I Never Asked You To (P)

[Deleted]

He walked through the mini-forest, sighing quietly as his paws became covered in mud. 'Good thing we're on our way to the river.' His gaze remained on his paws, though he did take a look over at the set of ginger ones. 'She had smiled.' He had seen her smile before, but even then he knew that it would be a rare sight to see. 'And why would that be? There's too many things to smile about.'

Jude looked up as they approached the river. He waded in, splashing some water onto his face. It stung. He kept going further until he was neck-deep. That stung too.

[Natalia]

Natalia stopped as the riverbank.

She watched Jude was he slipped into the water, splashing water to wash the blood off of his fur. She shifted uncomfortably on the riverbank, her emerald gaze scanning around for any signs of trouble.

She wasn't sure why, but she always managed to bump into someone at some point. Even if she didn't want to meet them. Thus, she didn't really trust that no one would stumble across the two of them at this very inopportune moment. She especially hoped that kid with the twitchy claws didn't come along now.

[Deleted]

Confident that his fur was no longer stained, he swam to the shallows where his paws could touch. He looked down at his shaky reflection, getting to see for himself what Thomas's claws had done.

There were marks running from the right corner of his forehead to the area next to his left eye. Jude frowned. 'Great.' But at least it was clean, and would possibly heal up and disappear. Maybe. He craned his neck to the side, not liking what he saw. Though at least his neck fluff would cover that.

He hopped out of the water and onto some grass, staying a few tail-lengths away from Natalia in case she didn't want to get wet.

[Natalia]

Now that Natalia could see Jude's wounds clearly without blood distorting the severity...

She moved closer to Jude, eyeing his wounds with concern. Sunset did all this? It could've been worse... She was glad Jude would probably come out okay... Well. She was reasonably sure. She hoped wishful thinking hadn't overtaken her thoughts.

"Will those... Scar?" She asked tentatively.

[Deleted]

He shrugged. "I sure hope not." He didn't like how they looked, and could easily see a younger cat getting frightened. 'It'll go away. It'll go away. Just keep thinking that and it will come true.' It was dumb, but worth a shot.

Jude blinked, pushing some wet fur out of his face with a paw. "He said you were loners. I can't imagine why he'd choose the kittypet life after that." He looked at her, noticing that she had moved closer. "He's a little unpredictable, isn't he?"

[Natalia]

Natalia blinked.

Did Sunset just start shouting about loners or something? Then again... She hadn't been there so she wasn't entirely sure what went down aside from blows being exchanged.

"Yeah..." She meowed, then suddenly Jude's sentence hit her. "Wait, Sunset's a kittypet?!" She asked incredulously. "Is that why the fact that my family were loners came up? He's a... Kittypet now?"

[Deleted]

Jude looked surprised. "You didn't know?" 'When was the last time they'd talked?' He nodded at her question. 'And he said that you had another sister. Though I'm not going to bring up that.'

He took a seat and curled his tail over his paws, water squishing out of his damp fur. 'I hope she doesn't go looking for him. Oh no. Did I make a mistake telling her?'

[Natalia]

Natalia didn't say anything at first.

She shook her head after a moment. "No... I didn't. I never saw him again after he left that day..." She sighed. At this point... She wasn't sure what would happen if she saw Sunset again. He'd already attacked Jude... Would he attack her? .... Of course he would. Maybe he'd even kill her. Did she deserve it? ... Maybe.

But looking at Jude now... She needed to ask the question. It would decide what she chose. "Jude... Would you be sad if I died?"

[Deleted]

'After he left that day?' The tabby frowned. 'How could he just get up and leave her? What went wrong?' He had many questions, though knew that they'd get answered in time.

"Would you be sad if I died?" Jude froze, the question catching him off-guard. His eyes were soon full of sadness, a perfect match to his frown. "Of course I'd be sad. Don't say that." 'What on earth is going through her head?' That was such a terrible question to ask. He couldn't think about it any longer, instead focusing his attention on his wet fur. He fluffed it out some, hoping that wind would pass by.

[Natalia]

Natalia simply nodded.

"Alright." Sometimes... She wondered what she was doing these days. Did Jude really enjoy her company? He seemed to. Or at least, that's what it seemed like to Natalia. Was she wrong? Cats made plenty of mistakes, she was no exception. Was she making a mistake by trying to be Jude's friend? Heck, what did she know about friendship?

Regardless... Due to Jude's answer, she wouldn't go to Sunset to find out what's what. She'd stay here in Deathclan. Where she admittedly had felt better than she had since her life had first come crashing down.

[Deleted]

Jude stared at her, concerned. 'Is she going to die soon? Is someone out to get her? Does she want to die?' Thoughts were spinning through his mind. Why else would she ask that? 'Would she not be sad if I died, so she asked me first? Or maybe she's just wondering if I considered her an ally.' But that couldn't be it. Why would she wonder about that?

He tipped his head to the side, hoping his next few words didn't come off as rude. "Are you feeling okay?"

[Natalia]

Natalia sighed.

"You don't have to look so worried." She reassured her friend. "I only said that... Because well..." She shifted uncomfortably. "I was trying to decide if I should... Go to Sunset to see what the heck is up... But..." She fixed her emerald gaze onto Jude.

"But I wasn't sure. So I asked you that question... And your answer was all I needed to know that I'll be fine, staying here." She gave a sad smile. "If you were being honest... Then I won't jump into Sunset's claws if it would really hurt you that much."

[Deleted]

He took her reassurance with a grain of salt. Something had to be wrong.

He watched her mouth move as she explained, worried expression not changing much when she finished with a sad smile. "I don't... I don't want to be holding you down. If you really want to go, then go." 'I just don't want you to get hurt.' Jude sighed. "Just do what you want." He certainly didn't want to control her decision or anything. Yet at the same time, he could be letting his friend to go off and get herself killed. 'What do I do?'

[Natalia]

Natalia folded her ears back.

"What? No... That's not right." She meowed, trying to reassure Jude. "You're not holding me down, if anything it's the other way around." She didn't know what to do. "What I want... I just want..." She wasn't entirely sure what she wanted. "I just... I just don't want to hurt you or see you get hurt.... Especially not because of me..." She meowed honestly.

[Deleted]

Jude listened to her intently, now becoming more confused than worried. "I just don't want to hurt you or see you get hurt... especially because of me." He pointed at his face with his tail-tip. "That kind of already happened."

The tabby shook his head. "You don't need to worry. You want to go see your brother, right? Then go. I'll be fine."