114: BEAR HUG!

Once they escaped the crowd they had created—a recurring trend Nyssa began to notice—they began snaking through the festival’s sprawling area. While on their search for Gideon, they stopped by the food stalls, redeeming food tickets they had won from festival games for a lunch on the go.

“Chicken skewers or lamb skewers?” Nyssa stood in front of the grill while stroking her chin. Holding hands with Celeste, she spent a moment lost in thought before pointing towards the chicken side and requesting one from the stand owner. Exchanging a ticket for a skewer, she bowed her head with a light “thank you” before continuing forward.

“Since you can transform, do you ever feel weird about eating what you can transform into? Well, I guess you can transform into anything,” Celeste shaded her eyes from the sun as they continued walking down the path. They wove around countless other students bustling around the area, slipping through the cracks like drops of water.

“For me... not really,” Nyssa kept her head on a swivel, looking for Gideon’s distinctive height and full face of facial hair. “It doesn’t happen with everyone, but it is... relatively? Relatively common among people with transformation powers that they stop eating what they can transform into. Like Gideon, he can transform into bears, so he’s sworn to never eat bears. I, at some point, started to stop eating things... but yeah, eventually I stopped eating so many things, it became problematic.”

“Ah, yeah, I can see how that can happen. You’d end up just starving yourself,” Celeste squeezed Nyssa’s hand as they shifted to the side to let a group of boys run past them. “Thanks for answering my question though.”

“Mhm, of course,” Nyssa pulled a piece of meat off the skewer. “What about you? Have your powers affected how you live your life in any particular way, off the top of your head?”

“I can wear less clothes in the winter,” Celeste laughed, the response coming within a second. “I never feel cold. Growing up, I went through a phase of wearing crop tops and shorts, which went through an entire winter since I was never cold... As you can tell I dress a lot more modestly now.”

“You... really do,” Nyssa glanced at Celeste from top to bottom. Even Nyssa wore her skirt higher than Celeste. Celeste also kept every button closed, exposing none of her collarbone.

Before Nyssa could ask a couple more questions though, some faint shouting began to fill their ears. A crowd came into view, and they looked at each other as smiles blossomed on both their faces.

“Bear FLEX!”

Cheers began to ring out. Even a few higher-pitched screams rang out as Gideon lifted a toppled booth back upright all by himself.

“Bear STORAGE!”

Another wave of cheers broke out. This time, Nyssa and Celeste, while pushing their way through the crowd, watched as Gideon stored away the scrap splinters of wood sitting on the ground.

“Impressive,” Nyssa murmured to herself as she watched the bear mouth on Gideon’s stomach consume the scraps and let out a burp. After arriving at the very front, she fell quiet, waiting for Gideon to finish his work and answer the questions from the nearby students.

“Not going to go?” Celeste whispered from beside Nyssa. Gideon, while she spoke, stood facing away from them, signing an autograph.

“No, I don’t want to interrupt, that’d be rude... My business isn’t that urgent anyway,” Nyssa shrugged, biding her time until the crowd began to disperse. Once only a few people remained—consisting of... admirers? Nyssa couldn’t tell—she walked up to Gideon, waving to grab his attention. “Gideon, do you have a moment?”

“Hm? What’s up,” Gideon turned around, the weariness on his face evaporating the moment he registered Nyssa in front of him. “Oh! Nyssa! It’s been so long, how are you?”

“I’m doing well,” Nyssa smiled, raising her arms as Gideon did the same. They both transformed into furry bears, and took a few steps towards each other before embracing and shouting ““BEAR HUG!”” in unison.

Transforming back into people once their hug ended, Gideon rubbed Nyssa’s hair. “You’ve truly grown up well. You look like you’re a healthy weight, you’re not deathly pale anymore, and you’ve grown out your hair. So, much has changed in just a year.”

Bobbing her head up and down a couple times as a faint pridefulness began dancing across her face, she turned to Celeste and dragged her forward. “Gideon, I have... a... uh... girlfriend now too. Her name is Celeste, she’s in Class with me.”

“Nice to meet you, nice to meet you,” Gideon extended a hand, exchanging a warm handshake with Celeste. “You’re now a second year in Class Zero correct? I remember hearing some rumors about you.”

With Celeste raising her eyebrows, he waved her off with a smile. “Don’t worry, they were all very positive. Take care of Nyssa here, okay? I feel quite fond towards her.”

“I’ll make sure to,” Celeste saluted as Nyssa stood between them with an awkward smile. “Are you two related at all? Is there a secret I’m not aware of though?”

“No not at all,” Gideon put his hands on his hips. “I was just one of Roxanne’s first friends at work. I was her senior when she joined the guild, and over time, after helping Roxanne adapt, I also met Nyssa, and became a bit of an uncle towards her. It’s happened with a fair few people. More in our guild than in Slade’s, but because they’re both the leaders now, they often host the parties, and thus, we’ve all gotten to know both each other, and Nyssa here.”

“Ohhhh...” Celeste murmured, a slight teasing light appearing in her eyes as she looked over to Nyssa. “I see~ I see.”

Nyssa, meeting Celeste’s gaze, pinched her hand where Gideon couldn’t see. “What kind of dumb thoughts are you having...”

“Oh nothing,” Celeste sang, saving the tidbit of information for another day. “It was nice meeting you though.”

“It was nice to meet you too,” Gideon flashed a thumbs-up and a bright smile. He turned and patted Nyssa a couple more times on the head. “Take care of yourself, little bear. Let’s catch up sometime, but make sure to keep the essence of bear in your heart. The indomitable spirit, ready to crash through anything in your way!”

“Yessir,” Nyssa copied Celeste’s salute before the two parties bade each other farewell. They didn’t exchange many pleasantries, but once Gideon left, Nyssa hummed with happiness as they resumed their walk through the festival area.

“You’re so cute right now, I hope you know that,” Celeste pulled Nyssa in closer, giving her a hug of her own. “How was seeing Gideon? Anything you want to do now?”

A faint blush appeared on Nyssa’s face, but, without freezing up, she returned the hug and basked in Celeste’s embrace for a couple seconds. “Seeing Gideon was good. But I don’t have anything else I want to do. I want to hear more about your life and powers since we were talking about that earlier... also eat some more food while we talk.”

“Want to do it while watching the dueling tournament?” Celeste patted Nyssa, releasing her from her embrace as they began walking once more.

“Yep, yep, everyone hypes of the dueling tournament, I’m fine with anything,” Nyssa swung her arm forward as they walked. “Onward!”

“Onward!”