Warrior Cat Clans 2 (WCC2 aka Classic) is a roleplay site inspired by the Warrior series by Erin Hunter. Whether you are a fan of the books or new to the Warrior cats world, WCC2 offers a diverse environment with over a decade’s worth of lore for you - and your characters - to explore. Join us today and become a part of our ongoing story!
News & Updates
11.06.2022 The site has been transformed into an archive. Thank you for all the memories here!
Here on Classic we understand that sometimes life can get difficult and we struggle. We may need to receive advice, vent, know that we are not alone in our difficult times, or even just have someone listen to what's going on in our lives. In light of these times, we have created the support threads below that are open to all of our members at any time.
It was almost dark by the time Doefreckle slipped back into The White Hall, muzzle specked with dried blood and damp, muddy fur sticking up in every direction in patchy clumps. The sun was just slipping below the treetops, leaving the world a hazy watercolour of gold and grey. His latest fling had ended about as well as all the others, but, well, he hadn't had his leg broken this time, so, really, it was all going pretty alright! Completely alright. More than fine. Wonderful, even. He blinked away the tears, trying to keep him sniffling as silent as possible, and crept across the dimly lit hall, warm with the stale scent of sleep, towards the den Colin favoured.
It was strange, really, the fact that his only friend in the Clan should be one of the most serious, emotionally-disconnected cats in the forest — but it was half his charm, as far as Doefreckle was concerned. He babbled; Colin pretended he didn't exist for a bit — what else did a good friendship need? Squeezing his eyes shut to blink away the last of the tears, he plastered on a big smile and poked Colin with his forepaw. "Psst," he whispered, leaning down to nudge the other tom with his nose. "Psst, pretty boy, wake up, I need a snuggle."
( this is the part where i realise i barely remember how brookclan functions lmao )
Colin blinked as he stirred himself into awakeness, Doefreckle's figure in front of him slowly becoming less and less blurry. "...Pretty boy?" he echoed, with a hint of distaste - though secretly, it was mostly forced. Colin barely knew any cats around him who would call him by name, much less by such an affectionate nickname, so it was...somewhat of a welcome change for him. Not that he would ever admit it, of course. He had an air of mystery and stoicism to maintain, damn it.
"You're getting a little too creative with your nicknames for me, you know that?" Colin yawned, giving the den a brief glance before turning to examine Doefreckle more closely. Was that the hint of hastily-dried tears in his friend's eyes, or was the other tom merely tired? He shrugged off his concerns; if Doefreckle was having the issues, perhaps he'd rather be able to bring it up in his own time, rather than have Colin push him into talking. "...What's the snuggle for?" he asked, keeping his tone light. "Stubbed a toe?"
He hadn't actually expected Colin to be open to the idea of cuddling. Now that it was an option, he suddenly found that he didn't want to stay still, didn't want to lie down, didn't want the other tom to smell the blood and fear and misery — he wanted to run, to get away, to disappear into the dark. His nerves were alight with fever and he wanted to burn it out of himself. He sat down in front of Colin and let out a scratchy purr, looking down at him with a soft, lop-sided smile and a distracted gaze. "Pretty boy," he whispered again, ducking down closer. "Mr. Fancy Paws." Closer. "Cutie-wootie-wittle-Collie-kins." He smooshed his forehead against Colin's and let out a long purr before drawing back, smiling down at the mussed fur on his friend's head.
"Nah," he continued after a moment of gazing down at him adoringly, bouncing to his paws. The quiet night-time air smelled of dry soil and the distant coolness of the streams. "Snuggle time is over. C'mon, let's go exploring."
Colin frowned in distaste, raising a single paw to flatten down all the fur on his forehead that Doefreckle's paws had smooshed up. He'd been relatively okay with pretty boy as a nickname, but cutie-wootie-wittle-Collie-kins was out of the question. "Keep calling me all these nicknames and I'm going to assume you've forgotten by actual name," he remarked, heaving himself up onto all fours with a soft grunt. His joints still ached from the work he'd done yesterday, because of course they did, even though he was only a year and a half old and he shouldn't have been getting those kinds of aches and pains for another few years, at least. His eyes narrowed as he levelled his gaze at Doefreckle's rather spritely form; said tom had just bounced to his paws, like some kind of overeager apprentice. Unfair. Why can't everyone just be horribly cynical and jaded like me?
"So if we're not snuggling like you offered," he said drily, "then where're we exploring? Please try and answer correctly, lest you find yourself exploring the territory alone."
"You complain a whole lot about my undying affection for someone who was super down to snuggle, like, literally a second ago," Doefreckle purred, voice catching just this side of laughter. He helped nudge Colin to his paws with his muzzle, breathing in the smell of sleep and dust and him and trying very hard and very unsuccessfully to ignore the thrill of nerves that tingled in his ribcage and settled into a dull ache at the bottom of his chest. It was almost predictable at this point, this whole having an unrequited crush on any tom who shows you a speck of attention or kindness thing, and it was only made worse by the fact that Colin wasn't just giving him scraps, he was giving him friendship. These crushes of his always ended badly, and they always ended in pain, but he would be a liar if he said he wasn't a little in love with the thrill that came before the fall - what was any horror story, after all, without the few minutes of careless fun that came before the first death?
... lest you find yourself exploring the territory alone. Doefreckle smiled back at Colin's narrowed gaze and let out a mock purr, pretending to shiver. "Oh, you know how I love it when you use that voice," he gushed, touching a claw to the corner of his mouth, "makes me all kinds of giddy." He dropped his paw and nudged Colin's shoulder with his, jerking his head towards the darkness looming at the mouth of the Hall, towards all the promises of adventure and opportunity and wrong-doing. "Doesn't matter where, does it?" he continued, ushering Colin towards the exit. His voice, as he went on, was dreamy and joyful. "We're young and the world is endless! The waterfall? The haunted brook? Lie under the stars and gaze lovingly into each others eyes? Who knows! Doesn't matter! We are the masters of our own fates and the point is, there isn't a point! To anything! We are but fleeting embers in the fire of life, waiting to spark into the night sky and vanish into the nether - so why not go on a few dumb adventures and make a couple'a bad choices before the curtain falls for good on our meaningless little lives?"
He purred, grinning, and slipped out into the cool night air, the world opening up before him in a soft-focus watercolour of chirping crickets and bubbling brooks and the gentle sweetness of jasmine flowers. "C'mon, pretty boy," he whispered over his shoulder, and vanished into the darkness of the undergrowth. "I mean Colin!" he called back.
“I’m always down to snuggle with anyone,” Colin muttered. “I believe someone mentioned the health benefits of physical contact between comrades once, in my presence. The idea that I could be just that much healthier with very little effort on my part...comforts me, I guess.” Yes, it was definitely the knowledge he was getting healthier that was comforting to him, and not the physical closeness itself. Colin was a grown adult, and he definitely knew what he liked and disliked by this point in his life.
He followed Doefreckle down the Hall, shaking his head in disapproval. The other tom always kind of lost him when he got like this; it didn’t really get in the way of their friendship, but that didn’t mean Colin wasn’t honest with his friend. Besides, some friendly debate was healthy in any relationship, provided you were both on equal footing. “I can see the appeal behind the sentiment of living life to the fullest during the age you’re most physically capable of doing so,” he objected, in the best Mr-Stern-Adult voice that he could muster, “but I’m not so sure I actually agree with the idea of actively choosing to make a ‘couple of bad choices’, as you so succinctly put it,” he grimaced. “If you know it’s a bad choice, why even make the decision to follow through? You know it will have a negative outcome, an outcome entirely avoidable if you would only just aaaaaaaand he’s gone,” Colin muttered, watching Doefreckle slip through the undergrowth and into the vastness of BrookClan territory. And he didn’t even let me object to him calling me pretty boy again. Rude.
“Point taken!” he called out, darting through the bushes to catch up with his friend. “I’ll shut up now, I promise.” Well, he’d try, at least. Doefreckle made him want to say things, for some reason.
“I love it when you talk like that,” Doefreckle teased, letting out a purr as he bumped his shoulder against Colin’s. “You’re such a weirdo.” He bobbed his head from side to side as he listened, smiling to himself – and, really, he did love it when Colin talked like that. He was already cute most of the time, but when he got like that, he was adorable – in a very it’s-unfairly-attractive-and-I-swoon-every-time-he-opens-his-mouth kinda way. And there was something about having someone to be the stone-cold logic to his flowery spontaneity that Doefreckle loved – it made him want to take Colin on all kinds of unhealthy, unsafe adventures just to listen to him babble about how terribly unwise and categorically proven by leading experts to be detrimental to one’s physical well-being it all was. He doubted there really were any leading experts in the first place. Colin just liked to complain, and he loved to listen.
I’ll shut up now, I promise. Doefreckle laughed softly from where he was waiting at the base of an oak tree, the forest dark and endless around him. He loved that Colin still followed him through the bushes despite everything he’d just said. He loved that he could make such a clever hypochondriac of a tom tag along on his adventures. He loved that he’d found someone who could babble as much as he could and match him blow-for-blow in almost everything. He loved… him. And it was a comforting, gentle, calm sort of love, really, one that he’d never truly felt before – for once, he didn’t mind if Colin didn’t feel the same. He didn’t mind if nothing ever came of it. He made him feel quiet and safe and grounded, and he was happy to simply be his friend and drag him along after him as his reluctant partner in crime. Well. Mostly happy. There were still times he’d curl up next to him in their den and want to say I love you, I love you, I love you over and over and over. But those times were getting easier to manage and they only happened every second day now.
“You know,” he said as soon as Colin joined him, falling in step beside him and clambering over an exposed root without much thought as to where he was actually leading them, “yesterday, I saw a fox in the woods and I followed it for, like, an hour. What do you think of the name Humbug? I named it that already so, like, too late if you don’t like it, but it was pretty cute and I got really close. Like, super close. Close enough to reach out and touch it. It was pretty unsafe and probably really unhealthy, because it smelled a lot like crowfood.” He tilted his head to grin at Colin.
“Anyway,” he continued, finally getting his bearings and veering suddenly towards a narrow stream trickling through the dark, lush forest. “Tonight, I’m thinking I’ll take you on a cute date, really spoil you for a bit. Whaddaya say? Ready to be wooed by your best friend? I’m your best friend, by the way, don’t try to deny it.” He waded carelessly into the stream, feeling the pebbles rolling under his paws; the water barely covered his toes, but he just wanted to see the look on Colin’s face. “M’lord,” he added, and held out a paw like he was waiting to help the other tom across the stepping stones.
