Hexad Dating at Hexside
Celine smiled as she pulled her uniform's long sleeves up and over her wrist to bare her three-fingered hand, using her blunt claws to tickle her locker and urge it to open for her books. Flicking her wrist to return her sleeve to covering her hand — she had always worn her sleeves like that and was too comfortable with it to change the habit — she sorted through her textbooks and papers to prepare for the day. It was Friday, and while she had no plans … she had a good feeling about today.
"Uh, Celine?"
Celine tensed a little at the familiar voice, turning to find Mattholomule Skarn facing her with pink cheeks and one hand rubbing the back of his hooded head. He smiled toothily and then seemed to think better of it and kind of pressed his lips into something like a smile.
"Hello, Mattholomule," Celine said, not unkindly. "Can I, um, help you?"
"Uh, well," Mattholomule started, then coughed into his free hand and cleared his throat. He looked over his shoulder, perhaps at someone behind him, before taking a deep breath and straightening his back to face her squarely. "Would you like to go out with me?"
Celine blinked her single eye. She was a student of the Oracle track, and showed real promise in her branch of magic, but she did not at all expect such a straightforward request. Granted, she wasn't a fool — she'd had a feeling that he had a full-fledged crush on her for some time. She just wasn't sure what to do about it and had resolved to see how it would resolve itself.
Apparently, this was the result.
"W-Well, uhum," she clutched her books to her chest, moths suddenly fluttering in her belly, "you see, I-"
"You don't want to," Mattholomule said dejectedly. He nodded and bit on his finger. "I get it. After Grom, with the way I acted, I-I totally get it." He tried for that forced smile again, but his aura was shot through with ripples of deep-blue sadness. "Forget I said anything. I'll just, y'know, leave you alone." His fake smile trembled as he turned away. "See ya around."
"I didn't say no," Celine squeaked.
Mattholomule froze and looked over his shoulder at her with his face in profile, his visible eye wide. Celine wished at that moment that Oracle magic was in any way useful in judging the future of romance, but that was the one area where it was next to useless. Well, that and games of chance.
So she'd have to do this the old-fashioned way.
"You were a jerk before," she admitted. "And I'm not sure how I would feel if it were just us." She rubbed the cheek with no eye with one of her covered hands. "Would you be okay with … a group date?"
"Uh, yeah, sure," Mattholomule said. "How, uh … With who? Where?"
"Why don't you give me your scroll runes and I'll message you the details?" Celine said, her voice more level with the barest hint of a plan.
"Sure," he replied, and dug around in his uniform pockets to find a scrap of paper to write his runes on. Celine took it with a smile and a shy, awkward wave, but Matt touched her wrist with his fingertips before she could turn away. The contact felt warm even through her sleeve. "Hey, um, if you like, you can call me Matt." He gave a small, more genuine smile. "It's easier."
"Alright … Matt," Celine said with a faint smile of her own. She turned away and walked with as much dignity as she could until she turned a corner and fell back against the wall. A group date … she needed someone to go with them. And a moment's thought brought just the names to mind.
"…We would just really like to see you try out," Amelia said. "Even just to compare to all the others. I mean, with your flyer derby team and all, at this point it's more curiosity than anything else."
As they left the greenhouse for lunch, Amelia was once again trying to convince Willow to try out for the Banshees, and Willow couldn't help but smile at her persistence. After the fateful grudgby match so long ago, she brought it up every now and then; never pushy, just offering. And while Willow had this time explained that her "job," meaning her duties as the Silver Belle, her time with the Hexsquad, and her commitment to the Emerald Entrails meant she wouldn't be reliable at practice …
"You know what? Maybe I will try out," Willow said. "I can't promise I'll be on the team, but maybe a tryout would be fun."
"And it'll give Hunter a look at you in a grudgby uniform," Amelia said with a sly smile.
Willow blushed and opened her mouth to banter back, but a crash from up the hall drew everyone's attention. It sounded like someone had slammed into the lockers, which was supported by lockers hissing and snarling in pain. Students started moving out of the hallway to reveal Celine of all people racing toward them to stumble to a halt.
"H-Hey, girls," she panted, sleeved hands on her knees as she caught her breath. She straightened up with a gasp and an exhale to seem much calmer before clasping her sleeves. "Willow, Amelia, I need a huge favor."
"Uh, sure, Celine," Willow said, glancing worriedly at Amelia. "What's wrong?"
"Well, not wrong, really," Celine said, still fiddling with her covered hands. "But, um, Mattholomule might have … asked me out this morning?"
"Hey~! Look at you, girl," Amelia teased. "Finally got someone who took the plunge."
"No, I-" Celine blinked. "What do you mean 'took the plunge'?" she asked.
"You've had a few admirers for a while now," Amelia said. "Trust me, I know about these things."
"Sure you do," Willow said with exaggerated disbelief and a sweet smile.
Celine seemed to be thrown off for a moment before she shook her head to refocus. "Well, you see, I told him that I'd go out with him if it was a group date," she explained, fiddling with her sleeves.
"And you want us to be part of that group date," Willow reasoned.
"Please?" Celine asked, her eye downcast and sleeves clasped. "It would make me feel a lot better."
Willow and Amelia traded another glance. Amelia shrugged with a hopeful smile, while Willow ran through her schedule in her mind. "When did you have in mind?" she asked.
"I was thinking about this Saturday," Celine said. "You know, tomorrow?"
"Okay, I can do that," Willow said brightly. "I already had an opening in work for a day with Hunter, so it works out!"
"Oh!" Celine said, shaking her hands, "I don't want to get in the way of-!"
"You're not," Willow said earnestly, taking Celine's hands in her own to calm her. "It'll be fine. The more the merrier, right?"
"Well, I'm in, too," Amelia said. "What were you and Hunter gonna do?"
"Go on a flight together and hike up to the base of the Skull for a picnic and to watch the sunset."
"How's that sound?" Amelia asked Celine.
"It sounds wonderful," Celine smiled.
Saturday morning arrived, and with it came the group of students meeting outside Hexside for their group date. Hunter, ever the early riser even after leaving the Emperor's Coven and living so close, had been the first to arrive, followed quickly by Willow who was quite the early riser herself. Both were dressed in their usual attire of Hunter's dark undershirt and pants with a brown laced vest and two belts with a pouch, and Willow's goldenrod thigh-length vest, spring-green shirt and blue shorts, blue tie with its yellow gem, and striped tights.
Jerbo had arrived next dressed in a violet button-up shirt and brown trousers with suspenders, a red ascot around his neck and a field guide to botany clutched in his hands. Amelia appeared soon after in her usual red-orange, sleeveless blouse with a white bow on the sweetheart neckline and khaki knee-shorts. Naturally, both wore sturdy boots for hiking. She and Jerbo smiled at each other as they read over his field guide together, both blushing.
Next came Matt, dressed in the clothes Gus had described from their trips to the Looking-Glass Graveyard: a long-sleeved, hooded gray shirt that acted as fingerless gloves under a tan tunic bound with a brown belt, and light pants with loose boots. He waved at the couples and sat on the steps, knocking his knees together as they all waited for Celine.
"Hey, Celine!" Amelia called soon enough. Matt stood up and looked over … and his mind went blank.
Celine was wearing a loose, sky-blue shirt as opposed to her casual turtleneck — the sleeves extending past her hands, of course — that hung off her shoulders to show straps of a violet tank top and with its bottom hem falling to mid-thigh. She must have been wearing short shorts under it because the rest of her shapely, pale-yellow legs were bare except for ankle-high hiking shoes. Her ubiquitous yellow bow around one horn was replaced by a forest-green one.
"H-Hi," she said to everyone, her cheeks reddening.
"Dang, girl," Amelia said, "you look awesome!"
"Ten out of ten for style," Jerbo said with a thumbs up.
"You look amazing, Celine," Willow said sweetly. "Doesn't she, Hunter?"
"She looks kinda like you," Hunter said with a sly smile, "which of course means she looks beautiful." Willow huffed a laugh at the cheesy line and rolled her eyes, giggling as Hunter kissed her cheek.
Celine smiled at the display before turning to Matt with a blank expression. "Hi … Matt," she said shyly.
On his part, Matt was blushing, Gus's voice yelling in his ear to look at something other than her legs. "Uh, h-hEY," he said, his voice cracking. He blushed harder and he cleared his throat before saying, "You look really good."
"Thank you." Celine looked away with a small smile. "You look good, yourself."
"Well, now that everyone's here," Jerbo piped up, summoning his staff with his hedgehog palisman Sonny perched upon it, "Who's ready to fly?"
In reply, everyone else summoned their staffs capped in their palismen. Willow's bee, Clover, perched on her shoulder as she and Hunter mounted his staff topped by Lil Rascal, while Amelia mounted her staff, Jewel, separately from Jerbo on Sonny with a competitive gleam in her eye that made him visibly nervous. As Matt produced Duke from his hood and the weasel expanded into his staff, he looked at Celine and held the staff in a silent offer of a ride. Celine smiled in polite acknowledgement but summoned Hart, her stag palisman, for herself.
Everyone mounted and kicked off the ground to hover before falling in behind Hunter and Willow to fly northward for the Skull. It wasn't an overly long flight before they began to descend to a pair of log-constructed ranger stations, each a small outpost of the Plant and Beastkeeping Covens that, among other things, managed the forests and the hiking trails therein.
"We'll be making our way up to under the left Eye," Hunter said, hefting a picnic basket. "The view of the sunset is to die for." He looked at Willow and winked before taking the lead, with Willow holding his free hand in one of hers and another basket in the other. As they began their trek, conversation started between everyone, though Matt tended to just listen.
"Everything alright?" Celine asked softly. "You're so quiet."
"Sorry," Matt said, cheeks pink. "I don't really know anyone here that well except for Willow, and she's all swept up with Wittebane."
Celine pursed her lips and thought it over. "We could talk?" she suggested shyly. "That's why we're here, right?"
Matt blinked and smiled. "Yeah, I guess so." He laughed and rubbed the back of his neck. "So, um, do you hike often?"
"Only if you count from my house to school," Celine replied honestly. "I do swim a lot though. It's an Oracle thing. The water can help clear our minds and sharpen our visions."
"Really?" Gus asked. An image of Celine in a bathing suit flashed across his mind's eye, but he quickly cast it aside. "That's cool. Reminds me that I need to start lifting weights or something for construction work."
"Don't power glyphs cover that?" Celine asked.
"Yeah, they do," Matt conceded, "but it's considered a bad sign if a builder needs them to do any real physical work."
Celine thought about that for a moment before a thought entered her head and she squeaked with a faint blush.
"You okay?" Matt asked.
"Fine," Celine said stiffly. "Just thinking."
"About what?"
Celine bit her lip and kneaded the sleeves over her hands before deciding to take the plunge. "Can I … feel your muscles?"
If Celine's cheeks were pink from asking the question, Matt's turned fully red. "Wah-? I- Um … Sure?"
Matt held up his arm, swallowing down his nerves as Celine pulled back her sleeves — how and why were her hands so adorable?! — and gripped his bicep in a gentle hold, flexing her fingers to feel it. She blinked and gave an adorable little huffing grunt as she shrugged her shoulders and sped up a little.
"Well, what's that mean?" Matt asked, trailing to a halt.
Celine looked backward at him over her shoulder and offered an enigmatic little smile before making the same sound and continuing on. Matt raced to catch up, stumbling to a slower walk as he reached her.
"So, uh … do anything else besides swimming?"
As they continued to talk, Willow was looking back at them every now and then with concern.
"You're going to strain your neck doing that," Hunter teased.
"I'm sorry," Willow said, turning back to face him. "It's just … I don't know. I guess I don't completely trust Mattholomule."
"Why's that?" Hunter asked.
Willow told the story of Matt's antics in the HAS that got Luz sent to detention. She didn't underplay Gus's role in the events — Willow herself had warned him it was a bad idea — but she did try to emphasize Matt's behavior.
"Aren't he and Gus, like, friends now?" Hunter asked. "I mean, he hangs out with us at lunch sometimes and he got Gus back into the HAS."
"I know," Willow said, "and I'm happy he's grown so much. I just- I guess I'm scared he'll hurt Celine even without trying."
Hunter pursed his lips before squeezing Willow's hand. "Hey, if a deluded jerk like me can become good enough for a goddess like you," he whispered into her ear, "then maybe there's hope for them."
Willow blushed and giggled, kissing Hunter's cheeks as they walked.
The group stopped for lunch around midday, Willow producing a few large blankets for everyone to sit on and chat together. She, Jerbo, and Amelia also traced spells to trickle water to fill their water bottles, a spell in the Plant track for watering the flora, much to everyone's thanks.
"So, Hunter, any progress with Plant magic?" Amelia asked. "You've got a whole one of those glyph things for 'em and the best tutor in school," she gestured at Willow, who blushed modestly.
"Luz and I have been learning a lot, yeah," Hunter admitted. "Not to mention Luz and I discuss it with Lilith every now and then."
"Got any new tricks?" Jerbo asked.
Hunter pursed his lips before rolling his eyes and producing a slip of paper and pencil. "I've actually been working on this one," he admitted. With a series of fluid, practiced motions he traced a complex web of plant glyphs, then tapped it to trigger the magic. From the paper grew a woven bouquet of bloodroses, two-lips, de-fanged asters, and slay-zies that he presented to Willow.
"Wow, that's smooth," Jerbo complimented.
"What about you?" Hunter asked Jerbo. "Mixing magic has to have some benefits, right?"
Jerbo blushed at being put on the spot, but a look at Amelia's amused gaze had him set his jaw and trace a spell circle. From the ground emerged a small, round-featured Abomination of dark soil that waddled its way toward Amelia. It clapped its hands and flowers grew all over to create a bouquet of her own.
"Copycat," Hunter teased.
"Bite me, Wittebane," Jerbo fired back with a grin.
"Actually, I think I'll handle that," Amelia giggled as she kissed his jaw before nipping it. Jerbo yelped and fell backward to everyone's playful laughs.
"Matt, how about you?" Willow asked.
Matt blinked, having happily been a silent spectator. "Uh, me?"
"Any tricks for a Constructor?" Amelia asked. "Y'know, since the guys are all showing off? Or maybe an illusion?"
Matt blushed and looked at Celine before sighing. "This is probably way too intense for a first date, but …" He shifted onto his knees and folded one corner of the picnic blanket over to bare the dirt beneath. He took a breath and traced a spell circle that compacted it into sandstone, then another that lifted a section of rock about a foot cubed.
With one last trace of the circle, the edges began to fall away as dust to leave a sculpture of Celine … holding a witch's heart, easily distinguished by its bile sac. Matt picked it up and placed it before the Fengari demon with red cheeks.
"Wow, that is intense," Jerbo commented.
"Damn~" Amelia giggled, nudging Celine with her elbow.
"Sorry," Matt said, looking away.
"It's okay," Celine whispered, her cheeks dark pink. She picked up the statue and examined it. "It's … really sweet, actually." She smiled kindly. "Thanks for the warning, though. That helped."
"I'm glad," Matt said, finally looking back at the group.
They packed up the brief camp and kept moving soon after, eager to arrive at the site and set up the picnic before the sun began to set. Amelia made the effort to actually mix up the teens, pulling Willow and Celine a ways back for "girl talk" as they all walked. That left Hunter, Jerbo, and Matt to sort of stew in masculine awkward silence.
"Wittebane," Matt said tonelessly.
"Skarn," Hunter said right back.
"… Mire," Jerbo said, throwing his own surname into the mix with a nervous smile.
Hunter snorted with a faint grin and bumped his shoulder into Jerbo's, accidentally nearly knocking the lanky boy off his feet. They remained in silence for a while until Jerbo reached his awkwardness limit and had to say something. "So Matt, I gotta ask. Why Celine? I mean, don't get me wrong, she's cute and all. But anything else?"
"Why don't you ask that to Wittebane?" Matt asked sullenly.
"He had a crush on Willow, too," Hunter snarked. "He knows why I love her."
"So why do you like Amelia, Mire?" Matt deflected again. "She's like the second-in-command of the Banshees. Little above your social weight class, eh, Detention track?"
"Watch it," Jerbo said tersely, summoning his staff. "The Detention track turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me."
"Aw, wait'll I tell Amelia," Matt sneered.
"Go ahead," Jerbo said with a grin. "She knows. And she thinks it's sweet that I care about my friends so much."
Matt scowled and put his hands in his pockets, his posture slumped.
"Dude, you gotta relax," Hunter said neutrally. "Celine's an oracle. She can read your aura."
"I'm relaxed," Matt replied. "I'm just moody, too."
"So what's wrong?" Hunter prodded.
"Just nervous, I guess," Matt said. "I mean, really nervous. I-" He looked at Hunter and Jerbo before glancing back at the girls, who were all talking and giggling. "I've liked Celine for a while now and I just don't wanna screw this up."
"Take it from me, man," Hunter said, "you're gonna screw up."
"Agreed," Jerbo piped up.
"Thanks," Matt snorted. "Real confidence boost."
"You're gonna screw up a lot if this goes well," Hunter continued. "That's part of a relationship, at least between me and Willow."
"Seriously?" Matt asked, his tone disbelieving. "You guys are like the ultimate couple. I can't decide between you two or Luz and Amity."
"Yeah, and I kept secrets for most of the beginning," Hunter said heavily. "Secrets that almost destroyed the relationship and would have doomed me." He said it resolutely, without a shred of drama. And both Jerbo and Matt knew that this was no hyperbole. Without Willow giving him a reason to leave the Emperor's Coven, he would have been at Belos's mercy — and almost certainly would not have survived said mercy.
"My point being being that you're two different people getting to know one another," Hunter continued. "There's gonna be bumps in the road. There's gonna be disagreements and misunderstandings and bad days. There's gonna be times where you can't stand each other, or are terrified that she secretly can't stand you anymore." Hunter was growing paler, except for his cheeks which were flushed with emotion. Then he sighed. "But it's all worth it if you remember to respect each other and try to see the world from her eyes," he blinked and glanced back for a second, "uh, I mean eye, and help her see through yours."
"Communication is a big thing," Jerbo picked up, forefinger raised like a true nerd. "It was tough at first when Amelia and I started dating. Boscha really gave her a hard time about how I was a detention nerd," he lowered his eyebrows at Matt with those words, who had the decency and grimace and nod. "But she liked me and I liked her — still do — and we worked it out." He chuckled. "It helped that she's so good at grudgby to keep her place on the team, but still."
Mattholomule looked ahead, silently chewing on everything these older boys had told him. Gus would say to listen and learn, and his best friend hadn't steered him wrong yet.
As the boys were having their terse heart-to-heart, the girls were talking, too.
"So, how's the gremlin turning out?" Amelia asked.
"That's mean," Celine said, though she hid a good-natured grin.
"But it's a good question," Willow piped up. "How is it going so far?"
"He's been fine," Celine said. "So different from Grom."
"When you say 'different from Grom'," Amelia said carefully, "did he-? You know?"
Celine stared at her uncomprehendingly for a moment until she realized what Amelia was getting at. She gasped and waved her hands. "No! No, not at all. He was kind of self-absorbed, but never that. If anything, he was shy."
"Good," Amelia said firmly.
"If he crossed a line, I might have to feed him to my orchids," Willow said in a near-perfect imitation of Lady Feronia.
"He's doing just fine," Celine said, wanting to dispel the tension. "I appreciate it, though."
"Then maybe we should rejoin them," Willow suggested. "We're getting close to the summit, anyway."
The girls sped up and summoned their staffs as walking sticks, happily petting the palismen that topped them as they all talked with one another. About fifteen more minutes of walking had them at the side of a cliff under the bone of the Titan's Skull, the timing perfect to watch the sunset. Everyone took seats next to their significant others and settled in for silent sungazing.
Well, mostly silent.
"So, what's your verdict?" Hunter whispered.
"He's got a shot," Willow giggled back, kissing his cheek and getting a kiss in return.
"You gonna bury him under the grudgby field?" Jerbo asked Amelia quietly.
"Not yet," Amelia laughed. "Besides, Celine can take care of herself." They wove their fingers and Amelia leaned her head on Jerbo's shoulder.
Celine looked at the other couples and then over at Mattholomule, who was fidgeting with his gloved hands. She swallowed thickly and wished, for the umpteenth time, that her magic could predict the future of romance. "Matt?" she asked quietly.
He looked at her with curiosity. "Yeah?"
"Would you-?" She fiddled with the bow on her horn like other girls would with their hair. Then she held up her hand and wiggled her two pointed fingers. "Would you like to hold my hand?"
Matt blushed and nodded. He reached over and wrapped his fingers around hers, settling them between them. She smiled at the faint pressure, not too much or too little, and sighed as the sun touched the horizon and began to sink.
True, they weren't sure where this would lead. If anywhere.
But with friends by their side … they were willing to try.
With the conclusion of "Strength," here comes more Tales! This story takes place after the end of the main saga - hence it coming out now even though I've had it written for about nine months. Heck, it was the first side-story I wrote for this AU, even before "One Good Turn." Matt's crush on Celine emerged from a bit of impulse writing for early in the saga, but it has grown to be one of my favorite side-couples to write. Weird, huh?
*The word "hexad" means coming in sixes, as in this six-person double-date. Plus, you know, it kinda sounds like Hexside. Woo!*My take on Jerbo's palisman is named "Steve" in the main body of "Ash & Ebony," but then the scout Steve became more prominent. As such, I have officially redubbed him "Sonny" a faint nod to Sonic the hedgehog.
*Celine's comment about swimming is a nod to the common trope of oracles in fiction using water either as mirrors or being submerged during their visions.
*Two-lips and slay-zies are the BI equivalent of tulips and daisies. Tulips can latch onto victims and sap their magic bile, while slay-zies can produce wicked thorns.
*Jerbo's surname is a term for bog or marsh - somewhere with a lot of mud and grass. You know, sludge and plants - his two magic tracks …!
Hope you liked this! Leave a review if you like! And may your own works be fun to read and to write!