12 Chapter 12

"A crown that will never belong to Ace." Quinn murmured. Then Kyle asked, "Why do y'all have a grudge on Ace? I was asleep during whatever went down." Jay explained what happened, and during that, I noticed that Yuna was spending a lot of time by herself. I walked over to her and asked, "Is something the matter?"

She flinched when I spoke to her, and she said, "Uh.. how do I say this.." I sat down and waited for her answer. She then said, "Um... I think I'm in love." I swayed my tail in interest and said, "Go on." She looked down and whispered, "I-I like Smoke... h-he's nice." I purred and said, "That's nice, but why are you not with them?"

She whispered, "It's a bit hard to talk to him because I start to f-feel embarrassed and shy around him... and Bell and Echo are always hanging out with Bandit and S-Smoke." I huffed and said, "You don't have to feel embarrassed around him. Just act how you've always acted, and tell him about it when you're ready."

Yuna smiled and said, "Thank you, mom.." She then prepared herself to go over, then she walked over to where they always hang out. I then walked back to the others. Kyle said, "Oh. Okay, I get it now. I'm going to go hang with Lu, alright?" Jay dismissed him, and then he said, "Oh, hey Birch? Can I ask you something?"

I nodded, and he asked, "Can we have more kits please?" I was a bit blown away. "Why do you want more?" I asked with my head tilted. Then he said, "I don't know. I guess I want more kits to look after." Then a sudden thought appeared in my head, but I ignored it and said, "Sure, I guess. But can we please do it somewhere else?" "Sure. Lead the way."

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We finally hanging out like normal again. Yuna finally started talking to us again, and Echo stopped gazing off. But there's something I know that no one else does. Yuna likes my brother! I wanted to tell everyone, but Yuna seems to want to do so herself when she's ready. "Bandit, are you even listening?" Smoke shouted.

I said, "Uh... sorry what?" Smoke sighed and said, "Yuna has something to say to everyone." I was surprised. It usually takes about a week for Yuna to get over shyness to talk, but this is a record! I looked at Yuna, and the atmosphere was becoming tense and awkward. But then she flattened her ears and said, "N-Nevermind."

"Dang it!" I said under my breath. She was so close to telling him. Maybe she shouldn't be surrounded by other cats. I said, "Well okay, so that's over. What now?" Bell said, "Oh oh! Can we race?" I said, "Very good idea! Let's go let's go!" Smoke sighed and said, "Yeah sure I'll race with you two kits." "Kits? Why did you call us kits?" I asked.

"Because you act like kits!" Smoke growled. I rolled my eyes, and we rushed to our racing spot. Echo and Yuna don't race because they can't run very fast yet. Smoke sometimes sits out because he doesn't like racing too much. We got into position, and then Echo shouted, "Go!" Bell took the lead, but it was quickly taken by me.

She was able to catch up a few times, but I was still faster. Then I saw Smoke right next to me. He was gradually passing me, but I didn't allow it. I ran faster than I ever could. When we turned back around, Smoke took the lead, but I was able to catch up to him. I finally passed him by a whisker, and I passed through the finish line.

Yuna whispered something to Echo, and he shouted, "Bandit takes the win!" Bell arrived and said, "Dang you two are fast. And it seems that Bandit was faster than you this time." She was right. When it was just me and Bell, we would do a jogging race. When it was all three of us, we would run as fast as we could, but we couldn't catch up to Smoke. Not even by a tail.

So I was happy when I learned that I was faster. Smoke sighed and said, "Good job little brother." I sat down and laughed. Bella walked over to her siblings, and Smoke and I followed after her. Then we talked about random things.