Alternate Summary: They came from two completely different worlds. He thought she was incredibly self-centered, painfully naïve, and utterly helpless on her own, due to her sheltered life of pampering in a Twoleg nest; she thought he was incredibly rude, needlessly savage, and just plain cold from living out his whole life in the harsh forest. They were polar opposites… But maybe they had a bit more in common than they initially thought, when it came to what mattered most. A story of a kittypet and a warrior who learn to settle their differences and find more similarities between them than they had ever thought possible.

PROLOGUE

Night lay upon the forest. The air was still thick and heavy with moisture from the warm greenleaf shower earlier that evening, which made for rather uncomfortable sleeping weather. Inside the secluded nursery it was especially stifling, and for that reason, the light brown tabby she-cat lay wide awake, her two kits nestled beside her belly, one dark grey and the other a light tortoiseshell.

Therefore, she was prepared for anything when she heard the rustling at the nursery entrance. Her pelt bristling, she whipped her head around to meet it.

Over the soft milky smell of the nursery she could scent her intruder, and instantly relaxed slightly as a familiar dark shape entered. But there was another scent with him, and something small dangling from his jaws that wasn't prey…

"Forestshade…" The gentle young queen peered at him curiously. "What do you have there?"

The large tom set down his precious bundle, which let out the faintest mew of protest, confirming her suspicions. "A kit."

"...I thought you could perhaps take care of him," he continued after she said nothing in response. His voice shook, which was very uncharacteristic of the strong, levelheaded warrior. "You're the only nursing queen in the Clan at the moment, Woodfern. And he's still so young; he needs a mother."

Woodfern narrowed her hazel eyes at the tom – just because Elmstar had recently appointed him as deputy, didn't mean he had the authority to force some mysterious kit upon her. She didn't even know where it had come from! Didn't it have its own mother?

"I already have two very hungry mouths to feed," the she-cat mewed slowly, gesturing with her head at her own two kits in the nest beside her. "This is my first litter; I don't know if I could handle any more on my own. Especially a kit that isn't even mine."

"Woodfern, please," the brown striped tom begged, his eyes wide and pleading. "Our Clan must take in this kit! If not, he will surely die out in the forest, food for foxes! If he doesn't starve to death from lack of milk first."

The queen sighed in defeat, knowing that she could not resist the deputy's imploring tone this time. Woodfern took one scrutinizing look at the tiny kit, nestled between the sturdy brown paws of the large warrior. The poor little scrap was pitifully small, she noted, and its fur was black as night, its eyes still squeezed shut. It couldn't have been any more than a quarter-moon old, if even that.

"Poor thing," she mewed, gently nudging her own kits aside to make space and wordlessly gesturing for the warrior to bring the dark kit closer.

"His name is Blackkit," Forestshade announced as he very carefully bumped the kit forward with one paw. Woodfern nodded in agreement; quite clearly, the deputy must have named the kit after his midnight fur.

"And where was it that you found him, again?" She paused, thinking it over and choosing her words with discretion. "Is he… yours?"

"I discovered him in the forest, all alone," Forestshade replied, refusing to meet the queen's eyes. "His mother was nowhere to be found. Probably a rogue. Perhaps a fox got to her, or a badger. But the kit is innocent."

"Strange that a mother should simply abandon her young like that," the light brown she-cat murmured, and she bent her head to give the little black kit a sniff. There was no Clan scent on him, save for Forestshade's own scent in carrying the kit back to camp. It seemed that the Clan deputy was being truthful, as the kit did smell like a rogue, though there was something peculiar in the way the tom refused to meet her gaze with his own.

"Thank you, Woodfern," Forestshade meowed before backing up to leave, glancing down at the kit one last time with a strange look of fondness. "I'll be sure to bring you extra fresh-kill, and I'll alert the rest of the Clan to the situation in the morning... With any hope, they will accept him."

The queen looked down at the tiny dark kit suckling against her belly, nestled in with her own as though he were one of them. "I'm sure they will."

A/N: Allegiances will be posted next update. Many of the Warriors books I haven't read in a long while, so I don't know whether any names of my original characters are actually used in canon. If any of these names have been used before in the books or whatever, it was completely unintentional, and they are NOT the same cat. I mean, considering how many cats have been a part of the Clans over the course of time, there's got to be a name overlap somewhere; it even occurs in the books occasionally.

Also, this story takes place long after SkyClan left the forest, long enough that no Clan cat remembers them, but much, much earlier than the events of Bluestar's Prophecy and the original series and all that fun stuff. Updates should come about once or twice a week, so keep a look out for them, and I hope you enjoy the story to come (also my very first Warriors fanfiction)!

- CCM