cute little maybe map type thing but I wanted to share one of my new favorite ships courtesy of one of my dear friends @sagimita
So the basics of it is this is squirrel x crow!
I’m not very comfortable with the fact that brambleclaw was practically a warrior by the time squirrel was born and their romance starts as soon as she turns into an apprentice. I read more into their scenes together in TNP as little sister and big brother type vibe, she was nosy and annoying and wanted to be in all of brambleclaw’s business, he was just annoyed and treated her like an annoying clingy little sister. Plus they just don’t have that kind of dynamic for mates and almost the whole fandom recognizes that. So how do crowfeather and squirrelflight end up together?
Well, it starts with the journey, their banter in the beginning is honestly very cute and I can see them having kid crushes on each other and being awkward and not knowing how to handle all these emotions so they resort to being mean or awkward around the other. Brambleclaw and Feathertail act as basically knowing older siblings who tease the two constantly about it. Both of them completely reject the idea of them liking each other and insist they hate each other (hence the song Loathing!). Once they reach the Tribe of Rushing Water the to-be’s help brambleclaw and feathertail to set up a fake little first date type thing. You know the first awkward date you have when you’re in middle school? The one where you keep nervously glancing at each other unsure of what to talk about it and terrified to hold hands. Yeah, thats the one. The first night there they are suckered into being alone sharing prey with each other. It goes off just like any first awkward middle schooler date, nothing much happens other than awkward small talk which eventually falls in shambles to petty comebacks at each other as they fight over who didn’t want this more. Events after that go off as normal other than guilty glances at each other occasionally and when they go on a hunting trip with the hunters and cave-guards they bump heads with each other after helping catch the bird in excitement before quickly backing off, both blushing. Events again continue as normal. Feathertail’s death devestates Crowpaw as it should. This is where their relationship really begins to develop. Stormfur wasn’t close enough to Crowpaw to help, he certainly tried but he couldn’t and Brambleclaw was the one to comfort and aid Stormfur (Bramble x Storm bby!). The only other cat close enough to Crowpaw would be Squirrelpaw. And so Squirrelpaw becomes his major support system in helping him deal with this trauma. The unfortunate death matured them both and strengthened their bond more than the journey ever could have. The journey is over, the group often travel at the head sleeping with each other as they lead the clans to the new territories. At these lake territories Squirrelflight tells Crowpaw he should request feather as his suffix. He had admitted to her that he wanted to remember Feathertail by in some way. She was the one to tell him to do it and was the loudest to cheer for him when he received his name.
The two keep secretly meeting after they reach their territories, claiming it was only because they were good friends and wanted to see each other still, nothing bad was going on. Leafpool knew Squirrelflight was going somewhere every night as leafpool could taste the fresh wind of windclan territory on her tongue whenever squirrelflight went to the border.Leafpool was upset with her, but she wasn’t going to say anything, she understood and had differing views on forbidden relationships believing it healthy to have kits between different clans, the kits would stay with the mother and the father had the choice to either join the mother, stay with his clan, or the mother join his clan. Eventually as predicted Squirrelflight ended up pregnant, she didn’t hide it,k but she was looking for someone to be a psuedo father. She asked Ashfur to be the psuedo father and made it quite clear she didn’t love him, but she needed to keep herself and her kits from being exiled. Ashfur readily agreed albeit he believed he would eventually get her to love him, not accepting that she couldn’t love him. After all he thought of himself as suave and a mature nice guy. Squirrelflight had already discussed it with Crowfeather and they both agreed it was best they stay with their clans and cover up what had happened, they would lessen their meetings but still keep up to date and see each other. Crowfeather never gets with Nightcloud, instead Nightcloud finds herself helping to cover up Crowfeather’s tracks. They were already very great friends, she didn’t see him in a romantic way. Nightcloud is instead in a romantic poly relationship with Leafpool, and Mothwing (mothwing is trans in this AU and impregnates Nightcloud, all three wanted kits and Nightcloud was the most able with the best cover story and here comes the angery rat son with 3 moms!). This is pretty long so far, and since the next section involves quite heavily the three I think I’ll leave that for the next round if people are interested! Interested more in this au? Ask me to give more info and I’d gladly! Interested in the other AU’s here ask me those too (Brambleclaw x Stormfur, both stay in the tribe of rushing water feeling most accepted there as well as staying close to Feathertail) and (Trans!Mothwing x Leafpool x Nightcloud)