Her words startled him, and he jolted forward, staring at her wide-eyed in surprise.
Starclan.... Then maybe she was once a warrior...
A mixture of relief and shock washed over him at once, and he was unable to push it away. Blinking, he settled back down, glancing up at the sky. He wasn't sure why, of all choices, he'd chosen to run away. If he'd been braver, if he'd stopped to think about his sister's feelings, then he would've confronted his clan-mates rather than letting his own feelings chase him away.
"My sister... She's up there with them, I think..."
His voice was soft, and a distant look had shrouded the tom's blue eyes. Thoughts and memories; even if he'd never had a conversation with Rosekit, she always seemed to understand what he was saying.
"I'll protect you, because that's what siblings do!"
He'd said that once; seasons ago. It lay embedded in his memory like a thorn. With it came a stinging pain, yet he was too afraid to pull it out, because then it would start bleeding. Lowering his gaze, he stared at his paws for several moments, and he wondered if Dove had once belonged to the clans.
No, not 'belonged'. You belong to no one but yourself.
Looking up, he blinked and glanced at the she-cat from the corner of his eye.
"You know... They don't always listen... Starclan... But I think... Sometimes, that they might try, even if there's nothing they can do..."
He trailed off, not completely sure what he was saying. He wasn't defending them; that was beyond his own morales. He wouldn't forgive them for taking his sister, for cursing her when she was born. If she'd had her hearing, if she'd been able to hear her death coming, maybe she could've lived.
But she wouldn't have wanted that... She wouldn't run away, like me.
"So your brother... What's he like?"
He meowed, gaze fading as he stared off forlornly, unable to keep track of his thoughts.

The tom listened quietly, watching the she-cat as she narrated her story. As he suspected, she had come from a clan.
Thunderclan? I wonder.... We're about the same age; was she an apprentice while I was in Riverclan?
This thought crossed over his mind as he heard her out, and he felt memories wash over him as she described her brother. He recalled the time Rosekit had fallen into a hole and hurt her paw, and the day she'd wandered away from camp and gotten lost. He'd been filled with panic at the thought of losing her, and he and the rest of the clan had searched for her frantically. At the time, he couldn't help but envy his loved sister. The entire clan was willing to chase after her, yet not him. Still, he was happy that she'd been treasured, and even if their father had never looked at them, he had told himself that as long as Rosekit didn't know, then she couldn't be unhappy.
He blinked in slight surprise as she described her hate for the Rouges, and a sudden understanding washed over him. The she-cat hadn't wanted to leave her clan. Even if she was speaking of despising cats who stuck in a group, there was pain in her eyes, and he knew that it was only because she hated going back to whatever memories haunted her.
"So if you hate the Rouges so much... Why did you leave your clan and your brother? Even I'm not so blind that I can't tell they still linger in your mind."
He meowed, eyes narrowing as he stared at the she-cat, waiting for an answer that he knew might not come out so easily.

Looking up, he stared at her for a moment before sighing. He didn't like lingering in the past; all that awaited him was a border of tension and anxiety. There were things he wasn't ready to talk about with others. He was already saying more to Dove than he'd ever said to Ravensong, and he remembered Katrina, the she-cat he'd met a while back. He'd confided in her when she'd done the same for him, yet he'd never been able to tell the she-cat he loved about his past.
And now I've lost her...
Something dug sharply inside him, clawing at his innards, and he winced visibly, feeling slightly dizzy. He had lost her. He wasn't sure how, but he hadn't seen her in several moons. Hadn't heard anything about her. Hadn't scented her on the Windclan borders or anywhere else. He'd even eavesdropped at a Gathering once, trying to hear any news of her, but there'd been none. She'd vanished from his life as though she'd never been there, and he was feeling the emptiness like the acidic burning of thorns underpaw. He coughed as his throat tightened, and he had to swallow the lump in his throat.
"Me? I can't forgive myself... But you saw your brother... Was he happy?"
How did Rosepaw feel when I left?
A fresh wave of realization swept over him. He'd always known it was his fault, ever since he'd spoken with Cometsnare and learned that Rosepaw had been killed by a fox because he hadn't been there to protect her. He was always the only one who'd stood by her side, even if the whole clan supported her. She was the only one he could talk to, and they were the only ones who ever tried to understand one another. Maybe she wasn't angry at him for letting her die, but for making her feel the pain of loneliness. He had left her, yet had skipped to the end result; her death. Had he ever thought about how she felt during his absence though?
I made her feel exactly like I did... How could I have been so stupid....
His heart quivered, and his eyes narrowed as he stared at the ground, an avalanche of pain and shame crashing down on him.
"Sometimes, it seems like my wrong-doings just keep adding up the more I try to correct them."
He meowed, voice growing suddenly bitter as he looked up swiftly. Eyes burning with a fiery ice, he stared straight at the she-cat, claws digging into the ground.
"That's why, you can't make the same mistake I did. Even if it hurts you, you need to return to your brother. To Thunderclan, or your memories will never stop haunting you. Go to him, or he won't stop hurting."

The tom could see the strained terror in her eyes, a fear that he had once known all too well. A fear that in fact, still haunted him. His own inability to return and face the clan who he had run from, the former place he had called home yet had not felt at all comfortable in.
A home is a place where you feel you belong... But that was no home to me.
Still, he didn't want the she-cat to become him. Completely cold in the exterior and gradually freezing within, too, because of unsolved past mistakes. If she left her brother because of her own fears, she would become like him, which was the last thing he wanted.
"I know it scares you... I'm still too frightened to return. And now I'm too late to save the one who was precious to me. So please, don't make the same mistakes that I did."
When he looked up this time, the anger had faded and was instead replaced by a desperate and pitiful look. Never before had Shatter ever asked a cat for anything. He might've wanted them to do something, but he had never requested it aloud. Perhaps it was his pride or the fact that he had never expected anyone to oblige, but now, the look in the tom's eyes was pleading, and all at once he didn't seem to resemble a hardened Rouge who would talk sharply to whoever he met. Instead, he seemed like a kit again; small, helpless, begging.
"I don't know your brother, and even though I haven't known or seen you for very long, I feel like your story is my own from the way you tell it. So don't abandon your brother the way I left my sister. Don't do something you'll come to regret. Don't make them suffer."
His voice was pleading now, drowned in desperation as blue eyes stared with an agonized expression.
Never again... Never again will I leave you... Forgive me...