So this is a Merry Christmas RP between me and the amazing Rain847 
Rain wanted this to be posted for EBC on Christmas as a gift to you guys but I was a numbskull and forgot.

This is actually Sicily's first RP since joining Lightning, and already she is causing problems lol This is also where this picture Bit of a Diva was originally born from

The Events that happen in this are:
Sicily and Neri meet cause Neri can't sleep
Sicily falls into a snowbank oh so gracefully 
Dig Snow tunnels
They terrorize a Groundhog
Sicily decided they are friends
Damasen is plotted against from the begining lol

It's a really short and sweet RP I highly recommend reading,

Word Count: 2398
EP to Sicily and Neri

Burning the Midnight Oil

Neri crouched in the snow, next to the Apprentice's den. It was hot and stuffy in there, not to mention that sleep was just not a thing right now. She wanted to leave, even just for a few minutes, the camp felt small and her energy was endless. But, with the snow, it made it nearly impossible, her paws were too large, so she sinks through, making obvious noises when she stalked. So she couldn't leave at night, and it was annoying.

-----

Silent as a mouse Sicily tiptoed through camp. She wasn't used to living in an empire, and even less sleeping in a den. Shudder the thought. There were no pillows in there. What she did love, was the constant freedom. No one seemed to be out, except for what looked like a small african wildcat. They looked stuck. Sicily shrugged, bouncing quietly over.
"Are you frozen in place?"

------

"Are you frozen in place?"

Neri looked up, her ears pricking curiously as she heard an unfamiliar voice shake her from her head. 

New cat.

"Um.. no, not frozen, but I can't sleep; to be honest, I'm not even cold, I like the weather like this. But it gets too warm in the den, like sticking your head under cloth, so I can't sleep at all, even with my energy, I still get tired." The small hybrid responded quietly, "I usually sneak out, to get me sleepy enough so I can sleep out here, but.. I don't know how to stalk in the snow. I'm too loud like this, it's annoying, I can't get anywhere silently."

------

Sicily sat and scratched herself a moment as the little cat talked. She listened to every word but glanced around the camp as she did so. Sicily was a flighty little butterfly who could take very little seriously. "Well come on then. If you can't sleep in the den just learn how to walk in the snow." She took a few nearly silent steps into the powder. "Just don't step in the crunchy snow, step in the powder, or if there is no powder, step in another cats paw prints, they don't make sound." She said leaping like a rabbit to the nearest lion prints that had been left behind. She turned to watch the cat, her bright eyes eager. "We can sneak out and have some fun together while everyone sleeps."

----

Neri blinked, Step in the powder..? She slowly stood up, and very softly she looked about t find drifts of powdery snow, carefully she hopped shallowly to each drift; making her way to the paw prints and smiled, the snow crunched less and less as she made her way to the golden cat. "I'm Neri, by the way." She looked up brightly, content with the lesson, enjoying the cold, crisp air cooling her pelt.

----

"Neri, nice to meet you." Sicily said hopping now to the next prints and into a good amount of fluff. "I'm Sicily. What kind of trouble should we get into tonight?" She said with a grin.

----

Neri thought for a moment, and she whispered. "Build up snow drifts in some parts of the territory?"

----

Sicily smiled. "Sounds like a good place to get lost....Come on lets go!" She sprang up racing out of the camp. Maybe there would be animals hiding in some of the snowdrifts, it sure would be fun to chase rabbits in and out of those snowdrifts.

----

Neri bounded after her, focusing on silence as she hopped from powder to powder as she followed eagerly, her tail waving behind her. Her ears flattened against her head as she raced along with Sicily; the small hybrid had missed running endlessly in the snow. Her paw-pads gripped the snow and with fur in-between her toes it allowed her to maneuver in the snow(once getting the hang of it) pretty easily.

----

Sicily honestly had no idea where she was going, but she was enjoying the nighttime run so it didn't matter to her. It wasn't too long before she realized a second too late that the snow made a sudden drop and without warning Sicily was falling to disappear into a deep bank of snow. She popped out giving her head a shake. "I found one."

-----

Neri carefully made her way to the hole, being so light she only made dented paw prints in the snow, but she couldn't go very fast. "You okay?"

-----

Sicily giggled. "Yup." Before she proceeded to dig the snow out from underneath Neri. "Come on in." She said hollowing out the bottom really fast so as to, you could say, pull the rug out from underneath her.

----

The ground fell out from under the small hybrid, and with a yelp, she hit the snow as she sunk into the tunnels. She puffed, but commented, "It's pretty down here, isn't?" The snow glittered in the moonlight above them, the stars glittering coldly above.

-----

"Sure is." Sicily agreed, before starting to dig her way deeper into the bank. The Snow was softer underneath and she quickly made progress the snow tunnel winding through

-----

Neri helped shift the snow and flatten it behind her so it didn't stock pile the entrance. She moved quickly, helping dig too.

------

Sicily worked quickly until her nose found the scent of a goundhog. "I think I found something." She whispered

----

"You wanna go after it? Or me?" Neri asked quietly, tail flicking in anticipation.

----

Sicily grinned. "I'll sneak around to the other side, and then you scare it out. We'll make him go back and forth until he gets dizzy."

----

Neri nodded, crouching patiently as she waited for Sicily to come back around.

How big are Groundhogs? They're heavy, I know that.
Well, of course I do, I saw Dama holding one and he was looking tired.
from holding it.
Fair.

She dug her claws in and out of the snow in anticipation, smiling.

----

Sicily ran around prancing through the snow like a deer, then finding the groundhog entrance she barked a signal to Neri. The groundhog would not be expecting to be amused from behind.

-----

Neri smiled, her ears pricking to the signal as she began to dig through the snow. She had never been a digger, like Thoth, but she found it easier to dig up snow. The groundhog's brown back came into view as the snow wall broke away behind it. It flipped it's head around to defend itself, Neri letting out a thunderous growl from the back of the throat, the rumble echoing through the tunnel as it squeaked, trying to scamper backwards but ran right to Sicily.

----

With the yowl and the squeak Sicily was ready, sure enough the groundhog came barreling out of its hole. Sicily barked like mad making it confused and panicking it scampered back the way it had come. "It's coming back!" She laughed, hardly able to make out the words through her laughter

----

Neri purred, letting out another growl as it came by, the growl rumbling into a hiss as it came too close for comfort. It squealed again as it turned back around, Neri pretending to nip at it's feet in the darkness. Neri could only smell the groundhog in the crisp, bitter darkness. But she liked it, she had a liking for the empty darkness, so being in the tunnels were nice, sounds dampened by the snow snow. But she kept on thinking something was gonna sneak up on her, and she always kept looking back when the groundhog ran away.

----

Finally having had enough of the back and forth the Groundhog literally ran Sicily over, the two of them rolling back several times before it kicked off of her and mad dashed into the thick underbrush. "Lost him." Sicily said laughing, and jumping back over the snow to find Neri. "Well that was fun."

---

Neri waved her tail, "Yeah! It was fun, we should do that again."

---

Sicily almost started to leave, but then she caught the look on Neri's face. "Whats wrong. That Groundhog didn't scare you did it?"

---

Neri blinked, "Um, that moment when you're scared but you're having too much fun to stop." She smiled sheepishly, "Often when I hunt the prey is half my size or more, I like bigger targets, and when I do, it's always more like a fight. So when it gets too close for comfort, I get scared. being a tail-length tall is scary sometimes. Fun, but terrifying."

----

Sicily smiled and impish grin. "Well you dont have to fight everything that is bigger than you silly. When you're small, you can get places bigger cats can't go. If you think you're in trouble, why not run?" She said heading in the direction of the camp.

----

"I don't have a place to run to," Neri padded after her, "If I run to camp, sure if it's not prey, lets say.. a fox it'll know where the camp is. If I hide, I dunno how long I'll be there and how long I'll last. The more scared I am, the more I don't wanna move again because it's such a high pressure situation. Worse if hunters are after me, then I can't climb a tree or go to camp, hide in a hole, I'll be trapped. Like.. when I was in Air's camp for the mega raid, I couldn't run when the hunters attacked, hide in one of the dens until I was captured?" Neri watched her breath pillow in the air, shortly distracted before going on.

"... No, that was was to get the cats in the city out, and it feels like even more got killed or captured. It feels like I would be letting cats down if I just ran, and that's how I got these scars on my face, because I was stupid and I guess brave enough to fight a freaking lion, not on my own, to help another cat from his capture. At least I could help," Neri sighed, noticing how her scars down her face were stinging in the wind, and she squeezed her left eye shut, trying to ignore the left side of her face.

----

"Hmmm." Sicily hummed padding back to the camp a little slower. The Asian Golden cat hardly ever took anything seriously, and this wasn't the first time she had heard cats talking about some war. Frankly she didn't care much about it. What had happened had happened, she wasn't there so why should it bother her. She did feel that Neri was a brave soul for taking on a lion, she knew she never would have done that, it just seemed suicidal. "Well running has always worked for me." She didn't understand these empire cats, and she wondered if she ever would.

----

Neri shrugged, "Maybe it's because you lived in the city, I lived as a loner until my mother disappeared, so I never lived running away, I lived in hiding from what I think were the hunters. I didn't like it, every time I thought they were getting closer, so I guess it makes sense, I can't run because I fear hiding." She meowed, allowing herself to understand it, "But— thanks, for the getting out of camp thing, I needed this again. It was a lotta fun!" The hybrid smiled at the brown cat, she was growing tired, maybe she would be able to doze off for the rest of the night.

----

Sicily on the other hand still had way too much energy. Maybe it was more anxiety but she wouldn't admit that even to herself. "I'm happy to help Neri. Next time I go out for a late night adventure I'll ask you if you would like to come." They had reached the camp now, it having been easy enough to follow their tracks back. Maybe she could find a big gladiator to sleep on. 

-----

"Yeah, I'll usually be awake, never been able to sleep!" The hybrid lowered her voice when they entered camp. She looked at the gladiator's den, being reminded for her mentor, Damasen. He was a big ol' grumpy hybrid up until the raid was over, he had gotten a better temper 4 moons back, but she smiled devilishly, wondering if she could weird him out. Ever since they had spoke in the healer's den, they had gotten a better relationship a while after. More similar to daughter and father relationship if anything, Neri enjoying to tease him every once in a while.

"Hey, Sici, if I can call you that," Neri whispered to the gladiator. "Do me a favor, you know that lion and snow leopard hybrid in the den? If you don't know him, his name is Damasen, when you go inside, go and lay on top of him. And if he asks you what you're doing, just say: from, Neri. If he asks you get off, well," the small hybrid gave her an evil smile, "that's your choice. Okay?"

----

Sicily absolutely beamed at Neri's nickname. She had never been called that before, and a big lion hybrid sounded like the perfect fluff to keep her off the cold ground. "You got it." She whispered giving Neri a wink. "I've decided we are going to be friends. Sleep tight Neri." She said tiptoeing to the gladiators den, feeling very excited for Damasen's reaction to her making him her knew bed.

------

Neri purred a little, eyes bright in the moonlit clearing. "G'night," she padded away, ears flattened with determination, as she moved to the side of the den again to sleep, too warm in the den. She put a new layer of snow in the snow hole that she had left earlier. So she settled back down in the snow hole she made for herself, the new snow layer crunching underneath her, curling up neatly as the surrounding snow cooled her fur. She pulled her long tail around herself, tucking her muzzle under her tail as she used it as a pillow for her head, on the right side. She let her mind drift, as her eyes drooped in the shadow of the den, watching the snow sparkle and glow in the moonlight;

she was still smiling.