Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Sunshine poured into the window, bright and hot, as Firestar laid coiled in his bed. The ginger was staring up at the ceiling, motionless, blinking blearily at the dull wooden ceiling of the cabin. He wasn’t paying much attention to the heavy footsteps that approached the bedroom door. Rather, he was pondering about what he would do now.

Since he was basically a gigantic snake.

He couldn’t go out and live with other snake kind when he was the leader of Thunderclan – not that he would want to leave his friends and family behind, so that was definitely not an option for him. But he couldn’t quite go out and mingle with the rest of his Clanmates either, for completely understandable reasons.

Even he got startled by the sight of his fangs and lack of arms whenever he passed a mirror nowadays (hence the mirror that had previously been in his room getting removed). He knew that he probably wouldn’t walk up and try to have a conversation with himself either…

His head snapped up when a knock sounded on the floor.

“Da- I mean, Firestar! I was supposed to bring you a raw steak, but Leafpool accidentally took it and gave it to the elders! I have some fish crackers in my pocket if you want them!”

The Thunderclan leader nervously glanced at the golden snake statue. Its beady, ruby gem eyes glowed back, reflecting the sunlight bouncing on the floor. He quickly hopped off of the bed and slithered to the rocking chair before the door creaked open.

A grin broke out on Brambleclaw’s face at the sight of the snake man sitting up in the chair.

“Hey, you’re not sleeping!”

“Yep! I’ve definitely been awake in here for five hours!” Firestar smiled, before he stopped, realizing that his fangs were on full display. “So… how’s everything going outside? In… in Thunderclan?”

“Boring, without you running around.” The deputy sighed. “All of the kids keep wondering where you are. Don’t really know how easy it is for their parents to tell them that their leader is a ginormous reptile now.”

The laughter that followed from them was robotic until it died away into sad sighs. Firestar’s tail swished in excitement.

“Anyways, watch this! I learned how to do something!”

The huge snake shifted his tail into the sunlight. The scarlet, ginger, and lemon scales glittered with a golden sheen in a sunlight, spraying light all over the room, like some sort of multicolored disco ball. Firestar chuckled when his deputy pawed at the scraps of light dotting the floor like a cat.

“Whoa…”

“You like it?” Firestar questioned hopefully.

“I love it! It’s so beautiful!” The star-struck man flopped onto the floor, gazing at the ceiling. “It looks like fiery stars…”

Another smile crept up his lips before he stopped, remembering to hide his fangs from view as best he could. But this… this was a wonderful reminder of the kid he’d sacrificed his human form for. He waggled his tail, making the shards of light dance on the ceiling and floor. Brambleclaw attempted to prod all of the flickers where he laid, fingers brushing the rug while he chased them.

The chase heightened when Firestar shifted his entire body into the sun, letting the golden brightness seep into his cold scales. There were now too many sparkles for Brambleclaw to count, so he gave up for the time being, and slumped on the floor in breathless laughter.

“Wow… you know, maybe you being a snake isn’t all that bad. You could be pretty useful at a party, right?”

“Guess so. Doubt we’ll be having any parties anytime soon, not with the Dark Forest coming and all…”

“Aw, don’t worry about that. They don’t have an amazing snake on their side!” Clearly, Brambleclaw was attempting to be cheerful about the whole situation. “I bet you can probably just bite Tigerstar, and then the battle’s over!”

Firestar’s tail curled in amusement, and he couldn’t bite down a grin this time, tongue flicking.

“Thanks, Scramble.”

In a way, he was feeling a little better about his form. If at least one person believed in him, especially Brambleclaw, that was more than enough confirmation that he couldn’t give in to the negative thoughts constantly bombarding him.

Firestar glanced directly at the snake statue at that. He shrunk away from the light in some effort to hide from the soulless, haunting gaze of the inanimate figure.

The ruby eyes glaring at him from the dresser were forgotten about when Brambleclaw childishly swiped at another spot of light.

“So, do you want any fish crackers? I might have crushed them a little, but they probably still taste like cheese.”

The ginger also forgot about hiding a warm smile.

“Sure. I’ll have some with you.”

Chapter Text

“Fire, you have to let me go sometime…”

“Never!” The oversized snake hissed, tongue flicking Sandstorm’s face.

“You’re squeezing the air out of me!”

“Then so be it. You will always feel my love.”

“Come on, Da-Firestar!” Brambleclaw was struggling to yank at the snake-leader’s twitching tail (drat the scales being so slippery). “You’re going to kill her by accident!”

“Yeah! Then you can’t hug her anymore!” Squirrelflight, who was pulling on Brambleclaw, chimed in.

That only made Firestar constrict his wife further, green eyes flickering fearfully.

“You shouldn’t have said that!” Brambleclaw snapped.

“Well, it’s true.”

“I DON’T CARE!” He became too busy glaring at Squirrelflight to notice when Firestar dropped off of Sandstorm and slipped in his direction. “When you say stuff like that it only makes him more anxious!”

“Sorry.”

“You should b-” He stopped when a long body wrapped around his legs like a ribbon on a gift. “Oh, great.”

Firestar nuzzled Brambleclaw’s neck affectionately, tongue flicking.

“I love you, Bramble.” Joy sparkled in the green eyes.

“…I love you too.”