Not Intended To Be Shipping - Tumblr Posts

Snowstripe's eyes swept across the gathering spot, snagging on the familiar black and white pelt of his colony's healer as he sat very cozily next to a stocky tom with thick grey fur. He squinted, trying to recall if he'd ever interacted with this cat, let alone what his name was.

Who but Robinswoop would hop by to sit next to him, chirping helpfully when he noticed Snowstripe's confused expression, "Oh, the grey tom is my brother's mate. Sootear."

"Hm?" Snowstripe blinked, getting Robinswoop's full attention now. Sootear... He sniffed thoughtfully, remembering how he'd been the first to pick up the scent of the cove near their borders. A sandy, salty scent, with something akin to seagulls mixed in. Then Mallowcloud had a large shell in his den and feathers in his nest, and he knew that Mallow, with his limp and preference for mice, was not one to be high-leaping for seafaring birds. "...Explains why his scent is familiar."

Being deputy and not much of a talker, Snowstripe had a reputation for being a stoic, closed-off character. Robinswoop, who had a way of making friends with ease, had known better. It was nice, actually, to just have someone to casually talk to. Robin had a tendency for making others comfortable around him, so happened upon all sorts of information by chance. Having family in charge must've made it easy, though his family was... eccentric, Snow had come to realize.

"Between my brother and your sister being... terrible parents..." It was a harsh way to put it, but he wasn't sure of another way. Smokestep was always a fool, and Honeysnap... well that wasn't his place to speak, but he'd noticed how Hallowpaw would stare after her, while Honeysnap blithely ignored her existence. Mallowcloud and Sootear were probably better parent figures to her. "And your brother being with a cove cat, that sounds--"

"Like quite a life, huh? Hahaha!" Robinswoop laughed, finding it funnier. He looked up at Snowstripe with sincerity. "But really, Snowy, I think you'd be a good dad. I see how Stormpaw looks up to you, and you're so gentle with him."

Snowstripe was taken aback. He knew about Stormpaw, that he idolized him from kithood, always talking about how he wanted to be deputy someday just like him. But he had never considered parenthood himself. Kits, huh? It didn't sound like a terrible idea. But there wasn't anybody... "...Thanks." After a moment of sitting with it, he figured he may as well be polite and return the conversation. "What about you?"

He thought he saw Robin's whiskers twitch as the small tom laughed again. "Me? No way! I'll stick with being the fun uncle!"