"Whitekit?"

"What?"

"I'm bowed."

Whitekit yawned and rolled over, cracking open an eye to stare at his littermate, Wolfkit, who had just asked the question. Beside him, their sister Mistkit was lying on her back, staring at him upside down, looking equally as restless.

Whitekit rubbed his nose with a paw. As one of the more... creative of the bunch, it often fell to him to invent games for his siblings to play. Not that he minded. "Wanna pway... GowseCwan inbasion?"

"We just pwayed that yestewday," Wolfkit denied, wrinkling his nose.

"We could pway expwowews," Mistkit suggested softly. Her foggy blue eyes were hopeful.

"Aw, but you don't do anything in expwowews," Wolfkit complained. "Aww you do is twamp awound, and discobew stuff, and bwah bwah bwah."

"But I wike expwowews!" Mistkit cried indignantly.

"Weww what do you want to pway, Wowfkit?" Whitekit demanded, quickly tiring of his sibling's stubbornness.

"I was thinking... we could be on a secwet mission," Wolfkit meowed. His deep blue eyes twinkled, framed by long, fluffy black fur.

"Kits," came a reminding voice. The three jumped and spun around. Behind them, Mouseshadow was blinking at them sleepily, tail flicking. "If you want to be loud, please go outside, m'kay? These little ones are trying to sleep." She brushed her tail over the three tiny, one-moon-old kits nestled at her belly. One of them - Birchkit, the adorable mottled brown she-kit - raised her petite head and let out something between a squeak and a yawn. Her cloudy blue eyes, which had still not changed color, cracked open.

"Awwwww," Mistkit whispered, eyes wide with delight.

"Come on," sighed Wolfkit, "weeet's go." The three padded out of the den into LeafClan's main camp, Mistkit a little reluctantly.

"So whewe's this secwet mission, Wowfcwaw?" Whitekit wanted to know.

"Wowfstaw this time," proclaimed Wolfkit proudly. Whitekit rolled his eyes, while Mistkit giggled quietly. Her brother was such a show-off. He always wanted to be the leader or the deputy. And when that was denied him, StarClan forbid he be anything lower than the Clan's best warrior! "Anyway," he went on, "we'we in a secwet mission to GowseCwan tewwitowy. Whiteheawt is my bwiwwiant stwa... stwa... stwagagist." He stumbled over the complicated word. "Yeah, stwagagist. With Mist... Mist... Mist..." His face screwed up as he attempted to think of a warrior name for his petite silver sister.

"Mistpetaw," she volunteered.

His face lit up. "Yeah! That's a good one! Okay, and we gotta find out... um... we'we..."

Lost again. This time Whitekit played along, supplying the answer. "We'be gotta wescue the kits they stowe! Which are in... the medicine cat den!" he proclaimed dramatically. He swung his muzzle to point to the fern-shaded corner of camp where Mintleaf kept her den, along with her apprentice, Dawnblaze.

"Good one, Whiteheawt! A good stwagagist awweady! Now wet's go!"

"Um..." Mistkit spoke up again, "I don't think Mintweaf wants us in hew den... she'ww be mad..."

"Oh, it'ww be fine, Mistpetaw," Wolf"star" denied. "Don't be a pawty poopew."

She flushed under her striped silver fur. "I'm not!"

"Weww then come on! Unwess you'we gonna tell Mommy," Wolfkit sneered.

"Don't be a butthead, Wowfkit," Whitekit countered. "Wet's go."

Mistkit bounded after her larger brothers, still fuming slightly, as they headed for the edges of MapleClan's camp. Wolfkit led them into the very fringes of the camp, where thick bramble-reinforced bushes blocked the way out, and branches shaded the way so that they could sneak by unnoticed. They slunk along in the shadows, inching closer and closer to the entrance to Mintleaf's den. They dropped into the very best hunting crouches they could remember. Mistkit was pretty sure hers had to be good. Blackwhisker had taught it to Ashpaw, who had shown it to Emberkit, who had shown it to Mistkit and her siblings. It was about the most failproof thing she had ever heard of, in fact.

"Awert!" Wolfkit cried suddenly, throwing up his fluffy tail.

"What? What?" Whitekit clamored to see around his brother, and Mistkit peered around them, worrying that they would be busted.

"Mintweaf awert," he hissed. Now Mistkit could see. Mintleaf was emerging from her den. She glanced both ways - causing Mistkit to cringe - before striding into the open clearing and seizing a wren from the fresh-kill pile. "Dawnblaze," she called, "gather some chamomile, now would you, I'm going to take a break to eat."

"Sure!" came a muffled meow. Dawnblaze, a gray-and-white she-cat, padded out as well. Several strong-smelling leaves were clamped in her jaws. "Can I share first?" She took a few more steps.

Mintleaf rolled her eyes. "Well, that kind of defeats the purpose..."

"Now's ouw chance!" Wolfkit hissed. The three kits hurtled across empty space, excitement pumping through Wolfkit, happiness through Whitekit, and for Mistkit, a brief moment of fear before they reached the safety of the medicine cat den.

"Woww," she breathed, "it's so coow in hewe! Whoaa!~"

"Shh! Mistpetaw, you'ww awert the enemy!" Wolfkit hissed.

"Oops!" Blue eyes wide, she glanced quickly around the medicine cat's den for ideas. A small pool of water, several tail-lengths wide, lay to the right. Several carefully made beds of moss were positioned around it. To the left, a very large log - in height, width and length - was sprawled across the ground. In fact... it appeared to be hollow in the center. "Whiteheawt! Wowfstaw! I think they'we keeping the kits in thewe!" She flicked her tail toward the fallen log.

"Good wowk, wawwiow!" declared her confident sibling. "Wet's wescue them!"

The three kits scurried into the log and glanced around. Quickly excitement and awe overtook their little game. "Just wook at all these!" cried Wolfkit. He bounced deeper into the hollow log. Countless little piles of leaves, seeds, petals, roots, and berries were stuffed into the ridges and niches of the log's inside. Several more piles, full of random herbs, were heaped at the very back of the log. A warm, fresh bed of moss was made up directly in front of those unsorted piles. Long strands of grass and fern covered the floor of the log, likely to prevent the equally niched and ridged bottom of the log from hurting tender pawpads.

"Mmmm, it smewws so good in hewe!" Mistkit meowed delightedly. She leaned forward to sniff a pile of small green leaves. Her nose brushed too close and they went fluttering to the floor - along with the stock of tiny seeds that had been next to them. "Oops!" she squeaked with embarrassment, but no one was listening. Whitekit and Wolfkit had wandered deeper into the log; the first was pawing through one of the herb-piles, and the second seemed to be trying out Mintleaf's nest for himself.

Mistkit stared at them in shock. "You guys!" she cried. "We'we not dapposed to be in hewe! If we mess up hew stuff, too, she'ww get us in eben mowe twouble! Awe you eben wistening to me? Guys!"

"You'we wuining my fun, Mistkit," was Wolfkit's sulky reply.

Whitekit stopped, a worried expression overtaking his blue eyes. "Yeahhhh, but she's pwobabwy wight," he meowed. He tried to paw the pile back into its former shape. "Come on, Wowfkit, wet's go pway in the medicine cat cweawing instead."

Wolfkit huffed, but stood and shook out his fluffy pelt, dislodging several scraps of moss.

"Oh! Wait!" Mistkit squealed. "I gotta fix this stuff fiwst!" She glanced at the scattered herbs by her paws in dismay. The only way she could think of to put the seeds back were to put them on her tongue and hope Mintleaf didn't notice that they were all spitty. She lapped at them nervously, scraping them back onto the ridge they'd come from. By the time most of them were back on the ledge, though, her tongue felt... strange. It didn't respond to her commands; it flopped uselessly around her mouth, like a fat old slug. She began to panic, but once again, her brothers were paying her no mind. Their attention was on the good-smelling leaves that had fallen to the floor, and their eyes were very wide.

Whitekit broke into a purr. He seized a large jawful of them and trotted out of the log with his tail high in the air like a banner. Wolfkit followed as though under a spell.

"He-! Gezz! Whe' you ffen yo - " Mistkit tried to say around her numb tongue, and then burst into tears. She laid down on the floor of the log and sniffled quietly. What was wrong with her? Would it last forever? Before long, a powerful exhaustion began to tug at her limbs, sweeping over her as quick and strong as a wave in the sea. She was dragged under and into sleep in moments.

The next thing she knew distant screaming was piercing her ears, and she swam back into consciousness, opening her eyes stare straight into a wall of bristling tan fur. "Wuah!" she cried, and scrambled back, her still-sleepy limbs struggling to respond correctly.

A pair of sharp, glaring green eyes turned on her. "And you! Don't you EVER get into my herbs again, DO YOU HEAR ME?"

"Y-y-yes!" Mistkit squeaked out. She began to cry again.

"And don't think you'll get out of punishment just by being cute and crying! 'Cuz you won't!" Mintleaf yowled. She seemed to want StarClan itself to hear her wrath. Mistkit was suddenly aware of Whitekit and Wolfkit, huddling near her as well. Their eyes were wide and scared. "You wasted the last of my good catmint just playing with it. Cats could die because of what you did. Did you ever think of that?!"

"Mintleaf!" The voice was sharp and familiar, and best of all, nearby. From the outside world came Moonsky, their mother, fur framed against the light like an angel come to save them. "I'll discipline my kits myself, thank you very much."

"You don't understand," Mintleaf seethed. "They destroyed a very valuable herb. One that will be hard to restock befo - "

"I understand," Moonsky replied, calmly but firmly. Her narrowed blue eyes were leveled with Mintleaf's green ones. "I'll help you gather new catmint myself. But yelling at my kits won't change anything."

Mistkit's heart lifted. So she wouldn't get in trouble?

"And I can assure you, they won't get off scotch-free for what they did."

...Of course she would.

Turns out they were grounded. For three days. No leaving the nursery at all. They could play, but they had to be very quiet and careful, because there were little kits in the nursery now, and wouldn't they feel bad if they hurt them, so they'd better not wake anyone up or accidentally crush Beechkit or Squirrelkit or Groundkit, as if that were something they were likely to do.

After this long and productive rant, Moonsky left them in the nursery to help Dawnblaze gather catmint.

It was very quiet in the nursery with her gone and Mouseshadow asleep. Leafwind was out on a hunting patrol or something, and Emberkit and his siblings were playing outside like any normal kit would.

Five minutes passed, thick with silence. Mistkit felt as though she would die before this punishment was over. She could almost feel the life drain from her paws.

Finally, Wolfkit spoke up.

"Whitekit?"

"What?"

"I'm bowed."

A/N: Well, I actually wrote most of this months and months ago. Then I remembered it existed and finished it in about twenty minutes. :P

It was good to write about these three again. Mistkit, Whitekit, and Wolfkit have existed since 2010, and they will be the main characters of an upcoming trilogy of mine, Black White & Gray. I haven't written them in ages, and their kit escapades are so cute and fluffy to do. I haven't done anything this cute in ages!

Anyway. Hope you enjoyed this~