Interaction between cats was a significant element of their lives, yes, but developed friendships were arbitrary and mostly unnecessary. Unless they were created for experimental and practical purposes, of course.

Or so thought Pavlova.

Holding on to that belief, she had once performed an extremely well thought-out investigation on a tom called Glow. Glow was a shy silver tabby tom with bright yellow eyes, which Pavlova had assumed was how he received his name. Emphasis on 'shy'. He was timid and absolutely lacked the ability to seem intimidating and possess cynicism. The aforementioned traits made him an appropriate subject for Pavlova's test, one that dealt with emotion-inducement, insecurities and the quality of self-doubt.

She had began to make conversation with him, gradually at first. Glow was showered with little compliments and honeyed words, and he noticeably grew more confident around Pavlova. Their 'relationship' flourished and the experimenter was satisfied by her plan's progressing success.

After a moon of doing so, Pavlova suddenly stopped talking to him. She didn't approach his garden fence to chat any more or stir from 'sleep' when he wandered to hers. The white she-cat simply waited for him to react (she had also discreetly observed him from several hiding places). And when he did, it was a quarter-moon after what Pavlova called the 'second phase' of her experiment.

He sounded confused and a little hurt; everything Pavlova had expected. Pavlova waved a paw nonchalantly and had gently reprimanded him for being overly-sensitive and needy. Although appearing unsatisfied, Glow had admittedly loosened up much more and regained a little of his cheerfulness.

Over the next moon (phase three), Pavlova dropped less compliments and praises, and began to criticise and belittle him for small things, in a mildly teasing manner. Eventually she stopped flattering him at all and intensified the jokingly delivered scoldings. Almost exactly a moon later was when Pavlova had predicted to get the results of pushing away at Glow' s boundaries until he snapped.

Except he never did.

It was obvious he had noticed the changes and unconsciously adjusted to them; the way he spoke — hesitating beforehand; the way he held himself — chin down; and the way he reacted to Pavlova's narrowed eyes — nervous. Several times, Pavlova had caught him looking in a puddle to see if his shoulder and chest fur were groomed properly and if his tail really did twitch excitedly every time he mentioned food, after one of their conversations.

The thing was that no one had infinite patience. Sure, Pavlova's reprimanding wasn't totally hostile — that'd scare him off before phase four — but the constant bugging and tugging on his mind must be confronted at some point, right? He had to speak up for himself eventually.

Conforming to her previous mindset, Pavlova had waited. Another half moon went by and he still hadn't expressed direct disapproval of her actions and continued to initiate conversations to her. This vexed Pavlova to no end; surely such a diffident cat didn't exist? There must have been a different variable of some sort that was added into the equation without her knowing.

And as soon as she realised that, she also began to pick up signs with Glow that she was fairly certain wasn't there in the first moon of interacting with him. His brilliant yellow eyes flickered with admiration when she spoke, the same eyes narrowed when she glanced towards another tom — and hadn't he began to lick her on the shoulder before they parted ways?

Sure enough, he was infatuated with her.

Which did not help the experiment at all.

As soon as Pavlova found this out, she knew her plan was destroyed. Continuous conversation with failed test subjects did not do any good for Pavlova's ego, and doing so with an individual that found her attractive would definitely cause complications in the future. Therefore, she was going to have to break ties with him. To avoid further interaction, she calmly told Glow that she had a mate and could not see him again (letting Glow think that his love was returned and that they had been somewhat half-mates all along seemed convenient at the moment).

After three and a half moons of knowing him, she'd come to be familiar with his personality. He would be miserable, angry, and horribly bitter inside and try not to act like it on the outside, and wouldn't trouble or question Pavlova and her 'mate' further — which happened to be his exact reaction.

They went from awkward and pained (smooth and insouciant for Pavlova) greetings when they passed each other and a couple of heartbeats worth of small talk to completely no acknowledgement of each other. Glow's gullibleness and weak self-esteem had prevented him from ever questioning Pavlova about her mysterious mate, and that suited her just fine.

Eliza was a social butterfly (a term Pavlova had coined to describe cats high in the social hierarchy of housecats she'd observed), which meant she had potential to become the target of one of Pavlova's experiments or an unwitting helper; thus, Pavlova remained friends with her (of course, they were also both she-cats so love wasn't a problem). That also suited her just fine.

What didn't suit her was the ruined experiment. The original plan was to wait until he complains of her constant yet discreet bullying and then, then, Pavlova would turn his reactions against him and say something like, "You're way too sensitive about this."

And she would follow it up with 'after all I've done for you' and how she 'chooses whether to go to Eliza's garden or yours every morning and always chooses yours'.

To most, it would immediately reverse the tables and Glow would be reduced to a heap of self-doubt asking himself if he was the crazy one. Instead, she was stuck with almost no beneficial or interesting information.

Almost.

The experience had opened her up to the intimidating effects of love. Her ego, while large, was not large to the point of causing her to deny that the concept of love would seize her.

Eliza, who was padding beside her, flicked her tail over Pavlova's nose for a heartbeat, taking her from the vast recollection of thoughts and memories she'd found herself submerged in.

"Pav, you've been zoning out for a long time. I figured I'd better wake you up before we reach the SkyClan border."

"Ah."

Ahead was the notorious border that separated the rest of the world from SkyClan. Beside her, Eliza tensed up.

"Relax, it's fine."

"I know that — there's a group of cats walking towards us."

The white she-cat angled her head slightly. Indeed, a group consisting of a grey-brown she-cat, a grey she-cat with green eyes, a white she-cat with yellow eyes and a leading marbled silver tom with smothering amber eyes was approaching.

Pavlova took immediate interest in the leading tom. The glossy silver on his pelt reminded her of a someone, but no, this cat was very different. His powerful physique, his unwavering gaze, his purposeful gait — everything a stark opposite to the silver tom named Glow.

With her analytical gaze fixed on the silver tabby tom, she barely heard the words that came out of his mouth or his exchange with Eliza, who proceeded to claim avidly that they were two cats that left their housefolk looking for another home and an opportunity to grow stronger and live proudly like real cats.

Without hesitating, the leader told them to follow the 'patrol' to their camp. Obeying them with Eliza, she recalled the wonder and slight terror when she discovered how dangerous love could be in a world of meticulous analysis, logical thinking and emotional detachment — the world she'd came to be familiar with. Her experiment's most fruitful discoveries were not those of Glow's psychology, but of love.

She carefully watched the silver tom at the head all the way to their camp. She could tell a lot about the other SkyClan cats already. Frostflight, the white she-cat (she'd heard the grey-brown she-cat say her name) walked with a very subtle limp and had a habit of licking her lips, which usually meant deep concentration or nervousness; she guessed the latter in this case — the grey-brown she-cat's ears were always perked up and her expression was attentive — Pavlova surmised that she had sharp hearing, but her skinny frame didn't allow her a lot of strength — and the grey she-cat with green eyes kept her gaze, heavy with admiration, on the silver leader.

With narrowed eyes, Pavlova recalled the way Glow had looked at her and suddenly felt a surge of protectiveness and possessiveness. Back with the peripheral analysis, she was able to pick up signs and easily associate them with more important traits — and yet, all she observed of the marbled tom was steadfastness, purpose, intelligence and confidence. Nothing of his shortcomings.

And, with a wavering uncertainty for the first time, Pavlova was slowly beginning to suspect that she was showing the early symptoms of approval.

Approval was a big thing for Pavlova.

Not necessarily love yet, but the feeling of approval was certain.

Pavlova was drowning in her thoughts and noticed with a blink that they had reached the camp; a place set well into a sandy gorge. Eliza nudged her to tell her that the leader was going to come out from the den on the slope and have a talk with them about joining. Pavlova nodded, knowing full well that Eliza would do all the answering.

After a long moment, a dark torbie's head poked out of the cave.

Written by Saph! 🍩✨