Cross-clan relationship done right.
These are my OCs, Covescreech and Jumpfrost/star when they first meet as apprentices! Covepaw crashed into her after being dared by his brother, Redpaw, to run all the way to the WindClan border and back (along the lakeside, through SkyClan and ThunderClan territory). But of course, Covepaw needed proof, so he might have been looking for something particularly WindClan-y (a long blade of grass, old rabbit fur, or a smelly rock, in his mind), and instead a whole WindClan cat found him...
(Full story undercut)
He’d seen the pretty she-cat once from a far at a Gathering, but her cold gaze really put him in his place then. It was a scramble to explain what he was doing on the edge of WindClan territory, all while she watched with narrowed eyes, her gaze cool, calm, calculated, and perhaps a bit amused... While she threatened to take him back to her leader, she let him go in the end, telling him not to doing anything else so hare-brained. Covepaw went home, and told Redpaw and Whiskerpaw of his misadventure, not thinking much of it aside from embarrassment...
But at the next Gathering, Covepaw saw her, and while at first he wanted to avoid her, his siblings pushed him into talking to her and her brother, Duskpaw. Covepaw felt like he made a fool of himself, but Jumppaw only ever watched him with cold eyes and faint amusement. After that Gathering, Covepaw found himself intrigued, and his siblings only goaded him into doing more dumb challenges that involved him somehow at WindClan’s doorstep. Some warriors even became familiar with the ShadowClan apprentice, and while there was some suspicion and annoyance, most just found his antics amusing, reminding the older warriors of their apprentice days.
It what had started off as a slight curiosity soon turned into a full-blown crush, and by the time Covepaw was Covescreech, he knew he was head over heels for the WindClan warrior, Jumpfrost. But he knew there was nothing to be done about it- he was in ShadowClan, she was in WindClan, and extremely loyal, to the point he knew she would never agree to secret meetings or being mates across borders. Her devoted loyalty and confidence was something many cats admired, and Covescreech was among them. Every cat in ShadowClan knew he had a crush on Jumpfrost, and it was his father, Deerflame that gave him words of advice. Deerflame once was a kittypet, more than that- a daylight-warrior, living a paw in both worlds. But that didn’t end well. As much as he loved his twolegs, they tried to take him away from the clan, keep him cooped inside, and they resulted in the death of his mentor. He needed to make a choice, and he choose to stay with ShadowClan, and with his mate (Covescreech’s mother), Quailfoot.
So, with that in mind, Covescreech made the decision to join WindClan. He loved ShadowClan, don’t get him wrong, but he knew Jumpfrost would never leave WindClan, while he was willing to. He waited at WindClan’s border to be escorted, and when he arrived at camp, he asked Gravelstar to accept him into their clan. WindClan was shocked, but Gravelstar accepted him in the end. WindClan was quick to warm up to the lively and charming ShadowClan warrior, and Covescreech found he loved running through the open moor.
Jumpfrost, meanwhile, was... conflicted. She knew Covescreech had a crush on her- it had been obvious ever since he was a flustering apprentice. She had reciprocated it, a little, just in the fact she found him cute, but nothing more. She would never be disloyal towards WindClan, after all. But he had gone out of his way to leave his clan, his family, just for her...? She couldn’t believe a warrior would do so out of love. She couldn’t tell if that meant he was disloyal or just stupid, either. Or perhaps brave. He was a very brave, albeit recklessly at times, cat, she knew that much about him. And of course, Jumpfrost was a direct cat, so she confronted him on his actions, the why’s of it all, and most importantly, the how’s.
How would he stand to fight against his own clanmates, his own family, in battle?
Covescreech was nothing if not honest. It would be difficult for him to fight ShadowClan, especially his own family, but ShadowClan and WindClan didn’t share a border, and when could Jumpfrost ever recall them fighting except in ancient stories of Brokenstar and Tallstar? To that, Jumpfrost had no answer, but what if he shared WindClan secrets with them, or something made them fight? Covescreech replied that, by the time a fight like that happened, his heart would be with WindClan. Jumpfrost stated that his heart could be in any clan if he tried, it seemed, and Covescreech agreed that that was probably true. He could learn to swim like a RiverClan cat and love it. His honesty and openness stunned Jumpfrost, but oddly endeared her to him. She questioned that the only reason he joined WindClan was to win her love and be her mate, but what if she never loved him? What if she rejected him? Would he just return to ShadowClan then? Covescreech was silent at that, but eventually responded that he’s made his choice and he can’t just go back on it, and that he would still love it in WindClan with or without her as his mate, and that he’d respect her decision and move on from her. He’d only leave WindClan if she wanted him to.
Their conversation ended after that, but Jumpfrost saw Covescreech as more than just a pining, bumbling lovestruck hare-brain, then. She saw him as just as dedicated to what he loved as her, even if they showed it in different ways. And she realized she could love him. They didn’t immediately become mates, but it wasn’t long after that Covescreech managed to impress her with his continued loyalty and skills. Jumpfrost was the one to ask him to be her mate, and Covescreech happily agreed.