Picnic

FALL TERM - DAY 16

I'm not entirely sure what is considered important enough to record here. In the week since the coven meeting on the new moon, I got the hang of shadow step. Using it more than twice in a single day might still make me queasy, but Marblebrook was right. I'm adjusting. I read six chapters of a textbook called Paper Magic: The Basics of Ink-Drawn Sigils and forty pages of The Soul of Steel: The Unabridged History of Keikurian Blacksmithing. I've yet to even touch the book I need to finish for Divination next week, but none of this feels particularly important. And there's one thing I just need to vent about - Aries has been crashing my lunches in the courtyard with Aisling. 

The first time it happened — a few days ago —I can believe it was unplanned. 

Aisling had been going on and on about how we should make this a proper picnic while the weather was still good for it. She brought a quilt to set out in the shade of a magnolia tree. I told her not to expect this to be a regular thing, but I'd gone into town that morning to the market and picked up a baguette, a few wedges of cheese, and three different types of jam. 

"Did you know they keep dogs here? There's a kennel. It's like a whole doggy prison under the Court." Aisling was going to talk and I was going to sit there with my Divination book and not read a word of it and that was exactly how I'd wanted the day to go. 

Aisling went on, "I know the dogs go out during the day and run through the woods to scare off pixies who wander too close to the campus, but then they get locked up - every night. Can you imagine? I was talking to the groundskeeper, Brian, who was actually kind of cute in a way-"

"And he's probably twice your age," I muttered. 

"Not the point!" Aisling's eyes flared bright green, before quickly fading back to hazel. "But Brian's the one that has the keys to the kennels. So I was thinking-" 

There was a yelp from the otherside of the courtyard - high, strained, and distinctly canine. My mind was more on the hounds than anything else, so I hadn't expected it when Aries and Noodle came racing around the fountain. 

Noodle jumped up on the fountain lip and started to cast. A flash erupted from his fingertips, hitting Aries in the back. Aries shrieked as it hit and writhed until Noodle withdrew. Aries rolled on the pavement, his screams fading quickly to laughter. 

I suddenly didn't want to explain to Aisling that those two idiots were in my coven. But there was no avoiding it. Noodle jumped off the fountain, nudged Aries, who was still on the ground, with his foot. 

Aries lurched up, hands prepared for casting, but then his eyes locked onto mine. 

"Zeph?" 

I closed my Divination book and set it aside on the picnic blanket. 

"Hey, Zeph!" Aries scrambled up. There was no pretending I hadn't just watched him get electrocuted by Noodle. It had been hard to miss. "You've got to see this. Noodle and I learned a new spell. And it works." 

"All spells work, Aries," I muttered. 

"Ugh, you know what I mean. Zeph! I can cast it. Like every single time!" He waved through the gesture again and before I could even think to block, I felt the shock zap through my shoulder. My whole body tensed and jolted through the pain. 

But then, it was gone just as quickly. There wasn't even a mark on my shirtsleeve where Aries had hit me. 

"Cool, isn't it?" 

It wasn't. But Aisling threw her head back and laughed as I rubbed at the spot Aries's spell had hit. It still stung a little, but certainly wasn't as bad as I'd expected. 

"What do you want me to say, Aries?" I asked. 

Aries was breathing hard from all his casting, but was doing his best to keep from looking too winded. His cheeks were red - one might have scraped from where he'd collapsed a few minutes ago but his eyes were bright and eager. "How about 'Let's duel already.' Come on, Zeph!" 

"Maybe after you apologize for attacking me in the middle of my picnic." 

Aisling took that particular moment to reach forward and grabbed an unopened jar of blackberry jam, digging in with a spoon. "I thought you didn't even want a picnic, Zeph." 

"Not you too with the nickname…" I groaned. 

Aries looked to Aisling then as though for the first time. Maybe he hadn't actually noticed her at all until then. "Oh, right. Sorry. Didn't mean to interrupt your um… date or whatever." 

Aisling took another spoonful of jam and stuck it into her mouth. "It's a picnic, not a date. We're having lunch. Don't make it weird." 

At that point, Noodle sidled up behind Aries with his head cocked. He looked between me and Aries and Aisling, but only briefly before staring directly at our lunch spread. 

"Aren't you going to invite your friends to join?" Aisling asked. 

There wasn't a way to say they weren't my friends, but just the question was enough for Noodle to plop down and tear off a corner of my baguette. 

"I love a picnic," Noodle mumbled.

Aries was a little more uneasy. He still hovered at the edge of the picnic blanket looking as though he couldn't decide whether to stand or sit. 

Aisling filled the silence. "So I was saying, Brian is actually kind of cute." 

"The groundskeeper?" 

"The dog prison guard," she said. 

"He works at the kennel," I clarified as Noodle's ears perked up. "And you only like him because he spends time with dogs." 

"Is he the one with the salt-and-pepper hair? A little scruffy?" Aries asked with sudden interest. He hovered a little closer to the picnic blanket and slowly eased into the corner between me and Noodle. "He's a little older, sure. But I kinda see it."

"Don't encourage her," I chided, before catching him. "Wait, are you into guys?"

"That's an understatement," Noodle said. "Aries never shuts up about all the guys he thinks are hot." 

"Hey!" Aries shoved Noodle, knocking him on his side and narrowly avoiding a plate of sliced summer sausage. I was caught on that a little more than I should have been - Aries likes guys. There was nothing wrong with that. I like guys. And girls. But I also spent my life in a vampire court where that wasn't especially uncommon. Vampires celebrated bisexuality more than most - bisexuality, polygamy, really any kind of relationship that flouted the sanctimonious monogamous coupling werewolves championed. With that said, I'd never been far enough south to see any of the werewolf strongholds. I can admit my assumption that they'd be homophobic came more from a gut feeling than any real facts. But, as Aries was wrestling Noodle, it wasn't really a good moment to ask Aries about any of that. 

I turned to Aisling- she'd been thinking about Brian, the groundskeeper, so I switched gears, "For all you know, he could be married with kids." 

Aisling ignored me in favor of turning to Aries. "So who do you have your eye on then?" 

That got Aries to lift his head. Noodle barked out a laugh, still sprawled where he'd fallen on his side. 

Aries hesitated a moment too long to play off the question casually. It also didn't help that he was turning a little pink again and this time it obviously wasn't from casting. When he did finally speak up, after swatting at Noodle again, he said, "Would you stop? It's not like it's that big a deal or anything. I don't think he likes me all that much."

Real surprise there… "You could try being, I don't know… nice? That might help," I suggested. Though even that might be a far cry from helpful at this point.

Aries shut his eyes, teeth gritted. Noodle heaved himself up and went in for more cheese and said, "Yeah, what a thought! He might not like it that you hit people." 

"Or maybe he's into it," Aisling suggested. "You're not going to know though unless you ask." 

And with that comment, I decided it was high time to talk about quite literally anything else. I brought up the Sanctum, how it was kind of a relief that there were grimoires with spells we could learn somewhere on campus. I hadn't actually gone back since the new moon, but now that I had shadow step a bit more under control, I was planning to go for a few hours this coming weekend. 

"It's not the only way to learn spells though," Noodle said. "Like we learned fulgare-" Noodle didn't pass up the opportunity to cast the annoying zapping spell, taking aim not at any person in particular but up into the air above the picnic spread. "Just watching one of the upperclassmen doing it. Or a few doing it. Kind of a lot. It's not that hard though."

"Well, Noodle learned it just by watching… But he still taught me and I've been able to do it too." Ha! That made a lot more sense. Aries could hardly learn by watching Blackclaw mime the same spell a dozen times. I don't even want to know how long it took Noodle to help him get it down. 

"We're also encouraged to try to learn by talking with others outside of our coven," Aisling said. She clearly must have gotten the same speech from her own coven leader. "So, you're here. You're at my picnic. Are you going to teach me or not?" 

Aries rubbed the back of his head. It was probably not the moment for it, but Noodle was helping himself to another piece of the baguette with cheese. 

"You heard her," I said. "Noodle? Show her how you cast it." 

"We just learned it," Aries groaned.

"And you said it yourself, you can cast it every time. You crashed our picnic. Consider it the price of admission." 

Noodle cast it first again. I attempted to mime his movements, but his hands were really more paws, so Aries's gestures were a lot more helpful. The gesture was relatively simple, nearly as quick as shield, and not significantly more complicated. It was easy to see why they'd picked it up so quickly. Aisling got it first, quickly zapping me in the process. She'd hit me in the back of the neck so that I felt every hair stand on end. 

I was about to get her back, already casting it, when suddenly, Aries reached out and grabbed my hands. "Wait! You can't learn this just yet. You won't duel against me if you do."

"You're a little late, for that Aries." I could feel the magic of the spell at the ready in my fingertips but his hands only tightened around mine. I could feel myself losing my control on the spell. Trying to push him off me, he pulled me forward. 

I crashed into him and felt the shockwave of the spell burn through us both. 

It felt a little worse this time than when Aries had cast it at me previously. I tried to breathe through the pain as Aries yelped, stuck beneath me. I felt us roll on the grass just off the picnic blanket. I felt his elbows, his knees. The pain was inescapable. 

And then it was over. As quickly as it had come, it was gone. I caught myself breathing hard, head pressed to Aries's chest. His heart beat rabbit-quick. There was a small cut on his chin that could have been from one of my horns or maybe one of the metal buttons on my vest. It was impossible to know. His eyes were on me, wide and panicked. He was back to being that same vulnerable boy who asked me if he was bad at magic. 

I didn't want that for him, especially as I was growing aware of just how much of his body I could currently feel under my own.

So, I did the only thing I could think to do– I slowly raised myself up from his chest, caught my breath as best I could, and said, "It'll be at least another week or two before I'm ready to go through that again. We can duel after, alright?" 

Aries didn't move from the ground right away. I don't know if he was aware of just how closely Aisling and Noodle were still watching us, but they were, as were several others around the courtyard. Unable to just leave him there, I extended a hand to him to pull him to his feet. The cut on his chin had started to drip.

It didn't seem like he was really thinking about the duel at all when he muttered, "Yeah, alright. 'Til then." 

I wasn't thinking then, but I reached out and touched his jaw. I drew his gaze back squarely on me. His breath hitched. I swiped the blood on his chin away with my hand. The cut was superficial, but was going to be a mess. 

"You're bleeding, Aries," Noodle pointed out the obvious.

Aries looked at my hand. Touched his chin. "Shit." He backed away. Noodle rose quickly and stepped in to help. 

"Thanks for the picnic," I heard Noodle say. 

"I've got to clean this up," Aries hissed. He pressed a hand against the cut, but it was still oozing. Aries rushed off with Noodle in tow, leaving Aisling and I behind, alone again. I knew well enough I'd see them the next morning in combat lessons, or likely enough, in passing in the Vodalysa dormitories. There was really no escape for me, but Aisling didn't see it that way. 

"I like your friends, Zeph. They're kind of weird." 

I had a spot of Aries's blood still on my hand. Thoughtlessly, I raised my hand to my mouth and licked it clean. 

I hadn't even realized what I'd done until Aisling's stare flicked from hazel eyes to vampire red. "Come to think of it, you're really no better." 

I really didn't have anything to say about that. I was at a loss for words too when Aisling invited Aries and Noodle to lunch every day that followed.