#also should probably fit ravenwing and nettlebreeze in here somehow

[jesse-pinko]

Not a dig at anyone bc different people find different story routes interesting but any Mapleshade au where she isn’t at least a little bit evil still is automatically boring to me, esp since I feel like there’s a pretty obvious and interesting path to take with the secret-never-revealed au specifically. Like Frecklewish and Oakstar were canonically planning to raise those kittens to get revenge on Appledusk, and he still would have been cheating on Mapleshade and gotten Reedshine pregnant… once Mapleshade found out, I can see her getting fully onboard with the plan to weaponize her kits against him with no further intention of revealing him as their father.

So.

Patchkit, Petalkit and Larchkit are raised on somewhat embellished tales of their father Birchface’s heroism, and how he and his brave apprentice were sadistically drowned by a dishonorable Riverclan warrior. Their mother puts great emphasis on the pain this Riverclan warrior caused her, leaving her all alone with three fatherless kits to raise by herself, though their aunt Frecklewish always corrects her on this front, which seems to annoy Mapleshade greatly. The three kits are very close to their mother and feel very protective of her because of all she’s been through, especially Patchkit, who is the most susceptible to her manipulations.

Patchpaw is apprenticed to Oakstar himself, Petalpaw to Frecklewish, and Larchpaw to Bloomheart like his mother before him. During a confrontation with a Riverclan patrol, Patchpaw notices Appledusk staring at him and wonders if he knows Patchpaw is the kit of the cat he murdered. He also exchanges verbal barbs with Wavepaw (Applefrost in canon) Appledusk’s son by Reedshine. Oakstar compliments him on his ferocity afterward and compares him to Birchface . Later, Patchpaw goes patrolling with his mother, and they catch Wavepaw hunting alone at Snakerocks. Mapleshade encourages him to attack Wavepaw and instructs him on which battle moves to use. Wavepaw drowns while trying to cross the river due to his injuries and Patchpaw is horrified, but Mapleshade assures him it wasn’t his fault and that Wavepaw shouldn’t have crossed into Thunderclan territory. Meanwhile, Petalpaw and Mapleshade start growing apart due to her mother treating her differently because she is the kit that looks most like Appledusk, and she grows closer to her aunt and mentor Frecklewish. She also becomes friends with Perchpaw at the gathering, and the two start meeting up in secret after Petalpaw mentions offhandedly that she’d always wanted to learn how to swim. Perchpaw remarks that she’s surprisingly good at it. Frecklewish catches them one day and publicly humiliates Petalpaw by having her confess to meeting with a Riverclan apprentice in front of the entire clan, and she is ostracized by everyone but her brother Larchpaw, who, having not been mentored by any of their overbearing relatives, has slowly begun to recognize just how much the adults around them are using him and his siblings. Larchpaw becomes friends with a rambunctious crew of teenaged kittypets, and reflects to himself that they seem more free than he feels living in the wild. He starts to question clan life and Starclan altogether, and starts up a flirtation with a kittypet tom named Mister Mistoffelees.

The three kits become warriors and are given the names Patchface, Petalwish and Larchshade respectively, which Petalwish and Larchshade both resent. Petalwish begins meeting with Perchpaw again, now Perchleap, and soon finds herself expecting kits. Around this time, Thunderclan launches a massive attack on Riverclan, and the three find and corner Appledusk, who reveals he is their father to save his own life. Patchface cannot reconcile the thought that he had been responsible for the death of his own half brother and that his mother had lied to him. He yowls that Appledusk is a liar and slashes his throat, much to the stunned horror of his siblings. Perchleap attacks him in a rage but ultimately can’t bring himself to do anything to his mate’s brother; Frecklewish witnesses this and confronts Petalwish about the father of her kits, and Petalwish tells her the truth. Frecklewish is disgusted, and threatens to reveal her secret to the clan. Petalwish flees to Riverclan to be with Perchleap, and Patchface and Mapleshade both denounce her as a traitor, though Frecklewish seems to blame herself for Petalwish’s leaving. Larchshade, furious with his family’s hypocrisy, threatens Patchface and Mapleshade with the truth about his own parentage. Only when his mother insinuates to him that Larchshade needs to be “dealt with” does Patchface realize the true extent of her cruelty and selfishness. Mapleshade leads another attack on Riverclan, where she attempts to kill her expectant daughter, mistakenly calling her by Appledusk’s name as she raises her paw for the killing blow. Patchface jumps in front of his sister and dies in her place, with Frecklewish subduing Mapleshade and scratching her eyes. Mapleshade stumbles away towards the river and drowns. Petalwish reconciles with her aunt but ultimately decides to stay in Riverclan, though Frecklewish does insist to her that she name one of the kits Birchkit as they say their goodbyes. She becomes close with her two remaining siblings by Appledusk, and names her three kits after exactly no one. Larchshade says fuck this shit and goes to twolegplace to live with his kittypet boyfriend.