Background 'Family': Flipstep
Family: unnamed mother, unnamed father, Daisydust, Rubblefall (daughters), unnamed kit, Curlear, unnamed she-cat (mates, formerly)
Other Relations: Smalljump (step-son [dislikes])
Current Residence: StarClan
He had planned to run off with a loner he had met on the border, when she told him that she was expecting kits.
He wouldn't have his Clan, but that was fine--they would still be a family.
But then came the birth, and there was so much blood....She had begged Flipstep to get help, but when he came back with medicine, she was already gone, with two kits mewling pitifully at her belly.
The life he had imagined, the dream they had been building, was gone. He didn't want to leave his love's resting place, but he had to return to the Clan for his kits. They needed milk, and he couldn't leave them on their own to hunt.
One of the kits passed on the journey, and he had shouted at the stars then, demanding why they would force him to abandon not only his mate's resting place but his kit's as well. He didn't get much time to grieve. He had to keep going for his remaining kit.
When he returned to camp, missing for nearly two moons, he told a tall tale of how he was taken by Twolegs. There, the place was horrible. The Twolegs forgot to feed them. There was an expecting queen who begged him to take her kits and run, so he did when he finally figured out how to escape.
The kit was given to Jayleaf, who was nursing Sharpkit.
Flipstep instantly felt regret. Should he have told the truth? Should he at least have said that the kit was his? But it was too late. He couldn't change his story now.
He couldn't be the kit's father, but he could be her mentor. He asked the deputy about it, explaining that he promised her mother he would look after her. It wasn't exactly a lie--he promised it at her vigil.
He wasn't expecting Rubblepaw to be such a nuisance. Sure, she was a troublesome kit, but he didn't think she would be such a bully!
He felt bad for the younger and smaller apprentice, Smallpaw, and lectured Rubblepaw often. But it was like Rubblepaw wanted to get in trouble.
Smallpaw's mother, Curlear, was her son's number one protector. She snapped at his bullies at least once a day--because they bullied him at least once a day--and had to speak with the mentors more often than not.
Flipstep felt a connection with her. She was only a parent doing their best for their kit. He was the same, even if no one could know it. He opened up to her, admitting that he wished he could be better, that he could be the mentor (father) that Rubblepaw needed him to be, but he had no idea what to do. In turn, Curlear confessed that she feels she is doing something wrong, but that the thought of doing anything other than defend her little kit and keep him safe felt too horrible.
They became each other's support. When Curlear struggled, Flintstep would support her. When Flipstep and Rubblepaw argued, Curlear would encourage him.
It surprised no one when their relationship moved to a more intimate nature.
When Curlear had told him she was expecting, he was over the moon, bouncing on his paws in joy and already suggesting names for the little ones.
He could be there this time! He could raise a family with his love!
But the happy moment was cut off by a yowl splitting the air. Smalljump and a patrol with him had burst into the camp, explaining that an old badger den had collapsed on top of Sharplight, Brownsong, and Rubblefall.
Only Sharplight and Rubblefall had survived, but they were heavily injured and laid unconscious in the den for a couple of days.
During that time, Curlear rarely ever left Flipstep's side. For that, he was grateful. She was the light in his time of darkness, watching over his former apprentice and daughter in the medicine den, injured and scarred.
It was during one of their many visits that Curlear wondered when they should tell the Clan about the kits, saying that it could help with everyone's morale, but of course she had to tell Smalljump first.
Smalljump's name made Rubblefall stir. At first she was scared and shocked, and when they managed to help her figure out where she was, she demanded to see the leader. When he arrived, she explained everything, how she, Brownsong, and Sharplight had entered the badger den to find prey planted by a cat, how Smalljump didn't go in with them and couldn't be seen at the entrance, how the rocks began to fall.
Later, the cats on the rescuing patrol would state that they found Smalljump on top of the den. He would claim that he had tried to dig them out, but the patrol saw no proof of it. That, coupled with the fact that the rocks fell out of nowhere and everything else, was enough to convict the small tom.
Curlear and Flipstep were still present in the medicine den during Rubblefall's story.
They were torn, with Curlear begging the Clan to hear Smalljump out and Flipstep having to bite his tongue hard to prevent suggesting his execution.
Curlear was heavily upset. She wouldn't move from her nest for days. Flipstep tried to support her and Rubblefall, he did, but it felt like a betrayal for either cat when he spoke with the other. Curlear's son had tried to kill Rubblefall. Was it wrong to support them both at the same time?
A moon passed and she was still holding onto her son, still holding onto his scent.
She had mixed his nest with hers before anyone could get rid of it, and Flipstep held his tongue again. But how could she make him smell his stench every night when they lay curled together in the nursery after what that thing did to his apprentice? Didn't she have any compassion?
He felt himself growing numb when he was with her. He still loved her, but he was also so angry and upset, and he felt distant and far away even when they were physically so close.
He never meant to say anything to her, but then he learned that Rubblefall, his apprentice, his daughter, the one he promised his old mate that he would always protect, would forever be scarred from the event, and would forever carry a limp.
After that, he witnessed Curlear retrieving Smalljump's old nest that an apprentice had tried to clean out, and he snapped.
He said many things that he regretted, the worst of it being that Curlear was a horrible mother and that's why Smalljump did what he did, and insinuating that she would ruin their kits as well. He regretted it not only because it hurt Curlear--and that he was deeply sorry for--but also because he wouldn't get to be a father to his new kits.
Curlear had broken up with him, telling him that he was to stay out of her life and the lives of their kits--her kits.
He tried to talk to her many times, sending her prey and anything else she may need, but Curlear always turned him away. Even when he sent it through a messenger, she would refuse to use it when she found out that it had been sent by him.
When Curlear went into labor, he was terrified. She wouldn't allow him into the den, but he stuck around as close as he could outside of it, at least he would when he wasn't rushing to get water-soaked moss or sticks or whatever she may need.
--Because I imagine that Rubblefall is dark brown, he likely is too and that's where Rubble and Daisydust (seen here) got their dark brown fur from. Curlear isn't white, so Daisy likely got that from him as well. From Curlear, she got the light brown fur.
--This is the format used on background characters on Refsheet, for anyone curious!
--He's the kind of guy to be like "babe don't be made I'm sorry! Can't you stop being so selfish?? I didn't mean it!!!" and Curlear was just "no fuck you."
He does genuinely feel bad, but that doesn't excuse what he said.
-- @elementaldeityoffood some Smalljump family for you
