#''I was forced to swear myself to celibacy as a congenitally disabled *12 year old*

[troutfur]

Brightheart and Jayfeather having a conversation about his brief time as her apprentice after he gets his medicine cat name.

You were one of the first people to submit but also one of the ones I consciously decided to ignore for the longest time because even though Jay is an absolute blorbo and I'll always take every opportunity to write him, I wanted to deliver more variety and challenge myself a little. Plus I did get randomly into the mood for doing pfurr stuff. But now that I'm clearing the inbox I may as well indulge.

I briefly deliberated going an AU route with this one because I do like AUs in which Jayf either swaps later in life or otherwise has more agency in becoming a meddie. But I felt canon was more in spirit of the prompt and has a certain emotionality that can't be gotten anywhere else.

(Wanna submit a prompt of your own? Check out my guidelines and send it in! Inbox cleanse coming soon so I'm gonna definitely need a good number of these to last me the 2nd half of the month.)

Brightheart waved goodbye to Birchfall as Berrynose approached with a heavy step to relieve him on the first shift of sentry duty that day. His ruffled fur and glazed eyes clearly betrayed why he hadn’t been ready at sunrise sharp and had instead delayed until the sunlight began to filter down from the canopy in weak beams. When she greeted him with a motion of her head he responded in kind and began with his morning grooming routine.

For a senior warrior such as her to be doing two consecutive shifts of sentry duty, no less at the border between night and day... It had been an odd request, much less having first been presented over a half-moon ago. But her persistence had made Brambleclaw ultimately accept. Rumors had been exchanged, reaching even the ears of their brothers who had offered her to serve the shifts alongside her on the assumption it had to do with remembrance of their sister. She ended up declining. It had to do with oracle business but it wasn’t about their sister this time.

As the day brightened and the forest and camp wakened with activity, Brightheart kept her vision forward and focused. Her ears stood tall, her position was perfectly squared. At least from the outside she was the model of a sentry. But her focus was really only placed on a very particular thing.

Once her good eye registered the approach of two familiar tabby pelts, one brown one silver-gray, she gently touched Berrynose’s side to bring him to alert and stop his daydreaming.

“Mrruh?” he mewed, turning to face his senior.

“Keep on guarding camp,” she instructed. “I’m going to be back shortly. If you need me for anything I’ll be heading in that direction,” she signaled with her muzzle towards her right side.

“Fine, fine, fine,” he mumbled as he shook his head to free himself from the stupor he’d been in.

Brightheart strode up to Leafpool and Jaypaw --Jaysomething rather-- in long steps. From where she saw her approaching Leafpool beamed her a smile and gave her apprentice a nudge. He barely had time to get to taste the air before the senior warrior was right in front of him.

“Greetings star-touched,” she began with a bow as was protocolary when the oracles were returning from their official functions. “Leafpool, Jayp--”

“Jayfeather,” he promptly interrupted. “It’s Jayfeather now.” Leafpool gently bunted against his shoulder with her own. “...And greetings to you too, Brightheart.”

“I think she’s got something to say to you,” Leafpool told her apprentice. “I’ll go to the den and get ahead in catching up with cases we might have missed while out last night.”

“Better they be something worth the time and not a matter of vanity like with Berrynose last time,” the newly-made full medicine cat huffed as his mentor strutted off.

“Come walk with me,” Brightheart prompted, hanging her tail over his shoulders as she positioned herself for the direction they were going to go in.

As he turned he shouldered off her tail and made a quick inspection with his whiskers and nose before setting ahead.

“So, I guessed right,” Brightheart said, heaving herself towards the front. “How is the new name suiting you, you think?”

“Not what I thought I’d get,” he said rather non-chalant. But from what she could see out of her flank she knew his stride was bold and his tail fully upright. “But I never did think Leafpool would give me something good. So all in all I’m happy.”

“You ever thought Firestar would give you something good?” she asked.

She could see him startle and then his tail droop even though he kept up the tone and the stride. “Really doesn’t matter now does it?”

“You seem really proud to be Leafpool’s apprentice,” she said.

“It’s good work,” he replied. “Most of the time at least...”

“Does it make you happy as well?”

“My Clanmates are well taken care of,” he replied. “I get to know the forest in a way no ordinary warrior ever really can. I get to have more freedoms than them across the borders. I am privy to StarClan’s secrets. I--” The more he spoke the more unconvinced he himself sounded.

“And do you ever miss the brief time we spent together?” she asked.

He sighed. “Frankly, no. Leafpool may have fretted about me but she did let me be out of camp. At least with her I can be out of her sight.”

A silence hung between them for a moment, letting the awkwardness grow. “I... see...”

“I know why you did,” he replied. “And I’ve tended to the aftermath of enough battles to see what were your worst fears. But between being stuck in stuffy dens all day and only most of the day... I think it’s easy to see why I think like I do.”

“You’re right,” Brightheart admitted with a bow of her head. “And do you think that with what you know now you’d rather have had a youth like your other peers?”

“Hard to know for sure,” he said. “I’d probably get frustrated more. That battle with ShadowClan...”

“It would be my job to make sure it didn’t get to you,” Brightheart said. “It’s something every apprentice experiences on some measure. We hardly had time to work on it, but if you had let me...”

“The herbs clicked for me in a way nothing else had,” Jayfeather said. “So much so that when Leafpool tried to pull our lessons towards the other parts of our duties I was very strong resisting. She chastised me often, ‘we are supposed to heal not mend, StarClan’s light is a must.’ If I had find something about being a warrior like that I can only imagine it going down similar.”

“That would have been a challenge,” she conceded. “But if I could have found that talent in you, we could have worked a lot more on it than what I imagine Leafpool would allow you to work in the mending part of your duties.”

“That would’ve been nice,” Jayfeather mused.

“I’m sorry for how I failed you,” Brightheart said, coming to a halt. “You made your choice and I’m happy for you in it. But if you ever feel like you could use some more skills, I’ll see what I can do for you.”

“I feel like I’ll end up doing all the outdoors chores,” Jayfeather said, beginning to turn and retrace his steps. “So I’ve got a hunch I’m gonna end up needing them.”

#warrior cats #wc #warrior cats au #jayfeather #brightheart #it is such a small part of Po3 but the fact Jayfeather's promotion was played FOR LAUGHS #way to salt the fucking wound #''I was forced to swear myself to celibacy as a congenitally disabled *12 year old* #and I all got when I was proud of my achievements was utter dismissal'' #also woah over double the wordcount goal #little gremlin truly gets the gears turning