This one was not the next one requested, but I had an amazing inspiration suddenly and decided to write it. Don't worry, I'm still going to write the requests though. Well, not all of them. I'm sorry, but I'm not going to be writing any slash pairings. Everything else though gets the green light. So request your favorite ship!

COULD HAVE BEEN

HEATHERPAW x LIONPAW / HEATHEREYES x LIONTHROAT

The queen rested her head on paws, staring out between the fronds of bracken at the night sky. A half-moon hung in the sky; dainty points of light dusted the black expanse of the heavens. A light breeze scampered across the camp, a welcome break from the green-leaf heat.

The beautiful she-cat shifted in her moss, shoving some of the bedding away with her hind paws in an attempt to cool off. A sharp kick pounded her belly. Heathereyes winced, brushing the tip of her tail across her belly.

"Shhhh." She murmured, her eyes roaming across the distended flesh of her stomach. It had been nearly two moons since Barkface had declared her pregnant, she would be a mother soon.

But even now, even as the kits of Harespring grew in her belly, she could not believe she was truly happy. Her mate loved her, he adored her, but she could not love him back. When he had confessed how deeply he cared for her she hadn't the heart to tell him she didn't feel the same way, not after what had happened to her. So she had put on a smile and twined her tail with his, even as her lie was eating away at her inside.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, staring at her unborn kits. "I'm sorry I don't love you."

How could she love them when she did not love their father? She had tried; she had tried so hard to feel fuzzy, warm, maternal instincts towards them, but all she felt was cold and empty. Her heart was broken.

She couldn't let go of the past, she couldn't forget it and move on. It was like a thorn wedged deep into her heart, so deep that she could not remove it. It tortured her, those memories, those hopes for what could have been.

She longed for amber eyes and golden fur, for broad, powerful shoulders and wide, strong paws. She wanted him, and no-one could replace him.

That apprentice, that naïve, naïve apprentice… How could she not have known? How could she not have known how deeply she was in love? A crush. She thought it was just a crush that she had on her friend. She was wrong.

She hadn't tried to hold onto him… had never told him how she felt. Even when he said they could never see each other again – she hadn't tried to make him stay. She thought she'd get over him. Wrong again.

Nights were the worst. She was alone in the nursery, the only WindClan queen. Alone with her thoughts. Nights had been when they would meet, when DarkClan would assemble beneath the earth. Then she had been Heatherstar, he Lionclaw.

Now he was Lionthroat, proud warrior of ThunderClan. It was whispered that he would be the next deputy, as young as he was. He was the pride and joy of ThunderClan: envied by toms, loved by she-cats.

He loved only one: Icefur – his dainty, beautiful, ferocious mate. Heathereyes saw them at Gatherings, wrapped around each other, totally in love. She felt like she was dying.

That should be her. It could have been. If she had said just three words to him it would be her standing next to him, sharing his nest. His kits would be inside her, not Harespring's.

Why did StarClan take it from her – that life they never had? All the secret meetings, the sweet nothings whispered under the moon, the joys and sorrows and love – why had they taken it from her? It had been just a pawstep away. One wonderful, tantalizing pawstep.

Now it was gone. DarkClan disbanded, their friendship shattered.

If only she had told him.

I love Heather/Lion - I haven't read Outcast yet but I'm hoping that if not in that book then later on in the series they'll be friends again. We haven't yet had a cat that left their Clan to go live with their mate (not permenantly anyway) so I think one of them should be the first.

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