"An Apprentice By Any Other Name"
"Pipitstar stands above the clan and proclaims that Thriftpaw shall now be known as Thrifteye, honoring their zeal"
Thriftpaw asks Rueprance a very important question.
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"Hey, Rueprance... could I ask you a question?"
"Mmm... sure, what's up?" Rueprance hums, still focused intently on the river rushes she's been weaving together into a small makeshift basket for the fresh kill they'd caught earlier. She's been fiddling with them for half an hour now, braiding the fibers together while she and Thriftpaw sat on the warm river stones to soak their feet in the cool, clear water.
There's a long pause. The river burbles to fill the space.
"It's... sort of a big thing to ask. You don't have to listen, if you don't want to," The boy says, much more nervously than usual. The odd tone makes her look up from her work to see Thriftpaw's big silver eyes were looking at her more seriously than she thinks he's ever been, at least as long as she's known him, and she shifts to sit up straight.
"No, no, you can ask!" she says quickly, trying to reassure him from whatever doubts that must be racing through his mind and setting the basket aside. "We have plenty of time til they'll need us back home."
Thriftpaw scrunches his nose and looks back at the rushing water, his silver eyes tracing the shape of the far bank and trying to avoid catching Rueprance's gaze again.
"Well..." he starts, toes fidgeting with the loose stone in the riverbed, "My warrior ceremony is coming up soon, y'know, and... I'm gonna need someone to give me my new name. Lilacspeck and Oakshade scare me, and Pipitstar is really busy, so I don't want to bother her - and she'd probably give me something weird, anyway," He laughs. Nervously, which sounded wrong coming out of Thriftpaw's mouth. "And you're, like, the closest to my age, and we hang out a lot, so I thought that maybe..."
"Of course!!" Rueprance exclaims, interrupting before he can even formally ask the question. She can't contain the rapid butterflies growing in her stomach - her big blue eyes are wide as the moon, the basket laying entirely forgotten by the cottontail rabbits they'd caught as she leans forward.
He's asking her to name him? Her? The biggest question an apprentice can ask, and he isn't picking his mentor - does that mean she was his best friend? Or, well, best warrior friend, she supposes, giving a sly thought to Auburnpaw, but that doesn't matter, because only a warrior can name an apprentice anyway.
"Of course, I'd be honored to, Thriftpaw!" She says again, scooting to sit right next to Thriftpaw, who's now looking at her with surprise and a not-insignificant amount of relief plastered all over his face. "I can't believe you'd ask me, this means so much... do you have any ideas? I'm sure you've thought about it. I mean, who hasn't thought about what they want their warrior name to be?"
"No, I haven't - didn't. I don't want to tell you what to do for it or anything," Thriftpaw says quickly as his gaze darts away, tucking his hands under his legs. "I mean, isn't the point that you get to pick it?"
Rueprance shrugs. "I mean, yeah, but also no. Sometimes people ask because they have something in mind and it's really just a formality. One of my friends back in Tarnclan wanted to be named Eaglewing so bad she got her mentor to do it in exchange for taking their night watch duties for a whole year."
Thriftpaw snickers. "That's stupid," he says, and his shoulders are much further away from his ears now. "Cool name, but like... is it worth double night watch for a year?" He fakes a grimace, but Rueprance raises an eyebrow.
"Hey, with some of the names people get stuck with, you better believe she'd put up with no sleep. So you better be grateful when I give you something that's not stupid." She turns up her nose, mock-haughtiness cracked with a playful grin, and Thriftpaw scoffs, his eyes flashing with mischief.
"If you give me a stupid name, I'm gonna tell Pipitstar about every time you dodged patrol to go hang out by the lake instead."
"As if! Then I'll just snitch about how many times you took extra cloudberries from Quiverpelt's stash."
"They're good!" He exclaims, throwing up his hands and splashing Rueprance in a shower of river water.
She squeals, trying to turn away against the watery attack while splashing her feet in retaliation. Thriftpaw laughs, ducking away from Rueprance's own barrage, but she doesn't care if she gets wet - not when she's been entrusted with such an important job.
"Don't think just because I asked you to name me that you get a free pass from water fights!" he says, his eyes glinting sharp in the midday sun.
"I wouldn't dream of it," Rueprance replies, warm as the sun on the rocks, before she dumps another splash of water right on his head.