Private with Fire

She looked slightly confused when he nuzzled her tail, but let him. "Yeah..... I guess I won't really know how you feel about them until I get my own family." She sighed.

He glanced at the ground, embarrassed. "Yeah, but I guess it's not too bad, knowing that they're still alive." He nuzzled her tail, breathing in her scent.

"I'm sorry," she said softly, resting her tail tip on his shoulder. "That must have been hard."

He smiled up at her to hide his own mixed emotions. What she didn't know is that his words had been truthful, though he could tell now wasn't the time to say so. "I lost her and my kits...my entire family...to twolegs who wanted to give them to other twolegs," he explained further.

"Oh," she said, sounding and looking relieved. She hadn't wanted to deal with the problems it would have created if he had really loved her. She already had enough problems.

He stared at her, his chest heaving. "I only said that because you reminded me of my old mate..." he said quietly, laying on the ground and looking up at her.

She was still within earshot when he fell and so turned, slowly heading back. She stood several fox-lengths from him, watching him silently.

He reached for her as she raced down, but his paw could only brush her flank. "Wait! I'm sorry, I don't know why I said that. Let me explain!" he raced down the tree but tripped and fell down with a thump, knocking the air out of him, though he wasn't injured. "Wait..." he pleaded weakly.

She froze, staring at him. Suddenly frightened, she shot down the tree, racing in the direction of the camp. No no no no no no no no no! She already had a mate, how could this have happened?

When she thanked him with that beautiful smile of hers, he was painfully reminded of his first mate, who had been taken away by twolegs along with their kits. "I think I might love you," he muttered, then froze, shocked the words had escaped him out loud.

She smiled gratefully at him, a genuine smile. "Thanks, Black. That means a lot to me."

"Well, if you ever feel like you need a companion or someone with you to keep you safe, I'm always available no matter what."

She shrugged miserably, just the slightest movement of her shoulders. "I don't know. I can't think of any reason why."

He watched her the entire time and finally rested his tail on her shoulder. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize you and Stormfur were so far out with each other. And why has the leader been looking at you strangely?"

She turned her head to look at him, her gaze locking with his. Sighing, she opened her mouth and started talking about everything that was bothering her: Stormfur, the fact that she might never have a family with said tom, that the leader was looking at her weirdly lately (dun dun duuuuuun!), and how she felt terrible for basically rejecting her mate earlier.

He continued staring at her face, trying to catch her gaze. "If there's anything I learned after losing my kits, it's that keeping silent about these things is terrible for you. It'll drag you down. Please talk to me."

She clamped her muzzle shut, looking down at the ground far below.

He frowned, sensing something was on her mind. He sat down and looked at her seriously. "Alright, I know something is bothering you, and I know it's serious. I want you to tell me everything you need to." He said the words bluntly.

"But I have no idea what we should do!" Pineleaf protested, her tail flicking. In truth, now that she was unoccupied, she was thinking about Stormfur again.

"Wellll...." he stretched the word out, not sure what to do next. "Well, I thought of the game, so I think you should decide."

She nodded, shuffling her paws on the branch before sitting down. "So...what now?"

He laughed and pulled away, just now thinking that her awkardness was pretty cute. "Not right now, of course! Just later on, whenever your able to." He sat next to her and looked out over the tree line.

She stiffened slightly but didn't pull away. "Th-that's fine."

Forgetting their earlier tensions, he stepped forward and licked her cheek. "I'd like to practice with you, if you wouldn't mind," he purred.

She smiled bashfully. "Like anything else. Practice, practice, and more practice."