Harmonyleaf watched quietly as her kits played.

Morningkit, ever a squealing ball of energy, was running circles around a baffled Frostkit. Frostkit's fur was puffed up, his complaining mew drifting to the ears of everyone in camp as his brother giggled. Swirlkit was scaling Wingwater's leg, begging for a badger ride.

Her gaze flicked over Wingwater. He looked more tired than usual, though he was good at hiding the irritated glares around camp or the restless tail twitches as he longingly looked out of the camp entrance.

She couldn't blame him, really, for being annoyed- being accused of murder did that to a cat.

They hadn't had much evidence to go off of in the trial.

Webtail had talked about finding a dark tuft of fur hooked in Nectarnose's stiff claws, too stained with blood to see the colour. When he'd tried to wash the blood out, in typical Webtail fashion he'd let go of the tuft and sent it tumbling down the stream away from him.

Lilytail and Webtail had also gone to visit StarClan. They'd been greeted by a supposedly annoyed Pebblespeck (many cats had gone quiet at the mention of her name), who'd reluctantly confessed that she couldn't tell them much before saying that there were multiple killers and that at least one of them hadn't been particularly close to Nectarnose (which wasn't hard to figure out).

The trial had swiftly devolved from well prepared cases (if you ignored Cricketleg's rambling conspiracy about how Pebblespeck had come back from the dead to kill Nectarnose and then died again) and compelling arguments to yelling and throwing accusations around and obviously this cat killed Nectarnose because he bumped into them once and he forgot to apologise.

Harmonyleaf had gotten sick of the noise at some point and slunk back into the nursery to watch over Faithheart's kits. They were sickly, squirming little things, but kits need a mother, she supposed, and she was willing to stand up.

When the news reached her of the supposed killers, Harmonyleaf wasn't sure what to believe. Whisperingspirit she was sure was innocent. Wingwater just seemed too tired to do anything so nefarious. She didn't know much about Pinebreeze but she seemed a sweet young cat, often seen trading prey with Duckfloat, or training with her former apprentice Rockwing, or quizzing Webtail about herbs.

In all honesty, Harmonyleaf didn't particularly care Nectarnose was dead. She was sad for the cats who would miss him- seeing a normally chatty cat like Moonwhisper give one word responses or listening to Ashpaw grunt when asked about his interests where he'd normally ramble hurt. It didn't help Sunpaw died in a foolish act of showing off the same moon. But the queen had no reason to care for Nectarnose himself.

She would never condone killing, of course. And it was regretful his new litter of kits would grow up never knowing either parent. But by the stars, it would be nice to not have to listen to Nectarnose's smug voice as constant background noise.

Her gaze flicked around camp to her other kits. Honeypaw was trailing after Willowpaw as usual, chattering about a new move they'd learned with a starstruck expression (the kid wasn't very subtle). Patchpaw was trying to calm down Embereye and Oakclaw after their tiny spat about hunting spots.

Snailpaw and Ashpaw weren't technically her kits and they may not view her as a mother, but she'd grown to care for them something similar. Snailpaw was lazily batting at a colourful butterfly that drifted over her sunning spot while Ashpaw talked quietly with Fernflame, who was demonstrating a fighting move.

"Are you sure you should let him play with your kits?" Snarlingsnap's voice sounded next to her. Harmonyleaf glanced over at her first kit.

"Wingwater, you mean?" The tabby tom in question was charging around camp with Swirlkit on his back, smiling slightly as the multicoloured she-cat squealed in excitement.

"Yeah. Uh- him." Their ear twitched slightly.

"Yes. I'm sure." Snarlingsnap paused at her words.

"It's not that I don't trust him, Ma. I do. I've been giving him the benefit of the doubt, spending time with him, trying to suss him out." They huffed out a sigh. "I know he probably didn't do it but we need to pin it on someone or Speckledstar looks bad. And if- if he is the killer, or one of them, do you really want him hanging around with your kits?" Her child glanced at her with concerned, blue eyes.

Stars, those eyes. The same eyes that used to plead up at her for one more moment of playing, that rolled at her suggestion of training instead of lazing around, that glanced at her excitedly as Speckledstar called their name as the new deputy.

"I don't think he did it." Harmonyleaf said quietly. "I mean, we had basically no evidence. 'Dark coloured' and 'there's two of them' doesn't narrow it down. It could've been anyone."

"Apart from the kits."

"They were very not born when he died, so yeah."

"Unless they killed him from the womb." Snarlingsnap mused, their tail twitch the only thing betraying their amusement.

"Mind controlled Faithheart."

"Killed him using their minds."

"His neck just did that."

Snarlingsnap chuckled, their shoulders shaking with laughter. "Yeah, somehow I doubt they're cold hearted killers. But- is it not safer to have someone else at least playing with them alongside him?" Their kid said slowly. "I mean, I know that it's like-"

"Innocent until proven guilty." They both said at the same time and those blue eyes rolled again.

"I know, I know." The brown cat grumbled. "But-"

"I trust him, Snarl." She watched as Morningkit abandoned his torment of a very relieved Frostkit to beg Wingwater for a badger ride as well. "Besides, the poor kid's been through enough without being accused of a murder he probably didn't do. If Whisperingspirit can be innocent and get accused based on that stupid evidence, so can the other two." Harmonyleaf's gaze flicked to Pinebreeze, who was making small talk with Duckfloat and the recently named Shellpoppy. "Have a bit of faith in them."

"I do. I'm just wary." They muttered. "I mean, trust me, I don't want to think Wingwater did it either. I don't, really. I'm just being-"

"Precautious. I know." She watched as Embereye trotted away from Patchpaw's mediation session to complain to an amused Lilytail. "But trust me when I say he didn't do it." Wingwater tripped on his paws, face smashing into the ground. Swirlkit clung to his back, giggling. "You think that guy's capable of murder?"

"I guess not."

Idk I'm just bored and I saw Wingwater do a command to play with the kits lol. Enjoy :D

None of this is to say any of the 3 accused are or aren't innocent btw this is just Harmony's perspective I guess