Doefreckle dances through the shallows of the stream with his eyes closed, humming tunelessly to himself and waving his tail over his head to a made-up rhythm. All around him, there's only birdsong and the quiet music of the stream against the pebbles below, a slow, calm gurgle that makes him want to bring it alive with noise. He splashes up water with his paws, trotting, bouncing, hopping, turning round and round and round, his injured leg sticking out awkwardly above the surface, till he's soaked through to the skin and beaming. He opens his eyes with a smile and looks down at the clear, cold water lapping around his legs and reflecting the trees above him. He gazes for a moment at his own image before touching his nose to the surface and blowing bubbles into the water. He laughs to himself, voice drowned, and rises onto the toes of his back legs, waving his haunches in the air delightedly.

And then, out of the corner of his eye, he spots another cat. He freezes, muzzle still in the water, and flicks his eyes up to look at the other tom. Oh, no. He's hot. Fumbling for a grip on the pebbles, he sits back quickly and wipes his paw across his nose, spraying droplets of water through the air. The stream gurgles around him, the current nudging him to and fro. "Good morning for it," he says cheerily, beaming at the tom with a bright, open grin. What it is, he isn't quite sure. But who needs sense when there are pretty boys? Lord knows, they're always a good idea and haven't at all gotten him into terrible trouble countless times before. A droplet trails down the bridge of his nose and collects on his nostril. He sniffs it away, still grinning like he's not currently sitting soaking wet in the middle of a stream.

Doefreckle beamed when the other tom flicked the water droplets from his nose, feeling his skin prickling with giddy warmth under his pelt. “Oh, no, you can educate me,” he gushed, voice teetering dangerously on the edge of a giggle. “You can educate me all day and night if you like.” He grinned, lop-sided and lecherous in the most cheerful and innocent sort of way possible, and rose daintily to his paws, still dripping wet, to slink a tight little circle around the tom, close enough for his fur to brush against the other cat’s. The pebbles rolled and slipped under his paws; he unsheathed his claws to get a better grip. The smell of herbs clinging to his pelt tickled Doefreckle’s nostrils, sweet and intoxicating. He felt a little dizzy.

That was even more intoxicating; he loved a tom who could make him feel a little out of his mind. They were always the best times, before the bruises and the cruelty. But this time will be different. He wondered faintly how many times he had said those exact same words, all hope and blind trust. One day they’ll be true.

His eyes flitted across every inch of the stranger, drinking it all in sugarwater — and if he licked his lips, who was to see? When he was back facing him, he cheerfully concluded, “well, you’re certainly not BrookClan. Don’t you know I would be entirely within my rights to tear you apart here and now for showing up to the party uninvited?” It sounded light and delicate as air on the end of such a sunny voice, far more careless flirtation than threat.

Cute. Doefreckle smiled slyly at the other tom, tucking his chin into his throat and letting out a hoarse purr that caught a little around the edges. Here we go again, a bitter little part of him whispered. How long do you think this one will last before the cruelty starts? He brushed away the thoughts like powdery snow. "I rather doubt you can think up anything wrong that I haven't already tried," he replied, crinkling his eyes into a clear challenge.

There was something about the other tom that sent red flags and warning signs racing through his skin like fireworks - something cruel, insincere. But he was never very good at listening to his gut and far too good at losing himself in the thrill of self-destruction. He'll hurt you, just like the others, the voice pleads. So let him, he whispers back. I hope it stings. "But you're welcome to try, darling - really, anything that keeps you around a little longer, you're welcome to do. I'm Doefreckle, by the way. Resident heartthrob of BrookClan. They just haven't noticed yet." His devious smile grew back into a bright, cheery grin, all blind hope and adoration. He jerked his head toward a patch of woodland beside the stream and brushed past the other tom towards it, flicking his nose with the tip of his tail as he padded away. "A little more privacy, perhaps?" he added merrily, glancing over his shoulder at the tom and flashing him another warm, open smile.


[ also just a heads up that doefreckle is now the deputy of summerclan so maybe this could be a little way in his past, just before he left? i'd love that, as long as you're okay with it too? and it could also be cool bc then, after all this, maybe funkbeat could come back as a bad part of his past to haunt him and Drama could ensue? c: <33 ]

[ hahahah i love that he's up to so much mischief simultaneously!! what an icon ♥ and yes i love that idea!! ]

Doefreckle stopped and turned back to face him, expression somewhere between a puzzled half-smile and a frown. "Medicine?" he echoed, wrinkling his nose a little. His tail, which had been waving above him delightedly a moment earlier, drooped slightly. A cool breeze washed over his wet fur and made him shiver. "I'm not sick."

I'm an expert medicine cat.

He scrunched up his face in confusion, offering a small, crooked smile that pushed one cheek up to his eye and rearranging his front paws a little uncomfortably. "You don't... you don't smell like you come from anywhere that has medicine cats," he replied with a soft, disbelieving breath of laughter, glancing to the side and raising a shoulder in a little shrug. A moment later he was grinning again, gesturing at the other cat with a forepaw and tilting his head to the side like he'd caught him in a joke. "Naaah, c'mon, you're not a medicine cat! The smell of loner is all over that pretty coat of yours."

[ yes!!! sounds perfect, i love it <33 ]


Doefreckle's eyes widened in sympathetic horror; a breeze washed over the stream and, in that moment, he could almost hear the screams of the cats trapped under the rocks and left to die. The thought made him feel queasy, his stomach flipping and clenching. "That's horrible!" he cried softly, brows knitted together and mouth hanging open in anguish. He bounded forward, ducking his head to catch the other tom's eyes; he pressed his forehead against his and drew his head up to look at him. The other cat's fur was so warm and sweet-smelling against his cold nose; he wanted to bury himself in it and never wake up. "You poor thing," he murmured, staring into his eyes like he was searching for anything he could do to make him feel better and finding only pain lurking in their depths. His chest constricted.

It can also help with the mental side.

He fell silent for a moment, swallowing around the tightness of his throat. He ducked his head; looked back up; pushed his brows together even further, so his forehead dimpled and he looked far more like a worried puppy than a cat. He could feel the tears prickling at his eyes and wasn't entirely sure who it was he was crying for. All the broken trust, all the cruelty, all the abuse... "The... the mental side?" he echoed, voice scarcely above a whisper and eyes still searching the other tom's like it held all the answers to all the questions he'd always been too frightened to let himself ask. I'm not broken, he whispered to himself. But you're not whole, either, the voice whispered back. And happy boys don't go looking for those who will hurt them - again and again and ag-- Be quiet!

He wants to hurt me.

He wants to help you.

He wants to help me.

He wants to help me.

“I wouldn’t say a rough lot,” Doefreckle whispered, dropping his gaze to the earth when he felt it clouding over with all that silent grief he never wanted to feel. It didn’t sound convincing; it sounded like help me. It sounded like the teeth of a rogue in the back of his neck the first time he said I love you. It sounded like the dismissive laughter and the claws in his cheek the second time he said it. It sounded like bleeding out on the early morning frost the third time; the jibes and insults the fourth time; the blood in his mouth the fifth time. It sounded like leaving his Clan and his brother for a tom that didn’t want him; like losing himself in the needs of boys who used him and threw him away when they were done; like never learning, never stopping — always driving himself mad over the next pretty face with the cruel eyes and the sharp smile and getting nothing but bruises in return. They always left — and there was something so wrong with him, so terribly wrong, because being used and abused and cast aside had become an addiction that would either burn him out or kill him.

He flinched when the other tom brushed his paw against his cheek; a heartbeat later, he was leaning into the touch — touch-starved and needy and so hopefully, lovingly broken. He raised his eyes to meet his. “Yes,” he breathed, eyes wide and wet and trusting. “I say yes.” His voice cracked, frail and airy, and he let out a shuddery breath. “Help me. Please.”

A scratchy purr rumbled in his throat at the contact; he felt himself melt.

I’ll come back for you.

Sudden panic, hot and sticky, flared through him at the thought of the other tom leaving. A few days! He’d only just met him, and now he was going to— they never came back! “I— well, I could come with you, couldn’t I? The rest of my Clan, they’re all too preoccupied with their Arena games to pay much notice to me at all — I’ll be back before they’ve even realised I’m gone.” He buried his nose in the fur of the other cat’s cheek, looking up at him through damp fur and lashes. “Please.” He grinned against his coat but didn’t move away, voice muffled. “I know plenty of songs for the road.”

Doefreckle's purr was strong enough to vibrate through his whole body. An adventure! He danced on the tiptoes of his front paws as he replied cheerfully, "nah, nobody'll care - I don't think any of the darlings really even know my name." He grinned, more than a little numb to the loneliness that the reality of that statement meant for him, and pranced back to the river, hopping onto the first of the stepping stones and turning back to face the other tom with his tail waving above him. "Hey! D'you know, you haven't even told me your name. Cheeky!"

"Reedshadow — ooh, very distinguished. My mother gave the cool name to my brother and I got the cutesy-wootsy one. Do you think it's cute? I think it is. But Reedshadow — that's nice, too, in a very... y'know, in a very I'm a proper, serious medicine cat sorta way. Oh, I can just picture it — me, all beat up and bwoken, and you, Reedshadow, welcoming me into thine dimly-lit din of iniquity and hidden pleasures; ooh, I just gave myself shivers." He tilted his head to look at the other tom with a bubbly little giggle, loping along beside the stream with his odd half-limping, half-lolloping steps. He padded in silence for a moment, still smiling to himself, before perking up and snapping his tail up over his head.

"Oh!" He slunk closer to the tom, nudging him with his shoulder and pressing himself against his side, and cleared his throat — and began to sing, loudly and off-key and and not terribly well, voice rising and falling and squeaking as he tried to sing both the masculine and the feminine parts, "we're goin' away to leave you now — goodbye, far thee well, goodbye, fare thee well — we're goin' away to leave you now - hoorah, me boys, we're homeward bound! Ah, give me the girl — just pretend I like girls here for a hot second, okay, it's fine — give me the girl with the bonny brown hair, your hair of brown is the talk of the town. So fare you, we're homeward boooooound!" He finished with a flourish and turned to grin at him, all sunshine and frail little expectations. "Learned that one from a kittypet."