becoming a warrior, despite his lazy nature and usual lack of motivation-- so that one day he could provide for those he cared for the way they provided for him. Even if it meant harming another living creature.
    I know it may not seem like I want to learn how to defend them, he thought, thinking of his few friends and numerous family, but, I guess sometime I just don't want to face the fact that someday I might need too.