@wills-woodland-warriors
I’m thinking about it more and I like the idea that when Flea first met Jackdaw, Jackdaw was way meaner than he is now.
Assuming this is pre-Ferndoe or early in his relationship with her, he was more like the canon books would imagine cats in the DF are—easily agitated, cold, wants solitude (like how he is in the Jackdaw And Ferndoe story).
And then you look at their relationship now, and they’re so close that they think of each other as father/son and call each other such.
what’s better than enemies to lovers?
fearsome serial killer who scares you to death to father figure who you seek shelter and support in
———-
I like to think that the turning point was the moment in the storm that I mentioned. Maybe once Jackdaw’s own kits in life snuck out during a storm and were huddled in a tree’s roots—just like Flea is now.
And for the first time since arriving in the Dark Forest, he does not see an enemy. He doesn’t see another Dark Forest resident he has to fight for resources. He doesn’t see someone that will hurt him if he doesn’t hurt them first.
He sees a cat. A cat like him, hurt and scared and alone.
So it’s not just the fact that Flea reminds him of someone, but that Flea reminds him of himself.
(also depending on the timeline with Fern, maybe he saw Flea in the storm after Fern helped him, and it made him realize that they can help each other and don’t always have to fight. Or it reminds him of the cat he was in his life [to Clanmates])