So… long story short, I was on a HUGE writing kick today and wrote and edited this entire thing in the span of less than a day! Before we begin though, I wanted to thank you ALL for your feedback on the previous fic! :) It really is VERY much appreciated to hear what you all think of the story thus far. And, as promised, here's the next chapter! :D Just buckle up though! This chapter's another LONG one so make sure your in a comfy spot to sit back and hopefully sit back and enjoy! :) We open this chapter right after Hunter told Darius about his 'failed attempts' to ask Willow to go with him to Grom.

(Hunter's POV)

The room was so painfully silent that I kept having the compulsion to break and jump out the window in Darius's study, not even caring if it even resulted in broken bones or getting cut up by shards of glass.

Again, that would all be the least of my problems after one of the most personally humiliating days of my existence.

Considering I backed out of asking Willow to Grom again, didn't even get close to telling her how I really feel, and now I just admitted some of that to Darius.

Well, look at you now, Hunter? You've officially hit a whole new level of pathetic.

Sure I didn't share all the 'details' with Darius, but I just kind of told him 'the basics' of what is going on with me right now. Or me with myself and Willow anyway since I still feel like such a loser.

Darius still hadn't said anything, but just kept his eyes almost 'trained' on me in silence as he looked like he was 'thinking'. My eyes kept practically drifting toward the window with my previous insane plan of jumping out of it seeming better and better the more this painfully agonizing situation went on.

Well until he rubbed his chin slightly before finally saying, seeming like he was almost looking for 'clarification' more than anything else which shocked me, "So, I'm just trying to make sure I'm understanding all of this 'correctly'. You're meaning to tell me that the whole reason you've been groaning and sulking around the house like some sort of insufferable moaning morgawr these past couple days is because you haven't been able to ask that girl from your Flyer Derby team to a school dance?"

I mean, yeah.

Pathetic, but that about sums it up for the most part honestly.

But, rather than continue to drag 'whatever this is' out any longer than it has to be for the sake of my sanity, I just scoffed in almost embarrassed indignation, mostly because I still hate myself for being a coward, "Yeah… pretty much."

At first I thought he was going to start taunting and almost 'belittle' me like he used to back at the castle, he let out a very confused, "Oh?"

I whipped my head up and tilted my head in equal confusion right back at him as he continued, "You mean… you aren't already 'involved' with her somehow? That's honestly a surprise."

I went wide-eyed before directing in confused, flustered, and enraged embarrassment, "Wait, what?! What are you talking about?!"

Did he think I was already… 'dating' Willow or something?

I could feel my face and ears burn up almost on reflex at that thought as he just scoffed and sat back in his chair while rolling his eyes, picking up his cup of tea as he did so, before saying, "Please, you're a teenager. You aren't exactly 'difficult' to figure out. Especially considering the way I see you smiling and 'looking at her' all the time whenever you're playing Flyer Derby together. Or do you really think I'm that oblivious?"

I felt a twinge in my brain as I grimaced in offense.

SERIOUSLY?! Does EVERYONE know I have a crush on Willow except her?! I mean, all my friends know, Willow's parents know, and now Darius?!

WHAT IS HAPPENING?!

I stood up and was about to attempt to claw through the abomination magic barrier in the doorway with my bare hands to get out if I had to until I felt myself get snatched up again before he started, "Ah, ah, ah! Not so fast. I'm not done."

Immediately, I felt myself got set back into the chair by Darius's Abomination magic again that I was in before as I scoffed and crossed my arms before looking away and almost retaliating in embarrassed frustration, "Look, I've already been humiliated enough for one day… or two. Anyway, it doesn't matter! Besides, what do you even care anyway?"

I paused as Darius immediately leaned into my space, narrowing his eyes at me.

We were locked like that for a few seconds as my eyes progressively got wider before he finally said, putting his forefinger right into my face for emphasis, "Look, when I say that I'm 'not done' speaking to you, that means you have to 'listen' to what I have to say to you. Understand?"

Almost reflexively, I sat back and eventually (yet begrudgingly) gave Darius a nod.

Well, let the further humiliation begin, I guess?

I was bracing myself as I scrunched my eyes shut until I was surprised when I saw him lean back in his chair and just 'look at me'.

But… not in the way that I was usually used to in the past, surprisingly?

Usually expecting some smug and teasing grin as he 'talked down to me' or displayed absolute annoyance toward me when Belos gave me 'higher praise' than him when I first became Golden Guard.

But right now?… That wasn't what I was seeing.

Like, at all.

All he kept doing was sit back in his chair, stroking his chin again, and kept looking at me almost like he was trying to 'figure me out'.

Well, until he sighed before finally expressing, "Look, I'm aware being 46 may not classify me as a 'young witch' at this stage in my life by comparison to you and despite being a 'bachelor by choice' for most of my life… that does not mean I have lived a cave untouched by life. As I said, whether you choose to believe this 'prospect' or not, I was once your age and I also had my own difficulties when it came to my respective 'problems' back in school. Now, as for you, I am not aware of 'what is going on' between you and your friend exactly with you seeming almost 'incapable' of asking her to Grom. However, should you choose to be 'reasonable', I am willing to help if you will take my advice?"

I just sat there and stared blankly at him.

Slight jab at me aside, I was just 'stunned' by everything he just said to me and seemed like he actually wanted to help me.

It was almost like I couldn't contain my inner monologue anymore as I said out loud in absolute confusion, "You actually 'want' to help me with this? Why?"

And I meant every word I said on that.

After all the times Darius would have loved to see me get knocked down a few pegs at the castle, so I… I don't understand?

I kept giving him a confused yet expectant look until he leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees as he clasped his hands together.

It was silent for a few moments until he let out a long exhale through his nose and kept looking me in the eye as he spoke, "Now, 'past' aside, you act as if I didn't decide to 'take you in' for a reason. Whether you choose to believe me or not, I am your ally now… not your enemy. Mostly because… I know what it's like to have things feel complicated for one reason or another at your age. And, should you choose to accept, I would like to offer you the assistance and advice I didn't quite get at your age."

After a few seconds of taking 'all that in' again, I couldn't help but still continue my skepticism as I pretty much repeated (still not understanding why he was almost 'insistent' on helping with this stupid teenage problem), "But, again… why? Also, what do you mean 'have things feel complicated' for you when you were my age? What?! Did you keep 'wimping out' of asking one of your best friends to a stupid school dance just to try and ask them out like an idiotic coward because you'd be crushed by being fully rejected and having them never want to talk to you ever again?! Because I don't need 'pity' right now and have it rubbed in when I already hate myself enough!"

It wasn't until a second after I 'exploded' that I realized all the things I let fly out of my mouth, considering I just inadvertently blurted out the reason why I'm scared of asking Willow to Grom for the only purpose of helping me tell her how I feel.

Well… dammit.

Somehow in the time span of this ONE evening I've managed to humiliate myself in front of Willow, both of her parents, and now I managed to humiliate myself in front of Darius over this stupidly frustrating situation.

I was really waiting to hear it now, but… silence.

It just remained silent for a few seconds until Darius sat back, letting out another deep sigh through his nose, while pinching the bridge of his nose with his forefinger and his thumb to channel the clearly apparent look of stress on his face… and most of that was probably due to me right now honestly.

Finally he let go and looked at me again, making me straighten up in the chair on reflex.

Crap…

I had no idea what was going to happen and definitely had no idea what I was in for now.

I braced myself for 'something' until I felt my entire face and mind start to contort in total confusion as I saw Darius stand up and go to one of the many bookshelves in his study.

When I first started living here, I was kind of surprised when Darius told me I could read his books in his study as long as I promised to wash my hands before touching them, not eat or drink anything while I read them, and not fold any of the pages and to please use a bookmark.

He was particularly very adamant about the 'bookmark' thing.

Darius, aside from having a lot of books on Abomination Magic and even wrote a few volumes himself on the subject, he actually owns more History books than anything else in his 'private library'.

I mean, I like reading about history too, but even Darius takes it to a whole other level since I remembered giving him my history essay to read as a 'second opinion' just to make sure everything was correct grammatically last month and somehow turned his 'review' into a full 'lecture' on how most of the things they approve to teach in school history classes is just (and I quote) 'watered down drivel' from the sources I was told to use and how his teacher Miss Jenkinmeyer when he was at Hexside had a FAR superior method of teaching history before she retired.

My line of sight continued to focus on him as I tried to figure out what Darius could possibly be doing right now?

Well, until I saw him pull out a thin looking book from one particular shelf and start to page through it until it looked like he found something and walked over to me with the book.

He set it in front of me on the desk as he started, "As I said, try not to dismiss someone's advice who was once your age and also felt like he did some stupid things at the time for very equally stupid reasons."

I looked down and saw what seemed to be a school 'year book' of some kind and saw he was pointing to a picture of him when he was at Hexside with a group of students all dressed in long black cloaks over their uniforms and holding a trophy.

Darius was kneeling on one side with the trophy proudly to the point of smug on one side and a girl with long orange hair and glasses was kneeling on the other side of the trophy looking equally as proud with the rest of the team surrounding them. She looked very familiar to me for some reason until my eyes went wide when I looked below the picture.

The picture's title read:

Hexside Academic Trivia and Spelling Team Regional Champions

Below that was a list of the team members names with two names highlighted above all of them as co-captains:

-Captain(s) Lilith Clawthorne and Darius Deamonne

Wait… Lilith? That is what she looked like when she went to Hexside?!

I mean, I knew her and Darius were in the same graduating class at Hexside and I'd see them talk with the rest of the coven heads at meetings back at the castle when Lilith was the leader of the Emperor's Coven before me, but I guess I never really put into perspective that they were students 'like this' at one time like Darius kept bringing up.

Darius cleared his throat before saying, "You see, back when I was at Hexside and 'Coven System' aside… Hexside was very different from the place you and your friends know it as now. Principal Faust was incredibly strict and expelled any student at the drop of a hat and the social environment was equally as harsh as that. You think the 'cliques' are tough? When I was in school, certain groups and tracks just never associated with each other. Well, or at least not if you wanted a 'life sentence' of no friends, popularity, or a social life with the right people to get you the best possible edge you could into the coven you wanted. I went into the Abomination track with my best friend at the time and I wanted to become a coven head one day, which I eventually did. But, a lot of very idiotic things happened because of those reasons and made me question sometimes what I actually wanted and who I wanted to associate myself with. Whether it was friends or even 'dating', association was 'everything' when I was in school from the top down… and I let myself fall into that 'idiocy' like every other imbecile my age at school. But looking back on it now, I feel like I would have done things very differently had I known better… and not just because of the system. While I will not give anything away, all I will say is that I allowed something as idiotic as 'popularity' with my peers get in the way of me being friends with the people I actually wanted to be around."

I would have kept looking at the picture more until he snapped the book up and closed it as he continued, "But… never mind that. The point is that I allowed my own idiocy with 'popularity' get in my way just like you're letting your 'doubts' get in the way of what you want. And while I thought I taught you that lesson a while ago when you first met your friends, I see now you'll need some 'reinforcement' on that lesson."

Reinforcement? What?

I think the look on my face said everything since as he put the book away, he looked back at me and said, "Tell you what, you have school in the morning and it's getting late. So, we'll pick up on this tomorrow. Meet me outside the Hexside school gates and we'll go on a little excursion to continue the lesson. Now, I will say goodnight."

Then just like that, the barrier blocking the door dissolved and Flapjack immediately flew in and almost headbutted me in excitement before hovering down into my lap as he chirped in excitemented relief, making me smile in relief back as I pat his head.

But, then I went right back to confusion as Darius just strutted out of the office and went to his room without another word, still leaving me in total confusion about what just happened or why any of that happened.

Either way… guess I should go to bed too, I guess?

Even if I can't sleep, at least there's no other people in there to make me feel more embarrassed than I already was.

Considering I'll probably get plenty of that once I get to school tomorrow.

The next morning at Hexside School of Magic and Demonics

I was standing there with my eyes shut tight and my forehead pressed against one of the walls in painful embarrassment again as I could feel Gus behind me just looking at me in total confusion without even needing to look behind me.

I just told him about 'what happened' (or more accurately what didn't happen) when I went to Willow's house yesterday.

When we were still in the human realm and since Gus and I bunked together at Luz's mom's house, we spent a lot of time around each other and he picked up on my crush on Willow without me even needing to tell him.

And especially considering he witnessed the two previous disasters of me trying and failing to ask Willow to Grom both after lunch period and the time after Flyer Derby practice that somehow ended up even more awkward than me tripping over a trash can in the lunchroom in front of everyone before saying in panic 'nevermind, see you at practice' before taking off in a dead sprint.

Well, might as well tell him about how I humiliated myself this time!

I kept pushing my forehead into the wall, like I was trying to willingly phase myself through it just to escape this until eventually Gus started, "Wait, so you didn't ask her to Grom again? Grom's tomorrow. You know that, right?"

It was silent again until I heard what sounded like Gus smacking himself on the forehead and letting out a groan in response to my silent agreement.

Yeah, I deserve that response right now.

I kept sulking there as I waited for the bell to give me the cue to go to my first class. Ugh, this day already started and I already want it over.

But, hey! This day can't possibly get any worse, right?! RIGHT?!

I started hitting my head against the wall until I a familiar and overly cheerful, "Hey guys!"

I immediately straightened up when I heard Luz, just in case Willow happened to be walking up with her. But, Willow wasn't there and it was just Luz smiling and waving at Gus and I while she walked to us with Amity. I looked at them holding hands and that weirdly got me even more frustrated about my own situation for some stupid reason?

But, okay, fine I'm just... jealous.

That and I also couldn't tell if I was relieved or more nervous that Willow wasn't there with them right now.

Then before either me or Gus could say anything at all, Luz just smiled and pointed behind her with the thumb on her free hand as she looked at me and said, "Hey, I gotta tell you, LOVED what you did to Willow's locker! I was going to see if you wanted my help after the 'lunchroom thing' yesterday. I had a plan with music picked out and everything, but I like your idea better! Flowers were a great touch, my dude."

My entire being went rigid as my stomach and heart both felt like they disconnected inside my body and collapsed.

Locker?... Flowers?... Willow?...

"WHAT?!" I yelled out inadvertently as I took off in a faster sprint than in the lunchroom the other day.

"HUNTER!" I heard all of them yell behind me as I kept running toward where Willow's locker was. I rounded the corner at her locker and felt like all my insides were going to fall out of my butt at what I saw.

On Willow's locker was an enchanted paper banner with flowers spelling out 'Grom?' on it.

What the…? How did…? Who did…? WHY?!

Right as I was on the verge of another panic attack I heard, "Yay! You saw it! I just put it up this morning! What do you think? Isn't it so cute?! Willow's going to LOVE this! I'm so glad Viney got Jerbo to help us with the flowers."

Skara.

Finally my brain put itself back together and came to the obvious conclusion that Skara and Viney made this banner and put it on Willow's locker.

No… No… NO… NO!

My head slowly and almost rigidly looked at her as I felt like I was barely holding onto my last shred of sanity as I somehow got out, "What?"

Skara just tilted her head before saying, sounding a little confused about what I meant, "Huh? What do you mean, what or whatever? It's a Gromposal Banner! Viney and I thought this could help you ask Willow to Grom."

She just kept smiling at me as I noticed Luz, Amity, and Gus were all now standing there.

Grom… posal? WHAT THE HECK EVEN IS THAT?!

"Grom-posal?" I got out, still feeling like I was barely holding onto my sanity.

But, Skara just kept smiling as she crossed her arms and shrugged before saying, "Yeah! You know, it's like a proposal but asking someone to go with you to Grom. That was how I got asked to the last Grom and I thought it was such a cute idea! Especially after we watched you trip over that garbage can and then you forgetting how to talk after practice, Viney and I got this together to help out! Don't you love it?!"

I kept staring at it and feeling my entire being continue to sink as Viney walked up and said, "Oh cool! Jerob did a great job on the flowers." Skara lit up again as she responded eagerly, "I know, right?! I can't wait to see the look on Willow's…"

"NO! I don't want this!" I inadvertently yelled as I took out a pre-drawn fire glyph out of my pocket and immediately activated it against the banner, making it immediately incinerate to a pile of ash in front of the locker.

I almost felt a sigh of relief come on at the banner being absolutely destroyed until I saw Viney looking wide eyed and Skara on her knees on the ground, looking teary-eyed and almost hurt as she started sifting through the banner's ashes with her fingers.

Ahhhh…. Crap.

I really messed up.

I somehow got myself together and knelt down next to Skara and put a hand on her shoulder as I started, feeling like I just destroyed more than the banner, "Look, sorry Skara… Viney. I get it, you guys were just trying to help me out and I appreciate that. You're my friends and you guys always have my back. But, this kind of thing isn't really… me, you know? If I'm going to ask Willow then I want to do this in a way that feels more 'me'."

"Ask me about what?"

I whipped my head up and felt like I was going to turn inside out all over again when I saw Willow standing there looking at all of us in confusion until my panic fully sent in when she looked back at me and Skara before saying, "Um, why are there ashes in front of my locker?"

Immediately I sprang to my feet and cut in, putting my hand behind her shoulder blades as I passed off to pathetically distract her from what just happened, "Ashes?! WHAT ASHES?! Who said anything about ashes?! Let's get to first period early. You know, in case there's a… 'pop quiz' or something?"

She gave me a very confused and slightly weirded out look as she started, "Ooooo-kayyyyyy, sure… but I need to get my book from my locker?" In almost a panicked knee-jerk response I just shoved my book at her as I said, not wanting her to go ANYWHERE near her locker right now, "Here! Just use mine, okay?"

Yeah… this is going to be a VERY long and painful day.

Phew! Now THAT was a writing marathon! But, for me, when the inspiration iron strikes hot and I have the time… I just gotta type out everything like insane word vomit. Haha. XD But, for real, I hope you enjoyed seeing how Darius secretly does care about Hunter more than Hunter even knows. Even to the point of almost trying to act as almost a 'wingman' to try and help Hunter through the situation somehow, because let's face it… Darius is a lot more 'naturally smooth' than Hunter is. Lol. XD Though how will Darius help you may ask? Make your guesses until next time everyone! ;) I also hope you enjoyed Hunter's paranoid and freaked response to Skara and Viney trying to help their friend and 'Alternate Captain' ask their Flyer Derby 'Captain' to Grom since they are kind like us in terms of shipping their two friends, especially with Hunter's VERY apparent crush on Willow. Haha. XD Sure, their attempt to help kind of backfired out of Hunter's own insecure blind panic since he did NOT want to ask out Willow in that way. Just seeing Hunter as the person we all got to know during the series, he seems like the kind of guy who wants to just 'take the bull by the horns' and just ask Willow to her face with his own words… even if he's still too nervous and insecure to do so right now himself. But, hey, we're rooting for you Hunter! Haha. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter and please share your predictions/constructive feedback in the comments if you'd like! :)Thank you all so much for reading and hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Stay classy and have a lovely rest of your weekend!

Dexter1995

P.S. If you caught my play on words for the Academic and 'Spelling' Team as in actually casting spells then I applaud you! Lol.