who knows how long / open; refusing to eat

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    He's a little better today, fever-wise at least. He is still sick and not allowed to play with the other kits, but the queens must face the most difficult task yet - feeding the starving and ill kitten. As he is diseased, food doesn't taste so nice and ever moment makes him feel like he is going to throw up his food. His stomach tells him he doesn't need food, but in the eyes of the nursing queens they know that he definitely needs to eat something. They try to feed him, but Palekit refuses and shakes his head. No, he says in his head as the lightfurred tom scrunches his nose and pouts. He is refusing to eat but if he keeps doing that, sickness won't be his enemy, it will be starvation. He doesn't want to eat the scrawny little rabbit in front of him. His palate can't enjoy the taste of meat, and Palekit's belly and acids continue to threaten him. It is strange, of course, that a brain that knows he is starving will put up such a fight to sloshing bile and pain. He doesn't feel too well and the struggle to push Palekit to eat continues. No one can convince him to eat, it seems.



    While Palekit may have been stubborn at the moment, he was nothing compared to Morningkit. An absolute menace when she set her mind to doing something, the tortoiseshell kitten had decided that she wanted her brother to eat. Practically waddling over, her head and body still aching with fever, and her hearing strangely muffled, Morningkit stopped beside Palekit and flopped to the ground beside him. Through reproachful eyes, she stared at him and said, "Eat." She'd already lost her mother, though she was too young to truly understand that, but she had no intentions of losing her brother as well. And so she leveled her bloodshot gaze on his pale form and waited, hoping she wouldn't have to speak much more. Her words still sounded garbled when she spoke through the mucus clogging her throat, and she could barely hear herself through the haze surrounding her ears.


    ... Scary.


    He doesn't want to look her directly in the eyes but her demands send shivers to the ill boy's spine. He presses his teeth together, clenching them and daringly shakes his head. He doesn't want to eat, it doesn't feel right. But Morningkit is so scary! He's sure that if he pushes hard enough, the feline would probably bite him. Eek, he doesn't want to be bitten so he stretches his neck and takes a tiny nibble. He chews, painfully, and feels himself begin to gag. He really doesn't want to eat this and the moment his blue eyes directly stare back at the tortie's gaze, he's horrified. Her red hues are frightening and that is enough to force Palekit to gulp the food down his throat and let it slide down his oesophagus. Timidly, he lowers his head and shuffles his paws awkwardly. "...morningkit should eat too," he says in a whisper, but he is sure the girl cannot hear him. Even Palekit cannot hear himself. He closes his eyes and folds his ears back, trying to speak a little louder against his shy exterior: "You should eat too!" His rib cages expands and constricts rapidly, the boy breathing hastily in discomfort as he pokes at the dead rodent with a sigh.



    Morningkit felt bad for having to intimidate her brother into eating, but she knew it would be the only way she would get him to eat at all. And she may not have known much, being so young, but she knew that food was very important. As she watched him first take a tiny nibble, the tortoiseshell and white kitten nodded, appeased. Though she worried about how he gagged on the food, she knew he had to eat more, and so she kept her eyes on him in case he decided to spit it out when she turned her back.


    Terror was something strangely new to her, yet she recognized it on Palekit's features as he met her gaze. Did she really look that bad? Abashed, Morningkit glanced away, not even noticing that his terror had been enough for him to effectively finish the bite he took. And then his words - not the first, for her ears were far too blocked and weak to pick up on his inaudible whisper - were enough to have her dip her head down and take a larger bite of the rabbit. Even in chewing and swallowing, her body ached with illness, and the food felt wrong as it settled in her stomach. But she had to eat, if not for her own sake, then for Palekit's. "Thank you," she said, much more gently this time. And then, thoroughly tired out, she laid down next to her brother and closed her eyes as if to go to sleep.