𝘌𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘱𝘢𝘸 𝘸𝘢𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘎𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘱𝘢𝘸 𝘵𝘰 walk through the bushes with the mouse in her jaws. Then, there she was, the mute apprentice's golden fur gleaming. He thought the blossoms competed with her to see who was prettier. Goldenpaw would win every time. He noticed Goldpaw making eyes at him. He rolled his eyes. Goldenpaw flicked her tail. 

"Good job, Goldenpaw." Featherstorm purred. Goldpaw's eyes widened. 

"Wha!? Hmf—" Emberpaw's paw flung to her mouth to cover it. His look said: don't you dare say anything.

"What, Goldpaw?" Flamenose asked, glaring at the tom apprentice. Emberpaw with-drew his gray paw. 

"What a good catch!" She said, forcing a smile on her face. Goldenpaw cocked her head, but shrugged. 

"Let's go back to camp." Featherstorm said, before joining her apprentice and telling her complaints. Goldenpaw smiled briefly at Emberpaw, making his heart warm.

"Why did you give it to her!?" Goldpaw hissed at him. 

"Because. She was going to catch it before you ran through like a badger." He said, leaving the conversation at that as he walked away to join Goldenpaw and Featherstorm. 

"I saw that hunting crouch, it was wonderful, Goldenpaw." Featherstorm said. She smiled brightly at her. "Did you catch anything, Emberpaw." She asked as he neared. He shook her head. 

"Almost. I was trying to get a bird, but a over balanced and lost it." The apprentice half-lied. He had been hunting a blue-jay, but saw Goldpaw trying to scare the mouse, and decided to help her.

"Well, we all know how Darkstar will act when he finds out you didn't catch anything." She said, sighing.

...

Emberpaw padded in the camp with the others. Goldpaw kept back because she said that she found marigold. But, the Tom didn't see any, but let her go. He glanced around. The warriors were eating. He saw Flamenose go away to the nursery, only to be pushed out by the medicine cat. His red-orange fir bristled but went to eat. Emberpaw chuckled. He saw Rosepetal, Darkstar's mate, sat with the leader. This is when the leader motioned to the Tom to come over to his den. Rosepetal watched the apprentice with eyes that showed no emotion. When they entered the leader's den, Darkstar sat down, and Emberpaw did as well. 

"So. Where is your prey?" Darkstar asked, curling his tail around his gray paws. 

"I uh- didn't catch any?" He said, trying to protect Goldenpaw. 

"Even Goldenpaw caught a mouse for all of her usefulness." The leader bad-mouthed the mute apprentice. This made Emberpaw very mad. He hissed. 

"Why do you hate her so much!? She never did anything to you!" He snarled at the leader. 

"Why!? She mute! She can't do anything!" 

"But it's not her fault!" The apprentice quieted down. 

"Why are you protecting her? You don't like her, do you?" Darkstar asked, smirking. "Well, even if you do, you will become mates with Goldpaw. Goldpaw is perfect, you are as well, it's the perfect combination." Emberpaw scrunched up his pink nose, but stopped after a few seconds.

Mates with Goldpaw!? He gagged at the thought. But all he did was nod. He exited the den to see Goldenpaw eating alone. Sure, she wasn't the most popular, but usually the medicine cat sat with her. But Mistfeather was in the nursery. "Hello, Goldenpaw." He said, sitting next to the mute apprentice. She smiled at him, making his heart warm. "Is that the mouse you caught?" Emberpaw asked. She rolled her eyes. But seeing her father, she nodded. Goldenpaw pushed the mouse to him with a golden paw. "You want me to have it?" The tom asked. This got a nod from the she-cat. He heard mews of kits. That's why Mistfeather was there. Fawnspot has her kits. Goldenpaw had noticed, and had already gotten up. Moonpaw exited.

 "Hello, Emberpaw, Goldenpaw." The white-gray apprentice greeted. "Fawnspot has four kits. You can go check on them." He said, re-joining his mentor. 

"When these kits are ready to become apprentices, we'll be warriors." Emberpaw commented to Goldenpaw. (This was because they were 9 moons already. And 9+6:= 15) Goldenpaw nodded. Emberpaw and the she-cat walked to the nursery. The mews got louder, but Fawnspot was trying to calm them down. The apprentices went into the nursery. 

"Hello." Emberpaw dipped his head in greeting to the new mother. "What are there names?" He asked. 

"Pebblekit," She pointed to a small, gray and white spotted tom. "Speckledkit." She said, pointing to a little she-kit that looked like a mirror image of her mother. 

"What about the others?" He asked, brow furrowed in interest.

"We haven't decided." She said. "Goldenpaw, you seem shy all of the sudden." 

Goldenpaw was kept to the entrance. She flicked her tail to her jaws. 

"I think she means that she can't speak, so she can't do much with them." He tried, and the apprentice nodded. "Would you like some prey?" Emberpaw asked the Queen. 

"Yes, thank you." Fawnspot said, turning back to calm her kits down.

Emberpaw nodded, and walked out of the nursery, brushing against Goldenpaw as he passed the apprentice. Something flashed in her calming gray eyes.

Longing?

More like embarrassment. Emberpaw thought. Whatever had popped up in her eyes was gone as quickly as it appeared. He dipped his head and murmured an apology. Goldenpaw ventured in the nursery as he left. He heard her squeal with delight at the kits that made him start to think as he padded to the fresh-kill pile.

Will we ever have kits? Emberpaw wondered. The tom shook his head. Stop getting ahead of yourself! He scolded himself. Emberpaw bent down, trying to look for the best prey for Fawnspot. Has he did this, he thought of his mother, Amberlight. And thought of one of the last things she said to him and his sisters before she went to StarClan.

'Remember Emberkit, Acornkit, and Lilykit, in order to succeed in life, you must always be one paw-step ahead on it.' He sighed. The green-cough that took his mother had also taken Lilykit. Acornpaw and Emberpaw had to rely on each other to survive until they became apprentices. Now, Emberpaw was 9 ½ moons. And Goldenpaw and her siblings were 9 moons. He held on to Amberlight's voice.