Sootpaw and The Deal

Sootpaw dreams of becoming leader one day. In fact, it's practically all she thinks about.
Sootpaw found herself alone at a very young age, and never really got the whole "friends" thing, instead, Sootpaw has devoted most of her time to her training, and rather than making connections of any kind, has spent day after day hunting and practicing and honing her battle and prey-stalking skills.
That is, until one day, Sootpaw realizes that if she ever hopes to be leader, she needs to start making connections, and getting to actually *know* the clanmates she hopes to lead one day.
So, Sootpaw decides to try to start making friends, even though she's never been too good at understanding things like feelings, and especially not those of other cats.

But then, Sootpaw finds herself caught up in an arrangement that changes things for her, and makes sure the rest of her apprenticeship doesn't quite go how she'd planned...
*Especially* not the part where she finds quite strange-feeling feelings starting to form for her own brand new (and extremely *un*-official) apprentice.